Good morning. Please take your Bibles and turn with me again to Jeremiah chapter 31. We continue our study of the new covenant that God has made with us in Christ. Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34. By the time I'm done with this series, I trust you will have memorized this because you've heard it so many times. Jeremiah 31 beginning in verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit, that the Spirit would be our teacher and our instructor. We pray that you will exalt your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and let him have the preeminence among us. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Since this past December, we have been exploring the covenantal structure of the Bible itself, and then giving specific attention to the greatest of all the covenants, which is the new covenant that God ratified through the blood of Jesus Christ. And I have told you that there are four effectual blessings given to God's people in the new covenant, and we have examined the first of those. It's like having four wonderful gifts underneath the Christmas tree that you're waiting to unwrap. And so we sought to unpack the first of those last week. The very first blessing is God regenerates all those who are heirs of the new covenant. That's how you become an heir of the new covenant, by being born again. And that's expressed in the language of, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, which brings us then to the second blessing, which is identification. identification. And that's found when the scriptures say, I will be their God and they shall be my people. I began this series by talking about marriage, because marriage is a covenant between a man and his wife. And the Bible itself compares the covenants God makes with his people to the covenant of marriage. For example, in our text, in verse 32, God says of Israel, quote, I was a husband to them. When we come to the language of the new covenant in Ephesians 5, Paul declares that the church is the bride of Christ. And let me return to that analogy of marriage as we think about the subject of identification. This past Thursday evening, I took my wife on a date. Usually, when we go on a date, we go on Monday night or Tuesday night, but we went on Thursday night for a very specific reason. This past Thursday was our anniversary. We celebrated 32 years of being husband and wife together. Now, let me talk about that because 32 years ago, my wife entered into a sanctuary and came to the front where I was, and as she came down the aisle in the hands of her, arm in arm with her father, she was Miss Angela Strickland. But from the time we entered into the covenant of marriage, even to the present day, her identity changed. Now she is Mrs. Angela Slate. She literally took my name upon her so that she is identified with me and I'm identified with her. She belongs to me, I belong to her, and we are inseparably identified with one another because we're bound together by a covenant. And it's not just that we're identified with one another, she didn't just take my name, Everything I own is also hers as well. It's owned jointly by us. My bank accounts, my cars, my house, my lands, all its furnishing, all the clothing that's inside of it, all these things became hers because she is bound to me in the covenant of marriage. If that's true of a husband and his wife, then the question is, what does it mean to you that God is bound to you by covenant. It means, first of all, that you're identified with Him. He is completely unashamed to have you be identified with Him. His name is upon you. And that's a marvelous thing to think about, to contemplate. But not only that, just as in marriage, not only is there a mutual identification, there's also a sense of mutual ownership. God owns you, he has bought you with a price, the price of his only begotten son dying upon the cross, but there's also a sense in which you own him. I don't mean that you're in authority over him, of course, but there is a sense in which you can certainly say, God, the God of the Bible is my God. That is, my God is not Allah, and my God is not Buddha, and I don't worship the millions of gods that are named in the land of India, because none of them are my gods. I worship one God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He alone is my God. And that's a beautiful thing. In other words, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the apostles and the God of the prophets, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is your God. That's a glorious thing to think about. And so I want to explore this under two basic headings. The first is this, identified with God. And then secondly, identified with God's people. You're identified with God and you're identified with God's people if you are an heir of the new covenant. So first of all, identified with God. The language of, I will be their God and they shall be my people is not unique to the new covenant. That's actually very common covenantal language, which doesn't diminish any of its significance, but in the Abrahamic covenant. Many years after God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15, we read in Genesis chapter 17 that He added the covenant of circumcision to it. And He says this in Genesis 17, 7-8, Now listen to the language. to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also, I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and listen to the final phrase, and I will be their God. The same is true of God's covenant through Moses. When God made his covenant with Israel at Sinai, Moses went in obedience to God's command to Pharaoh, and he told him on the Lord's behalf, let my people go. Now, do you hear the language? My people, the people whom I am identified with, the people who are my precious possession, let them go. Well, not only did Pharaoh not let them go, he hardened his heart. But you remember