in 1 Peter chapter 2. And let's
begin reading here in verse 1. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may
grow thereby. If so be that you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. to whom cometh as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
You also, as living stones, lively stones, are built up a spiritual
house, and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 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. And to you, therefore, which
believe, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling and
rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, were unto also they were appointed. that ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him that hath called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light, which in time
past were not a people, but now the people of God, which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Verse 1 begins
with wherefore. And it takes us back to the subject
that you and I looked at last Sunday morning concerning the
new birth. We said there in verse 23, being
born again, not a corruptible seed, but it is incorruptible
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is grass. The glory of man is as the flower
of the grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower of the herb falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endeareth
forever." And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Peter refers back to what he'd
been saying before and he connects the new birth with what he's
going to tell us now concerning laying aside the malice and the
envians and the hypocrites and so on. And there's two things
so important here regarding the new birth and we can see them
here in our context, and it has to do with living the Christian
life. And the first thing that I've said so many times, that
we cannot be a Christian until we've experienced the new birth.
We must be born again. That's what Peter reminds us
of here, and our Lord reminds us also. But there's something
here about this new creation that is so different than the
old creation. in the old creation is just so
uncertain as to how it's going to turn out in the short run.
And in the long run, it never turns out well, does it? Peter
was telling us here about the old birth, the natural birth,
and he laxens it until this grass, and he must be talking about
grass, and we see some of it in our day. It comes up, the
stem is there, Then after a while, it blossoms. There's a blossom.
Sometimes we see that on the little flowers in our yards or
sometimes in our garden. The clovers and things like that.
But Peter says it's this corruptible seed, flesh, is like this stem
of this grass. Then it comes up and after a
while you get your flower on it. And then it lives for a while
and then the Stem begins to wither, but the flower dies. The flower
fades and it falls off and dies. And he says that's the way it
is to be barned of corruptible seed. We're barned and through
our teenage years we've just got the stem and we blossom. You see young ladies in their
late teens or early twenties and they got the beautiful flower.
And you see the young men and they get in their early twenties
and they're full of strength. But that doesn't last long, does
it? It's not long until the old flesh, the old stem begins to
bend. And what happens to the glory
of the flower? Well, it gets wrinkled, doesn't
it? It gets weak. The ladies that were so beautiful,
they have to start using more makeup. Hollywood gets their
faces fixed. But the men lose their strength
that they used to glory in. The glory fades away. And then
what happens to the stem? It bends and finally dies. That's
what Peter said this old corruptible birth is like. But you know,
it's not going to be that way in this second birth. In the
first birth, we're just so uncertain and it never turns out well in
the end. But you know, it's not that way in the new birth. This
new birth is incorruptible. It's a work of the eternal God. A work of His everlasting power. He's begotten us by the power
of His Word. And you know that's going to
turn out well. You see parents and they have their little children
and they rejoice in them. And boy, they turn out and there's
such a disappointment. There's nothing like raising
children and they turn out to be a disappointment to you. This
grieves your heart. But you know something? God has
begotten these new creatures. Every man that's a new creature
in Christ is a work of God. And you know that's going to
turn out well. And he'll never be disappointed in that new creature.
That's his work. He'll never say, like he did
in the backyard in the beginning, when he looked on everything
that he had made, and he said, it's very good. It's so good. This is my work. But it was my
heart, wasn't it? It was mired by the sin of Adam
and Eve. But you know, this work will
never be mired. When He begins it, He calls it
a good work. He that hath begun a good work
in you, He looks upon that new creation, a very new nature that
He's put in us, and He said, That's My work. It's good. And
you know, every time He looks on it, He says, That's good.
