We're back here in 1 Peter 2. It says there in verse 10, which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Where in the time we weren't the people of God, and now we're
the people of God. You know, when you follow the
scriptures, you think the apostle or whoever is the writer is changing
subjects, but he's just starting and as he goes, he begins to
explain things and enlarge on things. And since we own Christ,
living stones in the living temple of Christ, the spiritual house
built upon us, on the stone, the trident stone of the Lord
Jesus Christ and he is our sure foundation, elect of God, chosen
of God, precious to God and some stumbled at our Lord Jesus Christ,
they were offended with him and they were appointed, did you
get what it says there in the last part of verse 8, they were
appointed to this condemnation, they were appointed to it so
then he goes on and says You are in Christ, chosen in Christ,
and He's God's tridestone, cornerstone, and you're living stones. You're
not only that, but you're a chosen generation in Him. But I want
to show you some things, first of all, about how the people
were appointed. It says there's a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense in verse 8. And there it is, that's just
amazing how many people stumble at Christ. And Christ is an offensive
rock to them. And they stumble at the Word.
And they were disobedient. And God appointed them to this
position. God appointed them to this place. Look over with
me in Jude, verse 4, just a moment. This is a thing that... And that's why if I'm preaching
the Gospel, if I'm not, I want to preach it. If I don't know
it, I want to know it. I don't want to be one of these
fellows that just goes through life and come to find out at
the end, you know, I was disobedient, stumbling at Christ. I don't
want to do that. But look what he said here in verse 4 of Jude. For there are certain men crept
in unawares, who were before, listen to this, who were before
of old ordained to this condemnation, this judgment, ungodly men. They were ordained to do this,
ordained to turn the grace of our God into lascivious, and
denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ. People
were ordained to this, and look over in Romans 9 with me, just
a minute. Do you think about that, that
there are people out here, and I could probably name you some
right off the top of my head, but I'm telling you there's men
that's ordained of God. to take the word of God and you
misuse it and stumble at it and make a mess out of it and deceive
people with it and use people as merchandise. But
look what he said here in Romans 9 in verse 30. What shall we say then that the
Gentiles, that's us, which I'm going to go back over and talk
about we were not a people. Which they followed not after
righteousness. They were idlers. We worshipped
idlers. They didn't follow after righteousness.
They weren't looking for righteousness. And they've attained a righteousness.
How did they get it? The righteousness which is of
faith. But Israel. Israel. Which followed after the law
of righteousness. They wanted to be righteous by
law. They wanted to have a righteousness
according to the law. hath not attained to the law
of righteousness the principle of righteousness. Why didn't
they? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were
by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offence, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They stumbled, and Christ
did. Stumbled in Christ's power, stumbled
in Christ's claims, stumbled at His birth, stumbled at His
message, stumbled in everything our Lord Jesus Christ is and
was and accomplished, they stumbled at it. And I certainly don't
want to stumble in Christ. Oh no, no, no, no, I don't want
to do that. But now look what He says over
here. Since they were appointed to this, They stumbled over Christ,
offended with Christ, disobedient at the word. But now listen,
we're not like that. But you, you, God's elect, Peter
then called us God's elect in verse 2. But you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. And here's the reason that you
should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. They were appointed to
stumble and stumble, but he says you're a chosen generation. chosen
and a generation of people, all of God's people, by the sovereign
will and good pleasure of our Father, We were a chosen generation,
set apart. He didn't choose us because He
foresaw something in us that was commendable to Him, or good
to Him, or favorable to Him. He didn't see faith in us. He
didn't see holiness in us. He didn't see works we had accomplished.
He didn't see anything in us. He just said, You are a chosen
generation. And He chose us by grace, a loved
grace. Chose us by grace. to grace and
glory, and hereafter. That's why it says, blessed is
the man whom thou choosest, and then calls us to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. So you're a chosen generation,
chosen by God, set apart by God. And there's a generation that
God's never left himself without a witness. And then it says not
only are you a chosen generation, you're a royal priesthood. Now
wait a minute. A royal priesthood? Look over
in Revelation 5 with me just a minute. A chosen generation,
a royal priesthood. You know what a royal In the
scriptures, the priests, only the high priest wore the
high priestly robes. And they weren't called royal
priests. They were just the high priest,
and then there was the priest. And the high priest, you know,
they didn't continue by reason of death and reason of infirmity.
