I'm going to deviate from my usual practice here tonight. I normally preach consecutively through books of the Bible, but tonight's going to be more of a systematic look from three different verses that have the same theme and idea. So here now the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and infallible Word written for you and for me from Exodus 19 verse 5. The Lord God says, 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. Now Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And then finally from 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever.
May he add his blessing to the reading and preaching of his word. Please be seated. To what are you committed? To what are you committed?
What is that activity, that hobby, that possession that you never want to miss or want to let go? I think it's safe to say that a major commitment for Americans today is entertainment. Over 123 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. Over four million people attended Taylor Swift's eras tour and countless hundreds of thousands more have seen the movie in theaters or watched it on streaming services.
In one of the NFL playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl in Kansas City, it was negative four degrees and there have been accounts of at least 13 people who attended that playoff game who have had to have toes or fingers amputated due to frostbite. That is some commitment. The truth is we find time and make time for those things to which we are committed. In the year 2000 weekly church attendance was at around 30 percent in America. Today it has dropped to 20 percent. I think it's safe to say many in America have a low commitment to the church and that lack of commitment to the church is only growing and I believe part of that is due to not understanding what the church is. In Ligonier Ministries' 2022 state of theology survey, 56 percent of adults surveyed strongly disagreed with the following statements. Quote, every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.
56 percent disagreed with that. Even amongst self-professed evangelicals, 26 percent disagreed with that statement. People who proclaimed to be evangelical Christians that the Bible is the word of God, one in four said it doesn't matter whether I join a local church or not. A believer recovery of a high view of the church begins with understanding what the church is according to scripture. So tonight we're going to look at the church as Christ's treasured possession. First we will look at the nature of the treasured possession, the nature of the treasured possession, then the origin of the treasured possession, and finally the purpose of the treasured possession.
First let's look at the nature of the treasured possession. I hope you heard it as I was reading those three verses for you from Exodus Deuteronomy and 1 Peter. Throughout the scriptures, both Old and New Testament, God calls a certain people his treasured possession, a people for his own possession. At Exodus 19, Israel is at Sinai, the very event that would constitute Israel's identity as a nation, centered upon receiving the law of God through the mediator Moses. God says, you out of all the peoples are my treasured possession. A few books later, as we come to the second generation on the verge of entering the promised land, God reiterates that Israel is his treasured possession. Out of all the peoples of the face of the earth, God set his seal of affection and his love upon the nation of Israel to be his prize. And he did this, I didn't read it, but two verses later, God says that he did this simply because he loved the Israelites and was keeping covenant with Abraham. And then we come to the church in the New Testament where God tells the New Testament people through the Apostle Peter that you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
From beginning to end, the people of God, whether the church in the Old Testament or the church in the New Testament, the people of God have belonged to God as something special to him, as something valued by him. This phrase means that something is cherished and prized above everything else. Think about a treasured memory that you have. We have many memories in life, or we're acquiring new memories every single day, but we have those special memories that we hold on to and value and cherish.
Perhaps it's the moment when you saw your bride walking down the aisle, or you saw your husband or your bridegroom standing there up front waiting for you. Perhaps it's the the birth of your first child, your parents giving you your first vehicle, going to your first concert, your first crush. We have many memories, but these are special memories that we that we value highly. Those memories are treasured possessions.
Think about a treasured gift you may have received, something that's valuable to you, special jewelry from your spouse, from your husband, perhaps on your anniversary, your first car, the first check you received from your very first job. Whatever it may be, we have a possession or two, maybe more, that are incredibly valuable to us above everything else that we possess. That's the idea of what God is getting at in scripture when he calls you and me his treasured possession. God owns the entire universe. Let's contemplate this for a moment. He created everything.
Think about that. Think about the the splendor of the stars in the night the splendor of the stars in the night sky, the majestic mountains, the beautiful beaches, all the beauty, all the glory and grandeur of creation. And God says, out of everything I have created, what I value most is my people, you and me, the church. One commentator says that the church is, quote, the crown jewel of God.
This is what it means. This is the nature of the church as Christ treasured possession. Christ owns the church as something special out of everything that he has created and out of everything that he owns, which is everything. He values you and me and us when we gather to gather corporately to worship him, to be the church. That's the nature of the treasured possession.
