Before / After Picture of the People of God

Introduction: The Power of Before and After Pictures

0:03 Learn in your own Bibles with me to 1st Peter and the 2nd chapter, 1st Peter chapter 2.

0:16 And as we have done for several Lord's Days in our consecutive expositions of this epistle, I will read in your hearing verses 1 through 10.

0:28 1st Peter 2 and verse 1. 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 gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious. You also, as living stones, are built. You also 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, but for such as believe, 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.

1:58 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, 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 pray and ask God by the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to behold wondrous things, out of his own holy law. Let us pray.

2:46 Our Father, we have been reminded in the portion of your word that we have read this morning of the frightening reality of the partial blindness and dullness of true disciples. And we earnestly pray that as we come to your word, you may not say to us, are you also without understanding? O God, come to us in our acknowledged need of the present ministry of the Holy Spirit as the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself and illuminate our minds and hearts as we come to your holy word. Speak to us, we plead, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

3:44 Now those in our society who are involved in the work of the Holy Spirit and seeking to sell us their goods or their services are well aware of the fact that before and after pictures of their given product are a very powerful persuasive. I doubt there's a homeowner here or someone who even rents a building to live in that has not seen the before and after pictures sent out by some home renovating company. And in the midst of all this, and in the midst of all this, in the before picture, you'll see the house with the paint cracking and peeling and blotchy. And because they're trying to sell you vinyl siding, the after picture will show the same house all neatly clad in the vinyl siding. And when you look and say, my house now looks more like the before, they've already got a hook into you considering the worthwhile nature of their product. Or it may be that some of you looking through what I trust is a magazine that has a good measure of common grace. It has a product, a skin care product.

5:00 They're trying to sell women whose crow's feet are beginning to look more like the feet of a duck. And the before picture shows this middle-aged woman and her crow's feet deeply edged along the sides of her eyes. And then the after picture shows how lineless she looks after she's used the product for three months. And if you've begun to be concerned about the crow's feet creeping along the side of your eyes, that before and after contrast has a very powerful appeal.

5:38 Even though everything tells you it can't work that well, you still look and say, what could it be? Or it may be that some of you who struggle with the crow's feet and struggle with keeping off the pounds have seen a certain weight loss program advertised, how? With the before and the after pictures. And they may not have a lot of text, but if they've got three or four groups of pictures with the before and the after, you find your eyes lingering on the text which tells you what product is going to change you from someone that as you look at the advertisement you fit more in the picture.

6:18 And that's the problem. And that's the problem. And that's the problem. You look in the before picture and you desperately long to look like the after picture.

6:25 Well, I think those simple illustrations drawn from the sphere in which we all live do underscore and validate my statement that before and after pictures are a very powerful persuasive in the marketing of goods and of services. Well, in the passage before us this morning, we have a spirit, inspired, verbal before and after picture. It is a before and after description of the people of God. Note the language of verse 10 in 1 Peter 2.

The Spirit-Inspired Before and After Picture of God's People

7:05 Who in time past, that's the before, but now are, that's the after. And then we have another before and after picture. Who in time past, that's the before, had not obtained, but now have obtained. Peter sets before us two groups of before and after verbal pictures.

7:34 And this verbal before and after picture is not set before us to sell us anything. God is not in the business of marketing His grace. He does stoop to the image of a street hawker in a passage such as Isaiah 55. And in order to convey to us the freeness and the fullness and the sincerity of His gospel offers, God says, Oh, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters.

8:07 And he who has no money, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. God does stoop to the image of a street hawker in coming to us, in all of our need and offering to us the fullness of His grace in Christ. But in terms of our common concept of marketing a product, Peter is not at all interested in marketing the gospel, but rather he sets out this before and after verbal picture in order to help these believers in those five Roman provinces in Asia, to come to a fuller and richer understanding of who and what they are in Christ. He wants them to know what they possess in Christ that they may be better equipped to live for Christ and strengthened to do the will of Christ. As we've reminded you in our expositions, as we've worked through this passage, the major focus on this second, section of God's gracious indicatives, a section bounded by verses 4 to 10, in which there are no exhortations, no admonitions, but a setting forth of who and what we are in Christ,