But here he calls us a royal priesthood. Look what he says
here in Romans, Revelation 5, 9. And they sung a new song,
saying, Thou art worthy to take the booth, to open the seals
there, for Thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall
reign on the earth. Now royal priesthood Now kings,
they have to wear royal apparel. If we're a royal priesthood,
we've got to have royal apparel. Where are we going to get royal
apparel? Our Lord Jesus Christ clothed us with His blessed righteousness. And that's the most blessed robe
you can wear in this world and in the world to come. It's like
that prodigal son when he came home. He says, Father, I've sinned
against heaven and against you. I'm not worthy to be called your
son. I'll just be your servant. Be
a hired servant. He said, no, no, no, no. And
he brought his son in, and the first thing he said after he
made that myth, he said, go and kill that fatty cat, and the
next thing he says, bring the best robe and put it on him. And we, as God's people, God
puts a robe of righteousness on us. And that makes us, since
he's a king, he said he made us kings. And there's a royal
priesthood. And you know what a priest does?
He offers sacrifices. and the scriptures I just showed
it to you here in 1 Peter where it says there in verse 5 you
also in verse chapter 2 and verse 5 you also as living stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus We offer sacrifices,
Bill, we offer sacrifices of praise, and thanksgiving, and
bless his holy name, and that's all, everything we do, any offering
that we make to God, it has to be a spiritual sacrifice. And
only priests are allowed to come into His presence, and priests
can draw nigh to God, and we, as royal priests, we can come
right into the presence of God like the high priest did, except
we come, all of us, Don't have to wait for a priest to bring
us. We can come on our own. Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that
we come under the throne of God by a new and living way through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And then as kings, we're going
to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ forever. We're going to
reign with Him forever as kings. And oh beloved I tell you what,
we draw nigh to God as priests, we offer sacrifices and as a
royal priesthood and as kings we are going to reign with Christ.
For as long as Christ reigns we are going to reign. And I
tell you what beloved, it's going to be something to live on. He
says reign on the earth. What earth? New heaven and new
earth. wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Then, O God, not only are you a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, back here in verse 9, but a holy nation. A holy
nation. You know God separated Israel
from all other nations on the face of this earth. And he destroyed
seven nations to give them places to live. He put them in houses,
he gave them vineyards, he gave them olive trees, everything
that they needed to live in this world. He gave it to them by
destroying nations, saying, you live in that fellow's house,
this is your house, that will be your house over there. And
they all had places to live. And he provided for, drove out
wicked people to bring in his people. And God separated Israel
from all other nations. And here we are called the people
of God. And we are called the true Israel.
A special and a holy nation. That's what God calls us, His
people, a holy nation. Now you know that's another thing
that we're going to be in the new heaven and new earth. We're
going to have to be a nation. We're going to have a nation
and it's going to be God's nation, Christ's nation, a holy nation.
And oh look what it says over here in Psalm 33. Look what he
says here in Psalm 33 about this. The sheriff tells us something
about Psalm 33. We're a true Israel. That's why
Paul, you know, he says we're the true circumcision. True Israel. Psalm 33 verse 12. Look what
he says here. Oh, look what he says now. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord. We are a holy nation. How come
we are holy? Who made us holy? God said we
are holy. Do you feel holy? Do you act
holy? But God said we are holy. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. So a chosen generation, royal
priesthood, a holy nation, separated by God, called a nation. And
then look what else he says about us down here in this chapter. He said, not only you're chosen,
royal priesthood, a holy nation, but a peculiar people. A peculiar
people. Now that don't mean that you're
peculiar in the sense that you act strange. But what it means
is really a special people, a people bought and paid for, a special
people. And these people, this people of God that he's talking
about here, they are a special people. God has given them a
love that he don't give nobody else, a special love just for
them. He gives them favor and grace that he don't give nobody
else. He gives them great and special blessings in Christ that
he gives nobody else. He takes special care of them
like He takes care of nobody else. And I can attest to that,
and you can attest to that, that God Himself takes care of us
where He don't take care of nobody else. And I'll show you, look
in Deuteronomy 6 with me, just a moment. No, 7, Deuteronomy 7. Let's look
at this together. A peculiar people. A peculiar
people. Special people. People bought
and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, God told us
in the psalm, I can't remember where it's at, He says, but these
are my peculiar people. I set them apart. Special people
for mine. They're precious people in my
sight. And oh, God chooses us and calls
us a nation and sets us apart. We're the true Israel. And look
what He said here in Deuteronomy 7 verse 6. For thou didst holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee, listen to this, to be a special people unto himself, above all
people that are from the face of the earth. The Lord did not
set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in
number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He set us free
from everything that was against us, and he calls us his special
people. He didn't choose us because there
was anything about us. But because he would, now back
over in our text, let's look at this just a minute. And all
this was done, he chose us, called us to the priesthood, royal priesthood,
dressed us in royal garb. made us a holy nation of peculiar
people, and this is the reason that we as this people, this
chosen people, this nation, this pure priesthood, this peculiar,
that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light. Now everything God done
for us and everything He has done for us, the reason He does
it is to the praise of the glory of His blessed grace. And so
he says this, that we should show forth, how do we show it
forth? By our words, by our deeds, By
our character, by our conduct. And one of these days the universe
and everybody is going to see that God saved us by His grace. And everybody is going to praise
God for His grace. And everybody is going to acknowledge
that God gave us grace. And that we are trophies of His
grace. In the ages to come He is going
to show the riches and kindness of His grace given to us in Christ.
