Corporate Identity / Duty of God's People

Introduction and Reading of Scripture

0:05 Again, for the benefit of any visiting with us, it is not a practice for me to have the chairman of the deacons hand-deliver me my notes during the offering. This was the first time in six months I didn't go over my little checklist before I left home. And now you know the rest of the story.

0:26 And Mr. Davies was kind enough to drive to my home and take my notes off my desk and deliver them safely to me. So lest anyone go back to his church and say, well, that seems to be a very nice, dignified practice. I think I'll implement it.

0:41 I would not want you to look to what transpired here for precedent. And now let us hear the reading of God's word from 1 Peter, chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. And I shall read in your hearing the first ten verses.

0:58 I'm reading from the Old American Standard Version, dropping the Elizabethan text. Endings and occasionally putting in a word that I think better renders that translation as well. Putting away, therefore, all wickedness and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes long for the milk of the word which is without guile, that you may grow thereby unto salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is with you.

1:42 The Lord is gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious. You also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame. For you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness or the honor,

2:27 but for such as disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, for they stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who in time past, who in time past,

3:10 who in time past, who in time past, who in time past, were no people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Let us again seek God's face for his blessing now upon the preaching and hearing of his Word. Our Father, we have together pleaded with you for your blessing upon the preaching of the Word in other places today, I'll come to you with our own felt need and ask that here, in this place,

3:51 we too may know the gracious presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. May the one who seeks to open up your word be conscious of your present aid, and may every hearer be conscious of your aid as well. In our corporate helplessness and need, O God, we come to you and plead that for Christ Jesus' sake you would meet us in our need. Amen.

Peter's Pastoral Heart and Theological Method

4:26 It is a very grievous and a wretched thing for a true child of God in a moment of weakness to openly deny his Lord.

4:47 Perhaps no one knew this, better than Simon Peter.

4:53 And his bitter weeping following a look from the Savior underscores the fact that he knew that his denial was indeed a grievous and a wretched thing. However, it is a glorious and a blessed thing to be forgiven and restored by the same Lord whom we have so wickedly and wantonly denied. And again, perhaps no one knew this better than the same Simon Peter. For you'll remember in that tender scene recorded in John chapter 21,

5:33 the Lord Jesus draws from the lips of Peter the denier those affirmations of his love. For each denial, an affirmation of his love. And with the affirmations of his love, he is recommissioned. To feed and to shepherd both the sheep and the lambs of Christ.

5:57 And on that occasion, he is informed that in loving attachment to Christ, in the unfolding of the will of Christ, he will one day lay down his life for Christ as a martyr. This he spoke, signifying by what death Peter should glorify God. Well, for approximately 30 years, Peter was a martyr. Peter has fulfilled that renewed charge.

6:26 He has been feeding the sheep and the lambs and shepherding the sheep and lambs of Christ's flock. And now, for almost 2,000 years, he has continued to feed and shepherd the sheep and lambs of Christ in this epistle that he wrote just a couple of years before the prophecy of our Lord Jesus concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has fulfilled that renewed charge. He has continued to feed and shepherd the sheep and lambs of Christ.

6:52 And now, for approximately 30 years, he has fulfilled that renewed charge. He has fulfilled that renewed charge. And now, for almost 2,000 years, he has continued to feed and shepherd the sheep and lambs of Christ's flock. And now, for almost 2,000 years, he has fulfilled that renewed charge.

6:52 And now, for almost 2,000 years, his martyrdom was fulfilled. He's an old man, most likely in the city of Rome, that he cryptically calls Babylon. And he writes to scattered believers in the five Roman provinces of Asia Minor, the area of the world that we now know as Turkey. And in a very real sense, all of 1 Peter is an outpouring of passionate pastoral perspective and concerns by an old seasoned shepherd in Christ's flock to the sheep and lambs there in that part of the Roman Empire in all of their need, in all of their vulnerability.

7:37 And we, the people of God, for some months now, have had the privilege of sitting, as it were, under the shepherding influence of the Apostle Peter as we have been working our way through this epistle in our Lord's Day morning exercise. And as Peter exercises that pastoral role under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he reflects a great sensitivity to one of the most fundamental principles of a true theology of the Christian life. And the principle is this, that the indicatives, that is, the statements of what God has done for us in Christ, the indicatives of God's provisions

8:22 for us in Christ, form the basis of the imperatives that address what we ought to do and be for Christ. At the base of the imperatives are the indicatives. What God has done for us in grace forms the foundation of what we are to do in response to that grace. And so, as we've worked ourselves, our way through the epistle, we have seen that principle standing out again and again.

