Main idea: God is making a people for Himself, to love and rule through the Son by the Holy Spirit.
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Good morning, friends, so good to see you all this morning and this last week, a number of us were at shepherd's conference getting refreshed, and we are so thankful for that time the shepherd conference messages are all online. I would encourage you go through listen to General Sessions. They'll really encourage you the emphasis on being a witness for Christ to the ends of the earth. We had a wonderful time. Thank you for your faithful generosity to the church. As a result, we have a budget to go to be fed at a conference, so you helped us get some feeding too, and we thank you for all of that. I also want to add my welcome if you are newer with us. I would love to meet you if I haven't yet, and we want you to get connected to the church so you can see somebody at the information center. I'd love to talk to you after love to tell you about Jesus. If you don't know about Jesus, we we love him, and we want you to know Him. We are working through a particular emphasis as elders this year on helping you know God by knowing your Bible better. And we always do that. We're always teaching the Bible, but in particular, we want to help you get your arms around the big picture plan of the Bible, and we've been making emphasis how to read different portions of the Bible called genre like history or poetry. We've had some equipping hours at that, on our growth group nights, we've had super group, as I like to call it here, for that, one of the tools that we have made up Mark Mark Frankian made up the super helpful tool, tool as an overview of the Bible. And what I really want you to be able to do is wherever you're reading in the Bible, you'll know where it fits in the big story, where it's all going or where it's come from. If you don't have one of these little charts, I encourage you there at the information center on the way out, and you could grab one of those to help you do that, because God reveals Himself in His Word, and His Word as we look at it changes us and helps us today, I have taken on the task to tell the whole story of the Bible in one message. Yeah, good luck. I asked seminary profs like, which 10 passages would you pick? And they say, I don't want the assignment. And and you know, if anybody could read through the Bible Story Line for us quickly, be Nathan Thiry. And even that's even that's hard for hard for him to do. And one so we have to be selective and follow a theme. So for our scripture reading, we're going to start at the end, where we're going to get to as we follow that story. And it's in Revelation, chapter seven, and I'm going to read nine through 17. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. And just as you know, as we do in our order of service, when I say this is the word of the Lord, and you say, Thanks be to God, you're going to really say it from this passage, this is where we are headed, and it is awe inspiring and hope, giving Revelation, chapter seven, nine through 17. After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Lord and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to The lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders. There the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, Amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorch. Heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is the word of the LORD God we thank you, our Father, Lord Jesus, our Savior, Holy Spirit, our illuminator and comforter, we praise you this morning, you reveal yourself in your word, and you use your spirit to make it alive in our hearts. Do so today, help us see the grand scope of your plan. In making a people for yourself through Jesus Christ and I pray in doing that you would help us know who we are, where we fit in the world, where we are going. Give us hope, give us confidence, give us repentance, give us trust, Father, I pray that You would help me. There is a lot to select from. We want to honor your word and say it as it is, and just the selection of passages leaves a person vulnerable. Which ones to keep, which ones to leave out. And so God, I pray that You would help help me truly followed this theme, and we pray that it would affect us all as a church, at the practicality of reading our Bibles better, knowing where we are, where things are going in your story, but our lives, where where we are, where we're going, is so crucial. So I pray for that there are some here who just don't know the Bible story. This is the first time they're hearing it. Help it be understandable for them. Use, use your word help. Help empower my speech and focus my speech. I do pray for our city. We, we look at the lost who need to be saved, and we, we mourn. We long for them, and this message that we're talking about today is the good news they need to hear. So I pray that you would be at work in us, preparing us to go out in this little circle, this five minute circle. I think of churches really close to us, like City Church up on garland, or first church up on Maple just up the hill from us. We pray for their faithful proclamation and faithful testimony by their lives of your saving grace. Give them, give them great success by your spirit in in proclaiming and witnessing in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. I recently was out with Linda and I heard a super tramp song over the house music. Now, you've got to be a child of the early 80s to even recognize the name Supertramp, but it was an early 80s pop band I used to have their album. It was great. I looked over to Lynn, I used to love these guys, and she says, We've been