ON EARTH

By: Joe Bell

The wise man said, "of making many books there is no end."  That being true in Solomon's day, how much more in our day with modern printing presses.  One cannot escape the observation that there is no excuse for most books written today as most of them are dittos, duplications of books already written.  This book is a refreshing exception.  This book may be controversial where these topics have had a superficial treatment, yet no one can deny it being thought provoking and stimulating.

All the chapter heads in this book are subjects generally not treated at length or else the truths are misapplied to all believers and their true significance thereby is missed.  In my own ministry when the subject of "Anointing" broke through to me the Bible came to have new dimensions, and "Church authority" became as clear as crystal.  Truths taught herein are the strongest arguments that can be presented for the Baptist historical place in the Kingdom of Heaven and their being heirs to the Kingdom.

2 Chronicles 21:3 "And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with the fenced cities of Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn."

Observe how the subject of the "Birthright" and "Firstborn" are almost universally taught to apply to "Salvation" --"saved or Lost."  Yet the scriptural teaching is that "Birthright" and "Firstborn" does not apply to just being saved alone, but rather to some within the community of the saved.  Failing to see that there are "ranks" and "heights" of relationship to the Lord as well as places of authority, we have no idea what is meant by "apprehending the things for which we have been apprehended," therefore we are not exercised about the things that consumed the apostle Paul.

Brother Bell brings a rare ability to discern between things that differ and make a Biblical and historical application to the great truths herein treated.  He writes with a burden and urgency that comes only to those who have been alone with the lord.  Also here we have the cream of things that have come to Brother Bell from his many years of service as a missionary and pastor. His constancy of study will by this study enrich all who read with unprejudiced mind.

In years to come, this book will serve to prompt to thought and give directions to serious students of Scriptures.

Having read the manuscript carefully, I know this is a book long overdue and commend truths herein taught to every good scribe who would bring forth out of his treasure things new and old

Respectfully,

Irvin Wallace

Harmony, N.C.

CHAPTER 1

GOD'S PRIESTHOOD ON EARTH

One of the late servants of the Lord made a statement like this: "The Bible seems to be written in the direction that one is going" (religiously speaking).  The numerous religious bodies with their conflicting and contradictory doctrines, all claiming the Bible as their source book, give abundant proof of the statement of our deceased brother.

These studies are written primarily for Baptists.  Truth, however, is profitable for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ and desire to do His will.  Those who love not our Lord have this said against them: Let them be Anathema, Maranatha (1 Cor. 16:22).   Those who are willing to "buy the truth and sell it not" will examine the truth that is presented herein with much prayer and searching in their hearts. (Acts 17:11).  Let our prayer for this course be for grace to follow where truth leads.

The purpose of the book is to show that true Baptist churches once were and what had been given them from their Head, but which they now seem to have lost.

All true Baptist churches agree that the Lord gave the great commission to them. Also at their beginning He gave them great power and Authority.  This power and authority may be properly called the "keys of the kingdom", but NOT the keys of eternal life nor of heaven nor hell.  This commission because of its accompanying authority and power must, because of its spiritual nature and function, of necessity reside in a priesthood even as it did in the Old Testament.

We know how that early departures from the faith and a building up of the ecclesiastical hierarchy by some early bishops and elders or pastors finally developed into the present system known as the Roman Catholic church.  In the development of this Satanically inspired system the developers knew which were the most valuable and far-reaching commitments of Christ to His churches for God's glory and which were designed to be a blessing to men.  The adversary of God and man took these cardinal priorities perverted and polluted them to the enslavement of the souls and spirits of his subject.

Some of the doctrines that Roman Catholicism has usurped from our lord's churches and corrupted to its own profit are:  1) Their claim that the Pope is Christ's "Vicar" on earth.  One of the meanings of "vicar" is "a substitute office,"  hence the claim of the Pope being Christ's representative on earth.  We know that in the beginning and as He purposed it to be, His Scriptural Churches are His executive body on earth.  Each church is to act under the authority of the Holy Spirit and only according to the commandments of Christ. Scripture knows nothing of a transfer of this power to one man located in one given place.  Rome has grown strong by its perversion of this God-given authority designed alone for His true churches.  By this usurpation Rome binds to itself the souls of millions.

2) By a grievous and horrible perversion of what our Lord meant by the authority committed to His churches to forgive or retain sins (Matt.18:15: John 20:23), The Roman Catholic Church has claimed to hold the eternal destinies of her deceived subjects in her power.  Through a lack of knowledge of its meaning, we Baptists have ignored our responsibility to mature the saints and recover the erring, but not to shape eternal destines.

3) A third perversion in Rome's practice to enslave the souls of men is by a mutilation of James 5:16, etc.  They have divested this precious passage of its benefits designed to all New Testament saints who are in true church capacity.  By this mutilation they have justified their shameful "confessional."  The confessional is one of their strongest links in their chain for this enslavement. Why? Because to them a bad "confessional" nigh damns one forever according to their belief.

4) There is to be a "purging" for the people of God, but it is in this life only (John 15:1,2). The church of Rome has "invented" a "place" called Purgatory.  It is through this "invented place" that all of its subjects must pass after death (and none of them can be sure of just passing through). This is Rome's most lucrative invention along with the confessional.

5) Rome has perverted the true meaning and use of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.  Nevertheless, truly exercised Baptists who discern the body of Christ (which is a local church) have not "backed away" from these ordinances because Rome has corrupted them but have sought vigorously to clear them of such erroneous use.  May God help us to continue to do so.

Now in Roman Catholicism's perversions of the above (and many More), they justify their authority by perverting the true meaning of the "priesthood of the church."  They are right in their claim that the Church is the one priesthood on earth, wrong in affirming it to be "Catholic" or "universal."  They are wrong in claiming to be that priesthood. Until the true meaning of the priesthood of the Lord's church is known and received by Baptists, we will be ignorant of our "Birthright" because the priesthood is a vital part of the Birthright.

It behooves those of us who desire the truth to consider that what is popular with the religious world and so-called evangelical bodies can be questioned as to its authenticity. To forsake the conventional, the popular views and interpretations for truth's sake is in many ways costly. When we stand on truth's side we always stand with the minority for we are the "little Flock."  It was the three hundred men of Gideon"s army that God used, not the other thirty-one thousand and seven hundred.

God's command to us again is: "Buy the truth and sell it not." When we do this we will find, as our Lord did, that some of those who once  walked with us will walk no more (John 6:65,66).  According to our Biblical and historical position, Baptists cannot afford to "adopt" anything held by Protestant bodies.  Protestants have, however, freely plagiarized from Baptists.  There is nothing for us to adopt from them but error, for all the truth that they have we have always had.  When we are unshackled from the dispensationalism of Darby, Irwing, Kelly etc. only then can we approach unto understanding the meaning of the "keys of the Kingdom of Heaven" and the "priesthood" as it is in truth.

It is imperative that the readers of this work understand that the two initial experiences of God's people, the new birth and justification, only qualify His people for "the race that is set before us." These two, regeneration and  justification, are NOT the race.  The race MUST be run according to the rules, (1 Cor. 9:24-27 and 2 Tim. 2:5) or one is disqualified.  The race is NOT run in order to obtain salvation from God’s wrath, but for a reward which necessitates it being run in church capacity.

How graphically is this is illustrated for us in the experiences of the children of Israel who are our examples.  When they left the land of Egypt they were one in common experiences.  They were all God's chosen people.  They were all spared the judgment of God, being sheltered behind the blood of the passover lamb.  In commenting about their experiences, Paul said, "Moreover they were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat of that same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  Now these things were our examples" (1 Cor. 10:2-6a).

You see that the issue with these people was not heaven or hell but securing their inheritance.  God had appointed to them a possession.  Nevertheless, this possession had to be won. In other words, they must possess their possession personally.

The principles whereby God dealt with His people Israel and with us now are identical in nature.  These principles whereupon He dealt with them and is now dealing with us are:

1) The PLACE where He chose to put His name

2) The right of the firstborn, (see carefully Deut.21:17; Col. 1:15,18; Heb.12:23) which is called the BIRTHRIGHT

3) The Anointing

4) The Laying on of Hands

5) The Blessing,

6) The Priesthood

Remember, these do not have to do with Israel alone, but with us as the lord's churches in this our day.  These six principles are vital to our spiritually and eternal profit, and constitute the subjects of our book.

Because many people do not know that a child of God can lose something, and because they do not know what that something is, they may think these teachings may allude to the loss of salvation.  The informed child of God knows that those who are redeemed by Christ are secure from eternal wrath however, they are subject to the chastisement of the Heavenly Father and deprivation of position and reward in His eternal Kingdom.

The entire book of Hebrews, which is a book of the priest and the priesthood, is written to born again people with the above truths in mind.  Hebrews 3:1 sets forth the identity of those to whom it is directed, "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling."  Some of the apparently difficult passages of Hebrews would become less difficult as we remember this identity.  As a "church epistle" it sets forth the fact that as members of a true local church certain privileges and benefits can be secured or lost.  Certain verses tell us this: "But Christ a Son over His own house: whose house are we,  if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end".  ( Heb. 3:6).  And again note: "look to yourselves that ye lose not those things that ye have wrought, but that we receive a full reward" (2 John 2:8.)

Beloved, God has revealed in His word that He has a royal priesthood on earth today, has had in the past and always will have.  The Catholic church (as we have seen) claims that it is that priesthood.. Proponents of the invisible, universal church believe in the priesthood of every believer. This belief is contrary to all types and shadows.  No time or age ever knew of an individual priesthood.  How few believe and know that the true local church (which I believe is a Scriptural Baptist Church) is the Lord's true Priest on earth and the Priesthood resides in such churches.  If we would read the New Testament epistles as all being written to true local Churches, or about such kind of Churches (even Titus and Timothy, etc.) We would recover our true understanding.  Some say this view keeps one from praying unless a member of a Baptist church.  This claim shows a lack of knowledge of the functions of the priesthood (see 1 Kings 6:33,34) and prayer privileges in the Old Testament.  Some claim it "smacks of Romanism."  If Romanism were stripped of all its "inventions" and of its corruptions of the truth there would remain only biblical Baptist beliefs as held and practised by the churches of the New Testament days and their off-spring. We should not "back Off" from and decry the priesthood of the Lord's churches because of Roman Catholic perversions.

Why do we not also repudiate the Virgin Birth of Christ?  No one act of God has been made a source of worse blasphemy and idolatry than the deification of Mary.  Why do we not ban baptism? It has suffered equally at Rome's hands.  Likewise, has the Lord's Supper, to say nothing of the doctrine of sanctification.

We have laboured long and hard to vindicate these and other truths and present them and other doctrines that they have corrupted in the right light.  Why don't we labour as diligently to do the same for the "priesthood of the church"?

CHAPTER TWO

SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE

The truth, and the application of the truth, are often missed and perverted because certain things have been overlooked. Sometimes when truths are seen but not believed or accepted, they may be deliberately perverted.  The same words may be used but to some they may convey a different meaning. This is especially true in the field of theology.  For this reason, it is imperative for a writer of a speaker to declare forthrightly how he uses certain words or terms.

If one is to be understood, this must be done. The necessity of this can be seen by the use of the word "regeneration" or the "new birth."  In conservative Christian theology it means one thing.  When used in liberal theology it means an entirely different and contradictory thing.  The same is true of such terms as redemption and justification, etc.  No scriptural term has suffered more at the hands of theologians than the word "church."  The subject of the Priesthood of the Church may be clear in regard to the word "church," if we consider its meaning in the dictionary, and then how it is used in the New Testament.

The word "church" as used today - apart from much qualification - can be most confusing.  The Universal Dictionary of the English Language, Vol. 1, page 1002, shows why it is confusing. There are seven ways in which the word "church" is used:

1) a Jewish synagogue

2. A heathen temple (see Acts 19:37 where it is not the usual word for "church" but the word for "robbers of temples," J.W.B.)

3) a building set apart and consecrated for Christian worship

4) a body of Christian believers worshipping together in one place under the same minister and with the same form of worship

5) the whole body of Christians collectively

6) a distinct section or division of Christians organized to worship under certain forms, thus we speak of the Catholic Church, the Presbyterian church, etc.

7) the religious influence exercised by Christians in the aggregate, i.e., ecclesiastical influence of authority as distinguished from civil powers.

With these various usages, we cannot help but be confused when we hear or see the word "church."

The word "church" occurs 112 times in our English Bible, 115 times in the Greek text. Our Lord Himself used the word "church" 23 times.  Which one of the above does it mean?  The most nearly correct is (4) "a body of Christians believers worshipping together in one place under the same minister and with the same form of worship."  C.I. Scofield's Reference Bible, in center-column notes and footnotes, has further complicated the matter by adding two or three more meanings.  The New Testament text knows no (nor suggests any) appellations regarding the word "church."  Mr. Scofield has misled millions by his use of appellations in regard to the church when scripturally there are none.  He and all dispensationalists do this rather than contradict all their teaching concerning the church.

Matthew 16:18 is the first place where the word "church" is used in our Bible, and that by our Lord.

1) The word that our Lord used was the word "ekklesia" and it means "that which is called out."  It was a word whose use in Christ's day was clear. He did not coin it; He did not pervert the meaning of the word.  He sanctified its use to His own "called out ones" by calling them "my assembly."

2) He meant that this assembly of His disciples which He called out and called together was His; He owned it both by creation and by purchase (acts 20:28)

3) His church was to bear His image or likeness and to receive and execute His commands.  Over His assembly He is the HEAD, the Holy Spirit is her Administrator, and pastors and deacons are her only earthly officers.

Had the word "church," i.e., "ekklesia," been correctly and uniformly translated in our English Bible, what is known today as Christendom would not have had such an easy rise and perpetuity.  Rome has her church, visible and universal (Roman Catholic Church); Protestants and many Baptists believe the church to be both invisible and universal. All Scriptural Baptists believe and know that according to the Bible our Lord's church is local and visible, though it is spiritual in nature.

The glorious reality and truth is that some believers are permitted, yea, ordained of the Lord to be part of the kind of church that He built and that He has preserved to this hour. He will preserve that church until His "parousia,"  that is, until He is present again on the earth.  We must never forget that Satan is making war on the Lord's churches.  At present in our nation it is an invisible yet effective war. He is an enemy of Christ and all that belongs to Him.  In days past, and in some places still to the present, his attempts to destroy the Lord's churches were and are by physical means, even unto violent deaths, and again by other means such as compromise and corruption. So it is today, and so it will be.

Remember, Satan's rage has not been against the saints so much as individuals but in "church capacity" (see Acts 8:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13).  Satan's purpose is to produce and maintain his own "ekklesia" which will one day become the one-world "church" with final headquarters in Babylon, not Rome nor Palestine.  As long as there is one true church in existence, Satan cannot attain complete dominance of world-worship.

To gain as much ground as possible toward being ultimately worshipped by all, Satan must find an effective way to exterminate Baptist churches.  A most formidable way of doing so was the Protestant reformation.  Neither Satan nor anyone else can do anything apart from God's allowings. The marvel of God's wisdom and power is His ability to use the worst that Satan can do for His own Glory.

