DAY 49  - 2001

Fred R. Coulter   -  May 26, 2001

And greetings brethren.  This is the last Sabbath before Pentecost.  This is the seventh Sabbath in counting toward Pentecost, and it’s a very important day.  And it’s something that really ties right in with Pentecost as one leads to the other.  And the thing we need to understand is this, brethren, God has given the understanding of His plan through the holy days beginning with the Passover, as we’ve already had.  And then the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And now we come to the Sabbath before Pentecost.  And you know, one of the things that is happening is that even in the Church of God they are getting tired of the holy days, and they’re neglecting the holy days.  And what’s going to happen, it’s going to lead too many brethren in a very desperate situation because they will be dumbed down and not able to know or understand God’s plan, because even that which they have then will be taken from them.

Now let’s go to 2 Timothy 4 and let’s look at this again.  Now I know we looked at this the last holy day, but I want to go back and look at it again because this is something that is really powerful.  And something that it just really is necessary for us today to truly understand.  Now there are two messages here.  One for the ministers and one for the brethren.  Now let’s read it beginning in verse 1.

Paul writes to Timothy and says, “I charge thee therefore before God…”  So every minister needs to listen.  Every minister needs to perk up his ears and listen and understand that God is going to hold you accountable for this charge.  “…And the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word…” (2 Tim. 4:1-2).  And that’s what needs to be preached.  Not ideas about men.  Not ideas about what people think about things, but actually what the word of God teaches.

Now I got a call from a man just this morning.  And he was saying that last year he went to the Feast of Tabernacles and he didn’t hear one sermon for eight days about the Feast of Tabernacles.  Oh, it’s all about government.  It was all about unity.  It was all about those things.  But you see the truth is, unless Christ rules in your heart, government doesn’t matter at all.  And the truth is, if you are not united spiritually with Christ then all the unity that men can work out is just so much political garbage, and it’s destined to fail.  Because you see the Psalm says, “The weary builders toil in vain unless the LORD builds the house.”  Now Christ is building a house.  Christ is building a people.  Christ is preparing a place for us.  And so we need to be fully prepared.  We need to be fully taught.  We need to be fully understanding God’s plan, because I tell you the dark days are coming when they are going to shut down the truth.  And you can rest assure that’s going to happen.  And I’ll tell you how it’s going to affect the Churches of God.  Because they don’t want to be looked at as a cult.  Now I’m going to give a sermon on what is a cult.  And because they don’t want to be thought of as strange.  Therefore they’re going to back down from their preaching, and you wait and see, it’s going to repeat itself again ala Worldwide Church of God.  No doubt about it.

Now let’s continue here.  “…Be instant in season, [and] out of season…”, because unless you preach things in season in the time that they are to be, God is not going to inspire anyone’s speaking, and they’re not going to speak about the things in season in the time that it needs to be said.  And then out of season, that’s the rest of the year.  But I tell you what, the holy days are those things which then strengthen us.  The holy days are those things which give us inspiration.  And with the dark days that are coming ahead we need inspiration brethren.  We need the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.  We need the inspiration of His Word.

Now notice, sometimes the truth is hard to take.  But never the less that’s what Christ wants us to be sanctified by - the truth.  “…Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (vs. 2).  And those things are very powerful and mighty.  Doctrine does separate and God expects it to.  How else are we going to be separated from the world.  We can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the Church and expect God’s blessing, can we?  That’s pure Laodiceanism.  So as we’re going through this I want you to as the question now.  Cause when we come to verse 3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine…”, and that’s been here for a long time.

I got a phone call the other day from a man who called and said, “Well, do you believe that Eve had sex with Satan in the Garden of Eden?”  And I said, “No.”  I said, “If you believe that this conversation is ended.”  He said, “I believe it.”  I said, “This conversation is over.”  And after I hung up the phone I said to myself, “That is a doctrine that is 3000 years or more old, and why don’t people get a life.”  Get a life in Christ instead of life in their own heresy.  They won’t endure sound doctrine, “…but after their own lusts…”, and that’s all these false doctrines are all about - lusts.  “…The shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (vs. 3-4).  And that’s the whole process that happens and then people soon lose the understanding of the purpose of God, what He’s working out here on the earth.  God is a God with purpose.  God is a God Who is a creator.  God has a plan and He’s carrying it out.  And He’s carrying it out according to the outline of the holy days.  There’s a proper time for everything.

