Good morning everyone. It's an honor for me to be with you again this morning. If you could make your way in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. This morning we're going to be looking at a particular section from 1 Peter, a letter in which you know was written to Christians. to those who after coming to faith in Christ had found themselves exiled and scattered and living in foreign lands that were hostile to the Christian faith that they had come to embrace. And Peter has been realistic in the way he's been addressing them. He wants them not to be rattled by the things that they're going to see and experience. To know that there may be a price for following Jesus, a cost to discipleship, that when you come to Christ, the living stone that was rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, and you became a Christian, that it might not always be easy, that there may be sacrifices you'll have to make to take a stand and be prepared for certain things that you are required not to do, things to turn away from, things to refuse to be involved with. And Peter deals with this reality not by some inflated pep talk full of empty words, but by reminding them of the many benefits and blessings that belong to the follower of Christ. He reminds that in Christ we have been given a new identity, an identity that we can all use a reminder of. Like Peter's audience, we too find ourselves walking in a land that is foreign and hostile to the Christian faith and to King Jesus, the one we treasure and follow. And this morning, God wants to encourage us to strengthen our shaken legs, to clear our minds from the clutter and the confusion, to remind us afresh of the blessings for the one who has come to Christ, to remind those of us who love and treasure the matchless, irreplaceable Savior of the many treasures that our new identity has provided for us. And as you listen this morning, I want you to see and to understand that the application of the text is an embedded within the teaching. The application happens when you apply the realities of the identities we'll look at. So with that, let's stand and read our text together. We're going to be reading from 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 12. In our study this morning, we're only going to look at one verse, verse 9, but I want you to get a flow and an understanding of the text. Please hear God's word, 1 Peter 2, beginning at verse 4. As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we humbly come before you this morning, God, to worship you, to exalt you, to praise you, to proclaim you. There is none other worthy of any of our time and affections, our finances, our efforts, than you. And so, God, I pray for our time, that we as your followers, your disciples, that we would take hold of these identities, these treasures that you have given us. Lord, that we would all desire as we walk out these doors today to be proclamators of the goodness and the excellencies of the one who has called us out of darkness. And fellow God, it is my most urgent prayer this morning that if someone have come through these doors this morning uncertain of the future that lies post-death, that today you would open their minds, illuminate the truth to their sinful and lost hearts. And today would be the day of rescue. Today would be the day of salvation. And Father, that you would sift through this crowd even now. And Lord, that you would do a mighty work today. Father, guide and guard my words, protect them from error. And Lord, that you would be exalted this morning. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. So if you're here today and you are a born-again Christian, then for you, our verse this morning begins with the monumental identity claim. You have been chosen by our Lord, but you are a chosen race. Verse 9 begins with the but you where Peter's next statements will be in stark contrast to the things he previously said. And what Peter had just declared is that only eternal doom awaits for those who will be sentenced to hell because of their disobedience and failure to love Christ. There will be nothing but shame cast upon the one who does not believe in Jesus, God's chosen and precious cornerstone, that those who do not believe in Christ will stumble over him and ultimately be crushed by him because of their rejection, destruction for their disbelief, destruction for their failure to value him as precious. You see, Jesus Christ is the great unavoidable. Everyone will come to the rock. You either come to him as the precious, irreplaceable, saving cornerstone that he is, or you come to him as a stumbling stone and a crushing rock of offense. Peter simply says that Jesus is either the cornerstone, the anchor of your salvation, or he is the rock against which men will be crushed by. And the reason he becomes a rock of judgment is because men reject the Word. They don't obey the Word. They don't obey the gospel message to repent and follow Christ. And when they don't do that, when they don't obey the gospel, the Bible says in verse 8 that this has taken place as they were destined to do, or in the NASB, and to this doom they were also appointed. they will receive exactly what their choice demanded. And so that is the underpinnings of what Peter was saying from the end of verse 6 up to this point where we find ourselves this morning. And then Peter pivots here at the beginning of verse 9. But for those who believe in him, there is honor. But you, on the other hand, you are a chosen race. You, on the other hand, are a chosen genos. And the term genos speaks of a source. It emphasizes the fact that we are a chosen race produced from a unique life source, which is God, our Father in heaven. And Peter here uses this word to symbolize this new people and blood relationship and as a reminder of the believer's new birth whereby Christians have been bought and brought into this divine family and therefore share in all the blessings and the responsibilities that such a relationship brings. Now, when Peter says, you, there is the element of our corporate identity. Peter is referring to the church. It is the collective total of all the individuals, the many individuals that have come to Christ. But the implication here is also individual, because this race is not racial. This chosen race is not black or white or red or yellow or brown. This new God-chosen race is a new people from all the peoples, all the colors, all the cultures, all the ethnicities. who now find themselves as aliens and strangers living alongside those who still reject Christ's salvation and still belong to this world. Now I think it timely and critical that we spend a few minutes to explain the biblical use of the term race we see before us today. We must understand God's view of race as he established it because the way this term has been perverted and misused is nothing short of the byproduct of Darwinian evolution when people started thinking in terms of the different people groups around the world representing different races within the context of evolutionary philosophy. And because of this erroneous teaching, the result has been that many people today, consciously or unconsciously, have ingrained prejudices against certain other groups of people. And so friends, I want to make this clear. Biblically and even biologically, there is only one race of humans. This term race that we've been brought up with is simply a social construct derived mainly from perceptions conditioned by events of recorded history. And it has no basic biological reality nor any biblical foundation. Do you want to know what the real human differences are that set us apart? What it is that makes us unique? It's cultural. That's it. It's cultural, not racial, not skin color. It's our ethnicities. The term race should be abandoned unless we're watching cars or people or horses running around. It's a meaningless term that has been misused to put people into ridiculous categories and often to suppress them. And one of the most hideous examples was Hitler's Germany. God has established only one race, the human race, with many different people groups or ethnicities around the world. So the Bible does not use the word race in reference to the color of people's skin. But instead of, in Acts 17.26, the Bible describes all human beings as being of one blood. Because the reality is that we are all related. Because all humans are descendants of the first man, Adam, who was created in the image of God. Some people think there must be different races of people because there appear to be major differences between various groups, such as skin color or even eye shape. The truth, however, is that these so-called racial characteristics are only minor variations among the various ethnic or people groups. Scientists have found that if you would pick out any two people from around the world, that the basic genetic differences between those two people would typically be around 0.2%. And that holds true even if they came from the same people or ethnic group. And if we only looked at these so-called racial characteristics that people think are major differences, like our skin color or eye shape, that would only account for 0.012% of human biological variation. That means that the percentage of genetic material that is dedicated to making up our external appearance, which serves as the basis of all this talk about race, is just a fraction over 0.01%. In other words, our so-called racial differences are absolutely trivial. Overall, there is more variation within any ethnic group than there is between one ethnic group and another. That means if a white person is looking for a tissue match or an organ transplant, the very best match may very well come from a black person or vice versa. So yes, there are differences among us. Praise God for His creativity. But our differences stem from culture, not race as in skin color. God, I was hoping to get an amen there somewhere. And brethren, what a difference we'd see in our world if people reacted in accord with biblical principles. Understanding all humans are equal before God, and every single one of them are sinners in need of salvation in Jesus Christ. You see, that's what makes Christianity so unique. For a Christian, our identity is not color or even culture, but in our being chosen. Christians are not a white race, or a black race, or a brown race, or a yellow race, or a red race. They are a chosen race. That's why this amazing phrase is individually crucial for you. You are part of a chosen race because this race is made up of individuals who were chosen from all the people groups, all the ethnicities, from every tribe, tongue, and nation on the face of the planet. So one of the Christian's amazing identities is that you are chosen. God chose you, not because of your ethnicity or for any other qualification, just simply He chose you. That's now who you are. That's your new identity. You are chosen by God. Now this morning, I'm not going to try to explain why God did this, because quite frankly, I don't know why. But I do know that it was nothing in me of value above any other human. I know that I did not earn it or merit it or meet any conditions to get it, and it happened before I was born. And so as John Piper said, that even though I don't understand it, I stand in awe of it, I tremble with joy at it, I bow and accept it, I long to be faithful to its purpose. So Peter here focuses on the fact that what defines our identity is not our ethnicity, but our redemption. In Christ, we are no longer defined by how we look on the outside. When God saved us, he adopted us into his family, but he didn't stop there. He also gave us his DNA when he gave us the Holy Spirit, and therefore, we don't have to be driven by what we are on the outside. Race cannot be what defines us in Christ Jesus. Ultimately, the race that will survive God's judgment has nothing to do with how much melanin you have in your skin. The race that survives the wrath of God will be those who are covered by the blood of Christ, to be part of a race that will never die, the race of people who love and follow Jesus Christ their Savior. And this should be comfort food for you and me during these chaotic times that we live in. That even though we may face humiliation and shame and be called crazy for believing and following Jesus, fools for believing that Jesus alone can heal our land and all of its issues and problems, that we are just a bunch of uneducated nobodies for believing that Jesus is enough, that he is sufficient to meet all of mankind's needs. Peter Boley says, But you, you have a new identity. You are members of a new royal race, royal servants of the Supreme King, citizens of a divine kingdom, residents of a heavenly city. God has identified his people Israel as a chosen people. But now there's a new race of people that God himself has chosen. And brothers and sisters, that is us. That's us. We are chosen people for God's possession. God has chosen a new group of people, Christians, who have been granted a place with Him, not because of them having some physical descent from Abraham, but by them coming to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and believing and trusting in Him. And amazing as that identity is, we are just warming up because God grants us even more. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. As followers of Christ, we have also been given a new identity as royal priests to God. Because of your repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, you now have a new relationship with God. You have immediate direct access to him. You don't need another human priest as a mediator because God himself provided the one mediator between God and man in the person of Christ Jesus. You don't have to pray through anyone else. You don't have to experience God through anyone else. You have been granted direct access to God by God. And because of this new identity, you also have an exalted and active role in God's presence. You see, God did not save you so that you could just foolishly waste your time doing nothing. You are called to duty, brothers and sisters, to minister in the presence of God. All of your life and its activities is now priestly service. Because for the royal priest, there is no secular life. It is all a sacred life because you are never out of God's presence. You are never in a neutral zone. You are always in the court of the temple. Therefore, your life is either, as it says in Romans 12, 1, a spiritual service of worship, or brethren, your life is out of character. Here we learn that the spiritual house and holy priesthood back in verse 5 is also a royal house of a royal family. It is here that King Jesus has brought the offices of royalty and priesthood together for his chosen people. Brethren, we are a new group of people that belong to God and we serve as priests that are always in his presence. Peter here is drawing this language from Exodus 19.6, where Moses goes up on the mountain to speak with God, and God says to him, to tell the house of Jacob, tell the people of Israel, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And yet we know the Israelites, they never saw it, did they? They never experienced it. They forfeited because of their apostasy and because, well, because quite frankly, they executed the Messiah. They killed him by nailing Jesus to a cross. But now, through the apostle Peter, God says to you and me, He says to the church, to those in Christ, you, you are my new royal priesthood. And so just as God called Israel as a royal priesthood to be the mediator of God's blessings to the surrounding nations, so too you and I, the church, is now called to mediate God's blessings to the world. By our offering the spiritual sacrifices of our whole lives live for God's glory. You and I then show the world the glory of our awesome and magnificent God. To show the great joy of life under his rule and his care and his kindness and his mercy and his provision. And as a royal priesthood, we love and are thrilled to display our king to this lost and needy world. That is why you've heard me say so many times, as Christians, we should be the most joyous, happiest, pleasantest people to be around on the face of the planet. As a royal priesthood, it should be our desire to worship our king, to serve our king, to pray to our king, to offer spiritual sacrifices to our king, to bring people to our king. To be priests that live to please our king. You see, royal priests are not wasting their life on trivial things or things that this world is consumed by. Because royal priests are consumed with being priests for their king, Jesus. And this truth becomes a critical component, an important function of the church, our church. Together as God's royal priesthood, we are to be the mediators of God's blessings to the world. That means if you and I are silent, who will tell the world about the glorious salvation God offers in Jesus Christ? If you and I are not holy and loving, who's going to show the world the exhilarating, transforming life in God's kingdom? Is the church perfect? Of course not. Is God at work in the church to purify her? Absolutely. Does God have another plan by which to make His glory in King Jesus known to the world? No. No, He has chosen a body of imperfect people, chosen and redeemed by the blood of His Son to be the display of His kingdom here on earth. honor and calling and privilege and blessing and responsibility. What an identity to be known as a royal priesthood. We're just warming up as our text continues. We have also been given a new identity as a holy nation. Now, the word nation that you see there simply means a people. So the Bible says here that we are a certain kind of people, and the text specifies that we are a holy people. It means that we have been separated, set apart. We are a special chosen people that have been set apart unto God. Now, you want to know what it is that really makes the follower of Christ different? What specific identity trait characterizes this chosen race of royal priest? You want to know how you can distinguish between the one who is part of this chosen race from the one who is not? It's there in the text. It is holiness. We are a chosen race of royal priests distinguished by holiness. And for the believer, Holiness is the product. It is the display of the life of a Spirit-filled Christian in his or her obedience to Jesus Christ. It is what happens to the one who lets the Word of Christ dwell in him richly. It is what happens as God works in us to make us more and more like His Son, Jesus. It is what happens, as Peter's already said in 1 Peter 1.14, as obedient children not being conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. It is what happens when we set out to avoid the ways we practiced before becoming a Christian and now to live according to God's ways. And we can only do this by living by the power of God's spirit while following the principles found in God's word. And to desire that with everything we do. To let your talk and your walk set you apart from the others around you. To be people who are consciously allowing the holiness of God to transform you so that naturally in that overflow, people are brought closer to God for the simple reason that they are near you. I heard it said somewhere that a holy person is like a boat on the water. The boat's purpose is fulfilled when it is on the water, but pull the plug out in the middle of the lake and its function and usefulness deteriorates pretty quick when it starts to fill up with water. And sadly, that same thing happens to believers when they allow too much of the world to get into them. My friends, we must keep our vessels in the water of this world, but not let the water of this world get into our vessel. My dearest brothers and sisters, you are set apart for God. You exist for God. And since God is holy, you are to be holy. You share His character because He chose you and in Christ you are one with Him. God in His abundant and overflowing mercy pitied you and He took possession of you. Therefore, you are to be holy, and if you do not act in a holy way, then something is wrong. You are acting out of character. You contradict your essence as a Christian because your identity is holiness unto the Lord. God, by his great grace, has done the unimaginable for you and me. If you spend any time pondering what it is that God has really done for the believer, that a holy God would draw wicked, vile, rebellious sinners to himself, taking them out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear son. Brethren, that is mind-boggling. And yet that is exactly what God has done for us. Our God has separated us from sin. He has separated us from Satan. He has separated us from the world as it were. We have been separated from what is unholy and we have been devoted to God. So in coming to Jesus, we're talking about our salvation as a setting apart work. When you were saved, it wasn't just that your sins were forgiven, as awesome and needed as that was. Yes, condemnation removed, hell averted. But in coming to Christ, you were literally brought into intimacy with God. And that intimacy is reflected in a new relationship and a new obedience that was never possible outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, because we're no longer owned by Satan, we are no longer in bondage to him in the sin that once held us captive. We have entered into a new relationship. We are now a new holy people set apart into God. That's our new position. That's our new identity. And my brothers and sisters, this is precisely why sin plays such a disastrous role in the life of a believer. Because our sin is contrary to our new union with Christ. It is so perverse to who we are meant to be as a holy people because it defiles and contradicts everything about our new identity as a holy people unto God. So as a holy nation, we have not only been set apart unto Christ positionally now that we are His children, but we are also set apart unto Him personally in terms of intimacy. And I have a newsflash. You will never be a holy person in the fullest sense until you have cultivated and developed a relationship of intimacy with the living Christ. You will never grow in holiness until you pursue intimacy with Jesus in such a manner that it takes control of your conduct, your actions, your behaviors, the way you speak, and the way you think. Because the pursuit of holiness is found in the pursuit of an intimate relationship with God. And I pray for each and every one of you that you view this kind of intimate relationship with your Savior as an absolute necessity. And if I can make a shameless plug, it is one of the reasons we want to encourage more growth in our small groups. so that you and I and more of our brothers and sisters can be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to marinate your thinking in the scriptures so that you can learn more about the one who is the object of our faith, to value and treasure and develop a deeper and closer relationship and love for our irreplaceable Savior, so that you can grow in holiness. Amen? Good, looking forward to seeing you next Sunday at 9 a.m. in one of the GCF classes, either here or online, because I heard those amens, and we know who you are. All right, let's continue and look at the next part, a people for his own possession. So as believers, we've been given all these marvelous new identities in that we are a new chosen race, a new royal priesthood, and a new holy nation. And now as we continue to build on our new identity in Christ, we are told that we are also a people for God's own possession. So let's look a little deeper at this new identity as we examine that word, possession, or depending on your translation, possessed. This is quite an overwhelming thought for those of us who trust and obey and love Jesus. Here it means to acquire, to purchase, to acquire for a price. As believers, we are God's personal possession, a holy nation of set-apart people because He paid the price. And what was this price to acquire a wretch like me? Acts 20, 28, Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders, tells them to take care of the church of God, which he has obtained or purchased with his own blood. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. And that price we know was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2.14 says that Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. A believer belongs to God because God personally acquired them at the ultimate price. Listen, if you're a follower of Christ, you are God's prized possession. And the weight of that truth What an identity we have, my friends. As believers, you and I were chosen by God. We were shown mercy and that God took you to be His own possession by the cleansing power of the blood of His Son. Brothers and sisters, you are God's inheritance. You are the ones he aims to spend eternity with, the ones he will walk among and reveal himself to in a personal relation forever. Can you even comprehend such a marvelous identity? Normally when you ask someone, so what do you think you're worth? They immediately think net worth, monetary value. But here, we're forced to experience another kind of value, true value, eternal, everlasting value, the kind that needs to ask a new question. Not what do you think you're worth, but what determines your worth? What determines your value? Typically, value is tied to what someone is willing to pay for something and for the treasured person belonging to God. The reason I know I am valued is because Jesus Christ purchased me and paid for me with his own life. The God of the universe exchanged his own son for me. The cross proves your value. God says, I love you this much that I will give my son's life in exchange for yours. that while we were still sinners, Christ died. Man, let this sink in. God not only chose you, but he wanted you. This lost world is so desperate to be valued, to be wanted, to be accepted, to be loved. And in that pursuit, they are driven by worldly passions and fleshly desires to artificially and temporarily improve their image and increase their value. But here is the God of the universe saying, I want you, I value you, I desire to take possession of you and to call you my own. And you don't need to change or try to fit in or please others. God says, I will change you and I will make you acceptable to myself. Those who do not know Christ, they live their lives standing on the world stage, wanting to be noticed, wanting to be valued, wanting to be honored, wanting to be accepted. And this cold world glares back and says, I'll accept you only if you're pretty enough. I will have you if you have the right job and make the right money. I will claim you as mine if you have a charming personality. I will love you if you do something for me in return. And here we have the God of the universe declaring, I want you and I value you and I will take possession of you with all your failures, your flaws, your wrinkles, all of it. In fact, I will pay all I have to take you for myself. What an amazing and merciful God we have. Our great Redeemer did not stand off in the distance while we were blind and dying in our sin. He moved in and He had mercy on us and He took possession of us and He has given us a new identity, not because of our actions, but from being acted upon by Him out of love with mercy. And now God wants to work through us as His ambassadors to show that same mercy on those who are not yet His people to those who need to receive His salvation. Pretty amazing stuff, isn't it? That's Pastor Ted's line, I like that. Pretty amazing stuff. We are a chosen race of royal priests distinguished by holiness. We are wanted, we are loved, possessed, and have been shown mercy by God. So the question begs, why did he do this? For what purpose has he given us this new and glorious identity? Let's see what the text says as we work towards the finish line. The text says, God has done this so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So God's purpose in redeeming us is not simply for our own enjoyment. but it is for the purpose that we might glorify Him." And that is what Peter indicates here by the word, that, in the phrase, that you may proclaim. You have been given all these new identities, all these glorious privileges in Christ for the purpose of proclaiming something. And