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Open Air Theology Conference 2024: Why Calvinism?
Good afternoon, let's take your copy of God's Word and open it to 1st Peter, chapter 2. 1st Peter, chapter 2, our text this afternoon is verses 6 through 10. Would you stand for the reading of God's Word?
1st Peter, chapter 2, verses 6 through 10. For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. And he who believes in him will not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe.
But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. For they stumble because they are disobedient to the Word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. This is God's Word. You may be seated. Please join me in prayer. Father in heaven, we continue to offer you thanksgiving for your Word, which we hear and by which we are edified and sanctified.
God, I pray in this hour that you would continue your work among us. That from this text you would give us Christ. Not the Christ of our own making or our own liking, Lord, but the Christ of the Bible.
In his name we pray. Amen. The topic which I have been assigned to address to you is Calvinism in the Gospel. And it was Charles Spurgeon who was famous for saying, or infamous depending on who you ask, that Calvinism is the Gospel.
You've heard this quote already at this conference, but I don't care. You're going to hear it again. Spurgeon says, There is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified unless you preach what is nowadays called Calvinism.
I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the Gospel and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the Gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works, nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God and his dispensation of grace, nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah.
Nor, I think, can we preach the Gospel unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people. Nor can I comprehend a Gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having believed.
Such a Gospel I abhor. The Gospel of the Bible is not such a Gospel as that. Indeed, the Gospel of the Bible is dangerous. It is a threat. It is, in fact, an offense. It is an offense to proud men, to wise men, to soft men.
Now, recently in Florida, and you can see the video for yourself, there was a man who was trying to transport an alligator. And, of course, alligators have sharp claws and powerful tails and pointy teeth.
And so, in order to make the alligator easier to deal with, the man tied up the front and back legs of the alligator upwards against his body so that if its legs were longer, they would have been tied behind its back.
And so, the claws were out of reach. They were no longer a threat. The man then secured its tail so that it could not whip around destructively. And then, with a special kind of tape, he wrapped it around the alligator's snout several times, forcing it shut so that it could not bite.
Everything that makes this alligator dangerous has been subdued. And having all the threats secured and being sure there was no danger and that there was no longer any way for this alligator to do him harm, the man proceeded to taunt the alligator.
He began to talk down to this bound beast, basking in his victory and laughing and striking it repeatedly on the nose. And then the man, with the help of a couple of friends, lifted the alligator into the back of a pickup truck for transport.
And as they set it down, the alligator suddenly wrenched its body and whipped its head back towards the man and struck him in the face and knocked him out cold. I'm eager to speak about Calvinism in the Gospel because many Christians today wish to take Calvinism out of the Gospel in order to make it easier to deal with.
They wish to bind up its claws and secure its tail and take away its bite. And so, it is no wonder, it is no surprise at all that a campaign with millions of dollars to spend in creating a 60-second ad to proclaim the excellencies of our great God to be seen by tens of millions of people, the majority of whom are lost and dead in their sin and plunging into hell, could come up with nothing more than,.
Be kind.
Lay aside your convictions and be kind to one another because He gets us. And I think it's safe to say that it was true here in recent history that it was cool to be Calvinist. I think that is no longer the case on the large scale and there is a resurgence of hostility towards the doctrines of grace, this Gospel of the Bible, as Spurgeon called it.
In fact, I know many Calvinists. Well, let me say this first. I knew that when I announced on social media the other day that I was eager to preach alongside these brothers, the mere mention of Calvinism on the conference graphic would start an intergalactic war in the comments section.
In fact, one commenter wants you all to know that if the God of Calvinism was real, it would be humanity's job to hunt Him down and kill Him. But it's not just the anti-Calvinists and the Arminians out there, but even those who would say they hold to the doctrines of grace.
I know many Calvinists who will not even disclose their Calvinism because of the offense they are afraid it will cause. Maybe that's you here today. Perhaps you need to ask yourself, is it my motivation to not cause unnecessary offense?
Or am I ashamed of the Gospel? Am I ashamed of the Christ over whom men are appointed to stumble? Have you come to this conference wearing a proverbial cloak? Or perhaps you're a pastor who's all bite and bold online in your proclamation of this Gospel of the Bible but weak in your pulpit with a habit of softening the blow of the Scriptures about God's sovereignty over the elect and the reprobate so as not to offend your hearer's delicate sensibilities.
Would you declaw and defang this Gospel in order to build your own house rather than Christ's? Perhaps you are a pastor who will have Calvinism in your pulpit but not in your home with your family. And you are failing to take the promises of the Gospel seriously when it comes to leading your wife and raising your children.
