Now let's turn back to 1 Peter
chapter 2. The title of the message this
morning is, This Holy Nation. This Holy Nation. Look at verse 9 of 1 Peter chapter
2. The Apostle Peter, as he was
inspired by the Holy Spirit, addresses people whom he describes
this way, verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, and holy nation, a holy nation, this holy nation,
that's where I got the title from obviously, and a peculiar
people, you may have in your concordance on that word peculiar,
that doesn't mean weird, It means purchased. That's what it means,
it's a redeemed people. In order that you should show
forth the praises or the virtues of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. Now the question that
I'm going to deal with this morning is who's he talking about? A
holy nation. Well, I'm not talking about the
United States of America. even though some might see it
that way. I'm not talking about the state of Israel, though some
might see it that way. I'm not talking about any geographical,
ethnic, political nation on the earth. This holy nation is talking
about the people of God. It's talking about the church,
the true church now, not just what you see with the physical
eye. But the true church are true
believers, people who are found truly and honestly by the grace
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the holy nation. The last few messages I've been
talking about this word holy, holiness, same as the word sanctify,
saints, That's the most common word in the New Testament used
of Christians. In fact, it's used more than
the word Christian. Saint. And we talk about sanctification,
to be holy, to be sanctified. What does it mean? It means to
be set apart. It means to be picked out and
dedicated and consecrated for a particular use and purpose. I gave you these three things.
It means to be set apart for the glory and service of God. That's what this holy nation
is. He says, you've been chosen,
you've been purchased, you've been redeemed, all of this for
this purpose. Here's the purpose. That you
should show forth the praises. And that word praises there,
you might have that in your concordance too, is virtues. Now what is
that? That's the power and the grace, the glory of God. The reason that you are a holy
nation, if you're a member of this holy nation, if you're a
citizen of this holy nation, this nation that has been set
apart for this purpose, to show forth by witness, by life, by
testimony, by attitude, by worship, public worship, private worship,
prayer, For this purpose, to show forth the power and glory
and grace of Him, of Christ, who called you out of darkness,
out of that darkness of sin and self-righteousness and self-love
and false refuges and false religion, all of that, out of that darkness
of Satan. That's what the Bible says in
2 Corinthians chapter 4. if those who are blinded, their
minds are blinded by Satan, who doesn't want sinners to see the
glory of God in Christ. You know, that's Satan's one
goal, is to keep people from seeing the glory of God in Christ. And I'll tell you what his main
tool to keep that darkness over the hearts of men and women is
false religion. That's exactly right. If He can
get you entrenched in a false refuge of works religion, safe
and secure in your own mind, in that kind of religion, that'll
keep you from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's why God's goal in
His people, His holy nation, is that they should see His glory
in the face of Jesus Christ. that we should show forth. They
called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, set apart
for the glory of God, for the service of God. We're not here
for ourselves. We're not here to please ourselves. We're not here to promote our
own agendas. You see, that's what divides
people, even believers. When you get your mind, when
we get our minds off of what we're here for, we're here to
lift up Christ. We're here to brag on Christ. If you're sitting out there and
say, well, I wish he'd brag on old Reverend Dr. So-and-so every
now and then, that's not showing forth the virtues of him who
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We're here
to lift up Christ. We're here to talk about the
power and glory of His person, who He is. And that's what separates
this holy nation from the world. The world wants to deal in men
praising, men pleasing. You see what I'm saying? They
want to talk about how much you can do and have done and want
to do and try to do and promise to do for God. But this holy
nation who set apart for this purpose, we want to talk about
what God has done for us and what He is doing, what He will
do in Christ. His glorious person as God and
man, His finished work on the cross to save us from our sins. We sang about it. Christ receiveth
sinful men, purged from every spot and stain. How? By His blood. clothed in His righteousness,
charged, accounted, imputed to us. Talk about Him. And that's what this holy nation
is all about. Set apart for the glory and service
of God. Secondly, to be holy is to be
