If you will, turn back with me
to 1 Peter chapter 2. My subject this morning is what
we are, and that we has to do with believers. What we are in Christ. Now I know what we are by nature. by nature we're children of wrath
even as others. That's what we are by nature. By nature we're ungodly. The
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's hostile toward God. Not this world's God, but the
God of the Bible. When you talk to somebody about
hating God and they're doing this, they're not upset at their
God. Their idea of God, their imagination
of who God is. God, all love, all goodness,
all kindness. But a just God, and a righteous
God, and a God of wrath and vengeance. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. I repent. That God, they don't
like Him. Don't like Him. So here's my
subject. What we are, in Christ. Now, chapter 2 follows close
on the heels of chapter 1, which talks about the new birth. It talks about this experience
of grace. And he tells us here in chapter
2, in verse 2, he calls us newborn babes. Those born of God as newborn
babes, he says, if that's what you are. If so be you tasted
that the Lord is gracious. Then as newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. The new birth is known as Christ
is revealed in you. It's not just an experience that
you have out on the lake or out in the woods or in your closet
at home and you come out there feeling good and you got chill
bumps running up and down your back and all that kind of stuff.
And I've heard every kind of description under the sun about
the new birth. I'll tell you how you know if
you've been born of God. Christ has been revealed in you. In you. who he is, why he came,
what he did, where he is. Salvation's in him. We're complete
in him. He's our only hope. We weren't
redeemed with corruptible things, Peter said, like silver and gold.
That's what your parents told you, that redemption money that
they gave those Jews. They were required to give a
redemption money. And he said, that's not redemption. You weren't redeemed with those
things. Those things are just pictures. You weren't redeemed
with that old lamb that you slit its throat and the priest took
it and put it on the altar. That's not how you're redeemed,
you're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. He's the Lamb
without spot and without blemish. A new birth is known as Christ
is revealed within, made known to the mind and heart, believed
on with the heart, trusted in as an all-sufficient Savior.
And everything that Peter is about to say is dependent on
this new birth. He goes on not only to tell you
about the new birth, but he tells you what Christ is to the unbelieving
world. He's a stone of stumbling. My hope, the Christ that I hope
in, is an offense to this world. He's offensive to them. Offensive to them. They wouldn't
have him. And they didn't have him when
he came onto this earth. The same thing. Same way they
rejected him, they rejected him as your hope. Same way. And everything that he's about
to say is fully dependent upon this new birth. If we're truly born of God, there'll
be a sincere desire to know and to feed upon and understand the
Word of God as it's preached in the Gospel. It's not just a memorization
of the Word, a memorization of this book. or a familiarity with
the word. Somebody talks about what it
says in 1 Samuel and you shake your head, right? Yeah, I read
that. I know what he's talking about. It's not just talking
here about a familiarity with the book of God, but the word,
Peter said, which through the gospel is preached unto you.
The word of God without a gospel understanding is of no saving
benefit to anybody. I told you the other day about
a man who's on the other side of Benton going down toward Bossier,
and he sits on the hood of his car with his Bible, and he holds
his Bible out like that. This book's of no value to you
without an understanding of the gospel. No value to you whatsoever. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures. You do that. From the time you're
children, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. Through the laws that you read
and through the accounts of your fathers and through all of these
things, you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me, but you won't come to me that you might have
life. Unregenerate men read the Bible
and build a religion on ceremonialism. You know it and I know it. That's
all it is. It's one big long year long celebration
of Easter and Christmas and on and on it goes. Saint Valentine's
Day. They build a religion on ceremonialism,
legalism. Hard, cold legalism. Spiritualism. We'll just spiritualize
everything away. L. Ron Hubbard began a church
in Silicon Valley out in California called Scientology. He found
scriptural science there and applied it to salvation, called
it Scientology. Natural men read the scriptures
and having their understanding darkened, Paul said, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that's in them,
they walk in the vanity of their mind. He tells us in Romans chapter
3 that the Jew had a great advantage over the Gentile because they
had the oracles of God. Do you know what that means?