Or perhaps you are a wife or mother and you enjoy a good podcast and a good book but your Calvinism is all trapped in your head and you've bound it up in your brain so that it is no danger to the way you make your home.
Is there Calvinism in your kitchen? We may try all kinds of ways to remove the danger of the Gospel but if it is the true Gospel you are seeking it will find a way to knock you out. In 1 Peter 2, 6 -10 God has chosen Christ to be the precious cornerstone over which many stumble and upon which God's people are built.
In this text the teeth of the Gospel are bared and no one who searches it honestly is safe. Let me call your attention firstly then to the election of Christ. Look at verse 6.
Peter writes,.
For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. The cornerstone supports all other stones. It is the foundation stone on which the rest of the house is built and Peter has described the church in the preceding verses as coming to Christ as living stones being built up as a spiritual house.
The cornerstone is often the visible stone set at the corner of the structure that governs the building's design. Christ is the cornerstone. As we begin, don't miss Peter's appeal to the Scriptures. He says, For this is contained in Scripture.
You've probably been told at some point that your Calvinistic doctrine is the result of some vain philosophy or that the last four points of TULIP are simply the logical outworking of the first point and nothing more.
But our appeal as we preach, as we evangelize, as we lead our families in worship, as we proclaim his excellencies must be that of Peter's for this is contained in Scripture. Then we will have no need to be ashamed of any offense that this gospel of the Bible is sure to cause.
Peter's belief in the cornerstone is founded upon the Word of God at which the disobedient stumble to their doom and upon which God's people are built as living stones for a spiritual house. Peter is quoting Isaiah 28, 16 and from this quotation we can begin to answer the question that is raised later in the text.
Why is this stone rejected by men? Why do men stumble over this stone? Because they are disobedient to the Word. They are disobedient, as Gil says, to the doctrine of the gospel. So notice from Peter's quotation that in this Word the Lord demands attention to this stone.
Verse 16 of Isaiah 28 reads,. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, pay attention, see, understand. God is doing something. God is making promises. God is pointing you to someone. Behold. He calls out our unbelief.
He demands that we cease building on our own cracked foundations and that we fix our attention upon this cornerstone that we might believe in Him. Also, in this Word, God Himself has laid this stone. I lay in Zion a choice stone.
God is the one who lays this stone, who sets this stone, who establishes this stone, who appoints this stone. It is His doing and there is no replacement for this cornerstone. Matthew Henry remarks that the setting up of the Pope for the head of the church is a human contrivance and an arrogant presumption.
Christ only is the head and foundation of the church of God. But look at the modern celebrity pastor. So many so-called ministers of the Word today who build their dead temples atop dead men's bones, establish their charismatic personalities as the cornerstone and foundation of the church, that if you took them away, the whole thing crumbles.
Take Mike Todd away from Transformation Church and it crumbles to the ground. Remove Stephen Furtick from Elevation Church and it crumbles. And if you hear a church's name and you think more about a man or a personality than Christ Jesus, there is a problem with the foundation.
Mike Todd and Stephen Furtick are easy targets, but, oh, pastor, what about you? Whose kingdom are you building? And if God were to remove you, would it stand? In this Word, God has laid this stone and He has laid this stone in Zion.
Now, Zion is a synonym for Jerusalem, referring to its inhabitants, but it is also a word of eschatological hope. Just as Jerusalem became the place of Yahweh's dwelling, now the people of God in every place are Zion, that is, the church, the spiritual temple in which God's presence dwells.
He is not every man's stone so that they may build upon Him whatever they like and they hate Him for it. God lays this cornerstone in Zion and not in Babylon. He is the cornerstone for His people, for their support and salvation, but a rock of offense to His enemies who are appointed to doom.
In this Word, God has chosen this stone. He says, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a word used there that is only used in the New Testament of the sovereign choice of God. The Lord says of Him in Isaiah 42, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.
One of the saddest things to me is a Christian who will not admit their election. There is hardly a more humbling and joy-inducing truth than to know that not because I was good enough or found the required faith within myself nor exercised it appropriately, but for no other reason than that it pleased God to do so.
He had mercy on me and delighted in me. When I first became convinced of my election as a very young Christian, I had to literally go and hide myself so as not to cause a scene. I was so overwhelmed with joy.
But the Word speaks not only to me being foreknown before the foundation of the world, but listen to Peter in chapter 1, verse 20 and 21. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.
