Dear people, will you please open your Bible to the first letter of Peter, chapter 2. As we look at 1 Peter 2 in verse 9, there is a portion I want to look at in preparation for our hearts to come to the Lord's table. And as you look at verse 9, let me read it in your hearing. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellency of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now, what I want to do is turn to this verse as we come and prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper. Now, as we look at this, we can see what Peter is doing here, and we have studied it out. We have clearly seen in this verse the wonderful grace of God displayed to those who he chose for himself out of a sinful race of man to make them his own special people. Peter now explains how the blessing of God's grace has been bestowed upon those who were chosen, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him. Peter says, here is the reason what God has done. Now he looks back and he says, yes, we know all that the Bible says and what God has said to us. And that is basically that God had love for those who he had chose for himself before the foundation of the world. And that we would live in such a way that They would understand. That is, the dead world would see and understand what Christ is all about. But what we find here, what Peter is saying, is that this, what he says, causes us to truly understand the depths of what God has done for us, who we are, and how we are to look at him. And as we see this, we see the wonderful grace that God has given for us and what he has shown to us. But Peter, in this particular letter, he's concerned about how we live as Christians. As he wrote to those five churches out there in Asia Minor, he was basically telling them what you are and what God has done. Now, he wrote to those churches, but he's writing to us also. We could be out in Never Never Land as far as can be concerned also. But Peter is writing to us now that we may see and understand. He wants to take God's word and give it to us, build us up because he's have seen the glory of God, not only when he was with Jesus Christ and walked with him, but even after he went up to glory. And then basically now he is the one who has filled the church with his blessings and with his power and with his spirit. And Peter's saying this work is a powerful work that's being done. Peter mentions in this very verse that who we are and notice this and let us never forget this. He says, but you are a chosen race. a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And he looks at that and everything he says there, it goes back into the other verses before and shows that there is now a new thing being made by God's people through Jesus Christ that was not the same as was made in the Old Testament system. Remember, they had their priesthood, they had everything, but now you are He's speaking to the churches. He's speaking to every single individual who are the members of the churches, who have been called out by the Lord Jesus Christ. But you are, he says, a chosen race. In other words, you are a group of people that does not exist upon the earth. You are not looking down who you are as far as your nationality is. You're looking now upon who you are as God's eternal glory, and you have brought him for you, excuse me, for himself, a chosen race. Then he says a royal priesthood, and as we saw that, there was the old priesthood under the Old Testament, and you had certain people who had to do that. Now he's saying you are a chosen, a royal priesthood, every one of us, he's saying, who is truly saved. We are priests before Jesus Christ and God. We're bringing offerings to him, and he's receiving our offering. And he goes on, he says, a holy nation. And dear people, one thing I can constantly say, we are not of the world. We are not of this world. And here Peter mentions that you, what you are, a holy nation. You are a nation that's made up with the glory of God and all that God has done in you and how you walk before him with your life been lived to his glory. He has done something in you that has not been done in any nation on the face of the earth. And good thing we can see that he makes it clear that it's God in his word. He takes out of every kindred, tongue, and tribe those who will bring to himself and serve him as this holy nation. And he says, a people for God owns possession. Oh, yeah, we look at a lot of things as far as the world is concerned. People love their possessions. They think things up. They belong to them. We see the world and how it's going on. and nations, they believe that they're the ones should have all the power and everything. But here he's saying, we are people for God's own possession. We are his. He looks at us. He called us out. He loves us. He saved us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he said, all that, why did he do it? And he says that in the next phrase. Look at the next phrase. so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." He says, I called you out for a purpose. You are a royal priesthood and even a chosen nation for a purpose. Dear people, We can look at it and we thank God that God has been merciful to us, that he has saved us. Here we are out of the mass of humanity and we think about it, he saved us and he brought us into his kingdom. And what we do, we look at the aspect of it from our vantage point is that what we have received and who we are right now. But Peter is saying something else. He says, we need to look at who we are. Look again. So that you may proclaim the excellence of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous life. All that he says above is a purpose for it, and that's what we, you and I, are here to do. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him. So he says there's a purpose for the Christian, and that purpose for the Christian to sow a dead, dying world, the glories of God. the wonders of grace, who God is and what he has done. And so this is the very thing I want to come to you. So as we look at those particular things, all he says, when he says the excellencies, he says you and I and every church as a church are going to be picturing and displaying something before the world. And he calls it his excellencies. Well, the word means the virtues, meaning his power, his wisdom, his holiness, and his kindness, especially displaying and calling them to salvation. All that was shown, that is what is being now displayed to the lost human race. Even to the angels in heaven, they can see it. Notice how the Apostle Paul states this fact in Ephesians 3 and 10, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to rulers and authorities, even in the heavenly places. The world is looking at us. Us, when I say, meaning those who are saved and in the Lord Jesus Christ. This little church right here now has the eyes of the angels in heaven looking down upon you. Dear people, we are not some obscure people somewhere hanging on to some religion and hope we'll be something, some way it's gonna work out for us. That's what many are doing when they're religions. They're hoping what they're holding on to will pan out in the end. But hear God saying, we don't have to hope that because he is the one who's working in us. that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." Now, what he's saying here that there's something that has taken place. We looked at this, I just wanna use this verse again in preparation for the Lord's Supper. Remember, he says, the reason for their calling was to display the wonderful blessing of God in salvation to sinners. The Bible uses the idea of light and darkness, you know that, to teach the difference between sin and righteousness. Darkness represents sin, wickedness, and a life that is carried away in all kinds of wicked ways. It means no spiritual understanding where evil deeds are carried out. This is the natural state of all humanity from birth. We come into the world in our fallen state due to Adam's sin. We live our lives in sin because it is the state of our lost nature. And that's all we can do from ourselves and out of ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4 and 6 says, For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. It is Him who's done it. And do you remember John 3.16? Turn there with me and notice what the Lord Jesus says now as he's talking to Nicodemus. And he tells him something. He lets him know. Nicodemus had a question of who he was. And so Jesus tells him all things. But notice what he tells him in John 3.16. Notice what he says. You know the verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Verse 17, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. but that the world might be saved through him. And then he goes on in verse 18, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. But sometimes we stop. God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. But notice how he goes on in this verse, and notice what we find him saying. He says in verse 19, this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. And then he says in verses 20 and 21, for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light for fear that his deeds may be exposed. Verse 21, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifest as having been wrought in God. Here where Peter is speaking about, he's talking about all the light and the darkness, what has taken place. And he says, this is the very thing that you and I must understand now, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness. into his marvelous light. Hear what we have, you and I have, and this what the Lord has done for us. Men love darkness because their deeds are evil, is what it says. It is in darkness that sinners can hide their wicked deeds, and they go on and they can live. They do all kinds of things they want to do, but they do it in the darkness. Now as here, what Jesus and also what Peter is saying is not that they're in some dark room somewhere. He's saying that their sins are so horrible and all their deeds are horrible and this is all they do is they hide them in darkness. He said, now they won't come out. And as John says, Jesus says in John's gospel, they will not come to the light. They don't want to be exposed by their deeds. They want to continue where they are. This is a clear statement that the sinner is brought under the divine influence of the true character of God in Jesus Christ no longer walks in darkness. The one who now comes to the place Jesus speaks, Jesus come to that heart, that person turns from darkness and into light. Away with this stuff of the world saying and they believe that you could be a Christian, but yet you could still have all the fun you want in sin and wickedness. Oh, yeah, we're not sinless. We're going to sin, but we don't like it when we sin. They are those who sin and they make even excuses for their sin. And I said, you heard me come say a few times earlier on, when we go down to the mission and we preaching to those men in the mission, they come and they're all full of all kinds of sin. They talk about loving God and this and that, you know, but I'm a sinner, you know, I know I'm gonna do better. You know, and we had to tell him, no, you still a sinner. You don't know anything about God. You heard about Jesus in the Bible, in his word, and God who created all things and created you, but your darkness had not been changed yet. You still are in your sins. And dear people, there's some people who are walking in churches in this day, singing in choirs, standing in pulpits, and they have more darkness in them than some of the people in the pews. But they believe that they are right. Peter is saying here, here is the purpose why you have been called to this, to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness. Paul says in Ephesians 5 and 8, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light. And if you see that, turn to that passage with me, Ephesians chapter five. And notice how we find that Paul is telling how he does it, what is the real change and what has taken place in the believer and how now they are no longer even consider themselves what they were at one time. Ephesians chapter five. And you find how Paul tells us about it. We have that eighth verse and it says, chapter 5. Yeah, for you were formerly darkness. Notice, formerly darkness, but now you are light in the world. Walk as children in the light. Verse 9 as it goes on, for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to God. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." He's saying, here is the way they live, and they live that way. But he's saying, if Peter comes to us, he's saying, this is not you. You are different. The Bible makes it clear. that there is a line of distinction between the people of the world and those who are saved through the death of Lord Jesus Christ. In the mass of humanity, some walk in darkness and some walk in the light. It is very clear today how people of darkness are and who they are. They make up every category of humanity. They are sinners that never have never been saved and are not new creatures by the power of the gospel. They live by that. Oh yes, some of them may take words in their mouth and use them as their, I am one going to the church, or I am a good person, so and so. And what they do in most cases, they bring God down off his throne, bring him down to their level, so they can say they can please him. He looks at me, and he not has anything against me. That is making even their horrible, dark hearts flow on their darkness even to on God. In this massive humanity, this is what we have. What they do, they are sinners of every stripe all around us. They live and they cling to and they pamper their sins and they want them more than anything. They make every excuse they can to stay in their sins, but that's not what it is. He says of those who truly called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Paul says in Ephesians 5 and 8, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the world. Oh, dear people, as we think of this and we look at what Peter is saying here about the darkness, you and I must think through it. Darkness and light speaks of how a person lives in this life. And as I indicated to you, Peter is now telling the churches how they must live as Christians. It is for self and sin how the people live. They look at themselves, they look at their desires, they look at what pleases them, what happens, and that is it. And that's what the darkness does. Or is it for God that they live and for Christ? No, they do not. Are you more concerned about who you are right now? There's darkness in your life. Do you see any sin there that you have actually, as it were, put right on the shelf and you rub it and stroke it and pet it and you want to keep it and you don't want to do anything to get rid of it? Well, brother, sister, you better see if that is not you longing for sin more than God, or if it's something that you can truly get rid of. And if that's the case, you ought to be able to do that. Because Peter says here what he has done, he's called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. There are the questions that come to you. Here, when you think about it, are you more concerned about who you are? what you want, what you deserve. You know where that comes from? That comes from the flesh, where darkness still maintains in us. Darkness is in this flesh. You see, in the spirit, we're made new in Christ Jesus, but in the flesh, we're still warring against this flesh. So if we come to the point where we are more concerned about who we are and what should be ours and how we should live and what we want and how we are treated and even fussing with everybody. Remember how Peter starts this whole chapter off Therefore, verse 1 in chapter 2, putting aside all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and all envy and all slander, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect of salvation. Those who love their sins and walking with their sin, there's no life in them. They have themselves confused and they think that they are All right, but what Peter is saying here, he says there are children who walk in the light. Remember, Peter says, God called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The change from a sinner to a Christian is not what the sinner does. Oh, no, forget that stuff they tell you in some of the churches and everywhere. Come to Jesus when you feel like it. Decide on Christ. We're too dark in our sins to make a decision like that. We are overtaken by our sins. We could never do it on our own. And so here we have to understand, it is not what we do to become a Christian, it's what is the work of God and what he has done in us. God must call the sinner to salvation. He must awaken the sinner from death to life in order that he may see his wicked, sinful soul in himself and who he is. John puts it this way, Jesus actually say in John 8, 24, Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. And, oh, dear people, there's a lot of people who are walking around now thinking they have Christ, and they're going to find out at the end they're going to die in their sins. Remember what Jesus, when he said, there'll come a time when he's going to call over, and he said, Lord, haven't we done this, that, and the other thing for you? He said, depart from me. I don't even know you. But they thought they were serving Christ, didn't they? They even give all these things that they did that they said was to the glory of Christ. Jesus said, I don't know you. Oh, dear people, Acts 4 and 12 says, The Bible is clear. that there is only one means of salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus into the world to save those who he planned to save, and they were chosen before the world was created. His plan included Jesus taking all the sins of his chosen people on himself and up to the cross and dying in their place. And that is that spiritual death we're talking about. He had real death crises, but that was to take that spiritual death that you and I would go through if we remained sinners. And here's what Christ did. He went to the cross. But that brings us to the Lord's Supper. What are we doing when we take the communion and remembrance of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? We are celebrating his death. That was God's plan. to save us from a life of darkness and sin. See, God didn't just have it for people to say, well, I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, you know, I don't have to worry about