1 Sermon I Peter 2:9-10

1. Introduction: 

1. My mother was in the hospital for 10-11 days in December and when she came home she wasn’t eating much. You had to feed her and you had to work at getting her to eat EXCEPT FOR …     ICE CREAM!

2. Every night when she got her ice cream we just handed her the bowl and she freely ate it herself. No persuasion necessary. Life is all about motivation isn’t it?! This is especially true for the Christian because we want to be motivated and we want to be motivated for the right reasons. We’re very aware that we can be motivated for wrong reasons, sinful, carnal reasons.

3. Our primary motivation, scripture tells us, is to be the glory of God. Doing all things out of our love for him and gratefulness and worship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

4. But how do we receive/maintain this type of motivation on a regular basis? Life can be hard and it can be challenging to keep motivated throughout life. Well, motivation comes to us as do all things from God - through the free gift of his grace.  Now there are  many means or avenues of God’s grace and our text offers us one today, specifically in the phrase a people for his own possession. 

5. In the NT epistles there is much encouragement and explanation of our inheritance in Christ. Our older brother died/fellow heirs… 

   1. But our passage is actually not talking about our inheritance in God but it’s his inheritance in us! He has always desired a people for his own possession and in the old covenant it was the nation of Israel 

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:6

2. In the new covenant, the church, you and me and all of those who have trusted Christ are part of his inheritance. Somehow in the mystery of God, the church is part of the eternal purpose of the Lord.  Rev 21 

And from the throne I heard a loud voice that said, “Look! God’s dwelling is with people. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. Revelation 21:3 

6. It seems that the eternal purpose of God is for him to dwell among his people and to be glorified, exalted, praised and worshiped (enjoyed) among/by them. In this age and the age to come. And that should motivate us. That we have a part to play in the Father’s eternal plan. That in the midst of a fallen evil world we can live to God’s glory. We all have small but significant lives to live.  Despite our weakness and struggle against sin we can live for the praise and glory of God. (And that is worth living for)

7. I remember when I first came to the Lord I knew that I was saved because I wanted to live for him, I wanted to belong to him and to be part of his church. Before then I wanted to run my life, belong to me but now God had changed my heart. And I think this is an evidence of God’s grace in a person’s life-that if you are a Christian you want to belong to the Lord and live for him.

8. But I think all Christians would agree and confess that this attitude doesn’t always prevail in our day to day life. If we’re honest and self-aware we will admit that there are still areas in our lives that we don’t want to belong to the Lord. We may actually “bristle” against it or maybe quietly ignore it. 

   1. This is what some would call indwelling sin or remaining sin. This fight against remaining sin is a daily battle. My hope is that this message and this teaching series in I Peter will help us in this daily battle and help motivate us to live even more for Christ. 

   2. This sermon is about answering the question of how should we who are God’s people, those who are his inheritance, a people for his own possession, how ought we to live:

9. Prayer - including for those who are not yet part of his possession. 

B. We are to live by faith as a people of grace (A Chosen People) 

1. 2 Peter 3: what sort of people ought you to be? 

2. Four Points: (Because we belong to the Lord) We are to live to the praise of his glory (A Royal Priesthood); We are to live as a people holy unto God. (A Holy Nation) We are to live as a people of mercy. (A People Who Have Received Mercy)

3. Because we belong to God we can live in the freedom of being a chosen people. Besides our text this morning we previously have five (1:2, 1:3, 1:20-21, 2:4, 2:8) other passages in I Peter that stress the working of God in salvation through his choosing or electing us or electing Christ to be the one who purchases our salvation.

4. This choosing or electing by God for salvation can be a difficult doctrine to process. Indeed there is mystery in it. It must be handled with care and humility yet with a true commitment to what scripture declares about it. 

5.  It deals with a very fundamental question: does a person come to Christ because they decided on it, they chose Christ or did they come to him because God was at work in their life through his Spirit and through his Word and through his people, drawing that person and giving them the new birth which resulted then in repentance and faith? Our reformed doctrine, our understanding of scripture would say the second perspective is true. It is God who saves completely.  