married for 34 years, and I never knew. I'm like, Honey, there's some things you didn't need to know now you do. And so we got in the car and we pulled up the Spotify playlist to listen to some of the songs. Like one of my favorite was one called the logical song. Now, if you're a child of the early 80s, you could think about it. And then I was thinking about it because the chorus has a message, but I was just thinking about the only person at Faith Bible Church who could hit the final part of the chorus, which Todd Clark, like he could. He could do that. He's up in the choir here, but, but here's the line. Some of you would go way back and remember this. The the chorus line is, there are there are times when all the world's asleep and the questions run too deep for such a simple man, won't you? Please, please tell me what we've learned. I know it sounds absurd. Please tell me who I am. Tell me who I am, or as the songs like, who I am, who I am. You know, it's all the emotion of an 80s ballad song in there. Who am I? I mean, here's a pop group asking this question, Who am I? Like we have all the modern education I still don't even know who I am. It's a question everybody asks all of life, you're never going to answer that question by starting with yourself, because you you will never exist by yourself, and you will never exist for yourself. And we all know how it feels. Let's say you're 13, public school, homeschool Co Op. You show up at Tech Am I one of the athletes? Am I one of the Tech Club? Am I one of the theater kids do? Who Am I? Where do I belong? Let's say you're 33 you're a stay at home. Mom, 33 you're a career. Mom,
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you're asking the question, Who am I? You've got your career. Am I a manager, an independent contractor? Am I a parent or a single Am I infertile? Different take on the questions, am am I an immigrant, a resident a third culture? Don't belong anywhere. Let's say you're 60 3am. I a grandparent, military veteran, a boat owner? Am I part of the motor home community? Got my motor home touring around the country from koa campground to koa campground. Who am I? Social identities shape our lives. They shape our goals. They shape our spending. We try to figure out how we fit in. But I just want to say it again, you can't really define who am I until you answer this question, whose am I? Whose am I? Who do I belong to? The Bible is God's word of grace to tell you this truth, according to Genesis, one, you belong to God, because in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and He created you. You are a creature, and you exist by God's power. For his purposes. God's made you according to Genesis, one, he's commissioned you to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, to represent him as his image bearer. And you did not, and do not make yourself. He made you to represent his rule over all things. But in Genesis three, we learn there was an entrance of an arch enemy, a great deceiver, the serpent, who told Adam and Eve that you can define your own life as you wish. You can make your own rules. In fact, you can be your own God. But in Genesis four through 11, we find out how that turns out. Keynes, jealousy of his brother turned into murder. La Max, touchy life turned him into a extremely vengeful gangster type leader, Genesis five, everybody dies. Genesis, six, you could be your own God. You can make your own rules, which has meant that every intent and thought of a man's heart is evil from his birth, and the world is in a kind of anarchical chaos. Violent God decides, for his sovereign reasons, to wipe the earth clean and bring a flood of judgment on all those and He preserves Noah and his sons, and he restarts the nations grow quickly. Chapter 10, they spread all over the earth. In chapter 11, Oh, bad again, the nations gather together. They're going to make their own name for themselves, and they are going to resist God's purpose for them. And last week, we saw in Genesis 12, the storyline become clear, God calls Abram out of idolatry to follow Him, and we find this plan of God. And here's the big idea, here's the big idea of the whole Bible. God is making a people for Himself to love and rule. We add some phrases to it. God the Father is making a people for Himself through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit to love and rule for His glory, God's making a people for Himself, and they are to come from every tribe, tongue and nation. It's going to start with Abram. It's going to start with one country, Israel. It's going to focus down into one person, this offspring of Abram, and then it's going to spread to the whole world. So as we're thinking about the Bible Story Line, we have to ask. Why it matters, and it matters because we're always asking the question, Who am I? And we can't answer that until we answer the question, whose am I? Who do I belong to? And here's this question for you, Whose are you? Who do you belong to? Are you the deceivers? Are you the devils? Do you want to live under a happy deception and then face destruction forever? Are you gods? Are you the Redeemers? Do you want to live with him now and forever under his loving rule, his righteous rule? That's what the storyline of the Bible is about. We're going to unpack about 10 verse 10 passages. Actually, we're not going to unpack anything. We're going to look at a couple of peaks of mountains. We don't have time to unpack anything. We will try to see the plain speech of Scripture answer us the question three stages. I'm going to use Mark Frankian theme, Promises, promises made, promises kept, and promises still to come. But I do want to push you one way or the other. I