morning to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter 2. Let's begin reading there at
the first verse, wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, hypocrisy,
envies, and all evil speakings. That about takes in everything
right there, that first verse. instructions to those that have become the Lord's choice,
treasures, future people, in light of the fact that all flesh
is grass. He's made us to live by and through
the gospel, regenerated us, given us life and all. laying aside. That which will come unnaturally lays aside all malice. They didn't
say it's going to be perfect, but it's going to go in that
direction. All malice, guile, deceit, Be
genuine, be what he is, all hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. As newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. That which
God uses to bring about maturity is the spiritual food that he
uses is the Man doesn't grow apart from the Word as he avails himself to it. If
so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Every man that
has drank at the fountain has found that the Lord is gracious.
He's tasted. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed or rejected, indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious." That's the Lord Jesus. Ye also, as lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in Zion, the chief cornerstone
elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded."
That's the Lord Jesus. "...unto you therefore which
believe he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, rejected, the same
is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people, and that's That's the text that I want to
use, those three words there. A peculiar people that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in times past were not a people,
but are now the people of God. which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain. That again is the last sign. Abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul. having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify
God in the day of visitation. I want to talk to you about that
expression there in the ninth verse, a peculiar people This
is the last clause of the description given us concerning his people. It says there in verse number
10 that these people that he is describing here once were
not a people. Look at that verse number 10.
Which in times past were not a people. So this peculiar people is one
of the descriptions of a people who in times past were not a
people. He says here about these people
that they were a chosen generation. That is, that they trace up all
the streams of God's love in time to God's purpose in eternity. And then they're described as
a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests, anointed and consecrated
by the sacrifice, washed and set apart by God Himself to live
upon the sacrifice and to offer up to Him in Christ sacrifices
of praise unto His name for His glory. And then it says, fourthly,
they're a holy nation. made up of men and women that
have been washed by the blood of the Lord Jesus and reconciled
and redeemed and called and chosen and brought into fellowship with
God in Christ. They're a holy nation. And the
fourth thing is a peculiar people. They're peculiar people. They're peculiar in that they
are his property. They belong to him. They're his
property. Well, I know the objection here
is this, that everybody belongs to God. Well, that's true. Every
single solitary creature that moves and wiggles belongs to
God. All of God's creatures are his
property, and this is what God claims. God claims every creature,
and all that that creature has, God claims for Himself. That's
the claims of God upon every creature, every worm, every butterfly,
every horse and cow, and every human. God claims for Himself
everything about that individual, all that he has. and all that he hopes to have.
God claims that for himself. He says in the Bible here, that
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all
your mind and all your strength and all your soul. And that command
has not been lowered or altered. It's still the same now as it
was then. That sets forth the claims of
God upon all flesh. God claims every creature, and all that
creature has, God claims for itself. Now, which just kind
of sets forth the truth of that particular portion of scripture
that says all things are God's. for all things are of God, everything. Now this is a right that nothing
or nobody can deprive God of. They're His, everything. Men may refuse it, may reject
this claim, but that doesn't change it. God still claims it,
and God will have His way. God claims time, and He claims
eternity. He claims angels, He claims men,
he claims devils, he claims the past, the present, and the future,
and body, and soul, and spirit, and all that a man is, and all
that he has, and all that he expects to have, God claims for
himself. In other words, every single
solitary human that's born into the human family of God. God claims everything that He
is and everything that He has for Himself. God claims that. That's mine. You're mine. Everything about you is mine.
Your money, your time, your fame, your talent, your influence,
whatever you've got, it's mine. It's mine. I want it. And I'll
have it. See, in all truth, there is but
one property that a man really has of his own, and that's his
sin. That's all we have of our own.
Everything else we have belongs to God. Just our rebellion and
our sin, our black, terrible, terrible, terrible sin, so obnoxious
that God hates us. God who is a God of love hates
sin. And that's what belongs to us.