8:58 After his general introduction of himself and his readers, Peter launches into that marvelous exposition of the greatness of our salvation in verses 3 to 12 of chapter 1. It has parallels with Ephesians chapter 1. It is a eulogy. It is a blessing God.

9:19 There is not one exhortation, not one admonition, we are pointed to this amazing salvation that is ours because of the grace of God who has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Only then does he begin in verse 13 of chapter 1 to lay out the imperatives of grace. And then he gave us in that first cycle of imperatives five distinct imperatives. In the life of God, in the life of what we are and have in Christ, because of God's abundant and great mercy, we are to live a life of hope, a life of holiness,

10:04 a life of fear, a life of love. And as we saw in the reading of the first few verses of chapter 2, a life of hunger for spiritual growth. Then before setting out another cycle of imperatives, starting in chapter 2 and verse 11, by the guidance of the Spirit, Peter again gives us a wonderful watershed of indicatives in chapter 2, verses 4 through 10. And if there is any overarching difference of emphasis, it would be this.

Overview of Corporate Identity in 1 Peter 2:9

10:40 That first set of indicatives focuses upon our great salvation and our individual participation in it. But here in verses 4 to 10, our salvation is set before us with a concentration on its corporate aspects. Peter tells us that as believers who continually come to Christ, the living stone, we are incorporated as living stones into this spiritual temple. We are constituted a priesthood.

11:16 And in that capacity, we offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. And in that capacity, we offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. And having introduced that concept of the people of God in their corporate identity as a priesthood, as living stones in a living temple, Peter then harks back to the Old Testament prophetic utterances concerning Messiah and demonstrates that in pointing to Christ as stone and as cornerstone, he was simply reflecting the fulfillment of those prophetic utterances in the person of our Lord Jesus. And as he does that, he indicates that in his capacity

12:00 as God's chief cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected, Christ is the great divider of all men. There are those who believe and those who disbelieve. And toward the end of that section, he has said some very sobering things about those who disbelieve. They stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.

12:29 Now he comes back to this positive statement of the corporate identity of God's people, and by way of contrast in verse 9, but though this is a reality with respect to those who stumble at the word, those who refuse to be incorporated into this living temple, in union with Christ, the living stone, but you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness

13:12 into his marvelous light. Well, that's a basic overview of where we have been. And now this morning, God helping us, I want us to consider just verse 9. I'd hoped to bite off verses 9 and 10, but the more I got into the preparation, I realized it was going to be an impossible task.

13:33 And so we'll look together at verse 9 under two headings. First of all, the corporate identity of the people of God declared, and then the God-centered function of the people of God defined. First of all, then, the corporate identity of the people of God, the people of God declared. Peter states that there are four things that constitute the corporate identity of all true believers.

Characteristics of the Four Corporate Identity Terms

14:03 Those who are described in verse 4 as continually coming to the living stone. Those described in verse 7 as those who continue to believe. He says of them, all of them, and particularly of them, in their corporate identity, that they are an elect or a chosen race, they are a royal priesthood, they are a holy nation, and they are a people of possession. Now before we attempt to grasp the heart of each of these terms, I want you to notice with me two things about all four of them.

14:47 And the first is this. All of them, each one of them, is a collective singular. Now you could say, Pastor, what in the world is a collective singular? Well, I'll explain to you.

15:01 If we were to say, there was a great crowd at the football game in my town yesterday, the word crowd is a singular word. To make it plural, you add an S. There were crowds. Crowd is a singular word.

15:20 But it is a collective singular. It is a collective singular. When you said it was a great crowd, there was more than you and your brother and your mother and your father. There was lots of people there.

15:28 There was an aggregate of people. That's a collective singular. You might say, the whole town came out to vote last week. Town is singular.

15:39 Towns is plural. But the town is a collective singular. Lots of people. Almost all the people in the town.

15:48 Well, that's what Peter sets before us here. The word, race, the word, priesthood, the word, nation, and the word, people, are each one of them collective singulars. Though they are singular words, they have no meaning if you think of them atomistically and individualistically. A nation has significance, a race has significance, a priesthood has significance, and a people only, in terms of a large group.

