WWUTT 316 A Chosen Race?

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. When we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

We're continuing our study of 1 Peter today, chapter two, verses nine through 12. If you wanna open up your Bible and join with me there. But before doing that, I wanted to express my thanks. About a year ago now in December at the end of 2015, we had an ice storm that did significant damage to the roof of our church.

Now our roof had been needing repairs for some time. I came on staff in 2010 as an associate pastor and we were talking about even then needing to do repairs to the roof. But I kind of ignored the problem until we had that ice storm a year ago.

And then it was during a sermon on a Sunday morning, I could hear the pitter patter of drops leaking in through the roof onto the stage just a few feet away from me. So it was a problem I could no longer ignore.

We needed to do repairs to the roof. I made an announcement about it on the program and said that if you wanted to make a contribution to when we understand the text, you could go to our website, www .utt .com.

You can still do this by the way, which is why I'm mentioning it. There's a give tab on the top right corner of the page. Click on that and you can either give online or you can send a check to us. And all of that goes to the church.

I do not personally benefit from that in any way. It goes to our church, the ministries that we do locally as well as abroad and even things like this. When we understand the text, the videos that we do on YouTube and the podcast also, all of that being supported by the contributions that we receive from the listeners.

Well, so anyway, so we needed a new roof. We were starting to raise money for the roof. I was also invited on the Fire Away podcast by entreating favor, Landon Chapman and Nate Pikowitz. And when I came on that program, we weren't planning on talking about the roof, but Landon asked me what was going on because he knew about it.

And so we started talking about it. So there were some folks that even heard about it through Fire Away and sent us some donations because we were talking about it on that program. And so anyway, people that I have never met before and have never even been to our church before, not only from the United States, but even abroad had sent donations.

Some donated large amounts and others just, you know, gave 20 bucks or something if they could, but it all contributed greatly to repairing our roof. And I'm talking about this now because it's finally done.

On Saturday afternoon, the last shingle, the last nail was put in, it was completed, it's done. The roof on our building looks awesome. I posted a couple of pictures, which you can go to our church website and see firstsouthernbaptistchurch .org.

And you'll see the couple of pictures there on the front of the website. If you, perhaps you donated and you want to see the finished product. Well, you can see it right there on the webpage. I actually never took any pictures over the course of the process of the roof being done.

Since we've been doing a lot of renovations on our building over the course of the last month, I've taken all kinds of pictures of people working on the inside, but I didn't take any pictures of people working on the outside until the roof was done.

So you're only seeing the finished product. You don't see the roof in the process of being repaired. But the team that stepped up and did it, did a fantastic job. And they even worked Thanksgiving day.

One of our elders went by the church and saw them working on Thanksgiving day.

He's like, what are you guys doing?

You need to go eat dinner. And the foreman, the guy that was in charge of the whole thing, he said, hey, we pay bills first and then we go eat turkey. And so we're just very appreciative of the work that they did.

We had actually contracted somebody out back in July and waited for months for him to actually get started on the project. He said he was gonna do it. He was committed to it. We never saw him. And so finally it got around to, we needed to get this done before the first snows started rolling in.

And so one of our elders had just had his roof done at his home. And so he had just asked those guys, hey, would you be interested in doing a church? On short notice, they came over, looked at the roof, presented an estimate.

We turned it down. Then they pitched another estimate and we said, sure, we'll do that. And then they fixed the roof for us, even working on Thanksgiving day. Man, we are surely appreciative of the work that those guys did.

And I'm saying thank you to you for the donations that you gave, those that contributed to that particular project. We wanna be good stewards with the building that God has given to us. And there is ministry that is being done there all week long.

It's not just a Sunday and Wednesday thing. We've always got activities going on at the church, even bringing over high school students on Tuesday and feeding them lunch and giving them the gospel. According to the high schoolers that we have interviewed, only about half of them attend a church of any kind.

There are many that come in there and even profess to be unbelievers. We've got Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons that come in there and hear the gospel proclaimed and even hear false teaching get called out.

We warn students about those false churches out there that they should not be a part of, including the Mormon church. And I've had some backlash from that, but nonetheless, we're gonna deliver the truth and save lives through that ministry.

So these are just some of the things that we do at First Southern Baptist Church. Your money has been applied to this ministry and we will continue to use the building for that purpose. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for the contributions that you gave through When We Understand the Text to First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City. And it is my commitment to you that we will remain committed to the Lord and the sound teaching of his word.