Those who reject their election are like the man who ties up the alligator. They can bind that which they think poses a threat to them. They can even taunt that gospel of the Bible which they have so securely bound up and strike it on the nose.
They can reject their election, but they cannot reject Christ's. They cannot escape and are struck, as it were, with the truth that our election to salvation is wholly bound up in Christ's election as our Savior.
Why do men stumble over this stone? Well, in this word, God honors this stone. He says it is a precious cornerstone. The word precious here means honored, and it was used of the ancient world of the honorable discharge of a retiring soldier, one who was precious to the cause, one who has proven his worth or his value, one to whom honor is due.
And while the disobedient reject him who God honors, seeking honor for themselves, you know, I mean, how does not this precious cornerstone, proven time and time again, his immeasurable worth to you, dear Christian?
Is he not the one who saved you, sovereignly turning your disobedient heart towards him? I mean, you could not save yourself. May the Lord help our hearts to value him ever increasingly and to consider him precious.
Finally, in this word promises that we will not be disappointed with this stone. It says he who believes in him will not be disappointed. Or it could be read, he who believes in him will not be put to shame.
Just as Christ is honored, so all who believe in him will not be ashamed. There is hope at the last day for believers and doom at the last day for unbelievers. There is vindication at the last day to be enjoyed by all who believe in the cornerstone and damnation and shame to be suffered by the disobedient.
Now he says this precious value then is for you who believe, meaning that he, this elect Christ, is precious to us. By the grace of God, our esteem of Christ aligns with the Father's. He is precious in God's sight.
He is precious in the Christian sight. He comes to us as he is and we do not desire another. He comes as he is and not permitting that we pick and choose those aspects or parts of him that we admire and cast off or reject those things about him that we despise.
He does not allow us to lay hold of, believe in me, and reject, deny yourself, and take up your cross. He does not grant that we embrace forgiveness of sins and avoid the hatred of the world. We are not to be like the disbelieving Jews, the builders who should have known better but would not embrace him in the form and fashion in which he came to them.
He came to his own and his own did not receive him. They had the law and the covenants and the promises and the wisdom and the prophecies and the oracles but they rejected their Messiah. He was different from that which they anticipated.
He didn't fit their expectations. No place was found for him in their hearts.
But for us,.
Who know Christ as the living stone, who's made us alive, he is the very cornerstone of our salvation. Is he precious in your sight or do you reject him for another? Is he precious in your sight, holy and completely as he is or do you pretend to embrace him while rejecting some of those things he demands of you?
Are you his under-shepherd and yet there are truths about him you will seldom preach for fear of how he will be received for fear of how you will be perceived. I was speaking with a man a few weeks ago who is a pastor of a large church in an apostate denomination who was a hardcore liberal and by the scriptures God convicted his heart of the doctrines of grace and so he had a choice to make.
Do I continue to preach watered down messages and moralism in order to keep the good thing that I have going here or do I preach the word? And so on Sunday he got up into his congregation's shock. He opened the Bible and he started preaching Romans and less than half of the people in that church showed up the next week.
Christ of the Bible was a stumbling stone a rock of offense to these people. He said I will preach and indeed him with Spurgeon we must all of us always state boldly the truth of Christ. Now moving on in our text we must consider now the appointment to doom.
Picking up in verse 7. But for those who disbelieve the stone which the builders rejected this became the cornerstone in a stone of stumbling in a rock of offense for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed.
Consider him as the rejected stone. He is rejected by men. He is rejected not because there is any fault in the stone. The stone is without defect or deformity or defilement. The stone is rejected because he doesn't fit the temples that they wish to build.
They will not have him governing the design. Whether it be the design of male and female the design of marriage the design of motherhood the design of the household the design of salvation. They will not have him governing the design of these things because they have their own temples.
To build.
And so he is the rejected stone. They look him over and decide that he doesn't fit. And just as we take part in his life as living stones to the living stone so we must take part in his rejection by the world.
Now our Calvinism prepares us for this rejection. Our firm convictions about God's sovereign design of the world and the way he saves sinners squashes any temptation to adopt pragmatic efforts to appeal to the world of men and win them without ever having to be rejected by them.
Christian, you don't fit either. Will you embrace this rejection? Consider him as the rock of offense. He is a stone of stumbling. They stumble over him. All who hear the word encounter Christ and respond.
Churchill said that men will sometimes stumble over truth. But most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. Simeon prophesied in Luke 2 .34 that this child is appointed not only for the rise but the fall of many in Israel.
Christ becomes the occasion of stumbling for wicked men. He is the rock of offense. Now, it hurts to stub your toe.