And he says that we should show forth the praises of him who
called us out of darkness. We wasn't always a royal priesthood,
wasn't always a holy nation, wasn't always a chosen people.
And oh listen, to show forth the praises of him, to praise
him, to bless him, to honor him. In our lives, our very lives,
we should live to his praise and to his glory. And that is
what Paul told the Colossians, giving thanks unto the Father,
who hath called us out of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son. And also you see, I tell you this, how can we praise Him? we not only dwell in darkness
but we were darkness and he called us out of that darkness and made
us special people made us people loved of him and all to praise
him show forth his praises talk of his praises bless him for
his praises talk about his blessed person and all that makes him
God and then look what else he says He calls you out of the
darkness, and you know, and he says, now you were all, this
is what you are now. But you weren't this in the past.
In the past you weren't even a people. You weren't a nation,
you weren't nobody. You just weren't even a people.
You wasn't gathered in together. You're just nobody. You just
weren't even a people. You were just out here as individuals.
People here, people there, living in sin. You didn't have any of
these things going for you. But he says, which in time past
were not a people. Now I know and we have always
from eternity past been the people of God. We were given to Christ
in the covenant of grace. Represented by our Lord Jesus
Christ in time. We were His in this covenant
of grace, but before our Lord Jesus was revealed to our heart
and we was called out of this darkness, before the Lord Jesus
made real to our hearts and our souls, it says here, you were
not a people. We were not a people. We weren't. And now I tell you, beloved, before we were born of the Spirit
of God, we were not His willing people, not His servants, nor
His sons. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. We were strangers from the covenants.
And we knew nothing of His mercy. And now it says we've obtained
mercy. Oh, here we were in a people
and God says, I'm going to make you my people. We didn't have
mercy and now He said, I'm going to give them mercy. He started
gathering out of every tribe and then He says, I'm going to
make you this holy nation, this chosen generation, this royal
priesthood. And there was a time we weren't
even worried. And I tell you, beloved, Isaiah
talked about this, and that's why the Jews, that's another
thing they stumbled at Christ. They said, there's no way in
the world that the Gentiles and the Jews can be saved the same
way. There's no way that Jews and
Gentiles can dwell together. There's no way that God can save
a Gentile dog. There's no way that Christ could
come into this world and he's only going to go save Israel,
he's only going to go save that seed. But yet, beloved, all through
the Old Testament it talked about the Gentiles was going to be
saved by the grace of God. That God was going to bring them
in. God was going to save them. And when Paul became the apostle
to the Gentiles, They hated him for it. They persecuted him for
it. He spent years in prison. He was beaten. Everything that
you could imagine happened to him. You know, for one reason.
Because he went as a Jew among the Gentiles. Ain't that right,
Gary? They said, there's no way we're
going. Peter says, it's not lawful for us who are Jews to be among
Gentiles. But he says, now I see God's
mother respect the persons. And as you know, Jeanette Morrell,
she's from Malta. And Malta's where Paul got shipwrecked. And when that serpent got a hold
of him, bit him, and he shook him off in the fire, and they
thought, man, this man's gonna die. And she says, now down in
Malta, instead of worshiping Christ, it's St. Paul. They got
a place where he shipwrecked and they got it all marked off
and everybody went down there and they said, boy, St. Paul
was here, St. Paul's been here. And they worshiped
St. Paul, not Christ. But here she is from Malta. And she said, by the grace of
God, generations, millennia after Paul was on there. Millennia. And oh beloved, let me tell you
something, let me go on here now. And then he goes, dearly
beloved. Why does he say this? He wants
to show them what great affection they have for him. He expresses
his love to these dear saints here, these people he's writing
to. to show them that what he's about to teach them is out of
a heart full of love and affection for them and it's for their good. And that's what he starts saying
here, he says, now since you're these people of God, since you're
these people that show force of praises, and there were a
time you weren't, a time you didn't know anything about mercy,
but now you're God's people, now you've got mercy. Now this
is the way God made you. So dearly beloved, I beseech
you, As strangers and pilgrims. Now that's what you are. Let
me tell you something. David said, I'm a stranger with him.