Nothing can mire that, because that is begotten of the incorruptible
seed. Nothing can corrupt it, and it
cannot corrupt anything. Now it's difficult to distinguish
in the believer's life the old man from the new. Everything
the old man touches is subject just to mess everything up. But
I'm telling you what, there's a new creature inside. Every
child of God, that body, there's a new creature inside. And that's
born of God. And that's incorruptible. And
that'll never be corrupted. It'll turn out well. It's gonna
be well with that creature. Boy, that means something when
we go on in chapter 2. That's encouraging, ain't it?
As we go on now to live the Christian life, and listen to Peter teach
to us about living our Christian life, it's so encouraging to
know that we're new creatures. We're new creatures. The second
thing encouraging about this new birth, and we find it here
in the context, it frees us. The new birth frees us from the
guilt and the dominion of sin. It frees us from those things
and it gives us a new heart. It gives us new love. It gives
us a new God, doesn't it? We've got a new Savior, new desires,
new motives, and a new end to our life. And for Peter to come
here and say now, Lay aside the malice. Lay aside the guile. Lay aside the hypocrisy. He'd
never tell us that if we were still dead in our trespasses
and sins. There'd be no need to. He wouldn't come up to me
when I was dead in sins and say, Bruce, right, here's what you
ought to do now. I'm going to instruct you to do this. Lay
aside this malice that's in your heart. I don't need to lay it
aside. I need it in your heart. And
that's what happens in the new birth. He frees us from the dominion
of malice, from the dominion of sin and hypocrisy. Now He
can turn around and it's just the most natural thing in the
world to tell us to do this, isn't it? And we wouldn't have
it any other way than for Him to tell us here now to do these
things. Who wants to live a life of guile
and deceit and honesty? if they'd been born of the truth.
You don't, do you? Who wouldn't lay aside hypocrisies
and pretense and a show now that he's living, as it were, in the
very presence of God? I don't want to put on a show
anymore, do you? Aren't you glad you don't have to? Oh, there's a time probably all of
us have been guilty of this, We're just out to please men
with a show, weren't we? But we don't have to do that
anymore. Thank God we're free from that. We can just be what
He's made us, what we are. Why should we be envious and
jealousy? Why should we lay that aside,
as Peter tells us to here, since we're complete in Christ? What
have we got to be jealous about? We're complete in Christ. We have an inheritance that's
incorruptible and undefiled. We shouldn't be nobody, should
we? We shouldn't be jealous of nobody. How could we go speak
in evil of others when we've obtained such great mercy ourselves? See how natural these things
are if we've been born again and when we've been born again?
And Peter tells you now in verse 2, He tells us to lay aside the
malice, and the guile, and the hypocrisy, and so on. And now
He comes here and says in verse 2, As newborn babes, desire the
sensual milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. As newborn babes. I wonder if Peter remembered
when the Lord took the little child and set him down in the
middle of them. Remember that? These apostles
were fussing over who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom.
And the Lord said, Here is what I require in my kingdom. And
He took this little child. There was a little infant over
there crawling around. And He said, Bring that baby
over here. Hand me that baby. And He set
that little baby right in the midst of those apostles. And
James had been said, I want to sit on his right hand. John said,
I want to sit on his left. And Peter said, wait a minute,
that's where I'm going to sit. And they were fussing. And the
Lord Jesus said, except you be converted and become as this
little dependent child, you cannot be in the kingdom of God. Of
what He demands of us, He gives. In the new birth, what does He
do? He converts us and makes us here as a little babe in Christ. Whosoever shall humble himself
and become as this little babe. And that's where we begin, that
is, as little babes, just babies in the Kingdom of Heaven. Two
things about the new birth. One is good and one is sort of
tough. They're both good, but one is sort of tough. And here's
the good thing about the new birth. You start a whole new life. You're
truly just a new born baby. Somebody said, boy, they turned
over a new leaf. Well, I hope not. Because this
ain't no such thing. This is not even getting a new
book. This is a new life, isn't it?
As newborn babes, new loves, new desires, new motives, everything
is new. I tell you, it surprised me.