want to push you one way or the other, I want to push you to trust Him and follow Him, or push you to say no, like I want you to make a choice in understanding what this storyline is, and I really pray that you would be pushed to trust and fear, repent and believe, watch and work as these promises come to clarity. So first, we're taking three parts. First we look at the promises made, in particular the call as we see these promises, this is going to be the biggest part of the point, because the Old Testament is the biggest part of the story, to trust and fear, the promises God has made. There are promises to trust and there are promises to fear. I'll show you right away what it means. After God created the world and the garden, Satan entered and deceived, Adam and Eve willingly sinned, and they were promised that when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil, that's the tree that says you can make up your rules and live how you want. When they did that, they would die and as God promised they they died spiritually. Eventually they died physically, just as God promised, they were judged. But the storyline of the Bible displays in plain view sinful man willingly deceived by the devil. You're just gonna see that that's one major side of it. And the first promise after the fall was to the devil. Satan is the first receiver of a promise, and the first promise is, I'm going to kill you. Genesis 315 start there. You have paper Bible. Start there. And then we're just going to work our way to the end, skipping some chapters, of course, along the way, God's first promise after sin was to the devil, and that's good news for the sinner. Genesis, 315, God says to the serpent, the deceiver, to Satan, I will put enmity between you and the woman. Part of the story line that's going to go along is that Satan is going to have a family, the woman's going to have a family. There is going to be a battle the woman, as people hold up to God's promises. There is going to be the redeemed and there is going to be the fallen. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. It goes from the general to the specific, and the storyline of the Bible follows this pretty well. God's going to redeem a people from Eve's line. He's going to have mercy, but there's always going to be a war between the redeemed and forgiven and the deceived and the rebellious. And this promise points to a very specific victory. One great descendant will come. He will crush and conquer Satan. And the language is very powerful. Eve your special descendant will crush your head. You will bite his heel. The crushing of the head is actually going to come at the biting of the heel. Venomous snake bites the person dies. By a death, the deceiver will be killed. We know where that story is going. By the death of Messiah, Satan's
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Satan's power will be defeated. This is a story about a victor. The death of the seed of Eve would be the death of Satan and his followers. There's an asymmetrical reality. There is a seed, a specific person that Eve has, it's in her line, and then there is a whole population in Satan's line. It's asymmetrical. It's not like Satan has his own. You know, false Christ doesn't happen. There is the whole of this, people who are fighting against God and God's people. And you have to ask the question right at the start, Whose are you? Do you belong to the victor or the deceiver? Do you think you can live on your own the way you want, with no consequences? If so, you are deceived? Are you united to the offspring of Eve who promises victory or the devil who promises death? From there, the promises expand, turn to the right turn all the way to Genesis 17, seven through eight. There are three distinct large promises to Abram eventually becoming Abraham. Last week, we saw the first set of those in Genesis 12, Abram would would be rescued or called out of Ur of the Chaldees. He would be called out of Babylon. He would go from one of Satan's children, offspring to one of God's he's an idolater. He's not a godly man. He's not a righteous man. He's not like Noah. He's an idolater who is called in reasonably old age to now become a child of God and be honored by being the progenitor of another seed. And that promise, as we looked at last week, included the blessing of the whole earth. God is making a people for Himself through a special seat. Genesis, 12, seven talks about a specific descendant that we know in the finish of the Bible is Jesus. Jump to 17, seven through eight, because I want to now pick up this theme that we want to run through. God is making a people for Himself through this offspring. And he says this, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. And he's talking specifically about Israel that's about to be formed to be God to you and to your offspring after you, and I will give to you and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Notice this, and I will be their God. There's a way you can write it that happens over and over in the Scripture, I will be their God. They will be my people. Or it's reversed. Sometimes, they will be my people. I will be their God. God is making a people for Himself through this seed, Jesus Christ. It's the first official statement where you understand this whole package God is making a people for Himself. The second stage would be extended to the nations. The Canaanites will appear as the devil's offspring. All seven of the nations that make up this land area called Canaan will either deceive or oppose Israel, and God will send Israel to conquer eventually, he will conquer all sin and death. Israel did enter, but they didn't keep the land because of their