That's what we lay claim to. That's our only means of fame
and recognition is our sin. And that comes from a man's heart. And a man's an author of it.
but with regard to everything else apart from sin. And this takes us all in, every
one of us. Our time and our talent and our
money and our position and our influence and whatever we are
or whatever we have or shall have, God claims for His own. It is His own. Now, this is the
truth that the natural heart rebels against. The natural heart
fights against this truth. And that's the reason that you
can charge men, every one of us to a degree, some more than
others, as being robbers of God. We rob God of that which is legally
His. When we read a verse of Scripture
there about offering ourselves up, offering ourselves up, sacrifice
unto God. When we fail to give ourselves
over unto God totally, unreservedly, and in submission to Him, when
we fail to do that, we are in a sense robbing God of that which
is His due. You see, everything that we have
we owe to God. He claims what we have as His
own. Now, I'm not saying that God
wants all of my time, and if I have any talent, He wants all
of my talent. If I have any money, He wants
all of my money. I'm not saying that He that he's
claiming all that and demanding all that, and I must give it
to him, but he does want to know whether it's his or not. It's
his, but he wants us to know that it's his. And when we don't
know that it's his, and not willing to give it to him, then we become
a robber of God. We rob God of that which is... Well, you see, this is demonstrated
and evidenced in the lives of the people of this world, in
that they say, What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine,
if somehow I can get a hold of it. And I'm building this little
place in this little world for myself. I'm concerned about myself. I'm not concerned about anybody
else. I'm not concerned about God.
I'm concerned about me, the big I. But they're robbers of God. Everybody that's never surrendered
to the claims of God in Christ and cast himself at the court
of God's mercy, he's a rebel and a robber of God. And whether
he recognizes God's claims or not, God will have His way. God
will have His way sooner or later. Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess and give glory to God and acknowledge
that all that God has said about me and about Himself and about
the Word and about the world and everything in the Bible that
God has said is yea and amen and let every man be a liar.
God will have his way. That's what I'm saying. God will
have his way. All that you have, all that you
have belongs to God. All that you have come from God,
apart from your rebellion. That comes from your own heart.
You manufactured that. You made that. Well, he demands
all for himself. That's all they are to him. Let's talk about his people now,
our peculiar people. What makes them peculiar? I said
at the outset here that they're peculiar because they're God's
peculiar property. I said, all men are God's property. That's right, all men are God's
property. And God will have all men sooner
or later. He'll have all men. He'll receive
honor and glory in the receiving of the redeemed into His presence,
and He'll receive honor and glory when His justice is satisfied
in people when He casts them into hell. God will be glorified. God's never going to be disappointed.
God has designed a program before time ever was, and this thing
is just going along just as exactly as God determined it would, and
God's not frustrated, He's not thwarted, He's not defeated,
He's not wringing His hands saying, I can't have them away. Everything
is going exactly as God planned it. Everything. And God will
have His way. He'll have his way with men. All men, and whatever they have,
belong to God, and He lays claim to it, and He said, I want it,
and He'll get it, sooner or later. Now, I say that His people, though,
His people, He's talking about a peculiar people. He says they're
described this way, they're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a peculiar people, a peculiar people. How are they peculiar?
That's what I want to talk about. They're peculiar because they're
God's peculiar property. All men are his property, but
the people of God are his peculiar property, in that he hath chosen
them. He hath chosen them before time
ever was. In Ephesians, the first chapter,
something that we just read to you here recently, but we'll
read it again. We'll read it again, and again,
and again, and again, and again, for this reason, that the more
we know of our Heavenly Father. As I told you the other night,
the more we know of Him, the more we learn of Him, the easier
it is for us to trust Him. If we know not that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose, it's difficult for us to trust
Him. And that's the reason why we
don't trust God, we don't know Him well enough. If we could
ever know God well enough, we could trust Him. We could cast
our cares upon Him if we really knew and believed down deep in
our hearts that God cared for us. if God inclined His ear to
hear us when we cried and when we prayed. Never a move that
we make, God is concerned. But if we understood that and
believed that and believed God's testimony concerning His regard
to us, if we really believed it and got a hold of it, we could
trust Him. But the reason why we can't trust
Him is we don't know Him well enough. If we could read in the
Bible where God said that He had chosen us, in Christ before
time ever was, well, I believe that that ought to generate in
our hearts a confidence whereby we might be able to trust Him
with all things. Well, I read it here in the Bible.