what happened. He actually made things hard on God's people. That is, he said, all right, they're still going to make the same quota of bricks every day, but now we're not going to provide straw for them. They're going to have to go gather the straw for themselves, but their quota won't be reduced. They're going to double their work, but they're going to continue the same amount of quota. Well, you know what happened then? Not only was Pharaoh displeased with Moses, God's people were displeased with Moses. As the grasshopper said in A Bug's Life, only a quote from the best, first rule of leadership, everything is your fault. It was Moses obeying God and yet it raised the ire not only of Pharaoh but also of God's people. And remember what Moses did, he went back out and he cried out to God. And he very reasonably said, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you've sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, neither have you delivered your people at all. Things have gotten worse, not better. And the Lord responded to Moses and reassured him to say, tell the Israelites, in my time, I'm going to deliver them. I'm going to take my time to show my wonders to the Egyptians, but I will deliver them. And then in Exodus 6 verse 7, he said this, I will take you as my people. and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." So my point is the language of, I'm your God and you are my people, is common to all the covenants God made with men. And this is certainly true of the new covenant. Jeremiah 31, 33, we've already read, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Last week, I read to you from Jeremiah 32, verses 38 to 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God. Then I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. In other words, again, this is the new covenant. One other text that I read to you last week was from Ezekiel 11, verses 19 to 20. Then I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them and take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them, and listen to the final phrase, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Now, I want you to meditate on how startling it is that God would be unashamed to be identified with you. and to let the world know it, as a matter of fact. Because God is the thrice holy God. God is light, John says, and in Him there is no darkness at all. When we speak of God being holy, what we mean, we're speaking of His spotless moral perfection. His spotless moral perfection. Think about it. God's holiness is an eternal holiness. It has no beginning. It has no origin. There was no time when it came into existence. It has always existed. And because it's eternal, it also has no end. God is eternally holy. God's holiness is infinite. That is, it's measureless. You cannot fathom it. It has no limit. It has no end. It's a measureless, unfathomable sea. And God's holiness is immutable. Unlike you and me, God cannot become more holy, nor can he become less holy. He is always and forever most holy. And yet, compare that to you and to me. In one sense, God's holiness is the thing most foreign to us, isn't it? Because we are fallen. We are sinners. You, by nature, left to yourself outside of Christ, by nature, you are an object of God's wrath. You are a totally depraved individual, which doesn't mean you're as bad as you can be. What it means is every facet, every fiber of your being has been affected and spoiled by sin. And yet it is this thrice holy God who is identified with you. Think about it. Even if you're regenerate, and I trust many of you are, But even if you're regenerate, can you not relate to the hymn writer who says, I am false and full of sin? You ever feel that way? Look in your heart, you look at the scriptures and you let it be a mirror to show you what's inside. And you think to yourself, I am just overwhelmed with sin. I look within, and you know what I see? I see vile thoughts entertained in the theater of my mind. I inspect the good works that I do in obedience to God's commandments, and you know what I see? I see that part of me wants God to be glorified, but another part of me wants me to share some of that glory with Him. that there's always pride lurking in me behind every single motive, every single action that I do. None is completely pure. None is completely righteous. Therefore, I have never ever committed a completely righteous, sinless act in my entire life, even in my righteousness. And the older I get, the more I find that it's not the obvious external sins that bother me as much, even though I've got plenty of those too, The thing that bothers me most, the older I get, is my rotten inward attitudes that not necessarily everyone around me can see, but I see it and I know God sees it. That is far too often I'm marked by a cynical fault-finding disposition. I can see malice in my heart and envy and self-seeking. I have a tendency to want mercy for myself, but I want justice for those who wrong me or cross me or sin against me. I fear sometimes becoming a bitter old man, but I realized that bitter old men were once bitter young men and bitter middle-aged men. And I see this in my heart and think to myself, Lord, will you deliver me from this? Someone cuts me off while I'm driving down the road. And I hate to tell you, as a pastor, the horrible kind of words that come into my mind, even if they don't pass from my lips, they're there in my heart and in my mind where others may not be aware of it, but God is aware of it. Sometimes I detect passions seething inside of me, churning like magna within an active volcano, waiting the slightest provocation to spew forth and send out a pyroclastic cloud to consume everybody around me. And sometimes I see those things in my heart and it terrifies me. And I think, oh Lord, I wish I was like you and had no passions, but I see them here. You see, the older I get, the more I resonate