Let’s go to the book of Ecclesiastes and let’s see that.  There is a time, and now is the time that we really draw close to God.  That we take advantage of this time, as I said during the Feast of Unleavened Bread wherever I traveled, that God has given us the whole Bible and we better be about learning it, and we better be about knowing it.  And we better be about growing in grace and knowledge in the way that God wants us to.

Now here, Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…”  Now you can mark God’s word and know that that is true and that it is going to happen.  And that’s why God has His holy days in season.  Now, it’s repeated two other times here in the book of Ecclesiastes.  Come over here to verse 16.  “And moveover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there…”  And isn’t that true?  Right in the highest judgment, the Supreme Courts, wickedness was there.  “…And the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.”  And what a shame.  That should not be.  “I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time for every purpose and for every work” (vs. 16-17).  Now you need to ask the question, which is this:  If I have been called, now is it my time?  The answer is yes.  Yes, it is your time.

Now let’s come over here to Romans 8 and let’s see something concerning what God has done in God’s calling us.  And brethren, we really need to know and understand and apply ourselves in a way that will be proper before God.  God has called you with a purpose.  God has called you with a calling.  God has in mind for you an eternal life, a new name.  He’s making a place for you in New Jerusalem.  And so brethren, this is all about what we’re coming up to with the Feast of Pentecost because that is the day upon which it pictures the first resurrection.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”  He has a time, He has a season, He has a purpose.  And His purpose is for you that you be the firstfruits in the Kingdom of God.  But God has given you choice, and you have to exercise that choice.  And you have to do so in such a way that it will be proper and right and beneficial, because people can make the wrong choices and go the opposite direction if they choose to.  And God will let them do it, because He wants to know what’s in their heart.  He wants to know what is in your heart.  He wants to know because no one’s going to attain to the Kingdom of God unless God knows what’s in your heart.  And of course, please understand, that God is the heart knowing and the heart judging God.  Now He’s gracious and kind and merciful and longsuffering, and all of those things are true.  But when we have at our fingertips everything right now in full abundance and proportion, then we need to work and apply ourselves as firstfruits to be as fruitful as we can in it.

Now let’s come to 2 Timothy 1:8.  And here’s what we need to understand in this day and age.  Because in this day and age they’re doing everything to stifle free speech.  They’re doing everything to get people to conform in a new way of thinking.  That’s the whole purpose of how things are coming about in education, in business, in all the media. You sit back and you look at it.  It is to mold your attitude and your thinking to conform to the coming One World Government, and One World Religion.  And the truth of God will become very unpopular.  Now you wait until you get the Harmony of the Gospels, which you’ll get toward the end of June, and you will see right there in why this third edition was published, that there are forces out there that are trying to destroy all the knowledge of Christ, all the knowledge of God.  They even say there is no personal God external to us out there in the universe someplace.  And these are the forces that are generating the new religion.  Because the new religion is going to be just a humanistic thing to control and manipulate people.  So therefore the time is going to come when we’re going to have to stand up for the truth, and we’re going to have to acknowledge the truth, and say the truth, and proclaim the truth.

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God…”  And I dare say, we’ve all had our afflictions in it but nothing like the apostle Paul and Timothy and the others of the apostles who wrote the New Testament for us.  But here’s what he had in his mind when he was going through these thing and he wrote and encouraged Timothy.  “…Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began…”  So God has His plan and His purpose and that’s what He’s working out.  And these holy days are so profound and so important and really so momentous as we come to each one of them.  And yes, we should anticipate them.  And yes, we should approach them as if they’re brand new, because they are.  It’s a new Day of Pentecost.  It is a new year.  It is a new harvest, if we could put it that way.

Ok, now let’s look at some other scriptures here.  Let’s come back to Jeremiah 51:28.  Very interesting.  “Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon…” (Jer. 51:28-29).

Now let’s understand something.  Every purpose of the Lord concerning everything in everyplace is going to be accomplished according to the will of God.  Do you believe that?  Well if you do then you really will understand what’s happening here then.

Let’s come to Isaiah 46 and let’s see what else God has to say about His purpose, about His time, about His plan.  Let’s begin in verse 3.  “Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob…”  And of course, we are spiritual Israel, see.  “…And all the remnant of the house of Israel…”  And those brethren who are the faithful ones, scattered though they may be, are the remnant of the house of Israel, “…which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to your old age I am He;…”  So what God is saying here is this:  He has called you for a purpose.  He is forming Christ in you, as we saw during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And He is with you even to your old age.  Now God will never leave you if you don’t leave Him.  “…And even to hoar hairs [that is the white hairs] will I carry you: I have made [you], and I will bear [you]; even I will carry, and will deliver you” (Isa. 46:3-4).  So we don’t need to get despondent.  We don’t need to get discouraged.  We don’t need to get down.  We don’t need to start looking at other plans or other means, or other devices, or other ways to try and accomplish God’s plan.

