The Blessings of Faith

morning, if you would take your
Bibles and turn to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter. We find ourselves again
in chapter 2. Now, you may detect in spite of my
My note there that we are in verses nine and 10 of chapter
two, and we will get there. But as you know, no message is
really complete without a little bit of an introduction or perhaps
a reminder of the course that we’ve traveled thus far. And
so I want to take you back, not to the very beginning of chapter
one. We want to go back into chapter one just by way of review,
and then we’ll jump into this passage that we will consider
this morning. As you remember, chapter one.
you recall, was all about salvation. Remember, even from the opening
words, Paul began to at first allude to biblical concepts pertaining
to salvation and then in greater detail treat them as he coursed
through that great chapter. He touched on such unmentionables
such as election. He mentions in the first several
verses sanctification, He touches upon redemption and then treats
that more fully. Regeneration, glorification,
when we will be perfect in Christ, in Christ in heaven. He mentions
and deals a great deal with faith and the effects thereof. He mentions
just the greatness, the grandness of our salvation in the fact
that angels and prophets desire deeply to know more intimately
the details pertaining to our salvation. And with such a great
and glorious concept laid out before us in some of the greatest
detail in all of Scripture, there must be a response. And God’s
Word calls us there at the end of chapter 2 to a response, a
biblical response to this salvation. Remember? We were called to a
grace-filled confidence. We’re not supposed to be like
those wandering in the world, twiddling our thumbs, fearful
of our own shadows. We are supposed to have a grace-filled
confidence. So Peter says, as he coursed
through there in chapter 1, But not only a grace-filled confidence
there in verse 13, but look, He calls us, secondly, to a God-like
holiness. God is the standard. We don’t
have to look around at one another anymore. We’re not great standards
anyway. Even the best of us falls way
short of the perfect standard of Jesus Christ, right? And so
He calls us to holiness, to be holy as God is holy. But there
was a third response. Not only are we called to a grace-filled
confidence and a God-like holiness, but thirdly, we are called to
a Christ-bought reverence. He brings up the fact that Christ
paid our sin. And he brings up the fact that
because of that, we are called to a reverent lifestyle. We are
called to a different way of life, one that becomes a beacon,
if you will, of light to a darkened world. not only a grace-filled
confidence and a God-like holiness and a Christ-bought reverence,
but a born-again affection. Our lives are supposed to be
so touched by Christ. Look at verse 22. That we are
supposed to manifest a new kind of affection, love for one another,
that essentially proclaims Christ, even if no words are used. How
we treat one another. How we love and care for one
another. How we bear with one another
is supposed to be a means of testimony to this land. That’s
how we’re supposed to respond to the gospel. Well, and Peter
prefigures this. He knows the people. He knows
the heart of the people because he knows himself. And the question
is how? How can we do this? The bottom
line, we can’t do this in our own strength. We can’t manifest
a grace filled confidence. in our own strength, absent thoughts
of God as the glorious conqueror, as Almighty God. We can’t take
on a God-like holiness. We can’t manufacture it of our
own. We have to be found in Christ and grow in our graces. We can’t show forth a Christ-bought
reverence unless we know Christ, unless we have come to that salvation
that he has secured by his death on the cross and we won’t ever
love one another until we’ve been touched by his grace. How
do we do it? We do it only by God’s grace. And that’s exactly
what Peter tells us in chapter two. Do you really want this? Then you’ve got to constantly,
daily feast upon his word, long for it like a baby. Remember,
longs for the pure milk of the word. That’s where we get the
nourishment, the spiritual encouragement to walk as God has called us
to walk in a glorious response to this great salvation. That’s
what he wants. And then, as is the whole purpose
of this book, 1 Peter, then Peter launches in, as we’ve looked
at for the past six weeks, he launches into this great section
of encouragement. It’s encouragement, not only
for those first century believers that were persecuted beyond measure,
ruthlessly burned and beaten and chased and pursued like no
people ever has experienced persecution. They had. But it wasn’t just
written to encourage them. These things were written for
our instruction, too, right? And we’ve drawn much encouragement
from them. And I want to go now to verse
4 of chapter 2. Verse 4 of chapter 2 will take
the passage in its entirety. Then we’ll come back and look
at just a few verses this morning. Peter wrote, by way of encouragement,
and coming to him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice
and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones,
are being built up.” That was the encouragement. That’s the
bottom line message of this whole section that Peter wanted them
to know, was that God was at work. God was entering into a
construction project of His own and it was God’s doing. And they
were part of God’s work, intricately related. They were as bricks
in a wall built by God Himself. You also, as living stones, are
being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ. For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice
stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him shall
not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is
for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve.
