reminder of your priesthood
Category: Church, Ministry & Spiritual Gifts
Key Passage: Revelation 1
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: April 7, 2024
Revelation chapter number one, if you would please, Revelation chapter number one. And just a thought tonight, I want to remind you that if you are a born-again Christian, you are a priest. And we will just try to get a couple thoughts out of that real quickly before the ordination.
Revelation chapter number one, and we will read just two verses there. Turn to another passage in Revelation and look at it very briefly tonight. Praise the Lord for it. Would you please stand if you are able to, Revelation 1 and verse number 5 of God’s Word.
And the Bible says, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth.” He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And hath made us kings. You are born in the family of God; you are His son, your daughter, your royalty. Made us kings. We are going to rule and reign with Him one day, here on earth, a millennium reign.
He has made us kings and, what is the next word? Priest. You are born in the family of God; you are a child of God; you are a priest. We call it the individual priesthood of the believer. You are a priest through Jesus Christ, priest under God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Look in chapter number five of Revelation, chapter number five. And we will look at verse number 10, five and verse number 10. “And has made us unto our God kings and,” what is the next word? “Priest. And we shall reign on the earth.” For just a bit tonight, can I remind you that if you are a born-again Christian, you are a priest.
First Peter chapter number two. We are just going to look at three quick things about you being a priest. You have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Would you say, amen, if you have done that? Amen. You are born again. Good, good. I think that is the majority of us here. You are a born-again Christian. I want you to see what He says over here in 1 Peter 2. You are saved. You are a priest through Christ. Look what He says here, 1st Peter 2. Look at verse number 9. He says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal”—that is interesting—“kings.” He made you kings and priests. A royal priesthood. Wow. A holy nation. Holy is set apart from the world unto God. A holy nation. A peculiar people. You are His precious treasure. You are to be peculiar. You do not mean you are the odd, weird-looking person in the world, but you all look a little different. He is prized possession, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
And a priest in the Bible, you know, they were set apart. They had priestly garments they would wear. In fact, when the children of Israel came into the Promised Land and they settled, they gave the inheritance, the land, different tribes. But Levi’s was different. They did not get a whole section that was theirs. Theirs was scattered out throughout the camp of Israel all over. They were different. Now, to say that, can I remind you, as a priest of God, in our present day and time, with things just declining, in America going immoral and sinful, we are to be set apart. We are to look different. We are to act different. Our language is to be different. We are to be a peculiar people.
I heard on Super Bowl Sunday that there were some churches that took the Bible and kicked it, like a football, they kicked the Bible in the pulpit. Wow. I mean, they are just saying that is what we are at in our—some church. I heard about a church. They said, “Now, we want you to invite people to church on Easter Sunday, but don’t mention, don’t mention the blood. And don’t mention Calvary, the cross. Don’t mention all that stuff.” They said the most important thing about Easter is you inviting people to church. Friend, I do not care what they think or say, but the most important thing about Resurrection Sunday is the fact that our Savior rose again. Now, I am just saying, and I did not time with things going like that, just a quick reminder: You are a royal priesthood. We are to look and act and talk a notch above like kings would be. Royal priests. Not that we are better than anybody. Oh, no, oh no. I mean, we are still sinners. We are just forgiven sinners. But we do not march to the drumbeat of the world. We are to be set apart. We are to march to a higher drumbeat.
1 John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father’s not in him.” Be so careful about getting too much in love with the world. It bothers me. I do not understand sometimes why God’s people want to follow the world. Just everything the world does, they want to do it. I remember you telling my dad, “Well, Dad, everybody else is doing it.” And Dad said, “Everybody else ain’t doing it because you ain’t doing it, boy.” And they are saying, if they are jumping off a cliff, you want to jump off a cliff with them, you know? No, sir. I understand Christians that want to jump off the cliff of the world. Hey, praise your Lord, we are going to have it, man. We are not to love the world. We are to be in love with our Savior. And we want to be like Jesus Christ. What we ought to say, you know, everyone is not going to be a little bit crazy. And I will just say, “Hey, Lord, if I knew you were green all the time, I would wear green all the time. I just want to be like Jesus.” I am a far cry from it, but that ought to be a desire. I am not saying, you know, everything the world does, want to do that. No, no, no. What I do, I want to make sure it is marked and measured by the Word of God and by the Savior of my heart and my soul. We are peculiar people. We ought to be set apart a little bit. We ought to have different music.
