All right, everyone, let us look unto the Lord.
Dear heavenly Father, precious and almighty Lord, thank You, Lord, for giving this wonderful opportunity today to come into Thy throne of grace, to exalt and adore Thee, Lord, and to remember Thee around Thy table.
What a joy it is, Lord, to come as a group of blood-bought believers, to rejoice in You, to remember You, and to worship You. Lord, it is a privilege that was granted to us.
Thank You, Lord, for drawing us under Your loving wings, carrying us under Your mighty wings till now. Lord, as we meditate upon Thy Word, Lord, we are unwise and foolish people. Lord, speak to us individually.
Lord, You know where we are in our lives. You know, Lord, You know what we need to see and listen to. So, Lord, I submit myself into Thy living hands, and everyone under the sprinkling blood of the Lamb. Lord, teach us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Let us turn to Exodus 19:1–10. It is a very old Scripture.
Young people can come and sit in the front. They are sitting in the back. Your voting voice can come and sit in a place. Yeah.
Exodus 19:1–10.
In the third month after the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the wilderness of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the Lord commanded him.
And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.
May the Lord bless this Word.
I was meditating on the Word of God, considering what I should share. Then, in my daily portion, I was in Exodus. When I was reading and meditating on this chapter, somehow I could not go away from it.
This is the first time I am seeing that the Lord wants to talk with His people personally. There is some kind of transaction, or commitment, going on between the people of the Lord and the Lord Himself.
Always the Lord said, “Do this, do that.” But here He wants Moses to go and tell something, and He is waiting for Moses to come back and tell Him something. This kind of transaction is taking place, and we see the purpose of the Lord also.
Throughout Exodus, while the people were in Egypt, the Lord was saying to Moses, “Let My people go, that they may worship Me.” But He had never disclosed this aspect of His eternal purpose to Israel.
I was thinking about the process through which the people came. When the Lord delivered them from Egypt, they went through the Red Sea and came into the wilderness of Shur. They travelled three days, and they were thirsty.
In Exodus 15:23–26, they found waters. They were regular people like us, and they were thirsty. But when the Lord showed Moses what should be done, we all know the story: the waters became sweet.
There, once the water became sweet and they drank it, Moses preached one thing to them in Exodus 15:25–26: “Hearken to the voice of the Lord, and do that which is right in His sight.” It is such a general statement, right? These people did not know what was right in His sight, because they were slaves.
Then they came to Elim. They had twelve wells and some trees, as recorded in Exodus 15:27, and they took rest. Then they travelled again, and they lacked bread. They were asking for food, as normal people would.
At this time, they were murmuring against the Lord. But the Lord was gracious enough. The Lord wanted to show His glory to them, so He rained bread from heaven, which they ate and called manna, in Exodus 16:4–7.
Moses said to them, “Ye shall see the glory of the Lord, for that He heareth your murmurings against the Lord.” Sometimes it looks like our own story, right? The story of our life.
Then it did not end there, because our story never ends there. They came to Horeb, in Exodus 17:2–6. The Lord said, “I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb: and thou shalt smite the rock.”
There the Word of God says that Israel tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” What a journey for Israel. Although they had seen the wonders in their life, and how the Lord delivered them, it is the natural story of all humankind. We are not different from them. In fact, we have been worse than them.
Walking in the wilderness is dangerous. Water is so important when you are in the wilderness or travelling through desert areas. So they questioned whether the Lord existed. Yet the Lord brought them to worship the same Lord.
Then, in Exodus 17, Amalek attacked them, and they won the war. Through all this process, the Lord was taking them forward. I think the Lord was looking for the right time: “When should I deliver My will to them? When should I talk with them properly about the purpose for which I brought them out?”
This is the first time, in this chapter, that the Lord wanted to speak to them about why He brought them out of Egypt.
If you look at the physical condition of Israel, for four hundred years they were slaves. There was no honour for them. I do not know what their living style was, how their clothing was, what their food was, or where they slept. They were in very, very low conditions. Above all, now they were running around in the desert.
But the Lord wanted to convey to them the purpose for which they had been brought there.
When meditating on this Word, in Exodus 19:3–4, the Lord asks Moses, “Go and tell the children of Israel.” Go and tell them that He brought them out of Egypt on His wings.