regarded and treated and declared so by God Almighty, the Judge
of all the earth. If you're in Christ, God regards
you as holy. perfect, set apart in Christ,
but perfect in Christ, righteous in Christ. You know, when we
get theological and technically there is a difference between
righteous and holy. Righteous is more of a legal
term. It means it's like you go before a judge and you're
declared not guilty. You didn't break the law. Now
we know that all men have broken the law, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. The question of the Bible, from
Genesis to Revelation, is how can a sinner, a lawbreaker like
me, how can I be rightfully and justly declared righteous before
God? Well, there's only one way, and
that's to be in Christ. who took my punishment for my
sins, who gave me his righteousness. And God looks at me in Christ
and declares me righteous. And you have to say this because
of people's misunderstandings today. That's no pretense. God's
not pretending you're righteous in Christ. God has judged you
righteous in Christ. So that's a legal asset. That's
our justification to be holy. To be sanctified is to be set
apart in Him. were set apart. Actually, it
has to do more with cleansing. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You see what I'm saying? And
it's to be declared holy. And in Christ, all believers
are regarded, accounted as holy. That's this holy nation right
here. And then thirdly, there is holiness. in the realm of our sanctification
being set apart by the Holy Spirit in the new birth, wherein we
live in and by the grace of God in Christ. We live by the power
of Christ. Our energy, our motivation, our
goal, our guide is the power of the Spirit of Christ in the
Word of God. And that begins in the new birth.
Before that, what are we? We're dead in sins. Dead in sins. Before that, what are we? We're
servants of sin, slaves in bondage to sin. Now we're free to serve
Him. Before that, what were we? Unbelievers. Now we have faith, the gift of
God. Isn't that right? Do you believe
this message? Do you believe God? That's a
miracle. You didn't do that of your own
free will. You did it because you were sanctified by the Holy
Spirit. He gave you life. He imparted
life. You wanna talk about impartation,
something put within, that's all right. Life, spiritual life,
spiritual desires. You have ears now to hear something
that you didn't hear before. Now you heard the words, but
they didn't mean anything to you. Now they mean everything
to you. You see some things you didn't
see before. You saw what the Bible says concerning
Christ, but now you see His glory. You see He is... You were blind,
like that blind man in John chapter 9. Now you see. Now I see. Like old blind Bartimaeus. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. Like those blind men who
prayed for Satan. He asked them, he said, do you
believe that I'm able to do this? And they said, we believe. Our faith in His ability. We
see that now. We see our sin. We didn't see
it before. Oh, we saw we weren't perfect.
Oh, we knew that. We knew that for a long time.
We knew we weren't perfect. But we didn't see our sin and
depravity to the point that we saw our need of Christ and the
sovereign mercy and grace of God to save us and to keep us
and to bring us to glory. All of that, you see. We see
that now. That's what this is. How do we live in and by the
grace of God? Well, this holy nation, that's
what this holy nation is. Sinners saved by the grace of
God in Christ. Sinners who are under the blood
of Christ. Sinners who are justified by
the imputed righteousness of Christ. Sinners who've been given
life by the Holy Spirit and called to Christ in faith and repentance.
and the obedience of loving. That's what this holy nation
is. They're not perfect people in themselves. Well, how do you do that? Well,
you do it by looking to and living out of Christ. You do it by seeking
to be conformed to Christ according His Word, growing in grace and
in knowledge of Christ. Peter spoke of that, desiring
the sincere milk of the Word. That's the honest and true milk
of the Word. Do you desire it? Should we strive
to be perfect? Well, the Bible says yes, but
not to despair. Somebody says, well, he said
here, be ye holy for I am holy. You say, well, I can't do that.
Oh, yes, you can. You can be set apart in Christ.
You can't be perfect in yourself. No. Should we strive for that? Yes, but not to despair. What
should we do? We should strive for it because
we love Him. and desire to be like Him. In all our striving,
we know well our sin and our imperfection and our shortcomings,
but we also know our hope. And what is our hope? My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
That's what this holy nation is. You know, the Bible never
uses the word holy or saint to describe some special class of
believers who are a notch above the rest. Never does that. We're
all equal at the foot of the cross, one old writer said. That's what it is. This holy nation. You know what
a holy nation is? It's made up of holy citizens.
