Now We Are the People of God to Proclaim His Excellencies
1 Peter 2:9-10
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Please turn to 1 Peter 2:9-10. 1 Peter 2:9-10 is our section under study this morning. As you are turning there I want to share what happened to me recently. Actually, it has more to do with my mother and what has happened to her. At the beginning of this month, my family was confronted with the unexpected reality of my mother's death from a heart attack. In the moments during, and directly after getting the news, I was shocked, and saddened; but I was also experiencing something else. I was, and am now, experiencing the inner "inexpressible joy" (as Peter calls it) that comes from the Spirit. It is the joy in knowing that my mom had been saved by the Lord. God had recreated her into someone who He wanted to worship Him. This is exactly what she did while on this earth in her old body. She glorified God with her life. She proclaimed His excellencies in the way she lived. She proclaimed His excellencies with her words. My mom was, and is even now, a God glorifying child of her Father. I say that this is what she is now because she has not finished with proclaiming the excellencies of God. Her worship experience occurs in an even better state of existence than what she had. As we think about this, we know that this is her privilege according to grace. We also know that this is the privilege of all of us who are the elect in Christ the new covenant light. We have been re-created, in Him, by God specifically. And the specific task we have been re-created for, is to proclaim the excellencies of our Creator both now and forever. Peter touches upon these things in our section under study this morning. Please read our text with me now. Starting in verse 1,
1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is elect and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a set apart priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For this is contained in Scripture: 'Behold, I lay in Zion an elect stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.' 7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone, 8 and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
[Now our primary section under study, 9-10]
9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Loved ones, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:1-12
Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, in this sermon titled,
Now We Are the People of God to Proclaim His Excellencies
[prayer]
Only certain people are, right now, the people of God; and only certain people are meant to proclaim God's excellencies. If this is the case, then it is important to know who these people are. It is important to know what they are specifically, and why. It is important that we glean, from the Spirit, what He has to say to us about these things.
/1/
As we explore this from God's word, the first thing we notice about being the people of God that exist to proclaim the excellencies of Him is that God elects all who are meant for this proclamation to be those who do it.
Notice that Peter says,
"9 But you are an elect race, ..."
Peter is teaching these truths to Christians dispersed across the country. We remember that, in writing this, Peter makes it clear that he is talking to the specific people called,
"you who believe" 1 Peter 2:7
This is important. Peter is identifying who he means in respect to God's elect people in His New Covenant transformation:
"you who believe"
God is not saying that the elect here are people who are unbelievers. The Spirit never presents a universalism that says all people everywhere are God's elect. He is saying the opposite. In understanding God's election of people, I think it is important to recognize that Peter utilizes a lot references to another group to make his point. They were God's elect people in His past administration. The point is that they were also examples of God's specially elected one's from out of the world. They were God's previous older covenant people of racial origin. They were known as the elect of God among all the nations of the ancient world. They were specific people who were elected to be in the Abrahamic Covenant, and then the Mosaic Law Covenant relationship with God according to race after deliverance out of bondage to Egypt. The way it was actuated was that God made a covenant with Abraham that extended to his descendants through his son Isaac and the following generations through Isaac's son Jacob. Biblically, we know these people as the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, Romans 4:1. They are Israelites according to the flesh through Jacob because Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Peter was one of those people too in respect to that older covenant election. Peter was an Israelite according to the flesh. Some of the regenerated-in-Christ-people that Peter is writing to, were also Israelites according to the flesh. This is all pertinent to what Peter is saying.
Why?
Because God is giving Peter insight into New Covenant election. Peter has insight that is based upon prior, classic, revelation, concerning election and covenant in respect to God's choosing exclusive people. But now, in Christ, it is all coupled with new revelations that God has enlightened Peter with in his special apostolic ministry. So at this place in Peter's flow, we must recognize that Peter quotes Isaiah 43:20-21 from the Septuagint to make his point. It is where God calls Israelites according to His Old covenant,
"... My elect people. The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise." Isaiah 43:20
@1 God's elect people are all those He has ___________________ for Himself. Isaiah 43:20 cf. 1 Peter 2:9
The Holy Spirit inspired Peter (who was an elect Israelite according to the flesh, who is now elect according to the Spirit in the New Covenant) to recognize that this quote which applied to Israel of 700 years before, now applies to God's regenerated people as both Jews and Gentiles together in Christ's New and better covenant, Hebrews 8:6-7. In the quote, Old Covenant Israelites were elected by God, and so God formed them for Himself to be people who would glorify Him. This is the substance of the message this morning. We really must consider the details because they have to do with us personally--with you personally. In the manifold wisdom of God, God had also intended for this to be a New Covenant prophecy which had to do with people who had not yet come into existence. This is an important fact about our God and His inspired Scriptures. Apparently God likes to give prophetic revelation for a specific event, and in the revelation God intends the prophecy to have another future application as well. We find this over and over again in Scripture. In this particular prophecy, both Isaiah, and Peter, are speaking of God's elect people. Both Isaiah and Peter are talking about you and me as part of the prophecies. The important part is that in both instances God's elect people are His people that He sovereignly formed by His own determination, for His own purpose. The purpose was that they would be for Himself, declaring His glorious excellencies. We all notice that the elect are called His race. Previously God's elect race was genetic Israel according to the flesh. But now, according to the ministry of the Spirit, God has a new covenant race, created in Christ Jesus. This race is all who are spiritually in Christ; whether Jew or Gentile. They are created in Him as those who have been begotten by the Spirit. In thinking about this, we know that every race represents, and is traced to, an original man. Pushing this way back, we also know that everyone born into the cursed world, is born in the image of great grandfather--Adam. You, me, and everyone, is conceived into the Adamic race. Paul said in Acts 17, that God;
"... made from one man every nation ..."
[By the way, there is no Greek word for "man" here in Acts 17, but in the Textus Receptus, the word for blood (haima) is there for clarity. So it reads like this,
"And He has made from one blood every nation ..." NKJV
[The Greek word for nation is ethnos. We get the word ethnic, from ethnos. So, what Paul is explaining in His presentation to the Greek philosophers, is that God made from one man, or "one blood," every ethnic group that exists We need to pay attention to this, because Paul continues explaining that God made,]
"... from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." Acts 17:26
What this shows us is that the human family tree originates with one man. That man was the first Adam. Everyone who descends from Adam is not merely reproduced. Our existence is something much more precise than that. Every single person was individually, and specifically, made by God--knit together in our mother's womb. Every single person's time to exist was appointed by God in His determination. It may seem odd at first, but it is important to refer to the first man as "the first" Adam. The reason is because there is also the last Adam,
"The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit," 1 Corinthians 15:45
So there are two Adams. The first one is the father of all races--the father of all living souls down through the family tree. Everyone in the world is one big family. Everyone shares the same real DNA reproduction with one another that came from the original man. All our forefather's walked out of the ark of Noah to repopulate the earth. The point is that we all have a little bit, in a sense, of the first Adam in us. Even ethnic Israel according to the Old ancient covenants of Abraham and Moses, was related to the rest of the nations of the world through Adam. The last Adam, on the other hand, became the life-giving Spirit. He is the originator. He's the first born of the new, elect, spiritual, race that Peter is talking about in our text. He formed an elect people out of the one blood sacrifice of His crucifixion, and in His spiritual life in His resurrection. The Spirit gives even more insight on the two Adams. We read that in the first Adam, all die; but then
"so also in Christ all will be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:22
I am layering upon this point, so stay with me even though you may already be familiar with our heritage in Adam. In this layer of what I am saying, there is a sense that the first Adam was the father of death in bringing the curse of sin and death into the world. We read in Romans 5,
"... death reigned from Adam until Moses"
[Moses is when the Old Covenant Law was given to genetic Israelites. Paul continues with explaining the reign of death;]
"even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam."
[Though you did not sin the exact sin of Adam, you still sin, and your body is still subject to dying from disease, accidents, murder and so forth. We all realize this through experience don't we? You sin. I sin. People all the way from Adam to Moses and beyond, sin. So we understand this as objective fact, but we also know it subjectively. Paul continues]
"who is a type of Him who was to come."
[Adam is a type of Jesus Christ. Adam, as the first, or proto-man, is a type of the first proto-new-man of the new-covenant super race--Jesus Christ. Paul goes on, and this is really amazing, because Paul is explaining that the typology has very important limits that has to do with the elect. Paul says in verse 15;]
"But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one [first Adam] the many died."
["the many" are defined as the race springing forth from the first man Adam because they are in Adam by conception. The many die because of the first Adam's transgression. Continuing;]
"... much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ..."