Then the Lord introduces Exodus 19:5–6. These are two powerful verses:
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
From these words, I could not move forward. The Lord was trying to tell them that they were not merely brought out of slavery into liberty and honour. The Lord wanted to bring them into covenant and communion with Him, which was something very new to them.
They may have been thinking, “We want liberty. We want honour. We want a good life.” They may have wanted to eat well, dress like Egyptians, ride horses, and have a respected and dignified life. But the Lord was speaking of something new.
He was saying, “You are a peculiar treasure. I want to make you a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” I do not know whether they even knew what a priest was at that point. They may have seen Egyptian priests from far away, shaving their heads and doing all those things.
Yet when these words were given to them, they all responded in Exodus 19:8, “We will do.” It was not because they understood what it all meant.
This is true with us too. We do not understand everything. If I say “royal priesthood,” many children do not know what a priest does. Especially young people: many times they have heard the words, “royal priesthood, royal priesthood.” We do not see priests around here in the same way, because when this was written, people understood what priests were like and what their duties were.
Later, the Lord gave Israel more understanding. So, it was not because they completely understood what the Lord said that they answered, “We will do.” They said it because they understood who they were under.
They understood who they were under because they had seen how mighty He was—the One who delivered them from the mighty hands of Pharaoh. In their eyes, Pharaoh was the greatest, and they had been under him. So they understood that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was greater than Pharaoh.
“He wants to do something with us, and we will do.” This is the heart that the Lord looks for. Many times, we do not understand all that the Lord wants to do with us or how He is going to transform us. But the Lord wants to know whether, wholeheartedly, we can say, “We will do.”
This phrase, “We will do,” reminds us of our salvation, and also of when children take baptism and say, “We will follow the Lord.” At that time, we do not know what our life will be or what we will do.
Many times, as young children, we hear about royal priesthood and a holy nation. But these young children remind us of those who take baptism and say, “We will follow the Lord. We will do.”
There are many such promises we have made in the presence of the Lord. When we get married, we say, “I will do. We will do.” These are great things, because we are agreeing that we are in the great presence of the Lord, and we will do what He asks.
This is what Israel did. When the Lord heard this, He knew the hearts of the people. In Exodus 19:9, the Lord said unto Moses:
Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever.
This is the Lord’s heart. He wants to speak with them. It was not simply, “You tell Me, and I will go and tell them every time.” The Lord wanted to show forth His greatness to His children, because now He wanted to have direct conversation with them.
So I was thinking about these three things: a peculiar treasure, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. We have heard these messages many times.
This echoes in Titus 2:14. We can read it:
Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works.
We also see it in 1 Peter 2:5:
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And in 1 Peter 2:9:
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
You see how strong this desire of the Lord is. This was the desire of the Lord before the foundation of the earth: that we should be a peculiar treasure, a holy nation, and a royal priesthood.
In Revelation 1:6, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, it says:
And He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
This is such a term that the world does not understand. The Lord is saying, “I want you to be like a nation.” There are many races in this world, but the Lord is talking about a new race, a new nation for which we are all looking.
I thought I would go into these three things, especially for the benefit of the young people, and simply define them so that we can understand the heart of the Lord and have the mindset of this new kingdom.
So many things around us draw us away from this mindset—the mindset of the Lord—that we are a different nation, the nation the Lord wants us to be.
Let us look at the peculiar treasure. I was looking at a few Bible tools. It says it is a treasure kept under lock and key. In other words, compared with it, the rest of the world is trash.
Have you ever felt that you are a peculiar treasure? Unfortunately, we often feel that we are trash and that others are peculiar treasures. Young people who are growing up, and adults who are going through the middle of life: you are a peculiar treasure. The Lord has prepared us for Himself.
When the Lord said “peculiar,” He did not leave them with only that statement: “You are peculiar; now you can go.” From Exodus 19 onward, for this peculiar treasure, God gave divine regulations and divine ordinances.
For this peculiar treasure, He gave the promise of eternal life. For His peculiar treasure, He poured out the Spirit. This is not given to everyone; it is for a peculiar treasure.
