Good morning, good to see you
here. Primary text, as you can see from the screen, is 1 Peter
2, verses 9 and 10. And the title of my message,
Out of Darkness into Light, is taken from verse 9. And to get
the broader context, know that the apostle wrote this epistle
to a number of believers, and they were dispersed in different
places. And so it follows, as with the other epistles, that
what Peter was inspired by God to write concerning these believers,
it can be said of all true believers in every age. And so in these
two verses, I want us to examine how God, through Peter, describes
true believers, with an emphasis, obviously, on the latter part
of verse nine, where they are described as those who have been
called out of darkness into his marvelous light. So look with
me at those two verses. Beginning in verse nine, he says
of these believers, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy." So look with me first there.
He refers to them as a chosen generation. eternally chosen
by God unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ as we heard
in the 10 o'clock hour. Ephesians 1 verses 3 and 4 elaborates
on this choosing by God of all who are saved as it reads, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
according as he hath chosen us in him, in Christ, before the
foundation of the world. as we saw earlier today, and
we have plain, unmistakable language that those who are eternally
blessed in Christ, the ones called the election of grace in Romans
chapter 11, we're just that. We're chosen in Christ from eternity
past, that is, before the world ever came into existence. And
notice the referred here in 1 Peter, They're referred to as a chosen
generation. Now, that's not speaking of an
age grouping, such as we might refer to as in today's generation. But he's speaking of a spiritual
generation. And our text today actually has
a reference back to the book of Isaiah. And in the Greek translation
of the original Hebrew in which Isaiah was written, the word
for generation is translated kindred. So we can know from
this, as well as the phrases that follow this, that Peter,
he's not referring to God's elect before their regeneration and
conversion, but he's referring to a kindred people here, kinfolks
in that they are now born-again believers, as all the elect ultimately
will be without fail. Christ said, all that you've
given me, Father, I'll lose none of them, and they will come to
me. Well, just as Paul described
believers for whom he was thankful in 2 Thessalonians 2.13 when
he said this, but we are bound to give thanks all the way to
God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit. They've been set apart in regenerating
grace by the Holy Spirit and belief of the truth. So it is
with this chosen generation of which Peter writes, have now
become a kindred people, born again of the same Spirit, of
the same household and family, brethren with the same Father,
same Lord, same Spirit, same faith. And all that, not owing
to their choice, but to God's sovereign choice of them in Christ.
So if you're a true believer, from this very first description,
you say you're part of this chosen generation, and as such, you
will identify at some point in time with your spiritual kinfolks.
Identify in like-minded faith and fellowship. And I think these
verses are so clear that you can see to choose to disbelieve
the biblical doctrine of election, as so many do, is to disbelieve
God as he speaks to us through his word. So to deny election
is not only to deny what God has to say, but it's to deny
his way of salvation by grace. As you've heard me say before,
see, grace necessitates or makes necessary election. To believe
that God didn't do the choosing, that is, if your salvation's
ultimately decided by what people call their free will choice,
then by default that means you don't believe God's way of salvation
by grace. You see, for grace speaks of
that favor being bestowed upon those who do nothing to earn
it. It's unearned, unmerited favor. And if it wasn't God's
sovereign choice to save you, then there's nothing left but
for you to find some merit And that which you've done, perhaps
what you imagine to be your choice, your acceptance of him, that
you must, you're left to presume to be what earns his favor. Now,
I used to believe like that, and we called it salvation by
grace, but it's really just a cleverly disguised system of works. It's
not grace. And God says he will not have
it. In Ephesians 2, 8, 9, he says, for by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. Well, then in verse 9, he goes
on and refers to believers there as a royal priesthood. You know,
under the old covenant, there were priests and kings, but those
two offices came together in Christ, the believer's high priest
and the king of kings, who reigns over all. And being one with
Christ, believers are said to be kings and priests in him. They too see reign over sin and
Satan, because sin can no longer condemn them. It's a reign of
grace. Romans 5, 21 says, grace which
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. Whose righteousness?
