God's corner stone and identity with Christ - part 2
1 Peter 2:6-10 · Roger Henderson · Mar 29, 2015
1 & 2 Peter (2015), No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926459393509

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, today we're going to end, actually it's not apparent in your Bibles, you won't see necessarily a major division here, but starting in verse 11 of chapter 2, it's kind of a new, there should be some more handouts coming, hopefully. So, I apologize, there's more coming. So actually, when we get to chapter two, verse 11, there's a new section that starts.

The section we've been talking about is what has been called the believer's common salvation. We're going to kind of go into an area where we talk about the believers. And actually, Macaulay calls it his common duty or his common practice, basically.

And it's become a switch in focus here. So I'll start next week. It's going to talk about the word submission, to authority, to masters, and so on. So that's kind of a switch we're going to see next week. This is kind of the end of this section today, with the last two verses, 9 and 10, in chapter 2. So if I could get someone to read verses 6 through 10 in chapter 2. Doris, would you? 6 through 10?

That would be great. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye shall show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Yeah, thanks Doris. Okay, well today we're going to cover the last two verses here. And verse 9 is a particularly interesting verse. And we're going to see here that this U, it says, but you are a chosen race and so on. It's going to talk about basically our position.

This is addressed, the U kind of refers back up to the first verse where it talked about Peter when he addressed them. He says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens. scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia and so on. He's talking to the immediate context to those believers in that area by application to us. He talks about the characteristics or the The resume, if you will, the resume of a believer, the first part, the A part, I'll call it, up to the so that, that's kind of the resume of the believer.

Or we could call it our position in Christ. But what we're going to find out is that that phraseology was used in the Old Testament. We're going to see that God used that phraseology of Israel, and I was going to use that phraseology of the Church. And it's kind of important, I'm going to spend some time showing and differentiating between the Israel and the Church. But starting with the so that, so that is what they call a purpose. When you ever see a that or a so that, it ought to be like a little flag going up. Here's a purpose. A purpose that you may do something.

You may proclaim things about Christ of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And he talks about some more characteristics of the believer. But verse 9 is going to be a very interesting verse. We're going to see the position and purpose of the believer. So with that kind of in mind, we're going to kind of just kind of jump into, and we're just going to review the first three, or the first ten verses of chapter two, kind of broken down by Macaulay, basically the believer's growth, we saw in the first three verses of chapter two, and we saw his sacrifice, the sacrifice, and we talked about that, this holy house, where we as believer priests present our sacrifices, and we're going to talk more about that a little bit today too.

And then lastly, today our witness, or basically our, as some have called it, our commission. Now we see what's called the Great Commission in Matthew, in the Matthew there. Well this is going to be a commission that's focused on the Church. What is the Church's commission? And actually, I had not realized one of these things when you study God's Word is so wonderful, things that you didn't see before, didn't understand before. Verse 9 is a really key verse. It has been called the commission to the church, if you will.

Kind of contrasting that with the commission the disciples received. So we'll see that. So actually, I want to put this in context. We'll have a nice little write-up. And if you've been around Holly Hills for a while, hopefully you kind of see where we come from.

We distinguish between Israel and the Church. Some would teach that the Church has replaced Israel. But if you read Romans, it doesn't say that. Romans says, I set Israel aside. God has a plan for Israel. And that's what we believe, what Romans says about that.

So, Cosmogus goes through and he says, Israel is a physical race of people. literal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The church, in contrast, is a spiritual race, members of which share common characteristics of faith in Christ, and are both Jews and Gentiles racially. Christians are a spiritual descent to Abraham. We're not Abraham's literal descendants. We're his descendants by faith. And if you were an ethnic Jew, you could be ethnically tied to Israel.

So I thought that was kind of a good little write up. I'm going to refer to Constable a few times during today. So that's kind of the beginning point. We're going to talk about this believer's witness. First about his characteristics and who he is. And in that handout we're going to look at a lot of those riches of God's grace. That's kind of our, if someone asks you, It makes this email a little bit silly.

Do you have a resume as a Christian? I think that little handout, two pages, that's your resume. That's who you are in Christ. That's what God has done for you on your behalf. That talks about you being born again. You're a child of God. You're a son of God. That's your spiritual resume. That's the last page in the handout.

And we're going to refer to that quite a bit. So let's just start off. It says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. So the first phrase there is, so actually I've already kind of answered this. Who is you referring to? I kind of already gave you the answer when I was talking about it.