It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath already happened. blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, not apart from Christ, but in
Christ, according as He, God, hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world." Oh, if we could believe that!
If we could believe that, I believe then we could somehow manifest
the truth of the latter part of this verse, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. What did He do? Why, He chose us. We are peculiar
people because God chose us. God chose us before we chose
Him. He is our portion and we are
His portion. But first, we are His portion. First, God chose us before we
chose Him. He even predestinated us. Look
at the 5th verse. Having predetermined or predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. He predestinated us. My soul,
can you see what I'm talking about when I'm saying that the
people of God are a peculiar people? They are a peculiar property
of God in that He chose them. Just visualize, if you will,
the multitude of individuals in the great, great army of the
human race that stood before the very eyes of God Himself
before time ever was. Every soul that would ever be
born from Adam until the last one stood before God, and there
was not one redeeming quality in all of them as God viewed
them. And God chose from that innumerable
multitude, He chose unto Himself individuals that comprised His
people. They are God's peculiar property
because He chose them. before time ever was. He not
only chose them, but He redeemed them! He redeemed them! He chose them before time was,
and in time He redeemed them! He redeemed them, that is, he
brought them back into his favor. God and man once were good friends,
but they parted company because of man's rebellion, because man
flew into the face of God and tried to tell God how to run
things. And God, because of man's rebellion,
God kicked him out of his fellowship, kicked him out of the garden.
Now, here in time, these that God chose, God brings back. He redeems. He reconciles unto
himself. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. by dying in their stead, paying
what was their due, what they owed to God. He paid it. And
when He paid it, He gave them His righteousness. And now they
stand in Him before the throne of God. He redeemed them. They're
peculiar because they're chosen, they're redeemed, and they're
called. He called them. And not only
did He call them, but He preserves them. They're adopted ones. I just read that to you. They're
regenerated ones. They're sanctified ones. And
soon they will be glorified. That makes a peculiar people,
doesn't it? A peculiar people. Listen to me again now. God's
peculiar property. Why? Because they're chosen,
they're redeemed, they're called, they're preserved, they're adopted,
and soon will be glorified when we see Him. We shall be like
Him for we shall see Him as He is. We're going to be just like
Him, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Peculiar, peculiar property. He even identifies. God identifies with His people. Let me read something to you
here in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2. If you care to turn
over there, I prefer that you would. Turn over there and see
this verse. You've read it lots of times,
but maybe I can read you here and say something that will make
it mean a little more to us than what maybe it used to mean. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
number 11, listen to this, by way of identification,
you see, He chose us and redeemed us and called us and preserves
us and sanctifies us and adopts us Soon he is going to glorify
us. Now he says here that he identifies
with his people. Notice what he says, "...for
both he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctified are
all of one." They are the same. Alright, listen to this, "...for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." God is
so identified with His people, this peculiar property of His,
that He is not ashamed. God Himself, who is all life,
all life, with the pure eyes that He cannot behold iniquity
or look upon sin, God has said about these peculiar properties
of His. He said that He is not ashamed.
God's not ashamed to call them His brothers, His brethren. We're His brethren, bone of His
bone, blood of His blood, flesh of His flesh. We're adopted into
the family of God, and God's not ashamed. He's not ashamed,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed. Say, them's my brethren
down there. Them's my brethren. We may be ashamed of one another,
and we ought to be ashamed if we're ashamed of one another.