“To whom will ye liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be like?” (vs. 5).  And that’s what’s happening in this world, brethren.  Oh, yes it is.  They are making Christ just like any other religious prophet or teacher.  They’re trying to strip Him away of His divinity, strip Him away of His Godhead.  Strip Him away of His authority.  Strip all the words out of the New Testament and take them away so you won’t believe them.

“They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god:…”  And that’s what we do with all the works of our hands.  We worship the works of our hands.  “…They fall down, yea, they worship [him].”  Just exactly like the Dalai Lama does.  “They bear him [that is, they carry him] upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; [and] from his place shall he not remove:…” (vs. 6-7).

Now let me tell you something.  I’ll give you just a little something to think about.  There was once a time an apostle, supposedly an apostle of God, who traveled around the world.  And the King of Thailand was his close friend.  And the King of Thailand’s duty every year was to go change the clothes on the Buddha, because he was the head of the Buddha religion.  Now let me ask you a question.  Do you think that the apostle Paul would have said nothing about that?  Do you think that the apostle Paul would make friends with someone like that without telling him to repent and get rid of the idolatry?  I say he would call him to repentance.  You see, the Bible says friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God.  See, so here the very same practices that I’m reading about right here in the scriptures were never even one word raised against him.

“…Yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.  Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.  Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else…”  That’s why God’s plan is going to stand.  And it really doesn’t matter if all of the main religious people in the world, and scholars and teachers and the most intelligent reject the holy days of God.  And yea, if most of the Church of God ends up rejecting the holy days of God it isn’t going to matter because God is God, you see.  And He’s going to judge.  And He has a time, and He has a purpose, and He has a judgment, you see.  There is none else.  “…I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done…”  And that’s what the holy days do.  God wants us to know and He’s revealed them through the holy days.  “…My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure…” (vs. 7-10).

And one thing that God likes to have is pleasure in His people because they love Him, they serve Him, they obey Him, they worship Him, and get to know Him.  And He’s put His Spirit in them so that they can be born of the resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ.  But remember, God’s counsel is going to stand.  No man is going to do anything against God.

Come over here to Isaiah 48:1.  “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel [we are called by the name of the Father], and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.”  No, too many ideas of men.  Too many sins allowed.  “For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name.  I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly…”  Now, we need to understand something brethren, God, when He gets ready to do something - it’s going to happen suddenly.  And it will be quick.  Not only that.  If we are not prepared now before the day of battle, when the day of battle comes it will be too late.  “…And they came to pass.  Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass…” Now isn’t that something that God has to deal with such carnality and stubbornness?  And I’ve seen this in the Church of God.  I’ve seen this with people with their own ways.  “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it to thee: lest thou shouldst say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them” (Isa. 48:1-6).

Now let’s look at something here.  Let’s look at the strangeness of what we have.  Let’s go back to Revelation 3 and let’s look at the strangeness that we have of the stubbornness today.  Now we’ll come back to Isaiah 48 here in just a minute, but let’s go to Revelation 3.  And Revelation 3 is the epitome, with the Laodiceans, of the age that we are living in today.  And I don’t think that unless we really admit we are Laodiceans that we are going to really get it.  I have never yet seen anyone who proclaims himself to be a Philadelphian, to be a Philadelphian.  And most of the Laodiceans like to claim that because then that takes a big responsibility off of them.  Well, you see, the claims of men, and the reality of truth, and the judgment of God are different things.

Here, Revelation 3:14.  “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning [that is the beginner] of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot…”  Now that’s the kind of stubbornness that we have today.  Just kind of “Well, we won’t commit ourselves, and you know the truth is just really prejudicial, you know”.  And if someone brings out something of correction, “Well, you know, I know that guy.  He’s really hard-headed.”  Whatever the epitaph may be, God says, “I would thou wert cold or hot” (Rev. 3:14-15).  Don’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the Church.  You can all the way right with Christ and be hot, or you’re going out into the world and you’re going to have your own things come upon you.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will [vomit] spue thee out of My mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing…”  Now brethren, there has never been an age in which mankind has lived that this is not more true than today.  We have more goods.  We’ve been gadgetized with everything.  Even what we’re doing right now in making this video is part of the goods and gadgets that we have.  But you see, we’re trying to put it into a purpose that will serve God.  “…And knowedst not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked…” (vs. 16-17).  And isn’t that the way it is with the ho-hum Church’s of God?  They don’t see.  They don’t know.  They don’t understand.  They have no love, they have no joy, they have not happiness.  And haven’t we all experienced this?