16:25 And so as we work our way through, you and I will have to resist the temptation to think of these descriptions of what we are as the people of God primarily in terms of an individual perspective. Now, they must be true of individuals before they can be true of the group. Yes. You've got to be part of the town before you can be with the town, when the town goes to vote.

16:56 But if we speak of the whole town coming out, we're not focusing upon any particular individual, but upon the aggregate of the dwellers in that particular area. Peter wants us to think in these categories. And being reared in the social and political context of America, it's very difficult to think this way. We do not think of ourselves as a people.

17:24 That's why we struggle to relate to what's going on in Bosnia, what's going on in Kosovo. I told my wife, after reading a current article from a Christian perspective trying to sort it out, I said, Honey, I can't relate to this. But you see, when for generations, for centuries, in some cases for millennia, people have been reared with a sense of their identity as a nation, as a people, they have a consciousness of this corporate identity. But our Heinz 57 variety here in our own country makes it very difficult for us to think that way.

18:05 But as in all things, where the Bible demands that we cut across any cultural influence to think biblically, we must determine to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And so, note with me on the very threshold that all of these are collective singulars. Secondly, all of them are drawn from Old Testament references in conjunction with the nation of Israel. When we try to unpack at least the broad strokes of the significance of the terms elect race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people of possession, we're going to find ourselves

18:49 back in the Old Testament and we're going to find descriptions that relate directly to the nation of Israel. In some cases, Peter actually took the very words and the very arrangement of the words from the working Bible of that period. That that we call the Septuagint, that Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures. And Peter applies that terminology which in its original setting was speaking of the nation of Israel, of ethnic Israel, of Israel as a race.

19:29 And he says, you, believers in Christ, scattered throughout these Roman provinces in Asia Minor, with no, what we would call formal, ethnic, national, racial identity, he says this terminology has its true fulfillment in you. Now what's that tell us? Well, it tells us several very important things. It tells us that in the unfolding of the Scriptures, God's dealings with His ancient people, Israel, were always pointing forward to something greater and grander than the nation ever experienced.

20:15 Christ and His people is the great theme of Scripture. And remember, this was a kosher Jew who had been reared to think along narrowly very truncated Jewish lines who takes more of that Old Testament rich terminology that applies to Israel verse for verse proportionately. No New Testament writer applies so much to the people of God under the New Covenant, not even the Apostle Paul.

20:49 So that tells us that we must in our reading of the Scriptures think as the Spirit of God enabled Peter to think. And we must not have a knee-jerk reaction when people call the Church the true Israel of God and the fulfillment of all that Israel was in type and in a temporal way. The Church now is in fulfillment and eternally. We must not call this an over-spiritualization of the Scriptures.

21:22 If we have the inspired Apostles saying, but you are and then he takes terminology that was spoken originally to Israel and now says this is the identity of the people of God. We need with joy to follow the track that the Spirit of God lays for us in his own interpretation of the true and rich significance of that terminology. All right? So much for those two introductory perspectives that I trust will help us.

Elect Race: God's Chosen People

21:54 Now we come to the specifics. When Peter writes to these scattered believers reading the epistle we know among them are servants some taking it on the chin from their unrighteous and unreasonable masters some of them wives living with unreasonable unconverted stubborn gospel-rejecting husbands others taking it pressure from former associates and companions in sin who think it's strange they don't carouse and party with them as they once did. Remember, these are ordinary people coming out, many of them, of paganism

22:39 and the horrible moral decadence associated with paganism and yet Peter can say of them as a company of God's people in relationship to all of God's people in every place you an elect race royal priesthood holy nation people of possession what did he want them to think about themselves when they would hear those words read for the first time and if they had a situation where they could interact with their leaders and they would raise the question what does it mean we are elect race royal priesthood holy nation what would any adequate instruction impart to them that they might think of themselves

23:24 in terms of what God says about them well let's try at least briefly to work our way through these four descriptions that constitute the corporate identity of the people of God declared first of all elect race race that's the noun elect is the descriptive adjective a race is a people who descend from a common ancestor who possess a common heritage and some measure of a collective life in that sense the Jews were a race descendant from Abraham they had a common ancestor they possessed a common heritage

24:07 and they had a measure of collective life but now Peter's writing to people of several races scattered abroad throughout Asia minor whose natural bloodlines would not be identical who would have very little many of them of a common heritage or a collective life and yet he calls them a race a race a race because in the area that really counts they do have a common ancestor he was praised in verse 3 of chapter 1 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has

24:52 begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead they have been brought into union with Christ God is their Father they are to set their hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to them at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ they have a common inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fades not away already reserved in heaven for them they are a race but they are distinctively an elect or a chosen race now again it's interesting in the epistle thus far this is the fourth time Peter has used the word elect

25:36 when he addressed these people in chapter 1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion the first term he uses as he sits to write his epistle and thinks of the people of God scattered abroad throughout Asia Minor in those five provinces he says there is only one reason there is a people of God in that place is that God had a people in his heart from all eternity and in time he sent his son to die for them and he has sent forth the Holy Spirit preached with the Holy Ghost I'm sorry sent forth the gospel preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven

26:21 as he says in verse 12 and God has a people who are those upon whom he has set his eternal love they are an elect race they are a chosen race and surely you see this harks back to what God said to his ancient people Israel in passage such as Deuteronomy chapter 7 Deuteronomy and chapter 7 verses 6 and following you are a holy people unto the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own

27:06 position you see the language of 1 Peter 2 9 oozing through he has chosen you for his own possession above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you notice the parallel set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all peoples but because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers etc he loved you and chose you because he chose to love you and to choose you and Peter

27:50 takes that designation of Israel as God's chosen race and he now says you the scattered believers you are that chosen race chosen not just to a land and privilege but chosen to all the richness that I've already set before you in the opening part of the letter as I've described this rich salvation chosen that you in time would come to faith in Christ and in union with Christ dead stones would become living stones and would be incorporated into his living temple you would be brought into this saving union

28:35 with Christ the chief cornerstone he is elect and you are elect in him or in the previous usages of this term both refer to Christ first of all he says you are elect sojourners then Christ is the elect stone Christ is the elect cornerstone and now he says you are an elect or a chosen race and he wants them to know that about themselves and you see he does not expect them to know that they are part of that elect or chosen race because they pride into the mysteries of God's secret councils but they can know that because they are the

29:19 ones described earlier as to whom coming and to you that believe in coming to Christ and in believing upon Christ they discover their election in Christ and with all of the people of God they are to know that this is their identity part of that chosen that elect race and may I just pause to make a brief application it's the application I had to make to my own heart in preparation can you remember when in God's goodness somewhere in your Christian experience for many of us

30:03 God was pleased to bring you into an understanding of those portions of his word which set forth the truth of his free sovereign electing love and can you remember when your heart first was enabled to embrace with wonder and awe and almost a sense of an internal paralysis of amazement I'm a Christian because before the worlds were birthed marked me out and gave me with all of his people to Jesus Christ

30:44 has that truth lost its way lost its luster or do we still sing in our secret place with tears why was I made to hear thy voice who makes you to differ tis not that I did choose you for Lord that could not be this heart had still refused had you not chosen Peter wants them whenever they think of who they are in contrast to those who disbelieve who stumble over God's cornerstone God's appointed chief

Royal Priesthood: Dignity and Access

31:29 cornerstone in his spiritual building he wants these elect these sojourners to understand that they are part of that elect race but then he says you're a royal priesthood a royal priesthood he had earlier said that they are a spiritual priesthood but now a royal priesthood and again briefly note how this language is taken directly from the book of Exodus when God is entering into covenant with Israel Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 and 6 now therefore

32:13 if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then shall you be my own possession see the language again that Peter will come to from among all the peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation here God says you will be a kingdom of priests a holy nation in that Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that we call the Septuagint you have the very language that Peter uses here for this and the next term royal priesthood holy nation

32:56 and for some of you who want an exercise in futility take down your commentators and see where you can find agreement as to the significance of the term as Peter uses it taking it directly from the Septuagint as it relates to the Hebrew statement a kingdom of priests now a royal priesthood well some suggest that these two words should be separated by a comma and what we really have is an elect or chosen race a royal house comma and a priesthood comma so we are five different things in our identity and in terms of the word

33:40 itself and the grammar that's a possibility and Selwyn argues very cogently and powerfully for it but I find my own judgment falling in line that the very structure of Peter's language and the analogy of faith points rather to this rendering a royal priesthood now let's start with what is clear they are a priesthood that's the noun the royal is the adjective they are a priesthood they are a company of priests and as we saw in attempting to open up verse five of chapter two at the heart of the concept of priesthood is that we stand in relationship to God to offer up spiritual sacrifices

34:25 and in the virtue of the work of Christ no human priest mediates on our behalf on our we are the priesthood we are those who have direct access to God through our great high priest the Lord Jesus and all of God's people without distinction are constituted that priesthood but now here Peter says you are a royal priesthood you are a priesthood that is marked by royalty now what in the world is Peter driving at well I'm not going to be dogmatic because I'm not certain yet in my own thinking and after scouring some

35:10 twenty commentaries I'm still not certain in my thinking but I believe that the emphasis falls in this direction when something is royal it bears the dignity of its association with the king we speak of royal China it's the China that is set apart to be used in the palace of the king we think of the royal guard that's the guard that is committed to the protection of the king and he says you are a royal priesthood a priesthood that bears the dignity of the one who is your king priest even the Lord Jesus and could it be and I only ask it as a question

35:55 that Peter is reaching back to that amazing description of Messiah from Zechariah 6 in verse 13 where he is said to be a king and a priest upon his throne those two offices meeting in our Lord Jesus who was a priest not after the order of Aaron for no Aaronic priest was ever a king but a priest after the order of Melchizedek who was both priest and king of Salem and is Peter suggesting that in Christ and in our union with him we share in the dignity of his Melchizedek

36:38 priesthood not in the efficacy of it but in union with him we are made a royal priesthood and when one is in the company of royalty when one partakes of the dignity of royalty no man stands over him in relationship to authority as surely as a priest has no one standing over him in relationship to his approach to God and could it be that this is the emphasis that Peter is giving I'm not sure but one thing certainly is clear that when these people in Asia Minor again remember their setting distressed

37:23 and pressured and undergoing mistreatment at the hands of the unconverted Peter tells them that a more intense and fiery trial is to come upon them when they begin to wonder what am I who am I to think of the words I am part of a royal priesthood whatever else it conveyed it conveyed a sense of dignity and privilege that belongs to all of the people of God no longer are we the lackeys of the devil we have a royal liberty under the gracious rule of our king the Lord Jesus we are no longer vassals and slaves of a world system

38:07 that would seek to grind us within its own pressure and conform us to its own standards we have a dignity as a royal priesthood all around us are heathen temples with their ornate furnishings and with their ornately clothed priests who hold men in bondage by their so-called ability to mediate their access to God to mediate their forgiveness to mediate their eternal destiny they can walk about with heads held high no temples no priest and when questioned don't you fear to go through life without the blessing of the priest to be able to say we are part

Holy Nation: Set Apart for God's Laws

38:52 of a priesthood a priesthood that exists wherever Christ and his gospel has come and set men free and brought them into union with the Lord Jesus a royal priesthood then he goes on to say a holy nation a nation what is a nation a nation is a people bound together by the same laws customs and mutual interests that's a nation at Sinai Israel became a nation from a horde of slaves Israel was constituted a nation at Sinai again back to the Exodus 19 passage Exodus chapter 19

39:37 God speaking to his people in the context of Sinai now therefore verse 5 if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession for all the earth is mine and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priest and a holy nation you shall be a holy nation commit yourself to covenant fidelity and I will now own you as a nation I will own you as a people bound together by the same laws my laws by the customs

40:21 and mutual interests dictated by my mouth through Moses and given to you in written form God constitutes them a nation and then he says a holy nation now we know that all individual Israelites were not experientially spiritually holy but they were a nation set apart unto God separate and consecrated unto God to live by his laws and his ways and again whatever Israel was as a holy nation what she should have been as a holy nation God now is his people are

41:06 just that now again they have no socio political identity they are described as elect sojourners of the dispersion they're scattered throughout these Roman provinces later on in the epistle Peter clearly indicates that they have a consciousness that they're not alone in this he speaks of the sufferings that will be accomplished in your brethren he assumes that they understand that they are part of something larger and grander than themselves and he says of these people scattered with no formal national identity you are a holy nation you have committed yourselves with all of God's people to the laws of

41:51 your sovereign king the Lord Jesus you are bound together in your commitment to obey him and to honor him this is that supra cultural supra geographical nation in John Brown's commentary he goes on page after page a plethora of scriptures demonstrating that God's people in terms of who and what they are by the constitution of grace are in the highest and noblest sense a holy nation they are a nation as the people of God separated unto him devoted to him and just as the old testament demands were

42:35 be holy for I am holy I have set you apart as a nation you must be set apart in your practice individually in your corporate life so God in the new covenant in virtue of our union with Christ has a people who are not only externally set apart unto God but internally by the operation of the spirit where Peter has described the people of God in that opening description they are what they are as elect sojourners in accordance with the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the spirit that's why he can

43:20 call them to a life of personal and experiential holiness in chapter one and verses fourteen and fifteen be holy in the totality of your lifestyle because he who called you is holy they are a holy nation holiness separateness unto God devotedness to God is not a notion that floats through the soul of the nation of God's true people it is a passion that burns within their hearts and if it does not burn in your heart you have to ask have I been made part of that holy nation do I regard myself with joy

People for God's Own Possession: Redeemed and Cherished

44:03 as separated unto God and devoted to God or is the thought of being separated unto God and devoted to God abhorrent to you if it is you are no part of that nation it is a holy and then the fourth description is literally a people for possession it is understood of course a people for God's possession and the older translations will put God's in italics to let you know it is not there in the original literally a people for possession and here Peter again

44:48 is referring to Exodus 19 5 we have read it a couple of times a people of my own possession and perhaps he has in mind at this point Isaiah 43 21 what he says later on in the verse has a clear reference point in Isaiah 43 21 speaking of his work in restoring his people after the Babylonian captivity God says in verse 20 of Isaiah 43 the beast of the field shall honor me the jackals and the ostriches because I give waters in the wilderness rivers in the desert to give drink to my people my chosen

45:33 the people which I formed for myself what an amazing description the people that I formed for my self exodus 19 you will be my own possession and then notice the language of Malachi 3 in verse 17 some of you newer to the Christian faith and not too familiar with your Bibles that's the last book in the Old Testament so just before Matthew you'll find Malachi chapter 3 in verse 17 speaking of the remnant who fear

46:17 the Lord that think upon his name they shall be mine says the Lord of hosts even my own possession in the day that I make and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him they shall be mine even my own possession and so now Peter writing to these ordinary believers there says you are not only an elect race not only a royal priesthood not only a holy nation but a people and we must not press any technical significance this word people has a broad generic use in the scriptures

47:02 when God's describing all kinds of people in all groupings he speaks of peoples and tongues and nations and so the emphasis is not to be found in some distinctive meaning of Laos here a people but a people for his possession a term that every Jew would have been familiar with that we are God's people we are the people of God we are God's possession and now God says of his new covenant Israel that they are a people for possession a people whom God regards as his unique possession but you say doesn't the Bible say

47:46 the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof the world in all they that dwell therein if you're not a Christian you're still God's possession he owns you by right of creation and as long as you're an unconverted man or woman boy or girl you're living in open thievery you're saying I will not give to God what is rightfully his my energy my mind my strength my body my trust you see to be an impenitent sinner is to be a thief God owns you by right of creation but

48:25 God is speaking of something more than his ownership in creation he's speaking here of that unique possession that his people are by right of redemption he had brought the nation of Israel the horde of slaves out of Egypt that was the great old covenant redemption God redeemed them out of the house of bondage to make them his unique his special possession bound to them in bands of free sovereign land love and commitment to all of his covenant engagements and how does God get a people for possession under the new covenant he redeems them Peter had

49:10 spoken of it in chapter 1 knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with precious blood even the blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ordained before the foundation of the world but manifested in these times for you you were bought with a price Paul says to the Corinthians you are not your own and again you see for the child of God this is something almost too good to grasp what in the world would God want me for as his special possession there are many things in this life when I think of them I say it would

49:55 be nice to possess them there is something intrinsically attractive or in my estimation something intrinsically worthwhile what in the world did God see in the likes of you and me dead in our trespasses and sins yet the scripture says this is what we are a people for possession a people he regards as the apple of his eye a diadem upon his brow this is what we are now having just done a brief overview of these things and having begun to do justice to them any one of them is a rich vein that could be opened up in

50:40 a study or two on its own do you see what God is saying to us through the apostle Peter that as we seek to live as we ought to live we must know who we are and God says you and there is no verb in the original if we were to try to reproduce it but you dash elect grace royal priesthood holy nation of people of possession that's what you are in conjunction with all of God's people this is our identity by divine definition and declaration there is no exhortation that the people of God are to

The God-Centered Function: Showing Forth Excellencies

51:24 become these things no conditions if you do this and do this you will eventually possess these things no if we are coming to Christ and believing in Christ verse 4 verse 7 of the chapter then this is what we are this is our identity and then very briefly note what the apostle says concerning the God centered function of the people of God in the latter part of the verse having set before us our identity he now sets out the God centered function of the people of God defined and for you Greek students the form of the

52:09 verb and the connective translated for I'm sorry that you have a hopos with a subjunctive it's a purpose clause God has made us what we are for this purpose and here it is that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life now among the many revealed reasons for God making his people what he's made them Peter identifies that reason which is fundamental to all others again Old Testament overtones remember the Isaiah 43

52:54 21 passage God says that his people are what they are to this end that they might show forth his praise Peter says you are what you are that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light note with me now briefly three elements in the verse the activity envisioned what is to show forth here again we have one of those words Peter uses it's found nowhere else in the New Testament when you want to confuse people you make up a big word that's called a word

53:37 used only once why can't they just say that I don't know but it's a but it's a word used only once and that word show forth is found in that Greek translation of the Old Testament in the Psalms Psalm 9 14 and again in Psalm 107 21 22 and it's the very setting of declaring telling forth the praises of God it has to do with a verbal declaration of God's praise and so the basic idea is to proclaim to make widely known literally to speak or tell out

54:21 that's the activity and vision God's made us what we are that we might proclaim make widely known might tell out and what's to be the subject of that activity if the activity is proclaiming making widely known what's the subject it is the virtues the excellencies again a rare word in the New Testament Paul uses it once Philippians 4 8 and it's translated in most of our translations virtue Peter uses it two more times in 2 Peter in 2 Peter chapter 1 in verse 3 with reference to God he has saved us in a framework in which he called us by his own glory and

55:06 virtue and in verse 5 on this very part add on your part all diligence in your faith supply virtue and again I'm not going to weary you with a word study suffice it to say that there is a general consensus that the word points in two directions when he said that you should show forth proclaim abroad tell out the virtues the excellencies it points to those aspects of God's character that being revealed are worthy of being extolled his glorious attributes and possibly his attributes manifested in his deeds this was the word

55:50 that pagans would use to describe the mighty deeds of their gods and so when we read in the text God has made us what we are that we should make widely known that we should proclaim his glorious excellencies as discovered in his being and in his works his excellencies as revealed but then notice the specific reference point of this activity and I trust this will be helpful to us the activity envisioned show forth the subject of that activity the mighty works of God the excellency of God but notice the specific reference point

56:35 it is the excellencies of him and then Peter could have used a number of descriptions of him who made the heavens and the earth of him who is the sovereign lord and governor of all that is of him who is the judge of the living and the dead he could have said many things but he said particularly of him who called out of darkness and into his marvelous light in other words this God centered function defined by Peter has not only to do with an activity of proclaiming something about God proclaiming that which points to his excellencies

57:19 his manifest glory and power but particularly in conjunction with what he's revealed of himself in calling hell deserving sinners out of the realm of darkness the realm characterized by ignorance depravity and misery that's the biblical doctrine of the realm of darkness into his light his light the light of communion with him made possible through the blood of a redeemer and by the ministry of the spirit it is his light the light in conjunction with who he is in his person

58:04 it is his marvelous light it is his amazing his astounding light light in conjunction with his glory revealed in the face of Jesus Christ it is the virtues the excellencies of the God who's called you out of darkness into marvelous light and whenever these Christians in Asia Minor would think of their being called out of darkness into light what truths would cluster around that very concept the fact that there was a gospel which was the instrument of their call there was a gospel that declared that God so loved the world that he gave his only

58:48 begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life there was an efficacious operation of the spirit attending that gospel he had already told them that you people have heard the gospel preached unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven they would have known in their own hearts what it was to have their eyes open to have their wills released from bondage to sin and to the devil all of those glorious attributes of God the works of God most clearly manifested in conjunction with redemptive mercies and he says to these believers

59:33 this is your God centered function in the light of who and what you are as the people of God you must see that God has made you what you are that you might be the sounding board as the people of God in your corporate life and identity the sounding board of the virtues the excellencies the high praises of the God who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light now having sought to open up the text albeit all too briefly I want to conclude with several