Several reasons why God did not originate the Protestant reformation:

1) He already had His own churches in the world doing business for Him. If He did not, then what people and churches were so bitterly persecuted by Rome for nearly 1500 years.

2) The Lord would not have begun rival churches to the Baptists, which were opposite in every doctrine and practise. Would He so contradict Himself?

3) the founders of the Protestant reformation were bitter enemies of the Baptists, declaring that they should be persecuted from the face of the earth. Would our Lord raise up men against His own creation which is flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones (Eph. 5:30,31)?  God forbid such a thought?

Satan always has a long range plan. That plan is to use the influence of Protestants to neutralize Baptists churches so that they are neither Baptist nor Protestant.  Some might say, “how could you write such, seeing the Protestant churches have done so much good?” If they have, it is only because of the over-ruling providence of God; in spite of their errors, not because of them. But what about the harm?

Satan is using the influence of Protestantism (now centralized in the National Council of Churches) to neutralize Baptist churches so that they cannot produce genuine true New Testament Churches, but illegitimates which can have no part in the "birthright" and thereby are barred from the priesthood as we shall see.  Ours is a day of unionism, ecumenicalism, interdenominationalism and a cooperation fostered by a false spirit of so-called "brotherly love." These, and Baptist ecclesiastical hierarchies ultimately lead to full-fledged unionization.  This is the leaven that is so neutralizing scriptural perpetuity to an alarming degree.

These remarks may seem a digression from the subject of the Priesthood, but they aren't. Each church is viewed of God as a body.  Churches are seen as the sum total of their members and addressed thus. To "inter-marry" (fraternize with other ecclesiastical bodies as Baptist churches are doing today, bars them from both true perpetuity and the priesthood.  Observe an illustration: “And of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai, which took one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite to wife, and was called after their name.  These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood? (Neh. 7:63, 64)

The priesthood was perpetuated upon a pure genealogy. Nothing can remain true to the quality or kind that it was at its inception apart from an unmingled perpetuity. We do not have to trace the ancestry of a cow back to Noah's ark to be convinced that a cow came from the male and female cows that Noah carried into the ark.  If there has been a cross between a cow and some other animal, the offspring would be neither cow nor the other, but a monstrosity, both different and sterile in its kind.

To have true Scriptural churches existing from Christ's days until He is back upon this earth, He must preserve the purity and perpetuity of His church.  This He committed Himself to do.  Had there not been Baptist churches to start with, there would be no Baptist churches today, because like begets like.  This is why there must be a link between a Baptist church that is to be organized and the church that is to be its organizer.

Even as the tribe of Levi, which served as the priesthood under the Law, was governed and regulated by God's instructions alone, so must Baptist churches be governed and regulated by the New Testament alone.  The Lord's churches must have no beliefs but those that come from "thus saith the Lord," and must formulate and practise no ordinances but those set forth in the Word of God.  In other words, Baptist churches must be a people of the book, governed by the book and must strive for the glory of the Author of the Book.  Thus will pure priestly perpetuity be assured.

CHAPTER THREE

WHERE HAS HE CHOSEN TO PLACE HIS NAME?

What shall be said about the Lord localizing His presence must not be construed that God is not omnipresent.  He

fills heaven and earth, and the heavens cannot contain Him.  In order that He might reveal Himself to and benefit

those who are His He has designed and accomplished a localization and manifestation of His presence both in heaven and earth.  Just as truly as there was a tabernacle on earth there is now a true sanctuary in heaven.  If the tabernacle on earth in its day was anything, it was a replica of the one now in heaven (Heb. 8:5, 9:11, 12, 23,24;  Rev. 11-19), "And the sanctuary of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His sanctuary the ARK OF HIS TESTAMENT."

God revealed His relationship to His people Israel to bondage as that of a Father to a son.  (See Exodus 4:22,23;  Hosea 11:1.)  When He brought them out of Egypt there were many changes and transitions in their governmental status.  In the wilderness they were called a congregation or assembly of the Lord (Ekklesia) (Acts 7:38):.  For a long time after they crossed Jordan, they were under judges.  This era might be called a Theocracy.  Because of the stubbornness of their heart Israel demanded a king, and God established them as a Theocratic monarchy.

Because of the sins of Solomon in his declining years after his death God divided the kingdom.  Ten tribes constituted the northern kingdom and two tribes the southern kingdom which were Judah and Benjamin.  The sins of these two kingdoms caused them to be carried into captivity.  The ten tribes had already fallen to Assyria, approximately 722 B.C.  These ten tribes were completely dispersed not to return.  About 120 years later, the southern kingdom fell to Babylon but after 70 yeas a remnant returned.  Despite all these changes and shifting there was only one priesthood and one place where Jehovah's Name dwelt.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16.  Remember, at the time of Paul's writing "all Scripture" was the old testament.  If it was profitable for those purposes then, is it not just as profitable now?  Does not "all Scripture" include teaching relative to "THE PRIESTHOOD"?

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope" (Rom. 15:4.  The word "hope" in our Bible is never used as a synonym for either justification or heaven.  These two things God guarantees to His own.  Heaven is not our hope, but where our hope is laid up ( see Col. 1:5). (oh that we could be motivated towards what God holds before us even as Paul was (Phil. 3:13, 14).  One of these was to maintain his place in the priesthood.)

God's purpose to manifest His presence in a visible manner and in a specific place so that He might be known of His people is expressed in Exodus 25:9, "And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Israel)."

That Moses might know how this sanctuary was to be built God called him to the top of Mt. Sinai.  There He gave him the exact pattern even to the most minute detail.

Inside the structure of the tabernacle there was to be curtained off by a veil a room ten cubits long by ten cubits wide by ten cubits high.  In this room there was to be placed one article of furniture made of two parts.  Here is what God said, "And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.  And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel" (Ex. 25:21,22). This promise to meet with and speak unto Moses, and to dwell among His people and to let them know that He is Jehovah that brought them out of Egypt is repeated in Exodus 29:42-46.  Read these verses.

What condescension on God's part to personally dwell among His people.  No other people had ever been so favoured.  No people had ever had God so near and words so pure as they.  A most significant word to the people of God is the word "there"!  With God and His people there has always been a there.  (See 1 Kings 17:2-4, 7,9, 11;  Psalm 133:3; Luke 23:33; Matt. 28:7.)  God's "theres" exclude all other places.  Because He has said that He dwells in His assembly, it is “there” that He meets us approvingly and in complacency.

When all the work of building and erecting the tabernacle was completed as God had commanded Moses, God "moved in" among His people in a visible way. By this means He attested that He had truly santcified both the priesthood and their place of service. "So Moses finished the work, then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the Glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle" (ex. 40:33b, 34).  So mighty, so glorious and so awesome was this event that, "Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle."

In fulfillment of the promise made in Exodus 25:21,22 and restated in 29:42,43, the Book of Leviticus was spoken.  The Book of Leviticus is joined to the Book of Exodus by the conjunction "and."  "And Jehovah called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, speak unto the children of Israel" (Lev.1:1, 2a; see also Num. 1:1).

But the wilderness of Sinai where the tabernacle was built was not to be its home, nor the home of the children of Israel, for it was not the land that God had sworn to give to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.  In anticipation of Israel's going into the land of Canaan (Deut. 1:3), Moses spoke all the book of Deuteronomy. In this book, as we shall trace, is the great revelation that when they entered the land there would be a Place where God would put His Name.  Specific commands are also given to Israel relative to their relationship to this Place.

God's Name not only implies His presence, but also His blessings, majesty, and glory, and we might say, all of His attributes.

Due to the nature of sin that abides in us and due to the fact that God knows what is in man, He caused Israel to be a type for us. God gives us serious instructions through Israel of what we are to do relative to the influence of our worldly religious environment.  See carefully Deuteronomy 12:1-4, 29-32.  Next, He gives Israel the Revelation that He shall choose a place wherein He shall "place" or cause His Name to "settle down" or to "to dwell."  By the choice of one place God excluded all others.

In order that attention might be directed to specific parts of certain verses they are italicized.  "But unto the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His Name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou come" (Deut. 12:5).

The place or tribe where Jehovah was to put His name was of His own choice.  They were not consulted as to where they would like to have Him put His Name!  From the verses that I shall now quote, there seems to be an inference that two tribes may have volunteered to have His Name there, but they were refused.  "Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But He CHOSE the tribe of Judah,  and the Mt. Zion which He loved" (Psalm 78:67, 68).

From the time that God revealed unto them (all Israel) the place where He had chosen to cause His Name to dwell, to this place they were to come. (The sin of Jeroboam was not only that of setting before the ten northern tribes the calves of idolatry but destroying the spiritual unity of the people by keeping them from the place where Jehovah had “put His Name” (see 1 Kings 12:26-30).  Thank God not all of Israel followed his wicked ways (see 2 Chron.13:4-13).  From that time forward, that is after God designated the place, all Israel was to perform the commands of the Lord in this one place.

"And thither shall ye bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: And there ye shall eat them before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your household, wherein Jehovah hath blessed thee" (Det. 12:6, 7):.  This was God-directed service and worship.  These instructions were for them when they came into the land; “Ye shall not do after all that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes, for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Jehovah your God giveth you” (vs.8, 9).  “Then there shall be a place which Jehovah your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there; there shall ye bring all that I command you; ... And ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God ye and your sons and your daughters, and your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you” (Deut. 12:11, 12).

Beloved, in no other place could the aforementioned things have been done by Israel and God have accepted them:  'Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: but in the place which Jehovah shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offering and there thou shalt do all that I command thee" (Deut. 12:13, 14).

God never does anything that is meaningless to either Himself or His people. In centralizing the worship of Israel in one place, the place where He chose to place His name was for Israel a disciplinary factor (Deut. 14:23).  "And thou shalt eat before Jehovah thy God in the place where He shall choose to place His name (i.e., cause to settle down) there, the tithes of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flock, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always."  The time and place where God's people today are to truly learn to fear the Lord is when and where they are members of the Lord's church. We are to discipline ourselves as members of the "place where He has chosen to put His Name," but if we don't then the church should exercise discipline over our actions (1 Cor. 5). When the Lord is forced to discipline because of our failure to discipline ourselves or the church fails to discipline, He deals most severely (1 Cor. 11:30-32, Acts 5;1-11, especially vs.11)

You may see in the Book of Deuteronomy the other references to the place where He put His name: Deuteronomy 14:24, 25; 16:11, 16; 17:8-13; 26:2, 31:11; see also Nehemiah 1:9

Many things relating to the place where He has chosen to put His Name and the Priesthood have been brought over and committed to New Testament churches.  Whether we do them or not they are still our obligation.  We quote Deuteronomy 17:8-13 (note the italicized words): "if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then thou shalt arise, and get thee up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment; and thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the Lord  shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.  "And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not harken unto the Priests that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously."

Let us go to the New Testament for an almost identical situation. Let us keep in mind that in the Old Testament it was to the priests, the Levites as well as the place to which brethren with differences were to come. We quote Matthew 18:15-18  -" Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The Priesthood in the Old Testament, as it served in the capacity that God appointed, was recognized and honored and upheld of the Lord in their decision (see Deut.17:11, 112), and since heaven ratifies the decisions of the Lord's church, which is His judge in such matters, isn't the Lord's church His priest on earth today?

Again, from the New Testament: “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?  - if then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church (1 Cor.6:1-4) In addition to seeing from the above that the Lord's church is His Priesthood on earth, we learn from these verses that the word "saints" in the New Testament finally comes to mean the saved in church capacity, for there are no other ones addressed in the New Testament.

The Lord's supper in His churches is a symbol of the death of Him who fulfilled that which was exemplified in Israel's "passover lamb," and of Israel's prophetical "passover."  "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:  Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:7b, 8).

Most all Baptists adhere to the old Biblical practice of keeping the Lord's Supper in the church and not carrying any of it outside to other places or people, yet they do not know why they do it. It is not traditional! It is a practise governed by the laws of the type which relate to the place where He has put His Name, etc. Exodus12:45-47 - "A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.  All the congregation of Israel shall keep it".

Deuteronomy 16:5-7  - “Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee: But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his Name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.  And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.

In the last part of Deuteronomy 16:7 they were told to depart to their own tents.  Since this same practise is to be followed in the New Testament churches, our Lord set the pattern of how to do it.  "And when they had sung a hymn (i.e.., psalm), they went out unto the Mount of Olives" (Matt. 26:30).   In most of the Lord's churches the order of concluding the Lord's supper is not to have a "benediction," but to sing a hymn and then go home.

"God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).   In the light of New Testament teach -  John 4:21 - "Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship thy Father”,  is not a refutation by our Lord of “assembly worship."  It makes reference to a new place of worship and that according to the rules of a new covenant. If you will study carefully the passages from Deuteronomy 26:1-10, a true analogy can be seen of the exercise of the soul in seeking to worship God Acceptably.  Let me call your attention to several things that you will find in this passage:  First: there is a recognition of God as the Benefactor. Second; We are not to come before Him to worship empty handed.  Third; There is the specific Place to come.  Fourth; There are the qualifications of the Person.  Fifth; The worshipper's own testimony.  Sixth; the gift is to be place before the Lord where the gift is presented.

Now to quote Deuteronomy 26:1-10  - "And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; That thou shalt take the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place His Name there.  And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.  And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the alter of the Lord thy God.  And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God. A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous; and the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage; And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression; And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.  And now behold I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou O Lord, hast given me.  And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God"

In the light of the above passage and its preceding outline it is clear that there is to be a public acknowledgment of the elect when they are brought to a knowledge of whom they once were but now are by His choice and what God has done for them.  According to the type we are to come somewhere and before someone and make this word that God has done known.  There was no person designated in the Old Testament but the priest.  In the New Testament, if the lord's church is not His priest on earth, then how can these requirements be met by the believer?  Consider the message of our Baptism!

Note another passage from Deuteronomy 31:11-13 "When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God IN THE PLACE WHICH HE SHALL CHOOSE, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.  Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn, and fear Jehovah your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.  And that their children which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear Jehovah your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it."

Do not these passages sound like Hebrews 10:25 "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching,"   and 1 Timothy 4:13  --   “Till I come give attendance to read, to exhortation, to doctrine.”    "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded thee."    Israel congregated to fulfill the above requirements for them, so must we.

Moses is removed by Jehovah from being Israel's leader. Joshua under the Lord's command and empowering brings Israel in to possess the land.  Some centuries pass from the time that Israel crossed Jordan until the time that the Lord designated the place where His Name is to be put. We previously noted from Psalm 78:67,68 that it was the tribe of Judah and now we see that the place was Jerusalem, "For the Lord hath chosen Zion, He hath desired it for HIS habitation.  This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it" (Psalm 132:13, 14)

The Jerusalem that now is and which is in bondage with her children, will one day be delivered, and will then know the full joy of the Lord's presence.  ("Jehova Shammah" Ezek. 48:35) Jerusalem shall be preeminent above all cities of the world.  "At that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the lord; and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to the Name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk anymore after the imaginations of their evil hearts" (Jer. 3:17).