with the hymn writer who says, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone, inclined to leave the God I love. Now, is it just me? Am I alone here in the pulpit or is it everybody here? We all see it inside of ourselves, don't we? And I'll be honest, in the last year, as I've contemplated this, I have said to God many times in private, why on earth do you put up with me? Why does a God as holy as you want anything to do with someone as sinful as me? But not only does God love you if you're one of his people, one of his children, can I dare say he likes you? He delights in you. He rejoices in you, as we will see in a moment. This is the same God who freely chose to send his son to die for your sins. This is the same God who made a covenant with you and has bound himself to you and says, look world, this is my son. Look world, this is my daughter. I rejoice in my children and want you to know who they are. And this willingness on God's part to be identified with you is found in numerous scriptures. We could spend all afternoon talking about them. I'm gonna content myself with just five scriptures that we're gonna touch just really quickly here. Let's begin in Matthew 28. Matthew 28, verses 18 to 19. You're familiar with this. Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Now listen to the next thing. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This, of course, is the Great Commission. It's threefold commandment. Make disciples, baptize disciples, and teach disciples. But what's the significance of this commandment Jesus gives to baptize believing disciples in the singular triune name of God. What does that mean? Well, baptism is all about identification. Why was Jesus baptized by John the Baptist? John the Baptist certainly wanted to know. I need to be baptized by you and you're coming to be baptized by me. And Jesus said, permit it to be so for now and fulfill all righteousness. In other words, don't ask questions, just do it. But what was he saying? Why would Jesus undergo baptism? Because John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. You're professing to be repentant of your sins. Tell me, what sin did Jesus have to repent of? He had none. He needed no repentance because he had no sin, but this is the very beginning of his earthly ministry, and what was he saying? He was declaring, I have not come to be identified with the righteous. I've come to be numbered among the transgressors. I've come to be identified with people who've broken God's law. In other words, Jesus was numbered among the transgressors so that transgressors could be numbered among the righteous. But his baptism was saying, I have come to be identified with these people. Well, what does it mean then when we undergo baptism as believing sinners? It means that the triune name of God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is forever after connected to you. His name is placed upon you before the watching world and before the church. His name is put upon you as identification. Turn to John 1, verses 10 to 12. God willing, second Lord's Day in March, I'm gonna begin an expository verse-by-verse series on John. I don't know how many years it'll take us, but I've begun doing the background study for it, and I can tell you, I am just getting so excited. I cannot wait to preach John's gospel to you. But verses 10 to 12 are amazing. I know they're very familiar to you, but I want you to hear them for the first time, as it were, to hear it with fresh ears. Verse 10, He was in the world, that is, Jesus was in the world, and the world was made through Him. and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name." Now, what's he saying? He's saying the creator of the universe stepped into time by becoming a man, and yet his creation did not recognize their creator. He says, he came into the world and the world did not know him. And then he came to his own people, that is, he came to the Jews, but they did not receive him, instead they rejected him. But then he says, but as many as received him. That is, as many Jews as received him, and as many Gentiles as received him, whoever believed on him. Listen to what he says next, and this is the part that blows my mind. Verse 12, to them he gave the right to become children of God. He gave you the right. The word right means power. It means authority. Jesus gave you the authority to be a child of God. He gave you the right. Is it just me or does it bother you when you watch or hear a commercial? And it says something like this, you deserve better. You deserve a better clean. You deserve a better product. You're entitled to more leisure time. You're this, you're that. You know why those things bother me? Because I have hundreds of thousands of reasons to thank God that he hasn't given me what I'm entitled to. that he hasn't given me what I deserve. Only a foolish sinner says to God, please give me my rights. Give me what you owe me, pay me what you owe me, pay me what I deserve, because what I deserve is an eternity in hell. But here is Jesus himself saying, if you believe in me, you have the right to be a child of God. The right. It's a right that is not yours by nature. It's a right that's yours contrary to nature by the grace of God. That God says you have the right to become my child. And not only the right to become a child, but to make it known. Because in 1 John, behold what manner the love of the Father has given unto us, that we should be called, called the children of God. We have the right to tell the world, I'm a child of God. I belong to him. I'm identified with him and he's unashamed to call me his child. He's my father through the adoption of grace through Jesus Christ. And he's unashamed to be identified with the likes of me. Is that not grace? If that's not grace, I don't know what grace is. For God to be unashamedly identified with us. You're still in John, turn to John 20. And