Speaking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to the first of Peter, chapter 2, and reading for our text, verses 9 and 10. We are continuing in our series. This is number 10 in the Epistles of Peter series. Last week, we spoke of the stones, the stone, Christ, and lively stones, the people, of God. And this evening we have these two verses, 9 and 10, and in these two verses we have seven descriptions of God's people. This is Peter strengthening the disciples in this way.

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 marvellous 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. In the first place, Peter is writing to those Jews that were scattered amongst the Gentiles. And we have this highlighted in verse 12, where he says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that is where they were scattered. But to strengthen them and also us, because these verses and these titles, these descriptions of God's people do not just belong to the Jews or to the Old Testament, but Peter goes back to the Old Testament and he reminds these Jews these titles are what was given to Israel in the wilderness, they're given under the law of God and they still apply and in fact brought to full light, full fruition in the gospel where Jew and Gentiles are brought together.

And as always with names or descriptions There's a great comfort in what God calls his people and the names that he puts upon them. We think of the name given in Jeremiah, this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That is, our Lord Jesus Christ has that name. And then you read a few chapters on, this is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And the Church of God, the Bride of Christ, has the same name, the same surname as Christ himself, the Lord Our Righteousness.

And so there is a significance in names. We think of the name of our Lord, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. It means saviour. And so when God gives his people names and says what they are, there's a real significance with them.

And I hope this evening we'll find that strength and encouragement in the names that are given to the people of God here in these two verses. So there are seven of them. I will name them as we go through them. Of course, the first three or four, they are very clearly set forth in verse 9, the others perhaps are not so clear because they refer to changes made in the people, their contrasts, the last three of them.

But firstly we have the name given of a chosen generation. We read together in Psalm 22, of the Lord's sufferings and his death foretold. But at the end of that Psalm, we read in verse 30, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

Now, if we think of a generation, What is a generation? A generation is a group of individuals that are born or living in a given time, usually in a space of 15 to 30 years or so as a generation. And of course they share similar cultural experiences, they live in the same time, so historical events that they go through, they go through in a similar way, and the social values and everything. That is what we think with a generation. If we were to go back, well even our generation and our children's generation, Our children in their generation have experienced things that in our generation, when we were younger, were not around then at all. If we go back many generations, we get those that didn't have a car, that had horse and cart, and you see very different things. were to go in time and cut out a certain generation you say all of these people born in this area of time they have experienced a lot of things that are common and so when we bring that to God's people and God says that they are a generation they are all experiencing things in common They've all been redeemed by the blood of Christ, they've all been born again by the Spirit, they've all been quickened, they've all had that change wrought.

And that which we can read experiences, we can read the lives of the Lord's people, hundreds of years ago, And though their outward lives, what they're going through is very different, their spiritual experience is the same. And we can find a real echo, comfort, and help through them, the word of God. It doesn't change through the 6,000 years of the history of the world. It still ministers to God's people. It is a spiritual book. It's an inspired book. And so when the Lord says of his people, they are as a generation, they have that which is common.

And that is very comforting for us when we find that, if we pick up a book of the lives of those who've gone before. If we look at our hymns, we've got several hymns there, John Newton, Isaac Watts, John Newton especially, Gadsby. And we look at how they penned their experience and what they've been through. And we have that comfort and help through them. We're a very different generation as natural generation. But if that was put as a spiritual generation, We can say we have that in common. We've been through those same things, those similar things, and can understand them.

Why our children, or grandchildren, you start to explain some of the things that we've had when we were little. When we were doing our maths with a slide rule, they'd look at us blank, and they'd say, what's a slide rule? We don't know what that is. And of course, we wouldn't know if we could look in the future the things that are coming in time to come.

And so we can see an echo with that with the generations. God's people understand one another. To them, the word of God is not an ancient old book. It is very much relative to them and brings the people of God together. You might say with Hebrews 11, or Hebrews 12, we're encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses. And there is that in Hebrews 11 that draws over many natural generations, but says every one of them, they lived and they died by faith. There was that which gathered them all together, and they're all summed up together. But it says here, a chosen generation One of the most beautiful and comforting truths that there is, that God has chosen his people.

You have not chosen me, I have chosen you. Paul writes to the Ephesians, he says, chosen in him from the foundation of the world. And Peter here is really going back to Isaiah, he goes back to A people that the Lord had said were a chosen people. In Isaiah 43, we have in verse 20, to my people, my chosen.

At the end of that verse, the beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.

God has a sovereign choice, and he has made that choice and brought together a spiritual family, a generation. He owns them, and it is all through love. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

And in the Revelation we read about the Book of Life, the Lamb's Book of Life. And that was so distinct, those that are written there before the foundation of the world. A chosen generation, a people, you might say, before the world was, There was a generation, a group of people, that when the world shall be no more, that same generation, that same group of people will be in heaven, brought into time, redeemed, called, brought out of time, and brought round the throne to be forever with the Lord, chosen not by ourselves, But by the Lord is sovereign choice. Election is a truth divine. And it runs right through the word of God. It is the foundation that man cannot touch or change.

If it was left to our choice, we would do the same as what Adam and Eve did. Remember, they chose evil. They chose Satan, even in a state of innocency. We are not in a state of innocency. We have fallen, our wills have been perverted, we have fallen in that way, and we cannot, we will not, have this man to rule over us until the Lord, because of that covenant made between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and we the beneficiaries of it, begin that work and call us by grace. David said, although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. This is all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow.

And so with giving a name, a chosen generation, it sets that seal of being joined with a whole lot of other people that have this one thing in common, God has chosen them. Chosen unto salvation, chosen them to be called, chosen them to know the Savior, chosen them to be with Him in heaven forever and ever. A beautiful title, beautiful description of God's people, a chosen generation. The second description is a royal priesthood. In the Old Testament, the priests mediated between the people and God. The people couldn't go into the holiest of all. They couldn't offer the sacrifices. They couldn't come straight to God.

But in the New Testament, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, and we do not have to go through any human mediator. Every individual can come directly to God. Our neighbour years ago was a Roman Catholic. He said to me once, he said, you Protestants misunderstand us Catholics. We don't pray unto Mary. He said, we pray unto Christ through Mary. I said, that's even worse, because you're putting a sinful person between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, when our Lord is the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And again, Peter is going back to Exodus, in what he's setting before them, before us in this, in Exodus 19 and verse 6. And this brings in a couple of the names.

He says, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, a kingdom of priests. If we were to go to the Revelation, and Revelation chapter 1 firstly, and verse 6, then we read this, or if we go back and read from verse 5, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. And we have similar in chapter 5 as well, verses 9 and 10, the song that is sung. And they sang a new song, saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof. For thou hast, thou wast 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. And so we think of the description here, a royal priesthood, royal because it is as reigning with Christ as king, and also as a priesthood which is serving God and mediating really His blessing to the world.

The world cannot see God. The world does not believe in God. But the world cannot ignore the people of God, when they live as the people of God and show forth his praise and show forth his grace, and remember the context here after we have these first few titles, it is that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. These descriptions of God's people And what they are, they are to be as witnesses and showing forth his praise. You think of our Lord with thee, mad Gadarene, go home to thy friends and tell what great things he hath done unto thee. And what a witness he would have been, those who have known him and the change that God had brought with him.

So in that sense, he was Acting, you might say, as a priest, you might say as one that's in God's place, was pointing unto God, but everyone that is pointed to in that way is pointed direct to God, not told that they must come through another man. Of course, a priest was to offer things, offer sacrifices.

We don't offer sacrifices of blood. But we do have the ordinances of the Lord's house, baptism and the Lord's supper, not a sacrifice, but pointing to the Lord's sacrifice. And we offer up spiritual sacrifices. Whatsoever ye do, do cheerfully as unto the Lord and not as unto men. Our prayers, the lifting up of our hands in praise, the sacrifice of praise.

All of these things, serving one another, helping one another, ministering one another, those things are what come under this title, a royal priesthood. And this is what is given by the Holy Spirit, given by God as a people. What an encouragement to be told here, you do not need to go. to a mere mortal, you can go straight to God. In fact, Paul takes it up in Hebrews. Let us come, therefore, boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, find grace to help in time of need. Coming directly unto God. A royal priesthood.

Well, the third one is an holy nation. Again, when we think of a nation, a nation is a large group of people, and they also are sharing a lot of common things. So when God says that his people are a nation, a holy nation, again, these titles, they're not spoken of as individuals, but it's joining all the time with the people of God, a chosen generation, a priesthood. Instead of just a royal priest or a member of a generation or member of a holy nation, they're described as a holy nation.

God is giving them a title that belongs to a family, belongs to a people, And a wonderful thing to have that sense of belonging to the people of God. And so the Holy Nation, again, if we go back to the Old Testament, the Deuteronomy this time, in chapter 14 and verse 2, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God.

And the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. So this is where Peter is getting these titles from. In a sense, it's not new. He's rehearsing to them from the law and saying, this applies now in the New Testament. This applies not just to the Jews, but to all the people of God. and holy people, a holy nation.

So holy is to be set apart, set apart of divine use, consecrated to the Lord, related to God. When we speak about the Bible or the scriptures, we should say the holy Bible, the holy scriptures, because it is dedicated unto God, it comes from God, it is to do with God. And also there's people because they are called to live holy lives, godly lives. Of course, we covered this in a measure in the previous chapter, 1 Peter chapter one, and in verses 14 to 16, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.

God's people, the grace that he gives them, that which is evidence of the pardon wrought out through his blood at Calvary, is that he sanctifies as well. Remember always though that this side of the grave we will not be sinless, we will not be perfect. All of the sins of God's people, his ancient people, Peter, David, they're all listed to us so that we remember that it is not our holiness not our righteousness that merits heaven. But nevertheless, it is as Paul says, I would do good, but evil is present with me. The evil that I would not, that I do. There is a mind, a willingness. He says, so with the flesh I serve the law of sin, but with the mind I serve the law of Christ. And we will seek to walk in the Lord's ways and to walk as a holy people. And so the title that is given, a description of God's people, in this third title is a holy nation.

The fourth one is a peculiar people. Now, of course, today, if we say anything, anyone was peculiar, we'd say that they're rather odd and they're rather strange. That is what would come up to us. The King James Version is the only one that uses the word peculiar. The other versions, more modern versions, they will use God's own special people. And really, that is what is conveyed.

But nevertheless, if you looked at a dictionary today, you would still see the description as of one that is particular to a person. You might say some particular way of acting is peculiar to that person or belongs especially to them. It makes them unique. because of who they're joined to, and conveys the idea of belonging exclusively to some person.

And the Lord was all the time saying to his people, that you only have I known of all people of the earth. And it's good for us to remember that God has marked us out as different. God's dear people, we look at these in the following three points, but we should never be ashamed of the difference that God makes and that the world notices, because they do say, well, you're rather odd.

Why do you stop work? Why do you keep one day and seven? Why do you keep a Sabbath? And why do you attend the means of grace? Why do you pray? Use the Bible. Why do you use it as a guide? Why do you believe? Those things are looked upon as odd or strange, but they're, because of being united to the Lord, makes it something peculiar to God's people, because of whom they are joined with. They took knowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus. And our Lord says, to take my yoke upon you, learn of me. And if we learn of the Lord, we learn his ways, we walk in his ways. And Peter, he tells us that we are to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is within us, with meekness and fear, to everyone that asks of us.

Why do they ask? Because they see we do things they don't do. And we don't do things that they do, and they want to know why. They can never accuse us of being a hypocrite if they ask, and we tell them because they've already seen the effect. They've seen what we've been doing and asked why we're doing it. It's always an opportunity to set forth whose we are and whom we serve. When people notice there is a difference, it gives an opening. to be able to tell why we are different, why we are unique, why we don't do things that they do.

In the words of our text, it is because we are a peculiar people. In the margin of our Bibles, you might have it in yours, it says, or a purchased people. And of course, that. is equally true. The apostle says, you're not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which are his. And so again, it marks out the people as different, a purchased people. May we be encouraged with that, never to be ashamed of being the Lord's, Ashamed of being shown his way, ashamed of being amongst those that are his people.

Do you remember dear Peter? He was, wasn't he? He thought he would never deny his Lord and yet when just a maid comes and says that she saw him amongst them and he denied. Another said that his speech betrayed him, thou art a Galilean. And again he denies.

Peter was ashamed of being identified with the Lord and with his followers. And later on you might think Peter would have got over that, but the Apostle Paul had to reprove him once because when he was The Jews weren't in the presence of them. He ate and mingled with the Gentiles, as was allowed. But when the Jews came up from Jerusalem, he separated himself and sat separate, fearing the Jews. And the Apostle Paul openly rebuked him and told him, really, he was undermining the whole gospel. the Gospel that brought Jew and Gentile together, he was undermining it. And yet Peter was used. He was used of God to bring the Holy Spirit the first time to the Gentiles. And God had given him the vision from heaven, the sheet let down, that which God hath cleansed, call not thou common or unclean. So Peter knew that. But we all have weaknesses. And if left to ourselves, we fear man. The fear of man bringeth a snare. But we ought not to.

And I believe here, Peter is fulfilling what the Lord said. When thou art converted, when thou art restored, after thou hast denied me, strengthen thy brethren. Strengthen thy brethren so that they are not ashamed of being distinctly different and separate from others, that they are a peculiar people.

And so then the verse, verse nine, goes on as we have read, that given these descriptions, these titles, a chosen generation, A royal priesthood and holy nation are peculiar people. It is that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness and into his marvellous light." Now, the last three titles, Unto Give, and they are those that refer to a change. So in the fifth place, we have a people called out of darkness into his marvelous light.

A contrast, all three of these last ones, what they once were and now what they are, a real badge of honour, a name, a distinction, which really sets apart God's people. They that have no changes fear not God, and those who haven't had the vital change or the changes that are wrought here, they don't have the mark of God's people. But if you have, and if I have, These changes, changes brought about by God and so come under these titles, this is really strengthening and encouraging. The first four, we might say we know by the scriptures saying that this is the name we are given as the people of God.

But the last three, They actually find out the people of God in describing what they have experienced and gone through. And I hope it will be encouraging. I would be a help to you this evening. Help to me too. So the first one is the people that are called. Called out. Out of darkness.

The darkness of this world. The darkness of unbelief, the darkness of sin, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The Lord says that men of their own, they will not come unto me, that they might have light, because they love darkness rather than light, and because their deeds were evil. Darkness is always set forth as evil, as sin, as the workers of darkness of this world. And we all, by nature, we're like that. A veil over our hearts, unable to see, unable to know the things of God. And it is God that calls out of that darkness. Those are in darkness, we cannot tell where we're going. But God calls from that darkness and into his marvellous light, the light of the gospel, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That's how it's set forth in the scriptures. The truth, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, of the justice of God in laying upon Christ the sins of his people and then punishing his dear son instead of them, the wrath of God upon his son, the justice of God for that substitutionary offering. And then God's justice, having paid the debt, he can do what he will with his own. And in this title, he calls them out of darkness and shows them how they are called, why they are called, what he has done, and gives them the light of the gospel. When our Lord rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples, then opened to their understanding. that they might understand the scriptures.

Before that, you think of the two on the way to Emmaus, there was darkness over them. You think of with the creation, darkness over the face of the deep. And then God comes in the beginning of creation, let there be light. And there was light, but no light before. And so it is in a call by grace as well. Let there be light, and there is light, and there is seeing, there is understanding this change.

Do we know it? Have we known it? Can we look back when we were in darkness, darkness of unbelief, ignorant of the things of God, no concern and not going in the ways of the Lord, but going our own way. Our ways were dark. Our understanding was darkened, and God called us out.

There's a change. You might not say, well, I don't know whether I've been called, but I do see that marvelous light. One of the hymns says, I see from far thy beauteous light, and in thee sigh for thy repose. My heart is pained, nor can it be at rest till I find rest in thee. A change that God makes from darkness to light.

A contrast in our lives. Well the sixth one is a people which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God. Verse 10, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God. Again, there is a difference. You might have struggled when we looked at the chosen generation. Am I chosen? Am I part of that holy nation? Am I part of that royal priesthood? Am I really peculiar people?

So we have this description, a people which in time past were not a people. They weren't numbered amongst those. Remember we said this wasn't speaking of individuals, but speaking of a group of people. You think of Ruth in Moab, not at all part of Israel, not at all part of the people of God. In fact, Not allowed to, banished as a Malabite.

And yet, by God's grace, she's found out sad providences with Naomi and her husband going to Moab. And Ruth and Orpah marrying their sons. And then those sons die. Naomi's husband dies. But Ruth, she sees, now O my, in her sorrow, her grief, sees that she doesn't cast away her faith, her God.

