Open your Bibles with me to the
book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. The title of
the message this morning is God's Chosen Generation. God's Chosen
Generation. That title is taken from verse
nine of first Peter chapter two where the apostle writes, but
ye are a chosen generation. Now he's talking to believers.
He's talking to those who know Christ, to whom Christ has been
revealed by the power of the spirit in the preaching of the
gospel, the glorious person, the finished work of Christ.
You are a chosen generation. a royal priesthood and holy nation,
a peculiar people. If you have a concordance in
your Bible, that word peculiar doesn't mean odd. Now we may
be odd, I don't know, but that's not what that word means. It
means purchased, bought and paid for. You're a purchased people. And he says that you should show
forth the praises virtues of him who hath called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light." God's chosen generation. Now
I want to just answer two questions this morning. Number one, what
is it to be chosen? And number two, who are those
who are chosen? What does it mean to be chosen?
Well, the word in the original language, the Greek, the New
Testament Greek is electos and so you know what we get from
that word? We get election, election. Now election is not a popular
subject today and Well, I know when I first
really come to see that the Bible taught election, I told my mother,
I said, well, if I preach that, I'd have to apologize and set
up some kind of defense for God. But when the Lord showed me the
reality of the glory of his sovereign purpose and way of salvation,
I come to, I don't have to apologize to you for God. And I really
don't have to defend God before you. He's God. He is his own
defense. And I make no apologies for what
the scripture says, whether we like it or not. This is just
what the scripture says. You either believe it or you
don't. Now, if you reject the scriptures, you reject the God
of the scriptures. You understand that. But what I've come to see is
that God's election of grace, and that's exactly what it is,
is one of the most glorious truths that we can understand by the
power of the Spirit, but also it's our salvation. It's the
source of our salvation if we're saved. What is it to be chosen? Well, God's election of grace,
and that's important that we understand that. It's not that
God chose a people, period. God did choose a people. The
Bible teaches that. but it's choosing them in grace
before the foundation of the world. Again, that's what the
scripture teaches. When he marked out by name the
ones he would save by his grace through the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible says, that
our names were written in the Lamb's book of life. The Lord
knoweth them that are his. And this is a doctrine that the
natural man hates because in his mind it's just unjust, it's
unfair. Yet God has determined that that's
the way it is. And if you wanna deal in issues
of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility and all of that,
read the book of Romans chapter nine and I assure you that's
the only answer you're gonna get from the Bible. And basically
here's what it says. God is God, he doeth what he
pleases. and we're just creatures, so
shut up. That's basically what it says. Because our little old feeble
minds are not able to comprehend the vastness of God's infinite
mind. And what may seem unjust and
unfair to us is not unjust and fair at all. Who are you to argue
with God? Who are you to debate with him?
I used to be a debater and an arguer till God put me in my
place. And I'll tell you right now,
if your religion or your idea of salvation depends upon you
figuring all this out about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility,
you've got a task ahead of you that you cannot solve. You're
going to be in turmoil the rest of your life. But here's what
he said, let me just read this to you in Romans chapter nine.
This thing is much more serious than what we think it to be naturally. He talks about Jacob and Esau.
He says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And he says, this was the case
before the two were ever born. Was God unjust in hating Esau? No, Esau was like all of us,
a sinner. If God gave any of us what we
deserve or what we've earned, what would it be? Hell. Eternal damnation. And I'm talking
about the best of us and the worst of us. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And when we speak of salvation
by God's grace in Christ, that's why the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ is so important and so valuable and so necessary. Because salvation is by God's
grace through him. It's not based upon what I do
or don't do or what God foresaw that I would do. Was God unjust
in hating? What is God's hatred? It's not
like our hatred. Our hatred is sinful. But God's
hatred is justice. It's his wrath upon sinners to
whom God imputes, charges sin. That's what God's wrath is, that's
what his hatred is. It's giving somebody what they
deserve, and that's justice. But was God unloving and was
God unjust to love Jacob? No. because he marked out Jacob
for salvation, not because of Jacob's moral character and conduct. Read about Jacob, you'll see
that. It was because of his purpose
of grace. Look at it in Romans 9, he says,
verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unjust? God forbid, for he said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That's God's prerogative. Does
that surprise us? Well, he created this world,
didn't he? So then it's not of him that willeth, it's not of
the will of man, nor of him that runneth, not of the works of
man, but of God that showeth mercy. Now that's what the Bible teaches,
that's what it reveals. But God has determined that this
is the way it is. Now, liberal theologians, they
say, well, you know, that's just Paul's theology. That's Pauline
theology. I heard that, I was blue in the
face at a seminary. That's Pauline theology. That's
just what Paul thought. And you know, he was a misogynist
and a woman hater anyway, you know, all that stuff. Well, Peter
thought that too. Look back over at our text. Look
at 1 Peter chapter one. Look at verse one, Peter. an
apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Verse two, elect
according to the foreknowledge. And that word foreknowledge in
the Bible doesn't mean God's prior knowledge of something.
It means foreordination. That's what it means. God's foreknowledge,
it's his knowledge in an intimate way. the foreknowledge of God
the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit unto the meanings
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. You know, the main reason that
unbelievers hate this doctrine is because it leaves all salvation
up to the sovereign purpose of God, and it removes all human
merit from the equation of salvation. Man's version of election, listen
to this. God looked down through a telescope
of time and he foresaw what you would do, whether you would believe
him or not. Now the first question I would
ask about that, is that biblical? And the answer is no. One preacher I heard on television,
he said this, he said, here's the election, God votes for you,
the devil votes against you and you cast the deciding vote. You
better be registered. That's not what the Bible teaches.
In fact, the Bible teaches that if God left all of us alone,
let's say the whole human race, if God left the whole human race
alone and did not intervene in the new birth and giving us a
new heart. And say he just left the whole
human race alone and gathered the whole kit and caboodle of
us up into one place and stood before us and asked this question.
Now, how many of you choose me and raise your hand? There wouldn't
be one of us, according to the scriptures, that would raise
our hand. Not if we knew the true and living God. We wouldn't
raise it. The natural man Receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. God chose a people to save for
his glory and he chose them in Christ. Over in that passage
that Brother Jim read. You know this Isaiah 42, Brother
Jim read. Do you know this was a sermon
that got Isaiah in trouble? I mean, he got in a lot of hot
water over this. You know, Isaiah, they say that
he was murdered by the unbelieving Israelites in Jerusalem, where
he preached. Some say he was one of those
that was sawn asunder, sawed into. I don't know if that's
the case, but I know he was unpopular. And the reason that this passage
got him in trouble is he spoke of the salvation of God's elect
among Gentiles. And the Jews said, no, they're
no elect Gentiles, we're the elect. Well, they were in a temporal
way, but not in a spiritual way. In fact, the Bible says, and
Isaiah said this too in the Bible, that among Israel, the whole
bunch was lost in their sins except for a small remnant according
to the election of grace. And the Bible teaches, first
of all, Christ is the first one of God's elect. Look here, Christ
was chosen by the Father, the Son of God, in the everlasting
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world to be
the Savior of his people, to be surety for his people. And
God chose his people and gave them to Christ. And that's what
he says here in Isaiah 42, one, behold, my servant, whom I'm
uphold, mine elect, that's Christ. In whom my soul delighteth, I
put my spirit upon him. And he says, he'll bring judgment
to the Gentiles. You know how he brings judgment
to the Gentiles? He brings the gospel. The gospel of God's judgment
of Christ as the sin bearer and sin offering of his people. whom
he saves by his grace. And out of that, out of the human
race, God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. He mentions the Isles. Remember
when you read that, Jim, he mentioned the Isles. That's Gentiles. Israelites didn't live on an
island. And that's what he's talking about. God chose a people. The Bible
teaches that prior to the new birth, Remember Christ said you
must be born again? Now why is that? I was born 67 years ago. Why must I be born again? Because
if I'm not born again, I cannot see in a spiritual way, in a
believing way, the kingdom of God. I cannot enter it. So the Bible teaches this, that
prior to the new birth, prior to God giving me spiritual life
from the dead, giving me eyes to see and ears to hear, all
of us are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And that
means we're unable and unwilling to believe God, to love God or
his word or obey or please God in any way. Now, we can love
our idea of God before that, but that idea is an idea. We
worship a God who's likened to ourselves. The reason that if
you're sitting there today and you're thinking that, well, that's
unjust of God. You know why you think that?
Because that's not the way you'd do things. But the way you'd do things,
the way I'd do things, we'd gum it all up. We'd mess it all up. Here's the point. By nature,
people will not choose God. They will not choose Christ.
They will not bow to him and his righteousness. That's why
Christ said in John 6, 44, no man can come to me except the
Father draw him. If any of us are saved, it's
totally the work of God's sovereign mercy. It's not our merit. It's not what, listen, salvation
is not a matter of what I deserve or what I've earned. It's getting
everything that I don't earn and don't deserve. It's based on the merits of Christ. His merits, His worthiness, His
work as my surety, as my substitute, as my redeemer, as my life giver. It's all based on Him. What is it to be chosen? It's
to be in Christ. I was telling the folks this
morning in our Bible study, I was reading in the paper this morning,
a preacher who writes a weekly column, and his column was all
about that, that in order to be saved, we must be in Christ.
And I read the article, and up until the last paragraph, I agreed
with everything he said. To be in Christ is to be washed
in his blood. forgiven of all my sins, not
because I cried all night or I repented, no, by the blood
of Christ. Now cry all night and repent. You don't earn forgiveness. He didn't bring this out, but
it's to be justified based on his right, Christ's righteousness
imputed. He didn't say that. Most people don't preach that
today. They don't even know what it means. It means the merit of Christ
obedience unto death is laid to my charge and my account.
My debt is paid. But he went on what it is to
be in Christ and everything he said was true. But when he got
to the last paragraph, he asked this question, now how do I get
in Christ? You know what he said? The waters
of baptism. That's not right. Now does that
mean we don't have to be baptized? No, it doesn't mean that at all.
We are commanded by God to be baptized, but not in order to
get in Christ. We're to be baptized to confess
that God's already put us in him. How do I get in Christ? The only
thing I can tell you is that God did it before the foundation
of the world. To be in Christ, look back at
our text here in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. You're a chosen what? Generation. To be chosen is to be part of
a generation. Now what is that generation?
Well, that's something God created. The root word is Genesis, the
beginning. And God has a generation. Let
me read you a passage out of Psalm 22. And this is really
interesting because Psalm 22 is what we call the Psalm of
the cross. It's a prophecy of the suffering
Christ. It starts out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Who said that? Jesus Christ on
the cross. And it goes through and it describes
in prophetic language that the Messiah, God's elect, who's gonna
bring judgment to the Gentiles, how he would come and he would
live, he would die, he would be buried, he'd be raised again
the third day. And at the end of that Psalm,
in Psalm 22 verse 30, listen to this. It says, a seed shall
serve him. Now, what is that seed? Well,
that's his children. That's his offspring. Now, Christ
had no physical offspring, but he has a spiritual offspring.
Who are they? Well, they're described in the
Bible in different ways. They're described as the elect. They're
described as the church, which he shed his blood. He redeemed
with his precious blood. They're described as his sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, he said. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. His brethren, they're called.
And we could go on and on. They're called Zion. That's a
name for God's elect. But he says, a seed shall serve
him. It doesn't say a seed will serve
him if they take a notion to or if they exercise. No, they're
gonna serve him. And he says, it shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. That's his people. And listen
to what he says here in verse 31 of Psalm 22. They shall come
and they shall declare what? His righteousness. That's what
I preach. I don't preach man's righteousness.
I preach the righteousness of God in Christ. Man's righteousness
will do you no good because you have none. His righteousness
is the merit of his obedience unto death as our surety, our
substitute and redeemer. And he says, they shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. And there
he's talking about the new birth that he hath done this. This
is the work of God. Do you know a sinner saved by
grace is totally the generation, the work of God. You're not self-made. Ephesians chapter two and verse
eight. 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. Even faith is the work of God, it's the gift of
God. You don't have that naturally, I didn't have it naturally. And
then he says in Ephesians two and verse 10, for we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because
of, but unto, that's the fruit. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Chosen in Christ. Back over here
in our text in 1 Peter 2, what is said here of sinners saved
by grace, all the blessings, all the benefits of salvation
by grace is due to the work, the merits, the goodness, and
the power of one person. Jesus Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. Now, how do we know this is so?
Well, look back up in our text. Look at verse six of 1 Peter
2. He says, wherefore, for this
reason also it is contained in the scripture. And what Peter
does here, he quotes from Isaiah, that guy who got in trouble.
Isaiah 28, behold, I lay in Sion, a chief cornerstone. You want
a cornerstone back then, I don't know, I'm not a contractor and
I don't build things and all that. But the cornerstone was
laid and everything was to be measured by that cornerstone.
And that's what Christ is for the church. He's the foundation
stone and he's the chief cornerstone. Everything's to be measured by
him. Whatever I think, say, do, however I interpret the scripture,
it's got to be measured. and determined and judged by
the truth of the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
So he says, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone precious, and he
that believeth on him shall not be confounded. And look at verse nine again. He says, you're a chosen, you're
a royal priesthood. What does that mean? Does that
mean we all need to go out and buy funny collars? No. That means we, individually,
as sinners saved by grace, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed
in his righteousness, we have free, unhindered access to the
holiest of all, the presence of God, through the blood of
Christ. That's why we don't need any
other mediator or intercessor but Christ. He says you're a holy nation.
What does that mean? It means you're separate. That doesn't
mean that you're holier than thou or perfect or anything. It means you're separate. You're
not of the world. You don't worship with the world.
You don't go with the world's value system. You look to Christ. He says you're a peculiar people.
That means you're purchased, you're bought and paid for. You're
not working to pay your debt to God's justice. Christ already
paid it in full. Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Christ is
all. All the wisdom I need for me
to know God and to understand salvation is in Christ. All the
righteousness that I need to be justified before God is in
Christ. All the sanctification, separateness
that I need is in Christ, and all the redemption that I need
is in Christ. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. And so he says you're a peculiar
people. God's elect, whether among Jews or Gentiles, have
always been from eternity His chosen people, His covenant people.
As such, they were given to Christ and made His people. They were
in His care and His charge and still are. He saved them by his
obedience unto death. He redeemed them to himself a
peculiar people, but before the new birth, before conversion,
before God brings us to hear and believe the gospel, we're
not a people formed by God for himself, nor Christ willing people
either to be saved by him or to serve him, nor are we, nor
can we be truly known to be God's people until he brings us to
faith. And that's what he says, but
now are the people of God. All of that. So now who are the
chosen generation? Well look at Matthew chapter
22. Here we have a parable, and I'm
not gonna go through the whole parable. I've preached on this
passage several times in the time that I've been preaching
the gospel. But here's a parable that Christ taught of a king
who gave a marriage supper for his son. Now in this parable,
the king represents God the father, the son represents the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of God. And so the king told his servants
to go out, and he says in verse four of Matthew 22, he sent forth
other servants saying, tell them which are bidden, behold, I prepared
my dinner, my oxen, my fat, in other words, the dinner's prepared,
you don't have to bring your own dishes to this, this is not
a potluck. But he said, you go out and call
them, bid them to come to the wedding. And it says here in
verse six, the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully
and slew them, but when the king heard thereof, he was angry.
Now that's historically Christ coming to his own nation, the
Jews, and they rejected him. And so the king said, look at
verse nine, he says, go ye therefore into the highways and as many
as you shall find bid to the marriage. So those servants went
out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they
found, both bad and good. Now that's bad and good in the
eyes of men. And he says, and the wedding was furnished with
guests. You see the historical progression there. Christ came
to the Jews and they received him not. There was a remnant
now. A remnant according to the elect,
but the nation as a whole rejected him. And then he sent men like
Paul out to the Gentiles and they were brought in. And the
feast was furnished and the feast was ready. Again, this wasn't
bring your own dish. It's already furnished. Christ
had already done the work. He did all the cooking, you might
say. And there it is. It's coming to eat. But look
at verse 11, it says, when the king came in to see the guest,
he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And
he saith unto him, friend, how camest thou in here not having
a wedding garment? And the man was speechless. Then
the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take
him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Now what is that wedding garment?
The Bible teaches us what the wedding garment is. That's the
righteousness of Christ imputed to us. We are his bride, that's
another term for God's elect. We wear the wedding garment that
Christ put together by his obedience unto death. We didn't contribute
one thread to that garment, it's his righteousness alone imputed,
charged, accounted to us. But look at the last line of
this parable in verse 14. For many are called, but few
are chosen. Many are called, the gospel goes
out and we preach to anybody who'll listen. Somebody asked
one preacher one time, said, if you believe in election, why
don't you just preach to the elect? I'm not God. God tells
me to go out and preach to anybody who'll listen. But many are called,
but few are chosen. You see, those with the garments
did not have any merit in themselves. Those guests in that, they didn't
have any merit, but the response that they gave to the call revealed
that they had already been chosen by God. Now when a person responds
to the gospel message of the Lord Jesus Christ, that doesn't
mean that you have any merit or that you work that up in yourself
or that you're better than the rest of them who wouldn't choose. As a matter of fact, their response
is the evidence that God has already worked in their past
and that God has worked in their hearts. It means you've been
born again. Paul spoke of it in Acts 13,
48, when he preached the gospel, it said, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. So the call goes out to many,
but few are elect, and the evidence of the election is the profession
of truth. That's why Peter says in 2 Peter 1, 10, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. God's election comes first,
but the first evidence of that in our lives is the calling.
Have you answered the call? Let me just read this and I'll
close with this. Look back at verse six of 1 Peter
2. He says, wherefore also it is
contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, that's Christ. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. There it is. Do you believe on
him? Do you believe in the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ? Have you submitted
to his righteousness as your only ground of justification?
Because that's the first evidence of God's chosen generation. That's
the gift of faith. Do you realize that if you truly
believe this gospel and have been brought by God with the
gift of faith to repentance of dead works, you're a walking,
talking miracle? He says in verse 7, unto you
therefore which believe, Christ is precious. Christ is my honor. That's what that means, but he's
precious to his people. But unto them which be disobedient,
that's unbelief, the stone which the builders disallowed or rejected,
the same is made the head of the corner. Those who reject
him, but he's still the head of the corner. And a stone of
stumbling, they trip over him. A rock of offense, they're offended
by it. Even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient,
whereunto also they were appointed, scripture says. I didn't write
this. But you are a chosen generation.
Think about it. God gives his people life. and he brings them to faith in
Christ. And so when you think about what
Christ accomplished, and that's what his resurrection is about.
Did you know that? It's not just about life from
the dead. I mean, it shouldn't amaze any
of us that God can bring life from the dead. We're here. That shouldn't amaze us that
God can give life to the dead. But the resurrection of Christ
is something special. And that's what I put here on
the back of your book. What does the resurrection of Christ prove?
It proves that our surety, our substitute, our redeemer died
under the penalty of our sins. It proves that his death not
only paid the penalty of all my sins, all for whom he died,
but it brought forth righteousness. That's what his resurrection
means. Why did he, why must he be raised from the dead? Because
he established righteousness in his death. And righteousness
demands life. It proves that Jesus Christ is
the author and the giver of spiritual and internal life to everyone
for whom he died. And it proves the eternal security.
of every sinner for whom he lived and died and arose again." Where
is he now? He lives, he's with the Father
in heaven, ever living to make intercession for his people.
What does he do in making intercession? He's pleading his own merits.
He doesn't intercede this way and say, look down there, God,
Bill's preaching the gospel. Aren't you proud? No. No. You see, my preaching is not
my righteousness. I preach Christ is my righteousness.
And that's why he's risen. That's why he lives today. And
that's why his people will live forever and ever in him. All
right, let's turn to him.