God's a stranger in his own world. Would you agree with that? Wouldn't
you say that God's a stranger in this world? He created this
world and he's a stranger in this world. Would you not say
Christ who came in this world to redeem sinners out of this
world is a stranger in this world? Well, that's what he's saying
here, that we're strangers. We're strangers in this world
and the world's strange to us and we're strange to the world.
And then it says pilgrims. Pilgrims traveling to a better
country. Coming to a better country. Mary
and I was up in the northeast a few years ago and we went to
Plymouth Rock. That's where the pilgrims landed.
They called them pilgrims. They came over here and they
landed at Plymouth Rock. And there's that rock. You think
it's going to be a great big rock. It's not much of a rock.
It don't amount to much. But that's where they landed.
And the pilgrims started there and they started spreading apart
and they left that place to come to a better country. And that's
what we are, we're pilgrims looking for a better country. And we'll
get to that better country. We'll get there too. And then
he says this, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And this is a fact, it's a fact
as long as we're in this body, As long as we're in this flesh,
we're subject to the desires of the flesh and subject to the
desires of this body. And I tell you, this wretched
flesh, Paul said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells
no good thing. And he says, there's a war going
on in us. He said, abstain from these fleshly
lusts, which war against your soul. And we have this body. We have this body of sin. We
have this flesh to contend with. We have everything, and this
body, oh my, and the things that it does. But he said abstain
from it, suppress it. Refuse to give in to these fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. And what it says, they war against
the soul, they're enemies. These fleshly lusts and these
bodily lusts, they're enemies to our spiritual peace, to our
spiritual comfort, to our assurance. Now these fleshly lusts can war
against our soul. They can't destroy our soul.
They can't do that. But they can sure cause a lot
of discomfort. They can cause a lot of unrest.
And I tell you, most people when we talk about fleshly lusts,
they start thinking about something awful. But I tell you what, pride,
pride is an awful thing. Anger is an awful thing. To get
angry and say things and be cruel and mean to people. Jealousy
is a horrible thing. Intemperance is an awful thing. To be intemperate in all things. But he said abstain from them. Suppress them. Flee from them. And then he says, since they
war against your soul. Oh, they'll cause you to lose
your peace, your comfort, your assurance. and all unrest. You know, I heard an author paint
this one time. And this is true, I've heard
it from all experiences. The Bible will keep you from
sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. This book will keep you from
sin or sin will keep you from the book. Now everybody here knows what
I'm saying. Now that's right. You do something, you say, well,
ain't no sense picking it up, you know I'm shaking to pick
it up. And that's what it'll do. That's what it'll do. And
then look what he says, and so this, what are we going to do
then? Having your conversation, having your manner of life, that's
what the word conversation means. Honest among the Gentiles. You
live an honest life. A life that honors God, honest
among the Gentiles, honest among them who are unconverted. They speak against you. They've
got things to say against you. They speak against you as evildoers.
And people do in this world. They speak against God's people
as evildoers. Oh, conduct yourselves before
your family. Conduct yourselves for people
on the job. Conduct yourselves among your
neighbor, among your friends. Live in an honest, righteous,
loving manner. So if they do speak against you
as evildoers, and I tell you what, I couldn't tell you how
many times this congregation and us have been spoken evil
against just for what we believe. Just for what we preach. But they'll see, they'll see
that as they speak against you as evildoers, they'll say things
against you. He says, but you live in such a manner of life
that what they would use against you, you can stop their mouths
and stop their evildoing by your good works. By your good works,
which they'll behold. They'll behold, they'll watch
and you know there's always people watching us. My children watch
me, my grandchildren watch me. My neighbor watches me. My neighbor
up the road watches me. I go up to the fire hall and
if they have anything up there, the people up there watch me. People that come here that ain't
been here, they watch you. Everybody's observing everybody.
And that's why He says, "...and by your good works they shall
behold." They can see. That you know God, trust God,
believe God, rest in God, have peace in God. The mailman pulled
up this day, Leon pulled up today, and he's asking how Mary was,
and I said, well she's a little weak today. He says, you know
God's grace is sufficient, God's got plenty of grace. I said,
I don't know it, He's given us plenty of it. And we have peace,
peace over whatever's going on in our lives. And that's what
I'm saying, people's got to see, and they will see. If we say
we believe in the grace of God and then we stand back and complain
over every little thing that happens to us, they're going
to see that. And they say, well I thought
that fellow said he was a Christian. I thought he believed in the
sovereignty of God. I thought he believed in God's
prophetess. I thought he believed God would
provide his needs and here you are out here coveting and scratching
and scrolling and trying his best to get something off of
somebody. Oh listen, that's what he said, they may speak against
you. And they'll watch how you react to trials. But oh, glorify
God. And they'll say, well that's
something to them and what they believe. And sometimes God visits
us in prosperity. Sometimes he visits us in disappointment. Sometimes He visits us with joy,
sometimes in sorrows. And how we conduct ourselves
under different tests will determine how those who observe us, what
they think about us, whether they glorify God by what we have,
we act, or else they'll laugh at our confession. One or the
other. And then look what else, He goes
on to say this now. He said, I want you to do this.
Now He said, you know, that was 11 and 12 was a sentence. Now he is going to continue in
this manner of life. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake. You notice that? For the Lord's
sake. You know the Christians to obey
the laws of the land. And that's what he means here.
Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Whether
it's to the king, as supreme, or under governors, as under
them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers and
for the praise of them that do well. You know the believers
to obey the laws of the land. We ought to live in our communities
in the state of Tennessee where we live, live in our nation and
be good citizens. Good citizens, good citizens
of our country, put a hand over our heart when the flags raise. Do what we can when we know we
obey the laws of the land and try our best to live as people
who honor God. And God puts these people in
position so that they can punish the people that are evil doers.
I'm not afraid that the Lord is going to knock on my door
and come after me tomorrow. I'm not a bit afraid of that. But
I do hope they go and get the fella that's selling drugs. I
do hope they go get the man that's stealing. I do hope they go get
the man that breaks into somebody's house. And I get aggravated at
them if they don't. And that's what he says. And
all this and God ordained government for our good and our peace. And
then look what he says now. Oh listen, for the punishment
of evil and for the praise of them that do well. Oh listen,
and then he says, for so is the will of God. This is the will
of God that you do these things that he's talking about. That
with well doing, by doing well, living to God's glory, showing
forth his praises of his marvelous light, That with well-doing we'll
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. We'll disarm
them by doing well of anything they can use against us. They're
ignorant men and they're foolish men and they want to use anything
they can against us. And then look what he says in
verse 16. He says, For so is the will of
God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance
of foolish men. As free, you're free men, free
women, free from the law, free from its curse, free to access
to God by the Spirit of God. But we're not free to sin, we're
not free to live in contempt of the laws that are binding
on all men. He says this is the will of God, as free men. Not using your liberty,
your freedom that we have in Christ. That freedom, as it says,
you know, that we're living to God and we don't have to obey
the laws of men. Not using our liberty for a cloak
of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. You see, as
long as God's law and man's laws are in accord with God's laws,
we're going to obey them. We're going to obey them. Whenever
they start passing laws, it's against God's laws. And if we
have to, and that's what he's saying, we're not going to use
this liberty as a cloak of maliciousness to turn against God, you know,
to turn against the law and be contemptuous of the law. We're
free men, but we're not like that. We're servants of God.
And if they ever start passing laws that we can't obey, that
we can't honor God with, That's when we'll use our liberty, not
as maliciousness, but as free men. And that's what he's talking
about there. They pass a law that tells us
that we can't preach certain things without it being hate
speech, or they tell us that we can't use certain language,
or that this, that, and the other, and they tell us we can't preach
here, we can't preach there, then that's when we're going
to have to use our liberty. And that's what he's talking
about. But not as a contemptuous way to say I don't have to do
anything that anybody tells me. We're not malicious people. We're
not God's people, we're not malicious people. I will stop. When they whipped Paul with 39
stripes for preaching. When they come
and God put him in jail for preaching. When they took Peter, James,
and John before the Sanhedrin for preaching. And then whipped
them. Did any of them act malicious?
Did any of them act mean? No. So we're not going to either. Even things that we don't like,
we're not going to get mean about if we never. Alright.