David, the King of Israel after God's own heart, had a great desire to build a house unto the Lord his God.  He was not allowed of God to do this, but his son Solomon.  God gave David the exact "blueprints" for all that was to be built; see carefully 1 Chronicles 28:11-19.  Note these words: "in writing by His hand upon me" is David's authentication that the plans were by him from Deity alone.

Solomon was faithful to his father's charge and built the House of the Lord his God.  This work was finished and cleansed and dedicated to God by an through the blood of thousands of sacrifices.  The Glory of God then fill the house.  In his great dedicatory and petitionary prayer recorded in 1 Kings 8:22-54, and 2 Chronicles 6:12-42, Solomon made frequent references to the words of Deuteronomy 12.  In these passages, he pleaded for Israel according to the manner and degree to which they evaluated the place where He had chosen to put His Name - namely: "the land, the tribe, the city and this house."  Take time to read the following petitions which were destined to play a significant role in the affairs of God's people 2 Chronicles 6:21, 24, 261, 29, 32, 33, 34 38;   7:12-16, especially 7:16.

God's faithful believing people took Him at His word in regard to 2 Chronicles 7:12-16.  "And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chose this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now my eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually."  Daniel and all whose hearts were right with the Lord depended upon 1 Kings 8:45-50.  Though carried away captives to strangle lands and put through many tests, God maintained their cause and gave them compassion from their captors. See such passages as Daniel 6:10: Nehemiah 1:9 and Jonah 2:7.

You see, beloved, God was pleased to localize His presence in a specific way and place so that His own might KNOW HIM and have personal contact with Him and draw comfort and help from His promises, for they knew where He dwelt, “And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, WHICH DWELLETH BETWEEN THE CHERUBIM, thou art God” (2 Kings 19:15).

Now the temple that Solomon built was but a continuation of the services of the tabernacle and the same priesthood, and so was Zerubbabel's temple, therefore, they were not anointed.(We may note that in the case of Zerubbabel's temple there is no mention of the cloud nor the Glory!)

Alas, in Ezekiel 8, the Glory leaves the temple (Solomon's,) and does not return until the last two dwelling places of the Lord are brought forth. These two are Christ and His Church.

The following passages indicate the time of the return of the Shekinah Glory: "when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law"; "And she brought forth her first born Son";  "The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth."  In this One "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in a body."  God put His Name upon Him for He is truly the "Jehovah Shammah," that is, "the Lord is there."  "Behold a virgin shall be with a child, and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23).

When His Son, our Lord and Savior, was baptized of John in Jordan, God anointed this tabernacle with the Holy Spirit the Shekinah glory (Matthew 3:16).  In Luke 4:1 this Tabernacle is declared to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Thus God's "Cloud" the person, the Holy Spirt descended upon Him (though invisible to all eyes but John the Baptist) and His glory filled him.

This One was He in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt while He was here upon this earth, but now He has returned to Glory.  However, He did not leave before He had instituted a place where He deposited, that is, placed, or caused His Name to dwell.  THERE IT SHALL REMAIN FOREVER.  You ask where this place is?  It is in His churches that have descended from the first church that He built in the days of His flesh.  The church i.e., ekklesia, the called out assembly, that He built before He suffered, and certainly before Pentecost, is the depository of this glory.

Since we will be referring to some of the following passages again we will not comment upon them at this time, but only set them before you, for they are many: "Know ye not that ye (plural) are the Sanctuary of God, and the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you. If any man defile the sanctuary of God, him shall God destroy for the sanctuary of God is holy, which ye are:" (1 Cor. 3:16, 17);.  "And what agreement, hath the sanctuary of God with idols? For ye are the sanctuary of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people" (1 Cor. 6:16).

Ephesians 1:22, 23 - "And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the ekklesia (church) which is His body the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

Ephesians 2:19-22 "Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God: and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.  In whom every several building fitly framed together growth unto an holy sanctuary in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (ASV 1901)

In the Revelation we have the following description of Christ's relationship to His churches: "And being turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands in the midst of the seven lamp stands one like unto the son of man" (Rev. 1:12b, 13a).  "The seven lamp stands are the seven churches" (v.20).  In Ch. 2:1,   He is "walking in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands."

If you will compare those New Testament quotations with these from the Old Testament you will see that the Lord's church (wherever it is) is God's priest on earth. The tribe of Levi forfeited its birthright as the priesthood which has power with both God and man and the birthright was transferred to His churches. (Note these verses and compare with the New Testament verses.)  Exodus 29:45, 46  "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.  And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them, I am Jehovah their God."

Leviticus 26:11, 12 "And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and I will be your God and ye shall be my people (2 Cor. 6:16).

Ezekiel 37:27, 28 "My tabernacle also shall be with them, yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And the heathen shall know that Jehovah do sanctify Israel when my tabernacle shall be in the midst of them forever more."

I believe that there is a future for Israel (Romans 11), but it will not be what it might have been.  The potter will "Make it another vessel as seems good to Him."  The terms Jacob and Israel are not merely used interchangeably, but each has its own place and meaning.

The Prince and priest of God today is His church; see Galatians 6:16.  On the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God came to anoint and to dwell as God's presence in the assembly that His Son built in the days of His flesh, and to enable it to function in the true spiritual capacity of God's priest.  Here He dwells and shall dwell forever, for this is His rest.  Have we entered into it?

CHAPTER FOUR

THE BIRTHRIGHT

Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in sincerity and truth have no desire to remain ignorant of the choices and changes that God has made.  That there are choices and changes has been most clearly seen in our study relative to Where He Hath Put His Name. It is imperative that we learn to distinguish between what has been abolished and what has been changed.  For example, Hebrews 7:12 says "For the priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the law."  Neither the priesthood nor the law have been abolished, only changed.

Repetition of some things in this series of studies is unavoidable.  The topics "Where He Has Chosen to Place His Name,"   "The Birthright,"   "The Laying on of Hands," "The Blessing," "The Anointing," and "The Priesthood"  are inseparably interwoven.  Like our Master's Robe in a sense, they are "woven without seam."

As always in any study of the Word of God, it is Satan's purpose to confuse minds by a misapplication of what is said, thereby causing it to seem the very opposite of what it really means.  Let us contrast "Justification" and the "Birthright," that we be not misunderstood.

The birthright and justification before God are established upon different principles and for different purposes.

1) The birthright (right of the firstborn sons in Israel's families), has to do with one person only while justification is the portion and lot of every child of God, namely, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2) the birthright could be changed or forfeited, but not the justifying act of God.

3) Justification has to do with giving one right standing before God but the birthright has to do with authority from God.

4) The birthright is limited to a few among the people of God, while justification is possessed by all the people of

God. If you will keep in mind these four points of contrast, you cannot misunderstand my object in this chapter.

In my more than forty years in the ministry and hearing many preachers, it is most lamentable that I have heard only one preacher preach on "the birthright" (besides myself).  I'm not saying that others have not and are not preaching it, only that I have heard only one my beloved brother in Christ, Brother Irvin Wallace of north Carolina. Why aren't preachers preaching along this line?  Truly the Lord's preachers have somehow had the Word stolen from them by Satan and therefore they have in turn stolen it from the  Lord's people. To a great degree such preachers border on being the false prophets of our day if they are guilty. Ignorance is no excuse in the light of God's promises to teach us the truth.

Dispensational preaching which is the norm of our day has done something that God never intended. It sets the Old Testament at variance with the New Testament. This is done at the expense of Romans 14:4.  What seems to be of least importance among Israel's laws have a real bearing upon us. For example, take this law, "For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn" (Deut. 25:4).  "Doth God take care of the oxen, or saith He it altogether for our sakes?  For our sakes no doubt this is written" (1 Cor. 9:9-11 KJV).

Although the birthright is of great value, if one does not know what it is and what are its values it will be without esteem and despised.  Remember, since Satan cannot keep an elect from being saved nor take the one's salvation from him or her, he then seeks to do the next thing, cause one to forfeit all the rights and privileges of firstborn ones.

By the "Birthright" we mean those rights and privileges that were granted in Israel to the "firstborn" son of the father.  The birthright carried three privileges:

1) Priority of rank

2) Officiate as priest for the family

3) A double portion of the father's goods

1. By priority of rank is meant that the first born son has control and management of the father's (i.e. family) estate and affairs. This priority could be assumed in the following ways:

a) by the decease of the father

b) by a voluntary "step-down" of the father from his position either because of age or other reasons that he may judge expedient.

2) The firstborn was authorized to officiate as the priest for the family. These two, the priority of rank and the function as priest for the family, are seen in 1 Samuel 20:28, 29c, "and Jonathan answered Saul, and he said, Let me go, I pray thee, for our family hath a sacrifice in the city: and my brother he hath commanded me to be there." The only brother who could so command and so officiate at a family sacrifice was the brother who had the birthright.

3) When the estate was to be divided, the one possessing the birthright received a double portion.  Say there were five heirs to the estate; it was divided into six parts and the one having the birthright received two of the six (see Deut. 21:1;115-17).  Therefore the birthright was a thing to be greatly cherished and desired.

Heaven set the precedence as to certain ones who could never have the birthright even though he is the firstborn; namely, an illegitimate son.  This is very important in our study of the priesthood because these are barred from the priest's function in both that time and in days to come.  Let us observe, "Wherefore Sara said cast out the bondwoman (Hagar) and her son (Ishmael), for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac"  (Gen. 21:10).  What Sara was doing was in accordance with what God had said in Genesis 17:19-21.  Heaven's ratification of what was previously said about the illegitimate son(Ishmael) and Sara's demand is seen in the words Jehovah spoke "And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grevious in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sara hath said unto thee harken unto her voice; for in Isaac shalt thy seed be called" (Genesis 21:11, 12, see the allegory in Galatians 4).  It was upon this same ground that the sons of Gilead thrust out Jephthah (see Judges 11:1,2);.  Later Nehemiah was to encounter this same problem by some who sought the office of the priesthood (Nehemiah 7:63-65, please read Deut. 23:2).

The first time we see the birthright publicly recognized and displayed was in Egypt by Joseph. When his brethren came unto him the second time to buy food, Joseph astonished them by what he had his servants do in seating them when they ate.  We read, "And they sat before him the firstborn according to the birthright and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marvelled one with another" (Genesis 43:31-34).

Let us take note of this serious warning: the birthright is not always secure to the firstborn son (though his birth be legitimate).  It can be

1) bartered away

2) lost by default in character of deed

3) by the choice of the father

The first forfeiture of the birthright was experienced by Adam as a son of God (see Luke 3:38)   This forfeiture was, as was Esau's, by choice.  Certainly no human being had greater priority of rank than did Adam nor a greater portion (see Genesis 1;26-330).  He, however, chose to surrender his priority of earthly rank to Satan because of his love for his wife who persuaded him to disobey God(Genesis 3:17a).

Cain lost his birthright through rebellion against God. The conversation and instruction of the Lord to Cain was not relative to salvation but of priority of rank above Abel (Genesis 4:1-7).  These verses speak particularly of an opportunity to regain the birthright and of its priority.  Cain did not know about himself what the Scriptures later reveal to us about him (see 1 John 3:12). His call was, I repeat, not a call to salvation but a regaining of the birthright or priority of rank in the light of God's command.  The sacred narrative tells us what Cain's reactions were and what were God's dealings with him.  Genesis 4:25, 26 introduces to us the one who received the birthright instead of Cain.

Another outstanding example of a voluntary forfeiture of the birthright is seen in Esau. The account of this transaction is recorded in Genesis 25:27-34.  Whatever might be said of Jacob, this one thing is sure: he could not have gotten the birthright had Esau not been willing to part with it. Jacob simply knew Esau's sense of values and acted accordingly.  Nowhere does the Scripture condemn Jacob, but it does Esau.  He despised his birthright and Jacob prized it.

In Hebrews 12:16, 17 he is called a profane person.  A profane person in the spiritual sense is one who does not place the proper value upon that which God highly evaluates, namely, rights and privileges.  These persons always sacrifice the best and permanent upon the altar of the temporal and the immediate (see 2 Corinthians 4:18). This is ever the attitude of the carnal believer. The Moseses, Josephs, Jacobs, and others are those who evaluate God's appointments as nearly as possible in the proper light and seek to preserve them at all cost.  Esau's treatment of his birthright finds its equivalent in the way professing believers treat the lord's churches (Hebrews 10:29-31).

By a breach of character the birthright can be  forfeited.  Reuben, Jacob's oldest son, lost his birthright by this means.  He defiled his father's couch (see Genesis 35:22).  In the bestowing the parental blessings and prophesies, Jacob reminds Reuben of this ( Genesis 49:3, 4), and took from him the birthright.  We read in 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2 --"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn) but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the sons of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.  For Judah prevailed above, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's."

This transfer of the birthright to the sons of Joseph (recorded for us in Genesis 48:13-20 is conferred through the Laying on of Hands.  In this transfer Jacob deliberately, despite Joseph's protest, set the younger son Ephraim above the elder Manasseh. By the deliberate choice he gave priority to the younger.

It is recorded for our learning that the birthright can be changed by a father for no apparent reason other than his personal will to do it.    1 Chronicles 26:10 - "Also Hosah, of the children of Merari had sons: Simri the chief (for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief)."

We see from these passages that the birthright does not always designate the first born but always stands for Priority of rank the priesthood and a double portion.  This is important in understanding its relationship to Christ and His Church.

Now let us consider: the Nation of Israel - the birthright, The priesthood, and a forfeiture.

Jehovah claimed Israel in the aggregate as one,  that is "his son"  Exodus 4:22,23, "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn, and I say unto you, Let my son go that he may serve me, and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn" (see also Hosea 11:1).

When the night came in which God was to slay all the firstborn of Egypt, He, according to His word, spared all the firstborn of Israel.  In lieu of this He made this demand, "sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast: it is mine" (Exodus 13:2).

At Sinai He said, "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests an holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). Alas, by this nation with the exception of one tribe this grand privilege was forfeited.  In Exodus 23 we have one of the saddest chapters of Israel's history.  In this chapter is the account of the making and worshipping of the golden calf.  Israel as a nation not only forfeited its priestly position but almost lost its existence.

We read these comforting words in the midst of this heartbreaking incident.  "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side let him come unto me.  And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together with him" (Exodus 32:26-28).  Verses 27 and 28 tell us what follows.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, and I behold, I have taken the Levites from amongst the children of Israel instead of the firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine, Because all the firstborn are mine, for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, mine they shall be: I am Jehovah" (Numbers 3:12, 13).

