I start out by saying thank you for letting me share with you. We're in the book of 1 Peter and trying to go verse by verse and we kind of got I'm interested in verses four to 10, it's a section. We're looking at verses four to 10, basically verses nine and 10 from this section of four to 10. I'll read the verses and I'm gonna go back and make a little bit of comment. It says, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should 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 now are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. This letter of Peter's, Apostle Peter, he's directing his thoughts to the scattered Christians we'd seen in verses one and two of chapter one, and they are paying the price and counting the cost to live their Christian testimony and really in a hostile, And in this section, perhaps the heart of, this is probably the heart of the encouragement that Peter has for them in his letter. He lists the benefits that God has given to us by his grace when we're saved. There's certain benefits we have. We don't usually have the opportunity to go over them like we have here in Sunday school, but very often, When we say the word of God, we talk about the cost of living a Christian life, but we haven't been talking about what it costs to be a Christian. In this section, we've been talking about what it pays, the benefits, the blessings that we have, and these are spiritual privileges that are our treasured possessions, if you will, and they belong to us because we're children of God. But we're not talking about what it costs to be a Christian in this section, again, but what it pays, the benefits, the blessings, to us as children of God. Peter sort of uses a spiritual kaleidoscope. We'd use that as an example that when you turn the little kaleidoscope and look through it, pointing it at the light, you have these little colored stones that make all different beautiful images. And every time he rotates the kaleidoscope, we see another arrangement of the wonderful beauty of what's ours in Christ. And so the basic jewels of salvation are held up to God's light, and if you will, and grace, and are rotated and they reveal glorious, majestic patterns of spiritual privileges. What is ours? Because we belong to Jesus. There's nothing about duty here. There's nothing about responsibility here. It's all privilege. And I don't know if you remember what keyed it, what brought it in in verse four. It all began with that phrase, to whom coming. And it all begins when we come to the Lord Jesus. And this word coming is a continual coming. It's not a once coming in the Greek. It's a continual coming. To whom continually coming to. When you reach that point, when you're wanting to have fellowship with the Lord on a daily basis. And it opens up this kaleidoscope of spiritual privilege. And so the first spiritual privilege that Peter gives us here is this, he discusses our union with the Lord in verse five. He says, you also as lively stones are built up on a spiritual house. We become the house in which God's spirit actually dwells. We're living stones and we're joined together with the living stone, the Lord Jesus. And then in verse four, we're built up to be the very habitation of God. The second thing we try to share that Peter gives us here, that we have benefits of being believers, is we have access to our Lord. We have access to God. We have access to our Lord. In verse five, it says, we're a holy priesthood. And as a holy priesthood, we have access into the presence to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Thirdly, we share that we have security in our Lord, that Peter shares, we have security. In verse six, the end of the verse, it says, and that he that believeth in him shall not be confounded or ashamed or disappointed. Jesus will never come up short. Never, and this great security, there's great security in knowing Jesus Christ, and we'll never be disappointed, we'll never be disillusioned, we'll never be let down. We're secure in the promises of his word. And there's a fourth thing that we had shared that was one of our spiritual blessings, privileges, if you will, birthright, dividends. Advantages, I tried to write down some different words to entitlement to explain it. The fourth one is affection for our Lord. In verse seven and eight, it says, unto you therefore which believe he is precious. And one of the great benefits of being a Christian is that Jesus Christ becomes precious to us. And we have this privilege of loving him. And love is the most exhilarating, the most thrilling, the most wonderful of all emotions and all expressions. And it so is a spiritual privilege to hold Christ precious and to love him, and love him whom the world rejects. I still remember the first time I'd seen my wife when she was a little girl. I just was so taken back by her. and my socks would go up and down my legs. I just wanna spend time with her, talk to her, nothing, just be around her. That's love. I don't know what that, puppy love is real to the puppies, let me tell ya. Anyway, but that's what we have for our Lord Jesus, a