verse 17. This is Jesus' first resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene. Verse 17, Jesus said to her, "'Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.'" Apparently, it would seem that when Mary Magdalene saw Jesus, she thought at first he was the gardener. And remember what she said, she's weeping uncontrollably. And she says, "'Sir, if you know where they've laid the body, Please tell me so that I may retrieve the body and bury him properly. And you remember what happens, he turns to her and says, Mary. And suddenly she understands and knows this is the risen Christ. And she cries out, Rabbani. And it seems that she flung her arms around him, not in a romantic embrace, but what she's saying is, you're my Lord and my Savior, my all in all, and I thought I'd lost you. And now here you are, risen. And she's clinging to him like, I'm never gonna let you go again. And yet Jesus says, don't cling to me. Let go of me. I have a mission for you. I have a message for you to send to my apostles. Now think about that. What had the apostles done three days earlier? They had sworn to a man, even if everyone else abandons you, I will be loyal to you, even if I have to go to prison for you, even if I've got to die for you, even if everybody else is a coward, I'm going to be loyal and brave and I'm going to be sticking to you. And yet, what do they do the moment the mob comes? They all turn away and they run and they leave Jesus alone in his hour of greatest need. Peter, three different times, says, I never knew him. As a matter of fact, the third time he cusses and swears, that's to say, see, Christians don't talk like this. Blankety, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank. I don't know him. Well, what happens when a messenger comes to you three days later and says, Jesus is risen. I've seen it with my own eyes. And by the way, he sent a message for me to tell you. What message would you expect the risen Lord to be giving? He's coming with a message. He's coming to visit you and he's not happy. But that's not what he says, is it? Look what he says. Go to my brothers. Isn't that something? Go to my brothers. Go to the men who are disloyal to me because I'm still loyal to them in spite of it all. You get the impression that Jesus not only is willing to forgive them, but he already has? Go tell my brothers this good news that I'm risen. And then he says, I am ascending to my father. Jesus, God is Jesus' father in a way that he's not our father. He is his father by nature because he's the only begotten son, the eternally generated son of God. But we are the sons of God by adoption. And through the grace of adoption, we can look at God and call him our father. So look what he says, tell them I'm ascending to my father. and your Father, and to my God, and to your God. You see how grace shows God identifying with us, and us identify with you, even in the apostles' worst hour. Even in their least faithful hour, here is God unashamed to be identified with these men. Two more places I'll point you to. One is Revelation 21, the other is Revelation 22. Revelation 21, one to four, you find the fulfillment of this identification. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, and listen carefully because you find the identification here, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Similar language, Revelation 22, 1-5. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life. Remember how we were banished from the tree of life when Adam fell? Now here we are having free access to it in the new heaven and new earth, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. Now look at the next phrase. and His name shall be on their foreheads, permanently identified with this great God who has saved us. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Here you find the fulfillment of the new covenant in glory, where God's name is permanently put upon our foreheads, and we are identified with Him. So the first part of identification is being identified with God. But in the second place, we're also identified with God's people. Identified with God's people, that is His church. Trust it's obvious by now that there's an indivisible connection between being identified with God and being adopted by God. That if He's your Father, then you're His child and therefore you're identified with Him. So there's a vertical dimension here that we're identified with the Lord, but isn't there also a horizontal dimension? Because here's the thing, are you the only person who's been adopted as a child of God? The answer is no. And so if there are others who have experienced the grace of adoption through faith in Jesus Christ, then here's the thing, if your father is their father, what's that make you? Makes you brothers, makes you sisters. And here's the point, you cannot be identified with God and not be identified with God's people, period. You can't love Jesus and not love his church. Because if you don't love his church, you don't love him. If I can paraphrase the Apostle John, if you don't love the church whom you have seen, can you love the Jesus whom you've not seen? And the answer, of course, is no. And we find this, appropriately enough, shown even in the ordinances of the new covenant, which are what? Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism identifies you with the people of God. We've already spoken of how in baptism the Trinitarian name of God is placed upon you, and you're identified forever after as the disciple of Christ. You're connected to Him. But in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, Paul also says, by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body. That is, I cannot be just identified with the Lord without being identified with His people. That's why all throughout the book of Acts, you'll read that when people hear the gospel, they repent of their sins, they put their faith in Jesus, what's the next thing that happens? They're baptized and added to the church. They are formally added to the roster of the church. So there's a distinction between those that are the church and those that are not the church. The world would dare not join themselves to the church, it says in the book of Acts, because they knew that the requirement was faith in Christ and to be holy and to walk in a holy manner of life. My point is, you can't be identified with Jesus if you're not identified with his church, and that is symbolized even in baptism. But then it's also found in the Lord's Supper. The Lord's table is a means of grace. You realize the Lord's table is God himself showing hospitality to his people and say, eat with me, join with me, enjoy my hospitality that I'm extending to you. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, we don't enjoy the physical presence of Christ, but we do enjoy his spiritual presence as the Spirit of God ministers to us. But it's not just that we enter into fellowship with Christ through this table, we also enter into fellowship with one another. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10 verses 16 to 17 make this clear. The cup of blessing which we bless, speaking of the wine, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And then the bread, the unleavened bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Then listen to what he says, verse 17, for we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. That's why we require you to be a member of a church in order to partake of the Lord's Supper with us, because you don't need to be functionally excommunicating yourself from the church by keeping the church at arm's length. But then we also urge you every time we come together and we take the Lord's Supper like we're gonna do this morning, to examine yourself, to make sure you have a conscience devoid of offense before God and before men. That is, it's hypocrisy to commune with the Lord while you're simultaneously holding things against the Lord, that is, entertaining sins inside of your heart that you refuse to repent of, That's just hypocrisy. But it's also hypocrisy to be sowing discord among God's people or to have unresolved conflicts with God's people and then say, all right, let's have communion with one another. No, so you need to go and make it right. So it's a call to repentance over your own sin. That is, Thomas Watson said it this way. He said, communion seasons are repenting seasons. Seasons when we come and keep short accounts with the Lord, but we also get out of our seat and go make things right with any brother that we've sinned against or offended because it's a call to the church to be unified every time we take the Lord's Supper together. So, very important that we think through those things. Why? Because we're identified with the Lord and we're identified with His church. And both baptism and the Lord's Supper commend that to us. Now let me tell you something else about being identified with God's people and think about the glories of it. What an honor it is to be numbered among the household of God. Have you ever thought about that? That I am identified with Christ, but I'm also identified with His church, and I am a part of His body. That's a glorious thing. And it's not just that you're connected to the people who are within this one local church. Wherever in all the world there are people who truly believe on Christ, who have been justified by His righteousness, who have been cleansed by His blood, who have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, you're connected to them because they're family. And I've experienced this. I've had the joy of going to Cuba and going to Chile and going to Africa and meeting brothers and sisters who I never knew before, different color skin, different language, different culture, and yet I come in and I recognize my brothers and my sisters, and I go, I've come home. It's family. Here I am on the other side of the world, and yet I've run into my own family, and I recognize them, and they recognize me. We worship the same God. We call the same God Father. We're dressed in the same righteousness. We have the same saving faith in Him. We have the same communion. We gather for worship, and it's the same elements of worship here as it is there. It's a beautiful thing. But it's not just that, brothers and sisters. It's not just that you're connected to everyone now living. There's more. You're connected to God's people who've gone before. That is, the church of those who are already in heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect who've already gone before us, we are connected to them. That is, our fellowship on earth is as the church militant, but we are also in fellowship with a church triumphant who's gone before. We're connected to them. That's why the author of Hebrews says at the end of chapter 12, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. As we gather for worship today, as we're singing God's praises, first of all, we're joining our hearts and our voices to God's church all around the world that's doing the same exact thing today. But not only that, we're adding our hearts and voices to the saints in heaven who are doing the same thing constantly and are beholding the face of God as they do so. That's a glorious thought. Let me put this to you hopefully in more concrete terms. Think about all your heroes and heroines from the Bible. That is, all those who believed in Christ that the Bible tells us about. That is, people like Eve. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, David, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Joseph and Mary, Peter, Tabitha, John, Paul, Barnabas. That is your spiritual family. But then think about the last 2000 years of church history. Think about people like Polycarp, Perpetua, Monica, Augustin, Martin and Katie Luther, Calvin, Nehemiah Cox, Margaret Wilson, John Gill, David Brainerd, Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, George Whitfield, John Newton, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Samuel Pierce, Anne Judson, Sarah Judson, Samuel and Sarah Pierce, JC Ryle, Charles and Susanna Spurgeon, John and Margaret Payton, Amy Carmichael, Martin and Beethan, Lloyd-Jones, Elizabeth Elliott, A.W. Tozer. Do you realize these aren't just our heroes? They, like us, are sinners. And yet these sinners were justified by faith in Christ and have received the grace of adoption just like you. So that means that your heroes and your heroines aren't just your heroes and your heroines, they're your brothers, and they're your sisters, and you're part of them because you belong to the same family. And though we're separated by time, you're gonna spend eternity with them. Now that's a glorious thing to think about. to think, I am part of the body of Christ, and therefore, join heirs with them. There was a song written in the 1970s that meant a lot to my mom when she gained her assurance of her salvation. Very simple song, but it's called, I'm So Glad I'm a Part of the Family of God. And this is how the chorus goes. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, for I'm part of the family, the family of God. It is a glorious thing that's not to be taken for granted, that we are connected, brothers and sisters, to all these brothers and sisters who've gone before. There's three applications I want to make to you from the things we've seen. First, the privilege of bearing the name of Christ comes with the responsibility of walking worthy of the name by which you are called. And I trust you'll recognize the Bible reference embedded in that statement. It's found in Ephesians 4, verse 1. Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. When you think about honoring God's name, what comes to your mind? My guess would be you think about the third commandment. You should remember the Lord's name to keep it holy, right? You should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. So when you hear about honoring God's name is the first thing that comes to your mind, people who use God's name as a cuss word, or maybe someone who, when they're startled or surprised, takes God's name in vain and says, oh my God, or something like that, which is horrible. And of course, that is an example of taking God's name in vain. But as professing Christians, who have been baptized in the triune name, you bear the name of the triune God. And his name can be blasphemed when you, by sinful conduct, dishonor him before the world. Think about it. In Leviticus 19, verse 12, it says, you shall not swear by my name falsely. That is, you won't make promises in my name that are not true. Then he says this, "...nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. To swear falsely, to give your word and then not follow through with your word is to bring dishonor to the name by which you are called." And King David committed adultery with Bathsheba. You know how he sinfully tried to hide it. And not only was it futile because he didn't hide it from God, he didn't do a very good job of hiding it from the people either. The surrounding nations heard of it. They knew about this adultery he was committing and of the murder he arranged of her husband, Bathsheba's husband. And so when Nathan came to him to rebuke him, you know that David acknowledged his sin. But then Nathan said this to him, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. He's forgiven you. But then notice what he says. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The child also who is born to you shall surely die. You violated the seventh commandment and you violated the sixth commandment. You murdered, you committed adultery, you lied, you cheated, you distorted. And because you're identified with Yahweh, the God of Israel, this has allowed the surrounding Gentile nations to violate the third commandment by speaking evil of God because of your sin. Paul gives a scathing rebuke to the Jews who believe they were justified by their personal obedience to God's law in Romans 2. Do you remember what he says? He says, you who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is written. You are God's people. You have his name upon yourself, and yet you're hypocrites. And the Gentiles see it. They see your disobedience. They see your sinful behavior. And because of it, my name is dishonored, because they see me as a sham, because you are hypocrites and not real. My fellow brothers and sisters, I trust you get the point. If you bear the name of Christ, you are responsible to walk worthy of that name. And that is, you bear His name and the world is watching whether you know it or not. The world is upon you when you say you know Jesus. And so you need to be mindful of the conduct before them. Perhaps you're here and you think you're the least significant person in all the kingdom of God. That perhaps you're less than the least of all the saints and a nobody from nowhere who's of little consequence in God's kingdom. And so, you know, the world doesn't really notice me. Well, that's the devil's lie. Let me tell you who you are. Let's grant the argument for a moment. Maybe you really are the worst and least Christian who's ever lived, okay? By God's grace, you're still a child of the King. You still have the triune name upon you. It's indelibly stamped upon you. And whether you know it or not, the world is watching. The world is watching to see if you're real or to see if you're a hypocrite. Do you just talk the talk or do you walk the walk? And it's amazing how quickly the world can pick up on a hypocrite. You must therefore live in such a way as to bring no reproach to his name You need to give the world no reason to mock or blaspheme the name of God. Let me get concrete. Let me get specifics and practical. Why do you balance your