9:35 the focus here is upon primarily our corporate identity as the people of God. As those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, verse 3, as those who continue to come to Christ as a living stone. Peter has instructed these believers that they are made into living stones themselves, that they have been incorporated into God's spiritual house, they have been constituted a holy priesthood, they are privileged to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through the mediation of Christ, and then, further, in stark contrast with unbelievers who stumble over Christ as the chief cornerstone in that spiritual building, these believers are made honorable because they are attached to Christ, the Honorable One. And then in verse 9, he sets for us this wonderful panorama of what the people of God are as those who believe and come to Christ, who do not stumble over the place God has assigned to Christ as do the unbelievers. And he told all of these believers, regardless of how long

11:04 they have been in the faith, regardless of their present stature in the faith, that all of them, simply because they are rightly related to Christ, they are constituted this elect race, this elect religion, this royal priesthood, this holy nation, this people of possession, and they have this dignified end for their whole existence that they may declare the virtues of the God who has called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And now here in verse 10, Peter completes this section of these grand indicatives as he is about to give us another series of imperatives starting in verse 11. And as a capstone over all that he has said in verses 4 to 10 concerning the identity of the people of God, particularly their corporate identity, he gives us this amazing contrast, the before and after of the people of God. And as we think our way through the text, I want us first of all to consider together the Old Testament background of this contrast. And then secondly, we'll look at the central issues addressed in this contrast, and then we'll seek to make some personal applications of this contrast.

Old Testament Background: Hosea's Prophecy

12:32 First of all, the Old Testament background of this contrast. When Peter writes, who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy, where did he get that language from? Well, as we've seen again and again, Peter's mind is saturated with the Old Testament. He has sat under the tutelage of the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh.

13:04 He has known the blessedness of that post-resurrection ministry when the Lord Jesus was speaking to his disciples concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, opening their understanding to see the Old Testament, for what it really was, that which pointed to the Lord Jesus. Peter was there when the Spirit came in power on the day of Pentecost, and when many of the promises of the Lord Jesus recorded in the upper room discourse concerning the unique and special ministry of the Spirit to the apostles in the area of illuminating their minds concerning the truth that is in Christ. Peter, writes and in his writing often is not only quoting the Old Testament, but he uses terms and phraseology when he's not directly quoting. And it's very evident that when Peter, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sets before us this great and amazing contrast, his mind is being influenced by Hosea chapter 1 and chapter 2. And I want you to take a few moments with me to just consider briefly the Old Testament background to this before and after contrast.

14:28 Turn, please, to the book of Hosea.

14:33 And for some of you new in finding your way around your Bibles, you go from Isaiah through to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and you'll find Daniel, and then you'll come to Hosea. The book of Hosea. And please don't let your mind be diverted if you're not familiar with the book when you read that God tells the prophet to take a wife of whoredom and to have children of whoredom. Why would God do that?

15:02 Was she an immoral woman when he married her? Did she become that? We're going to bypass all of those things. They're not relevant to our study this morning.

15:10 But you will notice this language found in the book of Hosea. Verse 6. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said unto him, Call her name, Lo-ru-hama.

15:25 And if you have a marginal translation, you'll see, That hath not obtained mercy. So the prophet is to give this name to his daughter, that this daughter will be a prophetic child, that by the very name assigned to the daughter, God's purposes of judgment will be reflected for, I will no more have mercy upon the house of God. upon the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon them. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bone or by sword nor by battle, by horses nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned Lo-ru-hama, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, Call his name, Lo-amai, not my people, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Do you see the language of 1 Peter 2, 10?

16:35 Mercy, no mercy.

16:38 You are not my people, I will not be your God. And yet, after saying this with regard to the ten northern tribes, that God is going to disown them as his people. He will no longer show mercy to them, verse 10, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. Though God is going to disown Israel, Israel's number will be increased.

17:07 What strange language! How will this be? It shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people, it shall be said unto them, You are the sons of the living God. Do you see this?

17:23 Not my people, yet now my people motif, so dominant here in the book of Hosea. Then when we come to chapter 2, verse 1, Say unto your brethren, Amai, my people, and to your sisters, Ruhamah, that is, that hath obtained mercy. So here the motif of my people and the obtaining of mercy again is set before us. And then in chapter 2, and verse 23, I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that hath not obtained mercy.