God sees you as a peculiar treasure. That is why He pours out everything He has upon us. This is what He wanted to do for the generation of Israel, whom He brought out of Egypt—not merely for them to wander, or merely to give them a kingdom so that they could rule and enjoy their lives.
The Lord wanted to give them something special, something no other people had been given. That is the reason the Lord drew them out of Egypt.
For Israel, going forward, He gave many laws: how to become a peculiar treasure and how to walk as a peculiar treasure. But for us, we could not go through all the law. The Lord knew that.
So He gave Christ for us, that He might make us a peculiar treasure. That is what we read in Titus 2:14.
The verse says that He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people. Peculiar does not mean weird. Children may think peculiar means weird. It does not.
The biblical definition of peculiar is special—not “special kids,” okay? It is a special treasure that you lock away safely. You should remember that you are a peculiar treasure.
When Israel said, “We will do,” their statement reflected a sincere, wholehearted commitment at that moment, even though they did not fully understand. Even if you do not fully grasp it, you need to accept that you are a peculiar treasure.
We know that it is not in our hands to become a peculiar treasure; it is in the hands of the Lord to make us a peculiar treasure. It is not just that we come here every Sunday, worship the Lord, and go to meetings.
The peculiar treasure must be seen outside the church, outside this building. When you live your life outside the church, do you feel that you are a peculiar treasure of Christ? Do you realise that Christ gave Himself to make you a peculiar treasure?
There are so many complaints in today’s world. We forget that we are different and that the whole world is different. The Lord has separated you to be a peculiar treasure.
There may be issues in life, issues with the government, issues at the office, and issues in the family. The news of the world is so strong. Some days you feel high; some days you feel down. But when you understand that you are a peculiar treasure, you know where you are walking and you know what you are.
Many times the news and situations of the world make you forget that you are a peculiar treasure. We feel peculiar only when we come to church and participate in the Lord’s table. Once we go outside, we forget that we are a peculiar treasure.
There are many races in the world, but the Lord wants to make a peculiar race. That is you and me. This race into which we are born will lose this flesh one day. We will lose our authority. We will lose our houses also.
Many people are so happy when they buy a new home. Within no time, they know they need to downsize and move to another home.
I have not seen anyone who did not downsize within ten thousand days of life. How many years is that? Thirty years, right?
Whatever we are standing on, saying, “Mine,” and doing, all of this will be gone in ten thousand days. But God has made us to be a peculiar treasure for eternity.
The things of the world may disappoint you, and the world will divert us from the truth that we are a peculiar treasure. The world always makes us focus on something else—to be happy about something else or sad about something else—but it diverts us so that our eyes are not on Christ’s thought that we are a peculiar treasure.
The second thing I was looking at is the kingdom of priests in Exodus 19.
A priest is employed to serve the Lord—employed in immediate service.
When we were born again, or when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, the Lord brought them out of the attitude of servitude and the bondage that was in Egypt.
God wanted them to be established as a kingdom, a free state governed by His own law. Do you see that? He wanted to make this peculiar people a free state.
Although there are many free states in the world, and people everywhere are fighting for a free state, God’s purpose in redeeming us is to establish us as a kingdom and make us a people governed by His law.
This kingdom should be His kingdom, and He wants to be their immediate King. This kingdom should have access to God, serve Him, and offer sacrifices to Him.
When the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, this was His purpose. He did not want this kingdom to be an unrecognised kingdom. He wanted His kingdom to be established—a kingdom that everyone could see, a special kingdom made up of a peculiar people.
This kingdom should take victory over neighbouring kingdoms and other kings who come against the work of the Lord. The work of this kingdom is to offer spiritual sacrifices.
In 1 Peter 2:9, it says:
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
The purpose of the kingdom is to show forth His praises. But we know how tactically the enemy has taken Israel away from this vision. Instead of being established as a kingdom, they went into Babylon and were ruled by many kings. That was not the Lord’s desire.
They forgot what they had said: “We will do.” They went away from the real desire of the Lord. The kingdoms of this world attracted them, and they forgot the purpose for which the kingdom was established by the Lord.
This is so true today. The kingdoms of the earth can easily draw us away from the kingdom of the Lord. Sometimes we are so happy with everything happening in the kingdoms of this world that we forget: that is not our kingdom at all.