sin. There's a promise to his son Isaac and his grandson, Jacob, they're promised to be resurrected and possess the land one day. These are all forward looking, 430 years later, Moses leads the people out of Egypt. In between, a man named Joseph rises up. He ends up getting sold into slavery. He's raised by special circumstances to be God's prime or Pharaoh's Prime Minister. Israel, Jacob's offspring move. They grow into a multitude. They become slaves. And then we get our third, our third bullet point, Israel, God's going to make a commitment to Israel. We have a commitment to about the victor. We have a commitment to Abraham. Now we have a. A whole nation, Israel, Exodus, 19 four after God had rescued them through 10 plagues, through the Red Sea, bringing them now to Sinai. He stands them all together, and he says that this to them, you yourselves, have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings, which is this beautiful picture of a mother Eagle carrying her chick effortlessly. Effortlessly. I mean, you see an eagle fly, it's effortless. And I brought you to myself. Remember, God's making people for Himself Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. You shall be My treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine. And you shall be to Me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And that we have this grand purpose, started in Abraham, starting in the in the garden, to reach all the nations, that there is going to be a key people. And there's two things you should look at a kingdom of priests. Priests are mediators. Priests are worshipers, and by Israel's existence, their charge was to show the world who the real king is. But there's another addition here, there to be a holy nation. God is a holy God. His people need to be a holy people. Israel was to be faithful, to serve as a witness to the holiness, to the sovereign power, to the grace of God. And we find that God's people must share an essential quality of God Himself, holiness. God's people are to be holy, set apart pure, holy people repent from sin. They seek to obey God's Wise rules. They worship God only, and under this covenant, idolatry and disobedience would be judged. God's making a people. He's making a holy people, even in the chapters expanding the institution of this nation, Israel, as worshipers of Yahweh, we find right away that Israel will not be able to obey we're told in Deuteronomy, you're going to go away, you're going To be exiled. I will have to punish you until you have a new heart. Which leads us to the next bullet. Promises to trust the Holy God. Promises the Holy Spirit and a new heart on all people, it's going to be Jews and Gentiles, since God's plan from the beginning is to gather a people for Himself from all nations. Israel's failures went on for 800 years, 800 years, and actually it went on longer than that. God sent Babylon, one of Satan's offspring, to punish Israel, to take them into exile. And God always uses the unusual things to get Israel's attention. And so Israel was in exile under a prophet named Ezekiel. Turn way to the right. You skip a bunch of books to a bunch of major prophets. You Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Daniel, like if you're in there, Ezekiel, this is where we're going to point to God's going to make a promise through a prophet named Ezekiel, about a new heart. Ezekiel, 3625 the prophet Ezekiel says, this is the mouthpiece of the Lord. Here's what the Lord says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. You're defiled by your idolatry and your immorality and your disobedience, but I will wash you. I will cleanse you from your demon worship. That's what idolatry is. It's demon worship. Verse 26 and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. A heart of stone is stubborn, hostile, self righteous, self congratulatory. It is wise in its own eyes. Needs no one else, wants no one else to tell them what to do. And God said, I will take out that heart of stone, and I'm going to give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. God. Promises to make a people for Himself through the Holy Spirit to rule and love. It's not
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only going to take a new heart, it's going to take a new king, and this is where this thread of the seed continues before Ezekiel, after Moses, before Ezekiel, there is a great promise to King David that there is going to be a descendant who comes from Him who is going to sit on the throne forever. Israel started to look more and more for this king, as their kings were idolatrous and as they were overrun by the kings of the earth. And if you turn just a couple pages to the right or to the next page in Ezekiel 37 we see this promise of a king, the Messiah, the true David, or the greater David, God made a covenant with King David to give him one descendant who would rule and restore the world. Middle verse, 25 Ezekiel, 3725 David, my servant, shall be their prince forever, speaking of the greater David, Jesus, I will make a covenant of peace with them. Israel. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. It's unbreakable. It's based on my commitment. And I will set them in the midst of their land and multiply them. And I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever more, my dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Notice that line, it's going to take a king to rule a people who will joyfully and willingly be gods. The Messiah would need to pay for their forgiveness. Isaiah, 53 six, says all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all Lord has laid on who? Who's the him, the Messiah, who is going to come, who's going to need to be sacrificed?