The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very
corner stone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they
stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom
they were also appointed.” But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. that you may
proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light. For you were once not a people,
but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.” You see, Peter treats here What
I believe is the most common tendency of Christians is to
forget who they are. To forget who they are in Christ. To forget all that Christ has
done for them. To forget about the nature of the God that they
serve. The nature of the God that owns
them. To forget about their calling. What they’re supposed to do in
life. To forget about why they’re supposed to do what they’re supposed
to do. I think that’s the common tendency
of mankind. And that’s what Peter moves to
treat here in these verses. He, all the while, is laying
out a means of encouragement for them, right? You are being
built up. That’s the context of the passage.
And we’ve looked at every facet of it, that Christ is the foundation
and that we are two living stones having touched Christ. He brings
us to life and he works us into this great fabric of this building.
And he’s doing it because we are the priesthood. We are the
ones that will constantly come and bring him offerings, no longer
burnt offerings, no longer sacrifices for sin. But now we bring praise.
We bring our own bodies. We bring the fruit of our lips.
We bring changed lives. We bring others. We bring our
service. We bring gifts to God. to offer up spiritual sacrifices. They’re no longer the literal
animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. New and living sacrifices. I want to park this in the context
in which we considered it. We looked at the, if you will,
the blueprints of this building project that God is involved
with. spelled out for us there in verse 6. The blueprints were
from the Old Testament Scriptures, namely Isaiah 28, that said,
Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone,
and he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed. What great
encouragement that was for us. And when Peter says in verse
7, this precious value then is for you who believe. What he
has in mind is everything between 4 and 6. These truths, the fact
that you’re being built up, the fact that you rest on the foundation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that you two as living stones
are being built in, the fact that you are priests that bring
gifts to God. All of those things are part
of the precious value that Peter mentions here in verse seven.
And we dealt with the remainder of seven and eight last week,
didn’t we? We called it the harvest of unbelief. What do unbelievers
reap? And it lays out right there for
us. That God’s plan and program isn’t
changed because of people’s unbelief. That’s what unbelievers think.
Is that only if we will only gather together and reject this
program outright, God will have to come up with a new program.
That’s what the Jews believed. It’s not the case. The stone
which the builders rejected, God didn’t change God’s plan.
This became the very cornerstone. There was a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense. They fell over the nature of
Christ. They could not get over Christ
and they stumbled because they were disobedient to the word.
And we even saw a measure of God’s sovereignty in this whole
program. And we’re not done with that
element yet. The focus is us. The afterthought here was those
who disbelieve. And so Peter just comes right
back around again. Remember, I likened this passage
to the use of a spirograph. He keeps coming back and picking
up different elements. And now he’s going to mention
them again and come right back into fuller detail how precious
this value is for us who believe. How precious is it? He’s going
to tell us. And so in contrast to what we
called the message last week, the harvest of unbelief, the
blessings today of belief, the blessings of faith, What are
the blessings of faith? I think the passage lays out
for us three here this morning. What Peter gives us in this section
is reminders, and we need them, don’t we? We need them just as
bad as the first century Christians needed them, perhaps even worse.