By Jesus Christ our Lord. See, believers, we have the riches
of kings. We possess the riches of grace
in this life, and we're entitled to the riches of glory in the
next. Can you imagine that? It's no less than what the infinitely
valuable blood of Christ could buy or merit for all those for
whom it was shed. And you know, it's only the priests
could enter into the presence of God in the tabernacle. Those
made one in Christ are said to be, in Hebrew, are said to have
access to boldly enter into His presence. How can they do that? Senators, they have the merits
of Christ's perfect righteousness put to their accounts in the
eyes of God's law and justice, just as the demerit of their
sins were put or imputed to the account of Christ's so that he
might justly pay the dead in full for them. We'll look at
that a moment later in 2 Corinthians 5. But this righteousness, the
merit of what Christ accomplished, that's a believer's royal apparel. It's referred to in the scriptures
a robe of righteousness. That's the merit of his perfect
obedience unto death imputed to the sinner. And based upon
righteousness imputed, they've been made kings and priests by
him. If you look back just a few verses
there ahead of our text in verse 5, you'll see Peter also refers
to them there as a holy priesthood, saying, ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ. It's not the quality of our sacrifices
or our works. We're his workmanship. It's because
we're accepted in him. Had we read a little further
earlier in that Ephesians 1 passage, we'd see that all that we are
and all that we can offer as priest unto God are accepted
in the beloved, in Jesus Christ. We're back in verse 9 again.
He goes on and refers to them as a holy nation. So we believers,
we're a holy nation in Christ. Paul described to the Colossians
what they were like before God gave them spiritual life and
how then in their reconciliation they're presented as holy through
the blood of Christ. Look at that with me beginning
in Colossians 121. It says, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, enemies,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. As believers, save sinners. But
sinners still nonetheless in themselves are said to be presented
unblameable, unreprovable, holy, and so accepted by God. Again,
how can that be? It's because these beloved sinners,
and me, and you, and all of you who are of like-minded faith,
if you are, then you are again, you're accepted in the beloved
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then notice Paul calls them
a peculiar people, and some of us might be a bit peculiar as
in odd or picky, you know, we'll say he's a right peculiar guy
or girl. But know this, that the Greek
word that's translated peculiar here is a word which means purchased. Believers are being described
as the purchased possession of God. Again, they're a blood-bought
people. In Acts 20, 28, God in his word
refers to believers collectively as the church of God which he
hath purchased with his own blood. And then as we continue in verse
nine, we see why believers have these blessings in Christ. As
Peter explains it, believers are their chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, for what reason? that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you. So let's stop there just
a minute. See, this thing's not about me and you. It's all about
God and his glory. That's his chief design in all
that he does, that he should be made known as he is and worshiped
as he is. And he will be by all of the
objects of his electing, redeeming, and regenerating grace. That's
his glory. Again, if your salvation in our
darkness, as we're inclined to presume is if it's presumed to
be conditioned in any way at any stage on you the sinner, then know this, the only thing
that's left has got to be of your choosing. If it's not solely
due to the doing and dying of Christ as our substitute and
surety, and as such then you would have room to boast. And
so you would have to conclude there's something you did or
some decision you made which distinguishes you from others,
and that would be showing forth the praises of yourself. In Romans 11, 36, Paul, in speaking
of Christ, said this, for of him and through him and to him
are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. So why does God
do anything that he does? Why does he save sinners? It's
all for his glory. Well, back in verse nine, who
are the ye who show forth the praises of God? Well, they're
the people that Peter's been describing, including one more
identifying characteristic of a true believer that's given
here at the end of verse nine. It's everyone who he has called
out of darkness into his marvelous light. And as with these other
descriptions, only a true believer and every true believer is called
by God, as his word tells us, through his preached word of
regeneration, God's gospel, they're called out of darkness into his
marvelous light. So let's dig in a little bit
as to what that means. These two states, Darkness and
light, they're opposites, and they're mutually exclusive. That
is, right now, each one of us, we're either in darkness, walking
in darkness, or else we're in light, walking in light. And we know that because the
subject here is salvation that's evidenced by our belief in the
true gospel. To be in darkness is to be in
unbelief. To be in light is to have been born again and brought
to faith and repentance of our former dead works, those dead
works which we trusted in while in darkness. We're all born in
darkness, spiritually dead, and so we are in need of being translated
into the kingdom of light. which is the kingdom of his dear
son. Christ told us as much in John
8, 12 in saying that he was that light. He was speaking on the
Mount of Olives, we read, then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, spiritual
life, eternal life. If you follow the Christ of the
Bible, you've been translated from darkness into light, the
light of spiritual life, the light which dispels the darkness. Paul put it this way as he spoke
about how he was praying for the believers in Colossians 112.