love. We just wanna be with him, spend time with him, wanna pray, wanna read his word. Fifth, and be around his people. Fifthly, we have this, this spiritual privilege of being a chosen generation. In verse nine, that's the fifth thing, I won't get into that. And then sixthly, we have a spiritual privilege of dominion with our Lord. In verse nine, we're not just a priesthood, not just a holy priesthood, verse five, but we're a royal priesthood, which indicates our dominion. We have rule and reign with Jesus. Now Peter turns the kaleidoscope one more time, and you kind of, you come to the seventh spiritual privilege, and that was separation, we had separation to our Lord, union with our Lord, access to our Lord, security in our Lord, affection for our Lord, election by our Lord, dominion with our Lord, and then separation to our Lord, and verse nine says, we are a holy nation, and that word nation is the word ethnos, and it's, from which we get the ethnic groups from. It simply means a people. We're a holy people. And what does holy mean? Well, it means separate. Separate. We're set apart. We're a holy people. All through this passage, Peter's drawing on his knowledge of what? I'll try to share with you. Of the Old Testament, because he has allusion to the Old Testament and quoting the Old Testament. And he says that we're a holy nation. He really had to have, no doubt, Exodus 19, verse 6 in mind, because that's exactly what it says regarding the people of Israel, God's people, and under the old covenant. And you shall be unto me, it reads there. a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This is a particular designation of the people of God. You also find it in Leviticus 19.2, Leviticus 20.26, Deuteronomy 7.6, and Isaiah 62.12, some of the places I found it. I'm sure it's more in the Old Testament than that. It's common to call God's people, even under the Old Covenant, a holy nation. That was common. But how tragic it was that Israel was a holy nation They lost out on being the unique people of God because of their unbelief, and they forfeited the great privilege of belonging to God as a nation. And what was a tragedy to Israel has become a blessing, as Paul notes in Romans to us, he talks about the setting aside of the Jew, and that became the riches of the Gentiles. And God now has a new people, and this will be the new people until Israel finally turns back to their Messiah and accept Jesus, which won't be too long, I hope. They're getting ready in the land there. When Israel finally turns to the Messiah, God'll put them back in. They're on the side rail right now. Sanctification, it's more than just a state. this thing of holy, being sanctified, being set apart. It becomes a progressive life pattern. First of all, when it says you're set apart unto God, it means you're set apart to belong. You belong to God. You belong to God. It doesn't mean that you never sin again. It doesn't mean you're set apart from belonging to sins, what it means, you're set apart from that. Being in bondage to sin, Satan and death, you're set apart to God, and in a sense, that's your positional sanctification. Your position is you belong to God, but that only introduced you into a progressive sanctification whereby your life pattern changes over time. Now, having been set apart unto God, we begin to live for God. And we continue to be more and more separated from sin that so much was the dominant pattern of our life before. That's why on the one hand, Peter can say, you're sanctified in chapter one, in verse two, you're sanctified by the work of the spirit. And yet in verse 16 of chapter one, he's gonna say, you'll be holy, you're gonna be sanctified. You say, wait a minute, if holy means sanctified, and you just said I have already been sanctified, why would you say you shall be sanctified? Because one is positional, and the other is progressive and practical. In positional sanctification, at my salvation, I was taken out of the kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of God's dear son. I was taken out of death, put into life, I'm no longer under my father, the old father, the devil, but my father now is the living God. I belong to him. I'm his possession. I have been separated from sin in terms of its penalty, its salvation, in terms of its impact. I mean, that's my positional sanctification. But there's a progressive reality that I must live more and more in a wholly separate way so that I bring out in the working out of my life the reality of my position. It's becoming what you are. becoming what you really are. In 1 Thessalonians 4, 3, it says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. He's talking about practical sanctification. And there are three kinds of sanctification, there's positional, practical, and then finally the ultimate. And the ultimate sanctification is when we're like Christ, totally set apart to him, and that happens not in this life, but in the life to come. At salvation, we have the privilege of being set apart to God. We become his possession at salvation. No longer sin has dominion over us. And Romans 6 