Well, let me talk to you a little
bit this morning about God's people described. That is, I
wanna speak to you about things that distinguish the children
of God from the children of wrath. If we back up just a little bit
into the first chapter, know this, that from the middle of
the first chapter to the end of the first chapter, the Apostle
Peter teaches us about the only Redeemer of sinners, the Lord
Jesus, and the very power of the word of the gospel that makes
the Savior known unto us by the revealing mercies of the Holy
Spirit. We go back to chapter one, if
you would. Look at verse 18, and here Peter identifies for us the means by
which God has redeemed us, the means by which we were reconciled
to God, the means by which our sins were washed away and everlasting
righteousness was brought in, this by the Redeemer. Notice
chapter one, verse 18. For as much as you know, and
I hope you do know this, I pray that you know this. You were
not redeemed. You were not bought. You were
not made right with God with corruptible things, such as silver
and gold, or anything that you would ever try to present to
God from your vain conversation and from your empty life. See,
our lives are empty, they're vain. Vanity of vanities, saith
the preacher. All is vanity is what we read
in the book of Ecclesiastes. And we're not redeemed with anything
that we do or anything that we present to God. The very best
that we can give to God is just emptiness. It's nothing except
filthy rags. But, verse 19, and don't you
love the word but as it's used so often in the scriptures. In
other words, it's nothing that we can bring to God that redeems
us, that reconciles us to God, that saves us, that makes us
righteous in Himself. Nothing whatsoever. If you had
all the gold and all the silver in the world and present it to
God, it means nothing to Him because He already owns everything.
So we were redeemed not with anything we can present to God
but, verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. By his sacrifice, he redeemed
us from the curse of the law of God. The law of God says the
soul that sinneth shall die. And if we were left to our own
desserts, to our own way, to our own will, we would surely
perish. But we're redeemed by the blood
of the Lord Jesus. We've been reconciled to God
by someone who is altogether equal with God in every possible
way. And yet he's one of us. He's
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We were redeemed,
not with corruptible things, but verse 19, with the precious
blood of Christ. Well, who is He? Well, he's a
lamb without spot and without blemish. He's the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. John the Baptist
came with this message on his lips, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. In the Old Testament,
the Old Testament saints worshiped God by means of presenting a
lamb to God. Abel, who's the first man identified
as being a man of faith, he was gifted with faith by the power
of the Holy Spirit, he offered God the firstlings of his flock. he presented a lamb, a lamb to
God. Every time he came to worship,
he presented a lamb. And his lamb and every lamb thereafter
mentioned throughout the Old Testament, all of them were as
fingers pointing to the lamb of God who's coming to settle
the issue between sinners and God. You can't settle the issue. I can't settle the issue. We
cannot make peace with God. But the Redeemer, the substitute
of sinners, He did make our peace by the blood of His cross. And this Savior is precious to
God. He's honorable to God. If you
would have God honor you, you must honor His Son. You must
worship the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no acceptance with God
except in, through, and by our Lord Jesus Christ. And it was
by his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary that we were redeemed. For you see, as it says in the
end of verse 19, a lamb without blemish and without spot. None
of us are without blemish or without spot naturally. But the
Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son who was born of a virgin,
Mary, He was born without spot and without blemish and lived
a life of perfect integrity and holiness unto God. And that was His qualification
to redeem us. Now, Christ has come. He has
settled the issue. But there's something else that
we want to consider. Well, how is it that we ever
come to believe him? I believe him, don't you? I trust
him, don't you? I look to Him only as my salvation,
as my righteousness, as my mediator, as my redeemer. I look to Him
alone, don't you? Well, how is it that anybody,
how is it that I look to Him alone and you look to Him alone,
who people who are by nature dead in trespasses and in sins? A spiritually dead person cannot
believe, will not believe, it's impossible for them to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, except they be born of God. And that's
why the chapter ends with these verses. Verse 23, here's the
reason that we believe. Being born again, that's the
new birth. Another word is regeneration. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. We're born the first time of
corruptible seed. That's why we're born really
to wind up dying. We're born a corruptible seed,
naturally. but spiritually we're born again
of incorruptible seed. That is a seed that will never
die. Once that seed of the word of
God, the word of the gospel has been implanted in our hearts,
we live to the glory of God. True faith is never attributed
in the scriptures to that which man produces on his own. It's attributed to the new birth
of the spirit of God. Christ said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again. You must be born again to believe
the gospel. You must be born again to repent
of your sins. You must be born again to know
God. and to know God is eternal life. You must be born again, but there's
nothing you can do. There's no contribution you can
make to your new birth. As you made no contribution to
your first birth, the natural birth, so you make no contribution
to the new birth. It wasn't your will that gave
you life in your mother's womb. You had nothing to do with that.
And so it is in the womb of the morning, in the womb of grace,
we make no contribution to believing. We make no contribution to life. We're born of God. We're born
from heaven. We're born again by the power
of the Holy Spirit who uses the gospel of God's grace. Continue
reading here. But incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever for all flesh is as grass,
that's us, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower
falleth thereof. That's us. Salvation can never be attributed
to the will of man, the work of man, or the worth of man.
Remember those three things. It's never in the scriptures
attributed to the will of man, the work of man, or the worth
of man. It's by the will of God, the
work of God, and the worth of our Savior. And so he continues
in verse 25. So how are we born again? Of
the word of God, the word of God that endureth forever. And
this is the word, this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. We preach the written word, we
preach the incarnate word. God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now that leads us into the second
chapter, and you remember that here's Peter's first letter to
churches in general. This is one of the general epistles,
not written really to one assembly, but to a bunch of churches. And
so there's no chapter division than the original scriptures.
But for our benefit, we're thankful that the scripture has been divided
into chapters and verses. So he goes on forward and he
says in verse one, wherefore, based upon the fact that you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit
through the new birth, the life of God that's been given to you,
then lay aside malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies in
all spiritual speaking, in all evil speaking, rather. Somebody
asked me one time, well, as believers, do we grow automatically in grace
and in knowledge only by the work of the Holy Spirit, or do
we study and endeavor to honor God by the work of the Holy Spirit?
Grace of the Holy Spirit. I'd say both of them are true.
He says here, wherefore lay aside, that's something you do, isn't
it? You lay aside all malice, all
guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, but I
know this, you can't lay aside anything apart from the power
of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is continual
at work. leading us to honor God, to seek
to honor God and do His will. Because as it says in verse 2,
those who have been born again, we're newborn babes. We're newborn
babes. And we desire the sincere, the
real. life-sustaining milk of the word
of God. And thereby we grow, we grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, because
in verse three, because we have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
David said in Psalm 32, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Have you tasted of the grace of God? Have you tasted of the
blissfulness of knowing Christ Jesus? Have you tasted of the
gospel? Have you tasted of this message
of redeeming love and grace and mercy through the appointed and
only one qualified to redeem us? If you've tasted of him,
you've tasted of the very honey of the grace of God. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Have you tasted of him? And I'll
tell you, if you've tasted of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll
say, I want more. I want more. Because God the
Spirit gives us an appetite to feed on him. And he says in verse
four, he's the one we come to. And you see, true faith is indeed
coming to Christ. The Savior said, come unto me
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
But know this, saving faith is not an isolated act. It is not a one time and done
deal. Saving faith is continually coming
to Jesus Christ. As far as I know, I came first
to Christ back in the early 70s. But guess what? I'm still coming. I'm still coming to Him. I see
now more of my neediness and more of my guilt and more of
recognizing how deeply I have to have the grace of God. and
realizing more than ever before, Christ is the only savior. He's
the one I need. We come to him. Well, what does he then say about
our Lord Jesus? Well, it says, to whom coming,
that is coming to that one who is the living stone. who is disallowed or rejected
of men. Men will always reject the Lord
Jesus Christ unless the Spirit of God comes in overwhelming,
triumphant grace to take us out of the realm of
the spiritually dead into the realm of the spiritually alive. You see, this one to whom sovereign
effectual grace brings us, he's the very chosen of God. God chose
him in covenant grace to be our Savior. And he is precious, precious
to God, and he's precious to us. And then Peter says, now
you also are lively or living stones. Why is that? Because
we've been quickened, we've been born again of incorruptible seed. We're living stones. The Lord,
by His Spirit, sends forth the gospel and the gospel goes out
into the world in what I would call the very quarry of mankind. And the Lord chooses stones. Not because they're better than
other stones, they're just dead rocks like all the rest of everybody
in the world. But we've been made living stones. We're alive through Christ Jesus. We're made alive through his
resurrection glory. We're made alive by the power
of the Holy Spirit. We're living stones. We live
to the praise of the glory of God. And those who believe on him
are never gonna be ashamed, never gonna be confounded, never gonna
be cut off. And he says in verse seven, to
you who believe, he is precious. Precious. The most precious gift
God could ever give us is the unspeakable gift of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And not only has He given to
us this unspeakable gift, He's given us the gift of faith to
receive Him. Because if the Spirit of God
didn't do that for us, we would reject Him too, like so many
others do. And then beginning in verse seven,
in verses seven and eight, Peter tells us there are two kinds
of people in the world. Those who, having been born again,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're obedient to the gospel
to come to Christ. They're people to whom the gospel
of the grace of God is good news indeed. And to these people,
Christ is precious. whereas the others are disobedient
to the gospel. While Christ is the rock of our
salvation, we build all of our hopes for eternity upon this
solid rock, others are disobedient to the gospel and build on sinking
sand. He says here in verse seven,
unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them
which be disobedient. And you'll never be obedient
to the gospel to bow to Christ, to come to him. You see, the
gospel is not an invitation. It's a command from God. And
if you don't come to Christ, you're disobedient. and God will
punish you accordingly. Oh God, draw me to the Son of
God. Draw me to the appointed Lamb
of God. Draw me to Him who is the very
glory of God, the One who was eternal, who joined Himself to
our flesh, who lived and died for us to satisfy God, who was
buried and then raised again because God approved of the work
of redemption that He accomplished. I bow to Christ, do you? I worship
Christ, do you? Or are you disobedient? And I'll tell you this, if you
remain disobedient, if God doesn't do something for you, if God
doesn't break your spirit, If God doesn't overcome you by His
sovereign grace and will and perform a work of grace within
you, you will perish. Make no mistake about that. But there are other people who are saved by the grace of
God. And in verses 9 and 10, he describes
Peter describes God's people. And he does so using these words,
and I'll give you five specific characteristics or descriptions
or distinctives of the people of God. Number one, they're a
chosen nation. First Peter tells us the origin
of our salvation. We were chosen in grace. He who is disobedient to believing
that salvation is to be traced back to God's sovereign election
of some people to salvation, those who refuse to believe God's
electing grace, well, right from the get-go, number one, you're
disobedient. You've already been described.
For you see, if salvation is not ascribed to God, If it's
not traced, if the origin of salvation isn't traced back to
Jehovah, then to whom is your salvation traced except to yourself? And believing that you have some
kind of control over your salvation is to believe deadly heresy. It's not of you. Paul says, for by grace are you
saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not you, it's him. It's
not what you do for God, it's what God has to do for you. Do not be among the guilty who
say, I'm the one who made the difference. God'll put you in
hell for that. taking the glory of His salvation
to yourself? Do as the writers of Scripture
instruct us, trace your salvation back to the sovereign election
of God. Election is not a hard doctrine. It's a merciful doctrine. If
God hadn't chosen a people unto salvation, nobody would have
been saved. Not you, not me, not the finest
person you consider to be in the whole world. Nobody would
be saved if it had been left to us. Our Lord in describing His people
and setting forth this distinction between those who are saved and
those who are finally lost, He says this, He leads Peter to
write, you are a chosen generation. You know what a chosen, a people
who are chosen means? We just had a national election. We chose a president, various
senators and men and women from the house of representatives
were chosen, chosen by us. Well, when it comes to salvation,
it's not our choice that makes the difference. It's God's choice. And we glory in Him who had the
right and who exercises the right to choose whom He will under
salvation. So we know what chosen means.
