All right, let's begin our study
of 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. We'll have two verses here for
our text. 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. That
ye should show forth the praises or the virtues of him who hath
called you out of darkness into his marvelous 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."
Now, our Lord gives us an identity in His Son, Jesus Christ, and
that's important because we who are believers, we died in the
flesh. When Christ was crucified, the
scriptures declare we were crucified with Him so that in our flesh,
we died. And the reason why that is is
because the flesh brings nothing of value to the work of salvation.
We're not contributing anything that God needs from us in the
flesh, not the works of the flesh, So we are made the people of
the Lord in his Son, Jesus Christ, and we are the inheritance of
the Lord, and so he fits us and he equips us with various gifts
to serve one another and use among one another. So each name
here in 1 Peter ascribes to us or declares to us, it defines
for us what Christ has made us what God has given to us in the
many abundant blessings in His Son Jesus Christ. So that when
we look at us being a generation, we see that we're a chosen generation. When we look at us being called
a priesthood, we see that we're a royal priesthood. Being a nation,
we're a holy nation. We're a people of the Lord. We
are a peculiar people. of people that have been purchased
for His possession. So He's describing for us what
He's made us. These are not works of the flesh. This is not what we are by nature.
This is what Christ, what God has made us in the Son Jesus
Christ. And I would also say by way of introduction that nothing
is impossible with the Lord, just as he created the heavens
and the earth out of nothing. Nothing existed, and he brought
them forth. So it is with us. We are dead
in trespasses and sins. We're dead in our nature. It's
God who speaks life into us, creating us, making us a people
for his inheritance, a people for him to dwell in. All right,
so we'll see that in the message today. The title is A People
Made. And we'll see that the Lord has
made a people for himself. We'll see what kind of people
they are, how that he's called them out of their present darkness
into his light, so that now we are his people serving him and
using the gifts which he's fitted us to have for the purpose of
serving him and one another. We'll have three divisions this
morning, so they'll be a little briefer. his people described,
his people called out of darkness, and then made the people of the
Lord, or obtaining mercy. So first, the Lord's people described.
We're going to look at how the Lord describes his people. And
the Lord says these things about us, again, not because of anything
that we've done. We're not beautifying ourselves. We're not sanctifying ourselves
and making ourselves more lovely and more beautiful to the Lord.
He describes these, He calls us these things because this
is what He makes us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He hasn't left
us to ourselves. If God had left us to figure
this out and to work this out ourselves, we would be with those
who are called the disobedient ones. We would have been just
like those who disallowed Christ. We would have said, I don't need
this and chucked Christ aside because We don't need him, not
in the flesh, we don't think we need him. That's how we would
have been. Christ would have been to us
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, just like all those
others, as the scripture says, who were appointed to that. They were appointed to that.
And what that means is God left them to themselves. God didn't
cause anybody to chuck Christ aside and say, I don't need Christ.
That is what we are by our very nature. It's in our hearts because
we all come forth natural born enemies of God, right? We don't
love God, we hate God. in the flesh, not we hate the
true and living God in the flesh. I love the God of our imagination,
but not the true and living God. And the scriptures will see if
we have time, we're called lo am I, lo am I, which is from
Hosea, which means not my people, right? By nature, we are not
the people of God. When you look at our works, we
are not the people of God. God must do all the work of salvation. All right. So He appoints His
people unto salvation. He causes them by His power to
see and hear Him. So let's look at these descriptions,
saying, Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. So as a chosen generation, turn
over to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll
drop down to verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, so that Christ is
first and foremost the reason for the blessings that we have.