It doesn't say this nation that is part holy and part unholy.
No. It's this holy nation. This is
the state and condition of all who are in Christ. We're all
righteous in Christ. That's our justification. We're
all holy in Christ. That's our sanctification. We're
set apart in Christ. That's what separates us from
the world. It's our identification with Christ. It's our union with
Christ. It's our faith in Christ. It's
our rest in Christ. It's our love for Christ. We're cleansed by His blood and
only by His blood. We're separated and consecrated
by Him and unto Him. What separates us? What consecrates
us? Look back here at verse 9. Listen to these things. He says,
first of all, you're a chosen generation. What is a chosen
generation? Who did the choosing here? Well,
God did. Look down at verse 10. He said,
which in time past were not a people. Now, a lot of people say, and
what is it? Well, it's talking about election. We're separated
in electing grace before the foundation of the world. And
people say, well, that's talking about the Jews. Well, look at verse
10. He said, which in time past were not a people, but are now
the people of God, which had not attained mercy, but now have
attained mercy. He's quoting from the book of
Isaiah there. Paul quoted over the same passage over in Romans
chapter nine. talking about the bringing in
of the Gentiles into the church. That's what Isaiah was talking
about. That's why his generation got so upset at him. They didn't
want to think about old Gentiles being brought into the church.
You mean to tell me that they're going to come into the family
of God, the nation of God, and stand before God on an equal
standing as we, the Jews?" That's exactly what he meant. And they
wouldn't have it, and when Isaiah preached it, they persecuted
him. And that's what Peter's talking about, this chosen generation.
Who is this? Chosen of God, set apart, separated
by God's sovereign electing grace. And that's what it is, an election
of grace. Turn back there to Deuteronomy 7 that I read at
the opening of our service. Now there's an application here
to the nation Israel under the Old Covenant. And I'm going to tell you something
now, I want you to think about this. What do you know if you've read
the Old Testament? Now, most of the Old Testament, most of the Old Testament is
the history of the nation Israel that covers a period of 1,500
years of Israel from Sinai up to Malachi. And then you have
about 490 to 500, I'm gonna talk about that tonight, 490 years
actually, but we'll say 500 years to the cross. to that area where the Messiah
came in. So, most of the Old Testament covers the period of
1,500 years of Israel, the nation, under the Old Covenant. Now,
if you've read the history of Israel for that 1,500 years under
the Old Covenant, what do you know about Israel? They were
a rebellious people. They were a murmuring people.
They murmured all the time, unbelieving, idolatrous. When the first king
they chose, the people of the nation chose, was Saul. He wasn't even of the kingly
line, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, so that was a national
rebellion. And then they would come along
and they had a period of prosperity under David, but David himself
was an abject failure in his family. He was a sinner saved
by the grace of God. And then Solomon came along.
He was the fruit of David's adultery, but God overruled all that and
brought good out of it because Solomon is in the line of the
Messiah, the kings of Judah. After Solomon, the kingdom split,
the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, they went into the north
and their capital became Samaria. That was a national rebellion.
The capital was to be Jerusalem, the place where the temple was. And every king of the northern
kingdom was an evil, wicked, unbelieving king. And in the
southern kingdom of Judah, most of their kings were evil and
wicked. They probably, after Solomon,
the kingdoms of Judah, the southern kingdom, they may have had maybe
two or three kings who were what you would call godly kings. And even they had so many imperfections,
like all of us. So their whole nation, under
that 50, they were the best. But look at verse six of Deuteronomy
7. What does God say about them?
He says, for thou art in holy people unto the Lord thy God. Now my question is, if that's
talking about moral perfection in Israel, where are they? Find where that nation is in
this Bible. They're not there. How could
he call that nation through that 1500 year period a holy nation?