We ought to be. And we ought to be ashamed if
we do anything that causes others to be ashamed. Did you know that? We ought to be ashamed if we
do something that causes our own brethren to be ashamed of
us. But bless God, apart from that,
our God, and our Savior, and our Priest, and our King, and
our Lord, He is not ashamed! He is not ashamed! What do you
think of that? God's not ashamed. I'm ashamed
sometimes to say that I'm a Christian. I'm ashamed. I'm looking the
wrong way. I look at my own heart. I look
at my own heart, my own life, and I'm kind of ashamed. Well, Lord, I blush. I blush
when I come before your throne! I'm ashamed! But brethren, In
the name of our God, he not ashamed. He not ashamed to call his brethren.
Well, as a matter of fact, he says, he that touches them touches
me. That's the way he identifies
with us. He says, the fellow that touches
one of mine, he touches me. If he sticks a finger in the
eye of one of mine, he sticks his finger in my eye. He says, touch, touch not my
anointed. That's what he said. He said,
don't you harm one of my anointed. Who are his anointed people?
Those that God chose in Christ before time ever was. They're
God's chosen peculiar property, and He said they're my anointed
and sanctified, and I've set them apart, and I've called them,
I've chosen them, and I've redeemed them, and I've preserved them,
and if you harm them, you harm me. If you touch one of them,
you touch me. Don't you harm one of my anointed,
and don't you do my prophets any harm. Don't you do that,
because you do that, you do it to me. That's what the Lord said
to the Apostle Paul there when he converted Paul on the road
to Damascus, wasn't it? He said the same thing. He said, What you do to them,
you do to me! Why, if you kill my people, you
kill me! You wound them, you wound me! Well, you see what I'm talking
about. And secondly, Not only are they his peculiar property,
but they're his peculiar treasure. Now, a man may have property,
but it may be valueless. It may not amount to anything.
I know some folks that, well, I've got some myself that don't
amount to much. It's mine, my wife and I. It belongs to us,
lock, stock, and barrel. And it's paid for. It didn't
pay very much for it, but it's paid for. And it's ours. It's
long stuff. It don't amount to anything.
Doesn't amount to anything. Maybe couldn't get a whole lot
more out of it if we tried to sell it than what we paid for
it. It's possible to have property, but the property that you have
is no value. Pat was telling me here yesterday
about some people that have some thousands of acres down on the
sinks of the Gandy here on top of the mountains in West Virginia.
Thousands of acres! There's a whole lot of that property,
Pat, that ain't worth a nickel. It ain't worth a nickel. It's
property that has no value. You may own a hillside here and
have 50 acres on the side of a hill, but it's of no value
to any of us. No, it won't grow any grass.
The timber's been taken. It's of no count. It's not even
worth the taxes that you pay for it. I want to tell you about the
peculiar treasure of our Lord Jesus Christ and the property
that He has. Man may have property and it
may be valueless, that is, it has no treasure in it. And it
may, instead of being a gain to him, it might be a loss. But
the Lord's property has a peculiar treasure in it. And I really
don't know what it is apart from this truth, from this truth. Of course, I understand that
when the Lord saves a man, He regenerates him. He gives him
a new nature. He gives him a God-like nature. And anything that he does from
then on that is honorable and brings glory to God, is not to
be attributed to himself because he'd have never done it if he
didn't have a regenerated nature. He wouldn't have done it if the
Spirit of God in the process of sanctifying him had not worked
in his heart. He got nothing to brag or to
glory in in anything that he does. But there's something in
this property of the Lord that is a peculiar treasure. a peculiar
treasure. Look with me, if you will, to
the last book of the Bible, and the book of Malachi, the last
book of the Old Testament, I mean. Third chapter. Sixteenth and seventeenth verse
of the third chapter. This is what it says. It says
in that third chapter, verses 16, Then they that feared the
Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up." When I make
up, not when you make up. When I make up. My jewels, and
I'll spare them. As a man spareth his own son
that serveth him. This is their character. These
people that are peculiar properties of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
are a peculiar treasure to Him, this is their character. This
marks them and we see who they are. Number one, they fear the
Lord. They fear the Lord, these people. A man that makes a profession
and pretends to be a Christian that doesn't fear God, Why? You can rule him out right now.