If you are pulled into those things, feeling happy and sad over them, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you have gone away from the purpose of the Lord. It is a very subtle thing that the enemy does.
The enemy makes us forget that this kingdom, because it is not visible, does not exist. So easily, once we go out of this place, we become busy looking at the things of other kingdoms. We forget that we have been brought to be established as a kingdom for Him.
The kingdom mindset is important. Unfortunately, the kingdoms of this world easily draw us away from the kingdom of priests.
In this kingdom, in this priesthood, in the kingdom of priests, 1 Peter 2:9 says, “Show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness.” There are many things that need to be done.
But my point is not all the things that need to be done. My desire is that we remember ourselves and ask whether we have our eyes on that kingdom or whether we have become disconnected from it.
Have we become another religious entity, like Hinduism, Islam, and other religions? Or do we have the mindset of the kingdom?
In Colossians 3:1–2, Paul reminds us about this:
If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.
In another translation, it says, “Set your mind.” Paul is reminding us of the mindset of this kingdom.
The enemy wants to draw us away from the mindset of the kingdom which the Lord has established, and draw us toward earthly kingdoms. Sometimes we are sad, and sometimes we are happy, because of earthly kingdoms. But Paul does not want that. He wants your mindset to be the mindset of the kingdom which is above.
If you are feeling joy or sorrow over anything other than Christ, then definitely that is not the kingdom in which the Lord wants us to be. If you are sad, the Lord wants to bring that sorrow into His kingdom. If you have joy, the Lord wants to bring that joy into His kingdom and ask, “Does it match the kingdom of My Christ?”
That is the reason 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we must bring every imagination and thought into captivity to Christ. Otherwise, brothers and sisters, you will be lost in this world so easily while thinking that you are Christians.
That is true—we are Christians—but we may have lost our connection with the kingdom that the Lord desires. This desire of the Lord is not new. It was with the Lord before the foundation of the earth.
In Deuteronomy 7:6, He says:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
We all know that we belong to one nation, but there is a separation of holiness for the Lord. The Lord wants His own kingdom—not a kingdom established by humans, not a kingdom established by us or anyone else. The Lord wants His own kingdom.
Unfortunately, we have our own kingdoms within this heavenly kingdom. Have you understood that? We all have our own kingdoms within the heavenly kingdom. The Lord does not want that. The Lord wants us to be part of the whole holy kingdom.
The enemy’s work is to draw you away from the thought of the holy kingdom, put you into earthly kingdoms, and keep you and me busy with them. Then we forget the purpose for which the Lord brought us out of Egypt.
Young men and young women go to college and may not understand that they are peculiar people and that the Lord is establishing a holy kingdom for them. They do not know where they are walking. How will they know what is right and what is wrong?
Every debate is so convincing that you are half persuaded by it anyway. It depends on the person presenting it. But the Lord has presented only one thing: He wants a nation for Himself. He wants people for Himself. He wants a separated kingdom for Himself, different from earthly kingdoms.
We are fortunate, because those people may not have known much about the priesthood, and much later was given to them to understand how a priest should be. But for us, Christ Himself is our Priest. He is not only our Priest; He is also our sacrifice.
So all we can do, especially as young people, is hold on to Christ. “Lord, I want to be Your priest, but I do not know how to be. I want to be a peculiar treasure because You said I am a peculiar treasure. I want to be part of that established kingdom. Lead me.”
The Lord takes you through all the steps one by one. If you are not able to bring all your thoughts and imaginations to the Lord, then your thoughts and imaginations can very easily begin to work against the kingdom of God.
Have you ever examined whether your joy, your sorrow, your actions, or your thoughts can work against the kingdom of the Lord—drawing you away from the real purpose of the Lord?
When the Lord looked at His people, He was joyful. He wanted to talk with them. He wanted them to hear His voice so that they would see how powerful He is. The Lord is the same today. He wants to talk with His people.
He wants to talk with each of you personally and convey what His kingdom means, what His kingdom is, and what it means to be a peculiar treasure.
The third thing I was looking at is a holy nation.
We are so busy in this world. There are so many discussions around the world about all the nations of the world. But the Lord’s heart is different. He is thinking about another nation.
Every political view in every country talks about a nation which is not the nation the Lord is talking about. Ninety percent of human time goes into nations that we will not be part of after a few years—maybe ten years, twenty years, or thirty years.