[Who does the free gift abound to? It abounds to all the many elect multitudes who are in Christ Jesus by spiritual conception, (cf. 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:22, etc.) by grace, only through faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, Ephesians 2:8, etc. In other words, the first man gave us a curse that everyone inherits by proxy when conceived. The last Adam gave the many elect a blessing-gift. How? They inherit it because God elected them out of the curse of Adam into the blessing of His Son. Now verse 16 continues with more details,]
"... The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those [not everyone everywhere as universalists speciously try to assert, but "those" specific people being talked about through the comprehensive details of Romans 1-8 and on] who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:14-17
This is the historic lineage of the two races. One results in death. The other results in everlasting, abundant, and beautiful life for "those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness." So, what this means when we look back at Peter's words in our text is that this is how God identifies people. You are either remaining solely in the race of sinful, spiritually dead, people where you proclaim the deficiencies of lostness. Or you are in the set apart nation of cleansed, and spiritually living people. There is an important question that looms in the midst of all of these facts:
"Just exactly how do we get into this Christian race that proclaims God's glory?"
You don't join it like joining a religion. You don't get there by merely changing your name and calling yourself something else, like a Christian. It is an actual race of people. It requires, in a metaphoric sense (or a spiritual sense, if you will) a brand-new kind of DNA. It requires that you get a brand-new life--a brand-new you. You don't join it by doing a ritual. It doesn't happen by mere mental assent. Here is what must happen: You must be conceived into it, which means you must be regenerated, and born again into it. This is the ritual; but God is the one who does it. This is salvation. To be saved is to become dead to the first Adam and his expansive nation (ethnos) of lost people. You must become spiritually alive in the last Adam in His holy nation. Whereas you carry the image, the sin, and the death of the first, you need the image, the righteousness, and the life of the last. You die to the first Adam where you have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you, Galatians 2:20. When Galatians 2:20 happens to you (becomes you) then you are part of the new race that Peter is talking about,
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come," 2 Corinthians 5:17
@2 All who are in Christ are ______________ creatures. 2 Corinthians 5:17
This is what it means for God to form a people for Himself through Christ. All of us new creatures are one in the Lord,
"There is neither Jew nor Greek ... because you are all one in Christ Jesus," Galatians 3:28
"... there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all," Colossians 3:5
God identifies Christians as his elect born-again race. The world, and all those who remain lost in its curse, is something else. That is why Peter goes on to say in verse 11,
"Now you are the people of God."
/2/
This leads to the second thing we notice about being the people of God that exist to proclaim His excellencies. God elected us to be,
"... a royal priesthood," 1 Peter 2:9
Peter is repeating, again, what he said back in verse 5,
"5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a set apart priesthood," 1 Peter 2:5
@3 All Christians everywhere are a royal (kingly) ___________________. 1 Peter
In the Old Covenant, the role of that kind of priest (Levitical) was made clear. The priest's role was to have access to God. The priest's role was to be a mediator between God and humans. Just as we are made to be God's set apart nation through Christ in us, we are made into His royal priesthood through Jesus Christ too. It has to be this way,
Why?
Because Christ is the One Who has immediate access to God. He is the One Who is the mediator between God and humans. The only reasons we are priests in His priesthood, is because He is the Priest in us. In Hebrews 2:17, Jesus is called the
"merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God."
He is the,
"great high priest." Hebrews 4:14
"a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 6:20
"king of Salem, priest of the Most High God," Hebrews 7:1
This is the royalness, of the royal priesthood. Our Lord is called
"such a high priest, set apart, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;" Hebrews 7:26
He is the
"high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle," Hebrews 8:1
Jesus Christ is the perfect, and only, High priest sitting at the right hand of the royal throne in the heavens. Positionally, God's people are seated there too. When you were dead in your transgressions, God made you alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved; and raised you up with Him, and seated you with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:6. The way you need to think about this, then, is that Jesus is the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and all of us who are saved, are royal priests according to the order of Jesus Christ. This is amazing, because this really is what you are. What this means is that you are called out from the world in your election, and you are set apart right now to minister in the very presence of God all the time. Your whole life is priestly service. No matter where you are in this world, your life is a ministering priesthood. Christmas time, work, school, the marriage bed, at funerals, when you go shopping, when you plow a field, or eat a meal, your life is a ministering priesthood. You are never out of God's presence, call, and purpose. You do not need to do ceremonial rites, or rituals, or ask permission to enter into God's presence. Old Testament priests had to do those kinds of things. But for you, in Christ, you are already there. Christ's presence is in you, and you are in Him. You are never in a neutral zone--even in the midst of the sinful, disgusting, lost world culture. Even in the midst of the most horrible sin that you may commit in failure, you are always in a cleansed state; you are always in the inner court of God's temple of victory. Why? Because your body is actually the temple of God's Holy Spirit. This is why you don't need to take your shoes off to walk as if you are on holy ground. You say:
How can this be?
Because you are the holy ground in Christ. If this is true, then what do we do? Our job is to reflect what we are. In other words, we reflect what we are in Christ. You reflect what you are by reflecting Christ out of you. So what this means in very simple and practical terms, (and take note of this) is that your life, in your thoughts and actions, is to always be your spiritual service of worship, where you are continuously presenting yourself as a declaration of the excellencies of God. Again, Your life (as a holy national, kingly priest, and a spiritual house) in your thoughts and actions, is to always be your spiritual service of worship, where you are continuously presenting yourself as a declaration of the excellencies of God.
When people see us, what should we be endeavoring for them to see as God's priests, nation, and temples?
Christ.
When they hear you, they should hear Christ who is always proclaiming the excellencies of God.
/3/
The third thing we notice about being the people of God that exist to proclaim the excellencies of Him, is that God elects His people to be all these things as a distinctly separated group for God to own:
"... a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession,"
@4 All Christians everywhere are a ____________________ that God set apart for His own possession. 1 Peter 2:9
It cost a high price for us to be God's own possession that He made sure that He bought for Himself. He purchased His elect with His expensive blood shed on the cross. It is all actuated for His elect by grace through faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. All of these are the things that form the basis of our identity as the race, priesthood, nation, and spiritual house. We are "the" people for God's own possession. He owns you, and He will never give you away. All these things, (that have to do with God's true children) are meant for the big purpose that I have been building up to through the layers this morning.
/4/
It is the fourth thing. It is the purpose for all of this. It is,
"so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;"
@5 All Christians everywhere are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession, so that we would proclaim God's ______________________________. 1 Peter 2:9-10
Before being changed, not a single one of us could do this. We were proclaiming the typical foolishness of the darkness like the rest of the lost world culture. Now, as God's race of royal priests, we have been manufactured for the purpose of proclaiming everything about God. We do this by proclaiming the excellencies of Him to Him. We do this by proclaiming the excellencies of Him to each other. And we do this by proclaiming the excellencies of Him to the lost world in evangelism. The way we proclaim the excellencies of God, to God Himself, is in praise and worship. One way we worship God is by presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice in the light. In proclaiming the excellencies of God with our mouths, we confess to God that He is excellent. We tell Him that we adore Him. The way we proclaim the excellencies of God to each other is through preaching, teaching, and encouraging one another with the light of God's truthful word. We, as God's priests, have been made for the purpose of talking about Him all the time. Think about this:
In the realm of the special priesthood of the holy nation, God is supposed to be the glorified subject of our conversations right?
We can give testimonies of His grace. We can encourage one another in the goodness of our Lord. We can build one another up in Christ by speaking of His excellencies. God has pleasure in these things coming from us. He created us for it, and purchased us for it through grueling sacrificial pain and suffering in pure humility. Through it all, he will enjoy us forever as we enjoy Him forever praising Him for his excellencies. My mother, who left her earthly body here on the foreign land of earth last week, continues on in the heavenly kingdom according to the set apart priesthood; but now, after physical death, her more perfect existence is to continue worshipping her Father and praise His excellencies forever in His presence. But, there is another arena where we, who are still passing through the world as pilgrims, are to proclaim the excellencies of God, and that is to the lost race. The unholy nation is made up of people who are not yet God's possessions. God has ordained that they should hear about the excellencies of Himself from the mouths of His people. As His priests, we have been designed to proclaim the excellent news of Jesus Christ to the lost. You might be thinking,
"That sounds good, but what exactly do I proclaim? I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it."
It is easy. All you do is proclaim any excellent thing you know of concerning God. Start with Christ. He is God's only begotten Son. He came into the world to save sinners. You can proclaim that you are a sinner, but you have been saved by grace. You can proclaim the excellent fact that you know that you are saved by grace, through faith, in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ for your sins. The point is that God saved you. You are created to proclaim that He saved you. When you do this, then what are you doing? Proclaiming the excellencies of God. Any testimony that you have does not have to be articulated like some kind of professional speaker. To proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, can be done by simply repeating that fact itself;
"I was in darkness. Now I am in the Light. It was God who did this through His plan in Christ Jesus."
Simply saying that He has rescued you is enough to glorify Him. If you get that one basic message across, then you are ministering the fulfillment of what you were made for.
/5/
And then there is the last principle that augments the last layer in all of this. God reminds us of the humbling fact of what we were, as He encourages us with who we are now in respect to proclaiming His excellencies. It is part of the revelation of His excellence.
"10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
It is always sobering for us to consider what we were in the past by considering what we were not. We "once were not a people;" At one time you "had not received mercy." You were separated from God in sin. We were all enveloped in the darkness. Think about darkness for a moment: Darkness is not something that coats over the light. Darkness is like coldness. Cold is not something that cover overs heat. Cold is the absence of heat. Heat is the substance that changes cold. In the same way, darkness is the absence of light. But now you have been called out of the darkness where light was not. You have been immersed into His marvelous light which permeates the darkness, leaving the light of God's glory permeating you. And so Peter reminds us of what we have, in the light, right "now." He says,
"... now you have received mercy,"
"... now you are the people of God."
This reminds me of something that is in the old Heidelberg Catechism of generations ago. Ancient catechisms are usually in question and answer form. The question is asked,
1. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
Then comes the answer,
That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him.
Then comes the next question,
2. How many things are necessary for you to know, that in this comfort you may live and die happily?"
Then comes the answer,
"Three things: First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery. Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption." (Heidelberg Catechism 1-2)
As God's priests, nation, and temples, our understanding of these things needs to always be at the forefront. Though we know them, it is easy to get distracted from the basic truths. When this happens, we become blinded, in a sense, to the fact that we were saved for a specific purpose that comes out of the blessing. Now we are the people of God; now you have received mercy so that you may proclaim all that is excellent concerning your Father. The details of an event that happened in our Lord's pre-cross ministry, illustrate this well. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem,
"as He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!'" Luke 17:12-13
The recognition that God is the one who gives mercy is made evident. Next, Jesus commissions them for a mission, and in the process something miraculous takes place.
"When [Jesus] saw them, He said to them, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' And as they were going, they were cleansed."
Now the mercy is made manifest. They experienced salvation from their disease. When we consider the sin, and death, we were healed from in spiritual salvation, God reminds us of the humbling fact of what we were. We remember who we were in respect to who we are now. We "once were not a people," right? We "had not received mercy." And yet, in God's election, where there was nothing about us that was worthy to be considered exemplary, God cleansed us from the spiritual leprosy of the curse of Adam. Lets look at the rest of the story of the Lepers,
"15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, 'Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine--where are they? 18 Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?' 19 And He said to him, 'Stand up and go; your faith has made you well,'" Luke 17:11
The response of the one who clearly is reminded of the humbling fact of who he was, and who he is now, is that he saw that he had received mercy; He realized that he had been saved. So, what did he do? He turned to Jesus, and glorified God with a loud voice. It is important to recognize that this man was a foreigner. He was not an Israelite who was elect according to the flesh during this Old Covenant event in Christ's Israelite pre-cross ministry. But he was elect. He was an elect man out of all the lepers in the world. Even though Christ came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, in a demonstration of the prophetic grace that God would show to the nations in Christ, the Samaritan man was shown mercy from the High Royal Priest. This Samaritan man was a person for God's own possession. So what does the man do? He does what the Spirit is filling us with this morning in this sermon. The man proclaims the excellencies of Him who called him out of the darkness of disease, into God's marvelous light of healing and mercy. This man's life is a picture of our eternal spiritual salvation. Now we glorify Him forever with our healing.
Let's recap all we have covered: God elects all who are meant to proclaim the excellencies of Him. This election is much like how God has chosen people in the ancient past to be people of God according to the Abrahamic Covenant through Jacob. Peter is quoting Isaiah 43 to make his point, "... My elect people. The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise." Isaiah 43:20-2 LXX. This is now you, me, and all who are in Christ (whether Jew or Gentile) in the New Covenant. We must also remember that all of us who are created to proclaim the excellencies of Him, are elected to be a royal, kingly, priesthood. And then there is that other fact. We are God's blessing to Himself. All of God's people that He created to be worshippers of Him forever, are His own possession. This means that you belong to Him as His property. The big purpose is so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Finally as we remember this, and practice it, we should be contemplating the humbling fact of what we were. We need to consider it in respect to who we are now as those created to proclaim His excellencies. Once, you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. With all of these things in mind, then, I urge all of us to be looking for ways to proclaim the excellencies of God in our homes, in our work places, and in our leisure times. Let's make it our ambition to fulfill our high calling to be living testimonies of God's greatness. Amen.
@1 God's elect people are all those He has ___________________ for Himself. Isaiah 43:20 cf. 1 Peter 2:9
@2 All who are in Christ are ______________ creatures. 2 Corinthians 5:17
@3 All Christians everywhere are a royal (kingly) ___________________. 1 Peter 2:9
@4 All Christians everywhere are a ____________________ that God set apart for His own possession. 1 Peter 2:9
@5 All Christians everywhere are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession, so that we would proclaim God's ______________________________. 1 Peter 2:9-10