He doesn't mean morally perfect. He means that this is a group
of people, a nation that God chose and set apart for a particular
purpose. That's what he meant. And he
used them in spite of their sin. Now we can identify with that
because if we're saved by the grace of God, I'm going to tell
you something, God saves every one of us in spite of ourselves. That's the truth. If He saves
you, He'll save you in spite of yourself. Same with me. All of us. So that nation Israel,
there was nothing morally or even doctrinally perfect about
them, but He called them holy because He set them apart. Well,
they were a type of the church here on earth in that sense.
In the church here on earth, we have a mixture of believers
and unbelievers. You have false professors, you
have true believers. The true church, that holy nation
that Peter's speaking about, is true believers. And I told
you when I read this, apply that to that holy nation that Peter's
speaking about. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord. How are we holy? Well, God chose
us before the foundation of the world. God redeemed us by the
blood of Christ. God called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light through the power of the Spirit in the
new birth, bringing us to faith in Christ and repentance from
dead works. And we stand pure in the sight
of God, righteous in the sight of God in Christ. That's no pretense. That's reality. That's how God
sees it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? Am I a sinner? Yes, I am. Are
you? Yes, you are. But if you're in Christ, nobody
can lay any sin to your charge in the sight of God. That's something, isn't it? Think
about that now. Nobody, not even Satan, can lay
anything to your charge in the sight of God. You know why? Because
it's already charged to Christ. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin. And He did it for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's why. God
didn't just cover it over and forget it. God didn't just feel
sorry for us. God took care of it in strict
justice on the cross of Calvary. when He sent His Son to die for
the sins of His people. Christ bore our iniquities in
His body on the tree. He was made a curse for me and
for you who know Him and trust Him, who follow Him. That's holiness in the sight
of God. That's real holiness. That's
not a pretend holiness. That's real. But now look at
verse 6 of Deuteronomy 7. He says, "...the Lord thy God
hath chosen thee to be a special people." He chose that nation
for that period of time to be special in a ceremonial way,
but His church, this holy nation now, made up of His elect out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation redeemed by the blood
of Christ, justified in His righteousness, He chose us to be a special people. Special in what way? Huh? Well, Peter described it there
in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, that we should show forth the virtues,
the praise of him who hath called us out of darkness. That's special.
That's our speciality, you might say. Our speciality is to show
forth the glory of God in Christ. There's not one religion on earth
except the religion of grace, true Christianity that does that. Every other religion shows forth
the glory of men. There's only two religions in
the world. It's either grace or works. Isn't that right? Cain
and Abel. What makes you special? What
makes me special? It's not us. Somebody said, well,
I wish he'd join the church. We really need him. You don't
need anybody but Christ. That's right. Oh, I know God
uses us and he gives us talents and gifts, graces, and we're
to be good stewards of those things, but for what purpose?
Here's the specialty. Here's what makes us special,
to show forth the glory of God in Christ. That's holiness. That's holiness. You say, well,
I don't do that perfectly. I know you don't and I don't
either. But it still sets us apart from the world. You see
what I'm saying? That's this holy nation. Look
at verse 6 again of Deuteronomy 7. A special people unto himself. Unto God. In other words, we're
not here for ourselves. Somebody said, well, I just want
to find a church that will fulfill my needs. Well, I'm gonna tell
you what your need is. You need mercy. That's what you
need. That's what I need. That's what
Peter said over here, this holy nation, remember? There 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. That's what we need. We need
mercy. And he said, above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. That's amazing to me.
Why did he choose Israel? Why didn't he choose the Philistines?
They were stronger. Why didn't he choose the Hittites,
the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Perizzites? Why didn't he
choose? He chose Israel. And then he said why? Verse 7,
the Lord did not set his love, he didn't join himself to that
nation upon you nor choose you because you were more in number
than any people. And that more in number doesn't
mean just a population count, that means stronger or better. He says, you were the fewest,
you're the worst of the bunch. God chose the worst of the bunch.