Well, God tells us to repent.  God says, “…I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve…”, a little spiritual eye-salve up here.  You know it’s just like a woman who recently had a cataract removed.  “Wow,” she said.  “I didn’t know what I was missing.”  Likewise, let’s get those spiritual cataracts off our eyes, and let’s really see the truth.  So He says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock…”  Christ has got to come back into us.  “…If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him, and will sup with Him, and he with Me” (vs. 18-20).

Now God wants to fellowship with His people.  But that fellowship is going to be His way.  So what we need to do (let’s come back here to Isaiah 48), is get rid of our idols, because you see all the goods that the Laodiceans have out there are idols before God.  No different than idols of silver or graven images, or molten images.  Now let’s come back here to Isaiah 48:6.

“Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it?”  In other words if we hear the word of God and we see all these things taking place, shall we not declare it?  “I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.”  Because God has brought you into His confidence to give you the understanding of His holy days and His plan and purpose.  “They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them” (Isa. 48:6).  No.  That’s why God closes the understanding to the Bible to people so that He can call them and open their eyes and give them understanding so they will know and realize that this has come from God, and it hasn’t come from them.

“Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb” (vs. 8).  So therefore God says He defers His anger, and so forth.  But He says, verse 12, “Hearken unto Me, O Jacob and Israel, My called; I am He; I am the first, I also am the last.”  And we’ll see that in the book of Revelation.  That’s referring to Jesus Christ.

Now all the things that we learned concerning the holy days, beginning with Israel, and all the things that happened with them are examples for us to the intent that we do not do the same things.  Now let’s go back and let’s rehearse, and let’s bring us forward from the Passover up to Pentecost.  Let’s go back to the book of Exodus.  We know that God started out His plan and purpose with Israel with the Passover, and then He led them out of the land of Egypt beginning with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And then they took their journey.  And that journey is much like our life after God calls us.  Because you see, before God called us first there was the Passover Who was Christ.  And then God has called us and has led us, and we are walking in the world just like the children of Israel, we’re walking in the wilderness for 40 years.  And we have to look to God for everything because we have nothing that we didn’t receive.  God fought their battles for them, brought them through the Red Sea, brought them over to where they could have fresh water at the waters of Meribah.

Now let’s come to Exodus 16, and Exodus 16 is a very important chapter because it tells us an awful lot.  It tells us about the manna.  It tells us about the Sabbath day.  And it shows that God desires us to keep the Sabbath day and that He’s going to specially feed us on the Sabbath day just like He fed the children of Israel.  Now you know the story.  It was on the Sabbath day that they came and complained.

Exodus 16:2, “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”  Now you see they were really accusing God.  “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven…”  God is going to take care of them…but His way.  Key important lesson for us in everything:  God will take care of us, but His way.

So then He told them, “You’re going to have the manna.  You can go out every day.  And you have to go out before the heat of the day and you can get one omer per person.  And you bring it back, and that will be your bread.”  Which we see in another section of scriptures is angel food.  So what the children of Israel did, they ate angel food for 40 years.  Now when they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the wilderness that’s what the bread was made out of.  And you can’t get any more pure unleavened bread than manna.

Now it was kind of sweet and tasted like coriander seed and so then the children of Israel went out in the morning and they got it.  And God had specific instructions.  One, only get what you need day by day.  Now I want you to think about that in relationship to the daily prayer.  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  You see, the parallels carry over into the New Testament as well.

Now if they got more than one omer per person, it bread worms and it stank.  Couldn’t keep it over.  So they were to gather the manna six days of the week.  Now I want you to understand that this manna continued all the way until the time that they got into the promised land.  And it ceased on the 16^th day of the first month.  Now, the manna was given on the 16^th day of the second month here, but let’s understand the 16^th day is the self-same day that the manna came, the manna stopped.  Now you think on that for a while.  Now back to this.  You know also the rest of the story.  God said, “You go out and you gather twice as much on the sixth day and you keep it over and it won’t breed worms and stink.  But I don’t want you going out on the Sabbath to try and gather manna.