Referring back to the beginning of the book here. Referring back to, in the context of the Jews who were scattered in that area. And then by application to us. And let's look here. So we're going to see that in Exodus 19, 5 and 6, there's a similar verse that has a lot of these words in here. So let's turn to someone to read Exodus 19.

Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a particular treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. There are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Great, thank you.

Interesting, look in verse 5. Do you see any condition on what God has promised Israel there? In our case, do you see a condition on this one? He just said, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are I thought that was kind of, I hadn't noticed that initially. So we're going to see by virtue of your faith in what Christ has done on the cross, you have this spiritual resume. In Israel, Israel was conditioned upon them obeying and listening to his voice. And we see it very much so. That's about the law. It's all wrapped up in what Israel had to do. And they couldn't do it. Just like we can't do it.

So here we see God presents the same kind of message, but he says, you are a chosen race, you are a priesthood, you are a holy nation. And that's who we are in Christ. Now, do we live? Does our condition match our position? Many times it does not. But that's who we are in Christ, and that's important to remember. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give a few little lines on the church and a few little lines on Israel as we go through.

Chosen race. The word race is this word genos. Genos refers to a group with a common origin. So what's the common origin of believers in the church age? I quoted some verses there. Off the top of your head, what comes to your mind? What is our common origin? We're all believers here in the Lord Jesus Christ. What's our common origin? What binds us together?

The cross. Okay, that's good. There ought to be a lot, right? I gave you that spiritual resume. That's why I gave you that spiritual resume. There's a lot. the riches, every believer, no matter, you know, you quote the weakest believer, we quote great believers, I mean, it's kind of annoying, it's kind of a silly thing.

God says, you know, you have faith as a child, you know, as small as a mustard seed. He doesn't rank, well, this person has great faith and this has little faith. He doesn't say you shouldn't have great faith. He just says, to enter the kingdom of heaven, He doesn't rank you. All who are trusted in Christ are on the same Same playing field.

And we have that wonderful resume. We may not realize we have that resume, but we have it. So that's my point. So the common origin, like in 1 Peter 3, it says, one of the things that comes to mind, you've been born again, right? You have a new birth. That actually is spoken of in 1 Peter 3 and also in 23. You've been born again. Now if you have that list of 33 riches of God's grace, you'll see that there's a whole bunch of other things. We're a new creation in Christ. We've been regenerated. We've been made alive or quickened. We've been made righteous. You can go through that list. And almost all that list would be the common origin of believers, what we have in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in contrast to that, Israel was a physical race of people, literally descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, versus the church being a spiritual race. So we see that we have a spiritual resume, a spiritual set of truths about us, in contrast to Israel saying, well, I'm of this nationality, I'm this people. Very important people that God chose those people. They were the apple of his eye. But there's a difference, and that's kind of my point. The point is that we have this wonderful spiritual resume, which is different than Israel's physical resume, so to speak. Okay, so any thoughts on chosen race? We're going to go through each of those. Go ahead.

It's obvious that the physical race was seemed to be controlled by the sin nature. All throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites were always turning to idols and all that. Being ruled by the sin nature, I'd rather be a spiritual race. Because we're controlled by Christ. But we realize that we have this, there's a war going on too, between the flesh and the spirit.

I agree with you, what God has done with the church is, I'm very thankful he's done that. Because you see how Israel didn't do too well. And we can argue we don't do too well when we're not walking and abiding in Christ. We don't do very well. It says whatever not of faith is sin. So we can be in the same position as Israel was. But I think we are in a better position because of the Holy Spirit living in us. We should be able to do better. Do you think so? Still not perfect.

The next one is a royal priesthood. Royal priesthood is this Greek word. It comes from the idea of a king. So you can translate, we are a kingly priesthood. That's what this, in the church age, we're a kingly priesthood. But we're going to find that God referred to Israel, again, using the word king as well. So I use this quote of the gospel again. Every individual Christian is a priest before God. We function as a priest to the extent that we worship, intercede, and minister.

So let's read. We read this last week. Let's come back to 1 Peter. I just want to read verse 5. 1 Peter 2.5. Or maybe there is someone to read it for me.

I want to read 1 Peter 2.5.

You my living stones let yourself be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptance of God through Jesus Christ. Great, thank you. So the thing that I was kind of thinking about in this idea, we're a kingly priesthood, we talk about the functions of the priesthood, we worship, we intercede, and according to verse 5, we also, we're being built up to a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So what do you think, can you think of some The word spiritual, or the word sacrifice, what do you think of in terms of the believer? In the New Testament, some verses come to mind that talk about sacrifice. What kind of sacrifices are acceptable to God? What kind of spiritual sacrifices are the believers to be involved in?

We're not going to do what Israel did, right? We're going to do something different. I'm sorry. Sacrifice of grace. Okay, that's one thing. There's more. Another one? The flesh. What's that? The flesh. Okay, give me a verse for that. The dying self. Okay, keep going. Romans.

Romans 12.2. I don't remember. Present your body, a living sacrifice. I was trying to guide you down. That's what occurred to me. That's another one. That's number two I'd say.

Present your body as a living sacrifice. What I did to find out what's on that list, I basically searched on sacrifice. You don't maybe get all of them, but you get a good part of them. You get the sacrifice of praise. You get present your body as a living sacrifice. Are there any others that may come to mind? Those two are two that I remember easily. Other ones I didn't quite remember as well. There's a few other ones I think. I think that's good. Another one? How about the one in Hebrews?

Doing good and sharing with others is acceptable to God. Monetary, we see that Paul talked about accepting a sacrifice from Epaphroditus. When they gave you monetary money? I don't know the verse. You give up your own needs to help another person. So there seems to be several of them that are kind of common origin. They're helping others, sharing others, giving monetary funds. They're all kind of in a group of ones like that. So there's at least three categories I saw of them. the praise one, sacrifice of praise, giving your body a living sacrifice, and then the ones that are helping and sharing, and there's a bunch of verses that talk about that.

So that's what kind of occurred to me as what our Kingly Priesthood as a believer is all about. Roger, on Constable's example there, he has the inner seed, would you be able to expand on that a little bit? Intercession is usually prayer, right? Usually you're praying for someone else. Let's say if you have something you've asked me to pray for you, I would talk to God and I would intercede on your behalf. I would pray for you and say, Lord, my brother here has an issue and you know about it and I would bring you before him. That's what intercession to my understanding is.

Prayer is the bigger umbrella maybe. And then actually in Revelation there it talks about basically, and he has made us. Notice this is what's always cool. You look in the New Testament, you look under grace, and we have all these things, all these verbs that say he's done this, he's done that, he's done this, he's done that.

Revelation 1.6 says he has made us. He didn't ask us. He has made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father.

So that's why our spiritual resume is so important to understand what's in your spiritual resume. Because sometimes you may pray and ask for things you already have. Lord, you already have that, I give it to you. I want you to recognize that, and count upon that, and believe that. So that's what's really cool. And then I have a contrast. Israel was a kingdom of priests. And then part of the verse we read earlier, he says, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So he had, you know, there's very, there's similarities in God's plan, but the execution of that plan in the church age is just marvelous.

And I think we're talking, it's just, and it's so wonderful. You can hardly believe, it's grace. And versus with Israel, it's, Obeying, there's this regimen, and it's just so difficult. And it proved to be impossible then to do. All right, so that's the royal priesthood. OK, holy nation. A nation is the translation of the Greek word meaning a multitude of people of the same nature. And this one, I didn't even write a verse down for this one.

All believers have the same nature, which is Christ's nature, and it's holy, and set apart to God. So we have the very life of Christ, and His desire is to live His life through us. It's so important to remember that that's what a multitude of people of the same nature, that's what binds us together. And then basically, another quote from Constable, God redeemed Israel, adopted the nation at Mount Sinai as the one that would be different from all nations throughout history. So you begin to see an ethnic physical thing versus a spiritual thing, something that God did on the basis of grace and the life of the church, the believers.

And the last one is a people for God's own possession, The Greek word speaks of a unique, private, personal ownership of the saints by God. And here's what really kind of drove me to keep talking about this riches of God's grace. Once again, we've got to go back to that listing of the riches of God's grace. I just kind of listed a few of them that are in there. I said we see many of these possessions in there where children of God adopted We're made near. We're a gift from God the Father to Christ. We're within the much more care of God. Could someone just read, I don't actually have, I gave away my last handout.

Could someone read on the, which is of God's grace, the section under the much more care of God, just the titles, if someone has that, just read those. I think it's on the back. I think there's about six things that are in the Much More Care of God. Object of His Love, Object of His Grace, Objects of His Power, Objects of His Faithfulness, Objects of His Peace, Objects of His Consolation, and Objects of His Intercessions. Great. Thank you. I mean, it's just, you know, you start going through that list, and that doesn't just, quote, blow your socks off. I mean, it's just, How can this be true? In fact, it's almost so beyond what we can imagine. All this is true of me.

God didn't ask me to do one single thing other than trust Him. As Mike Doyle was saying, I don't get any credit for that. I don't get any. God doesn't give me credit. He says, you believed in me. That simple act of trust and faith. And I've given you this marvelous Blessing, my wonderful grace, pour down upon you, independent of anything you didn't have to do, you didn't do anything for. I just gave it to you because I love you.

It's just incredible. With Israel, God wanted to dwell among the Israelites, to make his own unique possession, residing among them. Picture the wilderness, you think about the pillar of day by night, He was with him all the time. Day or night. That was a marvelous thing. In God's plan, he knew that Israel would not accomplish what he wanted for them. He knew that his plan would have to be carried out. His son would have to die. He knew all of that.

All right, so that's the first section of this verse. Basically, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. So now we're going to get to the so that. But I wanted to first kind of just put down what Macaulay said. And actually, I didn't actually realize until I saw this, I read that and I actually listened to it, So basically, Macaulay makes the point that this verse is the Great Commission to the Church.

He says, 1 Peter 2.9 is the Great Commission that specifically addresses the entire body of believers. And we saw that. This is called the General Epistle of 1 Peter. It's not to one specific church. It's to a group of all the churches in that part of Asia. So it's to an entire body of believers.

It says, for it's God's universal purpose for all believers, God has only one will and one purpose for every Christian. It's the same for all. So we're going to dive into this a little bit more, but it's very interesting. Let's just look for a second. Turn to Matthew 28. Let's just look at what everyone says.

And this is a marvel. diminishing the Great Commission I'm just saying this is so much more specific to the church age and what we're about and and looking at the Matthew 28 starting verse 16 I think it's key to see who it's addressed to it says but the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee the mount which Jesus had designated And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, So he's speaking directly to the eleven disciples, right? And then he says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you, So I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So wonderful things in there. And that is as you're going, that they go there.

And the thing that's probably more focused on us in the church age, Making disciples is not the focus. Making disciples is not the topic. We don't disciple people, but we're not... Making disciples is more focused on that time period. Actually, Vern has a little paper on that, if you're interested, about how does making disciples fit into the church age.

And that's not really the focus of the church age. But the rest of it here, we know. Baptizing, we know. We see the baptismists that follow. Salvation, if you look through the book of Acts, you'll see that. Teaching them. Teaching them about the Lord Jesus Christ. All those wonderful, wonderful things. But the point here, this was focused to the disciples and by application to us.

What's in 1 Peter 2.9 is the church age, and this is what the church would be telling people about Christ and what he's done and glorifying him. We're going to see the so that part of this verse. We're going to see that. So what's the purpose of this? To proclaim about who he is, who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So now we're going to get to the next part.

So, like I mentioned before, when you see so that, it's the idea that it's with a purpose that you may proclaim. Proclaim is the idea to, and actually it has the idea of kind of like proclaiming the gospel kind of idea, but also it's just proclaiming anything about who God is.

And let's look at 1 John 1.5, and it's going to use going to use a root word for this, and it's actually translated Announce here, in 1 John 1-5, and this is a message we have heard from him and announced, that's our word to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So this idea that we are to announce or proclaim We're going to proclaim these wonderful things about God.

That word there is actually the core of the excellencies about Him. It's actually the virtues of Him. We're going to proclaim His virtue. Who He is and what He's done. Let's also look back at 2 Peter 1. and verse 3. Can someone read that for me? 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Okay, you have goodness, okay. Actually it could be virtue. Does someone have something else besides goodness or virtue? I have excellence. OK, excellence, good. So that's the same word here. So basically, this is from Macaulay this time. We're to reclaim his excellence, our virtues. And so the root word is this word, I'm not sure I can pronounce it. Arethae. Arethae means one of notable character and noble acts. So we proclaim the virtues of his notable acts and character. A believer is to proclaim the noble character of God and the noble acts of God. This alone forms a great commission.

So our focus, if you think about it, when we present the gospel, we present, and if you look at The statement of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, we present basically who Christ is and what he accomplished. If you look at 1 Corinthians 15 for a second, just look at that. So this idea of proclaiming his virtues, his acts and what he has done, it lines up very well with what we are going to talk about in terms of So it says 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

So if you look at that, there's only a few things there. Basically it talks about Christ, or literally it's the Messiah. So that's who he is. He's God, he's the Messiah. And then what did he do? What happened? He died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures.

So it fits very nicely with the believers proclaiming the noble character of God. You could argue that it doesn't talk too much about his noble character. There's a lot more verses that talk about that. But certainly his noble acts. So the focus of the message that we tell people now is who God is and what he's done. Those are the two key factors for what we tell people today. We don't focus too much on becoming a disciple, not that disciple isn't important, but we focus on who God is and what he's done. So that's why this verse, I think that Wyatt McCauley points this verse out as being, hey, that's really our job right there, to tell people who Christ is and what he's done.

So now after we've talked about that aspect, We're going to talk about some of the additional things he said, who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So literally, it's the one of the one who having called you out of darkness. So what I did here, I decided to just go ahead and put in, I can put in here that this is a participle and it's aris active, but sometimes it kind of gets lost. So I decided just to kind of, Now this is a past point fact that God has accomplished for us. Once again, just like we talked about the richness of God's grace, this is all part of He's called us out of darkness. So that's an accomplished fact that God did for every believer. And called is this idea, actually this is something I hadn't thought too much about. We see the idea of chosen. Chosen and called are actually, I was thinking about what Vine had to say here. Chosen and called are very, very close in the idea here.

If you turn to Romans 8.28, or if you can quote it from memory.

Romans 8.28.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. So there are different words for called and chosen. But very similar in ideas, right? If you're called according to his purpose, you could argue that that's almost the same as saying you're chosen according to his purpose. I mean, this is not a huge point, but it just kind of helps. That when he says to you, you're called out of darkness, that was God's intent, that you not live in darkness.

And so you could argue that that's part of his choice for you, as of what you believe. That's part of this. That spiritual resume doesn't happen. until you believe. You don't get that spiritual resume until you believe. And this idea of call being associated with children, I thought was kind of interesting.

So out of darkness, and Hebert says darkness, and looking at a bunch of scriptures, we're going to do it in just a second. Darkness aptly symbolizes the state of sin and spiritual ignorance, and the consequent wretchedness of the unsaved. There's two verses here I think that are really good. For he has rescued us from the domain of darkness. If you think about that, according to this verse, darkness is a domain.

We have some computer people here, right? What's a domain, Roy? Well it's a place where you do your work on the internet. You get an address and everybody that wants to view what your work is, they go to that address. Right. So it's an area, right? It's a place, it's a... I don't know. It's a location. It's a storage place. Okay. Alright.

My analogy might be a little bit off here. I was trying to point out here that we were... Being outside of Christ, we were in this area, in this lifestyle, in this existence that was outside of its darkness. It couldn't see the marvelous light of what God has done for us. Bring to my mind an area of authority over under somebody.

OK. OK. That's good. That's good. And actually, I apologize. I didn't look up. It would be better here if I looked up the word. So what the original me. I didn't do that. So I'm coming in here a little bit. I apologize for doing that. Yeah, that's good. So. And actually, if you think about it, if we are if we are under the. If we are not in the light and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is in control of this? Who is in control of this world system? Right? It is not God. God is not unaware of it. His things are not out of control.

He has allowed the prince and power of the air to have his domain. And that is the domain we are in. He's transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. So we've been out of this domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son. And then in Thessalonians there it says, but you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you as a thief. So we've been transferred out of this domain of darkness. And then the next part, the good news, into his marvelous light. And that's the word ice, or ace.

And the word into refers to a result, a saint being participants of light that God is in his nature. We are made creatures of light. And this is what I mentioned before, the statements and the verb tenses are all with the idea that God has accomplished it.

He did it. He has transferred us from darkness to light. We are now participants of light in his nature, the very nature of God. And we are made creatures of light. So incredible. And it's called marvelous, wonderful, admirable. And light is from the word, the idea is to give light.

One of the best places to look there is, can I have someone read 1 John 5-7, it puts it on chapter 1, 5-7. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Great, thank you. So, those verses, first of all they make the statement which I was looking for, that God by his very nature is light. And then it goes on to talk about our fellowship with him, our interaction with him. So there is an opportunity, unfortunately, for us not to walk in the light. and we do that sometimes, but his desire is that since we are children of light, we walk on the light.

And there is another verse that kind of occurred to me, the one in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse who alone possesses immortality. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testifies to good conception before a conscious pilot, that you keep the commandment without strain or reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time, He who is blessed, the only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. Now I was going to talk about His character, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in an unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. I'll read all that just for the verse 16 there, the idea that he dwells in unapproachable light. So another modifier to the holiness of God's light. And we are partakers of that. We are made creatures of light. We are in him, and he's in us. So that's verse 9. So all this time on verse 9. So then the last verse, verse 10, actually has, there's like two sections to it. There's actually two contrasts in verse 10. The first contrast is, I'll just read the first part of it here.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. So the first contrast, literally, at one time, you were not the people of God. So if you were in darkness, from the previous verse, if you were in darkness, you couldn't, you know, God requires that people he interacts with, he wants to have fellowship with us. We have to be equals in a sense. We can't be God, but we have this incredible relationship. So something has to change.

He says you are not a people, and a verse came to mind. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in this world. So that was, you're not a people.

Actually, I would scratch out 1 Peter 2.25. That actually doesn't exactly apply, but I apologize for that.

But now you are the people of God, or literally God's people. But now Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So Christ's death on the cross, his payment for our sins, and be identified with Him as we have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So that's the first contrast. You were once not a people, but now you are the people of God, or we're God's people. That's contrast number one. Oh yeah, and I wanted to just point out, let's just look real quickly. As you might think, he said some similar things to Israel. And it's kind of good to make sure we just kind of see them. So let's look at Hosea. Okay, Hosea chapter 2, and it's the last verse.

And I will sow for her, myself, in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And here's the part that I was looking for. And I will say to those, you are not my people. You are my people. And they will say, thou art my God. And this chapter kind of talks about some of those aspects. And this is little pieces, maybe, of what is spoken up here. But this is pretty strong. For once, you were not a people, but now you are the people of God, by God's action.

And the last contrast in this verse You have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So, I just want, once again, I looked at the tenses and said, well, maybe it's better to try to write it out. You have not received mercy in the past. So that perfect tense, it has that meaning. Something that, a past completed action with abiding results.

You have not received mercy in the past, and you continue not to receive mercy up into the present. So that says you're in disdain of unbelief, or you're in darkness. That's your state. You have not received mercy outside of Christ. No hope in this world.

But then there's a but. But now you have received mercy. And this is an Aorist passive. But at a point in time, that's the Aorist idea, a point in time in the past, God acted and bestowed mercy. And I added, based upon our faith in his grace. All right. Hope you guys are excited about your spiritual resume. Send that out to all your friends. Email your friends, here's my resume. That's your resume? Actually, if they understood just a teeny bit of that, they would be totally amazed.

And most of them would say, that can't be. You've got to do something for God. Most people, you know, who is Dr. Chaffer? Race is the most hated principle. Race does not go well with man trying to do something. It runs against that. Race is an opposition to God pouring out his love toward us. Man wants to do something. It's against our natural inclination.

I'm a worker. I like working. And I feel good about my work. And now I work for Jesus Christ. And he's a much, much nicer swing master than I like to work. That's good. And work is good. He has to know. We are his working ship, right? Creating Christ Jesus on the earth. Which Jim before beforehand? No. Come here. That's the thing.

He did it all right. He did all the work and I didn't do anything. And that's just contrary to what I'm here to think. You know, all these years, 60 years old, I've been thinking for the whole system. Wow. Right. It's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. And he has work for us to do, but it's realizing that he's prepared it, and we're to walk in it. So that's cool. That's hard, too. Any last thoughts?

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you that you have done these marvelous things on our behalf, that we have this wonderful truths about us, Lord, that are just so incredible.

They're so incredible we can hardly even understand them. And we thank you that we have your spirit to guide us and to understand. We pray that those truths about us would help us to see and guide us as we walk in this world. And we're prone to be drawn away from, even drawn away to things that where we are not beneficial to us. Lord, we pray that you help us to keep our eyes focused on you, focused on the marvelous truths about ourselves, so that we can work the works that you prepared for us. In Christ's name, amen.