Never, you who believe and hope in Christ, never see yourself
as standing outside of Christ. When we come before God, He receives
us initially and continues to receive us only in what Christ
has done. He never stops looking to Christ
and starts looking to us at some time point. Never. He's always
looking to Christ. So we always come to God in His
Son, Jesus Christ. That's our hope. He's our glory. He's everything to us. He never
goes to the back seat for us. We never take over what Christ
has done. So we go before God in what Christ
has done. Now, the world and death, verse
four, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
so that we delight in and love this truth that we are the chosen
ones of God, but the world hates this truth. They can't stand
the thought that God has a people that he has chosen and separated
out for himself, that he is washed in the blood of Christ. They
hate that truth, right? They don't like it, but the reality
is Christ himself was chosen of God. That's an honor that
anyone should be described in similar language to our Savior,
that He was chosen of the Father. God chose Him to be the one in
whom all His people would be saved. He was chosen, and so
God chose His own people for His inheritance. It pleased Him. It says in Revelation 17, 14,
they that are with Christ are called and chosen and faithful. without exception. That's what
Christ makes us. We are called of God, chosen
of God, and we are faithful because that's what He makes us. He's
going to make us faithful, faithfully looking to Christ, trusting Him,
and He is the faithful one. He's the faithful one because
we fall short. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful
because He cannot deny Himself. Then we're called a royal priesthood. The children of God were purchased
with royal blood. Christ is called the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he purchased his people with
his own blood. We are redeemed with the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scriptures declare and
show that we are his bride, and we have made ourselves ready.
It uses that language in Revelation. We've made ourselves ready. That
is, we come before God in the righteous robe of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's our wedding arm. That's how we're able to go in
before God, is with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If God were
to look at our works, We'd be destroyed, we'd be blown away,
carried off as a dead rotten leaf, but God receives us because
we come to him not trusting in our own works, trusting in his
son Jesus Christ, believing that he is our salvation. And in Revelation, we find the
church universal singing out to her king, glorifying him,
praising him, saying, in Revelation 5, 9 and 10, and they sung a
new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof, for thou was slain and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood. out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and
priests, a royal priesthood, that we and we shall reign on
the earth." So regarding our priesthood, we've received the
new birth by the Spirit, right? The Spirit comes, dwells within
us, giving us life, giving us spiritual life, so that in the
spirit now we offer to God spiritual sacrifices, right? Not our works,
but spiritual sacrifices, meaning that we're, again, looking to
what Christ has done. It's according to His blood,
what He's accomplished for us, so that that's a spiritual sacrifice.
We're coming, you know, in The Jews would come having slain
a lamb, and by the blood, it was a picture that by the blood,
God would be merciful to them and forgive them of their sins.
That all was pointing to what Christ has done for us in shedding
His own blood so that now we come before God, praising Him,
seeking Him, covered in the blood of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus
Christ, His Son. As Peter records for us a little
earlier, he says, you also as lively stones are built up a
spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. See, so the scriptures declaring
this. I'm not making this up. This is what the scriptures teach
us and declare that everything is by Christ. So that by him,
we now offer spiritual sacrifices, which is good because Christ
said, God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. Third now, he calls us an holy
nation. Now, National Israel pictured,
they were a type where they pictured the true Israel of God. Now,
to your ear that sounds fine, But there's many in religion
that would be very offended by that statement. To say that National
Israel pictured the true people of God? They were just a type. They were just a picture of how
God deals with His people. Natural Israel was under a covenant
of works, but the true Israel of God is under grace. God deals
with his true Israel in grace. We are objects of his grace and
objects of his mercy, so that he's not looking to us to fulfill
some aspect of a covenant before he'll bless us. That's what he
did to national Israel, and that's why national Israel, all they
did was picture God's true Israel, the spiritual Israel. And so
being a holy nation, God separates us unto himself. He sanctifies
us and he does all that work of sanctification. Now again,
that also annoys people and that angers people who are in religion
because they want to do some work. They want to contribute
something to their salvation and feel good about themselves
and feel like they're doing something because when we're talking about
spiritual things, anyone who's yet in their flesh and only in
the flesh and doesn't have the spirit of Christ, They can't
relate. They can't understand that. There's
nothing tangible for them to do. And so they get frustrated
and they get angry because they don't see it. They don't see
that spiritual language. But the scriptures are clear
that Christ is our sanctification. In Hebrews 2, 11, I think I've
been quoting it a lot, but you see in that verse 2, 11, who
the one is that sanctifies and who it is that are sanctified.