Because one thing that a man does who is a Christian, one
mark is he fears the Lord. And the mark of a man who is
not a Christian, not a child of God, he's not a redeemed one,
he's not a peculiar property, he's not a peculiar treasure,
is what? Is that he says, not audibly, but he says with his
life, there is no fear of God before the rise. He doesn't fear
God. He doesn't fear God at all. Why?
He'll curse God to his face. He robs God of all of God's claims
and God's honors. He doesn't care about God's people.
He doesn't care about God's church. He doesn't care about God's Bible. He doesn't care about the honor
of God. He goes his own way. There's no fear of God. Mark
it down this morning. Mark it down. If you don't fear
God this morning, you're none of His. Mark this down this morning. If you've got people in your
home, in your kinship, and they don't fear God, mark it down.
They're lost. Freedom has lost people. Treat
them as lost people and try to win them to the favor of the
Lord Jesus Christ, because they're lost. And if they die in the
state that they're in, no fear of God before their eyes, they're
going to hell when they die. Mark it down. Mark it down. You
better start praying for them. You better start praying unto
God that God will intervene. and bring about this fear in
their hearts before Him. This is the first mark of these
peculiar property and peculiar treasure of God is they fear
God. They fear God. Verse 16 says,
Then they that fear the Lord, they fear the Lord. Then it says
that they think upon His name. They that fear the Lord speak
often one to another. They speak often one to another
about the Lord and about the things of God. That's what they
talk about. They may talk about the weather,
and they may talk about one another's health, and they may talk about
one another's finances and things of that nature, but sooner or
later, they're going to get around to talking about the things of
God. That's the main subject. When you go to someone's house
and you're visiting with people, you can stay there for a matter
of hours, or maybe a weekend, or maybe a week, and the name
of God and the things of God can't be brought up? That is,
any time you want to talk about the things of God, they change
the subject? have that far away look in their
eyes when they look down the road. They don't talk about God
and they'd rather that you talk about another subject. Mark it
down. You're not with believers. Because
when you get with believers, they fear the Lord and they talk
often one to another about the things of God. That's what they're
concerned about. About God and eternity and everything
that comes in between. Well, he goes on here. They fear
the Lord. They think upon His name. They
love to talk about Him. Because the Bible says, Out of
the abundance of their heart their mouths speak. What fills
their heart will fill their lips. They are not only His property,
you see, but they are His Jews. They like to talk about Him.
They fear the Lord. They pray to Him. They cry to
Him. It says that they that feared
the Lord, often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it." The Lord hearkened to their prayers. He listens to them. Remember I told you the other
night here, it's just so good that it doesn't sound true. It's
hard to believe that God cares for me, or God cares for you,
or God would listen to my cries, my groans. You say, well, I don't
know how to pray. All I know how to do is groan.
God hears your groans. My prayers are just not in paragraphs. They're just not good English.
That doesn't make any difference. God hears your stuttering, stammering
words that comes out of this side of your mouth and rolls
over. As it comes out this side of
your mouth, God's Holy Spirit interprets the utterings and
groanings in your heart and God hears them. God hears them. God
leans down and inclines his ear to your cries unto God. You're God's peculiar people
and there is a peculiar treasure in you. There's Jews, that's
what he said. He said he heard in the Book
of Remembrance was written before him. Who for? For them that feared
the Lord. Who for? For them that feared
the Lord. And that thought upon his name. Certainly, certainly the people
of God, they cannot go through the whole eight or ten hours
fourteen, fifteen hours of their waking time and not think upon
God. I seriously question my own profession
if I can get up of a morning and live from morning till dark
without thinking upon the name of God. I seriously question
whether I've been redeemed or not. I might just say like, well
I just read here a reason where Jim Byrd, He had to put out a
little bulletin. He said he made a profession
of faith when he was about eight or nine years old, somewhere
along there. He said he'd went to a Methodist church, and he
said the preacher said something about Jesus, and he said he was
impressed by what he said, and the preacher said, well, come
forward and confess the Lord Jesus as your Redeemer, and he
said, I did what the I did what the preacher told me. I came
forward, and he asked me if I believed that Jesus died for me, if I
believed that the gospel was the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. And I said, yeah, I believe all
that. And the guy said, well, you need
to be baptized then, and then from then on, you need to tell
people what the Lord means to you. And he said, I've done all
that. And he said, everything went pretty good until I heard
the gospel. And he said I was about, I guess,
20 years, more than 20 years old. And he said, I heard the gospel.