Do you know what the word oracle means? Look it up in the dictionary
and see if I'm not telling you the truth. It means the spoken
word. God called upon his prophets
and they, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Isn't
that what it says? They spake. And what they spake, they wrote
down. And God preserved it in a book. They had great advantage. They
had the spoken word of God. But even with this great advantage,
he goes on to say that they were no better off than the Gentiles
because they were all under sin. Didn't matter if they had an
advantage or they didn't have an advantage. They were all under
sin. What's that mean? That means
that there's none righteous, there's none that understandeth,
and there's none that seeketh after God. They had no understanding, no
will to seek after God. Why are there so many different
kinds of religions in the world? Because men without understanding
rest the scriptures, W-R-E-S-T. They rest the scriptures to their
own destruction. And because deceived men desire
to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm. And because the ministry, I can
put on a gown, put on one of them big golden gowns with all
the big long cuffs on it and hang down to the ground and come
out here and fix the sanctuary to where there's a big echo in
the sanctuary and just come out here like that. That's a good place to hide yourself
and your sins from men. Say something about the Pope
and watch what a Catholic does. You mean I'm supposed to be reverent
to that man who dresses up and wears an Easter egg on his hat
and men bow down and kiss his ring? Huh? And yet say something about the
living God, they'll blaspheme him in a heartbeat. Pinch their finger on something
and curse him. The ministry is a good place
to hide man's sins from other men. You know, in Ephesians chapter
4, verses 4 through 6, he tells us that there's one body What
on earth is he talking about? He's talking about the church.
There's one body. You can read about it. That body
is sometimes called his bride. His body, which is the church. One numberless multitude of God's
elect. One spirit. There's just one
spirit. He's the teacher and revealer
of God's Word, the power of our resurrection. They're just one
hope of your calling. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Just one hope. There's one Lord. Christ is Lord
of the dead and living. He's Lord to the glory of God
the Father. He's Lord over all. He's Lord. He's the creator. and sustainer
of this, and not only that, but the world was created not only
by Him, but for Him. He's Lord. And there's just one
Lord. There's just one faith. He just
keeps on with this one, there's just one, one, one, one. One faith, by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God. Just one faith, one baptism, one mode of baptism, immersion,
one confession of baptism, our union with Christ in his death,
burial, and resurrection. And there's one God and father
of all. He's our heavenly father. He's
the father of all God's elect. His world calls him father, but
he's not their father. Our Lord told those Jews, he
said, if God were your father, that's what they called him,
father. But he said, if God was your father, you'd love me because
I proceeded forth and came from him. To see me is to see the
father, and you despise me. God's not your father. God's
not your father because you don't do his will. If God were your
father, you'd do his will. So there's one God and father
of all. He's our Heavenly Father, the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He's the spring of
all spiritual blessings. And there's just one revelation
of God, and that came in the form of the God-man. No man has
seen God at any time. No man. God is spirit. No man's ever seen Him. But millions
saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's God come into the flesh. I'm going to have to base everything
that I know about God on Him. On Him. To see Him is to see
the Father. To know Him is to know the Father.
And to believe on Him is to rest in the God of glory. By Him,
you believe in God. That's what Peter said. I read
it to you. And so Peter says, unto you therefore
which believe, he's precious. How precious is he? How precious is Christ? I don't
want to, I don't like to think back on myself as being that
sinful, but I was. Christ was not precious to me. I knew the name Christ. I heard
men talk about Christ. I even read about Christ in the
scriptures. But I didn't know who he was.
He wasn't precious to me. The way they preached him, he
was kind of commonplace. You got water, you got food,
you got Christ, you got a can of beans. They didn't preach
him as being any different than anything else. He was commonplace. But unto us, therefore, which
believe, he's precious. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead, and you're complete in him. He that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. How precious is he? None other
name given unto heaven whereby you must be saved. No possibility
of salvation except that which was accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ. How precious is he? He just won. Just won. Through this man, Paul said,
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. By him all that believe
are justified from all things from which you could never be
justified by the law. How precious is he? All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. The priesthood was a figure for
the time then present, he tells us in Hebrews chapter 9, in which
they offered gifts and sacrifices that could never satisfy a guilty
conscience, could never quiet that guilty conscience. That
conscience just cry out, guilty, guilty, guilty. You walk an aisle,
you say a prayer, you accept Jesus as your personal savior,
and you go home in that conscience still crying, guilty, guilty. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, And not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. When a man hears that, that conscience
gets quiet. Why? Because his sacrifice is
sufficient. Sufficient for what? To put away
your sins and satisfy the Holy God. When any man, woman, boy,
or girl is awakened by a new birth and given the saving revelation
of Christ, to know something about Christ
and Him crucified, Christ becomes precious to him. Precious to
him. But to the rest of this unbelieving
world, He's just a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They're
offended by God's election in Him. There's no election outside
of Christ, did you know that? God our Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
All of God's election and blessings are in Him. But they're offended by God's
election in him. They're offended by his lordship
over all things. You mean Christ dictates the
terms? That's exactly what I mean. He's
Lord. He's Lord. He can save you or pass you by.
He's Lord. They're offended by his particular
redemption, which he accomplished. He fully accomplished the redemption
of his elect. They're offended that he alone
is the end of the law for righteousness. There's no hope of righteousness
outside of Christ. I know men like to keep the parts
of the law that they like. that seem to be easy to them
to keep. They like that. They like that. And they take comfort in that
they have some kind of righteousness by that. But there's no righteousness
in those things. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. They're offended
that apart from his priesthood, their gifts and sacrifices are
an abomination to God. I listened to Gene's prayer this
morning. It was a good prayer. It was simple to the point. It
was a good prayer. But that prayer would be an abomination
to God apart from the priesthood of Christ. He has to wash our
prayers in his blood. Did you know that? He's at the
right hand of God, now listen, who also maketh intercession
for us. What would our works? Our works
would be an abomination before God, apart from our intercessory
high priest. This world's offended at these
things. They're offended that he's the only way a sinner can
find peace with God. I made my peace with God. You
didn't make your peace with God. I don't know who you made your
peace with, but you didn't make it with God. Christ is our peace. Isn't that what scripture said? And to this world, he's a stone
of stumbling. But, he says in verse nine, I
love thee. There's several of these in the
scriptures. He describes what we were and
then he tells us what we are. And that's what he begins to
do here in 1 Peter 2 verse nine. But ye are. And that's the message
this morning. What we are that believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. What we are which have heard
His gospel and been born of His Spirit. First of all, in 1 Peter
2.9, He said, but ye are a chosen generation. Oh, how many, even
those who can't explain it away and who, they want to hold on
to the doctrine, but they don't want anybody to know that that's
what they really believe. You know folks like that. They'll
acknowledge that election to you if you're sitting at the
kitchen table, but they're not going to let anybody in that
church they go to know that that's what they believe. Men are ashamed
of this doctrine of election, of God's choosing. He flat out
told his disciples, he said, you've not chosen me. Is that
what you thought? No, you was out there on that
boat fishing. And I said, you come and follow me. And you left
your nets and said, you've not chosen me. I chose you. I chose
you. He said, this world hates you
because it hated me. It loved you when you were a
part of this world. But now, he said, I've chosen
you. What'd he do? He chose us out of the world. Therefore, now the world hates
you. You're a chosen generation. And
oh, how unregenerate men hate the doctrine of election. You
know there was only one man in that Roman prison on the day
of our Lord's crucifixion who rejoiced in election. Do you
know that? Just one. Here's a whole dungeon
full of men. Sinners. And they're listening
to the crowd outside, but there's only one in that whole outfit
that rejoiced in the election of God. Barabbas. Guilty of sedition and murder.