checkbook? So that you don't bounce your checks. Not just so that you have bad credit, but because to write a check that you know is going to bounce is lying. And it's not just your good name, it's the name of your Lord and Savior that's upon you. And that's why you keep your checkbook balanced so that you don't bounce a check. Also, why you pay your bills on time, because Jesus' name is upon you and you need to have a good reputation among those who are without, because it's Jesus' reputation that's riding upon you. Or how about this? Do you speak pure words in the workplace and in the home? Because holiness of speech reflects the reputation of your Savior. Ladies, what about moral purity in the way you dress, the way you adorn yourself, being modest so that you're not a stumbling block to those around you? Or men that you're not flirtatious with women who are not your wife, that you treat older women as mothers and younger women as sisters in all purity because that represents who Christ is to them. Or what about this, men, in the places of secular business? Do you conduct your business with integrity because you're a representative of God and His truth in the workplace? employees and students, homemakers, homeschoolers, to pursue excellence in your profession, to pursue excellence in your calling, and not only to pursue excellence, but to be diligent and not slothful, because a slothful work ethic reflects badly upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust you get my point. We can multiply examples. There are some sins I've been kept from, because I've thought about the fact that I'm in the eye of the world and before the eye of the church, and I bear the name of Jesus, and I have the responsibility of bearing that name well. That leads me to my second application. Since God is unashamed to be identified with you, then you must also be unashamed to be identified with God. John tells us that during Jesus' earthly ministry, there were some of the rulers of Israel who at least intellectually recognized that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They had a kind of faith, a faith that seemed to fall short of saving faith, because John tells us about them by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and it's not too flattering what he has to say. This is John 12, verses 42 to 43. Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. Why? For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Their faith fell short of saving faith because they weren't willing to confess Him before men. Jesus says in Matthew 10, Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven." And again in Mark 8, he says, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Identification means God's not ashamed to be identified with you, therefore you must not be ashamed to be identified with Some of you here perhaps have believed on Christ, you've passed from death to life, but are there some of you hesitating to confess Jesus as Lord in the waters of baptism? It's one thing to hesitate because you're wrestling with your own assurance before the Lord, that's one thing. It's quite another to hesitate because you're afraid of what others might think of you when you're baptized. That is, perhaps you avoid it because being publicly dunked under the water before a viewing audience fills you with dread and makes you somewhat self-conscious, and I can sympathize with that to some degree. But I would ask you this. At the end of the day, it's really not about you, is it? Do you have a Jesus who is worth suffering a little bit of embarrassment for in order to confess Him before men? If so, then you need to be baptized because that's His commandment. But what about those of you who have been baptized? Do you hesitate to stand for Jesus in his words when you're placed in a situation where others are tempting you to compromise his ways? That is, when standing for Jesus means you have to stand alone, but you get ashamed because you fear what men think. When I was a teenager, the internet and streaming services were a thing of the future. They didn't exist in those days. And so you couldn't just rent a movie online or stream it to your house. You had to go into Blockbuster Video or someplace like that. Let me tell you, as a Christian teenager, when you were with your Christian friends and you went together to rent a movie, you talk about some temptation, the struggles, because do you stand up and speak when your conscience is troubled by the thing that your friends want to watch? If they wanted to watch something that you knew had graphic sexual immorality in it, or perhaps dabbles in the occult in some way, or perhaps it has over-the-top violence in it that's just not appropriate, that fills you with bloodlust, that's not right, to stand up and say, brothers, my conscience troubles me about this. Can we pick a different video? That was a real test. It really was. Because if you stand up and say it, you might be called that most horrible of words, a legalist. He said the L word. And to be a legalist was to be branded as one of those weird people. Or how about this? Men, what about confessing Jesus in the workplace? When your boss instructs you to lie on a report or to cook the books, or when you're told that you must call Fred Sally and use the specific pronouns that they've chosen rather than what God actually created them to be, are you willing to graciously stand up for Jesus and not compromise His ways even if it may cost you your livelihood? What about when a well-intentioned Christian friend invites you to an event scheduled for the Lord's day? And as you think about it, it's not one of those questionable things. It's like, no, this is not keeping the Sabbath holy. Do you shrink back and blush and hesitate to stand up and graciously decline the invitation because Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and you wanna honor him? Or do you