And what she sees makes her to be drawn to this God. Thy people shall be my people, thy God, my God. Where thou livest, will I live. Where thou diest, there will I die, and there will I be buried. And she claimed to her. And she claimed to people, yet when she came to Bethlehem, she says to Boaz, though I be not like one of thine handmaidens. She didn't feel, and you might not feel, to be like one of the Lord's people. But there is no doubt that Ruth had been brought amongst them, and she ends up in the line to Christ, joined unto them. and God's people, especially in this gospel day, joined by calling, joined by baptism, joined by church fellowship, joined to a people publicly identified with the people of God or with an individual church and congregation, and especially the whole people of God, that chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation of peculiar people, but there was a time that they were none of those things. Just a people that was individual, scattered throughout the world, with no mark or not knowing that they were anything to do with the people of God. And yet they were drawn. The Lord says, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." Again, does this describe you? Does it describe me?

Whether it's one time we say, we were not numbered with the people of God. We couldn't use the language of the hymn writer, numbered with them, may I be now and to eternity. We might have been in a family where we were brought up to go to chapel, to attend the means of grace, but we weren't part of them. We didn't identify with them. We perhaps hated attending, thought of the things of the week all the time were under the sound of the gospel, that then by the Lord's grace, We become part of that people, identify with them, join with them, love them, meet with them. They became our people, a people which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.

Does that describe you? Does it describe me? God has made that difference. To Him is the honour and glory, but the comfort of it is ours. And remember, this is Peter strengthening the disciples, whose we are, whom we serve. A man is known by the company that he keeps. One of the changes that God makes is to change the company that we keep. The disciples, being let go, went into their own company. A people which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.

And the last one, a people which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. I believe this last one will be known inwardly especially by God's people. We think of the publican in the temple and how that he beat upon his breast, God be merciful to me a sinner. One that feels their sinnership, feels under condemnation, feels under the wrath of God, feels they can do nothing whatever to merit their own salvation, their own deliverance, and all they've got to plead is mercy. That time will be a very distinct time. They will know there was a time that they have not obtained mercy. They want it. They seek it. They pray for it. They ask for it.

But until it is given, if you think of perhaps a soldier, court-martialed, one that was going to be of capital punishment, one that was going to be put to death, and the only avenue they've got is mercy. I think Mr. Ansbody, in one of his books, speaks of a mother pleading for her son in that situation. And the commander, he said, he doesn't deserve mercy. But the mother said if he deserved it, it would not be mercy. Mercy is undeserved. But as she was pleading for that mercy, if mercy wasn't obtained, the death sentence is still there. The condemnation is still there. The terror is still there. But as soon as that commander would say, I show mercy, give him life, what a difference. Then mercy is obtained.

And with the Lord, with the publican, he said, I say unto you, that man went home to his house justified or accounted free from condemnation rather than the other. And so this is a picturing of a time in the life of God's people where under the sentence of condemnation it was said they had not mercy. They had not peace, they had not comfort, they were under condemnation. And then the Lord changed it. He gave them mercy. and showed them mercy, showed them peace and pardon, revealed his beloved son, took away the fear, gave them a fear not, comforted them, spoke comfortably to them, showed kindness to them, lifted up their head, gave them life, gave them newness of life, a new hope.

And this is the picture that is here. Every one that is saved, every one of God's people are made God's people and were saved by mercy alone, not by deeds of righteousness which we have done, but only by His grace, only by His mercy, the free undeserved favour of God. Seven descriptions of God's people, and these last three, these comparisons, these changes that have been wrought. What could be put over them all is a people that have been changed. A people that are not now what they once were.

God has made that difference. God has made that change. No wonder Paul could say, what I am, I am by the grace of God. No longer Saul of Tarsus, but Paul the Apostle, a changed people. Onesimus, no longer a runaway slave, but now a brother beloved, sent back to Philemon, a changed character, a different person.

This is what God does. This is His work, His handiwork. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. And Peter here gives these descriptions for the strength and encouraging, not just to the scattered Jews, but to us, for the people of God to the end of time. May it be an encouragement to us this evening, that ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous 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. Amen.