1273. Ye Are a Holy Nation

Ye Are a Holy Nation

"For our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Php_3:20).

1. Ye are a nation.

(1) A nation is a people with a common headship. The world governments have kings, czars, monarchs, presidents or some other designated head.

The Church also has a Head–the Lord Jesus Christ. We never speak of Him, Scripturally, as King. He is Lord, for God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. He is Head, for God hath proclaimed Him to be the Head of the Church, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

(2) A nation is a people of common ties, bound together under a common flag.

There is a great word that is going the rounds to-day; it is the word "brotherhood." In the lodge room there is a brotherhood; men are bound together with secret signs and passwords; they speak of unity, fraternity and equality. However, all of these bodies of men lack the one great tie which binds us to Christ. The only real brotherhood is a brotherhood based upon Fatherhood and the nation known as the holy nation is thus bound.

(3) A nation is a people of a common country. "Our citizenship is in Heaven," whence also "we wait for * * the Lord Jesus Christ" (A. S. V.). So far as the place of our present habitation is concerned we are no more than "strangers and pilgrims," passing through a foreign land.

"Here in this body pent,

Absent from Him we roam,

Yet daily pitch our moving tent,

A day's march nearer Home."

While we are in a strange country and in a foreign land, and while we are strangers and pilgrims, yet we are looking for a city whose Builder and Maker is God.

"I saw a way-worn traveler,

In tattered garments clad,

And wandering up the mountains,

It seemed that he was sad;

His back was heavy laden,

His strength was almost gone,

But he shouted as he journeyed,

'Deliverance will come.'"

Thus do we journey toward the country of our future habitation.

2. Ye are a holy nation. The adjective which describes the kind of nation which believers are said to compose.

(1) The holiness of saints marks them as a nation distinct from all other. All Other nations lie in the lap of the wicked one. Some speak of Christian nations, but there is no such thing. There are many nations wherein Christians have freedom and liberty, but there are no Christian nations. The United States stands as a leader among the nations of the world and yet the United States purposefully left the name of Jesus Christ out of her constitution.

The saints of God compose a nation which is distinctively holy, because it is distinctively Christian.

Scattered among all the nations of the earth there are those who have been separated unto God, called out by Him to be a holy nation. They are in the world but not of the world. They are sent into the world but hated by the world. They run not with the world to the same excess of riot. They walk not as the Gentiles walk, "In the lusts of their flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind." They are a people made righteous through the Blood of Christ, and empowered to live righteously by the Spirit of Christ.

(2) The distinctions between God's holy nation, and the nations of the world are set forth in the Epistle to the Galatians. The nations of this world are made up of men of the flesh; they walk in the lusts of the flesh, and their works are manifest: "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."

We know that the nations of this world will not appreciate this picture of their works. However, God's statement may be easily corroborated by perusing any daily newspaper. World nations have sought strenuously but unsuccessfully to overcome the works of the flesh; but they are still a cage of unclean things.

We know that the people of God are a holy nation, bringing forth the fruit thereof. Their chief mark is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control."

There may be many church-members who are daily fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. The great percentage of these, however, have never been born again. It is true, moreover, that saints may walk, for a time, in their "old man," and thereby disown and dishonor God. However, the stream is not to be judged by the eddies. The current of the Christian's life is Godward and saints are a holy nation.

3. Ye are a holy nation, that ye may show forth the glories of holy citizenship.

(1) Over against the cities of this world, God would throw His new Jerusalem.

The story of city life began with Cain. He "builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." Among early post-flood cities were Babel and Nineveh. The greatest of all world cities is the Babylon of Revelation 18. Babylon will be a city of merchandise and merchant ships; a city clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.

The merchandise of Babylon is thus described in Revelation: "The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine-wood, and every article of ivory, and every article of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, and perfumes, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and bodies and souls of men" (1911 Bible). Such is the city of man's glory.

Over against this city, God places both the earthly and the Heavenly Jerusalem; the latter is the inheritance of saints; the city in which His holy nation will abide.

God's Heavenly City lies foursquare. It is a city which needs neither the moon, nor the stars to lighten it, for the Lord God is the light thereof. It is a city which needs no temple, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it. It is a city with a wall great and high–a wall made of precious stone. It is a city with twelve gates, and every several gate a pearl. It is a city with streets of gold, and with a river of Water of Life, clear as crystal. It is a city inhabited only by the holy. "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that * * worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." God's city will show forth the glories of Him Who called us as "an holy nation."

(2) Over against the deeds of the nations energized by satan, god would put the deeds of the saints who compose this holy nation. By these deeds God would bring glory to His name.

When David slew Goliath, he said: "This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, * * that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel" (1Sa_17:46).

When Daniel was in the lions' den and Darius called unto him: "Is thy God, Whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?" then Daniel replied, "My God has sent His angel and hath shut the lions' mouths." Then King Darius wrote unto all people and languages, that dwell in all the earth: "I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for He is the Living God."

When the three Hebrew children came forth from the fiery furnace, untouched, King Nebuchadnezzar cried: "There is no god that can deliver after this sort."

What our God wants us to do, as a holy nation, is to show forth His glory as these men of old showed it forth. He wants us to show before the world nations His Divine grace and glory.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR