And turn to the book of 1 Peter, in chapter 2, and verse 9 will be our text this evening. Would you stand to your feet? I have respect for the reading of God's Word. As we pull this one verse out of this chapter, out of a book, We don't do it in order to rest Scripture, but hopefully we see it in its context here. Because of the sake of time, I can't preach the whole book tonight, so we're going to look at this one verse. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. Peter writes to the elect of God, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. That you should show forth the praises of Him, who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Let's pray one more time. Father, as You describe Your people in these verses, I pray that You would teach us our duty. I pray that You would cause us to see what You have made us in making all things new for us. I pray that You would to quicken our hearts and our minds this evening to be further goaded in our submission to You, in our service to You through our love for the brethren in the world. We ask all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated. Peter writes this first of his two epistles which we have canonized in Holy Scripture. And he's already said here in chapter 2, a few verses earlier, he's talked about the priesthood of believers in verse 5, and he mentions it again here in verse 9, a royal priesthood. In the very beginning, the opening of this epistle, he talked about the fact that he was writing to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God in chapter 1 and verse 2. And so he says similarly in this verse, you are a chosen generation. But I don't want to lose in using some of these words that have become familiar to our ears both through the reading of this epistle and the reading of the whole Scriptures as we become familiar with the way that some of these verses read. This is a verse that I don't think is new to you. I don't think anyone here tonight is saying, I've never seen that verse in the Bible before. Wow, that's amazing that that's there. But I don't want the repetition of it. I don't want the words themselves or the way in which they're structured together to become so rote to us that we don't think about what's really being said here and what the meaning really is. Because when you begin to break down this verse and you begin to look at the way in which the words are structured and are put together, there really is a bit of a an oxymoron between the way that the adjectives and the nouns are put together here. They don't really fit. It's not the way that you would regularly see generations and priesthoods and nations and peoples described, with the description that Peter ties them to. in this verse. And so, hopefully, as we go through this evening, we're going to break some of these down, and we're going to look at what they mean, and why they're put together that way, and how that ought to affect us and our lives for Christ. But in starting out, perhaps just in a way of introduction, we see that this verse is part of a larger context just by the opening words. No thought is begun with the words, but ye. just the very fact that it opens up with the words, but ye, tells us that he's contrasting it to something that has previously been said. It tells us that there's a context in which Peter put this thought, and there's a contrast that's being drawn between the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, and someone else. Perhaps, by intimation, by the fact that it's put the way that it's put, it's a different kind of a generation. A different kind of a priesthood. A different kind of a nation. A different kind of a people. Because he says, but ye are this. Not what has previously been said. Previously, as Peter described the work of Christ, he said that He was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, So now he moves from the work of Christ to the way that some people react to the work of Christ. Christ is, in fact, to them, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And so he uses that description of who he is to a certain group of people to describing the group of people whom he is that to. Even to them, which stumble at the Word. being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." So we have three kinds of ideas here defining this group of people that the elect of God are being contrasted against. These are those who were appointed unto disobedience and stumbling at the Word, but ye are a chosen generation. These who reacted negatively to the word of Christ are those who were disobedient, but you are a holy nation. These who were offended at the rock which was placed there by Christ, they stumbled at the Word, but ye are a royal priesthood." So there seems to be some contrast here in these words that Peter uses as he contrasts them against those who are offended at Christ. Who hear the Gospel and don't want any part of it. who say, well, I won't serve a God who would be a God of wrath in such a way that He would cause His own son to be killed, to be crushed under His own thumb. I'm offended by that. I stumble at the idea of a Lord who demands holiness and obedience from His people, who would expect there to be a nation subservient to His kingship. He says there are some who stumble at that. But not you. You, as the people of God, have been given a different kind of a grace. So when you see these words, and as I said, it's really just an introduction. We're going to look at what these adjectives and nouns mean as we see a generation being described as chosen, a priesthood being described as royal, a nation being described as holy, and a people being described as peculiar. Those aren't just thrown out in a vacuum. This is Paul saying, you are different from the world. And that's going to become important also as we get into the second half of verse 9. But I just wanted to make sure we're all on the same page there. But ye, different from the world, are this, a chosen generation. Now, if we stop and we think about these things, the ways that the adjectives fit with the nouns, the way that the describing words fit with the words that are that thing, that people, that object, they don't really fit. Because a generation isn't chosen normally. Whatever generation you're a part of, you were born in that generation. You didn't get a choice as to which generation you were going to be in, nor did anyone else have a choice as to which generation you were going to be in. You were just part of that generation. As I was looking up the idea of generations and the way that people who study cultures and history and even the culture in which we live, they say there's six generations that are currently alive. In America, particularly today, is the way that these generations are structured. There's what they call the GI generation. And the GI generation are those who were born between 1900 and 1926. These are those who are old enough to remember World War I and probably fought in World War II and were veterans by the time of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. So they're called the GI generation. These are those who have seen so many of the horrific wars of the 20th century. Then those who were born between 1926 and 1945, I think, these are called the silent generation. You were born in this period of time. You mostly were raised in a period of time where you were taught to be quiet, to work with with your hands, to do as expected of you. Your idea of living out retirement is probably sitting on your front porch and things being peaceful. You weren't the generation that was necessarily out there revolutionizing the world in the 60s and the 70s. So we call this the quiet generation. Then you have the baby boomers. Everyone's heard of those between 1945 and 1964, those who were born in that time period, where we had such an influx of people born after World War II. These were the people who were very revolutionary. We saw the world change in incredible ways as these people were beginning to reach adulthood. We saw a change in the culture's music. We saw a change in the culture's reaction to sexuality. We saw a change in the culture's reaction to war. All of these things were so much turmoil going on in the 50s and 60s and 70s through what we call the baby boomer generation. Then you have Generation X, or the latchkey kids who were born between 65 and 80, those who were usually going home to an empty home after school because both parents were out working. We have Generation Y, or what we call the Millennials, those who are reaching young adulthood around the time of the turn of the century. This is the generation that I fall into. And then you have Generation Z. So we've got Generation X, Y, and Z. I don't know what the next generation is going to be. We could start back over at A, or we move to 1, or I don't know what we're going to... call the next generation, but those are a basic breakdown of the six generations that are alive in America today. What do you notice about every one of those? None of those are there by anyone's choice. Nobody chose to be in the GI generation. Neither them nor their parents chose that they could be part of the generation in which they were born. It's just the way that it happened. Just the culture which I was born into. Just the generation I was born into. And so the idea of there being a generation which is a chosen generation goes against every idea that we have about what a generation means. If you were born in this 20 year gap, you were part of a Generation. How is one chosen into a generation? Well, what do we know also about the word chosen as it's used in the New Testament, particularly by the Apostle Paul in his book to the Ephesians? In the very opening of that book, in chapter 1, he says, you were chosen before the foundation of the world. So those who are children of God, those who are part of this chosen generation, they're part of the eternal generation. How can someone write a letter to a group of people scattered abroad and say Joshua Miller and Edgar Michael are part of the same generation? Because both of us were eternally in the mind of God, born in the same generation, at the same time, in that it was before time. God chose those who would be His, before the foundation of the world, and so that's the generation that we're a part of. We're a part of the eternal generation, chosen by God, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, although it was manifested in our lives along the timeline that God gave us. So we have in our minds, well, there's Adam, and there's Abraham, and there's the prophets, and there's the apostles, and there's the early church fathers, and there's the reformers, and there's the Puritans, and there's us, and all of us are part of the chosen generation. All of us are one generation. It's brother Adam, and brother Paul, and brother John Calvin, and brother Tommy, and brother man who's going to be born 500 years from now if God so chooses to continue to bring His people to glory for that much longer along our timeline. We're all part of the same generation. We're all brothers and sisters in Christ. We're chosen that way. And therefore we have equal footing generationally in Christ being chosen. Secondly, we see that He describes us as a royal priesthood. Now again, the fact of Christians being priests, who are part of a priesthood, has already been introduced to us in this epistle in verse 5 of this same chapter. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 5, just a few rows up in my Bible, Peter wrote to these Christians, and he says, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. Now those two words seem to go together, right? A holy priesthood. That's what we expect. We expected the priests to be holy. We expected them to be sanctified. We expected them to be set apart to the work of God. We have the book of Leviticus, which tells us how the Levitical priesthood was supposed to be different from the rest of the children of Israel. Priests are Priests are set, and that's what the word holy means. It means set apart, it means separate, it means different. And so when he introduced this idea of all Christians being priests, in verse 5, he first describes it with the adjective holy. And that would make sense, probably, to these Jews and Gentiles, who both understood that the role of priests was the role of sanctified separate people. But the idea of a royal priesthood, perhaps, smacked of incontinuity, particularly to the Jews. The Levites were the priests, and the tribe of Judah was royalty. They were very distinct, they were very different, and never did we see in the history of Israel the twain meet until Jesus Christ. You didn't find the high priest for the year also being the one who sat on the throne. That didn't happen. In fact, when the king offered a sacrifice, instead of waiting for God's prophet to come, the priest to come, to offer the sacrifices, it was that sin which caused the lineage of Saul to be broken. This was the sin, which God said, for this, the kingship will be passed to David. Because the king is not supposed to be the one offering sacrifices. The priest does that. So there was a stark difference in the Israelites' mind that had been clearly emphasized by God as to how the priesthood and how the royalty were to exercise and execute their particular roles which God had given them. But Peter tells the church that they're both. They're priests and they're royalty. They're sons of Levi and sons of Judah. Well, this can be the case because, as I mentioned, Jesus was both. Jesus was both priest and king. Jesus was the priest after the order of Melchizedek, who came and who offered that sacrifice once for all God's people. And He is also the King, who is seated on the right hand of the Father, who will return as judge, who comes on the white horse, who comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. And so all those who are in Christ are under the headship of Christ, royal priests. We're royal priests in the fact that we don't go to another man to intercede for us. But we are, in that sense, priests who go to the High Priest, King Jesus, to intercede for us. We don't bring a bullock to another man to be sacrificed, nor do we even bring the confessions of our mouth and our heart to another man, but we have been given the freedom and the ability in Christ to go straight to the throne of grace. Straight to the mercy seat. Straight to that place where the blood was sprinkled, without any other intercessor. And so, in that sense were priests, and in the sense of sons of God, were royalty. Now this idea, when you really think about it historically, secularly, it's a very vile notion to lost men, and it is a in some respect unattainable notion, to saved men. And so these two words seem to clash. What is more reprehensible to a lost man than to suggest that there is a priesthood that ought to be royal? The Church of England tried to have a royal priesthood. They said that the king was the head of the church. They wanted to unite the two. We'll have the king as the head of the church, and therefore we have a priesthood, and we have royalty intertwined. In Islam, you see things similar to that. The word sheik in Arabic, And if I'm wrong here, Brother David can correct me afterwards, but from what I was reading, from what I was studying, it originally was given to royalty. Someone who was the head of a tribe in an Arabic nation or an Arabic group. They were the sheikh, they were the head. But now it's also taken on a connotation of those who are religious leaders are called sheikhs. And so if you're a leader in Islam, even if you aren't particularly royal, you're called a sheik. And so you have in that sense, perhaps, a blending of the two. What do we know about Rome? That they deified their Caesars. In fact, it was this very thing which caused so many Christians to be murdered. To be martyred. Because they would be given the opportunity to declare, Caesar is Lord, or you die. And they would say, we have no king but Jesus. Off with their heads. Because Rome wanted a holy priesthood outside of Christianity. We see this even as far back as ancient Egypt, who did the same thing. Their pharaohs were gods to them in their mind. And so, all throughout history, we see secular cultures trying to have a royal priesthood. and it never working on a physical plane. But spiritually we have it in Christ. Spiritually we have this merging of these two separate and distinct roles as we usually think of them. God and His people has perfectly made us royalty and a priesthood. Now He calls us a holy nation. and I started to get ahead of myself a moment ago, this is the thought that is so distasteful to the lost man, that of a holy nation. If you try in our day and age to have any kind of a rational discussion with someone, and you so much as suggest that something along the lines of the Word of God ought to be used as a standard for the governing of a nation, and it's as though you are the weirdest, fringiest cult out there. Oh, you're one of those, oh, God's king. Oh, okay, so you're just going to push the ideals of this book that was written by men about their God. So you'd be fine with Sharia law then, wouldn't you? Because you just want religious law shoved down everybody's throats. These are the kind of rants that people go on if you so much as suggest that there ought to be a nation that abides by holiness. That there ought to be righteousness and justice that governs a nation. This is so distasteful to the mind of the lost man. He wants no part of it. He would rather be governed by the 10,000 commandments of men than the 10 commandments of God. He would rather be governed by the most tyrannical rule of evil and wicked men than he would be by the merciful and light justices of God. They don't want holiness. They run from holiness. They hate holiness. They despise the light because their deeds are evil. And so they love the darkness. They don't want anything of a holy nation. And on a physical plane, speaking of the world as a globe and the nations which make it up, The saved man equally needs to realize that there is not a wholly set-apart, beloved country, nation of God. We get this idea confused sometimes in trying to put a nationality, in trying to put a country as that which is holy and separate and set apart unto God. I'm thankful for the godly heritage that exists in our country. I'm thankful for the foundation upon which so many of the laws of this country were built and the men who stood for the righteousness of God's law in the founding of this country. But don't get confused with American exceptionalism and American imperialism as though we are God's chosen people. Because we live in America, we're something special to God. Just because we still say, God bless America, or one nation under God, does not any longer make us truly a holy nation. I don't want to get too far off track here, but when we buy into some ideas of American exceptionalism, as if I won't buy anything unless it's made in America, because the Indian employee doesn't deserve to feed his family, only American employees do. I mean, stretch out what we're saying here. Now, if you only buy things made in America, good for you. I'm not saying you're living in sin by doing that. But think of what are the underlying structures behind the way we think sometimes. Sometimes we become so fiercely patriotic that we forget that we live in a country that blesses and funds the murder of babies. that blesses and sanctions and calls good and holy and the picture of Christ and His church, two sodomites coming together. This is the country in which we live. A country which calls good evil and evil good. We're not a holy nation as America, as the United States. Nor is Israel as a place on the map, as a patch of ground, God's holy people. A lineage, a bloodline. They are not God's holy nation. Peter tells us very clearly here, who is the holy nation? God's people. God's elect. All those whom He has called out of darkness into His glorious light. This is the holy nation. This is the country in which we have our citizenship. This is the nation which has a truly holy and righteous King. This is the nation that is special to God because He's chosen it out. He's purchased it for Himself with the blood of Jesus Christ. We do live in a spiritual kingdom whose citizenship and government is entirely holy. And then he says, fourthly, that we are a peculiar people. Now, on the outset, this seems like the most rational pairing of words out of the four. A peculiar people. We're a people, again, if you study cultures and countries, a lot of times we define groups as people groups because sometimes that has a more definitive aspect to it than just a country. Sometimes you have two countries that are very close together that are almost identical in their people groups. And sometimes within a country you'll have three or four different people groups. And so maybe when we use the word people-groups, this gives you a better idea of what he means when he says a peculiar people. He's talking about not just a nationality and not just an ethnicity, but all those things which make individual cultures and groups of people different from each other. And you would think, well, by its very definition, by its nature, A people group has to be peculiar. There has to be something that makes them unique, and that's what makes them a people. What's the difference between the Ethiopian and the Pygmy? The Pygmy is shorter. What's the difference between the Ethiopian and the Egyptian? The Ethiopian is darker. What's the difference between the Egyptian and the Chinese? The Chinese has more slanted eyes. What's the difference between the Chinese and the Italian? The Italian has more olive-shaded skin. What's the difference between the Italian and the German? The German has lighter hair. All of these things that differentiate between peoples make them, in some way, peculiar. So for Peter to say that we are a peculiar people, well, that seems to fit. Only if we define it that way, it seems to fit too well. Because why then say peculiar, if every people group is in some way peculiar? And I think it's because what makes us different, what distinguishes us as a nation, a priesthood, a generation, a people, is peculiar, is different from the distinguishing marks or the peculiarities of other peoples. Everything that makes other people groups peculiar is physical. What makes us peculiar is spiritual. And so you have among this peculiar people group Blond hair and dark hair. Short and tall. Thin and fat. Asian, African, European, Australian. In fact, the scriptures tell us that there will be those around the throne from every tongue and tribe and nation. So there will be all peoples represented in this people. And so what distinguishes us isn't anything physical. But we're peculiar. And that word peculiar, in its Greek form, where it was written in Greek, it has a special connotation to it that means purchased. A purchased people. Not just a different people, but different in this way, that we were purchased. Now, when have you ever heard of a people being purchased? Now we might say, representatively, the African people were purchased during the transatlantic slave trade. You might say, equally, that the Irish people, representatively, were purchased when so much of them went into poverty during the potato famine and sold themselves into slavery. And so you might look at periods in time where mass groups of people from one people group were enslaved or purchased, but never do we see an entire people that is peculiar because of the fact that it's been purchased. It's been bought. There is an owner. There is a master. There is someone who has purchased this entire people to himself. And in purchasing from every tribe and tongue and nation, he makes them a people that is only distinguishable by the fact that he has purchased them. Their only distinguishing mark is that they belong to Christ. That He's brought them, that He's put them into His kingdom. He's made them His citizens. He's made them His sons and His daughters. He's made them priests unto God. We're peculiar, not only from every other people, but we're peculiar for the reason that makes us peculiar. We're different from the way that other people are different. We're spiritually different. And so He gives us these four pairings of words, and then He says this, Semi-colon, that ye should show forth the praises of Him, who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. So Peter tells us, there's a reason I used the words I used, and above that, there's a reason that God made us these things, which I've just described in these words. And the reason for that is so that you might show forth the praises. of God. Show forth the praises of Him who has called you from darkness into light." The reason for these odd pairing of words, the reason for these grinding adjectives and nouns being seemingly forced together, the reason God chose to use those things which seem to not go together, that seem to be contrasting, and has chosen to beautifully and perfectly meld them together, is that His praises might be shown. So he says, I've given you something that will catch the world's attention. And here's what I've given you that will catch the world's attention. It's a nation that's different from any other kind of nation that we've seen distinguished before. It's a people that's different than any other kind of people that we've seen peculiarly before. It's a priesthood that's different than any other kind of priesthood. It's a generation that's different than any other kind of generation. And God says, look, I've given you something that will, when rightly acted and lived out, will catch the world's attention, to give you a platform to praise Me on. So why do we... use a million other platforms and sideshows and exhibits to try to catch the world's attention. You don't need extravagant, immoderate, worldly actions in order to catch the world's attention so that you can teach them about Christ. This is the rationalization that we hear used so often in American Christianity. Well, if we'll just have the craziest and wildest music, that'll draw a crowd, and we can tell them about Jesus. Well, if we'll just have the biggest and best food, if we can just throw a party and give candy like nobody's ever seen before, then once all the world are here, we can tell them about Jesus. Jesus says, through Peter, I've given you something that will cause all the world to look at you, if it's lived out right. If you're actually living as a generation that doesn't identify with Generation X, or Generation Y, or the baby boomer generation, people are going to say, what makes you different from the rest of your generation? Because I'm part of a chosen generation. I'm not molded and governed by the society in which I was raised. I'm not forced into a certain stereotype based on what year I was born. I'm part of a chosen generation. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Chosen to be holy and without blame before Him. When we are a priesthood that looks different than any other pagan priesthood, When we are showing ourselves as royalty that's different than any other authority structure that the world might subjectively put up. When we are part of a nation that identifies less with America and whatever America becomes, and more Christ and what Christ has always been. When we're a people that's less white, unless American, unless whatever else you think causes you to fit in the people group that the rest of the world would say you're a part of, and instead identify more with the people of God. Not based on skin color, or height, or hair color, or language, but based on ethics and moral and righteous law. a people that are governed by the grace of God, that's going to catch the world's attention. That's going to give you a platform from which to praise the One who called you from darkness into light. And you won't need to stand on your head and spit wooden nickels. Living holy, living righteous will catch their attention. And lastly we see that You should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." And here Peter gives us the reason which we want to be praising Him. The reason that we want to have a platform. The reason that we want the world to be paying attention to us. The reason that we want to be different from those who stumbled at that rock of offense and were disobedient unto it. We want to be different from them. We want them to look at us. We want them to listen to us. Because we want to tell them about the One who made us different. Because we have seen One who is so surpassingly beautiful. Who is so... exceedingly, abundantly, transcendently satisfying to our souls, that we want the world to know about Him. We don't hate them. We don't want them to go to hell. We don't want them to be eternally separated from Him. And so we do, as Spurgeon said, and if they will go to hell, they will go with us grasping at their ankles. Because we want to give praise to this One who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. But even more, even more. Not to degrade, not to de-emphasize our love for the lost. But even more than that. Our love for this One, who has called us out of darkness and into light, is the reason that we want to sing His praises, though all the world still goes to hell, though every lost man does jump over our bodies with us grasping at to their ankles, we still continue to sing His praises, we still continue to proclaim His goodness, because it's praise to Him, not ultimately about them. ultimately about him. In the book of Zechariah, we read a story of the priest, I believe it was Zerubbabel, who put the final capstone on the temple. He put the final headstone on that place to which the Jews would come to worship. And Zechariah said that when that headstone was brought forth, there was great shouting of people crying, Grace! Grace unto it! And I guess I said that wrong, because the Bible says shouting, Grace! Grace unto it! The people lifted up their voice and shouted, and so as God brings forth that final capstone, that headstone, that one who was both the cornerstone, the rock of offense, the stone of stumbling, and also the capstone, that final pinnacle on the temple, and He places it on high, at the right hand of the Father, having lived perfectly, having died perfectly, having been raised for our justification, And now He ascends on high, and the pinnacle is put on that place where all God's people come to meet with God. All God's people cry and sing, grace, grace unto it. Grace be given to our God, to our King, who has made us a chosen generation. Who has caused us and lifted us up as a royal priesthood. Who has separated us as a holy nation. Who has differentiated us as a peculiar people. All our hearts desire is to sing to everyone that will listen. And when no one else will listen, to sing to Him. Grace. Grace to it. Grace to Jesus. Grace to that one who's finalized the work that brings us to the Father. Let's pray. God, how splendid You are. You are thrice holy. You are eternally holy. And You've called us to be a holy nation. You've made us a royal priesthood. You've chosen us as a chosen generation and a peculiar people. Cause that to be a truly motivating work. That we would not be outdone by Israel, and a physical temple which only shadowed the substance of the real Christ. But let us use this difference, this platform, which causes the world to wonder at what makes us different, that we too would be known as the people who are shouting grace, grace unto our God. We thank You for the grace upon grace that was poured out upon us. Give us faithfulness to lift it back to You. We ask all this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.