“The Case for Christ: - K/God: People of God”

Through the prophet, Isaiah, in Isa 55:11, God spoke these words: ‘So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.’ 

Last week, with this one, underlying thought as the basis, we briefly looked at how John brought forth ‘treasures new and old’ from the covenant reminder of God dwelling with men, they as His people, and He, their God.  

Tonight, let us look into Peter’s writings to see how Peter did likewise in regard to this same passage in Lev 26:11-12. 

This is found in 1 Peter 2 so keep your Bibles open to this passage and follow along with me, if you like.

In reading through his letters, Peter gave ample evidence of the enduring and permanent character of the Word spoken by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

He used a number of Old Testament images and phrases to bring this forth.

His message told of the truth of the Word that God spoke, that Word that accomplished what God desired and which succeeded in the reasons He sent it.  

His Word that He spoke is the very expression of truth itself, so it could not fail!

Thus, Peter could say with emphasis about the ‘new’: ‘The Word of God endureth forever’ (1 Peter 2:25), a reiteration of Isa 40:8: ‘The word of our God shall stand forever.’

And, so, he could start his letter by giving the ‘new’ perspective on God’s plan of salvation when he explained his reason for writing in 1 Pet 1:10-12.

There he wrote: ‘Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He [the Spirit] predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but [they were serving] you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven...’. 

Peter was telling his readers that the Spirit of God had been directing the prophets who were searching so carefully for the salvation God promised His people.

They were told it was coming through Christ and, although they personally would not ‘see’ it, yet they were repeating the message for the sake of others.

It was the salvation God spoke of in Isa 51:16 about Christ: ‘And I have put My words into thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundation of the earth, and say unto Zion, ‘Thou art My people’. 

For this new world of righteousness and salvation, God would use a practical and sure way to acknowledge Zion as His people. 

The effect of those words that were put in the mouth of His Servant was His work, both in heaven and earth, of the ingathering of a people to whom He could say, ‘Thou art My people.’

How did Peter say Christ did that?

Look at 1 Pet 1:19-21 - 1 Pet 1:19-21.

Concerning this ‘new’ way of securing people as God’s people, Peter said of it: ‘...redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Who, by Him [Christ], do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.’

Peter identified the ‘people’ God was gathering in.

He saw it was Christ bringing a people who God was calling unto Himself, making them His people, as He was moving His history of redemption onward.

The suffering Servant of God, of Isa 53, had been cut off from the land of the living, ‘being put to death in the flesh’ (in 1 Pet 3:18), by offering Himself as the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for the expiation of sin.

That was the word God spoke in Isa 53:10: ‘Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief, when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.’

The effect of that offering was that Christ would see His own ‘seed’, the multitude of people He has redeemed, ‘the church...elected together with you’, as Peter told his readers in 1 Pet 5:13.

Thus - Peter saw how the word God spoke was absolutely effectual in the gathering in of God’s people.

The power of God’s word had been made known by the revelation of His Son’s work, Who, in the practical of giving Himself as the sacrificial lamb, made the people of Zion, God’s people. 

That powerful Word founded the ‘new’ of Christ’s church: it was the ‘new’ community springing out from God’s salvation program through His Son.

The images and phrases that were applied in the ‘old’ to ancient Israel now applied to the ‘new’ people of the present church.

This is the ‘seed’ that was promised for Christ to see: God’s offspring that now ‘lived and moved and has its being’ in God through Christ.

If He had died and remained dead, there would be no ‘people of God’, no ‘church of the redeemed’.

But, because of His death, there came that awe-filled, animating power that brought His church into being!

For death could not hold Him so as the resurrected, living One, He sees His own seed.

So, Peter spoke of God’s people as ‘being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible [seed], by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.’ (1 Pet 1:23)

And, going on into chapter 2, these people are now ‘lively stones’, drawing liveliness from the ‘living Stone’.

And each stone is being fitted into the ‘building’, or the spiritual church: ‘...built up into a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.’

This is what makes Christianity a ‘community’ made up of individual believers who have been brought together as God’s people. 

And - let me just say this as an aside: the individual Christian is the one who finds his true place only when he is being ‘built’ into the ‘building’ in the form of a ‘living stone’.

The effectiveness of the Church is realized in standing shoulder to shoulder with those of the like-mindedness of Christ. 

The one who thinks of himself as too spiritual, too superior, or too ‘anything else’ to be ‘built’ into the church’s ‘building’ is contradicting the word God has spoken of His ‘people’. 

It is the community that is told, in 1 Peter 2:9: ‘...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.’

Peter spelled out the character of the Christian community in this verse. 

Its character is identified as being ‘chosen’, ‘a royal priesthood’, and a ‘holy nation’.

Let us look into each very briefly.

How have the people of God been chosen?

His people have been ‘called out of darkness into the marvelous light’ of Christ.