say, well, let me capitulate because I wanna honor my friend or I want to not lose face in front of my friend because he's gonna call me a legalist. And who of us has not hesitated when it comes to evangelism? How often have we been ashamed of Jesus because we think it's just too awkward to bring him up to our neighbor or our loved ones or our friends. And so rather than make ourselves feel awkward and rather than honoring their never dying soul and saying, well, let me endure a little bit of awkwardness for the good of their own soul or to make Jesus known, I shrink back from saying what I should say. See, the fear of man is in all of us, brothers and sisters. It just manifests itself in different ways. None of us is immune. All of us are carriers. All of us have a lot to grow in. Paul said this in Galatians 1.10, if I were a pleaser of men, I would not be a servant of Christ. The fear of man brings a snare, but to be unashamed that Jesus is my Lord, and I'm gonna stand for him, even when sometimes I have to stand before him in front of other professing Christians. Am I going to do it because He's worthy of such things? Okay. I'm sure you're all convicted. I am too. Let me end on the third and final note with a very great positive, a great encouragement. Third and finally, if you're in Christ, God is unashamed to be identified with you. You know, one of the most astonishing verses in all the Bible, in my opinion, is Romans 8, 31. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If you're in Christ, God is for you. He's not against you. God is for me. The infinitely holy God is for a sinner like me. He's not my accuser. He's not my adversary. He's my advocate. He's for me. He's pro Jerry Slate. He's fulfilling your name. He's pro you. God is. Let me tell you something, that's unbelievable. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't written in black and white in the Bible, I wouldn't believe it. And even being a regenerate believing man and do see it in the Bible, I still find it hard to believe. But because this same holy God is the one who said it and can't lie, it's true. and therefore I'm supposed to accept it by faith. The Bible teaches that God loves His children with an everlasting love. He not just loves them, He likes them. He's for them. He desires to save you, that's why you're saved. Because He's done so. He's for you and He's not against you. As a matter of fact, listen to this. You want more astonishing scriptures? Zephaniah 3, verse 17. The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty One, will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. I don't know about you, but when I see my sinfulness, I think to myself, God tolerates me. But yet here's the text saying, God delights in you. He sings songs of joy over you. That's how much for you He is. I don't know about you, but that's unbelievable. That is marvelous. That is extraordinary. That is how gracious God is. Let me let A.D. Betozer have the final word here. A.D. Betozer wrote a wonderful book called The Rue of the Righteous. It's a great book, every chapter's worth reading, but I think the very best chapter is the third, which is called God is Easy to Live With. You ever think that? God is easy to live with? Listen to what he says. And by the way, if you wanna call me twice a day or three times a day and read this to me, that's perfectly fine with me. This never gets old. This is what he says. The fellowship of God is delightful beyond all telling. He communes with His redeemed ones in an easy, uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul. He is not sensitive or selfish nor temperamental. What He is today, we shall find Him tomorrow and the next day and the next year. He is not hard to please, though He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He has Himself first supplied. He is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him and just as quick to overlook imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will. He loves us for ourselves and values our love more than galaxies of new created worlds. Unfortunately, many Christians cannot get free from their perverted notions of God, and these notions poison their hearts and destroy their inward freedom. These friends serve God grimly, as the elder brother did, doing what is right without enthusiasm and without joy, and seem altogether unable to understand the buoyant spirited celebration when the prodigal comes home. Their idea of God rules out the possibility of him being happy in his people. and they attribute the singing and shouting to sheer fanaticism. Unhappy souls, these, doomed to go on heavily on their melancholy way, grimly determined to do right if the heavens fall and to be on the winning side in the day of judgment. How good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true. But even this he does with a smile. The proud, tender smile of a father who's bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the one whose child he is. Some of us are religiously jumpy and self-conscious because we know that God sees our every thought and is acquainted with all our ways. We need not be. God is the sum of all patience and the essence of kindly goodwill. Now listen to this final sentence, because it's just phenomenal. We please him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into his arms with all our imperfections and believing that he understands everything and loves us still. What good news. What a great God we serve. Let's pray. Father, we marvel at you, that you don't just tolerate us, but you rejoice over us. You delight in us as your people, as imperfect as we are. Thank you that you've not given us what we deserve, but instead have withheld from us what we deserve and have given us what we don't deserve. We thank you for the Lord Jesus and all that he has done on our behalf. Bless us now as we partake the supper together in Jesus' name. Amen.