Let's consider the origin of the treasured possession. The origin of the church as God's treasured possession is God himself. He was the one who chose Israel out of all the nations of the earth and set his love upon them. Let me read to you Deuteronomy 7, 6 again. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you.
He loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers. The church exists because God has chosen the church for himself. He's chosen a people for himself. We do not love God first. We only love him because he first loved us. The church exists because God creates the church for himself through his electing love. Isaiah 43 says that we are a people whom God formed for himself.
We have been bought with a price. We are no longer our own. We belong to the master who bought us and redeemed us at the cross. If God had not chosen a people before the foundation of the world, there would be no church.
There would be no treasured possession. Calvin says that God quote chose us when he could find nothing in us but filth and vileness. He makes us his peculiar possession from worthless dregs end quote.
Now it's not a surprise to you that many people recoil at the doctrine of election especially today here in America but here we can see how the doctrine of election leads to this wonderful and comforting reality that we are special to God. More special to him than anything else that he has created. Go back to that special gift or special memory that you cherish. Imagine that gift was never given to you.
Imagine that memory never happened. In the place of something cherished, what would be left? Nothing. You wouldn't have that special gift or that special memory to cherish and so it is with election.
Apart from election there is no treasured possession. It is rooted in God. Imagine what your life would be like right now if the Lord had not saved you.
Imagine what your life would be like. I don't know what path you were on when you were converted. Maybe you grew up always knowing the Lord. You can't remember a day that you didn't know the Lord but it's not like that for all of us.
I don't know about you but my life I was on a path of anger and loneliness and depression and rebellion. I was on a bad path and I would still be on that path had not the Lord intervened and given me a new heart and chosen me to be his. I know for certain that I would not be blessed with my believing wife or have my precious children had the Lord not intervened. So when I view election through this lens, that election leads to treasured possession, I become so grateful that the Lord saved me. Not because of anything of worth in me but simply because he loved me and chose me to be his.
I belong to him. Just like you're grateful that your parents chose to give you a car or that your husband chose you to and to ask you to marry him. We are grateful to God for so great a salvation. Psalm 95 states, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to the Lord. Let us to him with songs of praise.
Why can we sing? Why can we give praise to God? Because he chose us to be his treasured possession. And so we sing praise to him.
That's why we sing here tonight. That's why we sing on Sunday morning and every Lord's day and every day because we are grateful to God for our salvation. We are grateful to God that he has made us his treasured possession. Not only should this make us grateful but it should also make us humble. We have no reason to boast because God chose us due to his infinite mercy and grace and wisdom out of his mere pleasure as the confession puts it.
I have no reason to boast because I did not do anything to save myself. The only thing I contributed to my salvation is I brought the sin that Jesus had to die for on the cross. It is all of God. He is the one from beginning to end who makes us his treasured possession.
His crown jewel. Salvation. Many people today treat it as if it was almost like a get out of hell free card. Well I walked the aisle. I prayed the prayer. I was baptized.
I went to church with my grandmother when I was a young boy. I'm good and now I can just live however I want. But salvation is much more beautiful and robust than that pitiful attitude.
Salvation is God taking us as a lump of clay and working to mold us and shape us into Christ's image and likeness. I don't know if you've ever seen or bought one of those rock tumbling kits you can buy from like National Geographic or other sciency type businesses. You take these rocks that are dirty and rough and nothing special and you pour the rocks into this tumbling machine along with some grit and water and you let it run for a while. And after enough time has passed the rocks have been smooth. They come out polished. They come out beautiful.
They come out like gems. God takes you and me as a rough and dirty rock. Nothing special to look at or write home about due to sin. And he makes you his jewel by giving you his Holy Spirit and the faith to believe upon Jesus for salvation and by his Holy Spirit and by the working of his word continuing to polish you and mold you and shape you as you grow in maturity in Christ. Salvation doesn't end with conversion. Salvation begins there and it's a lifelong process of God working his will in you, working his character in you. So that his glory shines more brightly through you.
Like the rough stones that come out smooth and polished, shiny and bright. So God saves us and conforms us more and more to the image of Christ all for his glory as we reflect more and more the brightness of his righteousness that we have been clothed with in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the origin of the treasured possession is God himself. This brings us to my third and final point, the purpose of the treasured possession.