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Whose are you? Do you belong to the God who is making a people, promising to pay for their sins, himself, washing them with the Holy Spirit and giving them a new heart. Or do you belong to the devil, keeping your own gods, making your own rules? Or Have you woken up this morning or sometime last week, not remembering which side you're on
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this particular set of people I want to talk to, which is all of you have a very particular set of people. Every one of you, you have wanted to be the 13 year old that did the right thing or found the right crowd and then you said something or did something was foolish and stupid, and you have failed. You're the 33 year old trying to be the perfect mom, trying to be the perfect mom and worker, and you have said something or done something, and you have failed. Try to be the young guy in his career trying to provide for his family, but through neglect or a mistake, you're fired. You're the 63 year old who looks back at his or her life saying like Oscar Schindler and Schindler's List, I wasted so much money. I wasted so much like I wasn't living for eternal purposes. I want to tell you, if that's you, these promises are for you. These promises are for you. God saves sinners. This is a promise to rescue sinners. The question isn't, how have you failed? The question is still, Whose are you? Do you belong to the god who's making a people promising to pay for their sins, washing them with the Holy Spirit and giving them a new heart?
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We see the promises made. The story continues. It ramps up. We look at the promises that are kept when these promises come onto the scene. The message of the Savior is repent and believe. Repent and believe the promises have been kept. The Victor has come. Turn to Matthew 47 we go all kinds. Into places that the opening of Matthew, it's the right genealogy to the seed, and the line has been kept. And this the the accumulation and the fulfillment is in Jesus has come to save His people from their sin. We could look at the start of Luke and all the the Old Covenant saints showing up in the New Covenant, excited that all the promises are now being fulfilled. But I want to do this because you're sitting here in the in the chair, or you have been sitting listening to someone and this call God's making a people for Himself becomes very personal. Jesus gets personal and asking you, calling you, charging you to repent and come into His kingdom. Turn to Matthew 417 it's the message preached 2000 years ago. It's a message preached today. John four or sorry. Matthew 417 says, for the time from from that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's time to turn from the devil and your sins and believe and follow the King. The King has come. He's at hand. What is repentance? It is a turn away from idolatry, selfish sin, turning to Christ to become his followers. But what does it look like? Immediately we get this example of what it looks like walking by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishermen. Oh, I imagine Peter wakes up any given morning. Who am I? I'm a fisherman. I mean, I've got really good friends, James and John, their dad's a fisherman. We fish together. I'm a fisherman. Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately, they left their nets and followed him. Ian, is Jesus saying you need to leave your career, perhaps, but he is saying this, whatever defined your life, apart from me, must be abandoned, and now you must follow me. I define your life from here on out the heart. Prayer is whatever in my life that is for me, I leave and every part of my life is for you. You are king. And that's that's what she's right here in your chair, you can cry out like that, and to prove that he has the authority to make that call, to prove that he is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises. The gospels are filled with the victor's conquests. The victor. He is the victor over sin. He forgives a paralyzed man whose friends drop him down through a roof one night, one afternoon, he's the victor over sin forgiving a paralyzed man. He's the victor over sickness by healing all sorts of diseases and sicknesses. He is the victor over demons by casting them out and healing those who are oppressed by them. He's the victor over death by raising a widow's dead son, a synagogue official's dead daughter, Mary and Martha's dead brother, Lazarus. He raises them all from the dead, and those are just the appetizers to the feast because Jesus would be crucified, bearing the wrath of God in our place, just as Isaiah promised, He would institute the New Covenant by his blood, He would bring the forgiveness of sin and new life and send the Holy Spirit. The Victor has come. After he said, in utter agony, bearing the wrath of the Father, my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? He musters up one more breath, and he says, It is finished. Jesus bore the wrath of God. John. He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus tells us what he's doing. It's in the language of covenant, again, making a people a contract turn to Mark 1422, through 25 we hear these words often. Every week we celebrate the Lord's Supper. These are the words of institution. We call them. These are the remembering of it. After Passover their meal, Jesus institutes and changes Passover to what we now call the Lord's Supper. Verse 22 he says, as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, Take this is my body. Another version says, which is broken for you. Jesus is announcing that the way he's going to make his covenant secure, the promise is by leaving his human life to death. He's going to die for us. Says he took a cup, and when He