It surprised other people. It surprised me. And looking
in retrospect, it really surprises me now. When the Lord saved me,
everything became new, even creation. I looked at it in a different
light. All things have passed away and all things have become
new. It's just like a little baby
coming out of its mother's womb and seeing light for the first
time. That's what the new birth is. It's coming into this glorious
light. It's seeing, it's hearing, it's
learning, it's breathing this heavenly air. You're truly just
a little baby when you're born. That's the first thing. That's
wonderful, ain't it? You know a little infant that
comes out of his mother's womb? He's got no past. He has no past. What about our past? You have
none. It's passed away. see these people, and I've got
some in my family we're talking to back in the lunchroom about
some of our children and divorcing and remarrying. I've got a daughter,
and I love her dearly, but she's getting close to the Samaritan
woman, very close to the Samaritan woman. What would happen to her
if the Lord saved her? All that's gone. It's all gone. It's as though it never happened.
She would be a newborn baby with a clean past. Nothing there. As newborn babes desire. So that's encouraging. Isn't
that wonderful? That's wonderful. The second thing about newborn
babes is they begin, as Peter tells them here, to drink the
pure milk of the Word. That's what he's saying. Now,
the pure milk of the Word that you may grow in grace and knowledge. You start growing. When you're
born again, you start growing. You drink of the sensual milk
of the Word and you begin to grow. You begin to learn. Humbly
learn. And you know that's not always
easy, is it? Because you know when you start learning of the
Lord, one of the first things you experience is you've got
to unlearn some things. You ever experienced that? Brother
Baker's always telling about when the Lord saved him. He got
to looking in the Bible and he said he couldn't find what he
believed. He couldn't find what he'd been
taught. And he went to some fella and said, uh, said, I can't find
out, I can't find what I believed in the Bible. And the man said,
well, maybe it ain't there. Maybe it ain't there. Unlearning
things. That's difficult, ain't it? Unlearning
things. I was talking with a friend of
mine, Joe Wilson was his name, years ago. I was trying to remember
his name. And he and I were sitting and
talking at a conference, at Henry Mayhem's conference. And Joe
was telling me, I knew the church he grew up in. I knew his dad
was a sovereign grace preacher. And he said, Bruce, I could articulate
Calvinism. He said, I could articulate the
doctrines of grace. I put them right there and I
knew what they meant and everything. But he said, when the Lord convicted
me of sin, he said, I forgot all of that. He said, all I could
think about was, I was a sinner and Christ was the only Savior
that could save me. And he said, that's what I was
shut up to. And he said, when the Lord saved me, I had to learn
all that for myself. For myself. It wasn't just what
people told me, I had to learn for myself. That's what it means
to grow, isn't it? You grow in grace and you grow
in knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's not
always easy to lay aside family traditions, personal convictions,
wrong doctrines, but it's not easy, is it? My dad was a Free
Will Baptist preacher. And when the Lord saved me and
I began to read, it wasn't easy. It's sort of like when Remy,
he's not here this evening, but Remy, last, some of you may not
know this, around, I don't know, December sometime first this
year, he got a growing spurt. And he was coming up to me, and
I was hugging him, and he put his head right here on my chest.
Now, I looked that boy in the eye. And he was growing so fast,
they were having to take him to the doctor. His joints were
trying to pull away from each other. growing pains. It's the
same way in the spiritual life. There's some growing pains. When
you begin to learn of the Lord, there's some things you're going
to have to unlearn. And you know you'll do it if
you desire the sin-sealed miracle of the Word. It won't matter
what the family believed. It won't matter what the extended
family believed. It won't matter what your pastor
used to believe. It won't matter what you used
to believe. If your heart is craving this pure milk of His
Word to grow thereby, when you find it in there, and you've
proved it in there, you'll let go of tradition. You'll let go
of what mommy taught you, or daddy taught you, or cousin taught
you. I know that by experience. And it says it right here in
this. I imagine old Nicodemus sometimes. Bless his heart, he
was an old man. when he came to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord
told him about the new birth. He said, Can an old man enter
his mother's? Look at me! The flower's fallen. The stem is ready to wither.