He said, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance. You don't earn that, do you?
The inheritance of the saints in light. who have delivered
us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption, we've been
bought through his blood. Even the forgiveness of sins,
the sins they have been remitted, paid in full, so the debt, the
sin debt is forgiven. And in light, those in Christ,
they come to see that Christ, and Christ alone fits their need. actually come to see their need
and that Christ fits it. Let's talk a little bit about
the darkness. You know, in darkness, if you're in the dark, you're
not able to see the reality of things. And so, we are prone
to believe a lie. You know, if we're religious,
and still in darkness. We believe in a false God. We
believe in an idol. It might be just an idol of our
own imagination, consistent with what we've been taught, but it's
being set forth by a false gospel, a false way of salvation. And
you know, we all start out that way, even the indifferent, if
you think about it. They're content. Many times they find contentment,
and they may do so just by comparing themselves with others, perhaps,
who are more religious, church-going folks, and they say, he's okay,
then I am too. Well, that's darkness as well. Even one brought up under the
true gospel. You know, at some point, God
does a work with them, and they get serious about this, and they
ask the most natural question of all. Well, I've been hearing
about this gospel of grace, and how God chose a people in Christ,
But how can I be sure I'm one of them? What must I do is the
natural question. That right there is a reflection
of the darkness that we all start out in. See, to presume there
is something I can do. To be in darkness is to be blind,
is to be lost. Because in darkness, without
the spiritual eyes to see and the spiritual faculties of life,
you can't see the way. At the end of John 12, 35, we
read this that Jesus said, he said, for he that walketh in
darkness, he knoweth not whether he goeth. He's lost. And in spiritual darkness, you
know, the blindness is so great that we're even blind to our
own blindness. Even for those who are religious,
including the vast majority who call themselves Christian in
our day. unless and until God shows us a light, as we read
earlier, as Mark read. Unless God turns on the light,
so to speak, such sincere religious folks think they see and think
they know the way of salvation. But as God's word teaches us
in Proverbs 14 and again in Proverbs 16, 25, there is a way that seemeth
right unto a man. but the end thereof are the ways
of death. So what that means is whatever
way of salvation that would find you okay with God, okay, so to
speak, whatever way initially seems right to us by nature,
no, that is not God's way of salvation. Rather, it's what
Christ called the broad road that leadeth to destruction and
that so many enter into. I once read this story about
a blind woman who lived in an assisted living facility, and
she was moved to a new room that looked like an institutional
room. It was okay, but there was nothing special about it.
But upon entering the room, the blind lady just gushed over how
beautiful she thought everything was, and the one assisting her
countered, ma'am, why do you say that? You can't see. And
the blind lady replied, well, because I choose to see it that
way. Now, that story was written to
promote the value of a good, healthy, optimistic attitude
and a healthy, positive outlook on life, and it has merit in
this life in that way. But what if there had been, let's
say, a big rattlesnake coiled up inside the room that she couldn't
see, and it was ready to strike once she entered? Well, she couldn't
see it. And in that case, her blindness
could prove to be deadly, in spite of the fact that right
up until the moment the snake struck, she was cheerfully imagining
everything was just fine. That's how I once viewed things
at a time when I was confident of my own salvation. And I was,
only later to discover why I had been lost. I was religiously
sincere, but sincerely wrong. I didn't know God's way of salvation
that time. And in spiritual blindness, though,
I thought I was just fine. Well, that's the serpent Satan's
goal. It's to keep us in blindness.