Oh, he was the head of the bunch. He was the worst of the bunch. He was the dregs. The royal guards came down to
his cell and they said, Barabbas, You've been chosen to be pardoned. Wow. And another has been chosen
to die in your stead. He rejoiced in election, didn't
he? And you will, too, when you're in that same position. When you
hear that news just that way, guilty, sitting on death row,
no way out. But then comes the news, you've
been chosen to be pardoned. Woo, election, sounds good then,
don't it? The ever captive soul that God
sets free by His grace through the blood and righteousness of
His Son has been chosen to salvation. Listen to the scripture, 2 Thessalonians
2.13. He talks about the rest of this
unbelieving world being given over to strong delusion to believe
a lie. But he said, but God, God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. Why did he do it? Because he
chose you. That's why. There was only one Pharisee to
my knowledge that rejoiced in election, Saul of Tarsus. God unhorsed that proud rebel,
throwed his face in the mud, blinded him, put big scales on
his eyes. He couldn't see anything. Couldn't
see anything. And God sent Ananias down to
him and led him by the hand. And he sat down in that house
for three days in his blindness, three days. He'd been in blindness
since birth. Now God's going to show him what
that blindness is. And I tell you, it's a blindness
that only God's elect under the conviction of the Holy Spirit
can know. It's a darkness like that back
in Egypt that can even be felt. And here he was in his darkness
and blindness, and he's sitting there, and Ananias comes down
to take him by the hand. And he said, the Lord said to
Ananias, you go down there, to a street called Straight. And
there's a man down there, Saul of Tarsus. And I said, now wait
a minute, I heard about him. He hates the church of God. He
hates the church. He has permission from the elders
and the priests to go out and take captive anybody who calls
on the name of the Lord. He said, how nice you go down
and tell him this. He's a chosen vessel unto me. You see how sweet election is
when it comes in the right circumstance? You're a chosen vessel, Paul.
First thing he told him. First thing Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said, I know your election of God. First thing Paul told
the Ephesians, he said, God has chosen you and his son before
the foundation of the world. Not us. We find out about election
and we just hide it every way we can. Try to keep... It's good
news to sinners. It's good news. You're a chosen
generation. You're a chosen. The Jew who
was a picture of this is fulfilled in the believer. He's a Jew which
is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and in the
spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is of God and not of men. And let me tell you something.
You're not just a chosen generation, but you're a holy nation. Israel was a spiritual nation. It stands for the believer who's
a spiritual nation, and that nation is comprised of all his
elect. You are the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. And in Him there's neither Jew
nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, male or female. You're
all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed. There's the Jew. There's the
Jew. For as many are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. You're a chosen generation.
And then he tells us we're a royal priesthood. A royal priesthood. What did
the priesthood do? Do you remember I studied back
in Exodus? They were the Levitical priesthood,
the Levites, all the sons of Aaron. They were set apart out
of all of Israel, and their job was to minister to the whole
of the church. That was their job. Their job
was to set up the tabernacle. They went out, put the big linen
fence all around. They took the tabernacle, which
was already made, and they took it, and they put it all together,
and they put it up, and they hung all the veil there, and
they put the skins on the roof, and all the different layers
up on the roof, and they put the cords down, and the sockets,
and everything that was involved in that. And then they'd take
it all back down, and their job was to transport it from one
place to another. Isn't that what we do? In the
spiritual sense, isn't that what we do? Christ is that tabernacle. Don't
we take Christ into all the world? And if you want to look at it
in the physical sense, the Church of the Living God, the priesthood,
we're responsible for erecting this place where we come here
and worship. We don't have baked sales and All that kind of stuff, have
lotteries and all that kind of stuff to raise money, just free
will offerings, that's all it is. People want to give, that's
our job. We're a royal priesthood. And the priesthood's job was
to, he was responsible for the upkeep of all these things. And so is the Church of the Living
God. As a royal priesthood, we've
been set apart to serve Christ and his church, and everything
else is secondary to this. Yes, I've got children. Yes,
I have a house. I have a car. I have payments
I have to make. But those things are all secondary
to this. I'd rather those things would
suffer and this not. Listen to this. He that woreth
entangleth not himself with the affairs of this world. Brian
and I were talking about that this very week. Our primary duty
is to the Lord and to his sheep. So what are we? We know what
we were. But now we're a chosen generation.