Praise the Lord for the radio station. I am excited about that. I want the music on there to be distinctively different. We want them to turn in and say, “Well, is that Christian or rock or country? What is that?” We want them to know, “Hey, that is just distinctively—that is a different sound right there. That is distinctively Christian music.” And one time someone came along and they said, “Why don’t you use the term?” I do not even say the term. “Why don’t you use this term?” It is not a cuss word. No, it is not a cuss word, but I just do not want anyone to kind of associate me with that. I do not want to be affiliated with that. I want to be distinctively—I want to set apart. And that is what the Bible tells: a priest of God ought to be a little different than the world, a royal priesthood.
My wife, when she was in nursing school, she was going through clinicals, I do not know, a couple years ago. And clinicals, they go to different doctor’s offices for a week and then to a nursing home for a week and then to, you know, this blood bank for a week, whatever, all these different places. And there was one place and they kind of rotate with students. And everybody said, “Now, now this next with Ms. Tam, you are about to go to—the language—everybody kind of knows the language there is horrible.” You know? “Well, pastor’s wife. I mean, goodness Christ, what are we going to do?” And, you know, Monday, you go to the new place, she walked in Monday, had not even said a word. She had not even cussed yet, folks. But she was dressed. And that was becoming godliness, as it talks about over there. And we are in just a modest length skirt, walked in there, had not said a word. And they said, “Oh, my goodness, we are going to have to watch our mouth this week because of what she is wearing.” I am just saying, folks, we are to be different. Our language, our attitude. Boy, you know, it is a shame when a Christian goes to work and they are complaining and griping about everybody all the time. Boy, and a poor testimony. Anyone ought to be on top side and thankful and praising the Lord. It ought to be God’s people.
Years ago, our young people, our teenagers, went to a local restaurant, and some people commented, “Boy, those are good young people.” It is a blessing to see good young people in our day and time. Amen. Your young people—they are not mine, they are the Lord’s—but they stick out. Those are good young people. I love that. Years ago, one of our bankers said, “I know the people from the church. I know them that come in here. They are always friendly people.” I like that. Just set apart, and a royal priesthood. You know, in the end times, with everything going down here, we ought to stand out. Amen. It is interesting. Proverbs 4:18 says this: “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto that perfect day.”
I thought about Daniel and those three boys. Remember the three boys? And when you hear the music—when you hear the music, I do not think it was music like that. I think it was a rock and roll type of concert. You know, when you hear the concert and the music playing, everybody bowed down to that image. Those three Hebrew boys at first, no problem for them to stand. Boy, the more people bowed down, the more they stood out. And the more everybody bowed down, the harder it was to stand. And, friend, as it gets closer to Jesus coming back, we have just got to stand out a little bit. I am so thankful for this, and I have got to move on to the second point. But I remember I worked at Union Tank Car Company. It was a big old factory that made railroad tank cars. A lot of dirt and filth there. And that company there was in East Chicago. And they were going to send me back to the jacket shop. Some of those railroad tank cars you see going down the tracks—there is the tank, and then they have insulation. Then the jacket, they will call it over the side, just thin metal over the top of it. And that is the jacket shop. They put the metal over the top of the insulation and whatnot. And that was known as being the most—you know, drugs back there and gang-related, all those things. I thought, okay, it is going to be interesting to go back to the jacket shop back there, you know. And my first day back there, the jacket shop—you know, everybody gathers around the foreman at first, and he gives assignments and whatnot. And we gathered around the foreman, a big old fella, big old weightlifter guy, worked out all the time, big old fellow. And everybody gathers around him, and he gives out the assignments, but he had some dirty jokes to tell first. And by the way, I did not have a suit and tie on. Old work clothes, dirty, greasy, grimy, all that welder. And he started telling my joke, and I just backed out of the circle, let them have their time, and figured they would be done pretty soon with their jokes. And when he starts giving out an assignment, I would step in there, and he would give them an assignment, you know. And I thank the Lord for this. I do not understand it all, but he looked at me when I stepped out of the circle and stepped back. He said, “You are a preacher, aren’t you?” Never met him before in my life. Did not have a tie on, did not have my Bible, and had dirty old clothes on. I thought, praise the Lord. I am not an example always. I am a poor example many times, but that is what ought to be. The world ought to say, “Hey, there is something different about you.” We are a royal priesthood. Peculiar people, He says. Oh, America’s Christianity needs to be reminded, “Hey, you are a priest of God.”