That's what that means. Well, when God chose us, that's
what He did. And He says, but because the
Lord loved you and because would keep the oath which He swore
unto your fathers. It's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
You know, if I'm saved by the grace of God, it's because of
an oath that God swore unto His Son before the foundation of
the world. And he says, he redeemed you
out of the house of bombing. He redeemed his people, this
holy nation, out of the house of sin and bondage and self-righteousness
and the curse of the law by the blood of Christ. That's this
holy nation. You're chosen. Look back at 1
Peter 2, 9. Secondly, he says you're a royal
priesthood. What does that mean? Well, a
kingdom of priests. Twice in the book of Revelation. It says
that the people of God are made in Christ kings and priests under
God. How are we made kings? I don't
rule anything, do you? We may think we do. There's a
lot of guys walking around who think they rule a lot of things,
but we don't rule anything. How are we made kings? Only in
one way. We are ambassadors of Christ. You know, when the United States
appoints an ambassador, when the President appoints an ambassador
and sends that ambassador to another country, when that ambassador
speaks officially, he has the authority of the United States
of America behind him. That's the way it's supposed
to be. And therefore, in that sense, he represents the United
When the people of God, this holy nation, when we speak the
word of God, the gospel of God's grace, we're ambassadors of Christ
speaking the word of the king. We have that kind of authority.
That's what that means. Now in glory we'll rule in the
new heavens and the new earth under the king of kings. That's
why I believe Christ, that's one of the reasons I believe
Christ is called the king of kings. He is the king. He is
the authority. And we're kings. And what is
it to be a priest? Well, you know what the priests
did. They did the service of God in the tabernacle, in the
temple. And the high priest entered him once a year into the holy
place. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10 with me. Here's what this
means, that we're, this holy nation, we're priests. Now that, I'll tell you what
it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean, now let's all go down to the
local religious bookstore and get funny collars and wear them.
so that people can see it. And it doesn't mean you can call
me father or we call each other father. There's one father and
that's God. There's one holy father and that's
God. No man on earth is to take that
title upon himself. That's blasphemy to do that. What is it to be a priest? Well,
here it is. Look at verse 19 of Hebrews 10. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness, It means liberty, freedom, and assurance. To enter into the holiest, that's
the holy of holies, the very presence of God. How? By the
blood of Jesus. That's what a priest does. By
a new and living way. which He, Christ, hath consecrated. He made it, He fulfilled it for
us as our substitute and represent through the veil, that is to
say His flesh, His humanity, God-man. He bore our sins in
His body on the tree. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart. A true
heart is an honest heart. What does an honest heart do?
Confesses our sin and our depravity. and our weakness, and our unworthiness,
and then confesses, it says, true heart in full assurance
of faith. What is full assurance of faith that looks to Christ?
Says, worthy is the lamb that was slain. He's my hope. I'm here in the holiest of all,
not by my own merits, not by my own works, but because of
the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why I'm here. And I don't have to be ashamed
and confounded, as Joe read there, unto you therefore which believe
he's precious. That's holiness. Did you know
that? That's being separate. He's not precious to the world.
He's not precious to false religion. He might be a good help. God
helps those who help themselves. He's a help. Oh, they need him
for a little help. Like that song, I'll get by with
a little help from my friends. But unto you therefore which
believe, he's what? He's precious. That means he's
everything. He's my all and in all. He's
my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my redemption. That's what that means. And he
says, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. An evil conscience is a legal
guilty conscience. What's going to remove that legal
guilt. When the Holy Spirit shows me
Christ and Him crucified and risen again, He sprinkles my
conscience. I'm not guilty. You know why?
Because I'm under the blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's
fold, under the blood of Jesus, safe while the ages roll. That's why. No other reason. And our bodies washed with pure
water. That means being separated. cleansed by the Word of God in
Christ. Look back. This holy nation,
it's a spiritual nation. You see, we who are in Christ,
we're members of a spiritual nation. We're not of the world.
We're citizens. Paul wrote that. He said our
conversation is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven.
I think that's Philippians 3.21. We're holy by our union with
Christ. To be in Him is to be holy, for
He is holy. The Bible says, Hebrews 2.11,
for both He that sanctifieth, that's Christ, and they who are
sanctified, that's this holy nation, are all one, for which
cause He's not ashamed to call them brethren. You know why He's
not ashamed to call us brethren? It's not because we're so good.