says we're no longer a slave. We're no longer in this uncontrollable bondage. We are no longer the children of sin. We've been set apart as God's holy people. And now we work out practically that position. I've sweated and cried over my notes too long. They're all, my paper's falling apart. I put some time in this one, this lesson. In Acts 26, the Apostle Paul and his defense. Did I just skip a page? Maybe not. The Apostle Paul had a defense before Agrippa. In verse 18 of chapter 26, he's given the group a recitation of what the Lord said to him on that road to Damascus when he was saved and called. In verse eight, it says, he says, Jesus says, I'm sending you to open the eyes, to open their eyes. And that's the eyes of the Gentiles and to them, uh, and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. That's what Jesus said. Hopefully I didn't muddle it up too bad. But there you have sanctification as a parallel to salvation. And Jesus just quoted, it's parallel, like an equal to salvation. By faith you're sanctified, by faith you're saved, by faith you're forgiven, by faith you receive an inheritance. And by faith you go from darkness to light and from dominion of Satan to God. And it's all in that verse. So you have this wonderful privilege. We are now a holy people, the Bible says. But what does that mean? Well, we've been set apart to God. And we're no longer owned by Satan. We're no longer victim and bondage to sin that we once were. We've entered into a new relationship. We're now people set apart to God. And that's the position we have. And progressively and practically, we work toward living in the light of that holy identity, living up to our position, becoming what we are. And we're a holy people, called to be holy. And we're a people separated unto God, called to be set apart to God. And that's why sin is such a disaster in our lives, because it's so contrary to our union with Jesus, our fellowship with Jesus. It's so contrary also to we who are a holy people. And it decries everything about our character, for we have been set apart under God. Now, specifically and practically, how do I view separation in my own life? Well, first of all, what it's not. Separation is not. It's not the separation of a monk. We live up a mile long driveway, almost, at the top of the hill. We didn't do that so we could be separate from everybody, as a monk would. We're not saying if you're going to be practically sanctified, you've got to isolate yourself from the world. That's outer. That doesn't do anything for the heart. There are those who see separation as some kind of a monkish externalism. It's not the separation of the monk. It's not the separation of the Pharisee either. The Pharisee is also outward. He's whitewashed. His heart is full of dead men's bones. It's wretched, but he's painted the outside. And he circumscribes his life legalistically. It's not the separation that we're talking about. It's not the separation of the stoic, who's the kind of guy who believes that it's a mortal sin to be happy. I mean, and they walk around with this prune or dour look. Don't call it a prune face, but a dour look. They have a severe kind of seriousness and a sickening kind of piosity, but that too is an outward thing. Practical sanctification is cultivating an effective, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. When we say we're set apart unto Christ, we thereby, Say not only are we set apart unto him positionally, now that we're the children, his children, but we're set apart unto him personally in terms of intimacy. It's what James 4, 8 said, you draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye to you. And the heart of sanctification is that I cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm already joined to him. 1 Corinthians 6 says, he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. I've already been joined to Christ. That's why my immorality is such a vile thing because it joins Christ to the harlot, I told this in scripture. and they're in that chapter. But what we are really talking about when we talk about a holy nation is first of all, positionally, we're set apart here in Peter, a holy nation. And secondly, we're intimately set apart. And we'll never be a holy person in the fullest sense until we have cultivated that relationship of intimacy with the living Christ. And that's the pursuit of sanctification. Bottom line, what does it mean to be sanctified? Well, it means to pursue such intimacy with the living Christ that it controls your conduct. And you'll never control your conduct outside of an intimate relationship with Jesus. If you don't read your Bible, you don't do the things you should do, fellowship, you know, spend time with the Lord, it will show up in your life. You will not have power over sin. So, I'm gonna go on to the eighth point. Eighth point is not only do we have this privilege of being separated positionally and being in the process of being separated practically and looking forward to being separated unto Christ, ultimately in glory with him. We have another privilege, and here Peter turns, again, this kaleidoscope, and we see possession by our Lord. Possession by our Lord. And not only separation unto the Lord, but possession by our Lord. That follows some of the same thought in verse nine. It says, we're not only a chosen generation, not only a royal priesthood, not only a holy nation, but we're a peculiar people. You say, that guy's kind of peculiar, you know. That's where peculiar has a different meaning. And it follows this thought, verse 9, with not only a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar people, but a people for God's own possession is what peculiar means. A people for God's own possession. It's a possessive thing. Peter's probably thinking of Exodus 19, verse 5, where it says, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And also perhaps thinking of Isaiah 43, 21, where it says, this people have I formed for myself. He says the same thing again that God does in Deuteronomy 7, 6, Deuteronomy 14, 2, Deuteronomy 26, 18, Malachi 3, 17, and a lot of places. The Old Testament, the Israel of old was a people possessed by the Lord. No doubt about it by scripture. And the word possessed means to acquire. It means to purchase, to acquire for a price. And it's the same word used in Ephesians 1.14, where it says, until the redemption of the purchased possession, Ephesians 1.14. It's to purchase with the price. And we're God's own possession, because he paid the price. What was the price? Well, Acts 20.28 says the church of God, which he's purchased with his own blood. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 says, you're not your own if you're bought with a price. And the price was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And in Titus 2, 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify himself of peculiar people, that's that word, peculiar people, zealous of good works. And he required us He acquired us by the sacrifice of Christ, God did. And he paid the price to buy us back from the slave market of sin. And so we belong to him. I can't think of anything more wonderful, really, I don't know if you can, more wonderful. Jesus, my Lord, will love me forever. From him no power of evil can sever. He gave his life to ransom my soul, and now I belong to him. I love that song, I belong to Jesus. So he, Jesus said in John 10 one, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but cometh up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth the door, And the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. They're his own sheep, by the way. We are his own sheep. And then in verse 14, he says, I'm the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and I'm known of mine. I mean, I love that, again, that little song, I'm his and he's mine. He knows us, and we know him. And there's a ninth blessing. Is that clock right, or am I just blessed with time? I guess it's right, praise the Lord. So there's a ninth privilege we have in our little bag of blessings from the Lord when we're saved. And the ninth is Peter turns his kaleidoscope to show us another jewel, if you will, of salvation. The first was union with Christ. The second was access to him. Third is security in the Lord. The fourth is affection for the Lord. Fifth is being elected by the Lord, chosen. And the sixth is dominion with the Lord. And the seventh is separation to the Lord. Eighth is possession by the Lord, and this one is illumination, illumination in our Lord, nine. It says that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness, there in verse nine, into his marvelous light. Well, what is darkness? Well, you know that it's a disastrous state of sin. It's the disastrous state of sin of unregenerate people who are under the darkness of the prince of darkness and Satan himself. Darkness speaks of two things. One is ignorance and the other is immorality. In other words, there's an intellectual darkness and there's a moral darkness. Intellectual means you cannot see the truth. Moral darkness means you cannot see righteousness. You can't see right. And you don't know what's right, and you cannot do what's right. I mean, that's darkness. But Peter says, you've been called out of darkness. You not only know what's right, you can do what's right. And Colossians 1.13, it says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. It's just remarkable because the unbeliever's in darkness, but the darkness is in the unbeliever also. Not only is the unbeliever in darkness, but the darkness is inside the unbeliever. It's just remarkable. It's so pervasive. So you're not only in the dark, but you're a child of darkness. You're walking in darkness. You're not only walking in darkness, you're loving the darkness. Not only are you a child of the darkness and in the darkness, and the darkness is in you and you're loving the darkness, but men love darkness because their deeds are evil. They want to hide the darkness of their sin. And not only is that true, but you don't even know there's light. I think of the coal miners. There's different stories I've read of coal miners and being trapped after a cave-in and being rescued. And some of them, after being rescued, they keep saying, well, turn the light on, turn the light on. They were blinded. In the cave in, I didn't know they're blind until the light came on. Nobody else knew they're blinded either. And so, the lost don't realize they're lost. They don't realize that they're blinded. That's why they can be an atheist for all the years of their life and give no thought to light because the darkness comprehends not the light. So the depth of darkness is profound. And God in his grace simply calls us out of darkness because of his own desire to do that. It's just how rich we really are. And how we must go back to the reality that has nothing to do with anything that we've earned. This is all God's grace. And then Peter turns to the kaleidoscope one more time. And we come to compassion from our Lord. Compassion from our Lord. In verse 10, I love this. 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. You say, Peter, where'd you get this? Well, it's a quote right out of Hosea chapter one, verse six. Me and this chair are gonna wrestle in a minute. You know, Hosea, his wife, she conceived him, gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said, I want you to name her Ruhamah. I'm gonna pronounce it wrong. And the Lord says, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I should ever forgive them, but I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen. And when she had weaned Leruhama, she conceded and gave birth to a son. And the Lord named his name Loami. If you are not my people, I'm not your God. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand to the sea, which cannot be measured, or numbered, and it shall come about that in the place where it said of them, you're not my people, I will be said to them, you are the sons of the living God. So he reaches back, and Peter does here, and he captures that, the slots of Hosea chapter one, where God says, you're not my people, but you will be a people. And there will be a time when you will not receive mercy, and then a time when you will receive mercy. But when you're brought into the New Testament time, that which is said of Israel, of old, here applies to the Gentiles. You can compare Romans 9, verse 15, where he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Then down to verse 23 and 26 of Romans 8, the same thing it says in Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my people, and her who is not my beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in that place where it's said to them, you're not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. And that comes right out of Hosea chapter two, verse 23. So Peter reaches back and captures, again, the same text which Paul uses in Romans chapter nine. And in the case of Peter, in this case of Paul, It refers to the church, who once were not a people, but now are the people of God. And particularly the Gentiles, we were the no people, the Gentiles. And now we're the people of God. And it's an interesting thing because it indicates that Peter's not writing, I like this, there are some rabbis say that Peter is written to the Jews and not the Gentiles. This is only for the Jews. But I think this verse here says this is what the Gentiles do. Gentiles are in this book right here, okay? So I'll question the rabbi and say, Rabbi, I think you're wrong on that. But I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that. I know people, the Gentiles became God's people through mercy, and so just what is mercy? I mean, basically pity, basically compassion. I mean, the old covenant could substitute the word loving kindness from the familiar Hebrew word hesed. It is God's withholding from us just punishment for our sin. That's the idea. It's God's withholding from us, again, just punishment for our sin. There's two kinds of mercy, and we could call one general mercy. General mercy, what do we mean by, By that, well, it's in creation. General mercy is actually in creation. It's seen in the providence of the widest range of human beings. It shows us his patient pity and his forbearance, compassion to sinners because God has mercy right, he has a right to just burn up all the sinners right now. gone, but his forbearing compassion to sinners, God has every, again, every right to consume them immediately, but all those who don't know him, those who reject him, those who hate him, but in Lamentations 3.22, it says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. It's not, you know, and there are limitations. Jeremiah's not really identifying any group of people. But he's compassionate. And Psalms 145, right at the end of verse nine, says, the Lord is good to all, and has mercies over all his works. There's just a general mercy that means that people aren't burned up, they're not consumed. And what it means is that he alleviates the present full potential disaster of sin, And maybe that's the best way to say it. God mercifully eliminates the present, earthly, full, potential disaster of sin. That's a general mercy that comes on all people on this planet. Isaiah 27, 11, it says, when its limbs are dry, they're broken off, and women come and make a fire with them, for it's a people of no understanding. and he's talking here about people who aren't discerning, and yet he says, they're not a people of discernment. Therefore, the maker will not have mercy on them, and their creator will show them no favor. And Isaiah is saying there comes a time when the mercy of God runs out, and His compassion runs out, and the full potential of sin is felt. And we're talking here not about general mercy, Again, the last word in verse 10, but special mercy. This is the mercy on the saved, saved people's mercy. It's a unique mercy and it's equally undeserving. We don't deserve it. We're sinners just like everybody else. But for some people, God is generally merciful in this life by alleviating the present full potential of the disaster of sin. For other people, he alleviates forever the potential disaster of sin, as a Christian's case. And those are the saved who receive not only the general mercy in this life, but the special mercy in the life to come. So he bestows compassion on the victims of sin by forgiving their sin. In the case of the unregenerate, he withholds judgment He will until that future time of judgment. And in the case of the elect, he forgives the sin and he eliminates the judgment when you're saved, the moment you're saved. You say, why? Why does he do that? Because he wants to. Why did he want to? Because he's a God of love. Why did he choose us? I have no idea. I don't know, nobody does. But God is a pardoning God. That's what Micah says. Who is a pardoning God like you, Micah says, who's so merciful? So you could say, why did God choose us, Romans 9, 15, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and that's all he says. And you say, but he says, is the pot trying to say to the potter, why did you make me like that? It's not the wretchedness of the sinner that causes God to show mercy. God's not sitting in heaven saying, oh, I feel so sorry for all the sinners. I'm so emotionally distraught by their sin that I'm gonna be merciful to them. He does not show mercy out of a certain feeling for, again, the wretchedness of man, because if that were true, then God would be merciful to everybody. And God is not influenced by the misery of sinners, or he could save them all, because all sinners are miserable. But that's not the compelling issue. Secondly, it's not because some of us sinners are more worthy than others. None of us are worthy of it, right? I mean, if it weren't, it wouldn't be mercy because mercy is holding back just punishment that we deserve. And all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. And that term that Isaiah uses is really a gross term for filthy rags. And God is not merciful to some of us because Christ made it possible for him to be merciful. You hear people say, well, now that Christ died, it's possible for God to be merciful, and he wants to pour out that mercy because of what Christ has done. And if that were true, since Christ died for all, and mercy would be available for all, then God would save all. But it's not the wretchedness of the sinner that compelled God to show mercy. It's not that some sinners are more worthy than others of mercy. It's simply that because of the work of Christ, God can now be merciful. And those who say, why did God choose me? Why did God choose me to be merciful? He chose because he wanted to be merciful. And that's all we know. I mean, we have been influenced by We have been chosen by the uninfluenced sovereign love, again, before the world began. Let me just skip over that. In Psalm, I was getting carried away there a little bit in my notes. In Psalm 57, 10, thy mercy is great unto the heavens. And so there's one final one, it's a spiritual privilege, and that's a proclamation of our Lord. We're privileged, it says, There in verse nine, we're a holy nation, a peculiar people, that we should show forth the praises of him who hath called us. We're blessed to be able to be a witness to others. That's a blessing. We're ambassadors for Christ. That's the last point I wanted to develop here, and we don't have time, so I'll just unhook our wagon. But we're ambassadors for Christ, in verse nine, that we should show forth the praise of him who called us out of darkness into tomorrow's light. All of our fellowship with the Lord Jesus should lead to that. If we realize how, We represent the king of kings and lord of lords, the creator of everything. There's no way that we should be, that it should hold us back from being able to be a witness for him. When I talk to somebody, if I have that in my bag, the king of kings, I'm his ambassador, I'm the creator's ambassador. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I need to be able to witness boldly the glory of the saving God. who has broken into time and space to save humankind, to save mankind, if he'll just be willing to come. He said, whosoever will may come. And that still stands true today. Anyone that wants to be saved can be saved. Thanks to the Lord Jesus. Thanks for letting me share with you.