All the males of the tribe of Levi from one month old and upward were numbered.  There were 22,000 of them (Numbers 3:39).  Then the firstborn sons only of the other eleven tribes of Israel were numbered; there were 22,273.  The exchange is noted in Numbers 3:45.  The Lord did not call this an even exchange, but because there were 273 more of all the firstborn of Israel than of Levi these were to be redeemed by five shekels apiece, and the redemption money given to the Levites, to Aaron and his sons.  Thus began the many centuries of the service of the Levitical Priesthood.

This system, though imposed and authorized by God Almighty Himself, was designed to be transitory. It could never do with its services what was necessary. Also it experienced a steady degeneration in character and service until God set it aside and gave the Birthright to another, to One who is eternal, incorruptible, unfailing and unchangeable - to one whose birthright cannot be forfeited nor His priesthood revoked. Neither can that of those whose priesthood is like His, unchangeable, namely His Church.

Of the Lord Jesus Christ it was said in prophecy by His Father, "I also will make Him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth" (Psalm 89:27). In an earlier Psalm, we read "I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto me, thou art my Son: this day I have begotten thee" (Psalm 2:7).

Let it be forever recognized and accepted of all that Jesus Christ did not become the Son of God when He entered into the womb of His virgin mother according to the flesh.  He was "called (not became) the son of God" (Luke 1:31-35).  That which is eternal cannot "become" later.  No greater mystery can be found than that which is declared in 1 Timothy 3:16.

Christ had a dual right to the birthright from God (Psalm 2:7) and from men (Luke 2:7).  "And she (Mary) brought forth her firstborn son" (Luke 2:7).  According to the Jewish law, He belonged to Jehovah because He was the first son to open His mother's womb.  But He was more than this.  He is "the Lord from Heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:47). He is the last Adam(1 Corinthians 15:45);.  Therefore, He is the head of a certain kind of a second race.  As Adam was the federal head of a race that fell in him, by comparison and contrast Christ is the federal head of a race which in Him cannot fall.  Contrast the two scenes of temptations! (See Genesis 3:1-6 and Matthew 4:1-11.)

The right of Christ to all things was also by inheritance. "God hath in these last days spoken to us in His son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:2).

Eric Sauer gives some thoughts relative to the firstborn aspect of Christ.  Likewise let us observe what these references mean:

Colossians 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."  He who is Creator must exist before that which is created. This verse is not telling us that Christ is the first of God's created works, but that this is His PRIORITY of RANK as seen from eternity past, thus He is before and above all creatures and creation.  He is the Chief over all (verse 16)

Colossians 1:18 – “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.  This is His present position of priority of rank which He holds as the Risen One.  As such He is the head of His body the church thereby having now preeminence in all things (see Revelations 1:5).

Romans 8:29 "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."  This will be His priority of rank in the future when He shall be revealed as the glorified Redeemer of all of His redeemed.  Consider also Hebrews 1:6 which declares His future priority of rank in regard to angels.  This priority is both now and future.  Hence Christ is Chief (one of the titles of the birthright) in the kingdom of creation;  Chief in the kingdom of redemption, Chief in the kingdom of perfection, i.e., the kingdom in its future aspect and Chief in the kingdom of pure spirits.

In the epistle of Hebrews, there is a vital connection between the passage that tells us about Esau's selling his birthright (and thereby forfeiting the blessings, though he sought it with tears, yet was rejected) with these words "Ye are come to the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven." James 1:18 tells us that though all who are saved are redeemed by the blood yet all are not brought forth for the same purpose.  "Of his own will brought he us forth with the word of truth, that we should be of a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."  Since both Hebrews and James draw from the Old Testament, it may be affirmed rightfully that the references are to the birthright which consists of   –

1. Priority of Rank: When the keys of the kingdom were invested in his church, they were done so with all the authority that they entail.  (Matthew 16:19, 18:17, 18; John 20:23

2. The Priesthood (1 Peter 2:5 and 2:9)

3. A double Portion, at the last (Luke 12:32, Revelation 21:7, Ephesians 1:3, 2:5-7).

Let us heed the warning against the loss of our birthright, and thereby a loss of all of its priorities, etc., both by a church as a whole, or by individual member.  This most serious subject, the loss or forfeiture of the birthright of an individual or a church as a body of Christ should induce our great concern.

We again set forth two examples of forfeiture of the birthright: Reuben, because of moral defilement; and Esau, because of his insensitiveness to true values.

Reuben's case was adultery (Genesis 35:22).  Likewise Israel lost its birthright to one of its tribes (the tribe of Levi) by committing spiritual adultery (Exodus 32).  New Testament Churches can do the same by aligning and intermarriage with the world or the daughters or stepdaughters of Rome.  See James 4:4 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.  Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."  The contents of the world system both moral and religious are mentioned in 1 John 2:15-17.  An example of those who did not commit spiritual adultery is seen in the three Hebrew children and their companion Daniel ( see Daniel 3 and 6:10).

A fornicator or profane person is also mentioned in Hebrews 12:16, 17.  A fornicator is one who prostitutes virtue (purity of life before God) with all its eternal values for the pleasures of time.  In this sense of the word Esau was both a fornicator and profane. What were the failures of Esau?  Could they be common among us today and result in personal loss of our birthright and also that of our churches?

1. Esau lived for the things that are visible; thereby reversing eternal truth as is seen in the exhortation of 2 Corinthians 4:18.  He gained the temporal, but lost the permanent.

2. He craved that which satisfied the flesh and bartered away God's bestowal.

3. He exercised no self-discipline, thereby departing forever from the position of authority and honor that was by his birth.

4. Esau removed himself from being the channel through which the world would be blessed, that being of the lineage through which Christ would come.

Many churches have considered their rights as the church of the firstborn a paltry thing and thus have given it away for a trifle.  How can this be detected? First, by whose standard and instruction do they operate? And then, to what and to whom do they render allegiance?

Remember, when our birthright is gone so is our blessing, and there is no way to recover it.

Do not take this chapter lightly!  It has great bearing upon those who will share in the Kingdom of Christ not merely be in the Kingdom of Christ.  Those who are constituted a kingdom of priests are those who do not forfeit their birthright.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE BLESSINGS

In the first chapter of Genesis, after God had created man in His own image, we read, "and God blessed them" (Genesis 1:28).  Oh, that today He would be pleased to bless us in a special way because “the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22).

How sad it is that our requests for the Lord's blessings seem to be so superficial.  Still less are our sincere desirers to be a blessing and to be able to bless in His name.  To merely close our prayers with these words, "and bless us in Jesus" Name, is not sufficient to bring the blessing we need.  There are many Scriptural requirements attached to receiving a blessing, being a blessing, and being able to bless in His name.

There are some blessings of the Lord that are unconditional, and some that are conditional. The unconditional blessings are associated with God's grace and mercy in bringing a dead and alienated sinner unto the grounds of justifying faith in Christ, reconciliation, pardon, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  These are unconditional favors that God bestows upon His elect.  They are all sure to His chosen ones, but they do not guarantee the out working of those conditional blessings as we shall now see.  We shall use Abraham as and example:

"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

In this passage the issue is not justification from sin. If it were then Abraham was justified by works.  Paul refutes any thought along this line in Romans 4. God was dealing with Abram in regard to that which He purposed to do with him and for him.  There were set forth two conditions:

1. Abraham must leave all except his own personal household in Ur.

2. He must go to the place God designated.   (Later we shall see a further confirmation of God's promise to His servant.)  We are taught that Abram went out by faith.  One of God's visible present confirmations of Abram's faith and obedience is that "the blessings of Abraham" have now come on us Gentiles unto the justification of life.

The man who had no bread to set before his friends and went to his friend to ask bread for this need, did not receive bread because of the friendship but because of his importunity. Our Lord shows by this parable that our Father in heaven is not like this. We do not have to "twist" our blessings from the Lord, but we must be so exercised in our souls that we are in dead earnestness when we come seeking his blessing, even as Abraham did in following Jehovah.

There are those who cry out for these blessings in deep agony of soul even as Hannah did (1 Samuel 1:9-18).  Jabez, for example, longed for God's blessings: "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying , Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coasts, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me: and God granted him that which he requested" (1 Chronicles 4:10).

King David also sought the Lord's blessing, "Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee forever: for thou blesseth O Lord and it shall be blessed forever" (1 Chronicles 17:27)

We who believe in predestination ought to take a correct attitude toward His purposes and decrees.  We have no knowledge that Hannah would have had Samuel had she not besought the Lord for him.  Neither could we affirm that Jabez would have had his blessing had he not prayed.  In the book of Ezekiel 36:22-36, the Lord tells Israel what He is going to do for them (and these certainly are blessings). Yet, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of the house of Israel to do it for them" (Ezekiel 37:37).  What He has designed to do for His own, He also expects that they seek it from Him.  Prayer is His designated channel for seeking. (See Deut. 29:29.)

Let us return to God's conditional blessings upon Abraham and further requirements for acquiring these blessings.  The conditions began in a surrender of those things that were dear to him and concluded with that which was the dearest, his only son.  We read about this last surrender:

"And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and has not with held thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou has obeyed my voice" (Genesis 22:15-18).

The obedience of Abraham was a means through which even his son Isaac later on was blessed. Read carefully Genesis 26:3-5, 12, noting particularly verse 12 "and the Lord Blessed Him."

With the birthright, as we demonstrated, went also the blessing. Jacob secured the birthright from Esau by an honest trade because Esau despised the same.

Although Jacob was entitled to the blessing because it was appointed to him of God, he did not wait for God to confer the same in His own way and time as King David did in coming to the throne.  In not waiting most of us are truly "Jacobs."  That which Jacob and his mother did to secure the blessing which was his, and which he could not steal, was no worse than what Isaac designed to do because he ate of Esau's venison (Genesis 25:28; 27:1-4).  Isaac's intention was to go contrary to the will of God. The actions of these four, Jacob, Rebekah, Isaac and Esau, were a head-on collision with predestination.  In verses 27-30 of chapter 27 are the contents of Jacob's blessing.  Familiarize yourself with these verses.

When Isaac came to realize what he had done he trembled. His trembling came from realizing that his rash desire was contrary to the decree of God - "The elder shall serve the younger."  Isaac upon this realization said to Esau:   "I have blessed him (Jacob), yea, and he shall be blessed" ( Genesis 27:33).  This leads us to believe that he was sure the Almighty would ratify this blessing.  This the Almighty did, as we shall soon see. Let us note that Isaac in reality blessed Jacob!  Men were most truly able to bless.

From this experience a practical truth comes: It has been and always will be thus with the churches of our lord!  "And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father had blessed him" (Genesis 27:41).

Could this not be the reason why true churches have been and always will be hated of the religious world, because of the blessing wherewith the lord hath blessed us (Luke 25:50)?

The fulfilment of Isaac's words, "yea, and he shall be blessed," were seen at the brook Jabbok in Genesis 32:24-30 -  "And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.  And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.  And he said unto him, what is thy name?  And he said, Jacob.  And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince has thou power with God and with men, and has prevailed.  And Jacob asked him, and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?  And He blessed him  there . And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face,  and my life is preserved."

Here is the time and place where God ratified to Jacob both the birthright and the blessing, according to Isaac's words. The genuineness of the possession of the birthright lay in Jacob's ability in turn to bless. Let us see how this was done.  Prior to Peniel Jacob was not qualified to meet Esau. How as a prince of God, he had power (authority) and had prevailed over Esau.  In order to show this priority, let us draw an illustration from the Book of Hebrews 7:1, 2.  "But he whose descent is not counted from them (the Aaronic priesthood) receiveth tithes from Abraham and blessed him that had the promises.  And without all contradiction the less (Abraham) is blessed of the better" (Hebrews 7:6, 7).

It is not possible for the less to bless the better. In the account of Jacob and Esau meeting Jacob said, "Take I pray thee my blessing, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.  And Jacob urged him, and he took it" (the blessing) (Genesis 33:11).  We see in this an evidence of God's ratification of the birthright.  Let us lay this ability to bless to heart!

In Egypt, Israel, as God's prince, continued to bless. He blessed Pharaoh (Genesis 47:10).  He blessed Joseph, Ephraim, and Manesseh (Genesis 48:15, 20).

(Before we return to thoughts on the common blessings of the elect, let us note that in certain kinds of blessings that God bestows there is therein the authority to bless. Remember our mention of the Lord blessing His church as He parted from it. On the day of Pentecost {Acts 1:8, 2:1-3} this blessing was ratified by the Father as He sealed it with the "upon coming" of the Holy Spirit.  The church that our Lord built was then empowered to bless.)

Now we return to the common blessings of God through Abraham to all believers, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."  Who is the seed?  "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made; He saith not, and to sees as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed which is Christ" (Galatians 3:15);, "and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29).  Verse 14 is a commentary on:   Genesis 22:18   "That the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ" (Galatians 3:13). We know that the word Gentiles is the word for nations which is the word used in Genesis 22:18 "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: because thou hast obeyed my voice."

"So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham" (Galatians 3:9)

The Apostle quotes from the Old Testament a passage relative to this common blessing.  If we do not have this blessing, we are not in line for any further blessing but instead for God's wrath (see Romans 4:7-9).  Read again this entire fourth chapter and you will see the relationship of all believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, to the kind of faith that Abraham had and the blessedness thereof.  If we want what Abraham had, we must walk in his steps (Romans 4:12).

There is another aspect of the blessing which is shared alike by all the redeemed of the Lord. John 17:3 is intimately connected with Matthew 16:16, 17  "And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the Living God.  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father who is in heaven."  Apart from this revelation none know the son of God who is the Christ and if this knowledge is not available neither is the bestowal of John 17:3 which is according to John 3:27.  All believers have to some degree the same revelation that Peter had. But there awaits a fuller blessing, a more intimate knowledge of the value of His title, The Christ.

Now to the important subject of the "earned blessing." there are blessings that come at the end of sore trials and testing which may be enjoined upon us.  "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him" (James 1:12). Why these trials must come is set forth in 1 Peter 1:6-7.

Job and the prophets are held before us as examples of those who endured (James 5:10, 11). Just as Job is an example of patience, so is he also an example of God's faithfulness to bless those who endure and obey.  We shall see in Job that when God bless in a particular way it is clearly manifested to all, being distinct and unique in its manner.

At the end of Job's long ordeal of physical, mental, domestic, and financial sufferings along with the false accusation of his "miserable comforters" who were "physicians of no value," God "turned again the captivity" of this man.  We note that it was after his obedience to God's command to pray for his three friends: "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10). "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12).  We see in this the faithfulness of God to bless those who steadfastly endure testings and are obedient to his command.

We need also to understand Ephesians 1:3.  Although the contents of this verse seem to be unconditional they are not.  It is like "prayer" and "understanding."   "The whole is greater than any of its parts and equal to the sum total of all its parts."  So to get our prayers before God there are many passages that we need to consider.  So it is with Ephesians 1:3 and the reception of these blessings.  Ephesians 1:3 reads thus:   "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath bless us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." ("Hath" means He has already.)

Though these blessings are ours already, they will never be possessed until we appropiate them.  This is demonstrated in an Old Testament type.  (The truths of types are hard and fast.)

"Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all  this people unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel.  Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses" (Joshua 1:2, 3).

Canaan was to them what our spiritual blessings are to us.  The land was God's grant unto them. It was theirs, but before they possessed a foot of it, their feet must tread upon it (see Joshua 1:1-4).  Because His blessings are designated to be ours, let us not think that they do not have to be claimed.  There was healing for the blind, restoration to life for Jairus' daughter, recovery for the man's son who was possessed of a demon, but all of these had to be sought.

Now let us consider those whom God authorizes to bless His name.

"And Aaron lifted up his hand towards the people and blessed them, and came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burnt-offering and the peace offering.  And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto the people" (Leviticus 9:22, 23).

There were two evidences that Moses and Aaron had indeed, not merely in word, blessed the people:

1) There was the manifestation of God's Glory to the people

2) Fire also came out from before the Lord in the presence of the people (Lev. 9:24).  They had the power to bless!

"At that time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before Him to minister unto Him and to bless in His name" (Deut.10:8).

There was a manner or way in which the priests were to bless the children of Israel: "On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel: Saying The Lord bless thee and keep thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.  And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them (Numbers 6:23, 24).

They were to put the Lord's name on the children of Israel, and God's blessing them in turn was contingent upon this.  If there is no putting on of His name there is no blessing.  There were none authorized in the Old Testament to do this but those of the tribe of Levi, the God-appointed priesthood!

In the New Testament times, there is no other way to put God's name upon His people than in Scriptural baptism:  "Baptizing them INTO the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." God must have an authorized "tribe," i.e. an administrator to function in His behalf.  While putting on of His Name in the Old Testament was administered by a man or men, the authority was invested in the "tribe."  The pastor may administer the act of Baptism but the authority to do so in invested in the church alone, not in the one who officiates!

The authority to bless resided in a priesthood in the Old Testament, now there is a change of the priesthood (Hebrews 7:12), not an abolition of the priesthood. The Lord's churches are that priesthood on earth.  If Scriptural Baptist churches are not the priesthood of His kingdom today, then no one has the Lord's Name upon him or her and the world is without an authorized teacher or agent through which HE may bless. He may change his agent or agents to another group, but NEVER his mode of operation.  When He changes His agent, He makes this change known.

Just as God preserved the lineage of the tribe of Levi until the full end of the Old Testament age, even so has He committed Himself (Matthew 16:18; 28:19, 20) to maintain an unbroken perpetuity of His churches until He returns. If there ceased for one moment the tribe of Levi, then the God-appointed priesthood in the Old Testament ceased.  If there ceased a lineage of the sons of David until Christ, then we have no Christ.  If there has ceased being somewhere a church with a link back to the church that He built, the world would be without an authorized agent to bless.

CHAPTER SIX

THE  LAYING ON OF HANDS

When Biblical reference is made to something in the experience of the lord's people, although no history or explanation is given, it is certain that those who were addressed had knowledge of the same For example, there is no record in the Word of God relative to the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, yet both Amos (1:1) and Zechariah (14:5) refer to this event.  It is there rightly assumed that those to whom the prophets spoke had knowledge of this event.

The inspired writer enumerates in Hebrews 6:1, 2 the "laying on of hands" as one of those things concerning which the readers were familiar. There is much preaching of doctrine of baptisms, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment in this our day why is there no preaching concerning the "laying on of hands?"  In this chapter we shall glean as best we can what is profitable in places where hands are laid on persons.

God's Word reveals to us that blessings are conveyed through the laying on of hands. In my judgment Jacob's mode of blessing Joseph's sons was learned from his father Isaac when he blessed him with the blessing which went with the birthright.  In the case where Jacob blessed Joseph's sons there was a transfer also of the birthright.  Now in Joseph's case, the birthright had, as we saw, been conferred upon him even though it belonged to Reuben, which Reuben had, as we saw, forfeited because of his immorality.  Although the birthright and the right to bless were to be Joseph's at the father's death, he could not exercise these privileges until the appointed time.

Upon discovering that the lads who were with Joseph (Jacob's eyes were dim because of age) were his sons, he chose to use his own position as father and bless the lads (l Genesis 48:3, 9).  When Joseph brought his two sons before his father, Manasseh the elder was positioned before Jacob's right hand and Ephraim the younger before his left.  Here's what happened:  "And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head who was the younger and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding (i.e., crossing ) his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn" (Genesis 48:14).  Joseph was displeased with his father's actions and sought to remove his father's right hand from the head of the younger.  What Jacob had done was to set the younger before the elder.  According to his purpose which he expressed in Genesis 48:9, Jacob blessed them (Genesis 48:19, 20) by the laying on of his hands.

The sons of Levi were appointed of God to the service of the Lord but they were set aside unto this office by the "laying on of hands."  Read Numbers 8:5-26, and we quote some verses that have to do with the "laying on of hands":  "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them - and thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together; and thou shall bring the Levites before Jehovah, and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites. And  Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of Jehovah" (Numbers 8:5, 6, 9-11). Numbers 8:19 tells us that in substituting the Levites for the firstborn (Numbers 3:45) Jehovah purposed them to stand between Israel and Himself as a security for Israel against plagues.

How the tribe of Levi attained this special positions may be seen in Exodus 32:35 and following as has already been mentioned.

The "laying on of hands" was a token of identification. The one who "laid hands upon" Identified himself with the position, office, or function of the one who had hands laid upon him.  To learn the value of this identification we must have an understanding of the position, office or function of the one upon whom hands are laid.

The Levites in turn needed to identify themselves with a sacrifice, for no one except Christ dare approach unto God to render service or worship apart from the merits of a God-designated sacrifice (Numbers 8:12).  The Levites identified themselves with the sin-offering and the burnt-offering by laying their hands upon the heads of the two animals.

Preceding this transaction there was a similar one (Leviticus 8) in the "washing" of Aaron and his sons.  There was no way for this washing to be done apart from the laying on of hands.  Those inducted into the priesthood in turn laid their hands upon the offering and thereby identified themselves with the God-ordained sacrifice.

On the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), the priest identified himself and all the people with the goats that were to be used in the bearing away of sin and the sacrifice for sin by laying his hands on them.  Read this chapter often; it has great typical meaning for us today.

When the 40 years of wandering for the children of Israel were drawing to a close and the time to enter the promised  land was imminent, God made prevision for a leader.   Moses had been barred from leading the people in, but God chose his own leader in his room and stead: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hands upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation and give him a charge in their sight, and thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient" (Numbers 27:18-20).  Verse 21 then tells clearly how Joshua is to receive God's orders and to carry them out.  "And Moses did as the Lord commanded him: and he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation, and he laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the HAND of Moses" (Numbers 27:22, 23).

We must consider the other references to this momentous acts: "And Moses gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge and said,  Be strong and of good courage for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them:  and I will be with thee" (Deut. 31:23).   At this point Moses is God's mouthpiece (Jer. 15:19).  Lastly,  "And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the Spirit of Wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him."

We know that external actions can often be but an empty form and hence useless. Because of the abuse of things divinely instituted many such things have fallen to ill repute before men and are thereby devoid of God's blessings.  When God leads there is a transmitting of something supernatural through the "laying on of hands," we have seen the institution of the priestly office and the appointment of a leader authorized by the laying on of hands.  We turn our attention to the New Testament.

We must begin with Him who in all things must have the pre-eminence. In preparation for this, John the Baptist is brought into the world:

1) John the Baptist was the realization of a certain prophecy;

2) His ministry was designed by Old Testament prophecy.  See Luke 1:13-17 for the ministry of John the Baptist as announced by the angel Gabriel.   Matthew 3:1-3 Identifies the ministry of John the Baptist as that which was prophesied in Isaiah 40:3-5.  John the Baptist confirmed his relationship to this prophecy and Christ, see John's Gospel 1:22, 23 and 3:28.

The position of John the Baptist by inheritance was most significant. He by birth was of the Aaronic priesthood.  His father was of the course of Abijah (1 Chronicles 24:10), and it was his father's lot when he served to burn incense (Luke 1-8).

The "burning of incense" was, as were all the offerings, a form of prayer in itself.  It was in a sense a plea for God to bring forth Him who was symbolized in this sweet incense, even Christ (Ephesians 5:2, Hebrews 7:27, 9:14, 10:10 and 12).

Age had long caused Zechariah to cease praying for a son.  The angel Gabriel had NO reference to any such kind of prayer, but for the True incense from heaven. Godly Jews versed in the Old Testament knew that Messiah must be preceded by a "forerunner."  Thus this announcement of John's birth to Zechariah meant that Messiah was on the way!

What are the deep meanings of our Lord's words when He came to John's baptism?  "Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Cannot the answers be found in these questions:

1) What were the positions of the one to baptize and the One to be baptized?

2) What did the Lord mean by "all righteousness"?

3) What did the act itself (i.e. baptism) mean and Heaven's ratification of the same?

Baptism is a symbol of a sacrifice, a death, burial and resurrection.  It conveys in its sacrificial symbolism an "offering up."  The odour of the incense floated up unto God. The sacrifice must be offered by the hands of a qualified priest.  Before God in Jordan were his priests and His incense.

As John the Baptist laid his hands upon His Lord and Saviour and buried Him in Jordan and brought Him out of Jordan's water, Heaven sealed the transaction. The priesthood in symbol had been conveyed to Christ.  His identification with all for whom He came to be the "sweet incense" had been made by John's obedience.  The Living and Eternal Priest and priesthood were there set forth.  It was through the laying on of hands and heaven's sanction by a Voice and descent of the Holy Spirit that the transaction was ratified. He upon whom authorized hands had now been laid, in turn laid His hands in ministry upon many for blessings (Mark 5:23, 41; 6:5; 7:32, 33;  8:23; Luke 4:40; 13:13, etc.)

The last act of His hands was administered as He left the disciples: "Having led His disciples opposite to Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them"( Luke 24:50).   Those blessed nail-pierced hands were lifted up to bless His church which was His priesthood which He left behind to lay hands in turn upon others and bless them Through His churches our Lord continues His priestly work on earth.  Instructions were made quite clear as to what His churches are to do. They are to disciple, to baptize, and to teach all things whatsoever He had commanded.  It is clear that the laying on of hands was a part of this in the act of administering baptism.

When the problem of distributing food to the widows in the Jerusalem church became acute (Acts 6), seven men were chosen to be over the matter.  After the seven were chosen the apostles laid their hands on them (Acts 6:7).  Heaven's sanction of this is seen in verse 8.  Whatever God authorizes, He blesses, and what He blesses, prospers!

How can we separate what was done here from the Old Testament?  Moses, who laid his hands upon Joshua, was a priest.  There is a recognizable tie between what was done in each Testament.

The next laying on of hands in Acts 8:1-15 has been and still is to be deeply pondered.  Because of the persecution at Jerusalem, the disciples, except the apostles, were scattered abroad.  Philip went down to the City of Samaria and there preached Christ unto them.  God blessed his preaching and the people became believers and were baptized.  Later this took place: "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy spirit (for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus).  Then laid they their hands upon them and they received the Holy spirit" (Acts 8:14-17).

Because of what we read in Acts 10:4, which states that the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the Word, and then they were baptized, we could wish the Lord had given more light on Acts 18:14-17.  Additional light is also needed in Acts 19 where Paul laid his hands on those twelve, after that they were baptized on Christ's authority and they received the Holy Spirit.  (Personal views on this matte are shared with those who discuss it with me.)

Another example of the "laying on of hands" is associated with the reception of the Holy Spirit in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Upon Saul's conversion he was told where to go and there it would be told him what to do.  The Lord spoke to faithful Ananias, a member of His church at Damascus, to go to Saul.  The Lord said: "And he (Saul) hath seen in a vision a man name Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight" (Acts 9:12).      "And Ananias went his way, and entered unto the house, and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hast sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received his sight forthwith, and he arose and was baptized" (Acts 9:17,18).

There must be truth for us to learn in all these examples relative to the reception of the Holy spirit and the laying on of hands.

We know that in all of the aforementioned cases the Lord's church was represented.  There was a laying on of hands either before or after baptism.

Most  of the time we are prone to interpret the happenings of Bible events apart from their proper setting.  Everything that was said or taught by either our Lord or His inspired writers or speakers was taught or spoken to people in church capacity. The promise of the Holy spirit in John 14:16, 17 was not to the disciples personally separate and apart from his Church.  He was to put the Holy spirit in His Church, which He did in John 20:19-23.  In Acts 2:1-3 He put the Church in the Holy spirit. In John 14:16, 17 He promised the "incoming of the spirit."  In Acts 1:8 it is the "upon coming" of the spirit.  The only way to have the proper relationship to the Holy spirit is to be in one of the Lord's churches. Even then this is possible only by two things - genuine conversion and the administration of baptism in which hands are laid on.  (See Acts 2:38.)

The beginning of he world-wide spread of the Gospel was initiated through fastings,  prayer and the laying on of hands. See most diligently Acts 13:1-4: an inseparable identity of the Holy Spirit with His church. Forever is the mould cast here for all mission work. Each church of the Lord is itself the agency of the Spirit to do the Lord's work.

The Scriptures teach that all who teach, evangelize, attempt to baptize, etc., apart from the authority of the Lord's Church are as little obedient to the Lord's command as was Moses in Numbers 20:7-12 and bring as little glory to the Lord as he did and will find the themselves as rewardless as Moses was. It is true that the water came but it was because of God's compassion upon His needy people, not because of the faithfulness of Moses.  The preaching of the Gospel and the enlightenment of the elect is an act of Grace whether done by the obedient or the disobedient.

The ordination service for one called to the Baptist ministry usually is performed backward.  Moses laid his hands on Joshua and then gave him a charge.  We give the charge and then lay hands on the one to be ordained.  However every ordination to the Baptist ministry does contain both (or should).

It is lamentable that we seem to have only the form - not the power - as hands are laid on a brother's head.  Note what Paul wrote to his son in the Lord and in the ministry: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" (1 timothy 4:14).  It was not prophecy alone that placed in Timothy this "gift" but it was conferred in conjunction with the  "laying on of hands," i.e., the hands of the presbytery.  There was also a charge delivered to him in 1 Timothy 1:18, 6:13, and 2 Timothy 4:1, 2.  There can be no presbytery unless there is first a church.  Associations have NO authority to ordain!

The first book of God's word introduces "the laying on of hands", and the last book opens with the same (Revelations 1:18).  Between the first account of the laying on of hands and the last one lies a wealth of spiritual knowledge that we need which concerns practices that we have lost or neglected.  Their values should be rediscovered.  May He give us hearts to desire, wisdom to know, and grace to follow where truth leads.