Reminders of the Christians standing in Christ. Who are we? What are
we called to do and why? As believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ, first of all, we have credentials. We have credentials. I think I’ve told you before
about my trip. I went on a missions trip across the border to Tijuana
one time. And I mean, it is a third world
country, not even 50 miles from the heart of San Diego, one of
the most glimmering, shining cities in America. You go across
the border and you’re immediately in a third world country oppressed
by poverty. And there were people there that
lived in the dump. They lived that they got their
food there. They got their their clothing there. They got their
shelter out of the dump and they buried their dead there. And
I’ll tell you, I was never so happy to have my credentials
to get back across the border. That’s what we need. from time
to time. We need credentials. We need
to know who we are. We need to know what our rights
are, who we are in Christ. And we forget it so easily. We
forget it so easily. Look at verse 9. Peter reminds
them who they are in Christ. You are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. When
Peter mentions this first one, the chosen race, he essentially
uses words from Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43, 20 says, The beasts
of the field will glorify me, the jackals and ostriches, because
I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give
drink to my chosen people. Now, I know you’re all on the
edge of your seat and you want to deal with this word, so let’s
just deal with it. Race. Well, that’s not the word
you wanted to deal with. Well, we’ll get to that one,
too. The word there for race is is from where we get our word
genus or generation, and it denotes a blood relationship. It is applied
to Christians here as members of one family through the new
birth. Because of what Christ has done
and because we have come to faith in Christ, we are all family
of even a deeper kind than even your most near relation, if they
are not Christians. The idea uttered numerous times by Christ,
Christ proclaims this repeatedly, that we are a people, that we
are a race, a chosen nation, so to speak. A chosen race. We’ve dealt with the whole doctrine
of election. Let’s let’s not shy away from
it. I’m not going to give you here the compendium, the absolute
final word on the doctrine of election here mentioned when
he calls us a chosen race. But I am going to say something.
Shouldn’t I say something? We are going to treat it. We’ve
mentioned it before, even in the opening words of Peter’s
epistle. He mentions that they were a chosen people. This word
chosen, from where the doctrine of election comes, it just refers
to the initiative on which the whole relationship rests. A lot
of times you get into these discussions and you can strip away all the
other emotional data and just say, who moved first, you or
God? It’s the initiative on which
the relationship rests. And it’s always God. God moved
first. The term was initially used of
Israel as God’s chosen people. Deuteronomy 4.37, because He
loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after
them. He personally brought you out
from Egypt by His great power. And you say, well, see, God’s
unfair. He picked Israel. He picked Israel. They were favored. There must
have been something in them that God saw that moved Him to choose
them. No. And maybe God knew our hearts,
because in Deuteronomy 7, He explains it quite clearly. You
are a holy people to the Lord. And holy, they’re not talking
about their character. He’s talking about their calling.
They were supposed to be set aside, set apart for God’s noble
use. You’re a holy people to the Lord
your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for
His own possession out of all the peoples that are on the face
of the earth.” From time to time, you get this idea that God chooses
nations or God chooses groups of people or families. It’s not
the case. God moves person by person. In this case, He chose a nation. But the concept is clear. He
goes on to say that the Lord did not set his love on you or
choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples.
It wasn’t that they were the biggest nation. For you were the fewest of all
peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which
he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a
mighty hand and redeemed you. And from that standpoint, you
look back, I can remember candidating in a church one time and one
of the very concerned members of the church, nervous about
this doctrine, asked me how often I would preach on the doctrine
of election. And to give him comfort, I said no more often
than the Apostle Paul preaches on election. And I think he took
some comfort in that until I added and Peter and Luke and Mark And
Jesus and Moses and David and the prophets, the doctrine is
woven throughout scripture. Moses was chosen by God. The tribe of Levi was chosen
by God. King David was chosen by God.
The prophets were chosen by God. The apostles were chosen by God’s
sovereign exercise of selection. That’s what the word means. It
was a pattern that was established in the Old Testament and carried
through to the new. and that shouldn’t surprise us. I mentioned last time, there’s
not going to be a test at the end of the day. I loved the hymn. We don’t even
know how it works, right? That’s essentially the message
of the hymn. We don’t know how all the parts fit together. We
don’t know how the whole thing plays out. We don’t even know
how we came to faith in Christ, but it happened. We don’t have
to have it all figured out. I remember giving you this comfort
last time. Whitfield said, let a man go to the primary school
of repentance and faith before he attends the university of
election and predestination. These are deep things. This is
the deep stuff. Let’s be humble as we approach
it. The word here is eclektos, used
24 times in the New Testament, and at least 17 of these speak
of the elect as a group of people, as opposed to the rest of the
world. What God has in mind is a select
elect group of people. And you know what? The bottom
line from time to time, you get this comment that not everybody
believes in election. I think all Christians believe
in election of some kind. They just explain it differently.