Can I be born again? I think he was. I think he was
born again. But boy, when you begin to follow
him through the book of John, and the next time you see him,
he was sitting in the midst of the Sanhedrin. He belonged to
that. And boy, He began to stand against them. Remember that? When they opposed the Lord Jesus,
boy, He didn't know much about what He knew. What He knew, He
loved. And that's the way it is to grow.
Grow in grace and knowledge. But when you do that, when you
do that, it's not always easy. There's some struggles. There's
some struggle. Verse 3, look in verse 3. If
so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Peter quotes
this from Psalms chapter 34 and verse 8. And listen to how David
wrote it originally. David said, Oh, taste and see
that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. And Peter says here, if so be
that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And what they're
both telling us is this. You have to experience the Lord
to know what He's about. To understand grace, you have
to taste it. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is gracious. I can tell you about some delicious
food. Boy, that Hawaiian bread I made
with that tip, wasn't that delicious? Man, I can't believe I made that.
But if I'd have just told you, you'd have never believed what
a dish I made up. I could have tried to describe
to you how it tasted, and you'd have said, man, I bet that was
good. But you'll never know until you was back there and you tasted
that. And man, when you tasted that Hawaiian dish, you thought,
man, that is delicious. It's the same way of the Lord,
is it not? I can tell you how gracious He is, I can tell you
about His love, about how good He is, how freely and fully He
forgives, but until you come to Him and taste of Him yourself,
you can't really know. Boy, this is something you have
to know by experience. You have to know it by experience.
The reason some people don't love free grace is because they've
never had a hunger for it, and they've never tasted it, the
freeness of it. Those men in Luke chapter 7,
the Lord Jesus said that was in debt, and they had nothing
to pay, and He said He freely forgave them both. Freely. Grace is free. It's unmerited. It is unearned. Grace does not
have any debts to pay us. It does not have any obligations
to be fulfilled. There is nothing else that can
save a poor sinner but grace. But it is free grace. It is in
the heart of God. He can bestow it or withhold
it at its own pleasure. and not be indebted to us, or
be charged with any wrongdoing towards us. Grace is free, and
nothing else but free grace can save us. And when we learn that,
and we've tasted of this free grace, it becomes amazing to
us to taste it. If grace had to be married, then
none of you would be saved. I'd have no hope if it wasn't
free. Yeah, God don't give it to everybody.
I know that. I know that. And that's one of
the things that makes it precious, is it not? If He gave it to everybody,
it was everybody's without exception, it'd be so cheap. But it's not. It's not. It's free in the heart
of God to give at His own Pleasure. And boy, then when we come down
to realize, He saved me by His grace or I'm a goner. I've got
myself in trouble. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble.
I'm in deep trouble. And if He don't save me by His
grace that He doesn't owe me, then I'm a goner. And then we
taste of that grace. Oh my! It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Verse 4. Here in verses 4 through verse
10, let's look at them like this. Peter's going to say some things
here that's going to be very, very confident and encouraging,
especially to these scattered Jews. He was writing to some
Gentiles, but he was mainly writing to the scattered Jews. You find
that in chapter 1 in verse 1. These Jews put a lot of emphasis
on the temple at Jerusalem, and rightfully so. They rejoiced
when that temple was rebuilt, wept when it was destroyed, and
rejoiced when it was rebuilt. They put a lot of stock in the
priesthood, and rightfully so. But now, these Jews were scattered
They had been so persecuted because they believed in Christ. They
had been scattered all over the place. Some of them's goods had
been confiscated. They were ran out. They had no
access to the temple and they had no access to the priesthood
or the sacrifices. They were strangers in another
country. And now Peter was going to tell them of another temple
and another priesthood. apart from the physical temple
and apart from the Aaronic priesthood. So he begins here in verse 4
and he says it like this, speaking of the Lord Jesus that they had
tasted, to whom coming as unto a living stone. They were not
coming to the temple in Jerusalem. They were not coming to the priesthood
there at Jerusalem. They weren't bringing sacrifices.