17:59 And I will say to them that were not my people, You are my people, and they shall say, You are my God. So you see, it's not an active imagination trying to find just some similarity of a word here or there. That in coming to 1 Peter 2.10 drives us back to the prophecy of Hosea.

18:22 And we are to understand understand Peter's use of this terminology in the light of the occurrence of that terminology in the book of Hosea. And what is the heart of that terminology in the book of Hosea? Well, the heart of the teaching is this, that the ones rejected and disowned by God will in the future become the gathered and the accepted ones by the same God. The ones who have no mercy shall receive mercy.

18:59 Ones who are not regarded as the people of God will be in the future owned by God as His people. Now when we come to the New Testament we find the Apostle Paul in underscoring God's purposes in the sweep of human history to set aside the nation of Israel as the main channel of His redemptive activity and to graft in Gentiles into that one olive tree. When Paul demonstrates that this is in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament he goes directly to this prophecy in Hosea chapter 2. And in Romans chapter 9 he quotes it as a proof text that God had always purposed to include the Gentiles in the salvation that He would eventually bring to men in space-time history through the work of Jesus Christ the promised Messiah. And so Paul uses that motif from Hosea to validate God's action in bringing Gentiles into the blessing of gospel truth and gospel privilege. But here Peter writing to a church comprised of Jews and Gentiles he takes the terminology and shows that it applies

20:28 more broadly to anyone who is brought into the blessings of salvation under the new covenant. That wherever God takes an individual and incorporates him into that group described as the elect race the holy nation the royal priesthood the people of God's own possession that wherever anyone is brought into that society such ones are a fulfillment of God's intention to take those who were not a people and to make them His people. Those who were not shown mercy to make them the objects of His mercy. So that rejection merges into acceptance. A non-people become a people. Those who are not mercied liberally now become the mercied ones.

Central Issues: Regarded and Treated by God

21:27 Now that's something of the Old Testament background to this contrast. Now consider with me secondly the central issues addressed in this contrast.

21:39 And if you look at the text you will see that there are two. That's why I've used the imagery of there are two groups of before and after pictures. Who in time past were no people but now are the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

22:04 The one contrast has to do with how they are regarded by God. And the second contrast how they are treated by God. Now these two are intimately connected. If you regard someone as an intimate friend that's their status then you treat them as an intimate friend.

22:29 If you regard someone as an inveterate intransigent enemy then you treat him as an enemy. How you regard that person their status or status and both are correct correct pronunciations their status in your estimation determines how you treat them. Well in this contrast we have the contrast with regard to how God looks upon these people and then secondly how God relates to them. Well let's look at the contrast with respect to how they are regarded by God.

23:11 We have the before and the after. Look at the before. Who in time past were no people. Now who are the who in verse 10?

23:23 The who in verse 10 are those who are those referred to in verse 9 but you you all of the people of God addressed in the opening verses of this epistle the elect sojourners of the dispersion and Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Bithynia those upon whom God has set his sovereign love those whom he has sprinkled with the blood of his own son those whom he has brought into the obedience of faith those who have been begotten again to a living hope we go back through the whole first chapter those who have purified their souls in their obedience to the truth those who have been begotten again by the word of truth it is these all of them without exception who are included in this contrast and he says with regard with respect to this matter of how God regards them they were all in this before category who in time past were now notice what it says it doesn't say who were not the people of God but who were no people and the Greek is even more Spartan a more literal rending would be who in time past no people no verb is there to underscore the quality of their condition and how they were regarded by God

24:52 not only were they not the people of God they were no people now that doesn't mean much to us because we have very little consciousness of being a people being a Heinz 57 variety here in America we have very little consciousness of what it is to be part of a people a people are an identifiable community a community bound together by a common ruler a common name and a common heritage and Peter says of all of these believers in their before condition in the estimation of God they were no people they had no identity as a people and as one commentator has very helpfully addressed this issue and writes it appears reasonable to assume that he meant people the Greek word laos to stand out here by itself before the minds of his readers the thought underlying his language seems to be somewhat of this kind that from a religious point of view the sinful world has no real community of life or interest but is merely an aggregate of isolated persons the tendency of sin always being through the working of selfishness and hatred towards social disintegration the loneliness and dreariness