Suffer, my fellow pastors, this word of warning: "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other men's sins" (1Timothy 5:22). Under Holy Spirit instruction Paul warns us not to be hasty in setting apart unto the Gospel ministry just anyone who claims to be called.  Not all who aspire to preach are called.  Often love for the Lord and a zeal for the truth are mistaken for a genuine call to the ministry.  What a great sin we commit in sending out men as God's prophets who have not been called.  While we exercise extreme caution in this matter we must seek wisdom to detect the gifts and calling of God that are in His called ones, then  lay hands only on such persons.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE ANOINTING

Throughout the Bible two great facts are observable. One is that God delagates authority to men. The other is His delegation of certain powers to them.  God dispenses these wisely. Without the proper power authority is useless.  Without the proper control power is dangerous.  Due to these facts, He restrains or allows.  In order that these bestowed privileges may be manifest to those upon whom they are bestowed and to others, He has chosen two ways of making known those who are the recipients.  One way is by the "laying on of hands."  The other is "the anointing."  Let us consider THE ANOINTING.  Sometimes the anointing is accompanied with the laying on of hands, sometimes only by pouring oil upon the anointed.  It seems that the nature of the service determined what was done.

In the Old Testament those who were to serve in their God-appointed offices were anointed:

1) The Priesthood

2) His Kings

3) His Prophets

4) The Tabernacle with all its furniture and vessels of service wherein the priesthood was to administer.

In the New Testament there were only two anointings: Christ at His baptism, and His church on the day of Pentecost.  Be it remembered that whosoever and whatsoever are anointed are in a special way holy unto the Lord.  Whatsoever is anointed is set apart to the Lord and no exercise of self-will must enter into the picture.  All directions and motivations must come from the Lord (see Leviticus 10:6, 7).

The anointing and the Laying on of Hands are perhaps two of the most important acts in the Bible. Without them there is little of value or authority. Of these two the Anointing has priority. Without the anointing the death of Christ would have been valueless.  He was eternally the Son of God and acclaimed by God to be the Anointed and appointed to His mission.  His anointing by the Holy Spirit and the laying on of the hands of John the Baptist verified Heaven's appointment, and thus He was identified as the Messiah, I.e., the "Anointed One."

In all the works and services that God has ordained to be done, He left absolutely nothing unto man's choice.  For this reason anointings are of God's appointment.  Therefore none became priests nor kings nor prophets but by divine choice.  "And no man taketh this honour unto himself (i.e., the honour of the priesthood), but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:4).   Even though Christ is the Son of God, before He could function as God's Prophet or Priest or King, He must be anointed.  "So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high Priest, but He that saith unto Him, Thou are my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. As  He said also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec" (verse 6).

In our day when much church-planning and over-organization and almost mandatory programming is sent down from "headquarters," it is imperative that we reemphasize this: in all that God has left us to do He has left absolutely nothing to our own designing.  He has given specific instructions what is to be done, how it is to be done, the scope of its use (hence also its limitations), who is to do what, and what others are not to do.  Paramount among these instructions are the things pertaining to "the anointing."

Observe the first record of an anointing in the Bible and of which God "took note".  It is in Genesis 28; Jacob in order to save his life left his home in Canaan and went north to the house of Laban.  Night overtook him and he lay down to sleep. God gave him a dream that night and also a promise.  Upon awakening he was filled with fear.  He "rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it" (Genesis 28:28).  He made a vow and called that place Bethel.  Twenty-one years later God spoke to him and said, "I am the God of Bethel where thou anointest the pillar, and where thou vowest a vow to me: Now arise and get thee out from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred" (Genesis 31:13).  In Genesis 35:14, as well as in 31:1-15, Jacob again anointed a pillar:  "And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God talked with him, even a pillar of stone and poured a drink offering thereon and poured oil thereon" (Genesis 35:14):.  Thus Bethel became a sacred place before God in the history of His people and remained so until outraged by Jeroboam.

Although there were four authorized anointings, only two occupy the largest space and carry the most exact instructions.  It was that of the tabernacle and those who served therein, these being the priests.  For  this anointing God had His people to prepare a special kind of oil.  Open your bible to Exodus 30:22-25.  There were four chief spices: myrrh, 500 shekels; sweet cinnamon, 250 shekels; Calamus, 250 shekels; and cassia, 500 shekels; and an hin of olive oil.  "And thou shalt make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer" (Exodus 30:25  ASV).

These spices were compounded and mixed in the olive oil as a base for their application.  Oil when used symbolically in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit.  When put upon a person or thing it designates that that something or someone was sanctified, consecrated, and holy; that is, for Jehovah's use only.  This truth is set forth in the anointing in Exodus 32:26-30.  That these things and persons became so holy is manifested in God's command to Aaron when his sons were killed by the Lord because of their rash act.  Read   Leviticus 10:1-7 noting again carefully verses 6 and 7.  The  one who dared to touch the Ark of the Covenant not being anointed to do so, God killed (see 1 Chronicles 13:9, then 15:1, 2).

In compounding the anointing oil for the tabernacle and the priests, there were these five substances.  The sweet ingredients symbolize to me the perfections of Christ as seen by God.  While the spices and the oil form the "anointing oil" the spices do not become part of the olive oil yet they form one kind of oil.  The Holy Spirit and Christ are different Persons, yet they are inseparable.  The spirit conveys the fragrance of Christ.  Apart from our Lord nothing is acceptable, and none other than the spirit is authorized to apply these fragrances or benefits.  They, the spirit and Christ, are complementary to each other even as were the spices and the oil.

There were some most rigid restrictions forbidding a personal making and using of the anointing oil (see Exodus 30:32,33);.  Nothing that is sacred to the God of Heaven and earth is to be used for personal pleasure or profit.

It must be all used for the glory of God and as He chooses as we observe in Exodus 28:1, "Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister unto me in the priest's office".   The choice was of God.  "And thou shalt put them (the designated garments) on Aaron thy brother and his sons with him, and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister to me in the priest's office (Exodus 28:41).     “And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle, and all that was therein, and sanctified them. And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all the vessels, both the laver and his foot to sanctify them.  And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him to sanctify him" (Leviticus 8:10-12).

In verse 30, we see the use of the blood of the sin-offering and the oil.  The anointing of the spirit is predicated upon the shedding of the blood of Christ.  Likewise was the shedding Christ's blood contingent upon the spirit performing his office work when the blood was shed.           Now relative to the anointing of the priests we note:

1) God authorized who was to be anointed; this excluded all others.

2) There was only one anointing, and those born into this lineage were partakers of that one anointing.

3) There was no transfer to another tribe, else there would need to have been another (and perhaps rival) anointing.

4) Only those who were anointed dare function in the office of the priest.  Saul of Kish, the first King in Israel, sought to intrude into the priestly function to His own undoing (1 Samuel 13:8-14); note particularly verses 12-14; see also 2 Samuel 6:6, 7 and 1 Corinthians 8:17).

5) Those upon whom the anointing oil was poured could not "speculate" in their office (Leviticus 10:1-3).

Let us move on to the next office that received the anointing.  In the anointing of the kings only oil was used.  They were not anointed to the office of the priest but kinship only. This gave no grounds to venture beyond the office designated.  (See 2 Chronicles 26:16-21).

In 1 Samuel 10:1, Saul is anointed the first king over Israel.  Due to his rash act, as already pointed out in 1 Samuel 13:8-14 and his disobedience in 1 Samuel 15, God rejected him from being king over his people.

Next, David of the house of Jesse of the tribe of Judah was anointed king over Israel (1 Samuel 16:1): "Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king from among his sons."  When David came in, the Lord said: "Arise anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward" (1 Samuel 16:12, 13).  Although the kingly lineage passed to the descendants of David, yet it is apparent that each king was in turn anointed (see 1 Kings 1:39, 40).

Elijah received a new commission from the Lord at Mt. Horeb.  He was to return and anoint two kings and his own successor who was Elisha in his room and stead (1 Kings 19:15, 16).

In the New Testament all of the offices of the Old Testament are incarnated in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, then later passed on to His church.  Christ is God's Prophet, Priest and King.

In the Messianic Psalms we find enough material to write volumes, but shall note only two passages.  Both of these are from the second Psalm: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed" (Psalms 2:1, 2).   That this refers to Christ is clear from Acts 4:25-28 - "who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said" (Psalm 2:1, 2) "For of a truth against thy Holy Child Jesus whom thou has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined."

The other passage is verse 6 of Psalm 2: "Yet have I set my king upon My holy hill of Zion."   The word king could be translated "anointed."

When our Lord was talking to the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well she said, "I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.  When He is come, He shall tell us all things.  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am (He)"  (John 4:25, 26).

Peter when preaching in the house of Cornelius said, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38).

The Son of God who came into the world came also as the Prophet (Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22, 23). He was to be   likewise the king in the room and stead of King David (Matthew 2:2.  Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 2:29-31). The book of Hebrews is a book saturated with Christ as God's true High Priest (see carefully Zechariah 6:12-13).

When was Christ anointed with the Holy Spirit? When he was emerging from His liquid grave in Jordan this anointing Occurred: "And Jesus when He was baptized went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were open unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16, 17).  John the Baptist tells us that the spirit abode upon Him (John 1:32).

As God's prophet He went about speaking God's words. As God's Priest, he was anointed to offer up gifts and sacrifices (Hebrews 8:3).   Hebrews 10 tells us the nature of these sacrifices and what they accomplished. In His baptism He was also anointed God's king and will one day assume His own throne (see Revelations 3:21).  The priest in Israel anointed the king, and John the Baptist was God's priest who symbolically performed the act that led to Jesus' anointing.

Let us refer back to the prophecy in Zechariah 6:12, 13: "Speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying , behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both (His priesthood and His throne)."   Christ is the only one who can fulfil this prophecy, and the church that He built in the days of His flesh is that "temple of the Lord."  This interpretation also fits into a part of the prophecy of Daniel 9:24, which is indicated by the italicized words, "Seventy sevens are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end to sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint a most holy place" (ASV) This place is none other than Christ's church. It is the place where God dwells.  His church is where the one dwells who also dwells in the secret place of the most High (Psalm 91:1).  Our Lord's church while in the world is something that the world knows nothing about.

This brings us to the anointing of the Lord's church.  What transpired on the day of Pentecost was the anointing of this most holy place the place where God was to dwell and is dwelling and where He has put His name.

There was a Higher   "anointing" of the tabernacle in the wilderness by the cloud, the symbol of God's Holy spirit upon it and also filling it.  The cloud came upon Solomon's temple and His glory filled it. The spirit came upon Christ to anoint Him and to fill Him.  If these were unique and specific anointings, then also what happened to the Lord's church on the day of Pentecost must be its anointing.

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all  the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:1-3;   John 3:8).

There were many believers in the city of Jerusalem besides the 120 in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.  We have no record that they on that day received anything.  Only those who were in the house received the anointing.

They were likewise the ones who received the power. Just as Christ was appointed unto His ministry but did not enter into it until He was anointed, so the Lord's church was forbidden to undertake its commission until it was anointed.  The anointing was upon them and the power was within.

The anointing on the day of Pentecost was the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  From that day until now there has never been another baptism in the Holy Spirit, thus no new anointing. As an illustration, in the Old Testament the First Tabernacle was dedicated by blood and the anointing oil.  We have record that Solomon's temple was dedicated by blood only but no oil. Why not?  Because it was a continuation of what had already been anointed. We read nowhere of an anointing of the priesthood other than at its institution. Why not? Because they  are of the same lineage.  Even though the priests were designated to live in the different cities of Israel, there was only ONE PRIESTHOOD and the one anointing.

There was only one original church, the church that was anointed on the day of Pentecost.  Those churches that have been and are begotten from it share in the anointing.  They are in the lineage of the anointed.  Scriptural reproduction is "after its kind."

The apostle Paul was sent out by church authority from Antioch to do his mission work.  The church at Antioch was without doubt organized under the authority of the First Church in Jerusalem through their appointed man, Barnabas.

There is a peculiar thing said about the disciples at Antioch.  They were the first to be called Christians.  They did not call themselves this nor would their enemies, the Jews, so honour them.  God Almighty called them this to show us something. They were the "Lord's Anointed Ones."  This is what the word "Christ" means.  This shows the direct tie it had with the anointed church in Jerusalem which our Lord built in the days of His flesh.

Paul and Barnabas being sent out by the church at Antioch went forth evangelizing and organizing churches.  Later he and Silas went forth (Acts 15) from this same church with the same authority.  By virtue of those churches which they organized having a tie with the church at Antioch, Paul could write unto the church at Corinth: "Now He who establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22) The beloved Apostle John wrote to those who were in church capacity.  Knowing the same truth that Paul Knew, the apostle John wrote: 'But ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you" (1 John 2;20, 27).

Just as we are to know our election unto salvation, we are to know our election to the Priesthood - and because of being so positioned here as such we become a sharer in the anointing.

Another suggestion concerning the anointing and its future value comes from Revelation 11:15, "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of this world are becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever."

To me there is something most suggestive in these words "our Lord and His Christ."  From all other passages in the New Testament, our Lord could mean none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.  Could there be suggested to us something in the words "And of His Christ?"  The word Christ means God's anointed.  Those whom the Lord Jesus Christ anointed were His church.  I think the same meaning is found here that is set forth in Acts 11:26 "And the disciples were called the anointed ones first in Antioch."  A share in possessing the kingdoms of this world is determined by one possessing "the anointing" which resides only upon true Baptist churches of our Lord.  This anointing then must of necessity abide upon the Lord's priesthood, namely His churches in the aggregate.

Those who are in truth members of the Lord's church are also "kings and priests."  The anointing on the day of Pentecost was unto this end.  When Christ becomes a Priest upon His throne then we shall become also the same as He.  He is and will always be the Great High Priest; we will be priests.

Our Beloved Brother Irvin Wallace spoke in our church on "The Anointing."  By his permission we pass on to you some points of his outline

ANOINTED

1. Anointed To Minister to Go (Exodus 30:30)

2. Anointed to Know (1 John 2:20, 27)

3. Anointed To Stand (2 Corinthians 1:21)

4. Anointed To Receive (Numbers 18:8)

5. Anointed To Be Victorious (Deuteronomy 10:27)

6. Anointed To Be Preserved (Psalm 18:50;)

7. Anointed To Die (John 12:7)

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE

LORD'S CHURCH

Perhaps it might seem that this chapter, bearing the title of the Book, should be the first.  The undertakings of the preceding chapters have been intended to make this one easier to follow since relatively little new material need be introduced.

This book shows what division already exist, why the division, and seeks to direct earnest honest souls to consider their "church affiliation."  To most believers sincerity in what one does in their "service to the Lord" is all that counts.  However, this is not the case (see Romans 10:1-4).  There may be a zeal, but not according to knowledge.

Who can question whether or not the two sons of Aaron who were smitten of the Lord when they offered "strange fire" were sincere (Leviticus 10:1-3).  Sincere or not, they died because they did not obey the Lord.  Moses, when he smote the rock twice instead of speaking to it as the Lord said, forfeited his privilege of leading Israel into the promised land.  Saul lost forever the right of Israel's throne for his posterity because he intruded into the services that belonged to the priesthood.  Uzziah went out from the presence of the lord a leper because he sought to burn the incense a duty which belonged only to the priests.  We see that it does make a difference before the Lord of heaven and earth who does what, when, and how. Unless the individuals are appointed and anointed and obey orders, sincerity is of no avail and can lead one to act rashly and dangerously.