The Chosen Race, Royal Priesthood, and Holy Nation in 1 Peter 2

On that note, let's get to it. First Peter 2 9 -12,. 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. I recently did a what video, earlier this year, we did a what video on this particular passage, First Peter 2 9 -10.

So before we get into it, let me play that video. 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. All who are in Christ are a chosen race, a new race taken from all races, born again in the Holy Spirit.

It's not that ethnicity or culture or heritage are unimportant, but they are not what unites us to God or to one another. We are one in Jesus Christ. We are his royal priests. No one was meant to worship as an island.

We are a holy nation. And together, lifting our voices as one, our song is to proclaim his glory, for he has called us from darkness to his light. Before his calling, we were not a people. We had no people.

We were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves, all of us to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

And as we have been forgiven, so we must forgive one another. Here among the people of God, there is not black or white, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, native or immigrant, but Christ, who is all and in all when we understand the text.

Not the usual beginning most of our videos have. Usually we start out with that, what? But this was just a straight reading of 1 Peter 2, verses nine through 10. He also had Titus three thrown in there as well.

When you think about being a chosen race, we are united not by blood, well, not by our blood anyway, but by the blood of Christ. Our DNA is not something that is inside ourselves. It is a DNA of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever heard the expression, blood is thicker than water? All right, that expression means that family is the closest relationships that you'll ever have. So a person that is related by blood, same parents to somebody else or same patriarch, I guess you could look at it that way.

You know, we're family and blood is thicker than any friendships or associations or anything like that. Well, the expression is actually false when you throw the Holy Spirit into the mix. What is even more binding and unifying than that, than our physical DNA is the spiritual DNA that we have of the Holy Spirit.

We are a spiritual people united in Christ Jesus. We are one by his blood, not the blood of our parents or the blood of an ancestor. And in this way, we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. Now do not confuse chosen race with being a group of people that have all been made in the image of God.

Yes, every person has that in common, whether they are a believer or an unbeliever. And it's for that reason that we must love even those who are unbelievers, because we would love them more than they even love themselves.

They have taken the image of God and they have desecrated it. Yet, because we love God and the people who were made in his image, we show a love toward them that is even deeper and more significant than unbelievers can show toward one another.

So we share the true love of Christ, whether or not that love would win them from the darkness that they are in and into the marvelous light of Christ. So there is that commonality that we all have in the sense that we've all been made in the image of God, but that's not what is being talked about here when it's talking about a chosen race.

Remember, whenever we're talking about chosen, whenever we see that word apply or given, it has the same application that was given to the Israelites when they were called out of Egypt. And you see that same language being used here by the apostle Peter.

We are a chosen race. We are a chosen people just like the Israelites were chosen. Whenever we think about the Egyptians versus the Israelites, we tend to look at that struggle like an old Western, okay?

You've got the villain who wears the black hat and the good guy that wears the white hat, right? So the Israelites are the guys with the white hats and the Egyptians are the guys with the black hat. So in this power struggle of good versus evil, Israelites are the good guys and Egyptians are the bad guys.

But that's not really the reality of God having called the Israelites to himself. When it comes down to it, they were all bad. The Israelites were bad and the Egyptians were bad, but it's because God was faithful to himself, to a promise that he gave to Abraham that his descendants would be his people.

And so he called the Israelites out. He chose them for himself. He disregarded the Egyptians. He chose the Israelites because God is faithful, not because we're faithful, but God is faithful. So just as the Israelites were chosen, so we who are in Christ are a chosen race.

We are called out of darkness into his marvelous light, just like the Israelites were called out of slavery and into the promised land. Same sort of language that's being used here. That's exactly the application that Peter is putting on this.

You're a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. Now, if you'll remember, the Israelites were supposed to be a priesthood. They were supposed to be a nation of priests that were going to be representatives of God throughout all the pagan peoples in the world.

But the Israelites rejected that calling. So then God established the Levitical priesthood through the house of Aaron. But it wasn't until the Israelites had rejected their calling to be priests that God established the Levitical priesthood.

All of us who are in Christ, we are now given that title of priesthood, royal priesthood. So we are the ambassadors, the carriers of the message of Christ to the world. And in this way, we are his priests.

And that's everybody, not just pastors, not just elders, not just the overseers, but anyone who is in Christ is part of this priesthood, a royal priesthood, a decree that has been given by the king to his priests to go out and declare the gospel.

You get a sense of a theocracy here in that very title, royal priesthood, as the king would declare to his priests in the administration of the message of the king. But this isn't a theocracy in the sense that it would be a government that would be established on earth, an earthly government, we put it that way.