And it says in 2.11, for both he that sanctifyeth, that's Christ,
he's doing the sanctification in his people, and they who are
sanctified were the happy recipients of the work that he's doing in
us. We're just the passive recipients that he is sanctifying us as
it pleases him according to his good pleasure. For both he that
sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. But if
that's not enough, we can go to Hebrews 10 verse 14 and we
see it again definitively declared to us that Christ has sanctified
us. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He's done all that work of sanctification
so that the fruits that we bear, that we willingly, gladly yield
ourselves up to of God, is that it's His work. He's producing
fruit in us. It's not us looking back to the
law, whipping ourselves into shape and keeping ourselves on
the straight and narrow so that we can bear fruit to God. God
is teaching us by the gospel. He's settling us to be comforted
and to rest in what Christ has done. so that you can rest right
there, brethren, in Christ. You sit yourselves under the
gospel, hear what Christ has done, what he has accomplished
for his people. And I promise you, because the scriptures promise
it, that you who delight in the Lord Jesus Christ, that God is
teaching and settling you right there, he's going to bring forth
fruit in you. He's going to put in your heart
he's gonna cause you to delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. There'll
be things that he'll root out. You'll go through various trials
and tribulations and sufferings and temptations. He'll root it
out. You just sit under the gospel.
You beg him that you would hear it and receive it and rejoice
in it, but he's doing all that work. And if you do beg him for
that heart, it's because he gave you that prayer to pray it and
to seek him So he's doing the sanctification. So I stated that
the true Israel, they're objects of God's grace, and it's because
God can be gracious to us now. He's paid the price. He settled
the debt. He sent his son to bear the sins
of his people, to be their righteousness, to put away their sin. once and
for all, it's gone, it's done away forever. And he's purchased
us and made us his people by shedding his blood. Now every
pastor, God raises up pastors and sends them forth into the
field where his people are to go out and to declare this, to
proclaim this message of salvation. And he says in Acts 20, 28, This
is Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders. He says, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath
purchased with his own blood. And brethren, the Lord lays that
burden on my heart more and more for you because I'm ever mindful
that you're not my flock, like you're not my people, my inheritance,
you're the inheritance of the Lord. So when I'm speaking, I'm
praying and seeking the Lord to speak the truth to you as
it is revealed to us in Jesus Christ because you're His people.
He purchased you with His own blood. Just as I trust He's purchased
me, I know He's purchased you. And so I'm ever mindful that
I'm here to speak the truth and to declare because it's for your
salvation, it's for your good, for the good of you, for the
good of your children, and for the good of those whom the Lord
will bring among us. It's His people. So that Church
of God is the Israel of God. The Church of God is the Israel
of God. Listen to what Paul says, and
he's the Apostle to the Gentiles, and he's speaking to Gentiles,
and he writes in Philippians 3, he says, for we are the circumcision. which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh."