26:22 of the unconverted state especially amid the intense darkness and darkness the debasement of heathenism appears to be the prominent idea now imagine what this would mean to Jews who were of the dispersion who had been converted up there in Asia Minor for the Jews of the dispersion who never went back and settled in their homeland they were very conscious of their peoplehood being fragmented and shattered their hearts yearned for Jerusalem in the heart of every true Jew was a longing even as we see in our generation when it was possible for people to return back to Jerusalem and back to Palestine their hearts set upon that place and here for the Jews who had a sense of being unpeopled and perhaps still as we see throughout the book of Acts the sense of their identity as Jews did not die quickly or easily to be told now you were no people not only with regard to your native ethnicity but with regard to God's perspective of who you were you are part of the nation concerning whom God said no people no mercy I uncovenant myself from you you have broken the covenant I will bring upon you

27:51 the curses of the covenant I will disperse you among the nations they would be able to relate very quickly to that concept of no people but now it is taken from mere external ethnicity and it's rooted in their true spiritual condition and likewise for these Gentiles Peter is saying that they are as one commentator has described them men who've been turned into a herd of outlaws a band of rebels a people who are not a people the word of God has been turned into a herd of outlaws there are some very graphic things to say about the effect of sin in terms of dismembering us one from another Paul could say in Titus 3 we ourselves were one time hateful hating one another for from within out of the heart of man proceed and then you read the litany of tragic sins that come out of the heart and how many of them focus on the total disruption of meaningful sin social relationships adultery murder thefts sins that are not only an offense to God but disrupted of any kind of meaningful social relationships sin scatters and isolates and insulates men

29:20 one from another and one of the great tragedies is hell will be the ultimate expression of that isolation the book of Jude describes hell in these words wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever a wandering star swallowed up in a black hole in the universe no people any comfort you may seek to have my unconverted friend that hell will be greatly populated by your friends there will be no friendship in hell any comfort and security you now receive in any friendship out of Christ is God's common grace and that will all be removed in the day of judgment what a tragic picture of what we are before the grace of God comes to us who in time passed more people but now look at the after here's the after but now but now are the people of God or more literally but now you were no longer no people but now

30:50 you are a people a community with a common ruler a common name and a common heritage here were Jews who became a people not by going back to Palestine and relocating in Palestine and establishing life in Palestine they are still among the sojourners dispersed throughout that part of the Roman Empire and all around them they have the reminders that they are the heirs of the curses that came because of the sin of their fathers when they were dispersed among the nations and now they are told though you were in time past no people you now have true peoplehood you have tasted that the Lord is gracious in coming to Him and having purified your souls in obedience to the truth having been born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible you have not only come into the possession of an individual identity in Christ but you have been part or partner of that spiritual temple you are part of that priesthood you are part of the holy nation you are part of that royal priesthood you are part of God's unique and special possession you are now a people you are now part of that

32:17 new community that is not only there in Asia Minor but back in Palestine and in every other part of the Roman Empire where the gospel has come and brought sinners into fellowship with the mercy of God in Jesus Christ you are now a people but he says more than this you are the people of God the people whom God regards as His own His own peculiar possession as they were described in verse nine the people in whom is His very delight the language in Hosea 1.10 is that the ones not a people shall become the very sons of God He makes us the company of His people who are born of God who are adopted into the family of God Hosea 2.23 God says you are my people and His people respond by saying you are my God and His people and isn't this the very heart that blesses promised in the new covenant in Hebrews chapter 8 in verse 10 where the writer is showing that salvation in Jesus Christ follows the very contours of the promises of the new covenant made in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31 33 and following this is what he says in Hebrews 8 in verse 10

33:46 this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and on their heart also will I write them and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me not just an aggregate of individuals but a people this is what God has purposed in the new covenant sealed in the blood of Christ that the before and after picture drawn by Peter would be true of all those who come to Jesus mediator of the new covenant and their after description is that they are now the very people of God but then notice the second contrast the first contrast is with respect to how they are regarded by God the second touches how they are treated by God again following the same approach look at the before and then the after the before who had not obtained mercy a literal rendering would be those not having been mercied it's the word mercy in the verbal form those who have not been mercied those to whom mercy has not