I heard that the gospel is not the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's just not the gospel. The
gospel is Jesus Christ. That's what the gospel is. The
gospel is a person. And he said, when I was exposed
to what the gospel was and exposed to my rebellion, he said, I found
out that I just had some religion. I never had Christ. I just had
some religion. Oh my soul, listen, people think
upon his name, people that really know the Lord. They think upon
His name. Alright. They're His valuables. They're not only His property
and His treasure, but they're His valuables. They're jewels.
Look at that. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels. They're my jewels.
Valuable jewels. My soul. Turn with me real quick
over here to Exodus 28. And I'll show you where them
jewels are. Exodus 28. These are his Bibles, these are
his jewels. Now, when the priest went into
the tabernacle, into the presence of God, he had to have priestly
garments on, and part of his garments is described here in
this 28th chapter. And it says that, Thou shalt
take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children
of Israel. onyx stone, precious stone, jewels,
six of their names on one stone, and the other six names on the
rest of the other stone according to their birth. And with the
work of the engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet,
shall they engrave the two stones which the names of the children
of Israel thou shalt make them to be set in pouches of gold,
and thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod
for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel," and now
listen, here is the high priest, and he is a picture of the true
high priest who was yet to come, and in reality now is the Lord
Jesus who is at God's right hand, and he is there as our representative. We are represented before God
by the Lord Jesus, we are in Him, and Aaron shall bear their
names, that is in these onyx stones, in these jewels, Aaron
shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders
for a memorial." Now, before anyone can take the stones that are upon Aaron's heart before
God as a memorial for the people that he represents, they're going
to have to kill old Aaron. And before our Lord Jesus Christ
parts with the Jews that he died for, somebody's going to have
to kill him. And that just won't be because he's not going to
part with them. He's not going to part with these Jews. He's
not going to part with them. He kills them! He redeemed them. He died for them. He shed His
blood. His garments were dipped in blood. He cried, My God, My God, why
hast thou forsaken Me? For their redemption and their
salvation. He's not going to part with them. He's not going
to let them go. He said, My Father which gave
them Me is greater than all, and no one can pluck them out
of My Father's hand. He won't part with them. He's
not going to part with them. They're his jewels. He's not
going to part with them. See why they're peculiar? They're
peculiar property! They're peculiar treasure! They're
his valuables! His valuables! In his iron box,
Bob. In his safety deposit box. Right
and be protected. Got any stocks and bonds and
jewelry and old things that mean something to you? Why, you don't
want to leave them in your home because you're afraid your house
will burn down. So you go into the bank and get a safety deposit
box, and they put it back in there. They've got concrete built
all around it, and it looked like it would withstand the atomic
bomb. And you've got a little key,
and you put them all in there. God puts His Jews in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they're on God's right hand. And brother,
there's no power. no power on heaven and earth
that can rival the power of God's right hand. He says, all power
has been given to me in heaven and in earth. And we're Jews,
peculiar treasures, valuables, that's what we are. He looks
upon them He looks upon these treasures, these valuables, his
property. He looks upon them with delight.
He delights in them. You say, well, I wish I could
believe. Oh, that's your problem. That's your problem. You can't
believe it. That's the reason that you and I live such a miserable
Christian experience. We just don't believe the Bible.