They're not trusting in natural Israel versus those who are not
natural Israel. Then he says again to the Romans
in 2, 28 and 29, For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart. For man can't get to and change
his own heart. God alone can go in and change
the heart. He can do that circumcision in
the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. And so because Christ has accomplished
this for us, we understand we are an holy nation, sanctified,
separated by Christ. He's done all that work. He sanctified
us and he's given us a new heart. He's doing that circumcision
in the heart, not that outward circumcision of the flesh where
we're just pretending and showing off for everybody what we've
done to convince everybody else that we're Christians, that we
might be convinced that we're Christians. No, we're trusting
that in spite of what I see in this flesh, that Christ has accomplished
my salvation. I rest right there in him. All
right? And then he says we're a peculiar
people. And what that means is we are
a purchased people. We are the purchased possession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I noted a moment ago, he hath
purchased us with his own blood." He purchased us. And we see this
sense of this word in 1 Peter 2 that we're a purchased possession. We see it also in Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians 1 verses 13 and 14. He says, in whom ye also trusted,
speaking of Christ, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Verse 14,
which is the earnest, that's the down payment. Christ has
given us a down payment that we might know and walk and live
in him even as we wait for his return. which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
unto the praise of his glory." So that purchased possession
is us who believe. We're the ones who are his purchased
possession, which he paid for with his own blood. And he says,
I've given you my spirit as a down payment that you might know you
are the people of God. You are the chosen of God, redeemed
by the blood of Christ. So that when I return, he says,
I'll know just like that red or scarlet ribbon which was tied
out of the window by Rahab, that when the Israelites came, they
knew, don't destroy those that are in that house. Same thing,
the Lord has given his spirit so that he'll look down and see
all his people with his spirit, he'll gather them out, and then
he'll destroy all the rest. so that we won't be destroyed.
He's confirmed it to us by giving his spirit that we are the purchased
possession, the purchased people of the Lord. So in Christ, we
are chosen of God, kings and priests, a sanctified people,
and his purchased possession. He did all that for us to make
us his inheritance, to make us his own. All right now, second,
his people called out of darkness. The next thing we're to understand
is that God causes people out of darkness. He doesn't leave
us in darkness to these things. He doesn't make us these things.
leave us clueless as to what's going on and having no understanding
that he's done all this work in us, that he's done this for
his people. As Peter says, you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so, as I
was saying before, the Lord is going to raise up men that are
going to understand and are going to learn, be taught this gospel
as well, and they're going to have a heart to go forth and
to labor in the field of the Lord, and they're going to preach
and declare and proclaim this gospel of what Christ has accomplished
for his people. If you turn over to Acts 26,
Acts 26, go to verse 16. This is Paul recounting what
Christ did when Christ met him on the road to Damascus. And
he said to Paul, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest, verse 16, but
rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both
of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the
which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people
and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, right? natural
man hates this this word verse 18 to open their eyes to turn
them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me so that brethren
we understand from the scriptures that that Satan is the strong
man and just naturally all men are under his sway, under his
control, under his power, because he takes and does with them what
he wants at his pleasure. Now when Christ came and was
crucified, Christ didn't make a payment to Satan. That's not
who Christ's blood was shed to. Christ shed his blood to the
Father. He offered himself to the Father, because we sinned
against God the Father, and we've done that which is wicked and
evil in His sight. So Christ put away our sins,
offering Himself a sacrifice to the Father. But Satan is the
strong man, and so he was bound up. We were all going to hell
with Satan, but Christ bound Satan when he died, so that Satan
can't prevent this or stop this or do anything about it and Christ
plundered his house by taking out his redeemed, his purchased
possession. He took us out of the house so
that we're not under the control of Satan. We're under the power
and influence and control of the Holy Spirit because we now
have his spirit and we walk by his spirit and we're his people
so that we're not in the house of Satan anymore. He's not using
us and using us for his own purposes and ends. We're the people of
the Lord. But just know, because I know that there's a lie out
there that somehow Christ, you know, purchased us of Satan. No, that's not true at all. He
offered himself up to the Father. And so we were justified by Christ
so that God will not punish us for our sins because Christ put
them away. All right, now, it's the power
of, like it speaks of Paul, but it's the power of God that's
doing that in us, that's turning us from darkness to light, that's
enabling us to see and to hear what God has done for us through
the Son. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 4.
2 Corinthians 4, and go to verse
3. Paul's writing about this to
the Corinthians, and he says, 2 Corinthians 4, 3, but if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. To whom God leads
to their own powers and their own faculties so that they're
just left to what they can do in the flesh, which is not going
to save them. It's not going to help them.