There are only two nations, maybe only one nation: the nation of the Lord, and that which is not the nation of the Lord.
Everything in the world speaks so much about worldly nations. Only a few things remain that speak about the holy nation. Few instances remain. No one wants to talk about this holy nation. Nobody wants to devote themselves to this holy nation.
If you talk about the holy nation, people may think you are crazy. So I want these young people to think about this: you are the children of this holy nation. I do not want to say God dreamed about it, but this is what the Lord desires.
If we truly examine ourselves and our day-to-day lives, how much of our daily conversation is about the holy nation? How much of our conversation is not about this holy nation?
That is what the enemy wants to rob, and we want to drop the original purpose of the Lord—the purpose for which the Lord saved you and me.
Satan convinced Adam and Eve to reject God’s rule, and nations were formed. If Satan had not convinced Adam and Eve to reject God’s rule, maybe there would be only one nation: God’s nation.
Today also, we reject the Lord’s rule in our thoughts and actions. We want our own nation built—a nation built on our feelings, our emotions, and our thoughts.
As we read in Deuteronomy 7:6, we are a holy people unto the Lord, and the Lord has chosen us to be a nation. Until we recognise Christ and the very heart of Christ, we cannot desire this holy nation.
We all vote in this world, and voting is a good thing because we want this nation to be good. We all talk, debate, and have our opinions. But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord’s still voice says, “What about My nation?”
“The nation which I wanted to build before the foundation of this earth.”
If you have lost interest in this holy nation, we are no better than Adam and Eve, who were convinced by the serpent to reject the Lord’s rule—even after being saved by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, even after the Lord paid the price on the cross.
At the time of Adam and Eve, perhaps Adam did not have so much understanding, even though he walked with the Lord. Eve may not have had so much understanding. I do not want to make distinctions there, but they rejected it.
Today also, knowingly or unknowingly, with our actions and thoughts, we are rejecting the concept of the holy nation.
In 1 Peter 2:9–12, we are called to demonstrate this holy nation. If this is in you, if you desire to go into this holy nation, the Scripture says to demonstrate the glory of the Lord.
First Peter 2:9 says, “Show forth the excellencies of Him who called you.” It also says that we are to behave excellently among the Gentiles so that they may glorify the Lord.
If you are part of the holy nation, the Lord wants you to demonstrate the glory of the Lord through your life and mine.
If you are not in the business of demonstrating the glory of the Lord, if you are not behaving in a way that causes people to bring glory to the Lord, then we have completely lost the vision of the holy nation, just as Israel lost it. The Lord restored it to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you are not watchful concerning this nation, while being so watchful concerning earthly nations and everything around them, and if you are not able to demonstrate the glory of the Lord through your life, then we have fallen away from the Lord.
The Lord is bringing before us these three things: royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar treasure. We talk about these things, but we may not have even one clue how to demonstrate one part of them through our lives.
Somehow, I was not able to go beyond these verses. “Why, Lord? What is happening with us? Why are churches becoming weaker and weaker, unable to influence the world? How are others influencing so strongly?”
Because the church has lost the thought of being a nation.
In the church, we think there are many nations. There are not; there is only one nation. We have totally lost the truth that we are a nation. There are no multiple races forever. Multiple races exist only while we are born on this earth. In the sight of the Lord, there is one race: the peculiar treasure race.
It is a challenge for us. But the Lord did not leave us alone in this. He was a forerunner for us.
According to Hebrews 4:14–15, He was a Priest. He went before us. He reminds us that we are a nation and that we are priests like Him. We are standing with Him.
We are so accustomed to praising the Lord with all the words we know. We are accustomed to bringing all our things to the Lord. But we are not able to live the life, or to seek to be the nation the Lord wants us to be.
May the Lord bless this Word.
Dear Lord, thank You for this Word, Lord—for these simple verses. But this is Your purpose. This is Your desire.
When even Israel heard these words, they thought they were simple, and they said, “We will do.”
We have said so many times that we will do.
But we are lost in the nations of this world.
Lord, for what purpose You brought us out: You brought us to establish a kingdom for You, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Lead us according to Thy will. In Jesus’ name.