Usually it isn’t the fact of election because it’s impossible
to avoid. I just mentioned all the writers
of scripture who deal with the subject. So it isn’t the fact
of election that people stumble over. It’s the nature of it. It’s the nature of election that
people begin to argue over. What really bothers people is
the nature of election that it is utterly and completely different. It is unconditional. People want
to believe that God chose me because of something in me. People want to believe that God
chose me because He saw that I might believe in Him. God chose
me because I came from a good family. God chose me because
I did thus and such. That’s our pride. That’s not
biblical data. Stephen Sharnock, the great Puritan
writer, said it could not be any merit in the creature that
might determine God to choose him. If the degree of if the
decree of election falls not under the merit of Christ as
the procuring cause, it cannot fall under the merit of any part
of this corrupted mass. And he was speaking of himself.
God didn’t choose me because of me, he says. What could there
be in any man that could invite God to this act or be a cause
of distinction on one branch of Adam from another? Are we
really so proud to think that because we’ve come to faith in
Christ, there was something in me that commended me to God?
Humble yourselves, people. Humble yourselves. There wasn’t
anything in us. Not our family life. Not our
spiritual life. Not the fact that one day we
would come to faith in Christ. Not the fact that God looked
in you and saw some great potential. Nothing. There was nothing. God looked down and He chose
you for His own purposes. And I want to take you, the best
way to do this is to let Scripture interprets Scripture. And I want
to take you to the longest sentence in Scripture. Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1. In Ephesians 1, Paul says it at least six different
ways that election had nothing to do with you. It affected you. You received your salvation because
of it. But you did nothing to prompt
God in your direction. Go to verse three, if you would. In verse three of Ephesians,
as I said, it’s the longest sentence in Scripture. Grammatically,
you have no punctuation here in the Greek. You have just one
long running sentence all the way through verse 14 and beyond.
And what you have here is a series of prepositional phrases that
carry this passage on and on and on. It’s one long sentence,
and it begins with, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Essentially, what he says is praise God. Why? Because He has blessed us. He’s
given us blessing beyond measure. Every spiritual blessing, Paul
says, in the heavenly places in Christ. What? Even if you
had nothing else to go on, that statement is so true, you could
meditate it, meditate on it from now until Christ returned. He
has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ, but Paul is not going to leave us there. He’s not going
to leave us hanging. And he goes on to enumerate several of the
most grand blessings that God ever gave. Look at verse four,
just as he chose us. That’s the first blessing that
he points out. And we’ll come back in verse
five. He repeats it. He predestined
us. If you’re vague on the word that he uses there in verse four,
he comes back in verse five and makes it even more clear. He
predestined us. We didn’t incline God to us by
our faith. He predestined us. Verse six
to the rather to verse seven. Not only has He chosen us and
predestined us, but verse 7, in Him we have redemption. He redeemed us. He gave us the
blessing of redemption, clarified there further the forgiveness
of our trespasses. That’s God’s doing. Verse 9,
He made known to us the mystery of His will. Nobody ever understood
that God was going to come in human flesh, take on human flesh,
suffer, die, be buried. As a provision for sins, they
grasp some of those things, but not in its entirety. And he’s
let us know in time this whole mystery. Not only that, verse
11, I mean, when do you say enough, Lord? Verse 11, in him, we also
have obtained an inheritance and people want to get, you know,
they get all fuzzy on what this inheritance is and they, you
know, start to think, oh, good, you know, some kind of treasure
at the end. It’s Christ. Not only that, look at verse
13. In him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth,
the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were
sealed, stamped, sealed for eternity, never to lose your salvation. And all of this repeated throughout
this entire passage to the praise of the glory of his grace, to
the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory. It made
God happy. That’s why He did it. That’s
why He blessed you. That’s why He gave you all of
these incredible blessings that we can’t even fathom. It wasn’t
because of you. It wasn’t because you’re such
a good guy. It wasn’t because you brought such great potential
to the table of Christianity. Go back to verse four. To show you the unconditional
nature of this election. Look at it. It’s as simple as
can be. He chose us in Him. He chose
us in Christ. Christ was the focus, not us.