They're slaves of sin and unrighteousness, and they love it. God passes
by a person, They're just left to their own means and what they
can do. And he says in 2 Corinthians
4, 4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them,
so that our salvation requires the power of God to break us
out of that darkness, to deliver us out of it, to show us. And
He shows us so patiently and so kindly, teaching us over and
over and over again. bringing us back to Christ over
and over again, fertilizing around the plant, preparing the soil,
helping us to hear that word, to receive it. When you put that
seed in the ground, it doesn't immediately pop up and spring
forth a hundredfold of fruit. It takes time and care and patience
and waiting for God to give the increase. It's the power of God,
and so we're just laboring, waiting upon the Lord to bear fruit in
His people to help us to hear. He says in verse 5, For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. And what Paul is saying there
is that if we preach the works of men, if we preach according
to what carnal man loves and wants to hear, then the lost
would hear us gladly. They'd be happy to hear that
because they can understand it, but we preach Christ Jesus. For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. So it's the power of the Lord
doing this. He's manifesting himself. He's
revealing himself to us in the hearts of his people through
this gospel, through this gospel, not alive, but through the gospel
that Christ has done all. Now, Peter says that we should
show forth the praises of him, that we should show forth or
declare or speak of and glorify God for the virtues
of Him, for what He's done. Because again, God's not saving
us for what we've done or anything we've brought to the table. He's
saving us in His grace, because of His love, because of His mercy
for the people of God that He chose to save, that He chose
to redeem and to call by His name. So it's all of Him. It's
His praise, His virtue, His glory, He's done everything and we're
to show forth that. So that's why he's bringing us
out of darkness so that we can declare and speak of what our
Savior has done. He could have left us in darkness,
but he didn't leave us in darkness. He did it so that we might come
forth understanding, growing in the grace and the knowledge
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we might see this more deeply
with more of an understanding of that all these works. have
been done for us by Christ. It's all according to His grace,
His mercy, and His love for us. So as you're growing and learning
and seeing more and more your need of Christ, Praise God for
that. Thank Him for it because that's
what He's doing. He's bringing you out of that
darkness. He's stripping you of those grave clothes. He's
taking off all the scales that are on our eyes by nature that
we might see more clearly what God has done for us and that
we might speak more openly and boldly about those things and
encourage one another. And as we're speaking to those
that are without, these drops of honey of the grace of what
He's done for us would just come forth from these lips and they'd
be wondering, what is this person talking about? And why do they
always seem to be talking about God or whatever it is? So that
we can declare what God has done for us. Now, third, may the people
of the Lord By nature, none of us is worthy to be called the
sons and daughters of God. By nature, none of us is worthy
of being called the children of the Most High. You know, God is righteous, he's
holy, he's perfect, so that if he had determined when Adam and
Eve sinned, he would have been just to just destroy Adam and
all of us in Adam, the whole race, and just destroyed us all
right then and there, and he'd be just to do that. But some
people seem to think that God because of his love and his kindness,
that he's just going to wink at sin. That for some people
he's just going to say, you know what, let's just pretend that
I didn't see that there. I'm just going to forgive that.
But that would make God unjust. That wouldn't be virtuous of
the Lord to do, to just forgive sinners of their sin. If you
were wronged by someone and you were in a court, let's say someone
broke into your house, and it took all your things and smashed
and destroyed everything else and left you with nothing and
then you're standing there in court and the judge says, you
know what? I'm just going to pretend that this didn't happen.
I'm just going to forgive you. You're free to go. The guy's
the criminal. You're free to go. What would
you think about that judge? Do you think that's an unjust
judge? He can't do that. What about me? What about what's
been done to me and my possessions? Don't I get those things back?