Concluding Applications: For Pastors, Believers, and Unbelievers

60:17 very simple but I trust helpful lines of application may I presume to make an application to you my brethren in the ministry and God has brought this home to my heart in the expositions of first Peter the exhortation is this don't skimp in proclaiming with joy and freedom the grand indicatives of God's word Peter's conscious of the need of these believers all the pressures that are upon them but again and again he sets out before them these marvelous indicatives of whom and what

61:02 they are in Christ and what they possess in Christ and as surely as I would exhort my brethren don't shy from the imperatives in all of their details don't skimp on proclaiming the indicatives John Brown very perceptively notes to unfold the nature and illustrate the value of the numerous exceeding great and precious privileges which the people of God have in their present possession and in certain expectation is one of the most important as it is the most delightful duties of the public Christian instructor such illustrations are calculated to serve many valuable purposes they honor the Savior

61:46 from whom all these privileges are derived by displaying the ardor and the tenderness of his love the efficacy and the value of his sacrifice the prevalence of his intercession and the munificence of his liberality they tend to the conversion of sinners and he goes on to say few things are calculated more to make sinners jealous than to hear what the people of God are and have in Christ I hope some of you have been made jealous today I would like to be part of that elect race that royal privilege priesthood that holy nation that people of God's possession and then he goes on to say that as we set forth

62:31 what I'm calling the great indicatives of the Christian life we will then lay the foundation for the most detailed practical instruction and be able following the track of the apostle to say in the light of this therefore since you have this inheritance incorruptible undefiled fades not away having been and remaining reserved in heaven for you set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you it's the understanding of and the believing grasp upon the indicatives that sets the framework the motivation and the source of dynamic and power to fulfill the imperatives

63:16 may God help us in our ministries brethren to have a ministry that unashamedly dares to let loose upon people all that God says they have and are in Christ and then by the grace of God when we do lay on the imperatives hopefully we will see a balanced healthy Christian life emerging a ministry imbalanced with all indicatives produces a notional sentimental Christianity ministry imbalanced with imperatives produces a frustrated and joyless Christianity but where there is the proper balance of indicatives and imperatives

64:00 and Christ the lodestone that draws all to himself there you will have by the blessing of the spirit a balanced and a wholesome godliness to you the Lord's people what is my exhortation it is simple pray over and pray in who and what you are until it grips you sitting here today I in company with all of God's people those who meet fearful in places where civil government and religious oppression threaten the very existence of the church think of yourself this morning in union with fellow believers in house churches

64:44 in China some of those meeting in Pakistan today with Arif some in the Middle East some in other countries of Africa where there is militant aggressive Islamic pressure against the church think of the brothers and sisters throughout the world this is who and what we are and pray it in and pray over it until the wonder and the glory of it is such that when you hear Peter's exhortation I beseech you therefore in the light of this abstain from fleshly lust at war against the soul why should a royal priest be feeding at the hog pens of carnal indulgence it's beneath the dignity

65:29 of who I am I'm a royal priest you see what you are will have an impact on how you relate to the realities around you and to you who are not Christians do you see what an impoverished person you are because you will not come to Christ you think that abandoning your sin is to leave all that's worthwhile no my friend as we shall see God willing in our next exposition God says in your unconverted state and this included Jews and how it must have stung any who had never reflected on that he says you were not a people you weren't even a people you're not just a lost you weren't even a people

66:14 you had no real identity you were just lost in the mass of self centered sin bound devil duped humanity my unconverted friend you are in a miserable state and we would urge you flee that misery and find the richness that God extends to any and every sinner in the gospel by running to the Lord Jesus these people became what they were because they heard the gospel and they came to Christ and they believed upon Christ and in union with Christ they became these wonderful things that God

66:59 had made them to the end that purpose might be realized in them as I pray it will be realized in us our rationale for being here is that we may be the theater the sounding board to display and to thunder forth the excellencies of the God who has called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light let us pray our father how we do thank you for all that is ours in Christ and we confess with shame that so often

67:43 we are timid to believe that we are what you say we are forgive we pray our unbelief forgive the many ways we dishonored you by living beneath the dignity of who and what we are we pray that you would seal your word to all of our hearts we pray for those who do not possess these blessed realities because they refuse to come to the Savior we ask you God in grace and mercy to call them out of darkness and into your marvelous light seal then your word to our hearts and continue

68:28 to be with us on this your day that we may know something of the blessedness of the presence of the Lord Jesus in our midst at our tables in our homes as we are privileged to gather again tonight hear our prayers and receive our praises as we offer them through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen