I want to begin tonight in the
book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may
grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious, He also, as lively stones, are
built up in spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also
it is contained in the scriptures, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the
head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. And these next two verses are
my text for tonight. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation of peculiar people, that
you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. The first thing
that Peter lists here is that we are a chosen generation. This word chosen, it means selected
for special favor or privilege. And among the mass of humanity,
if some men are chosen, it stands to reason that many are left
not chosen. We like to refer to the political
opposition, those that favor murdering babies and every other
perversion, as the political left. And that's actually a good term.
God has left them to their depravity. But there's another group that
God has left that you'll find in many a church pew. Those that
think they worship the true God, but are indeed left in darkness. But we, Peter tells us, are a
chosen generation. This word chosen is found 119
times in Scripture, and most of those times are in reference
to God either choosing the nation of Israel, the physical nation,
or the true Israel, the church of God, His elect people. This
truth is so prevalent especially in the writings of the Apostle
Paul, that it is impossible to deny. Yet men deny it nevertheless. And they deny it for one reason
and one reason only. Because it is not given to them
to see the truth. We were talking about this back
in the study a few minutes ago. How that many of us came out
of dead religion and were taught the Gospel. So
if there is a chosen race, a chosen generation, how did this take
place? Who did the choosing? Now need
we go any place else except Ephesians 1 to answer that question? We
are thoroughly familiar with this text. Grace be unto you
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now when God spoke to Ananias
in Acts chapter 9, and told him to go seek out this one named
Saul of Tarsus, Ananias was a bit reluctant,
needless to say. But God told Ananias this. He
said, speaking of Saul of Tarsus, for he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles, before kings, and before
the children of Israel. Saul was not looking to be given
faith on that road to Damascus. He was rather looking for something. He was looking for believers.
to be put in chains and to be taken back to Jerusalem. The
people that believed in this imposter named Jesus Christ. But Paul was a chosen vessel. As are we. We were not looking
for salvation when the Lord began to deal with us as Paul was not
looking for it. But thanks be to God, like Paul,
we are chosen vessels of His mercy. And He steps in our way
and turns us to a path that would lead us to the hearing of the
Gospel. And then He gives us faith to believe on that name
which is above every name. The elect are spoken of in Psalm
33.12. It says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. That
blessed inheritance. The people who are made fit by
God to receive the inheritance of the saints in light as described
in Colossians 3.16. But who were those? And who are
those chosen generations? Turn with me and flip over to
the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. These ones that are chosen. 1
Corinthians 1 verse 26. Speaking of the chosen ones.
For you see, your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
things to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things
which are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
that are not to bring to naught things that are. Why? It tells us in the next verse
that no flesh should glory in His presence. This text doesn't
say that no wise men, no mighty, no noble are called. It says,
not many. And this word confound that we
find here, it means to cause, to become confused or perplexed,
to mix up, to make a bad situation even worse. Our God employs the
useless things of this world, us, to accomplish the spread
of the Gospel, and teaches those useless ones that it is He and
He alone that gives the increase. By giving the gift of faith and
life to those chosen in Christ Jesus. And He does all this so
that He is the one who gets all glory. That glory that we're
told He will not share with another. So then, the next question is,
when did this choosing take place? We already read it a couple of
minutes ago in Ephesians 1-4, before the foundation of the
world. Also in 2 Thessalonians 2, we
read this. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. From that time when there
was no time, When the triune God was all that existed, we
were found in Christ. So the next question is why did
God choose a people? Verse 5 of Ephesians 1 tells
us, having predestinated us to the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ of Himself, and this is why, according to the
good pleasure of His will, Now, in his prayer to the Father in
Matthew 11, the Lord Jesus Himself said this, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of the Father, and no man knoweth the
Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." To
whomsoever the Son chooses to reveal Him. Next in our text
in 1 Peter, he calls us a royal priesthood. A royal priesthood. In Revelation 1-6, in describing
the chosen people of God, it says that Christ hath made us
kings and priests unto God and his father. In describing the
chosen people of God, Isaiah said this, And the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and thou shalt
be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and
a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. One meaning of this
word royal is to be of kingly ancestry, a person of noble blood, Now that is a fitting description
for the people of God. Not in and of ourselves, of course,
but we are children of the King of all this earth, redeemed and
made part of the family of God by the blood of Christ, by the
noble blood of Jesus Christ Himself. Now in the Old Testament, you're
familiar with this, the priest could only go into the Holy of
Holies once a year, and that with blood. But when our Lord died, the veil
of that temple was torn in half from top to bottom, we're told.
And the way into the holiest of all, the very presence of
God Almighty, was opened for the child of God to enter in.