We don't believe God's testimony. Well, you said already, preacher,
that these peculiar people, they're peculiar because they're God's
property. Oh, I wish I could know that's God's property. Ah,
you said they were God's peculiar people because not only were
they God's property, but they're valuable property. Oh, and they're
God's Jews. I wish I could believe that.
And he delights in his Jews. I wish I could believe that.
Well, you never enjoy. You never enjoy God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, what's known as Christianity in this life until
you do believe it. That if you regenerate, if you're
quickened, if you have life, if Christ is your Savior, never... See, I can still write back on
that, what we were talking about the other night. If we knew Him
well enough, we could trust Him. He delights in His Jews. He delights
in them. He looks upon them and He delights
in them. You say, I don't delight in them. I know. I know you don't. I don't
either many times, but God does. God does. Well, I'm going to
tell you why. He looks upon them with delight because, now listen
to me, not because He sees anything in you that's so wonderful. He
doesn't see anything in me. He'll say, well, boy, that fellow,
he is such a wonderful preacher, and I'm just so proud of that
young man. No. And he looks down and says,
well, he gave $100 the other day in the offering, and $200
or $500, I'm just so proud. No, that's not it. He's not proud
of you, anything that you do. He looks down upon you and has
delight in you because he sees the oneness between you and his
son. He sees the righteousness of
God in you. God made him to be seen that
you might be made the righteousness of God. And that's what the light
sees. He delighted in his son. This is my beloved son! He knew my will free, I'm pleased! I'm delighted in him. Every time
God leans over the battlements of glory and sees the Lord Jesus
Christ, or when he was here upon this earth, God, with my son, obedient son. Every jot and every kettle of
my word, he fulfills, he obeys outwardly and inwardly. I'm pleased with him. I'm delighted. He's the darling of my eye and
he's the darling of my bosom. I love him. I'm well pleased
with him. That's the reason God delights
in His people, who are His peculiar property, His peculiar valuables
and jewels and treasures, and delights in them for Christ's
sake. He sees in them, what Jack? The righteousness of His Son! He doesn't say, boy, God help
us if we're still trusting in our own righteousness. God help
us if we're trusting what we do and what we don't do to get
us to glory. We're going to miss it. We're
going to miss it. That's what Jim Byrd said, that he'd been
trusting all his life in his own righteousness, in the fact
that he is a preacher's boy. And there's a fact that he made
a little old five-cent profession down there, and he was impressed
with something the preachers said. He said, if God had not
revealed into my heart my dire need of a righteousness which
would meet the demands of heaven." He said, I'd have missed it.
I'd have been religious all my life and missed heaven. It's not what you do or what
you don't do. Although what you have, the Lord
Jesus Christ will determine what you do and what you don't do.
Won't He? Oh yeah. You want to please Him. when you find out that he looks
upon you with delight. And he sees in them the righteousness
of his Son, one with his Son, washed from all their sin, loosed
from their sins by his precious blood. They are his pleasant
children. He delights in them because they
have been adopted into his family. They have been adopted into his
family. And they're not proud. They're not a proud people. They're
not folks that you can't talk to, and folks that can't be corrected,
and folks that cannot be instructed, and folks that cannot be led.
It's like a fellow told me one time. He said, I said, well,
come on, let me help you. And I'm not saying this about
the fellow, just by way of illustration. I said, come on, let me help
you. He said, you can't help me with anything. I said, let
me help you. He said, you can't lead me a
step. God's people are not like that.
God's people are not a proud, stubborn people that must have
their way, who sulk and pity themselves. God's people are
not like that. No, sir. God's people can be
led. God's people are a people that
can be instructed. They're pleasant children. Pleasant
children. They're not unruly children.
Unruly children that always, constantly, day in and day out,
out of favor with God. No, sir. They're pleasant children.