As a matter of fact, they had left this temple. They had left
the Aaronic priesthood. They were in another country.
They were coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. But what those found out that
was still at Jerusalem was this. If you're going to come to Christ,
you're going to have to leave that temple. If you're going
to come to Christ, you're going to have to leave those sacrifices
and that priesthood. Hold second, hold 1 Peter and
look back to your left in Hebrews. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. And look in verse 9. Look in verse 9. Hebrews 13,
9. Be not carried about with divers. with various and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with what? Grace, free grace. Nothing else
will establish your heart. Not with meats, not with foods
which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, we have an
altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. They're still going to the priesthood,
offering those physical sacrifices, and that's what they're trusting
in, and not Christ. They have no right to eat of
Christ. The substance has come, and they're still looking at
the shadows. Christ is the substance. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the count. Now look at this. Wherefore,
Jesus also, that he might sanctify, set apart the people with his
own blood, he suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore
unto him without the count, barren is reproach. These people had been driven
out of their homes into strange lands. And Paul said, You are
coming to Christ by faith. And those people, your brethren
who are still up there at Jerusalem, they have to come out of the
temple too. They have got to get away from the priesthood
too when they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Herod built
this temple, this present temple of the New Testament, he laid
a cornerstone And he laid a foundation stone, and upon those stones
he built a temple. And the Jews brought sacrifices
to the priest in that temple. And Peter is saying here, another
cornerstone and another foundation has been laid, and it's a living
stone. He calls it a living stone. To
whom cometh as unto a living stone, and he quotes Verse 6,
he quotes out of Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16. And listen to
what Isaiah says. Behold, Isaiah lay in Zion for
a foundation, a stone, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. He shall not be confounded. He
shall not be ashamed. Who is that cornerstone? Who
is that foundation? That is Jesus Christ. Boy, they laid the cornerstone
there in that old temple Randy is talking about. And man, they
just rejoiced. From the day of the foundation.
It changed everything, he said. It changed everything. When they
laid that foundation, it changed everything. And boy, Christ is
the foundation, isn't He? Paul said, I've laid the foundation
and everybody else builds upon it. What is that foundation?
Christ and Him crucified. That's the foundation. He's the
life-giving stones. And then he says here in verse
5, look at this. Ye also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house." Each believer in Christ is a
temple of the Holy Ghost. God dwells in every believer. Your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit. And every believer is a living
stone in that glorious and holy temple of the Lord. Each individual
is a temple and when they are all stacked together and closely
knitted together, they as a group collectively grow unto a holy
temple in the Lord. Listen to Ephesians 2.21. in
whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto
that holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together
for the inhabitation of God through the Spirit." I'm looking at a
building. I'm looking at a holy temple.
Not this thing here. Ain't nothing holy about this.
This is dedicated to our worship place. But they're going to tear
this thing down in a few years. But this temple, these are lively
stones. And it's being knitted together
and built up. You know when Solomon built his
temple, you never heard a tool. There was no hammer. There's
no chisels. They did that outside of town. And when they brought
them in and fit them, every stone fit right together. What was
that a picture of? The church. The church. It's being formed without hands.
You can't hear any sounds going on. It's the work of the Lord.