35:14 been shown now what is mercy well mercy is basically pity and compassion joined to an appropriate action calculated to relieve misery you see mercy is not needed where there is no misery so when you read through the gospels and find people saying Lord Jesus or son of David have mercy upon me it's someone in a pitiable miserable condition and in saying son of David have mercy upon me what are they asking for not merely that he would take cognizance of them in their misery that his affections and his heart would be moved with pity and concern but that the pity and concern would be joined to an appropriate action that would relieve their misery and you find this in passages such as Matthew 9 27 Matthew 15 22 and a number of other places in the gospel records now here in this contrasting picture Peter says of all these believers they had not obtained mercy and he uses a form of the verb which means your whole existence prior to the transition from nature to grace out of a state of wrath

36:43 and into a state of acceptance was one in which there was no mercy now what's that mean does not God show mercy to the unconverted in many ways yes in Romans 2 we are told that God's goodness is calculated to lead us to repentance but in this setting and in the parallel passages in Hosea it is mercy with distinctive reference to God owning a people as his own and pardoning and forgiving their sins look back at the passage in Hosea Hosea chapter 1 and verse 6 and the Lord said unto her call her name Lo-Ruhamah for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel that I should in any wise pardon them so this is not mercy in the broadest sense but mercy in its more narrow distinctive channel of conferring forgiveness and covenant acceptance and so he says here is the contrast in time and in past you had not obtained mercy your whole life

38:11 was lived in this framework of not being mercied and then he gives the after but now but now you have obtained mercy you have been mercied and what is he referring to well back in chapter 1 in verse 3 he uses the noun form of the same word and says that God is to be praised and blessed why blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead he takes them back to their conversion when they experienced the divine begetting and they came into the blessings of salvation secured by the person and work of the Lord Jesus they were mercied when God brought this gospel to them chapter 1 and verse 12 he says you have had the gospel preached unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven God mercied them when he brought the gospel to them but he not only brought the gospel to them according to verses 22 and 23 of chapter 1 they were brought into the obedience of faith you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth and how was it that they

39:40 responded positively to the gospel verse 23 having been begotten again behind their faith and obedient response to the gospel was the act of God in the divine begetting and you put all of that together and that's being mercied those who were not mercied have now been mercied and again the form of the verb points to that breaking in in their own space-time history of the grace of God through the coming of the gospel the divine begetting the response of repentance and of faith Paul uses the same word to describe his own conversion as being shown mercy in 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 13 Paul writes though I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and in the injurious how be it I obtained mercy what does he mean well he obviously means I was brought into the condition of being a Christian and he summarizes it in this language I obtained mercy verse 16 how be it for this cause I obtained mercy that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his long suffering etc so the after picture is that of having

41:09 obtained mercy now put these two together think of the tremendous spectrum and diversity among the churches there in Asia Minor we've alluded again and again to some of the groups explicitly addressed servants wives husbands citizens and in those communities people of differing economic positions differing spheres of influence but Peter writes and says you all fit into the two contrasting before and after pictures before no people after people of God before not mercy after you have been mercy underscoring again as he does throughout the epistle the leveling power of the gospel bringing all people into this orbit of the before and after of what they were by nature and what they have become by grace well having looked at the old testament background of the contrast the central issues addressed in the contrast now thirdly and finally the practical and personal implications of this contrast and I want you to think with me three lines of application under the images of the gospel and the of a mirror

Application 1: A Mirror for Spiritual Self-Examination

42:38 a trumpet and kids don't get upset with me a classroom in these verses think of what they say to you and to me in terms first of all of a mirror and then a trumpet and then a classroom first this contrast is a mirror in which to behold your true spiritual state you want to know where you are spiritually that is where you are in the things that really count where you are before the living God who made you the living God who even now is present in this place by his spirit the God before whom you'll stand in the day of judgment do you really want to know where you are before that God well look into the mirror of this before and after contrast for you see every true believer sees himself in both sets of pictures every true believer has a before and an after now he may not know precisely when he had the pictures of the after that's not the issue to have a dated picture you know the cameras now that you can have the date stamped on them it's not important if you have the date when the after picture was taken but if you're a true Christian