From among the disciples that followed our Lord and who constituted His church, He chose twelve to be apostles.  When Judas fell from his apostleship and was replaced by the choice of the church, there were certain qualifications that were ordained of God to be met by his successor. These were not of man's making but of God (Acts 1:16-26).

In the Old Testament the sons of Aaron with the tribe of Levi were chosen to serve in the things pertaining to God's worship, services, sacrifice, and the people's need.  The place of their service was ordained of God.  This place was first the tabernacle and later the temples.  Those services were to be transitory, but at that time they were of divine origin and of utmost importance.

Among the many duties assigned to the priesthood were these: to receive the tithe of the land; offer gifts, sacrifices and oblations; discern in legal matters between brethren; discern the plague of leprosy; teach the Word of God; and bless in His name.  These same duties prevail today and must be administered by the same authority, and only by those anointed to so minister.

Those who took unto themselves to serve without the anointing were speedily judged of the Lord(see Numbers 16, 17).  This immediate kind of judgment may not be so visible and evident in our day as we witness the churches that are rivals of our Lord's churches. When He shall come and judge all things, then shall he make manifest those who were authorized and those who were not (1 Corinthians 11:19).

We need to consider briefly, though maybe not in the named order, the following: Are those passages in the New Testament which speak clearly about a priesthood written to those in church capacity or not?  Does the Bible anywhere intimate or teach the priesthood of all believers?  If it doesn't, then what is the status of the other redeemed ones?  What are some of the demands character wise made upon the priesthood in the Old Testament that are the same in the New?  Briefly, what were some of the duties of the priest in the Old Testament that we find in the New?  Many of these are set forth in the chapter that discusses where He has put His name (I refer you to it, please).

Let us consider those passages that state clearly a New Testament priesthood and seek to discern to whom they were written and in what capacity: "But YE are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous  light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (1 Peter 2:9, 10).

Our second passage: "Unto Him that loveth us and loosed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever" (Revelations 1:5, 6 ASV)

The caption of Peter's epistles in our Bible is somewhat misleading.  The word "general" is supplied by our translators.  Their choice of this word "seems" to have support from the first verse of Chapter 1, (but it doesn't), therefore they are called the Universal Epistles.  There are five provinces mentioned in Chapter 1 vers 1.  Those addressed were called "strangers."  We are safe in saying that the epistles of Peter were circulatory, but to whom? They were to be passed from assembly to assembly until they had made the rounds.  Certainly reading the epistles in the assemblies was what was intended.

Peter and Paul were not rival theologians, and what Paul knew about the Lord's churches the other apostles already knew.  This  epistle as well as all the other epistles were the inspired words of God, and as such they were preserved for us.  They were committed to the churches who for this purpose were the depositories of the truth "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1Timothy 3:15).

Here is internal proof that Peter's epistle was a church epistle: "The elders which are among you, I exhort, who also am an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the FLOCK OF GOD, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a willing mind, Neither as lording it over God's heritage, but bring examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:1-3).

There is a passage in Acts 20 that clearly identifies the "flock" as a New Testament church.  "And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church"(Acts 20:17).

When they were come unto him, he said these words at the close of his discourse: "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the CHURCH OF GOD which He (God) hath purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).

The same instruction, basically, is given to the elders by both Peter and Paul.  Those identified as "flocks" were churches.  Therefore, those to whom Peter wrote were in church capacity.  Since they were churches those in them were the “Royal Priesthood.”  Our Lord uses the term "flock" prior to either Peter of Paul: "Fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).

All believers are sheep, "The sheep of His pasture," but not all sheep are in "flock" capacity according to the New Testament usage of the term.  His "flocks" are His churches wherever they are.  Likewise each church is viewed as a whole as symbolized by its analogy to the human body with all of its parts (1 Corinthians 12:13ff)

Were those addressed in Revelation 1:5 in church capacity also?  The verse just above states that they were: "John, to the seven churches which were in Asia" (Revelations 1:4).  The entire book of the Revelation was written to churches (see 1:10, 11; 22:16).  (If the Lord's   "church" were to be raptured in Chapter 4 as some teach, then the remainder of the book is useless, because the ungodly cannot know the things of the Spirit.)

There is nothing in the Word of God that is not addressed to or for those in church capacity (Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

This must be so because God's word has spiritual meaning, and God would not direct His word to those unbelievers identified in 1 Corinthians 2:14.  The church is the "pillar and ground of the truth."  As Israel was the depository of the Old Testament writing, His churches are the same concerning the New Testament.

It is a well-known axiom that "Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."  Such words or phrases as "saints," "disciples," "of this way," etc. mean those  "in church capacity." Compare the above terms in all of these passages: Acts 8:1, 3; 9:1, 13, 21; 22:4,19; 26:10;   1 Corinthians 15:9;  Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; Revelations 13:7.  This comparative identification shows that those so addressed were a church.  Hence His church was His priest in that place.

Apart from the Roman Catholic Church and some informed Baptists, all the rest of Christendom including all too many Baptists believe in the priesthood of every believer!

The theory of a universal, invisible church would be true if every believer were a priest, and we would have no need of a church as set forth in the New Testament.  Any division among believers would be wicked, and 1 Corinthians 11:19 useless.  If every believer is a priest he would have the authority to baptize, spread the Lord's  table and receive tithes, and not necessarily to tithe.

Although there were twelve tribes in Israel and they were the Lord's, yet only ONE tribe was chosen unto the priesthood.  There was only one tribe chosen where He designed to place His name, ONE city in this tribe - Jerusalem, and in this city one house.  God's mode of operation has not changed.  The Priesthood is still inseparably bound to: the Birthright, the Laying on of Hands, and the anointing, etc.  If the priesthood of the Lord's church is true, then can no one else pray to God?  Those who affirm this indicate an ignorance of the Old Testament priesthood.  We have recorded for us great prayers in the Old Testament Hannah, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Jonah, and so on.  None of these were in the priesthood.  No one who teaches the truth about the Priesthood of the church claims that only the Priests could pray.  Nowhere do we find praying limited to the priesthood, though this is definitely one of its assigned functions.

Let us regard the function of the New Testament priesthood, the duties of the Lord' churches, the privileges that devolve upon them and some of the rewards.

(Neglect of the book of Leviticus has made us spiritual paupers regarding the Priesthood.  Not even 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4 can make full sense unless Leviticus is to a great degree understood.)

The Priesthood was to give attention to the offering up of gifts and sacrifices to God.  "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5, ASV) Here the "house" and "an holy priesthood" are the same.  In the New Testament there are three outstanding symbols of the Lord's church: house, a body, and a bride or wife.  The symbol of "the house" seems to be the most expressive.  See 1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 2:21 (American Standard Version, 1901); Hebrews 3:6;   2 Timothy 2:20; 1 Corinthians 3:16;   2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 4:17.  Note carefully 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 2 Corinthians 6:16.

How do we present our bodies as "living sacrifice" to God which is our spiritual service? It must begin in Scriptural church affiliation. This is how and where all Holy spirit-led sacrifices of lives for Him truly begin, (Acts 13:1-4).  Let us seek understanding of what Paul meant in Philippians 2:17.

There is another form of spiritual sacrifice that is made in church capacity: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.  But to do good and communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Hebrews 13:15, 16). Please see Ephesians 5:18-21 with Colossians 3:16, 17.

As churches He sees us not so much as acting individually but acting as a whole.  In Israel's early experience (Joshua 7:1, 2, 11) when one man sinned, Jehovah saw it as "all Israel."  So it is with the Lord's church (1 Corinthians 12:14-27).  With the Lord's people there is a "back-home" unity with His church which God honours.  Many miles from Jerusalem far from the temple of his God, Elijah atop Mt.  Carmel owned his tie with his temple as 1 Kings 18:30-39 shows: "and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice."   This time and place was in Jerusalem at the altar in the temple.  Jonah though disobedient claimed an identity with God's temple (Jonah 2:4) and so did Daniel in that his window was opened toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).  Beloved, the Lord has been pleased to make His dwelling place on earth His churches (2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 22:22f).  He said as of old, "I will meet with thee and commune with thee there," and in Revelation 3:2 He is associated with His church.  The Lord's church as has been mentioned earlier is the "secret place" of the Most High.  Even as the world knows Him not, so does it not know His church. Not even many of His disciples today truly know Him, Neither do they know His church. It is secret to them ("The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.")

Another great function of the Priesthood in Israel was that of keeping the ordinances of the Lord.  This meant that they were to guard their purity and see that they were properly administered according to the commandments of the Lord.  In this respect, Paul commended the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:1) for their diligence in doing the same. Christ placed in His church two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's supper.  They are church ordinances, not sacraments.  If the Lord's churches are not His priesthood they would have no right to administer these ordinances.  If all believers are priests then "open communion" would be right, and baptism would not be essential.  Even pseudo Baptists demand baptism before the table.  Just as the purity of Israel's ordinances (which were of the Lord) depended upon the faithfulness of the priesthood, so does the purity of His ordinances of our age.

Another function of the priesthood in Israel's day was that of teaching, "and ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace: and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name.  The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.   For the PRIEST'S lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts" (Mal. 2:4-7).

Since the great commission embodies teaching those who are discipled after they are baptized (Matthew 28:19, 20) and this commission has been given to the Lord's churches alone, they are the "messengers of the Lord."  Since they are, then they are His priests.  However, Baptist churches cannot be the mouth of the lord unless they declare the whole counsel of the Lord, and take forth the precious from the vile (Jeremiah 15:19).

Can an individual lose a place in the priesthood, or a whole church?  The inseparable connection of the priesthood to  the Birthright has been reviewed and it has been shown that it can be lost.  All scriptural churches today have an identity with the church that Jesus built by perpetuity and lineage, even as Christ has with David, and as Zechariah the father of John the Baptist with Aaron.  We know that like produces like and that Baptists churches can only come from Baptist churches and somewhere there had to be the first one. Our Lord obligated Himself in Matthew 16:18 to guard the perpetuity of His church, and reaffirmed their presence on earth until He returns (Matthew 28:19, 20).

Our birthright, hence our right to the priesthood, lies in this we are the "Church of the firstborn."  Just prior to these words in Hebrews 12:23, we are warned against the way of Esau.  He is for all time an example of the loss of the birthright.  With the loss of the birthright goes the loss of priority of rank in the father's house, the priesthood, and the double portion of the inheritance.

Many things in the Bible that are physical are a type of something spiritual.  We see this in the Lord's teaching on the New Birth.  The act of physical adultery is used of Jehovah to show Israel's unfaithfulness to Him (see Hosea 1 and 2).

These whoredoms, as the Lord called them, brought upon Israel serious judgments.  Remember because of spiritual adultery as committed in Exodus 32 the Israel that came out of Egypt almost lost its existence.  It lost the priesthood of the firstborn sons to the tribe of Levi. Because of the immorality of Eli's two sons and his father's refusal to deal with them, the Lord slew his two sons and forever removed Eli's posterity from the priesthood.

There are many sins listed in God's Word which demand exclusion from the church for all who persist in them.  If the Lord's church is obedient to His command and does exclude them, the excluded lose their place in the priesthood.  If a church refuses to hearken to the voice of her Head in such matters of discipline, that church endangers its own priesthood status.  We are not left to our own judgment in these matters of what we ought to do.  The voice of the New Testament is final.  Remember James' words on this matter (Chapter 4:4).

There is in our present day an evil that Baptist churches must avoid.  What others may say or think about us must not matter.  We must beware of "church adultery."  We cannot unionize with those who are not of the same faith and order. Such so-called acts of fellowship and brotherly cooperation may seem like gestures of love, and harmless, but they are the death warrants of the Lord's churches.  By unionism we compromise our heritage and pollute our ordinances. Unionism is not fostered to "save souls" as some claim but to destroy His churches.  We have an example of what "intermarriage" with those not of the same faith and order will do.  We quote again "And of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai, which took one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite to wife, and was called after their name: These sought their register among those but it was not found: therefore, were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood" (Nehamiah 7:63, 64). Intermarriage had erased these descendants from the roster of the priests.  This intermarriage, no doubt, took place somewhere around the time of David, but it was not forgotten.  How much more is an accurate register of churches kept by heaven! Remember there are "watchers" and "the Holy ones" who report to the Lord earth's irregularities.  Barzillai was a great man, an Israelite and one who had succored his king when he fled into exile from before Absolom.  All these worthy deeds did not put him nor his into the priesthood. It is most sobering to think that when the roster of the Lord's churches is searched, will ours be found there?  The birthright may be gone.

Where does this put one that is not of the priesthood? Although Esau had neither birthright nor the blessing, he was still Isaac's son.  He received some kind of blessing (Hebrews 11:20) though it was far inferior to Jacob's. Those who in Nehemiah's days were put from the priesthood were not sent back to Babylon, nor were they refused the common rights and privileges of an Israelite.  They were refused those things that belonged to the sons of Aaron and the Levites.

May I ask you, my beloved reader, some vital questions:

1) Have you endeavoured to find a "church" of the firstborn?

2) Do you have a heart-hunger for the truth sufficient to make you obedient thereunto?

3) Do you now value the Birthright of the church of the firstborn?

4) Do you and I put the same value upon it that our crucified Lord did?

Let us pray for grace to love Him more, knowledge to understand, wisdom to discern and ability to go where truth leads. Until that day dawns without clouds and we behold the King in His beauty, may we be as the priesthood ought to be in behaviour and character: "Thy testimonies are very sure, Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever" (Psalm 93:5).  "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord" Isaiah 52:11 with 2 Corinthians 6:14 & 7:1).  "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth, and some to honour and some to dishonour.  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work" (2 Timothy 2:20, 21).

CHAPTER NINE

EXPOSING A GREAT DELUSION

Sincere children of God travelling the path of experience sooner or later become disillusioned about many things that we have been taught or imagined.  Let us thank God when He graciously gives us truth to replace error and light for darkness.

The great delusion that I want to discuss with you in this final chapter has to do with the fallacy that salvation from hell to heaven takes care of everything, and that in eternity we’re all going to be equal in position and rewards.  Many live and die under this God-dishonouring delusion.  How sad to have this illusion removed too late for the situation to be remedied.  The Old Testament saints were right when they wrote, spoke and expected a priority of rank in the resurrection glory.

It is feared that the New Testament teaching about salvation has been limited by almost all preachers, Bible teachers and so-called evangelists to only the need of dead alienated sinners.  For the elect of God there is a gracious portion of this truth directed to them as alienated sinners.  However the overwhelming burden of salvation is that justification is but the starting place.  The writer of the Book of Hebrews urges: "LET US GO UNTO MATURITY"!  The whole of the life of a child of God is lived either this side of the "saving of the soul" if not, then on the side of "losing of the soul."