had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it, and he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. The beginning of the New Covenant announced in Isaiah Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel and many other Old Testament passages, is initiated by two things. The New Covenant is initiated by two things, the death of Christ to secure forgiveness and the Spirit of God to make us NEW, to give us a new heart. Jesus died on the third day. Jesus died on the third day, he rose as Victor over sin and guilt, Satan and death, just as Genesis 315 promised at his resurrection, the serpent's head is wriggling under the Savior's feet, the victor ascends to the right hand of the throne of God, which was absolutely necessary, Because from the right hand of Throne of God, the throne of God, he would send his spirit turn to Acts. Chapter 217, through 21 acts. Chapter One, Jesus promises that he would ascend and that he would send his spirit onto the apostles and more in Acts. Chapter Two, there's a prayer gathering of 120 people eagerly waiting for this outpouring of the Spirit. 120 believers are now speaking in languages from every tribe, tongue, nation and place where, where they the visitors to Jerusalem are from. People are hearing, preaching, praying, singing singing in languages that that the people saying that never learned what's up with that? That's my paraphrase. What's up with that. Peter steps in and answers the question. This was according to the New Covenant promise of Joel, 328, in the last days. This is right there in Acts, just quoting from Joel in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, not just Jews, all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. No age limitation, even on my male servants and female servants, no class limitation. In those days, I will pour out my spirit. Jump down to verse 21 and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. God is making a people for Himself through His Son, by the power of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit comes, gives new life, a new heart, illumines, helps us see, immerses us into God's people. The church indwells us to empower us to obedience and faithfulness, seals us the stamp of ownership to the full possession that's going to come.
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And the people who are gathered heard about their guilt in killing Jesus, that God raised Him from the dead, and sitting there were 3000 people saying, I've been on the wrong team the whole time, and I joined Satan's forces and killed my. Messiah, and they cry out to Peter. Before Peter can finish his sermon, what must we do to be saved? And Peter says, Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Have you repented of your sin and idolatry and trusted the victory and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. 240 makes this statement, Peter continues to preach, and Peter preaches, and essentially says, Peter's crying out to them to say, save yourself from this perverse generation. So here's the question, whose ARE YOU the victors or the deceivers? Every day, you wake up trying to be a success at something and a failure, and you immediately try to take your identity based on success or failure. This is the wrong thing to take your identity in it is a simple fact. Are you going to take your identity in the Savior who's the victor, or are you going to take your identity in self salvation, or are you going to throw it out altogether and follow the deceiver and lies for temporary satisfaction. This all unfolds. Promises have been kept. Third stage of the Bible is the rest of our New Testament, in which we look forward to promises still to come. There are promises made in the Old Testament that weren't finished in Jesus. Jesus said that I am going to come back. The Gospel went forth. He called us to be witnesses even to the ends of the earth. He promised He will return. He promised He will judge all his enemies. And if my identity and my person who's wrapped up in Jesus, that means he's going to destroy all my enemies too. He is going to come and rescue his own. He promised to rescue his people. He promised to reward he promised to judge. New Testament picks up in these promises over and over again. Turn to Titus. A little book to the right, a little bit. Going to Hebrews. You're too far. If you're still in the Romans, you're not far enough. Turn to Titus. Titus 211 summarizes the first and second part of that story, the promises made are promises fulfilled, and the promise is still to come. Verse 11 says this, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, all kinds of people, is what he means. This is the whole story of the gospel. Jesus did come as promised, Jesus did win the victory as promised. He made a people for His own possession. He gave them a standing in him. They are not dressed in their own righteous deeds. They're dressed in his righteous deeds. They have been forgiven by His blood. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Now that we're a new people with a new identity, we are training to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, you're in training. You have a new identity. You're a disciple. Of Jesus, you're a child of God. You still have old sin residing in you, and you're in training. And what happens when we train we fail. So we look forward now we're training, renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, to live self control, upright, godly lives in the present age. Remember, God is making a people for Himself who are to be holy, and we seek holiness now. We put off ungodliness, worldly passions, we put on self control. We want to live upright, righteous lives. We want to live godly lives in the present age. But we are not finished yet. There's still residing sin. There are still hostile forces in the world. We've got them