Content with imagining things are just fine with us and with
God and when the reality is that they're not. In 2 Corinthians
4 verses 3 and 4, Paul wrote, but if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world,
Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. See, in darkness we walk contrary
to God's reality, in ignorance of God's way of salvation by
Christ based upon his imputed righteousness alone. So in spiritual
darkness, we'll believe a lie, and it's a deadly lie. As we
first always imagine, and perhaps in keeping with what we've been
taught if we've been active in religion, we imagine that our
salvation's conditioned at least in part, in some way, something,
by something done by us, or through us, or in us, the sinner. You
see, rather than conditioned exclusively on the doing and
dying of the savior in our place. And you know that message that
promotes that, it can be subtle. They'll talk much about Jesus
Christ and how he died and all the things he did, a lot of true
things, and then I'll say, but you must do your part. And that's
how deceptive the lie of a false gospel can be. My wife, Susan,
recently shared with me a comment that she heard on a podcast she
was listening to in which the lady said, whenever you fight
reality, You lose 100% of the time. Well, you know, there's
no loss of greater consequence than to leave this life still
in a state of darkness, in ignorance of God's reality, what he says
in this book concerning his way of salvation. You see, that's
a loss for all eternity. You know, like the story of the
blind lady that I just mentioned, it reminded me of times when
I've tried to discuss the gospel or scripture with others. And
I've often heard responses like this, well, I like to think about
it this way, or I choose to believe that it's this way. In essence,
treating the light, the specific truth of how God saves sinners,
is something they can take or leave, accept or reject, almost
as if they're assuming their salvation can be based upon however
they choose to see it. Well, that's just as deadly as
that blind lady getting struck by that snake. See, it's not
God's reality as set forth in his word. We better see what
he has to say about the gospel, how he saves sinners. How many
times have you heard others perhaps who worship in fellowship where
you now know a false gospel, a lie is being preached, perhaps
because you were delivered from the very same kind of message
yourselves. And you'll hear them say things like this, I believe
a person's okay as long as they walk in the light of the light
that they have. You heard Bill mention this in
our Bible study last week. See, there's a lot of problems
with that. First, we do have available to us in God's word
the light, the truth concerning how he saved sinners. But as
we're gonna see as we look at some verses here in a moment,
We can't see those, not with the natural eye. We will not naturally walk in
that light and seek to know him as he is, but light, see, is
synonymous with truth. And while many preach and teach
some true things about God and about Christ, they'll teach about
his death, his burial, his resurrection, but not necessarily according
to the scriptures, as that passage reads. In other words, what it
actually accomplished to save sinners. You see, to sit under and to promote by
sitting under a false gospel in religious fellowship with
unbelievers, that can't be said to be walking in the light that
they have, because light is truth. That's walking in darkness. That's
walking and believing a lie, not walking in the light, which
is a specific truth. That's not to walk in the truth
concerning Christ, who said of himself, I am the way. Notice the underline. Singular
way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under the Father
but by me. Not some other way you might
choose to imagine things to be as if he made it possible. Now
will you do your part and close the deal? We all do start out
in darkness, as God's word so clearly teaches. Just consider
some of these verses. 1 Corinthians 2.14, but the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their
foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. In John 3 verses 19 through 21,
Jesus said, this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. You see, their deeds didn't measure up to the standard
of perfection of Christ's righteousness. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. See, light exposes. But he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, his deeds may be made manifest.
They're wrought in God. The only deeds I can plead for
my salvation is the doing and dying of Christ, his perfect
righteousness. In Matthew 13, the disciples
asked Christ, why do you speak in parables? And in verse 13,
he replied, therefore speak out to them in parables, Because
they sing, sing with the physical ear, see not. And hearing, they
hear, they hear with the physical ear, but they hear not, neither
do they understand. He explains it further, he said,
and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, or Isaiah,
which saith, by hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not understand.
And seeing, ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this
people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
their eyes they have closed. lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal
them." But, he says, blessed are your eyes for they see, and
your ears for they hear. We need blessed eyes and ears.
In Ephesians 5, 8, Paul told born-again believers, now he
said, for ye were sometimes darkness, But now are ye light in the Lord,
walk as children of light. So we see all believers start
out in darkness. In our very text, if those who
are called into his marvelous light are, as it says, called
out of darkness, then darkness is where we all begin. And to
further emphasize that, in verse 10 of our text, Peter describes
the true believers as a people which in time past were not a
people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. You know, I often acquaint
obtaining something to be a result of some effort that I would put
forth in order to acquire it. But this word that's translated
obtain is better translated received or as in having been shown mercy. So we'd read a people which had
not been shown mercy but now have been shown mercy. You see,
it would not be mercy if the obtaining came as a result of
something you did. You don't need mercy. All you
gotta do is do whatever your preacher or your prescribed denomination
says is your part that you must do to make it happen. And if
that's the case, then that's something you earned, you deserved
it. That's not grace, that's a debt. In other words, it's
some merit found in you or based on something you've done. That's
not mercy. See, mercy is just like grace.
It has to do with being shown favor that's based upon nothing
done by the recipient or the object of that mercy or grace.
No merit found in them. See, Peter here, he's describing
true believers as those chosen from all eternity, redeemed at
the cross. But who shall in time, without
fail, in their respective generations, they're gonna come to Christ
for salvation, pleading not their merits, Lord, I've accepted you,
no, they're pleading his merits alone, being shown mercy and
grace. You see, by grace, they get what
they don't deserve, and by mercy, through Christ, they don't get
what they would deserve. See, the darkness that we're
all naturally born into is described pretty vividly for us in Romans
3, and I won't go through it in detail. Bill's doing that
right now in our 10 o'clock Bible study. But it's a passage you're
familiar with. He begins there in verse 10,
saying, there's none righteous, no, not one. And he continues
all the way through verse 19, describing how none understand,
none seek after God. That is, God as he is known by
the person and work of Christ. He states how none doeth good.
Then he goes on to tell us we don't know the way of peace,
meaning salvation, wherein peace is made between God, the holy
God, and sinners such as us. And then he adds they have no
fear of God before their eyes, meaning no reverential respect
for the honor of God's character, his glory. See, that which we
only see in Christ and God's way of salvation through Christ.
You know, having no fear of God would be akin to someone excusing
their religious past in belief of a false gospel by saying,
as I once said, well, I'm excused because I just didn't think about
it that way, as I was being shown how dishonoring those views of
Christ and His Word were that I held previously. And I remember
our pastor gently explaining to me, well, it's almost like
he could have said, I rest my case, he said. Andy, that's what
it is to have no fear of God before your eyes. It's just not
to think about it that way. It's to be unmindful of God's
glory and salvation. You know, we're busy as being
taught and preached to. Now they bring it to a crescendo
at the end of the message. Now that God and Jesus has done
all this for you, Will you accept him? Will you do your part? I'm
wondering, all our focus is on have I really, truly accepted
him? And we should have been asking, how can this holy God
that we read about in this Bible, this just God, how can he accept
me, a sinner? Well, I just didn't think about
it that way, did I? No regard for his glory. And
then in verse 20 of Romans 3, Paul draws a conclusion for us
in light of who we are by nature, in our darkness, he says, therefore,
by the deeds of the law. See, by your doing, there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. By seeing the perfection required in all of
God's commands, we find out we can't meet that. So we see that
the problem, there's none righteous. None can produce the perfect
righteousness that God requires. And as Bill often says, none
want righteousness God's way. And so by the doing of the sinner,
by their works, No one shall be justified. They won't be declared
not guilty, but righteous in its sight, not by that presumed
false way of salvation, by works. And that's kind of the essence
of the darkness of unbelief. In darkness, we imagine we can
be justified by something we do, or how we stack up against
others, or some choice we make. But there's this huge problem.
