66 remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again." Surely after this we shall see this people established in the faith? They will surely walk in His ways and submit to His guidance! Listen! "How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy." We read of the manifestation of judgment after judgment upon their enemies, and the display of JEHOVAH'S disapprobation of His people's crooked ways, yet they are still the same, obstinate and incorrigible. Look at Psalm cvi. There you have a recital of God's mercies and Israel's miseries. We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt: they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known." I might multiply passages to prove the utter sinfulness of God's ancient people Israel, but one more must suffice. Turn with me to Isaiah i. 4: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward." No nation so favoured as Israel, and none so obstinate and perverse. 66 Let us now look at David's bright view of Israel as a nation loved of the Lord, upon which was conferred marvellous privileges and immunities. See how it is mentioned in Psalm xxxiii. 12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance." For the experimental possession of the privileges of this nation, the Psalmist prays: That I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance" (Psa. cvi. 5). You see the elect, the nation, and the inheritance are the same. Now turn to Psa. cxlvii. 19, 20: "He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them." Here we have a spiritual nation and a spiritual King. A people governed, ruled, and guided by JEHOVAH'S own laws, statutes, and ordinances, spiritually communicated by His own power. What nation is this? Turn to 1 Peter ii. 9, where you will find something in perfect agreement with that which I have declared unto you: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood"—or a kingdom of priests-" an holy nation "--that is, a nation separated, distinct, selected, elected, and set apart by God Himself "a peculiar, or purchased people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." Time would fail me to take you through the previous portions of this epistle, descriptive of the characters of those who comprise this holy, elect nation of God. Just a hint or two. In the first verse they are addressed as 66 strangers scattered." And are they not so to this day? They are elect. According to what? Not according to what God saw they would be, as some who murder God's glorious truth declare. No! It is, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Not according to that Arminian gloss which I have often noticed of late-that is, our obedience because of the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is no such thing, but the obedience as well as the blood of Jesus for them. They are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. They are heirs of an incorruptible inheritance. They are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation. Sometimes they rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Sometimes they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. They rejoice in the experience of the preserving power of God, while they are in heaviness because of the trial of their faith. They see Him not with the eye of sense, yet they rejoice in the sight of Him by the eye of faith. They receive the end of their faith, which is not damnation, after the Arminian fashion, but salvation all of grace. They are born again by the Word and Spirit of God. Look at the first verse of chap. ii., and see if you have been brought this way. If you have not, I hope you will be before long. "Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocricies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby. We come across a tribe of cold Calvinists who will talk fluently of the doctrines of grace, but who are destitute of the grace of the doctrines as stated in this first verse. Now, say some of you, you are laying something upon our shoulders; but have you touched it with one of your fingers? My dear friends, I have touched it with my whole soul, and in the experience of that touch I have known, felt, and mourned over my weakness, infirmity, and inability. I will tell you where we are brought into the sweet apprehension of our oneness with the Spirit's teaching in this portion. It is when we are led by the Spirit to gloomy, dark Gethsemane, to the judgment hall, to the cursed cross of Calvary, and are made to feel our spiritual oneness with Him who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. But see! These persons are coming. It is not, they have come, nor, they shall come, but, "To whom coming." The full-blown professor-he who would have us believe that, by a stock of grace in hand, he is able to control the world, the flesh, and the devil-will boast of his having come. But mark the language of Peter, which is that of all the subjects of this holy nation, and is in the present tense: "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious; ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." A little further on we read: "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious "-or, an honour-" 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 a Rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed; but ye are a holy nation." David's mind being led by the blessed Spirit into a spiritual view of this people, thus cries out, in wonder and admiration: "And what one nation in the earth is like Thy people, even like Israel?" God's Israel. The Israel of God. We hear much of patriotism in the present day. Well, I should not like to feel second to any one in love to my native land. We hear much of nationalities, and in every direction we hear of men arming to the teeth in defence of their own country; but, my dear friends, here is the question, Whence comest thou? To what nation dost thou