Hebrews 10.19 says this, Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which He hath consecrated for us, Through the
veil, that is to say, His flesh. Now the priest, when he would
go in behind that veil to the Holy of Holies once a year, he
went in trembling. And yet, Hebrews tells us that
we can enter in to the very presence of God with boldness. Because
of the work of Christ on our behalf, the writer of Hebrews
encourages us with these words, Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Because Christ has made us to
be kings and priests unto God and His Father, we can now enter
into that Most Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God
Himself, and make our requests known. Next in our text, Peter
calls us an holy nation. And I read that and I thought,
Holy nation. How can a people who are nothing
but sin, do nothing but sin, come forth from the womb speaking
lies? How can they possibly be called
holy? And the answer to that, of course, is not from anything
that they can do, but they must be made holy by a source outside
themselves. Ephesians 5.25 gives us some
insight into how this takes place. It reads this, Husbands, love
your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it by the washing
of the water of the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. Colossians chapter
1 says much the same thing. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. And He did that in the body of
His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in His sight. This is how wretched sinners
can be made to be seen by God's strict and holy law as being
fit to enter into the presence of the throne of God through
the blood and death of Christ our Lord. Then Peter calls the
elect of God a peculiar people. One of the meanings of this word
peculiar, it means belonging distinctively to one person,
something or someone special or unique, distinctive in nature
from others. And the only reason we're distinct
in nature from others is because we have a new nature, that new
man that is put in us by the Spirit of God. Psalm 135 verse
4 says this, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and
Israel for His peculiar treasure. Now this verse is not talking
about the individual who was named Jacob and later was called
Israel. It's referring to the true church
of the living God. The people whom He has set aside,
whom He has sanctified to be vessels of His mercy. Those set
apart, set aside, in Christ Jesus. Paul described this to Titus
when he wrote to Titus in chapter 2, verse 14. He says, speaking
of Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. This verse 4 of Psalm calls a
true Israel, God's church in this world, a peculiar treasure. Now our Father sees fit to house
this treasure in frail, weak, sinful human flesh in earthen
vessels. This is described by Paul in
2 Corinthians. He says, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of the God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Our God places His grace and
mercy in clay pots, the earthen vessels of this flesh, so that
He gets all the glory. He makes us to understand that
we are what we are through His grace and power to make us fit
to be children of God. through the excellency of His
power, not by anything that we have done or ever can do. So
we've seen thus far that we're a chosen generation, that we're
a royal priesthood, that we're a holy nation, and that we are
a peculiar people. But we have not yet looked at
why our gracious God would make us all these things. And thankfully,
we don't have to speculate, because Peter tells us next in verse
10 of our text, the reason that we should show forth the praises
of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous
light. I looked at the meaning of these
two words, show forth, and there are several different meanings
of the word, but one that fits particularly well. To direct
one's attention to, to point out, to exhibit publicly all,
of our praise and worship is to be directed to the one Person
who has done for us what we could never have done for ourselves.
To Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. To Him whose
blood and righteousness made us fit to be children of the
living God. To Him whose very soul was made
an offering for sin, our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him who called
us To Him who Thessalonians tells us called us unto holiness and
not unto uncleanness. To Him who 2 Timothy tells us
has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. To Him who 1 Peter tells
us has called us unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ. To Him
who 2 Peter He tells us He has called us to glory and virtue.
And to Him who John tells us calleth His own sheep by name. Further, Peter then explains
where He has called us from. Called us out of darkness. Now we can never really understand
what those words truly mean. We do not begin to know the depth
of the depravity of our hearts by nature. Now, I could stand
here and list the most vile, the most sickening, the most
disgusting acts that have been committed by men and women throughout
history, and you'd be repulsed. But please know, redeemed saint,
please know this, that if God removes His restraints, From
your eye, there is nothing I could list that we were not capable
of. If God gives us over to what Romans calls a reprobate mind. Just think for a moment of some
of the things that have gone through your mind in the last
day or two. Would you want any of those to be publicly known? I wouldn't. I once heard a preacher
say, I can't remember exactly who, it may have been Kent. He said, we hide ourselves from
ourselves, lest the sight of ourselves should sicken ourselves. And the Scripture tells us that
in our natural state, we really do love darkness rather than
light. Darkness is where we would have
been content to stay had the Lord not came to us and called
us. and redeemed us. But our God
did not just call us out of darkness and leave us to our own. He called
us out of darkness, we're told, into His marvelous light. And again, we will never begin
to comprehend what that means until we leave this world and
we're ushered into the presence of God Himself. Of the God-man,
Christ Jesus. until we see Him in all His glory
and all His majesty and all His wondrous splendor. We will never
understand what that is that we've been called into, this
marvelous light of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then verse 10 tells us