It's something spiritual, just as all of this is supposed to be applied in a spiritual way, chosen race. Well, if anybody were to look at us, if anybody who is worldly were to look at the body of the saints, the body of believers, they're not gonna see a race of people.

They're gonna see a multitude of races and ethnicities that are united together as one in Christ. At least that's the way that it should be happening. Lots of segregation happening between different churches and even within individual churches.

And this segregation should not be so. We just started a series through First Corinthians yesterday in our church. My introduction to First Corinthians was yesterday. You can find that sermon on our website, by the way, firstsouthernbaptistchurch .org if you wanna follow along as we're going through that series.

So segregation was a big thing that was going on in the church in Corinth. It was mostly class segregation, but nonetheless was a big deal. So that's something that we're going to be addressing as we continue this study through First Corinthians.

This kind of segregation should not be happening in the church. We should all be united as one. There should not be class separation. There should not be ethnic separation or prejudices according to skin color or any of these things.

We are a chosen race in Christ, one in Christ Jesus with the same spirit, the same baptism, we are one. So though the world will look at us and see a multitude of races and ethnicities, we're one in Christ.

There is not this color group of people or that ethnic group of people or that cultural background and this cultural background. We are simply one in Christ Jesus. Though there are people that will even be separated because the languages that they speak are different.

Whenever we gather as a church on a Sunday morning, there is a Vietnamese church in town that is gathering. There's a Korean church in town. There is the Spanish church. And they are the body of believers that they are to hear the gospel proclaimed in their own language, but they are no more or less a brother or sister in Christ than the very people that we are sitting with in the congregation that we are worshiping in on a Sunday morning.

So it is the Holy Spirit that unites us into one race of people, a chosen race by the Spirit of God, a royal priesthood to declare His excellencies. We are a holy nation. And surely nobody in the world, nobody who is worldly, nobody who is of the flesh is gonna be looking at the saints as being a nation of people.

And this is not a nation that is being established on earth, but it is a spiritual kingdom. And as is mentioned there in the video, it's something that I say often to my congregation. We are not meant to worship as an island, but we are a holy nation.

You know, here in America, especially, and in our modern times, we get this idea that Christianity is just a me and my Bible sort of a thing. You know, hey, I pray, I read my Bible, I do my devotionals.

I'm doing everything that a good Christian should. Well, if you are truly a follower of Christ, then you will desire to be a part of the fellowship of Christ, and you will be a regular church attendee, not doing this begrudgingly, but rejoicing to be with the saints, declaring the praises of God and hearing the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

These are things that we do together as the body of Christ, and we rejoice to do these things together. And in this, we are a holy nation, a body that is being sanctified by the washing of water through the word.

We are a people for his own possession. A verse I quote to you often, Titus 2 .14, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

And what are those good works that we are supposed to be doing? Well, Peter puts it plainly, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. We are saved by his calling, not because we came knocking.

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. And this also goes with Titus. As I mentioned, Titus 3 .3 -5 mentioned in that video, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

So we were not a people before God. The people who are unbelievers, who are in the devil and not in Christ, they are not a people, they're not unified. They are every man for himself. It is only in Christ that we are unified as a people for his own possession.

But those who are not in Christ are hated by others and they are hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life, heirs of the kingdom of God, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

Unity in Christ, the Image of God, and the Church as a Holy Nation

God, as we bring these things to wraps here, as we consider or continue to consider what it means to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, a chosen race, unified not by skin color or common desires or hobbies or any of these kinds of things, we are unified by the blood of Christ and by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

So we should not only be looking at our fellow man as being created in the image of God, but we look at the saints as sharing something deeply intimate and powerful, the very force that created the entire universe that brought Jesus Christ out from the grave is dwelling in the hearts of all of his followers, of all believers in God through Jesus Christ.

And so let us celebrate and praise you in his name. Lord, I also wanna express my own thanks to your faithfulness to this ministry as we continue to proclaim the gospel on the internet just like this, as we have received contributions from people who listen in so that we could make necessary repairs on our roof and on our building so that the gospel would continue to be proclaimed in a small church in the middle of the United States.

I pray that we would continue to be faithful to what it is that you have given to us,.

That we would be good stewards.

With what you have given to us and use it faithfully for the cause of Christ and the declaration of his gospel. Thank you for all your many blessings and provisions, including the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

And it's in the name of the Spirit and of Christ Jesus, our Lord, that we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.