In Acts 17 31, God tells us he's going to judge the world in righteousness. The very righteousness of Christ.
Meaning, you've got to have one that's equal to the sinless,
perfect Son of God. That measures up to the merit
of his perfect obedience even unto the death of the cross.
And as God declares in Romans 3, we all fall short of that.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And as a
holy and just God, he must, and he does, punish sin. But he's
also a loving and a merciful God. And so he delivers his chosen
generation, his dear children, out of darkness into his marvelous
light, whereby we see something we couldn't see before. You see,
we see how he can be just, who he is, and still save a sinner
like you and me. That's what's revealed to us
by God, the Holy Spirit, through his word of generation, the preached
gospel of grace. In Romans 1, 16 and 17, we often
quote it. Paul said there he wasn't ashamed
of the gospel. It was the power of God unto
salvation, he said. And the reason that's so, he
adds in verse 17, is because therein, in the gospel, is revealed
the righteousness of God. So let's talk a little about
light. Christ said he was the light, and often in the scripture,
light refers to the gospel, which sets forth Christ, his glorious
person and finished work. See, the very work by which this
chosen generation became peculiar, being purchased by his shed blood. To be in the light is to see,
is to see the reality of who God is and how he saves sinners.
And light exposes to us who we are as sinners and why we desperately
need the righteousness of another. Again, light dispels darkness.
But as we read by nature, we love the darkness. You know,
if you want to stick with the metaphor of a dark room, If someone
comes along and he turns a light on and exposes what we really
are by nature, that is, sinners deserving God's eternal wrath
if judged by what we are and what we do in ourselves, well,
you know, our natural inclination is, I don't wanna hear that.
Whoa, I had everything settled between me and God, and you're
upsetting my apple cart. I ain't never heard anything
about this righteousness, and I don't wanna hear it. Turn that
light off. That's to not accept You know, that reality, the reality
is set forth here. The reality concerning how woefully
I fall short of the righteousness I need. And as we're taught in
the scripture, apart from being given spiritual life and a new
heart, that would be the natural reaction of all of us to the
gospel message. But you know, for those who are
delivered from that darkness, The gospel is truly a marvelous
light. It's wonderful. It's amazing.
It's what the word gospel means. It truly is good news because
thereby we come to know the reality. The reality of our sinfulness
and the reality of who God is. Whom to know is life eternal,
John 17 3. We're told in Ephesians 5 13, but all things that are
reproved are made manifest by the light. Whatsoever doth make
manifest is light. And I wanted to include that
verse to stress the connection here between light and truth
and reality, God's truth, God's reality. In darkness, we trust
in that which we do to make the real difference in our salvation,
and that's salvation by works, that would have us placing our
trust in a presumed righteousness of our own making, that would
be a self-righteousness, In light, we now trust in that which our
substitute, in which he alone did, to make all the difference
in our salvation. And that's salvation by grace
that will have us placing our trust solely in Christ based
on the ground of his imputed righteousness. Out of darkness
into light. How does one evidence that they're
among those described in our text today? If you've been changed
from one state, this state of darkness, into this marvelous
light, then there's a turning. Just as we turn to God by God-given
faith, we turn away from that which we once esteemed to make
a difference. That's repentance. You see, they've
changed gods. They've rejected the idol of
their imagination as they imagined God would save them all together
in a different way than his word says he does. And they turn to
worship the living and true God. Philippians 3, Paul described
the repentance that evidences this transition out of darkness
into light. And he'd list all these things
which his former false hope had been based upon. He included
in that list his religious zeal. And then he says this of those
things beginning in verse 7, but what things were gained to
me. He didn't say the bad things I did that I was ashamed of.