here's why seeking your own eternal well-being will never provide a truly satisfying goal for life. The answer to our search for ultimate meaning lies right here in proclaiming and declaring the excellencies of God, because He alone is infinitely worthy of glory. You see, friends, redemption is ultimately not about you. Redemption is not man-centered. Redemption is all God-centered. Our redemption is all about Him and His glory. Look at that word proclaim. Here it means to advertise, to publish, to tell out. It has the force of telling something otherwise unknown. And brothers and sisters, I want you to see this as the greatest of honors. Can you think of a greater identity than to be an ambassador for the living God? To make him known to the people and nations where he is not known and not treasured and not loved. God has given us an identity so that his identity might be proclaimed through us to the ends of the earth. We are to advertise the noble acts of God in history and make him known. This is the reason we exist. This is the full-time destiny of a royal priest, to make the glories of a heavenly king known. And he needs to be known because the world is in the dark. People do not know the excellencies of God, but they need to hear about them in the words we speak and see them in the lives we live. Each and every citizen of heaven then is a living advertisement for the virtues of God and the blessings of the Christian life. Our redeemed lives should radiate the marvelous light in which God has graciously called us into, because if there was anyone ever worthy of having his excellencies broadcasted and made known, it is God's, the one who has saved us and made us who we are so that we can tell people about who he is and what he has done. And so what did this most excellent king do? He saw us, his enemies, in their sin and rebellion, God-haters living in darkness, lost and trapped by Satan, and he pitied them. He showed mercy to them. He had mercy on them and called them out of that darkness. I understand all too well the allure of this world and all of its shiny things. How exciting it is to meet a favorite celebrity or an athlete, to get an invite to a special event or a fancy reception, to sit in the front row and watch a major event. And that's not to say that those things are not a big deal. But to be chosen, to be an ambassador of the living God who has the ability to do things of excellence on the scale of miraculous, breathing new life into dead sinners, changing the eternal destiny of those who are lost and hopeless, forgiving and healing the broken, that is a privilege. my fellow proclaimers, we are ambassadors for Christ. That's 2 Corinthians 5.20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We are to be living, breathing, walking, talking, proclaiming advertisements for all the awesome and miraculous and excellent things of the one who has called us out of darkness. And the word there for darkness is a reference to sin. It's the disastrous effects of it. It's dreadful lost state of the person who is not a follower of Jesus and are among the living dead who are in moral and spiritual darkness. It is the condition which all of mankind finds itself who remain under the power and influence of Satan, the Prince of Darkness. That means that as believers, we have been called out from being under the rule of Satan and the power that he held over us. Called out from that dreadful condition as slaves to sin. Called out from the time when we lived in unbelief. Called out from the time when we are ignorant of God's provision of salvation. Called out from being blinded to the truth about Jesus Christ The Lord God has sovereignly called you out of darkness and into his light. He has called you into his kingdom and he has given you a new identity and new duties and all the privileges and benefits and enjoyment of the kingdom life now and in the one to come. We have been rescued from the grip and control of Satan. And that transaction, that transformation It is remarkable. The depths of our rescue is nothing short of miraculous. And I say it's miraculous because the unbeliever is not only in the darkness, but because the darkness is in the unbeliever. I don't think we understand how pervasive and prevalent sin is. Before you were saved, before God called you out of darkness, you were not only in the dark, you and I were a child of the darkness. We were walking in the darkness, and not just walking in the darkness, but we loved the darkness. We loved our sin. We had no interest in the light because the darkness does not understand the light. And that's exactly why we needed sovereignly rescued. And so the depth of the darkness of sin that we've been rescued from is profound. And God in His grace has shown us pity and calls you and I out of that darkness and into His marvelous light, all because of His own desire to do so. Do you see how blessed we are, my friends? Are you not just blown away by God's goodness? Does that not compel you to want to honor and obey and proclaim His excellencies? So as a holy nation and a royal priesthood, we have been chosen by God as his special possession in order to proclaim his glorious work in salvation. We are a people who have been brought out of darkness into light, and now it is our desire to display and boast about that marvelous light to those who remain lost and in darkness. But sadly, more and more evangelicals are replacing this critical proclamation aspect of our mission with other concepts of missions today. It is fashionable and, dare I say, easier to replace gospel proclamation with social justice or good deeds as mission. But our display mission of God will always