Now let’s pick it up right here in Exodus 16:25.  “And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD…”  Now, since the manna did not breed worms and stink there was another miracle that God performed.  Let’s understand something concerning that spiritually for us.  The Sabbath day is for us to be miraculously fed the word of God with God’s Spirit given to us to give us understanding.  That’s what the Sabbath day is for.  It’s not for our pleasure.  It’s not for our business.  It’s not for our politics.  It’s not for command and control.  It’s for fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and then we are fed by the word of God, the pure word of God which doesn’t breed worms and stink.  See, that’s what the Sabbath day is for.

It says, “…ye shall not find it in the field.  Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.  And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none” (vs. 25-27).  Now you know, think of it.  God was right there.  They saw the pillar of cloud by day, the fire by night.  There was Moses and Aaron there.  They told them exactly what it would be, but do you think that people would really listen and get it?  No.  Some of them still went out.  Let’s ask ourselves a question:  Do we really get it?  Or are we playing games with ourselves?  Or are we playing games with God?  Remember, there is a time and there is a purpose for everything according to God’s judgment as well.

Verse 28, “And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?”  See, now the law that God gave concerning the manna they were breaking.  “See, for the LORD hath given you the sabbath…”  Brethren, the greatest thing we need to understand is this.  The Sabbath day is a gift from God.  And let’s also understand this concerning the Sabbath day.  Not only is it a gift from God, but a gift comes from His grace.  And contrary to what Protestants accuse us of doing because we keep the Sabbath, that we are trying to earn salvation.  No way.  Only God can give it as a gift through His grace.  But He also gave the Sabbath as His gift through His grace so that we could learn and grow in grace and knowledge and understanding.  God gave us the Sabbath for the spiritual benefit, not only the physical benefits that we have, but the spiritual benefit so that we can grow in grace and knowledge.  “…Therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.  So the people rested on the seventh day” (vs. 28-29).  And “rested” there is “they sabbathized”, sabbotizo on the seventh day.  Now that’s how important it is.  That’s how important it was for them.

Ok, let’s continue the journey now.  Let’s come over to chapter 19.  The children of Israel came into the area of Mt. Sinai on the same day of the week, being a Thursday, that they left Egypt, which was beginning Wednesday night on into Thursday.  And then this leads up to Pentecost.  And Pentecost was the day upon which God gave the Ten Commandments.  So there are quite a few profound and important lessons for us to know and to understand about the things that are here.

Now the most important thing to understand is this.  Let’s begin right here in Exodus 19:5.  “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed…”  Let’s stop right here and ask the question:  Are we obeying the voice of God?  And the voice of God is contained right here in the scriptures.  Everything here is what God has spoken and what God has inspired to be written.  So if you want to know what God has said, read the Bible, it will tell you.

He says, “…if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant…”  Now let’s apply this to us with the New Covenant.  Will we obey the voice of Jesus Christ?  And Jesus said that the very words that He spoke are going to judge us.  “…And keep My covenant…”  And the covenant that we have in the New Testament is what?  The covenant with the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.  And we need to keep that covenant and keep that covenant in faith, and keep that covenant with zeal, and keep that covenant in newness all the time.  He says, “…then…”.  Now I want you to circle the two words.  Have you got a pen?  Do it.  Circle it, “if” and “then”.   Now there are a lot of if and then’s in the Bible see [laughter].  “If you love Me, keep My commandments”, Jesus said.  “…Then ye shall be a peculaiar treasure unto Me above people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”  So then He said, “These are the words.  You take it down and tell the children of Israel these words and let’s get their answer.”  Well they said yes.

Now hold your place here because we’ll come back, but let’s come to 1 Peter 2 and let’s understand what God has called us to.  And let’s understand that our spiritual calling is going to fulfill this for the whole world when we are in the Kingdom of God as kings and priests.  Let’s understand that.

Now 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation…”  God has called you.  God called the children of Israel out of Egypt.  He’s called us out of the world.  He gave them their law.  He gives us His Spirit so we can keep His law.  “…Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…”  So now we are the ones who are fulfilling what God proposed in the letter of the law to the children of Israel.  Now we are fulfilling that in the spirit.  We are not yet that nation of priests but when Christ returns we will be.  “…That ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now [called] the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”  And so brethren, see the parallel there.  I want you to get that with the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.  With them coming to Mt. Sinai, and then we’ll see a little later with us coming to Mt. Zion in heaven above.