No, he said the things that I thought commended me unto God so as to
be counted among the saved. Things that were gained to me,
those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I
do count those things that were gained to me, I count them but
done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, my law keeping,
my meeting a condition or requirement, but that which is through the
faith or the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. In darkness, Paul, like all of
us by nature, he trusts in that which he did, his own presumed
righteousness, In light, that which he thought was gaining
him eternal life, he put it in the lost column. That's repentance. It always accompanies genuine
God-given faith. And in light, Paul, he now needed
to be found as one with Christ. He needed the very righteousness
of God put to his account, that which Christ produced for him
by his doing and dying in his place. Now, how did that righteousness
become Paul's? Is it my righteousness or your
righteousness? Well, in 2 Corinthians 5, 21,
we're told, for he hath, he, God the Father, hath made him,
God the Son, to be sin for us, the sinless son who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, in Christ. Now that's a wonderful exchange.
God the Father imputed or accounted all the merit of all the sins
of his chosen generation to his sinless son, that by his death
he might pay the sin debt that's due unto the justice of God the
Father. Christ dying for sins, he had no part at all in producing. And on that basis, God the Father
made this peculiar purchased people, righteous in Christ,
accounting or imputing the merit of his perfect obedience unto
death, his righteousness, having done that for each and every
one of them for whom he came and died. making them acceptable
in Jesus Christ with a righteousness they had no part in producing.
Well, as we read earlier, as Mark read in Psalm 118, in time
God shows those he saves this light, the light of the gospel
wherein his righteousness is revealed. In years past, I know
in spite of having read actually the same scripture we looked
at today, I continued along my merry way for a while. I was
content in the spiritual darkness of my former religion, perceiving
no need to examine further my own salvation. See, blindly content
that I was saved and just fine. I was busy about my religion,
even though, and this is the contradiction, isn't it? At that
time, I couldn't say that this transition from darkness to light
had taken place. Not yet having what naturally
seemed right to me and as taught from my childhood by loving parents. Having that exposed to me to
be the lie that it was. The blind leads the blind, see?
And thankfully in God's due time, he providentially put me under
the sound of his gospel so as to deliver me from that darkness
into his marvelous light. And he does that faithfully for
every one of his chosen, redeemed children. So the question is,
has the way of salvation that once, naturally, that's the way
we come into this world by nature, seem right to you? Has it been
exposed by the light of the gospel to have been the wrong way? If
not, I pray God will apply his word as we've considered it today
as motivation to examine whether you're in the faith, to deal
in God's reality. concerning his way of salvation
through Christ alone? Are you in the company of this
chosen generation, this royal priesthood, part of this holy
nation, a peculiar person? Well, if so, if you're blessed
by God with salvation, he did so for the purpose of glorifying
himself, to show forth the praise of him who called you out of
darkness into his light. If you believe Christ died for
all, as so many do in our days, I once did, that means he did
no more for those he saves than those who perish. Well, there's
nothing left in that equation to make the difference then but
the other party, you the sinner. And the glory then would belong
to you, and that's not God's way of salvation, and he won't
share his glory. As we read earlier in 2 Corinthians
4, While it's Satan's aim to keep you blind in darkness, had
we continued on down to verse 6, we'd see God graciously overcomes
that darkness as he graciously shines a light in the hearts
of those he saves that achieves this very purpose of glorifying
himself. In 2 Corinthians 4, 6, we read, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, the God who said, let there be
light, and there was light, that same all-powerful God has powerfully
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face, the person and work of Jesus
Christ. So we see what we couldn't see
before. We see how God, through the finished work of Christ,
can be who he says he is in his word. holy and just, and still
save sinners like me and you, being both a just God and a Savior. And thereby, he gets all the
glory. Well, if God hasn't already done
so, I pray he'll so shine in the heart of someone new who
hears this message. Thank you.