inside. We've got them outside. And so verse 13 is this precious promise of something still to come. We're doing this. We're renouncing we're training like an athlete training, but we're also waiting, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to pure. Five for himself, a people for His own possessions, who are zealous for good works. Here we have this picture Jesus gives us our standing. Jesus is the one whose righteousness clothes us. We have no fear of death, because at death we find we are dressed in Christ's righteousness, but we are in a fight against the sin that resides in us and against the sinful forces of the world that oppose us, and we wait in anticipation for this one, the God man. Remember, God Himself solved all of this for us. What are we waiting for? Jesus told the religious leaders, Jewish religious leaders, that in the resurrection, Abraham would sit at the table in the kingdom of God, and men and women would come from east and west and dine with Abraham. You
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he told those religious leaders that it is by your merit you think you're going to dine by special birthright because you're Jewish, your birthright and your merit will do no good. Matter of fact, they're going to be people from every tribe, tongue, language and nation. Yes, there are going to be filthy Gentiles sitting at the table. I, like somebody said at this, and they're eating snacks with unwashed hands. Dare they. I thought that was funny. I
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do you know what a valet is? If you park somewhere, valet parking is where you can pay for somebody to be your personal assistant, park your car and get it for you when you come back. That's common in America. But other places in the world, a valet is somebody of high standings, personal assistant, almost always in charge of their wardrobe. The valet dresses somebody who's wealthy. There's a valet for the president for there's probably two or three valets, and they're in charge of getting all the President's clothes ready. If the president wants his underwear ironed. They iron it. Laugh, apparently King Charles likes iron, iron underwear. He also likes ironed shoelaces. Ironed shoelaces. I I mean, think about that conversation at the local pub. What do you do? I What did you do today? I iron shoelaces, but I did it for the King,
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John the Baptist, preparing everybody for Jesus coming. Says about Jesus, one is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, the lowest servants. Job. I'm not even worthy to untie the Messiah's sandals.
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The question isn't first what you do, it's who's you are. Who do you belong to? I mean, just if Jesus wants his shoelaces ironed, I I'm all in whatever he wants. Because it really is not about what I do. It's who I do. It for. It's it's not about what I am and my position in relation to other people in the world. It's who's I, who I belong to. God is making a people for Himself, and any host of tasks and assignments and roles are precious, are valuable, are eternally significant. If you belong to Jesus, let's finish with Revelation seven. He is making a people to love and rule 714, we could finish with this. Somebody asks, Who are these people? This multitude? Said, the elder answers back, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation, 2010, through 14, the devil finally gets his destruction. Revelation, and all who are followers of the devil get their destruction and isolation in the lake of fire. That's who you wanted your God to be. You're going to get his home. Revelation. 21 the story concludes, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain, any more, for the former things have passed away.
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Now we come to his presence by faith, then we will come into His presence by sight. The first scripture that Lynn and I memorized together when we were engaged was from Psalm 84 dwelling in the house of God, Mission House put out a hymn. D Williams, I think, wrote it. Many of you know the song. It's called, if I were a bird, if I were a bird, I would make my nest in the rafters of his sanctuary. Ian,
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he's my beloved, my God, my king. I would make my nest in the rafters of his sanctuary, and I would never fly away again. Whose are you eighth grader at Salk Glover at Tech? Whose are you single working engineer? Stay at home. Mom, working. Mom, 63 year old, grandma, grandpa, Whose are you? If God is your King, you're his servant and subject, and witness that the Holy Spirit is your power. You are born again. You are a new creation. You're a free man. You're a free woman. You're a member of a church, the family of God. You're a counselee Seeking Wisdom. You're a mourner looking for comfort. If you are the Son of God, if you are the disciple of Jesus, you are a little brother, little sister, learner and imitator,
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and you want to dwell in His presence, never to leave.
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Please tell me who I am. You first have to answer the question, whose am I? If you're belonging to Jesus, you are a sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd. It's good news in the Bible, Lord God, thank you for what you have given us here, a collection of appetizers from Your Word, telling us where this whole story is going. And I pray now that you would guide us and help us every time of life, every position in life, every role of life, to make sure we are acting out of our true identity, Child of God, pray this in Your name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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