The purpose of the treasured possession. I don't know if you caught this but in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 it says you are all of these things, the church is all these things, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession so that, there's a purpose clause right there, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are made the treasured possession of Jesus Christ for the purpose of good works, for the purpose of faithful witness. The church exists to obey the voice of her Lord. In the Exodus 19 passage the Lord said, if you will indeed obey my voice and obey the voice of obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. The church in the Old Testament was called to obey the law of God and folks that has not changed in light of the cross. Listen to Titus chapter 2 verse 14. Jesus Christ quote gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, there's our idea, who are zealous for good works. Zealous for good works.
As the treasured possession of God we were not saved by good works but we are saved in order to do good works, to reflect Christ to this fallen dark and broken world. In Malachi chapter 3 Israel as she frequently did was engaged in all sorts of wickedness throughout the land. She's offering blemished sacrifices, you know lambs that are missing a leg or an ear or something like that. She's not tithing, she's oppressing the fatherless and the widow, she's committing adultery, not paying their employees, their hired servants. And at the end of the chapter after God calls out his people for their wickedness he says there are some who are not doing this, there are some who are still faithful within Israel, the remnant.
And he says the remnant is my treasured possession. You see it simply wasn't enough to claim to be an Israelite. One had to follow in God's ways thus demonstrating that he or she truly was an Israelite. This was the error of the Pharisees.
We're okay because we're of the bloodline of Abraham, we've got it made. We pray and we tithe and we fast and we do we perform our righteousness in public so people will think well of us. No, it's not simply enough to claim to be a Christian, it's definitely not enough to to be a hypocrite, to live like a hypocrite. You have to obey the Lord, you have to walk in his ways. The book of James, you're probably well acquainted with it, talks about a living faith versus a dead faith. A dead faith is a faith that is not working at all and is merely lip service. It's that attitude of I've got my get out of hell free card now and so I'm good, I'm covered, I've got my fire insurance and so now I'm just going to live however I want.
That is a dead faith. James says a living faith produces good works in us. We demonstrate that we truly have been saved by God in his electing love by the good works that we do. As imperfect as they are, they are made perfect by the mediation and intercession of Jesus Christ. And it's by these good works that the church is distinguished from the world and Lord willing by seeing our good works, by seeing our deeds of righteousness, the world will look at them and give glory to God, not to us. These good deeds can include those things that we think of as big and important like missions work, preaching the word as we see in 1 Peter 2 9 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness, but they also include the mundane, the every day and the ordinary. I've appreciated Dr. Oldham's teaching and preaching through Ephesians chapter 5. It's a good deed, husbands, for you to love your wife as Christ loved the church.
That's a good work. It may not get noticed by the world. It may not get noticed by anybody, but your wife notices it and your children, Lord willing, if the Lord has blessed you with children, they notice it. That's a good deed that can only flow from salvation. Wives, it's a good work for you to submit to your husband as the church submits to Christ.
That's not easy, is it? The world scoffs and recoils at that word submission. We want to be our own authority.
Ain't nobody going to be over me. I am my own God. That's a good work that can only flow from salvation. Parents, it's a good work to raise your children in the word of God, both at home, in family worship, and in public worship, in the church. That's a good deed that can only flow from salvation. So whatever you do in life, whether it's your employment, your hobby, parenting, marriage, deeds of mercy, fellowship with one another, those are good deeds that can only flow from salvation. That's a good deed that can only flow from salvation. Those are good deeds that flow from salvation. And they put on display the reality that you are the treasured possession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That you truly belong to him because of what he has done in you. It is by our conduct that we show that we are children of light and not children of darkness. It is by our conduct that we show forth the innumerable riches of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
But let's face it. If we're honest, we should be admitting to each other that we go through each week getting spiritually beaten and bruised, do we not? The world assaults us with lies and entices us with all sorts of sin. The world fills us with fear due to threatened persecutions. Satan fires arrows at us seeking to devour us. Even our own remaining sinful flesh betrays us.