None of the Old Testament histories of God's dealings with His people linger long around an initial act of redemption, though this act is never to be forgotten.  Even before Israel left Egypt Canaan lay ahead of them. The passover and the crossing of the Red Sea which put Egypt behind them was but crossing the threshold en-route to their possession. The promise and prospect of every Israelite who departed from Egypt was to enter into that land.  Not one of Israel was allowed to return to Egypt, but only two males above twenty years of age who came out of Egypt entered the Promised land.  They were Joshua and Caleb.  The grave-strewn wilderness is a grim reminder that while one may be judicially behind the safety of the blood of the passover Lamb this does not guarantee an entrance into "the rest that remaineth for the people of God."

In reading the Book of Hebrews with any degree of discernment there is an awareness of one of three things relative to those addressed

1) They may appear to be a people who seem to be halting short of salvation. This appearance is immediately removed by noting those addressed in Chapter 3:1 plus other like verses.

2) Some see in the Book such an apostasy of those addressed even to the extent that they are in danger of eternally perishing Because of the harmonious teachings of all the Scriptures relative to the security of the believer this view must be abandoned.

3) The third and last is that the Book teaches that God's Pilgrims and Strangers on earth can lose something.

In Zechariah 3, there is a picture of what I am saying.  First there is the picture of Grace's bestowals; second there is a command unto perseverance, or should I not rather say, the command to persevere. You MUST stop and read verses 1 through 5 to see the bestowals of grace which are made with not a word spoken to Joshua the high priest.  NOW, what was spoken to Joshua if he was to maintain his place and position is as follows: "And the Angel protested unto Joshua saying; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, IF thou wilt walk in my ways, and IF thou wilt keep my charge, THEN thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by" (*verses 6 and 7).   *(those that “stand by” are the angels.)

Beloved, no other passage shows us more clearly that the initial bestowal of grace does not mean that the crown is won! The goal is reached and the crown is won by living in the power of persevering grace.

Hebrews 11 refers to those men who dwelt in tents looking for a city and country that is eternal, and therefore directing their lives according to this hope.  We pass from what is said about these noble souls of faith and others like them to other kinds of noble souls.  "And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might attain a BETTER RESURRECTION" (Hebrews 11:35b).  If there is to be no difference in the resurrection; if all are to share and share alike, isn't it sad that these poor deluded souls didn't know this and thereby save themselves such sufferings?  PERISH the thought!

Not all the redeemed will be positionally alike in eternity, that in this "better resurrection" precious few will share.  All those who are saved will be raised from the dead at the proper time and have glorified bodies like the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is sure to all who are His by blood redemption.  Also, at the proper time even the wicked dead will be raised and subsequently judged.  The verse in Hebrews 11:35b "That they might attain a better resurrection" ought to stir in us a desire also to attain unto the same.

That all believers will not be raised at the same time seems to be likewise clearly taught by many such passages. Let us consider several passages that unfold this truth.  1 Corinthians 15:22, 23 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits; afterwards, they that are Christ's at his coming (parousia)."  The word for "order" is a military term meaning "rank" or "station."  Not all battalions of men in the army move simultaneously, but only as they are ordered.  Since no one can resurrect himself or herself, we must wait until the summons from Headquarters above comes. If  the resurrection of the righteous is to be shared equally at the same time by all, the term "order" is not necessary.

Our Lord's words in Luke 20:34-36 (which were uttered in refutation of the error of the Sadducees) teach that there will be an out-resurrection of some from among the righteous dead before the resurrection of all.  "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  They that are accounted worth to attain unto that age, and the out- resurrection from among the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage: for neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels of God, and are the sons of God, being the sons of resurrection" (ASV and margin).

"That age" is set in contrast with "this age," therefore it is the millennial kingdom of Christ, and is preparatory to the eternal kingdom.

The sobering words of this passage are "COUNTED WORTH TO ATTAIN UNTO." There are two things to be counted worthy to attain unto; "the age that is to come" and the "out - resurrection" from among the dead."  This is what is meant by the "better resurrection" of Hebrews 11:35b.  Truly because of blood-redemption there is a resurrection for all saved, but the "better resurrection" is for those "counted worthy" of it and it will be in advance of the general resurrection of the saved.

This attainment was the heart-longing ambition of the apostle Paul.  The inner cry of his soul is laid bare to us in his words: (the words in his statement that are all caps correspond with Luke 20:34, 35) "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death: IF BY ANY MEANS I MIGHT ATTAIN UNTO THE OUT-RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD: Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended off Christ Jesus."  "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:10-14).

These are the words of one who had so faithfully served his Lord for many years (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-29) and whose life was even then drawing to a close. These are not mere pious platitudes of one who wished to appear humble. They express the modest hope that he would be "counted worthy" of that out-resurrection.  He uses a word that occurs in Acts 27:12 for "attain."  "And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence, also, IF BY ANY MEANS THEY MIGHT ATTAIN unto Phenice and there to winter."  This goal they did not reach. Since the apostle at the time of the writing of these words expresses such grave concern about attaining unto the out-resurrection, does it not   behove   us procrastinating lethargic professors to be less dogmatic about our kingdom prospects and feeling as if we have already attained?

When did the apostle arrive at a certainty that he had attained?  When may we?  We may when our testimony is the same as his: "For I am now already being poured out as a drink-offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the lord, the righteous Judge shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Notice now the following verses along this same line.  "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their right hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.  THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION.  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Revelations 20:4-6)

Notice the connection of verses 12 and 15 with verse 5, "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished; this is the first resurrection"(v. 5).  "And I saw the dead small and great stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened which is the book of life.  And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works" (v. 12).

If all the righteous dead have been taken care of prior to this scene, what is the use and meaning of these two verses?  Why the presence "book of life" if only the wicked dead are in question?  Furthermore, verses fifteen is conclusive proof that some were there whose names were written in the book of life.  Consider further 1 Corinthians 3:13, 15.  "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work of what bond it is (v.14.)  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward (v.15).  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved; yet  so as by fire."

Justification by itself does not guarantee us all equal rewards in glory as we see by examining Romans 8:17, seldom quoted in full.  About all that is ever quoted of this verse is: "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."  The last part of the verse is the qualifying part.  "IF so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together with Him."  It seems that the first part of the verse is the only part that "soaks in."  We are appointed unto this heirship, even as Joshua in Zechariah 3 was appointed in the position of priest.  Just as he must maintain that appointed position by walking in the Lord's ways and keeping His charge so must we achieve unto that appointment of heirship by walking in His ways and keeping His charge.  NO SUFFERING, NO GLORIFICATION TOGETHER WITH HIM!

This  same truth is in 2 timothy 2 - "It is a faithful saying, IF we be dead with Him we shall also live with Him, if we suffer we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us" (v. 11, 12).  The emphases of these verses are: “IF NO DEATH, THEN NO LIVING: NO SUFFERING, THEN NO REIGNING: DENY AND BE DENIED.  These experiences do not bring justification, therefore are on this side of justification.  To "deny" does not always mean to disown in the sense of reprobation, it means to deprive one of an expectation. Many have false expectations for rewards which are founded upon false premises.  Consider the words of our Lord in these passages (THEY DO NOT APPLY TO THE UNREGENERATE:   MATTHEW 10:32-43, 16:24-27: Luke 9:23-27, 57-62; 14:25-34,    BUT TO THE SAVED). What is done down here is what will determine what is done in heaven.  What we lose here on earth that is of temporal and material worth for His glory will be compensated for by that which is eternal.  What we lose on earth that is of eternal worth cannot be regained in eternity, it is gone forever.

How (not if) we are to be presented before the Father is determined by our steadfastness: "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable, and unreproveable in His sight: IF ye continue in faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister" (Colossians 1:21-23).

Our next verses show very definitely that one can lose something, and also be ashamed at his coming.  "Look to yourselves that ye lose not the things which ye have wrought, but that ye receive a FULL REWARD" (2 John 8).  "Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown" (Revelations 3:11).

All of the parables of our Lord that deal with stewardship, faithfulness, responsibility, rewards, and losses have been misapplied because most do not know how to differentiate between what constitutes salvation and rewards.  They equate what is done to the unfaithful as that which is done to the sinner outside of Christ.  In doing this they unconsciously teach justification by works. To the contrary of most thinking, not everyone will be happy to see our Lord when He returns.  "And now my little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed at His coming" (1 John 2:28).

Our initial experience of justification qualifies us for the race.  "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).  Being on the race track does not win the race.  It must be run, and that according to the rules of the game.  Even running does not guarantee the crown.  "And if a man contend in the games, he is not crowned except he have contended lawfully" (2 Timothy 2:5 ASV)

God has not only established the rules for the race, but He has appointed the place where the race is to be run.  It is in a true Scriptural Baptist Church.  To choose to run outside a New Testament church is to run Off the race-course.  Such a runner is merely running and may be in a sense even detached from Christ.

God has ever associated Himself with his people.  In the Old Testament it was with Israel, for He said, "He that toucheth the apple of mine eye" (Zechariah 2:8).  In the New Testament when our Lord built His church,  He inseparably united Himself to it.  So close is this tie, that when Saul was persecuting the church our Lord asked why he was persecuting Him.  While Christ and His church (wherever it is) are not one and the same, they are one.  See Ephesians 5:25-32 - "For we are members of His body, of His flesh and bones" (v. 30).  To abide in Christ is tantamount to abiding in His Church, to be loyal to Him is to be loyal to His church.  It is possible thus for one to cease to abide in Christ and thereby forfeit one's position.  Remember our Lord's words to Simon Peter - "IF I wash thee not thou has no part with me," not, "in me."

The following passages continue to reveal that our inheritance is only by being faithful until the end: "But Christ as a Son over HIS OWN HOUSE, whose house are we, IF WE HOLD FAST THE CONFIDENCE AND THE REJOICING OF THE HOPE FIRM UNTO THE END" (Hebrews 3:6).  Note again the conditional "IF."  "For we are made partakers of Christ, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" (33:14).  "And we desire that everyone of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope UNTO THE END.  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises"(Hebrews 6:11, 12).  "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.  For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promises" (Hebrews 10:35, 36).  Thus we can see from these passages that the promises are received at the end of a life of faithfulness.  Spasmodic faithfulness will not suffice.

One of the rules of running the race in the Lord's church is a life of self-control.  That liberty does not mean license is the theme of 1 Corinthians Chapter 9.  Observe the apostle's own testimony  ”Know ye not that they which run in a race-course run all, but one receiveth the prize.  So run that ye may obtain.  And everyone that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway 1 Corinthians 9:24-27).  The word "castaway" is a most regrettable translation of the Greek word "dokimos," which without its prefix "a" means approved (see 1 Corinthians 11:19 for this use).  When the prefix "a" is used it simply means not approved, or disapproved, not “castaway.”  When we do the above things we are approved of both God and man.  When we do them not we will meet and are meeting God's disapproval.

Let us consider two more of many passages.  "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine lined, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousenss (righteous acts) of the saints. And he said unto me, Write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.  And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God (Revelation 19:7-).

In this passage there are two groups, those who form the bride, and the guests who are called unto the marriage supper.  The bride are those who attain unto the out-resurrection, being the man-child of Revelations 12" (See my pamphlet on "THE MANCHILD.") They are the faithful of all His true churches, as seen in Revelation 14:1-5.  Her garments are her own personal righteousness that began their preparation in Scriptural baptism, and fellowship with His church.  This is something beyond the free gift of justification.  It is the result of a  God-enabled self-achievement.  No girl when she is born, is born a bride.  This is a privilege bestowed upon the woman whom the groom chooses to be his bride.  Marriage to more than one woman is polygamy.  Our Lord has not many brides, that is, many different kinds of churches forming His bride, but scriptural Baptists only.

Our final passage is also a serious warning.  "He that despised Moses" law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how more sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace: For we know him that hath said, vengeance  belongeth unto me, saith the Lord.  And again, the Lord shall judge His people.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:28-31).

These in view are not lost people:

1) Those referred to as despising the law of Moses were of the house of Israel.  Outside Egypt they are never a picture of a lost sinner.

2) In verse 30, the last part, those who fall under such sore indictment are called "His People."

3) Those things done in verse 29, as incredible as they may seem, can be done only by saved people.

4) King David knew something of the terror of falling into the hands of the living God.  See 1 Samuel 24:10-14, noting especially verse 14.

The three things that such wretched believers could do are:

1) Trod underfoot the Son of God.

2) Count the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing,

3) Do despite to the spirit of Grace.

1) Since Christ is beyond the physical reach of man so that His glorified body can never be marred by anyone, how is the above to be done? To trample in the dust under one's feet the flag of the United States is tantamount to trampling under foot our nation. To insult one’s wife is to insult the wife's husband.  Christ so identified Himself with the church that He built that He said to Saul of Tarsus "You are persecuting Me." Therefore, if members treat the Lord's church as if it were a common, non-essential thing and put everything and anything before it this is tantamount to trampling under foot the Son of God, for the church is His bride.

2) How does one count the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing?  First, what does it mean to count anything holy?  It means to view as holy as best we can what God views as holy. It means to elevate and lift it to its rightfully appointed place, to set it apart forever from that which is common or profane.  Christ, that He might sanctify His church, shed His blood unto this end (Acts 20:38).  When one treats the designated assemblings of the church, the observance of its ordinances, its fellowship and worship as Esau treated his birthright, as a thing of no real value, this is a devaluation of the Blood of the covenant and reducing it to the level of the ordinary.

3) Despite unto the Spirit of grace: The Holy Spirit has made every church of the Lord Jesus Christ His dwelling place here on earth.  His indwelling presence means many things to those who constitute each body.  He is the Dispenser of grace.  He does this through His leadership in dispensing the word and the proper handling of the keys of the kingdom of the heavens.  To ignore the admonition of Hebrews 10:25 seems to be vitally connected with verse 26; that is sinning wilfully or willingly.  Such absenteeism is an admission that one does not need nor want the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the appointed way and manner.  Thus despite is done to the Spirit of grace.

Countless thousands who are members of Baptist churches are doing the three above things.  They do this in several ways.  Among these are:

1) adhering to and remaining in assemblies that have most definitely shifted their allegiance from Heaven's authority to man-organized, earth-located headquarters and human-directed service.

2) Another way is to be unfaithful to those vows taken in presenting oneself for admission to the body and to the truth they declared in their baptism

3) One who takes a destructively critical attitude toward one's church and speaks derogatorily of her; him or her shall God destroy.

Let us not delude ourselves that justification exempts one from a just scourging for those who commit such acts.  Justification does no more to save one from the immediate, temporal, and eternal dealings of God with His rebellious children than did the blood of the passover lamb to save Israel from strewing the desert with the bodies of its rebellious.

May our God be pleased to give us repentance from this great delusive error so as to enable us to see the truth, acknowledge our sins, flee to Him for victory and thereby possess our portion of "Canaan."  In doing this we shall maintain our place in His priesthood and His bride unto His glory and our eternal blessings.

AMEN!

THE END

The Christian Counter