44:07 you fit this contrast this comparison between the before and the after you have been brought to some inward internal convictions that when Peter says you were no people you had not received mercy you say yes Lord that was indeed my condition I was so wrapped up in myself I could not establish meaningful relationships with others I had no love for those whom you regard as your people before that being a part of your people was utterly unattractive in fact it was downright distasteful and abhorrent to me some of us can remember when in close contact with those who belong to God's people we found a deep unease and aversion if we could have we would have changed our associations but we couldn't it happened to be the family into which God brought us by birth and we were no people wrapped up in ourselves associating with those who in the isolation and self-centeredness of sin know nothing of what it is to be the people whom God owns as his own but now there is an actor we know what it is

45:35 by grace to take the covenant promise I will be their God they shall be my people and we counted our joy to be part of the community that God owns as his people there is an actor for us yes a tragic shameful before and when we do what the scripture says in Isaiah 51 look unto the rock from whence you were hewn and unto the hole of the pit from whence you were digged we look back with shame we look back with grief we look back with renewed repentance and though we know sins have long since been forgiven we say with David remember not against me the sins of my youth we're ashamed of what we were when we were no people but we bless God that we now can say we are his people and we're a part of his people the psalmist could say the saints in whom is all my delight was that idolatry no his ultimate and greatest delight was in God but having delighted in God he delighted in God at the horizontal level in the saints and he says in them is all my delight for as we heard so eloquently last Lord's day I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house

47:04 of the Lord our feet are standing within your gates oh Jerusalem is that a picture of you do you fit the before and the after that Peter sets before us and that's that's the mirror is it reflecting you and what about not having received mercy but now have obtained mercy do you look back and tremble at the thought that you lived for years perhaps for decades with no pardon of your sins every sin a voice crying up to heaven that God would unleash his judgment upon you do you tremble at the thought that you live day after day exposed and naked to the fury of the righteous anger of God against sinners not mercy but as you look into the contrasting picture now have obtained mercy yes the gospel has come to me and has come to me in power and I've been persuaded of its truth I've embraced the bad news about myself and the good news of God's mercy in the person and work of his own dear son and having cast myself upon him

48:32 I know the cleansing of my sin I know the renewal of my heart yes I have obtained mercy and having obtained it I say with the hymn writer a debtor to mercy alone of covenant mercy I say I say with the hymn writer death of mercy I say with the hymn writer can there be mercy still reserved for me can my God his wrath forbear me the chief of sinners bear I have long withstood his grace long provoked into his face would not hearken to his calls grieved him by a thousand fall yet for me the savior stands shows his wounds and spreads his hands God is love I know I feel Jesus weeps and loves me still not having obtained mercy you have obtained mercy let this contrast this before and after verbal picture of Peter drawn under the guidance of the spirit let it be a mirror in which to see your true spiritual state my unconverted friend listen to the words of John Brown listen to these words

50:00 as I thought of how I might express them more forcefully I said no let John Brown speak let him be one of those who though dead yet speaks let those who if they think at all must know that they are in the darkness and ignorance of sin that they are not among God's people that they have not obtained mercy let them consider what the end must be if they continue in their present condition pass that boundary that separates time from eternity and what is that boundary it's the boundary of a heartbeat almighty God says heart stop and there aren't enough trauma teams in the universe to make it start beating again you saw the ad of the great proponent of low fat diet and cardiovascular exercise the 57 or 58 year old Irishman who like Dr. Fix has been the great proponent throughout Europe of a healthy heart he went out for his daily run and he dropped death my friend John Brown says pass that boundary that separates time from eternity and you know that boundary must be passed soon by all of you how soon or how suddenly you know not you cannot know but pass that boundary

51:30 in the darkness of a natural state will settle down upon you in the blackness of darkness forever they who are not God's people can then never become God's people those who have not obtained mercy can never obtain mercy the change so absolutely necessary to your happiness must take place in time for it cannot take place in eternity it must take place on earth for it cannot take place in hell have you made up your mind and here I ask you my unconverted man woman boy or girl listen to these questions this is not preacher's rhetoric listen to the question have you made up your mind and it shall never take place in you do you sit here this morning so blinded by the devil that you say the before and after will never be me I'm committed to be locked into the before forever no people no mercy I'm loath to believe there's anyone so hardened in his sin that sitting here this morning you say no mercy for me forever I want nothing to do with mercy forever nothing to do with being owned by God