6. If you struggle with this doctrine I encourage you to study it. Like all of scripture there is a holy sacredness about it and we ought to treat it that way. In the New Testament a mystery is a truth that had one time been hidden but now is revealed to God’s people. And so this mystery of election is revealed in the NT (at least in part). The word elect or election is mentioned 17 times in the New Testament. Read and study them to give you a broader idea of their meaning. Read the sections in Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 that teach thoroughly on this doctrine. One of our core values as a church is doctrine. So study this doctrine. Don’t be afraid of it. Here are two book recommendations: (classic) Chosen By God and Finally Alive. 

7. But my goal in this first point is to stress the call and blessing to live as a chosen race or chosen people. A people chosen by God’s free gift of grace. Because this difficult doctrine is a wonderful doctrine when we walk in its blessing and power. Oh there’s freedom and joy in knowing that you were saved by grace alone. 

8. So how do we live as a people chosen by grace? Humility and faith. 

9. Humility because Romans 9 tells us that before we were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad God chose to set his love upon us. Similarly in Deuteronomy 7:7 the Mose told the Israelites It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. And it wasn’t because they were good. 

   1. We have become recipient’s of his amazing love and it had nothing to do with our goodness or works but his great mercy and choosing. 

   2. Have you ever tried to give a gift to someone and they wouldn’t receive it. It’s possible that there was a reasonable reason for them to do so. But it’s also possible that it was because of their pride they wouldn’t or couldn’t receive it.

   3. How does one humbly receive a gift? By saying thank you! By receiving it and enjoying it and acknowledging that it was a gift.  So we humbly accept that truth and we live by faith in it. 

10. In four different books of the Bible we find this phrase 

The righteous shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38

11. RC Sproul defines that phrase this way:

 You live by trusting what God says.  R.C. Sproul 

12. Mission statement. Now this describes the entire Christian life and all his promises concerning life and godliness. But the immediate context is that we live by trusting what God says about our salvation in Christ alone.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”  Galatians 3:11 

13. We must learn to walk in the blessing of something we didn’t deserve or earn. And we do that by faith, resting in what God initiated and brought about through the work of his Son. It’s really the foundation of how we are to live life. There is great comfort and blessing in resting in the knowledge that our salvation is rooted in what God has done.  

14. You will not find peace and joy looking inward. You will, by looking to Christ and resting in what he’s done.  

C.  We are to live to the praise of his glory (A Royal Priesthood)

1. Well how else ought we to live as God’s people. Well because we belong to God we are to live to the praise of his glory? Verse 9 tells us that we are to proclaim the excellencies of his glory. This is part of our calling as royal priests.  

2. Now we can all have different images of what a priest is. Maybe you grew up in a denomination or church where the clergy was actually called priests. Or maybe your image of a priest is the Levites in the Old Covenant. Maybe it’s Melchizedek, this character in the book of Genesis who appears mysteriously out of nowhere and meets Abraham. And it describes him as a priest of God Most High.   

   1. But what are we called, to as priests of God and Christ? Well our responsibilities as priests are two fold. We are called to minister to the Lord and minister for the Lord (as we minister to others). 

   2.  We are called not just as priests but as royal priests. We are first, daughters and sons of the king. We belong to the Lord, we are his children!  The king is our Father and he has called us to the office of being priests. And unlike in the Old Covenant where the priestly duties were from one tribe and men from that tribe, under the New Covenant all Christians are called to minister as priests. It’s what the Reformers called the Priesthood of Every Believer. 

   3. In the book of Hebrews we are told that priests would offer up to God sacrifices and gifts. And these sacrifices and gifts that we offer are not animal sacrifices as found in the Old Covenant. Ours are sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise and worship to our God and Father, to Christ our King. However the most important sacrifice we can offer up to God is ourselves. Remember we are called to be a people for God’s own possession. The most important thing we can regularly give God is our heart.

   4. Proverbs  The father says my son give me your heart. That’s what our father God says to us. I mentioned that we are children of God and we are. Another description of our relationship with God is that we are married to the Lord. In marriage each person gives their heart to the other. The husband belongs to the wife and the wife belongs to the husband. And this is not a legalistic requirement but one done out of love. In Song of Solomon at least four times there is the refrain I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine;

   5. We belong to the Lord and in a very real way he belongs to us. He is our God! Levitical priests = the Lord God is their inheritance.

   6. The most important possession we have is our relationship with the Lord. We should always be seeking to cultivate this primary calling in our lives. Just as a husband and wife should prioritize their relationship above all other earthly ones so even more so should we do so with the Lord. 

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4

7. A very common phrase among evangelical Christians is that we have a “personal relationship” with God. To an outsider it may seem pretentious but to the Christian it describes what happened to them when they came to Christ. They entered into a covenantal personal relationship with the Living God. Do not neglect this wonderful primary relationship that you’ve been given. It’s of first importance. Give yourself to it.  

8. The great commandment is that we should love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We all fall way short of obeying that but we can still pursue the Lord in that spirit through the disciplines of prayer and worship and fellowship and study.  

9. Cultivating our relationship with the Lord helps us to fulfill what the WCF tells us is the chief end of man: To glorify God and enjoy him forever. And it positions us for the second responsibility of priests to minister to others in the name of the Lord. Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Martha was a doer who worked hard serving the Lord. Mary loved to sit at Jesus' feet and be with him and abide in his word and presence. 

10. God calls us to imitate both but the starting point is to be like Mary and cultivate our relationship with the Lord. And out of that we should go out and minister to others in his name. Our service to others should be done out of a loving and obedient heart as an act of worship. This is what priests do 

11. And this is what we find Jesus doing in his earthly ministry (he was a doer-went about doing good) spending time with God and then going out and ministering out of that relationship.  He went about doing good

12. I want to encourage you that whatever God has given you to do (job, family, church), do it as unto him. And don’t despise or look down upon your tasks. They are incredibly important especially when you do them unto God (sacrifices of service . You may never know this side of eternity the impact you have. What you do matters!   

13. You might be tempted to say I’m just an average church member. Your attendance and participation matters to your family, small group to those younger than you older than you. 

14. As a priest spend time with God and then go out and serve/minister in his

D. We are to live our lives holy to God ( a holy nation):

1. Because we belong to God we are called to be a holy people or as the text reads a holy nation. Holiness does seem to be one of the themes of I Peter, being mentioned six times including in chapter 1:  

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” I Peter 1: 15

2. That’s a pretty high bar. Now remember we’re not made right with God by being holy. But because we are right with God thru Christ alone we seek to live holy lives. Now God works his holiness in our lives in different ways. Let me touch on one area that I Peter addresses. 

3. At least four four times Peter exhorts and warns his readers concerning passions. 

Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance 1:14 

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander 2:1

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 2:11

Live… for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 4:2. 

4. The word passions in chapter 1, 2 and 4 is the same Greek word. It has to do with the idea of coveting, impulses, desires, lust( sensual urges, fleshly lusts, cravings of your lower nature). Regardless of how you define it we are all acquainted with these desires whether they be cravings in regards to sexual lust, anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, laziness and greed. We must be on guard toward the temptation of thinking that holiness is only outward behavior.  We can think in a shallow way that holiness means we don’t drink, smoke or chew or go with folks who do. 

5. To be holy means that as a people who belong to God (consecrated) we have been set apart for him and that includes our thoughts, desires, attitudes, words and actions. (How we use our time)   

6. How do we deal with these evil desires? Well that is a teaching (s) in of itself. But one of the things that Peter tells us is that having an eternal perspective helps us to war against these desires. 

   1. In chapter one he reminds them that God is holy.  

   2. In chapter two Peter tells that because of the believer’s conduct (by abstaining) the Gentiles will glorify God on the day of visitation. 

   3. In chapter 4 Peter in regards to the old friends that the believers may have had, he tells them that they will not understand when you don’t continue to join them in sensuality and passions. And then he adds  but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

7. (Peter is saying that ) We must regularly inform ourselves that we are sojourners and exiles living in this world. We are to be a people who have our eyes upon eternity. And this is not just for older people. 

   1. The day of visitation or judgment.  The day of the Lord. Martin Luther said

“There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.” 

8. We must live with that day in mind. We must inform our souls of the reality of eternity. 

   1. Right now counts forever. Judgment seat of Christ.  

   2. We must watch and guard against the pleasures of this life dulling us to the reality of eternity and the existence of a holy God to whom we will give an account of our lives.  The deceitfulness of sin tells us that its pleasure is the only thing that counts. The impulses, the lusts that are strong - War  

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Proverbs 5: 3-4

9. One of the ways that we war against sin and temptation is regularly through the truth of God’s word we remind ourselves not only to the reality of sin and judgment but to the high calling of belonging to God and living for his glory. Jesus talked about 

E. We are to live as a people of mercy. (A People Who Have Received Mercy)

1. Verse 10 tells us that at one time we had not received mercy but now we have. Sometimes we hear mercy and grace paired together as in some of Paul’s greetings. In some contexts it seems as if they are interchangeable but there is a distinction at least in the general definitions of the words. 