He took us as a great lot of people standing, as it were,
in Christ’s shadow. Christ is in focus, not us. And
if we are not in Christ, we have nothing. Nothing. He chose us
not only in him, but he chose us in him before the foundation
of the world. Now, I ask you, what did you
contribute to your salvation before the foundation of the
world, before you even existed? Nothing. We brought nothing. There was no merit in us, we
were chosen completely in Christ. We are embodied in Christ as
it were, and we were chosen before the foundation of the world.
One Puritan said at the very time when the election took place,
proves it to be free. What could we have deserved or
what merit did we possess before the world was made? Not to mention
us. There’s another element here.
Not only did he choose us in him before the foundation of
the world, he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy. Not because we were holy. Not
because we had achieved some measure of holiness. Not because
we had achieved some measure of goodness or greatness from
a spiritual standpoint. Not only that, he repeats the
concept. He chose us in him. And then
in verse five, in love, he predestines us. It was the love of God that
motivated him. That’s why he didn’t just do
away with His creation at the fall of Adam and Eve. It was
love that carried Him through. And in love, He predestined us
to adoption as sons. Is there anything that commended
us to Him? According to the kind intention
of His will. It was all God’s doing. It was
God’s heart that prompted Him. God didn’t jettison mankind. Jonathan Edwards, the great early
American Puritan, said it this way. God does not utterly cast
off the world of mankind, though they are fallen and corrupted.
And there is a curse brought upon the world. Yet God entertained
a design of appropriating a certain number to himself. People, this
should be the most humbling doctrine we ever embrace. It isn’t because
of us. In fact, it’s in spite of us.
While you were yet sinners, Christ died.” Edwards goes on and says,
when man fell, God left and cast off the bulk of mankind, but
He was pleased, notwithstanding the universal fall, to choose
out of a number of them to be His, whom He would still appropriate
to Himself. From time to time, you get this
comment from people that they find the doctrine of election
distasteful. They say, well, it’s not fair.
That makes God to be unfair. That God was not obligated to
choose any. The fact that He chose any is
His mercy. And if anything, it should humble
us in the dust and make us to fall on our face and praise and
thank God that we’ve come to know Him. There was nothing in us Edwards
said it this way, no foreseen excellency in the elected is
the motive of that that influences God to choose. It is not seeing
that any any ability in them. It wasn’t that you had such a
great personality. Not that you don’t. It wasn’t
that causes God to choose them. It wasn’t that God chose men
because they are excellent, because God is the one that makes us
excellent. It is not because God considers
them holy that He chooses them, but He makes them holy. God does
not choose from one any respect out of them more than the others. It is a humbling doctrine. And
Peter reminds us. And doesn’t he need to remind
us? Because the doctrine, to a large
degree, has become a dirty word. Because we don’t know it because
we can’t chase it down into eternity because we can’t figure it out.
We set it aside. We don’t we don’t we dare not
introduce ourselves as one of the chosen people of God, right?
I mean, how would that evangelism effort go over? But it is crucial to understand
who we are in Christ and that we are the apple of his eye,
that he has set his love upon us, not because of us. One said this way, all true Christians
are a chosen generation. They all make one family, a sort
and species of people distinct from the common world of another
spirit, another principle and practice, which they could never
be if they were not chosen in Christ to be such. And if you
have come to faith in Christ, it’s because God moved first. God moved. Not only that, not
only are we a chosen race, we are a royal priesthood. We’ve
dealt with the priesthood for two or three weeks. So I’m not
going to spend a lot of time here except to note that Peter
adds a wrinkle here. He adds that in addition to being
a priesthood that brings those sacrifices of praise and our
gifts and our offerings, we are a royal priesthood. We are a
priesthood comprised of little princes and princesses, kings
and queens. Peter, he uses a very remarkable
image here, doesn’t he? When he calls us a royal priesthood
and he combines these two references together. These priests serve the king
because they have access to his holy presence. We now have the
right to go into the king’s chambers. Because we are the King’s sons
and the King’s daughters. We no longer have to utilize,
as the Old Testament saints did, a priest to go into the Holy
of Holies on our behalf. We come boldly before the throne
of grace, don’t we? And only the Lord Jesus Christ,
as we have seen in the past, is both King and Priest. It’s
only because of Christ. Not only that, Not only are we
a chosen race in a royal priesthood, we are a holy nation. This is
taken directly from the Old Testament here. Exodus 19, 6, you shall
be to me a kingdom of priests, which we just mentioned, and
a holy nation, holy there meaning set apart. We should live different
lives morally. We should live lives that are
set apart, sanctified to Christ himself for his use, not for
our own. Not for our own impure use. Deuteronomy 7, 6, it’s repeated,
you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your
God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of
all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Shouldn’t
we look different? Shouldn’t we live differently?