We're royal priesthood. And then thirdly, we're a holy
nation. What that means, preacher, we're
a bunch of goody two-shoes. No, that's not what that means.
That's not what that means. Holiness has something to do
with the wholeness of God. You know, people tell me all
the time, I remember the last message I preached to a church
that booted me out. I remember that message. And
I remember this old woman, dear old woman of the church, she
came up front and she said, you had an opportunity to preach
on the love of God and you didn't. I was preaching out of the book
of Acts and I told her, I said, you know the word love doesn't
appear in the book of Acts? You need to read it sometime. It talks about the death of Christ,
it talks about His blood. We're a holy nation. And here's
what she told me. She said, God is love. I said,
absolutely He's love. But He's not all love. He's also
just. I will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that's in it shall surely
die. Vengeance is mine. I will repay,
saith the Lord. Bible talks about God's wrath.
Wrath is as much a part of his person as his love. Justice is
as much a part of his person as his love. And yes, God is
gracious, but he's just. He said, I'll show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. And your God, he said, he keeps
mercy for thousands, forgiving, iniquity, transgression, and
sin. But he said, you better know this, too. I will by no
means clear the guilty. He's just, too. So this holiness
has something to do with the wholeness of God. And believers
understand that. He talks to you about that over
in Romans 3, verse 24. Being justified by the grace
of God, he said, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
He's made to be our propitiation. He's how God can show us mercy
and grace through him and still be holy. And it has to do with the harmony
of his perfections. And I tell you, he's gonna convince
the believer that he's just in his justification. You know he chose us from Christ
that we might be holy? That's what it says. I don't
have a holiness outside of Christ. He's my holiness. and that we might be without
blame. You see, he sets that holiness apart from being without
blame. Before him, being loved. Our salvation in Christ leaves
us a holy nation. And then fourthly, he says we're
a peculiar people. We have a peculiar love. Jacob
have I loved. Boy, don't you know everybody
in this world that heard that and knew anything at all about
Esau said, what? That's peculiar, isn't it? We
have a peculiar love. God sent his love on you. Why? I don't know. I don't know why.
Because he would. Because he would. There's nothing
in me for him to love. Just because he would. We have
a peculiar love. This love loved us while we were
yet sinners, while we were yet enemies of God. Sent His Son
to die for us. And we have a peculiar redemption.
It's unlike anything this world knows is redemption. It's a particular
redemption. His people are redeemed. That's
a work already accomplished. Did you know that? That's right. He was delivered for our offenses.
Now listen to this. He was raised again for our justification. That took place before I was
born. Thousands of years before I was born. Christ said, the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. And he said to those Pharisees,
I'll tell you why you don't believe, you're not my sheep. Believers find themselves in
a peculiar relationship to Christ, an eternal covenant union made
one with Christ before the world was one with Him. You go over in the book of Proverbs,
I think it's the book of Proverbs or Song of Solomon, I can't remember
now. Anyway, he talks about Him rejoicing
with His people Before ever there was a creation, before ever the
mountains were raised and the water was separated, he rejoicing
with his people. How can he do that? By an eternal
covenant union. That's how. We have a peculiar
standing with God. We stand in grace. Huh? Paul said, we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand. Boy, I'm glad I don't stand on
law, ain't you? We stand on grace. We have a peculiar faith. Our
faith looks to Christ alone and finds in him a complete sufficiency. Christ is all. He made of God to be unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We have a peculiar
faith, and we have a peculiar gospel, unlike anything this
world's ever heard. All right, so why is it that
God has made us to be all these things? Look here, 1 Peter 2,
9. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. Why? That you should show forth the
praises of him who had 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. Now you walk that way, Peter
said. This is what you are. This is what you are. This is what you was. This is
what you are. Now, this is where you walk.
Like this. In thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
before God. Knowing who it is that brought
you to where you are. What have you gotten that you
haven't received? And if you've received it, why
do you act like you didn't? Why don't you just walk like
a receiver? Walk in that grace. Thank you.