We've failed so many ways, don't we? It's because He redeemed
us by His blood. That's right. We're holy by the will of God. The scripture says that. Christ
came forth to save his people from their sins by the will of
God, to do thy will, he said in Hebrews 10. We're holy by
the blood of Christ, for by one offering he hath perfected them
that are sanctified forever. We're holy by the Holy Spirit
and by the truth as He sets us apart in the new birth and gives
us life and faith and repentance and sheds abroad within our hearts
the love of Christ. We're holy by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look to Him for all holiness. Not to ourselves. Holiness is
not something that we attain by our efforts to obey. That's
what I'm saying. It's not something we obtain
by our efforts to obey. If we do improve, now let me
tell you something, don't be afraid of that word improvement.
Because the Bible talks about growing in grace and in knowledge. And if you grow, that's an improvement.
Look back here at 1 Peter chapter 2 again. Look at verse 1. And I want you to notice this
too. Now, he's talking about this holy nation now. And he says
to this holy nation, he's speaking to believers here. He made that
clear at the beginning of this book. He says, wherefore laying
aside all malice. Malice? What's that? That's hatred.
You mean this holy nation has to lay aside hatred? I heard
a man say one time, there's no room in the heart of a Christian
for hatred. And I said, you better You better
look again, brother. The problem we have, there's
too much room there. This holy nation, lay it aside.
See, we're not sinlessly perfect in ourselves. He says, lay aside
all guile, that's dishonesty. Hypocrisy, that's pretense. Envies,
that's jealousy. And evil speaking, that's anything
that doesn't glorify and honor God in Christ. But look at verse
two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow thereby. Now if you grow, that's improvement,
but that's not making you holier. You see what I'm saying? That's
not making you more righteous. That's growth in grace and in
the knowledge of Christ, who is our holiness and our righteousness. You see that? He said, if so
be you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. The only way, listen,
if you don't desire the sincere milk of the word, like a newborn
baby, what does that mean? It means you have never, God's
never been gracious to you. If you desire that milk of the
word, it means there's spiritual life there. You've tasted that
the Lord is gracious. And he says, to whom coming.
See, coming to Christ is not just a one-time thing. It's coming
continually. As unto a living stone, We don't
come to a dead God, pray to these idols, these visual aids. Somebody said, well, I need them
to help me. You know why? Because there's
nothing in the heart. The more you need outside to
inspire you, the less you have in your heart. That's what it
is. And he said, this living stone disallowed indeed of men.
This is Christ. That's who he's talking about.
But chosen of God and precious, you also as living stones, lively
stones means living stones, are built up a spiritual house. Now
who is this holy nation? It's a spiritual house. What
is that? That's the true people of God. The church redeemed by
the blood of Christ and holy priesthood. We have right and
title, and we have freedom to enter into the holiest of all
by the blood of Jesus, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. The only way they're accepted
of God is through Christ. You see, it's not the sincerity
of the prayer that makes it accepted. Should we be sincere in prayer?
Yes, we should. Don't be fake. Lay aside hypocrisies. But you have to understand, yes,
we should be sincere in everything we do. Worship, everything we
do should be done in sincerity, seriously, honestly, from the
heart. Outward show doesn't impress
God, God hates it. But you have to understand that
all of that is accepted of God, not because of the sincerity,
but because of Christ, our mediator, our advocate. You see the difference?
And he says, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. As Brother
Joe said, you won't be confused, you won't be ashamed, you won't
be disappointed, unto you therefore which believe he is precious. Verse 9 again, he says, a peculiar
people. That means purchased, redeemed
by the blood of Christ. And then, lastly, he says that
you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. What does that mean? It
means we're people of grace. Sovereign grace, sovereign mercy. Saved by grace, kept by grace,
grown by grace, held together by grace, and finally brought
to glory by grace in Christ. You know what that is? That's
holiness. That's what separates this holy
nation from the world. It's not our works and our efforts.
It's not our goodness. It's our Lord. He's our holiness. He's our righteousness. He's
our wisdom. He's our redemption. Alright.