anything. No, it's the entire life, who we are, what we represent as we walk in this light, who we're showing ourselves to, and those who we come in contact. How about those on the job? How about those in the neighborhood? How about those in the family? What do they see? God sent Jesus into the world to save those, not to put some kind of label on them. Last week, we went to vote. And as we went to vote, and they give you this little button, sticker, put on your coat when you went in, come out, I voted today. Well, you know, and that's probably good for that. But some people think they got a sticker. I'm trusting Jesus. And that's all they have, is something that they put there. Nothing has been done in them by God. It is what they themselves have done. We are celebrating the Lord's Supper today. What are we celebrating? We're celebrating His death that was God's plan to save us from a life of darkness and sin. And he is making a display of us as the proof of his almighty power of salvation. Remember earlier on in chapter one, it says angels are looking down, peering as it were over heaven to see what was going on as God was dealing with man and making him what he was making into him. The angels in heaven, and they're doing the same thing. I believe, brother, they're looking down even on this little flock right here. And no, they don't have the mind of Christ and they can't do what Christ do, but they're looking and seeing, here's what people are doing. They've been called to Christ Jesus. We may look at some things and call it not so important, but they're probably looking at it and they are, however an angel may do it, wow, look at the work of God in that little group. This display is to the angels in heaven and to all the people of the world. Jesus is saying here, as she said, Peter is saying here, God is showing to the world what you as a Christian has done. The Lord's Supper, we are confessing that our sins and our lives of wickedness have been forgiven by God through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in our place. Therefore, when we take the elements and we agree that there is no way we could have been brought from spiritual death to life except by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning we are children who now we walk in the light. Oh, dear people, our lives are not our own. We have to look at that and say, if we have really belonged to Christ, if we really are saved, we have to see and understand what has taken place. Just imagine, you truly who are as Christian, you've been called by God, you've been chosen by God before the foundation of the world, before he made Adam and Eve, before he said, let there be light, God He knew what he was going to do. And he knew where we were going to be born. It amazes me that how even some of us brought together. You go back, you talk about your family line, where you come from. It comes all the way down to that till it gets to you and you were chosen. And he did that not the day you were born, before anything even existed. And here we are. Here's what he's done to us. But he said, as he has chosen us, all of us, he knew as we come into the world, we would be nothing but a pile of darkness and sin. And he would change that. And he said to his son, the only way it's going to be done, you would have to take it on you. Take all their sins, and I have to pour out my wrath upon you instead of them. And you're going to die for them. And as you die for them, they're going to live. And then what's going to happen, they are going to be, as we would call, the children of light. And they're going to walk in the light. This is what they're going to do. And Jesus says, yes, he's going to do. The body you have prepared for me, and he came into the world to do just that. Oh, dear, dear brethren, when we think of that, what are we really doing when we come here? It's his death that gave us life. And it is his life that we are now supposed to show and display to the world. That life that he's given us where we are no longer the children of darkness. Oh, therefore, the bread, what does it remind us of? What does the bread remind you of? It's a real body. Jesus that died on the cross, and that was a real body. Now, I know sometimes it's hard for you and I to go back and say, I wonder what he looked like. I wonder what he was. How tall was he? Was he a strong man? What this and that? We went all those things, because we can't see it. But we are not supposed to be concerned about the physical body. That was something that was given to him only for a purpose, to be like us, in order to die for us. And that body was the very thing that he took upon the cross. And that body was the very thing that he caused to now be put to death for you and I. And so when you think about the bread, the bread reminds us of a real body of Jesus. You know what? That's why it's there. That's why we have given. Jesus said, take this and eat it. This is my body. Not that this turns into body. Catholicism has torn that apart. They make and ring a bell and then the bread turns into the actual body of Christ, the cup to the actual bread. No, that's not it. This represents my body. And he wanted his disciples then to know, and he wanted you and I to know, when you take this bread, think of a real body that was put to death for you. This is no religion, dear people. And some people, that's all they can see as far as anything is concerned. And even the Christian faith, all they see is religion. This is not religion. This is the truth. This is what happened. You have life. I have life because Jesus Christ gave his life for us. But what about the cup? It reminds us of the blood that represents his life that was poured out to cleanse us from sins. It means that he actually died. The spilling of blood is a sign of the life that poured out of him. And now here he is. on the cross. Our true salvation, it is truly displayed in the death of Christ on the cross. That has given us eternal life to his death. Peter says he called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's what he's done for each and every one of us. He called you, dear Christian, out of darkness into his marvelous light. Oh, dear people, when we take the Lord's Supper, we must remind ourselves that Jesus really accomplished something. We are no longer sinners separated from God. Sometimes we live on a lower scale of life. We think more about ourselves and what's going on in our lives and how we're being treated and all that, and we don't move from what we ought to be doing. And notice what Peter, Peter says, no, that's not what we should be doing. And look at verse nine in that chapter again, 1 Peter 2, verse nine. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. And notice what he said, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous life. Dear people, you and I, what you're doing, how you're living, you are speaking loud to the world. However that world may be for each and every one of us, maybe in our homes only, but we should be proclaiming the excellencies of God in our lives. We should be letting our people know, everyone know, look at me and you see the wonders and the grace of God. And I know some of us say, oh, I sure missed the boat on that one, but hey, That's why we have the Spirit in us, to bring us to the point when we miss the boat, to get back in line to confession of sin and walking with Christ. Oh, let it be, each and every one of you. It should be that when our neighbors, our family members and work associates, when they see us, there should be something to be said that that person look at you and they see a difference in you. Here, God said, Christ said, you are going to explain, you're going to proclaim, what? The glory of God in your life. Ask yourself, am I doing that? Ask yourself. Because this is what we must do. The letter is to us, and it's to us to bring us to the place where we're going to live to the glory of God. And not just kind of like in a rocking chair moving through the Christian life. on a donkey, just going through from one phase to another, not really thinking about it. Oh, dear people, we need to be thinking about who we are, thinking about what we're doing, thinking about how we live, thinking about how we speak to one another, how we treat one another, because if we're going to come and show this darkness and cause it to be pushed down and show a marvelous light, who are they gonna look at? You've got to look at us. He's a Christian. He's a pastor. There's some expectations that they have for that. He's a deacon, so on, this and that. There's some expectations. But there are people walking around that they say this is what they are, but they're not showing those expectations. I remember back in the church where he's going to before I got saved, oh, there was all kind of rattling and fussing going on in the church. And one of the deacons, you know, there's something going on, and they want to talk to him about something, you know, and this or that, and he all angry. And they said, he said, that's just the way I am. And I was sitting in a pew someplace. I wasn't even a Christian then. And I said, you are right about that. That's just the way you are. And that was his sin, his wickedness, his not to try their best to get along with his brethren, because he don't have a concept Dear people, when we come to the table, just don't go through this as something we're doing, as a rote thing to be done. Do it thinking of what Peter says here. What has he done? He, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Come to the table today. Take the elements of the table. But don't forget, as you take the elements of the table, that you want to be one that proclaim Christ in this very week. Think about that. Take it, if you want, a little bit at a time. Oh, I want to proclaim Christ in the rest of this day. That don't mean you have to stand on the corner and preach. That means they must see something in you and me that is different from the rest of the world. And brethren, with all the stuff that's going around with fake Christianity, tell you what, people are looking to see if we're really fake. I told you this once before, working on a job, and there was a young lady came to the job, she was new, and after about, I don't know, maybe a year or so, she heard that I was a pastor. And so, you know, I didn't know what was going on. One morning, she came to me. It was about two, three years after she was there. She came to me, and she said about Christ. She said, you know what? I want to tell you something. I watched you for two years. I can't remember the time. They said you were a pastor. I watched you. And I saw there was something different in you. Can you tell me how to get to Christ? We prayed in that conference room. God accepted her. And that young lady wound up to Trinity with us. Most of you know Antoine Conroy. Brethren, we don't know. Oh, live your life for the glory of God. Don't just say, I got the label of a Christian on me. Live it for the glory of God. So when we come to the table, dear people, let us come knowing that we see what he's done for us. We know the death that he died for us. Let's bring it into our hearts and feel the weight and the power of it. and then feel the joy of what has happened in you by his death and who you are now and pray God that you will leave this place and you want to show the mercy of God to everyone. Now I'm not saying go out and preach on the corner now, but show it in your everyday life. Show who you are. Show the kindness and the love of Christ because it's put in you and it's now come out of it. You must proclaim the excellencies of God who saved you. Let us pray. Our blessed God in heaven. Oh, we thank you for the truth that's there, but we can confess to your God, it is not easy. We find ourselves at times more concerned about what the world is doing to us, and how we don't have the things that we ought to have, and how it's not as comfortable as we think it ought to be. But oh, Father, we miss the point of knowing we have the blessings that no one can even buy anyway. upon us even before we were born. And our God, we ask you now to help us as we come to the Lord's Supper. Bless the Lord God to our hearts and let us as men and women of faith walk differently, walk more closer to Christ and even more closer to one another. Hear our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.