They've been adopted into His family. Let me read something
to you here and I'll quit. In Isaiah chapter 66, I believe
it is. Isaiah chapter 66. Look at this
now. There is pleasant children adopted
into his family. Listen now. Here we have, in
Isaiah chapter 66, in verse number 1, we have what? We have the
Lord God Himself. He said, The heaven is my throne. That's what God says. Heaven
is my throne. wherever that is, the seat of
all authority and all power that keeps this whole universe together,
somewhere. God's the spirit, but God's spirit
dwells somewhere. And he says it's heaven. I guess
he uses language like this to adapt himself to our understanding. We can't only rise above, you
know, I level here and grasp anything that's spiritual." So
he says, he says, the heaven is my throne. And he said, this
earth that you live on, he said, that's just where I set my feet
there, it's just my footstool. You got a footstool at home,
a little old footstool to put your feet on? Insignificant,
it's not that big. God said the earth's my footstool. And where is the house that you
build unto me and where is the place of my rest? He said, For
all those things have my hand made. My hand has made them all.
And all those things have been, saith the Lord. But listen, God
said, I'm high and lofty and lifted up and I sit on the throne
in heaven and this earth, but I'm going to look to some people.
Who am I going to look to? He said, But to this man will
I look. What man? That proud man? That proud man
that won't admit before God his rebellion? That proud man that
you've got to go around all the time? Is he going to look that
proud man? But to this man will I look.
To whom? Even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit trembleth at my word. I delight in him. I delight in
that fella. That God is broken, God's stripped,
and God brought him down to nothing. God brought him down to see that
he hadn't got anything in his hands he can trust in. Not a
thing. Can't trust in his church, can't trust in his preacher,
can't trust in his friends, can't trust in his neighbors, can't
trust in his good works, he can't trust in nothing because he hadn't
got anything! And he's simply brought, stripped,
and brought to the place that he only trusts in God. The Lord
said to that man, I'm up here on the throne, but I'll look
down to that man. I'll look to him. And to whom will he look? The high and lofty One that inhabits
eternity. To whom will he look? To whom
does he delight in? Well, the Bible even says that
the prayers of those that fear Him, or the prayers of those
that He delights in, these pleasant ones, that are his property,
his valuables, his jewels. He says the prayer of the upright
is his delight. That's what he says. He notes
their cries. He hears their groans. And listen
to me, he takes their tears and puts them in a bottle. He sees that poor prodigal. Peculiar
people. Well, I'm going to quit, but
let me say this. They bear a peculiar witness.
these people. No, they don't run around telling
how much they've done for God. No, they don't spend all their
time knocking on doors telling people how much they've done
for God. No, sir. A fellow was telling me here
just the other day, he said, he said, we had a little yard
sale. Had a little yard sale, and he
said some people come out and bought a few things, and he said
some of the people, he said they began to talk to one another
there, and he said finally I overheard And one woman said, well, just
think, what we need in this neighborhood is a Christian beauty shop. We need a Christian beauty shop.
So we got a Christian restaurant down here now. Said you can't
cuss, you can't smoke, you can't do anything in that restaurant.
We all got our crosses on. The owner, he has a cross around
his neck and hangs out on his shirt there. We've got a Christian
restaurant and that impresses me. We need a Christian beauty
shop where women won't gossip. We don't need these gossiping
women coming to our beauty shop. So we've got a Christian. Oh,
what are you doing? Tell them how good she was. Tell
them how good she was. Oh, good people! Good people! Going around telling people not
so much about the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners,
but how good they are! We don't gossip. We all gossip
and we don't do this and we don't do that. My soul, the peculiar
people that I'm talking about here, they got a peculiar witness. They bear a peculiar witness.
They go around talking about God and what He's done for them. They go around telling people
how bad and what sinners they were. They talk about God reaching
down with that blood-drenched arm and lifting them up from
that horrible pit, from that mire clay, and setting their
feet upon a rock. They tell people about the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. They talk to people about man's
depravity. They talk to people about the
Lord Jesus Christ who died in the poor sinner's stead and paid
his due and that they're complete in Him. See, they bear a peculiar
witness. In light of the witness that
you hear from most people, there's a peculiar witness. I'm going to quit. I'm going. We'll meet again tonight.