this, which in time past were not a people, but are now the
people of God. There was a time when we did
not know, we were not aware, that we were part of that chosen
race, that chosen generation that we looked at earlier. There
was never a time in eternity that we were not a part of that
chosen race. But there was a time when, for
all we knew, we were as doomed as the most vile sinner on the
face of this earth. But what an incredible reversal
of fortunes we have been able to be part of. to go from being the mortal enemies
of God Almighty in our minds and by our nature, to being near
as to God as Christ Himself. The words of that song, nearer
to God I cannot be, because in His Son I am as near as He. And we know that the Son is right
now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Then
finally, the last line of this verse 10 tells us the very best
part, in my opinion, of these two verses. Speaking of God's redeemed people,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. This word mercy is to me the
sweetest word in the English language. The Psalms tell us
that it is because of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It tells us that God's mercies
are new every morning, as the children of Israel, when they
wandered in the wilderness, had manna every morning. So the people of God awaken each
day to enjoy a new serving of mercy. Our pastor used to tell
us, anything this side of hell is mercy. And that is so very
true. Even those things that break
our hearts to pieces are indeed God's mercies. But so much more, God manifests
His mercies to us in everyday occurrences. And more times than
not, we're not even aware of those mercies. I've tried to
think of some ways that God has shown me mercy. You know, we're
in traffic, and we get caught by two or three lights in a row,
and I get irritated. My wife will tell you. And yet,
eternity may show that if we'd have made those two or three
lights, somebody would have broadsided us running red light, and we'd
have been paralyzed for life. Those times when you didn't inhale
a deadly virus because God sent a wind to blow it away from you. At a time when you were maybe
out hiking in the woods and stepped over a log, and there was a rattlesnake
laying beside that log, but he didn't bite you because he had
a mouthful of squirrel that the Lord had given him to eat that
he was busy swallowing as you walked by. At a time before you knew the Lord
that you were so drunk, so high, that you don't even remember
driving from one place to another. when you very easily could have
been killed or killed someone else and spent the rest of your
life in prison. Or that time before you knew
the Lord that you had sunk so low that
you contemplated taking your own life. But God Almighty simply would
not let that happen because you were being preserved until the
time of love. All of which happened because
of the tender mercies of our God toward us in Christ. And I could talk of the mercies
of God till I lost my voice and I wouldn't begin to scratch the
surface of how very good He has been to us in Christ. How abundant
His mercy has been in our lives. And this verse says that we have
obtained mercy I like to look up the meaning of words instead
of just reading over them. We have obtained mercy. This
word obtained, one of the meanings is, to succeed in gaining possession
of something as a result of careful planning. Let me read that again.
To succeed in gaining the possession of something as a result of careful
planning. What a tremendous description
of what God has done for us as a result of His careful planning. Not ours. Everything we plan
is a messed up mess. But because of His careful planning,
and moreover as a result of the fact that whatsoever He has planned
shall come to pass, we have obtained exceedingly great mercy. We have
been made to be vessels of God's mercy filled to the brim with
overflowing mercy. More mercy than we even know
what to do with. And all of which is a result of the finished work
of Christ. It is not the result of anything
accomplished on our behalf, but rather because of His mercy toward
us. Paul wrote to Timothy in chapter
3 and he said this, But when the kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Through the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He hath poured out on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, that having been justified
by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Our God has poured out His saving
grace and mercy upon us like you would dump a bucket of water
over someone's head. Our God has drenched us in His
mercy. His goodness toward His elect
people is like the oceans. It shall never, ever run dry. But as God has poured out His
blessings upon a chosen people, there's coming a day when He
will pour out something else A day when He will pour out His
fierce wrath on all those who believe not. On those who mock
and despise His name. It's described in Proverbs 1.
I've read it many a times. How that God will laugh when
your fear cometh. Speaking of lost men and women. There'll be no mercy to be had
in that day. Because all that mercy has been
poured out on God's chosen people, this chosen generation, this
peculiar people. And all that will be left to
be poured out will be God's terrifying anger and judgment upon all those
who believe not. Now know this, lost man or woman,
there is nothing you can do to recommend yourself to God. He will have mercy on whom He
will have mercy. We're told in Scriptures. And
whom He will, He hardens. He makes it impossible for some
men and women to believe. But the only hope that a sinner
has is to set themselves under the preaching of the Gospel every
chance that they possibly have. You can ask God to show you mercy
and save you for Christ's sake. And it may be that He will be
gracious to you and give you the gift of faith. But know this,
that the choice is entirely His. But perhaps God has awakened
to you to your lost condition and began to make you aware of
the perilous danger that you're in. If so, there may be hope
that He may yet snatch you from the jaws of eternal death. So
as we leave this place tonight, I want us to think on this text
how blessed we truly are that we are a chosen generation. Chosen because God Almighty thought
it good in His sight. Chosen before this world was
ever spoken into being in Christ Jesus. And chosen to enjoy all
blessings that God has to give His people for eternity.