Let us get another thought about this thing. Just three quick thoughts about it. Look over, if you would please, in 1 Peter chapter number three. First Peter chapter number three, as priests, just a couple reminders. 1 Peter chapter 3, look in verse number 8. 1 Peter 3:8. He says, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” Look over at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3, back part of the Bible, 1 2 2 2 2nd 3 3. 1 John chapter 3. And look at verse number 14. First John 3:14. The Bible says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life,” born again, become a priest to God, “because we love the brethren.” He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Just a quick reminder, as priests, we ought to have a special love for the family of God. Love for one another. We ought to just—you know, there is something about brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters can fight with one another like catching dogs. You know how it is. But let somebody else go at your brother or your sister—hey, it is on, you know. Now, I am not saying it is all right for us to fight like catching dogs amongst ourselves, but there ought to be a special bond in the family of God. Just a special love for one another, a care for one another, a holy love.
I thought about this years ago when we were coming over here, and by the way, Baptist Church was here, and we came over as visitors to the Gateses. We are part of Bible Way. And Brother Raymond Gates, he is in his 90s now. He is not able to come very often at all. Miss Gates was here this morning. But Brother Raymond Gates, he was very involved, one of the leaders in the church at that time. And I went to shake his hand. Well, let us see how this goes. You know, Brother Gates had been a pastor before at another church and a very knowledgeable man and whatnot. I thought, well, we will see. And… And Brother Gates did this. He said, “Well, let me—I am going to let you know what I think about this thing.” And I put my hand down, and all of a sudden he gave me a big hug. He said, “This is what I think about it.” And he said, “I love you, brother.” And I thought, praise the Lord, in the right place. That is what God’s people ought to be. Just loving, loving. You know, how does the world know that we are His disciples? What does the Bible tell us? You know the verse, John 13:35: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.”
You know, it is a shame. And our church is good at these things. I am not down on you because of these problems. Sometimes we need to be reminded of it. But you know, it is a shame sometimes when I find maybe someone having fun at the expense of another Christian. Nothing wrong with joking, but if it is hurting somebody, that is wrong. “Well, I am just joking with you.” Well, it does not matter if you are hurting them; you are hurting them. It never ought to be, you know, some one Christian trying to gather everybody on their side while they are picking on one person. No, no, no. We are Christians. We want to love people. We do not want to push them down. We want to build them up. We are not here to belittle people. We are here to encourage them in the Lord. I like it sometimes when the most unpopular or maybe the one that really does not have the outgoing personality and all that, and people befriend them. I like that. A godly lady said, “I try to make this my practice: If I go in a room where something is going on, I try to find the one person that really is over by themselves and does not have a friend, and I go try to befriend them.” That is a Christian-like thing. Christians, you are just known for your love for one another. I mean, they just care about each other. You know, there is no room for small talk in the kingdom of God. Now, I am not against having fun, but I am against hurting people, belittling people. Just love on people.
Oh, it is such a wonderful thing when we just—man, I know they are a Christian because they have love one for another. You know, they say when people are in battles, and they have been in the battle for a while, and it is a life-threatening situation, and maybe they are outnumbered, and it is just old, you know, and it is to the point that I am probably not going to get out of this battle, you know. Battle fatigue sets in, and they are just battle weary. I am talking about their every second for days and days. There is a good chance you are going to lose your life. They say after a while, often this will kick in the best of soldiers. They begin to fight, not necessarily even for their own life. They fight because they want to save their brother. And it kind of just clicks at one point where it is just all about saving their brother’s life. Boy, the wonderful thing about God’s people saying, “We are a little outnumbered in our day and time. And it is getting worse as it gets closer to Jesus coming back.” But you know what? I want to stay in there because I love my brother. It just becomes a loving brotherhood, caring about each other. And as a modern Christian and a priest, it is a very loving—it is a very loving society. It ought to be the family of God.