Doesn't he have to make prostitution for what he's done and pay for
his crime? So that would be unjust. And the same thing, God isn't
going to unjustly pardon our iniquity. Habakkuk said, Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. So sin must be punished. And God has provided that means
whereby He is both just and the justifier of them which believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's through that blood atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that spotless Lamb of God. He came taking upon him the likeness
of the sinful flesh, yet he himself was without sin. He fulfilled
all righteousness for his people. There is no guile or sin or iniquity
found in him. He lived the life perfect before
the Father, always glorifying Him, always looking to the Father,
always looking to Him to provide all things necessary so that
He would be that perfect Lamb, that perfect sacrifice. And then
in the appointed time, Christ took our sins and went up to
that cross, bearing them before the Father, and the Father poured
out His holy, just wrath upon the Son, so that all of our sin
was paid for. The wrath of God was absorbed,
taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ, and He put away our sin once
and for all for us. so that God is now just to forgive
us of our sins because Christ put it away. It was paid for. God didn't just wink at it and
says, well, I love you now, so everything's good between us.
Nope, that sin was paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is why he's so precious to us and why we love him, why we glorify
him and speak of what he has done. And then Peter goes on
to say, that we should show forth these praises and he says in
verse 10 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
and I'm running out of time but that verse comes from Hosea 2
verse 23 and the Lord said to them through Hosea that I will
say to them which were not my people thou art my people and
they shall say thou art my God and when And Paul quotes that
same passage in Romans 9, I think 25 and 26. He's quoting that,
and he's saying, that's not just the Jews that God is speaking
to. He's speaking to the Gentiles and the Jews, so that they're
all of one. That God is going to say, I use that word lo am
I, which is the name of one of Hosea's children by the adulteress,
who had those children in her whoredoms, and God called one,
named one, Lo, am I, which is not my people, not my people. And what God is saying to us,
and what he said to Israel there, and what he's saying to us is,
you by your works are nothing more than adulterers and adulteresses. You've done nothing to please
God. You've done nothing honorable or worthy of His name so that
you're not my people. When you do your things, that's
not what the people of God would do. You do sin. You do iniquity. You do unrighteous things. In
spite of all my benefits, in spite of all the kindnesses that
I've shown you, in bringing the sun and the rain upon you, in
blessing you and giving you health and strength and all the things
that you have, none of us shows forth that we are the people
of God, not naturally. So God says, in your works and
what you do, you're not my people. But then he says, but I have
a covenant, wherein you shall be called my people. I have provided
the way in which you shall be the people of the Most High God.
Though you yourselves and yourselves are not my people, yet I have
provided salvation for you through the Son, so that God has done
all the work. As it says in Hosea 1.10, Yet
the number of the children shall be as the sand The children of
Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living
God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of
Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head."
Whether you're a Jew or Gentile, You're coming before God in one,
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they shall come up
out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel." Speaking
of the Bride of Christ. And the point is that none of
us are saved by our works. Don't look to your works. Don't
have confidence in your works. When you look at them, if you're
looking at them, honestly, you'll see that you're not the people
of God. I'm not the child of God. Not by looking at my works, I'm
not. but looking to the one that he's provided, that's where we
see all of salvation has been provided for by Christ. So let
me just close with what Paul said in Romans 9, 15, and 16. For he sayeth to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So brethren, rejoice. and what
God has done in providing salvation for you and for me in the Son,
Jesus Christ. I pray he bless that to your
hearts, brother. Let's just pray. We'll stand
and then we'll pray. Yeah, stand and pray, and then
we'll take a short break. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your kindness, Lord, for providing salvation for us.
Lord, you know us, and you know the struggles that we have Lord,
you know that we're sinners and that we have nothing to offer
you. Lord, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. We ask, Lord,
that you would continue to pour out your gospel upon us, feed
us and nourish us. Lord, that we would be the planting
of the Lord, that you would sow your word in our hearts and that
it would find good ground. And Lord, that you would add
the increase and that you would bring forth fruit to your praise
and your honor, that we may declare the virtue and praise of our
God. We pray this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.