Upon this rock I'll build my church. What rock? Peter? Well,
I sure hope not. It's going to be a weak rock
if it's Peter, isn't it? Christ is the rock. And he builds
the church upon himself. I'm going to build my church
upon this rock, and it's going to be so fitted and knitted together
that the gates of hell can't prevail against it. And Peter's
riding to these scattered Jews and Gentiles, and he said, you
Gentiles have no access to the temple anyway. You didn't bring
your sacrifices there anyway. And you poor Jews, you've been
scattered. You don't have any access. He said, don't be discouraged. You're partakers of a glorious
temple, a temple the Lord built, a spiritual house that He's built. I just can't see in the light
of these scriptures like this where it's ever going to be God's
will to rebuild a physical temple over in Palestine. Can you? I
just can't. What good would that do? This
is the glorious temple, this spiritual house. Can you imagine
going over there and building a big old temple out of old,
cold stones? And start offering sacrifices
again when the one sacrifice for sin has already been offered
and accepted? I just can't see it. Can you?
I just can't see it. I hope the Lord Spurgeon said
the Lord is going to gather the Jews, regather them and save
them, or save them and regather them. I hope he's right. And
I know you are too. I don't know anything about it.
But I hope the Lord is regathering those men over there to save
them. But I tell you, if He does, He's going to save them by the
Gospel. He's going to save them by faith through His grace. And
they're going to be in the spiritual body just like you and I are. And I can take that. I'll go
along with that. But to say He's going to rebuild
a temple and He's going to sit over there personally and men
are going to come there and sacrifice. I got a little money thanks to
my wife, but I ain't got enough money to go over there and sacrifice
and come back home every week, have you? That's the next thing
Peter's going to tell them here, too. You not only build up this
spiritual temple, but you're going to priesthood. Look here
what he tells them in verse 5, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5. He also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The Bible said Christ loved us
and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and listen to
this, and He hath made us kings and priests unto our God. Everybody who believes in Christ,
every newborn babe is a priest. I don't care if it's a male or
a female or a boy or a girl. And combined together, we are
a kingdom of priests. A holy, royal priesthood. Look what he said quickly in
verse 9. Look in verse 9. He went ahead
there in verse 7 and verse 8. He tells them basically, don't
worry that you've been rejected of these people that's putting
so much emphasis on the temple and the Aaronic priesthood. They've
excommunicated you. He said you in verse 7 and 8,
they did the same thing to the Lord Jesus. When he told them
that he was the foundation, they disallowed him. They said, we
won't have him. And they're still saying the
same thing now. So it's the same thing in man-made religion. I
don't care what age it is. They disallow the Son of God.
Won't have this man to reign over them. So he said, don't
worry about it. It's always been that way. It's
always been that way. And then he comes to verse 9,
and he says here in verse 9, and notice here everything that
the natural Jew claimed for themselves had been passed from them to
the Christians, to the believers. Here's what the Jews claimed
for themselves. They were a chosen people. But ye are a chosen generation. That's what the Jews claimed
for themselves, was it not? Well, sure it was, and rightfully
so, because God chose their father. I didn't choose you because you
were more number, because you were lovable. I chose you because
I loved you. Ain't that what He said? But
now, that's passed on from the physical seed of Abraham. It's
passed on now to the elect people, whether they're Jews or Gentiles.
Who is God's chosen people now? You've got those poor people
over there, and I feel for them because they're dying. They've
been persecuted. Hitler killed six million of
them. But when people say, those are God's chosen people, you
don't look at the physical aspect or standing or nationality and
say, that's God's chosen people. It was that way of the Old Testament.
But here Peter comes and he tells these believers, now you are
a chosen generation. And now we look at God's elect
from this standpoint, those He chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world. They are the chosen generation,
Jews and Gentiles. You are a chosen generation. And look at this, you are a royal
priesthood. This is what He told the Jews.
about them being the royal priesthood. Listen to Exodus 19 and 6. And
you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. The natural Jew lost that. Did
they not? Aaron and all his descendants
made up the Aaronic priesthood. If you were a priest, you had
to be out of Aaron's household. You know they lost all of that?
And the Lord said, I'm going to give this to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof. They lost that. And now, who
are the priests? Every believer. And they make
up this royal priesthood. And look at what else He said.