be incomplete without gospel proclamation. We are to announce to all who are broken, to all who are hurt, to all who are oppressed and abused, that it is King Jesus who has come to end all injustice. And one day he will return again to bring a kingdom of righteousness and justice and peace, and that all from every tongue, tribe, and nation who repent and believe in Jesus may enter into his rest. That's why we must proclaim the excellence and marvelous saving light of our Savior. Now, there's also a danger here. There is a danger of proclaiming the gospel without living a life that reflects the very gospel we proclaim. As a royal priesthood and a holy nation, we have been set apart by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are no longer to pursue our former sinful passions. Instead, we are to reflect the holiness of our Heavenly Father, which is what Peter has already said in 1 Peter 1, verses 14 through 16. I want to read that to you. 1 Peter 1, 14 through 16. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And the reason God wants us to abstain from the former passions of the flesh coming up here in verse 11 of chapter 2, and keeping your conduct among the Gentiles honorable in verse 12, is to provide a living witness to those lost people of this world so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. And for some of my brothers and sisters, this message may be a call for some lifestyle changes, to examine your priorities, a season to evaluate your walk and commitment to Christ and this church body that you call home. A time to examine your identity in Christ. Maybe for some it's a realization that you're not doing very well in your role as a priest. You don't even take time to read and study the words so that you can offer little as a royal priest in your service to King Jesus. Maybe as you reflect on your speech and your behavior and your priorities and your attitude and how and with who you spend your time once you walk out these doors, The only thing holy in your life is the socks on your feet. Instead of proclaiming the excellencies of God, you spend too much time proclaiming your opinions and debating skills on social media, chasing every foolish news story, binge-watching your favorite TV shows, or spending too much time with those who do little to improve your character. Maybe it's time for you to engage in the battle, to be a part of the holy nation and royal priesthood that God has placed you into, to live up to this identity that Christ died to provide for you. Brothers and sisters, you and I, the church, we are not incidental. We are not secondary to God's plans. We are central to them. God has not brought you unto himself and given you the church and given you a new identity to fit your plans and your priorities. You see, he has saved you and given you a glorious new identity and has given you the church to serve his plans and his priorities for his purpose and all for his glory. Now, there may be others here today who have a very different identity. You know you're not in Christ. You walk through those doors this morning and you are lost in your sin, blinded in your darkness, blinded by Satan and his lies. But as you've heard the word preached, your heart has been warmed to the hope of a new identity, a new life in Jesus Christ, a life of forgiveness and joy and freedom in Him. Maybe you're here this morning and you've had loved ones, family, friends, neighbors, who out of their sincere love for you and their great love and obedience to Jesus, they have been proclaiming God's excellencies to you. Maybe you've even gotten tired of hearing about it. I remember a season when that was me. You've heard enough about this Jesus and you don't believe you need him, or maybe you don't even think he would have you anyway. Well, as an ambassador, as a proclaimer for Christ, I want you to know that you so desperately do need him. And I want you to know that you are never beyond God's saving grace. And I have great news for you this morning. His mercy, his compassion, his salvation is here for the taking right where you are. and it costs you nothing. You simply need to confess to God that you are a sinner in need of Jesus Christ, your Savior. I'm asking you this morning, I'm pleading with you this morning to surrender. Stop running from God. Stop holding on to your sin and to your own self-righteousness and to turn to Christ who was crucified and died on a cross and bore in himself God's wrath, the punishment that your sin deserved. The punishment of hell that should have been reserved for you was poured out on Jesus, the one who was nailed on a cross to die in your place, invites you to come. And God promises that if you would repent, that is, confess and agree with God that you are a sinner and that you desire to turn from your sin and turn from pursuing your ways and instead turn to Jesus in repentance and faith and put your trust in what He accomplished in His death and resurrection on your behalf, that if you would do that, then God has made a promise that He will save you. He will forgive you and cleanse you from your sin. God promises to free you from the bondage of sin's grip and make you one with Christ so that all that is His is yours, so that you can say, but I too and part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. And I will gladly proclaim the excellencies of Him who called me out of the darkness and into His marvelous light. So friend, don't delay. You can do that right now. And if you do, would you please let me or someone else know about that decision before you leave today? I'd love to meet you after the service and help you get started in your walk with them. Let's pray.