Shouldn’t we function? Shouldn’t we have better and
different priorities? Shouldn’t we have better and
different affections than the rest of the world? I tell you,
we should. Not only are we a chosen race
and a royal priesthood and a holy nation, we are a people for God’s
own possession. Now, don’t try this in your evangelistic
efforts, because people don’t like this thought of being owned. What do you mean I’m God’s possession? It’s the language of Scripture.
God wanted a people. And if you think of it that way,
to be a people that belongs to God in intimate fellowship with
Him, it’s not so much that He owns us like a series of slaves.
He owns us in the sense that His affection is poured out on
us. He loves us and He lavishes us with His gifts. Exodus 19.5 again, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be
my own possession among all the peoples. What a precious spot
that must have been. The Lord has taken you, Deuteronomy
4.20, and brought you out of the iron furnace from Egypt to
be a people for his own possession. The Jews weren’t afraid of this
title. The Jews loved the thought that they were the possession
of God. And for us, how much more precious
should this concept be for us? Because it literally means to
purchase, to acquire for a price. And people, I tell you, as believers,
we belong to God because He paid the ultimate price in our Lord
Jesus Christ is only begotten Son on our behalf. The price
of redemption. That’s exactly what we looked
at when we looked at 1 Peter 1.18. You were not redeemed with
perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way
of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of
a lamb unblemished and spotless. Does God not have a right to
call us His possession? He does. Some of the older versions referred
to this section here, this title here, a peculiar people. The Israelites were called a
peculiar treasure. God’s chosen people are a peculiar
people to whom he bears a peculiar or special love. They are chosen
by him to be special above all others and have particular blessings
bestowed upon them. The particular care is shown
them because they are the Lord’s. That’s what he says. Have we
forgotten who we are? Have we forgotten that we are
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s
own possession? There’s more that Peter wants
to remind us of. He said there were three reminders. Of our standing in Christ as
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only have credentials,
we have a calling. God has given us an assignment.
God saved us for a purpose and he set us in motion and he filled
us with grace and he gave us his Holy Spirit and he equipped
us with his word and he said, go. And this is what he tells
us to do. You’re a chosen race, verse 9,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.
That so that in order that you may proclaim the excellencies
of Him who has called you. The Christian is supposed to
show forth in word and life, not merely the goodness of God,
but all of God’s glory. We’re supposed to proclaim it,
to shout it from the rooftop, what God has done on our behalf.
The Greek word, I mean, it’s pretty graphic. It literally
means to publish, to herald, to advertise, if you will. To
tell people the things that they haven’t heard about God. And here he says that we are
to proclaim or to publicize the excellencies of Christ. Because
you know what? There is an entire world of people
that has no idea What Christ is like, or who He is, or what
He’s done, or what He’s worth. Does He know it from how you
live? Does He know it from what you say? Christians, as God’s emissaries,
have the glorious privilege of proclaiming Christ. One pastor said it this way,
that in this passage he carefully points out the end of our calling,
that he might stimulate us to give glory to God. The sum of
what he says is that God has favored us with these immense
benefits and constantly manifest them, that His glory in us might
be made known for praises or virtues. Further, it behooves
us to declare these virtues or excellencies not only by our
tongue, but also by our whole life. The doctrine ought to be
a subject of daily meditation. It ought to be continually remembered
by us that all God’s blessings with us are intended for this
end. That His glory may be proclaimed
by us. That’s why God gives you blessings. So that you will proclaim Him. And here is a transition point.
And I want you to go back to the passage, if you will, because
Peter wants to make point three. And in order to get there, he
mentions this little subtle transition that you may proclaim the excellencies
of him who called you. And then he points
to the specific sphere of activity where that calling took place.