belong? How many of us can look up and, by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, say: "Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. iii. 20, 21). The people of that country are loved with an everlasting love, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, provided with every mercy, comfort, and consolation needful during their journey home, and for whom "all things "-not some things" work together for good." See! Does famine stare the nations of the earth in the face? Does war ravage and make desolate fair provinces? Does pestilence produce woe and lamentation? Here we have a people never to be hurt or destroyed by any earthly or hellish influence. Of this nation we can sing with Dr. Watts,— "Israel, a name divinely blest, On thee foul spirits have no power; And, in thy last departing hour, Angels that trace the airy road, Shall bear thee homeward to thy God." The subjects of this nation are washed from all sin in precious atoning blood. The King clothes them in durable clothing, which waxes not old, and in which they shall appear in that glory land which He has provided for them. Blessed be His holy name, for He brings them to hunger and thirst after Him, and they shall be filled with the good things with which this nation abounds. The poor in spirit shall know that there are riches of grace and of glory in this kingdom for them. The inhabitants of this land of grace may well exclaim, with David: "And what one nation in the earth is like Thy people, even like Israel?" Though enemies abound on every hand, though dangers lurk at every step, though doubts and fears swallow up the spirits of the subjects of this nation, though the sounds of war, death, and desolation are heard on every hand, yet the glorious fact spoken by Israel's covenant God holds good: "For will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her" (Zech. ii. 5). When the true Israelites arrive at that dread spot-when the spiritual training shall cease, when their school-days are for ever over, when they shall pass away from the earthly to the heavenly, to be eternally associated with Him, when their quivering spirits shall fear to tread the dark threshold which separates between this state of death and yonder state of life-then the precious promise of their God and King will be verified in their heart's experience: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour" (Isa. xliii. 2, 3). II. A GLORIOUS REDEMPTION-"Whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name." A redeemed people. We have this set before us in promise and in prophecy, in history and in type. We have redemption unfolded in the first fifteen chapters of Exodus. Here we see a chosen people brought into bondage. As I have often told you, the truth and spirit of the book of Genesis is election, while the book of Exodus sets forth the redemption of the people elected. God's ancient people Israel, in His never-failing providence, were taken down into Egypt. We are all acquainted with their enmity and sin against Joseph, yet an over-ruling providence was manifested through the whole transaction. Turn to Gen. xlv. 5: "Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life." You sold me; but God sent me. Again: "And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God." Do you like that? I do. God over all things for His people. Yes, God reigns over all their infirmities, sins, and transgressions. He reigns over every sin, and over all evil committed in this wretched world, to show forth the glory of His grace in the salvation and glorification with Himself 66 of an eternally-loved and chosen people. You have this in the words of the text, "to redeem for a people to Himself." This is the nation before which all others sink into insignificance. Look at it as described in Psa. cxlviii. 14: He also exalteth the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him," by sovereign decree, by eternal election, by personal redemption. In the place of their bondage they cried and sighed. Turn with me to Exodus ii. 23-25: "And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto Unto what? Our translators have added the word "them;" but He had respect unto His covenant. You see this set forth in the plea of the Psalmist in Psa. lxxiv. 20: "Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." Israel in Egypt sighed and cried for deliverance, and God having respect to His covenant came down in a succession of judgments against the Egyptians. Pharaoh's heart was hardened by the judgments of Israel's God, and that to such an extent as to hurry him and his people on to destruction in the waters of the Red Sea. Israel was free, and on the wilderness shores of the Red Sea sang the praises of their redeeming God. See Exod. xv. 13: "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation." Again, in the 16th verse: “Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which Thou hast purchased." But all this is typical of the glorious redemption accomplished by the Surety of the covenant, by the King of this nation, who was styled in derision, "THE KING OF THE JEWS." It is blessed to notice that there was eternal truth in this derisive taunt. He was, He is, and He ever will be, "The King of the Jews." Every Jew owns and acknowledges it to be gloriously true. Every Jew? say you. I thought all the Jews looked upon our Lord Jesus Christ as an impostor. No such thing, all the Jews own and acknowledge Him to be the true Messiahall the Jews own and acknowledge Him to be King in Zion— all the Jews own and acknowledge Him to be the King of nations and God of the whole earth. This is something more than being king over an accursed strip of ground in Asia. Let me ask you, Who are the Jews? The Holy Ghost by Paul answers the question: "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh." must not think that all those wretched money-grubbers are Jews You |