Into His Marvelous Light

Introduction

Read 1 Peter 2:9-10

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

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.

Years ago, Pastor John Brandon began a practice at Versailles Baptist Church. Every time someone joins our faith family, we recite 1 Peter 2:9.

We cannot talk about the local church without this Scripture, because this Scripture tells us the best of who we are collectively. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people after His own possession.

I can think of no better place to end our Summer Series on “Faith Family” than this text. We want to know the best of who we are collectively.

Explanation

We are four things:

A chosen race - We are chosen.

God looked at us, in our depravity, our sin, our wondering, and our rebellion, and chose to move in our hearts.

God is comparing us to the people of Israel. One day, Abram was worshipping His families God’s, and the next day, he is on a journey to a far away country where God blesses him exceedingly and names Him Abraham.

What made all the difference. God spoke to Abraham. We are united in that fact too. We made the decision to follow Jesus, but we did not make that decision outside of the prompting of the Holy Spirit. God spoke to us.

God chose to step into our time and place and make us new in Him. We have that fact in common.

Think for a moment that God looked at you and said, “He’s mine,” or “she’s mine.” We can revel in that fact, that God looked at you and chose you in spite of you.

A royal priesthood - We have access to God as His children.

The royals in Israel were the kings. They ruled over Israel under the direction of God.

The priests in Israel made sacrifices of atonement for the people. They taught the people and kept the people in right relationship with God.

We are both royal, in that we are seeing the Kingdom of God take root in the world by what we do and how we serve, and priestly, in that we need no priest to go to God on our behalf.

We are God’s vessel’s of redemption.

We need no go between to get to God, because Christ is the go-between, and we have been united to Him.

A holy nation

God is making all of us holy.

When you look at the people around you, and you are tempted to be frustrated or haughty, remember that one day, they will be made perfectly holy before the Lord as they stand before Him.

The same could be said of you. We are all on our way towards holiness, but we are not there yet.

Two equally important parts to this phrase: Holy and Nation

Our greatest allegiance is to Christ, Himself. Our greatest allegiance isn’t to our nation, our political party, our state, our community, or even our family. Our greatest allegiance is to our Lord.

A people for His own possession

Isaiah 43:21 “the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”

If you “possess” something, you decided that you wanted it.

The Westminster Confession states that adoption is “to receive God’s name and to have access to God’s throne, His pity, His protection, His provision, His discipline, and His promise to never abandon us.”

We are given God’s name.

We have access to God’s:

Throne - We can go to God at any time. The God of the universe who sits on His throne does not keep us from His presence ever.

You can’t get that kind of access to your plumber, accountant, or Dr.

But you have that complete and total access before the King of the universe.

We tend to think that increased accessibility to something makes it common. We have common access to our uncommon God. Only through the blood of Jesus do we have this access.

Pity - God sees our self-induced guilt, and he moves towards his followers not with wrath or indifference, but with a pity of our estate that he would save us.

Protection - Everything that God does in our lives brings about our good and his glory. He protects us. He will not withhold from us a good thing.

Provision - God is everything that we need, and God will give us everything that we need. Take a deep breath. That breath comes from God, or you wouldn’t have been able to

Discipline - Because God is a father, at times, He disciplines his children. God’s discipline is never His wrath for His children.

Promise - Every promise of the Bible is yours in Jesus.

We proclaim the “excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

This is not an evangelism passage. This is a worship passage. But, as John Piper says, “Missions exist, because worship doesn’t.”

If you want to get technical about worship and praise, Worship is in response to who God is, and Praise is in response to what God has done/is doing. In this passage, we see both.

Excellencies of Him: “arete” means SO MANY things, excellent character, military prowess, high honor, prestige in business dealings, etc. It was a term reserved for the highest praise, and it was not thrown around lightly. Who God is. He is excellent - the best word is probable eminence, of the best of the best - of first rank.

This is an act of worship for who God is.

He is first, He is greatest, He is eminent.

Marvelous light is a blinding light. This word in the wider Greek literature refers to a miraculous, life-changing moment.

The before/after picture:

God’s people

You once were not a people

Now, you are God’s people

Mercy

Once you had not received mercy

Now, you have received mercy

We are sojourners and exiles, therefore:

This world is not our home.

A sojourner is a traveller in a foreign land. An exile is one is unable to be in his homeland in his current predicament.

We amass for ourselves homes, families, bank accounts, and a plethora of toys that we really don’t need. In doing so, we forget that this life is not our best life. We have an eternity yet to come, which will be home.

We have comfortable lives, and we have grown addicted to comfort.

One of the worse things that addiction does to us is it ties our decision-making to the thing we are addicted to.

We often make decisions based upon our comfort level or how much that decision pushes us outside of our comfort level.

I believe the world we will live in in the next 20 years will make being a Christian and following Christ faithfully MUCH more difficult.

We keep our conduct among Gentiles honorable

They will speak against you as evildoers

Instead, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

As believers in Christ, the keeper of all truth, we are right! We know this to be true.

BUT, there are right ways to be right, and there are wrong ways to be right.

Invitation

Step into the adoption of God for you.