Not only that you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
but look at this. You are a holy nation. That's what the Lord said about
the Jews. I've chosen you to be a holy nation unto Me. Who
does that belong to now? That's the church. That's the
church, is it not? Makes up one nation, one gospel,
one people. He takes His elect people from
every nation, every family, every tribe, and He brings them together
and He says, You're one holy nation. One nation. And look what else he said, this
is something else, he told the Jews this. A peculiar people. This is what God said to Jews
in Exodus 19.5, listen to this. Now therefore, if you will obey
my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all the people that are upon the face
of the earth. But they didn't obey his voice,
did they? They didn't obey that covenant. And Hebrews chapter
8 says that covenant was made void. It was done away with.
And the Lord made a new covenant with the true house of Israel,
with the true Jew, the inward Jew. Now he is a peculiar person. Listen to what John Gill said
about this word peculiar. He said God's true chosen, God's
elect are a peculiar people. to whom He bears a peculiar love. They are chosen by Him to be
a special people above all others, and they have peculiar blessings
bestowed on them, and peculiar care is taken of them. They are the Lord's. They are
His treasures, His jewels, His portion, His inheritance. and
therefore He will preserve and save them. They are a people
He has purchased for Himself with the precious blood of His
own Son. They are the true church which
God has purchased with His own blood. They are His purchased
possession, Ephesians 1.14. They are His redeemed ones, purified
ones. They are His peculiar people
that are zealous of good. Peculiar people. You're peculiar. You'd never say that about yourself,
would you? I'm peculiar all right, aren't you? But this is what
He said about you. You're My people. I chose you. I've redeemed you. I've called
you. I've paid such a price for you. And now I dwell in you.
And I'm watching over you. And I'm blessing you. And I'm
keeping you. And I've given you these exceeding great and precious
promises. You're peculiar. You're peculiar. And He says here that you should
show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness. Boy, the Jews of old, they were
certainly a clear type of the church today. But the darkness
God called them out of, that Egyptian darkness and that Egyptian
bondage, that's really nothing compared to what He's called
us out of, is it? They're called out of that iron
furnace of slavery. Man, He's called us out of the
kingdom of darkness. And we couldn't get out of it.
There's help captive by Pharaoh. You and I's help captive by Satan
and sin. And He brought us out. He called
us out. And why did He do that? To show
forth the praises of Him that has called us out of darkness
to His marvelous light. And He said here in verse 10,
which in time past, you were not a people, but you're now
the people of God. We weren't His people by redemption.
They were always His people by election. Thy people shall be
willing on the day of thy power. His name shall be called Jesus.
He shall save His people. He's always had these people.
But He's not always possessed them, has He? He chose them and
they're His by election, but until He possesses them, He don't
call them His. The Lord gave the land of Canaan
to Abraham. And He said, Abraham, it's yours.
I gave it to you. But they didn't really claim
it until they came and possessed it. And that's all this is talking
about. Now you're His by new birth.
You're His by possession. May God bless His Word. Lord,
we do thank You. Our gracious and kind Father,
for letting us open your blessed Bible and speak these words that
the Holy Ghost gave us long, long ago. And they're just as
fresh and true today as they was when you first gave them.
They're just as true to us in our day as they were to the early
church in their day. Your word never falls to the
ground. You'll never fail in one of your promises. Your word
never changes. Oh, we bless you for your word.
Thank you for an opportunity to come here and preach it and
listen and rejoice and sing unto you. Thank you for this Lord's
Day. It's been a blessed day to us and out in eternity I'm
sure we'll remember this day that you've made and give us
an opportunity to gather and worship you. Thank you, Lord,
for your children. Thank you for their love for
you. Thank you for their determination. the resolve to follow you by
your grace. And we pray for the days ahead.
We pray that we may be honest and sincere with you, may be
honest one with another. And shine through us, Lord, your
people in this world. And watch over us this week and
keep us from falling. We ask these things for your
glory.