These three things, Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh, they all seek to diminish our brightness as Christ's treasured possession. And I would say this is why is it important to join a local church and attend church as much as one can. Because it is here that we receive the balm of Gilead for all that we have suffered and endured through the previous week in the company of fellow believers. It is here that we hear God's word read and preached and proclaimed and applied to our lives. It is here that our souls are lifted up off of our circumstances here on earth and lifted into the heavenlies to gaze upon Christ where we are seated with him. It is here that our faith is spiritually nourished through the sacraments. It is here that we are reminded that we are God's treasured possession.
It is here that we receive encouragement from one another, prayer from one another, support from one another, especially in times of need. Here we are reminded not to look at our sinful past, forgetting what's behind, not to even look at our present afflictions which Paul calls light and momentary, but to look to the future when Christ comes back for his bride. When our bodies will finally be free of sin and death forever. No more groaning, no more struggling, our sinful flesh finally and fully and completely done away with.
The world made new. Satan cast into the lake of fire, no longer able to torment us, no longer able to seek to devour us. It is here in the corporate gathering of God's people where we receive all of these blessings and benefits of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is here in the corporate gathering of God's treasured possession that we are equipped to go back into the dark world and shine forth brightly as the noonday sun. To shine brightly in the workplace and give glory to God before your co-workers, your boss, or those who are under your employment. In the home to give glory to God in all the challenging circumstances that home life can bring with it as well as the world.
To shine forth as gems that have been polished and shined once more to repair all those dings and scratches that we receive from our spiritual enemies. If we look around today the church does not look like anything special and I think that's why many people don't value the church because they look at her with earthly eyes. In the eyes of the world the church is nothing but to Christ the church is valued. The church is everything. In the eyes of the world the church is powerless but to Christ he has entrusted the church with the most powerful message on earth to proclaim the excellencies of him, the beauties of him, the glory of him who did what? Called you and me out of darkness. We were imprisoned.
We were without hope. He called us with that sovereign irresistible call out of darkness into his marvelous light. To many the church is an add-on when convenience. If I get all my housework done and all my shopping done then I'll have time to occasionally attend church when it fits my schedule. I'll attend church if I didn't stay up too late the night before playing video games or or binging something on Netflix.
I'll go to church when it's Christmas or Easter. Christ loved the church so much that he died for her. He died for you and me.
He died for his treasured possession. Christ thinks about the church and views the church in a radically different way than we typically do. When we are discouraged by the seeming power and influence of the world. When we are tempted to view the church as something for our convenience. Here we are reminded from God's word in the corporate gathering of the saints to come back to God's word and to be reminded of the church's identity in Christ. This is your identity folks.
This is our identity in Christ. To be his treasured possession. As one who has been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light, you're his treasured possession. I want that reality to sink in.
That's why I keep on repeating it. His treasured possession. No matter what hurtful word somebody has called you, Christ calls you his treasured possession. No matter the way somebody may have bullied you or mistreated you, a classmate, a boss, an unbelieving spouse, Christ treats you as his treasured possession. No matter what the world may think of you, oddballs, weirdos, freaks, Christ thinks of you as his treasured possession. No matter what circumstance this church may be going through, discipline issues, loss of a longtime beloved pastor, whatever the challenging circumstance may be, this church, brothers and sisters in Christ, you are Christ's treasured possession, and circumstances cannot change that. No matter how much our feelings or our earthly eyes may try to deceive us, our earthly circumstances do not change Christ's mind about his church, about his people. What a glorious picture of the church, all because of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. It's my prayer that in hearing this now, the Spirit of God may work in you, a renewed commitment and enthusiasm to be a part of the local church, to value the church, and to see the church as Christ values the church, as Christ sees the church.
To his glory that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Amen and amen. Let us pray. Lord God, I ask that you would take these texts and bind them, sear them, impress them upon our hearts and our minds, oh Lord, to equip us for whatever we may be facing this week.
It is known to you already, oh Lord. So take these words by your Holy Spirit. Strengthen us, Lord, for we are weak. Encourage us, Lord, for we are discouraged. Enlighten us, Lord, for we are prone to walk in darkness. We are prone to take our eyes off of Christ and cast them upon our earthly circumstances. And all the hardships and the evils that are going on in this world at this very moment, oh Lord, use your word to protect us. And may your word be sweeter than honey upon our lips. Through Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