Since He is the light of the knowledge of God, in Him, there is both the vision and the power to be God’s people.  

His church has been lifted from a scattered place of non-entity and insignificance to the most significant place in the kingdom of God, for it has been chosen to be the ‘one new man’ to do His work in the world.

And, let me quickly say this in another ‘aside’ comment: in the light of this tremendous significance, no Christian is an ordinary person!

He may seem like an ordinary person, and certainly feel like an ordinary person, but - without dragging this into earthly pride - he has been born from above and has a new value upon his life: he belongs to God.

He has been given a character into which he now is encouraged and admonished to grow as a lively stone into the building.

I hope that will sink in. Let me say it again: no Christian, who has been so redeemed by the blood and power of God in Christ, can be considered ‘an ordinary man’

No - a thousand times, no! He is a ‘man of God’, an ‘offspring’ of the King of the entire universe! 

With such a character within, his conduct will, and must, fall in line as he moves forward in God’s kingdom.

The church has been chosen to this end.

Now - let us go on to the church called a ‘royal priesthood’.

How are the people of God a royal priesthood?

The people of God have an inherited right to God at all times and under all circumstances.

In ancient Israel, only a certain class, the professional priests, has the right to direct access to God on behalf of God’s people.

And, even for that, they needed to make strict and scrupulous preparations before entering into His presence.  

But through Jesus Christ, the new and living way, the people of God come to God directly.

And - since Christ is the Tabernacle, the church goes before Him as one.

Together, they make spiritual offerings before Him in worship, in intercession and prayer, in service unto Him, and in just a complete giving of themselves unto Him.

The church functions as one ‘royal priesthood’. 

And, lastly, the church is termed ‘a holy nation’.

And how are the people of God a ‘holy nation’?

The true people of God are the only ones who dedicate themselves unto His will and His service and thus are given the name of ‘saints’.

The name makes no claim to any special purity: it only means a distinct separation unto God in holiness of character.

God’s whole character is a majestic holiness that we are unable to mentally conceive, so, since He is holy, He is far, far above us in holiness. 

The classical Greek word for ‘holy’ means ‘to consecrate’: so, basically, holiness for us is ‘consecration’, being ‘set apart unto God’.

That is, I can say ‘I am holy’, not as being pure as God is pure and holy, but as being set apart by virtue of Christ in me as being the ‘Holy One’ standing before God with me hidden in Him.

Since we are given up to Him, in union with Him, all of His cleansing powers flow into us, and clothe us with His righteousness.

So that, He in us draws us away from flirting with the evils of this world and from submitting to them as we submit to that power of Christ drawing us away from them.

Other communities and other people follow other standards or a mixture of standards, but God’s people follow only God’s standards.

So the idea of ‘a holy nation’ for the church has the element of full, unreserved consecration to God, of separation from the world and from sin, of being ’at home’ in Him.

Thus, God does not hesitate to call the church, ‘His people’, ‘a holy nation’.

Then, Peter went on to tell the church: ‘Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

He applied the thought God spoke to Hosea in 2:23, when He said: ‘...I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, ‘Thou art My people’; and they shall say, ‘Thou art My God.’

His people are His very own, belonging to God, ‘...bought with a price’, His precious possession.

Since they have secured righteousness before God and since they have holiness of life with God, they are under the discipline of His commandments, under the guidance of His holy arm.

It is He Who trains and guides them to the holiness and to the glory of the divine life that is hidden within.

The day is coming when His glory will be fully manifested both in the glorification of His chosen people and in the deliverance of the whole creation from the bondage of its current corruption. 

And for that, we can wholeheartedly say - ‘Praise God!’

And, now - we come to our part in this reciprocal possession - and - I will close with this.

How does His church respond to this reciprocal possession?

Peter lifted from the ‘old’ God’s desire when He formed His people: ‘...My chosen people, the people whom I have formed for Myself so that they might declare My praise!’ (Isa 43:21)

And he repeated it when he spoke of the church, by saying:
‘...you are a people...that should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you...’.

This ‘new’ people, His ‘new creation’, has come home! The last Adam has united with the bride, and together, they live in and enjoy the Kingdom of God, both now, and will also in the future age!

And when the groom and his bride come home, there is always a feast, a celebration, a rejoicing.

Although the bride does not yet see Him with the physical eyes, she believes and ‘rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ (1 Pet 1:8)

So - the church, because of this amazing, glorious reciprocal possession, shows forth the praises of God! 

Praises - praises declaring His glory, praises declaring His Name, praises declaring His righteousness - praises fill every corner of the church and lift its rafters high!

The church lives to His glory and ‘shows forth the honor of His Name and makes His praise glorious!’ for - we are His people, and He is our God!

His Word, in the ‘new’ and in the ‘old’ has declared it so! 

Amen.

Let us pray.