Number one, we just talked about we are a peculiar people. Number two, we ought to have a special love for each other in the brotherhood. Then let me look at this real, real quick thing. One of the jobs of a priest—we started off talking about the priesthood—one of the jobs of the priest. Well, a prophet goes to the people for God, right? God gives them orders, and they go tell them the truth. But a priest will often go to God for the people. One of my priestly jobs as a priest through Christ is to pray for one another. We are focusing on this in the month of April on this thing of prayer. Maybe the greatest thing that I can do for Brother Robert is pray for him. Maybe the greatest thing Brother Robert can do for me is pray for me. I am a priest, and one of the jobs of a priest is to go to God for the people. And as a priest in the family of God, we are continually going to God for people. Boy, just praying for—the older I get, the more I value prayer; it is so vital.
My old preacher—I mentioned this before—but there was a lady, a widow, and she was a preacher’s wife for years and years. Her husband had passed; all her children had passed. She is kind of left alone. And so she called the preacher, Brother Howes, and said, “Hey, if you would give me a place to live there at the church campus or somewhere—there is a big church and college and all that—give me a place to live somewhere and all that.” Anytime you are preaching anywhere, he preached out often. She said, “I promise you, I will be praying.” And she was just known as a lady of prayer. And so the preacher was wise enough, saying, “I will take you up on that.” Well, fine, they found a little apartment there on the church campus, a large church campus. And that is where she lived. And, boy, she had his schedule. And she just—by the way, can I say that was money well spent, wisely spent. Just pray. I mentioned it the other night in Deacon orientation. What is a good thing? You see someone missing; just start praying for them. Pray for people. All the value of God’s people praying for one another. You know, I think when we get to heaven, we are going to realize victories were won because so and so is praying. It may be someone that cannot even come to church. Brother Tim has been in the nursing home today, I believe he has been, and it may be some of the nursing home does not even know us, but they know about the church that Brother Tim is from, and they pray for the church. But victories happen because someone is praying somewhere. Parents, you know this, but the value of a praying parent is just priceless. Bill and Sunday used to say, “Hell cannot tear a child away from a praying mother.” Spiritual victories do not happen because of all that. Spiritual victories happen because someone is praying somewhere. It is prayer.
I am going to close it out with this story, but there was a church. It was a little bit dead. And the preacher tried this out. I could not get anything going. And just seemed like all of a sudden, boom, things started happening. People started getting saved. Life began to get changed. Life was entering into that church. And he said, “I just cannot figure it out. People getting baptized. People getting saved. Things are happening—what? What is going on in this church? It is just—I have been struggling and trying to bring life, and just all of a sudden, life has come to this church.” And the janitor heard him say that. And he said, “Well, I tell you what, preacher, if you meet me here tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., I will tell you—I think I know when things changed.” The preacher said, “All right, all right, 6 a.m. I will be here,” you know. So the preacher showed up at the janitor at 6 a.m. He noticed some cars on campus. He said, “Well, what are they doing here?” And the janitor said, “Come on over here. Let us go quietly.” And they walked down the hallway. And they looked in a room, and some deacons of the church were praying. He said, “Preacher, I know nobody really organized it, but about the same time these deacons started meeting every weekday at 6 a.m. praying, things started changing in our church.” Friend, victories come because someone is praying. That is our right as priests. We have the right and the privilege to go to God for people in prayer.
Maybe you are there tonight and you say, “You know, God spoke to my heart somewhere along the line, maybe being different—I want to be a royal, a holy nation, royal priesthood, peculiar people.” God spoke to my heart about that. Maybe it is about love. I want to have love for the brother. I am going to just love them. Maybe God spoke to your heart and said, “You know, I need to be a man or a lady of prayer, praying for one another.” I want to exercise my priestly right. But you said, preacher, somewhere along the line, God spoke to my heart. God spoke to my heart. God bless you. God bless you. Oh, me too. I can work on these things for sure, for sure. God bless you.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar- - Let Me Remind You Christian Of Your Priesthood - Sunday PM 04072024