He called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You
know what? God has a cause. God has a motivation for you.
And the motivation is to look back over your shoulder and to
remember from where you came. You came from darkness. You came
from sin and death and damnation. That darkness there mentioned
is the condition, if you will, of sin. Proverbs 2.13, it mentions those
who walk in ways of darkness. And the metaphor of darkness
is throughout Scripture used to describe that condition. It
ties in with it the element of deceit and concealment that so
often sin brings with it. The desire to hide. It accompanies
evil. It accompanies all those other
miseries that sin brings. darkness, that oppressive sense. You know what? This is exactly
what Paul considered his mission to be, to alleviate the darkness
from other people. Acts 26, he said, I came to rescue
you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am
sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness
to light. And Peter says, people, that’s
the reminder. Remember from what you were saved. And remember, to what you were
called, you were called to light. You came into the light. Light,
on the other hand, was from the very creation forward, wasn’t
it? It was always related as a special
characteristic of God. God dwells in light and He imparts
light to all people who love Him. Perhaps the passage that Peter
had foremost in his mind here, Isaiah 60, Arise, shine, for
your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen
upon you. Behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness
will cover the peoples. But the Lord will rise upon you
and His glory will appear upon you.” Peter says, remember, from where
you were called, you’ve been called out of darkness into God’s
wonderful, marvelous light. Point three. The third reminder
of the Christians standing in Christ as we close. Is that as
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only have credentials
and a calling, we have a cause. That’s essentially what Peter
began in that previous verse. We’ve been called out of darkness
into his marvelous light. That ought to be enough motivation
for us. But Peter goes on and he dips
back into the Old Testament. into the very passage we’ve been
studying in Sunday school the past weeks to Hosea. And he says, for you were once
not a people. How much more true is that for
us? Most of us Gentiles or non-Jews, you were once not a people, but
now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but
now you have received mercy. Go back in your mind’s eye to
Hosea. You remember Hosea. I mean, he should have known
it. He should have seen it coming when he was told to go take a
wife named Gomer. He knew probably that it wasn’t
going to be just a great deal. But she was a woman of the night,
remember? And the whole thing, the whole marriage, everything
was going to be an illustration to Israel, to the ten tribes.
she conceived and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said
to him, name her Loh-Ruhamah.” Well, that’s not the family name.
Could we use Betty or Liz? Name her Loh-Ruhamah. Because
it had a meaning. Even that was to proclaim to
the nations God’s message through the prophet. For I will no longer
have compassion. It means no mercy. No mercy. This is my daughter. No mercy.
What a living illustration this must have been. And it’s not
over. Verse seven, I will have compassion in the house of Judah
and deliver them by their the Lord, their God. I will not deliver
them by bow and sword and battle or horses. And when she had weaned
low, Ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. You say,
oh, boy, what’s it going to be now? The Lord said, name him
Loami. Oh, no, not another one. And
you know that Israel was watching. They had seen this prophet name
his child, no mercy. And now, lo ami? Not my people? This was a call. This was a merciful
call to God’s people to repent. They reaped judgment and God
is not finished with them yet. But the passage here is taken
not only in this passage. In 1 Peter, it’s also used in
Romans. for us to point to us that God
in time drew people that were not his people to be a people
of God. People who have not received
mercy. Now, the only way that we can be saved is to enjoy the
abundant mercy of God. People, we need to remember who
we are. We need to remember what God
thinks of when He looks at us. And we need to remember what
we’re called to do. To proclaim God as the chosen
people of God. As a royal priesthood. As a holy
nation. We need to proclaim the excellencies
of Christ. And we need to do that remembering
from where we came. We came from darkness to marvelous
light. Lord God. We are humbled, much
like those first century Christians must have been. It’s suddenly
remembering your mighty hand work in our lives. The glorious
truth of your calling in our lives. The task that you’ve given
us to do and the cause. The motivation that we have to
do it God, grant us grace. Help us not to focus and be caught
up in our former life, but to remember that and to advance
forward by Your grace to proclaim Christ, to preach Christ, to
share Christ, to live Christ in a dark world that they too
may come to know the light. Lord God, we thank You and praise
You for Your Word. We ask Your blessing on it. In
Jesus’ name, Amen.