52:58 John Brown asked have you made up your mind that it's never to take place if you have not why should it not take place now if your disposition is past no I cannot shake the realities that have been given to me some of you would confess with your mother's milk you don't know a time when these great issues were not pressed upon you and the substructure of your thinking is yes sometime somewhere in some set of circumstances I would like to have not only the before but the after picture true of me John Brown asks and I ask if that's your intention why not now why not today can you be safe and happy too soon those who are God's people were once not his people the grace that saved them is held out to you in the gospel this morning if you sit here and say the only thing I see in the mirror is the before you run to Christ and God will put you in the after and of you it will be said the one who was not part of the people no people now God's people not mercy now mercy

Application 2: A Trumpet Call to Praise and Adoration

54:26 but then consider not only that this contrast is a mirror in which to see ourselves but notice that this passage is also a trumpet it's a trumpet blast calling the people of God who do see the before and after in themselves by grace it is a trumpet blast calling us to praise and adoration Peter is about to urge these Christians as strangers and sojourners to abstain from fleshly lust that war against the soul he's about to call them to a manifold corpus of duties that they have as the people of God but he wants them as they plunge into these responsibilities and the legitimate burdens of carrying the name of Christ in a godless society he wants them to remember who they are and never to forget what they once were Paul could say in Ephesians 2 and verse 12 wherefore remember and he asked these Gentiles to remember what they were before God came to them in the grace and mercy of the gospel of Christ and so this contrast should be to us not only a mirror in which to behold our true spiritual state

55:54 but a trumpet blast saying to us if indeed the before and after is true of you and true of me what a people we ought to be in unbounded praise and adoration to our God and saying that Peter blessed be this God who by his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope as we anticipate coming to God and coming to the Lord's table tonight surely we ought to come as a people overwhelmed with holy joy at all that is ours in Christ and then this contrast is also a classroom a classroom that teaches us as Peter has been careful to teach us again and again the great truth that the identity of the church is that of the Israel of God you see Peter has taken all of this terminology of verse 9 as we saw two weeks ago elect race royal priesthood holy nation a people of God's own possession lifted it right out of God's statements to his ancient old covenant people Israel and says whatever Israel was as a nation foreshadowing God's covenant people in the future in relationship to Christ all of these things find now their truest expression in the Bible in the people of God in the church of the Lord Jesus

Application 3: A Classroom for Understanding Church Identity

57:23 and surely that's what Peter is emphasizing here when he takes that motif out of the book of Hosea those who are rejected for their sin and are not shown mercy those whom God does not own as his people will be shown mercy and they will be his people in showing the fulfillment of that in the people of God in the new covenant Peter is taking us again into the classroom and seeking to teach us and remember who it was this was Peter who for years saw everything through a narrow prejudicial Jewish tunnel vision but now he has been instructed by his Lord and further instructed by the spirit of the ascended Christ and he says that the things God has bestowed upon his people are those glorious privileges they are now his temple a spiritual temple they are now his priesthood who offer up spiritual sacrifices they are now the truly elect race the holy nation the royal priesthood the people of God's unique possession may God grant that we may understand the glory of our identity as God's people found within his church in which all of these rich pictures and descriptions of God's people are now

58:52 applied to us as those who by grace have been brought into union with the Lord Jesus may God write upon our hearts this portion of his word and as we anticipate moving forward in this epistle and confronting the many imperatives may we do so and never lose sight of who and what we are in Christ and constantly bring to remembrance the things we have considered together that we may by the grace and power of God move forward in ever increasing obedience to every precept that will be set before us let us pray our father we thank you for your word we thank you for the gift of your dear son we thank you that in mercy you have come to us in our wretched state and you have shown mercy your heart has been moved with pity and your hands stretched out in the only action that could answer to our misery you gave your only begotten son you spared him not but delivered him up for us all and we pray that you would take

60:17 the opening up of your word and apply it with power to each of our hearts that it may bear fruit in every life for some may it be the fruit unto repentance and faith that they may pass from nearly being captured in the before pictures that in them the glorious after will be true oh god hear our cries seal your word and continue with us throughout this day we ask through our lord jesus christ amen