2. I’ve heard this distinction between mercy and grace (not perfect but helpful):  Mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve while grace is when God gives us what we do not deserve. If a parent does not punish a child for a wrong done that is mercy. If they turn around and take them out for ice cream that’s grace.  

3. Through both of these we receive God’s unmerited goodness, that which we did not deserve. And as Christians we should seek to grow in the opening of our eyes to all the tender mercies that are new to us every morning, every day. We must not be like the world  blind to these expressions of God’s kindnesses that are all around us. 

4. Charles Spurgeon speaks of mercy in one of his sermons: (the rising of the sun)

This coming of the Lord, and of his light, so gradually, and yet so lavishly; so fittingly, and yet so effectually; does it not fill you with gratitude? Every little bird rejoices in the rising of the sun: God has made that great orb to rise so graciously that not even a sparrow trembles at it, but chirps with confidence its happy praises. Not even a little flower trembles because the great sun is about to flood the heavens; but God hath so made the sun to rise that every tiny cup of every flower that blooms opens to drink in the golden light, and is refreshed thereby.  C. H. Spurgeon

5. The world is ablaze with God’s gifts of mercy and grace. They are all around us and we often have become dull to their existence and goodness. The beauty in nature, the orderliness of the universe, the many expressions of God’s common grace through friends, in the arts and music, technology, the love of family. These are examples of  “general” mercies that are given to all peoples throughout the earth. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 

   1. And then there are the countless mercies specific to you. You have an appointment with someone and it gets canceled and opens up time that you desperately needed to do something else critically important. Or the mercy that you were able to parent your children today without blowing up on them. (whatever weakness) Our lives are full of these tender mercies from God’s hand.

6. All these “little mercies” of God are a blessing and to be enjoyed for their own sake yet for the Christian they are important because they remind us and point to the GREAT (BIG) MERCY OF GOD! This is the mercy that flows down from Calvary where our Savior went and bore all our sins and granted to us the free gift of his righteousness. The forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, becoming children and heirs of God. May we never grow dull to this great mercy. 

7. In fact may we build our lives upon it. Have you ever had a dream?  

   1. Once, dead in our transgressions, were enemies of God, far off, once we had not received this great mercy of God now we have. we were not part of the people of God now we belong to him!

F. Closing:

1. How can we practically grow in our in are being a people who belong to the Lord? 

2. Here is one encouragement from Paul Tripp from his book called “Do You Believe?”

3. He encourages us to tune our hearts every morning/day to the existence and stunning glory of God. (Proverbs 4 tells us to keep our hearts with all vigilance for from it springs the streams of life). 

If you want to live a life in harmonious worship, submission, obedience, celebration, dependency, rest and service with the God of glory who sits on the throne of the universe, it is vital to tune your heart every morning: Paul David Tripp

4. Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord through Scripture that displays his glory. Fight familiarity with the Lord. Stretch your spiritual muscles through God’s word. Psalms/Gospels 

5. Search: Read and study your Bible. Unpack it, tear it apart, reflect on it. 

6. Surrender: Each morning consciously surrender your heart and everything in your life to him (Daniel -sacrifice). Give back to him the ownership of your personality, mentality, emotionality, spirituality, physicality, and sexualtiy. Place everything in his hands. Why? Because we belong to him. 

7. Examine: In the light of God’s holy glory examine yourself once again. Let the word of God do this and the Holy Spirit. Psalm 139. 

8. Confess your sins to him. Throw yourself upon the mercy of God and the cross of Christ. Let that be your one great hope and refuge. 

9. Cry out to him for help. Start your day with a confession of spiritual poverty and neediness to the one who is rich in grace. Gain strength for the day. 

10. Celebrate: Rejoice in the goodness, mercy of God and the wonder of who he is. 

If you are not a Christian you can’t tune your heart towards God because your heart is hard towards him. You need a new heart. You can cry out to him, ask for his mercy, hear his word, pray to this holy yet loving God. Remember Right now counts forever. Please today if you hear his voice through the gospel message do not harden your heart but come to Christ in repentance and faith. 

Our prayer team will be up front. I want to invite anyone