What does generation mean? It means a family. A family. Children. Your offspring. That's your generation. And God
has a generation. God has offspring. God has a
family. These are the ones who are chosen,
chosen in grace unto salvation. We're a chosen generation. We
trace our spiritual life and eternal life back to the giver
of all life, who is God Himself. We're a chosen generation. And then he says, secondly, we're
a royal priesthood. A royal priesthood. God's elect
are a kingdom, a kingdom of priests. We bow the knee to no man on
this earth and call him our priest. I know the church of Rome They
have a priesthood, they say. And you go to a priest and go
into a confessional booth and confess your sins, and he absolves
you in the name of God, that is also heretical. You call no
man on this earth your priest. Our great high priest abides
in glory. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has a generation of chosen
people who constitute a royal priesthood. You are a priest. You are a priest. I don't have
to go to some earthly man and say, forgive me of my sins, absolve
me of my sins. Don't do that. Don't do that. You're a priest. You're a kingdom
of priests. Go to God through the great high
priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're a royal priesthood. We're
kings and priests unto God. Revelation chapter one says that. We have the riches of kings.
That's the riches of Christ Jesus. We wear the garment of kings,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Mephibosheth of old, we
dine at the king's table and we dine royally. And I hope that you, as you sit
here this morning, you can think of yourself as one of the kings that God has
chosen. And this morning he has seated
you once again at the table of gospel truth. We dine royally. I'm telling you, There aren't
very many local churches where the pure gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace is preached, where people can dine, dine on
food from heaven, manna from heaven, even Christ Jesus our
Lord. Most are trying to get a little
something out of diving into a religious dumpster, trying
to find a few crumbs. And unfortunately, that which
they eat is no good. The food that we dine on is royal
food. Because as it says here, we're
a royal priesthood. We're kings and priests unto
God. And as kings, we shall reign
with him in glory, seated upon thrones of mercy. We are a priestly kingdom. We
have access to God. You have access to God being
a priest as you come to God through your great high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, anytime, anywhere. I had somebody tell me one time,
well, I just don't feel fit to pray. I need to be in better
in a better frame of mind to pray. Hogwash! You as a priest of God can come
into His presence anytime, anywhere, and if you think yourself fit
to come into His presence based on how good you feel about yourself,
you got the wrong idea. Sinners are welcome before God
through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come
on, sinner, come on to God through Christ. He receives sinners. He saves sinners. We're a royal
priesthood. And thirdly, he says we're a
holy nation. A nation set apart in old eternity unto salvation. And we're made pure through Christ,
the Holy One. And then he says we're a peculiar
people. That doesn't mean that we're
odd people. Although really we are to the
world. Our gospel is odd. Our beliefs are odd. We come
together to worship three times a week. That's odd to the world.
But the word peculiar doesn't mean odd. means a purchased possession. You're not your own, Paul said. You're bought with a price. You're
a purchased possession. These gals who are all about
killing the fetus, they call themselves They call it abortion. Try to take the stain. It's just
killing, killing a life. They say, my body, my choice. Well, I say to God's people,
it's not your body. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, you
bought with a price. You're not your own. You are
not your own. This is not my body, it belongs
to the Lord. He redeemed me. Therefore I seek to follow Him
and the things that I do in life. Good be all the time I fail.
But that's my desire. Because I'm somebody's purchased
possession. I'm His purchased possession. He owns me. He's my Lord, I bow
to Him as my Lord, my King, my Sovereign. We're peculiar people. And we're peculiar people, we're
a purchased possession in order, he says at the end of verse 9,
to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of
darkness into His marvelous light. We owe Him everything. We're a peculiar people. And
then here's the fifth and the final description of God's people
set forth by Peter. Here's the fifth distinctive,
verse 10. Which in time past were not a
people, but now are the people of God. Now we've always been
the people of God, but we didn't know anything about it until
we were quickened. We belong to him. Which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. From eternity past, God
gave us mercy in Christ Jesus." Boy, what a saving gift that
is. God showed us mercy. We deserve
death, judgment, and hell, but God gave us mercy. One translation
says, on that last statement, which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy. Another translation says, but
mercy was bestowed upon us, actually was forced upon us. That's the mercy of God to sinners
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, in going through this,
can you find yourself in any of these distinctives? I bless the name of God that
I can say, yeah, yep. I'm one of the chosen generation. I'm a child of God. I'm a royal, a king, a kingly
priesthood. I go into the presence of God
through my great high priest. I'm an holy nation. I'm holy. through the imputed righteousness
and holiness of Christ. And God has made me to know I'm
one of his children. I'm one of his children. Thank
God for saving Grace. Let's sing a closing song.