Amen?
Many proud and mighty men are all but slain when they stub their toe. Many holy men all but lose their salvation when they stub their toe. And when a wicked people.
Stub their toe.
In their pain and in their rage,.
What do they do?
They stumble and they turn around and they look at the object and they curse it. So do the disobedient stumble at the word. Meaning they take offense at the gospel and reject the Christ of the gospel.
They see its sharp edges, its claws and its teeth and see that they cannot handle it safely nor comfortably and so disobey its demands.
They stumble.
The word doom there and stumble are used synonymously. Their stumbling is their doom. Their stumbling is God's judgment upon them. He is the stumbling stone to those under His judgment. Jesus says in Matthew 21 -44 that he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces but on whoever it falls it will scatter him like dust.
They who stub their toe and turn and curse this rock of offense are cursed. He will return their curses on their own head. Though men are responsible for their sin.
They are not cursed.
Because they reject Him as if they were in some neutral position beforehand. They reject Him because they are cursed. In the same way that a man is not born again as the result of him believing in Jesus but believes in Jesus because he has been born again.
So the disobedient stumble because they are cursed. Because they are appointed to doom. And someone might say that isn't fair. Think of the parables with me. It is amazing to me how often I heard after I became a Christian and started getting involved in ministry how often I heard and was taught by people that because Jesus told stories referring to His parables the best way that we can make the gospel clear and easy for the free will of people who are hearing us to accept is by telling stories like Jesus did.
There's nothing inherently wrong with stories. But it is interesting to me first because even those who were following Him and believing in Him needed explanation as to what in the world He was talking about.
But primarily because Jesus told us the purpose of His parables judgment upon the house of Israel who rejected her cornerstone. And so the objection goes like this. Jesus used parables to make His message more relevant and easier to understand rather than plain preaching so that people could freely choose to believe in Him.
But in Matthew 13 why does Jesus quote Isaiah 6, 9 -10 you may want to turn there. Well because Matthew is written to the Jews and Jesus is speaking in parables in fulfillment of this prophecy against the Jewish nation for rejecting their Messiah.
In Isaiah 6 God is speaking through the prophet to Israel His covenant people whom He chose out of all of the nations that are on the earth pronouncing national judgment on them for their rebellion. In this context of Isaiah 6 this understanding and turning and healing is not talking about the spiritual salvation of the individual by their free choice but national and external repentance and reformation which if granted would allow Israel to be healed that is preserved from national ruin.
But God.
In judgment did not grant repentance but instead as Isaiah 6 -10 says He rendered their hearts insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim and sent them into captivity alluded to in Isaiah 6 -11 -12 with devastated cities and a desolate land and a people removed far away allowing national ruin to indeed come upon them.
This prophecy was not only fulfilled in the immediate future but pointed forward to the coming of the Messiah and the Jews rejection of Him for which they are likewise judged. Jesus speaks in parables to fulfill this scripture and to demonstrate the judgment of God against the Jewish nation rather than granting national repentance and preserving them from national ruin which like the Babylonian captivity occurred in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
But His disciples.
Were Jews too. So the question becomes when we read Matthew 13 -11 to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been granted. Why was it granted to these Jews to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven and not other Jews?
Some may say because they made their free choice to believe. They boasted about that once in John 6 -68 that while the other Jews walked away they believed and Jesus responds did I did not I myself choose you.
Jesus' election of those who truly belong to Him is also a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 6 wherein God promises that though He judges the nation of Israel verse 13 says. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it a remnant who Paul says in Romans 11 -5 is the remnant according to God's gracious choice.
And again in Isaiah 6 -13 and it will again be subject to burning that is it was burned once by Nebuchadnezzar and again by Titus Vespasian 70 AD. Verse 13 like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled the holy seed is a stump that is the elect.
Of God.
What about their choice? Men are responsible for the choices that they make. Men choose to reject Christ but the choice of men is not Peter's concern in this text. Obviously men choose to sin according to their fallen nature but the emphasis of the text before us in 1 Peter, Peter's divinely inspired emphasis is on God's choice.
Frankly there is one choice in this text and that's God's. His choice of Christ the stumbling stone and His choice of those who stumble over Him. The word appointed here that the disobedient are appointed to doom is the same word as lay in verse 6 behold I lay I appoint a stone in Zion a choice stone.
God appointed Christ to be the stumbling stone for those whom He appointed to doom. It means that the reprobate do not happen to stumble over this stone. It is not by chance that they stub their toe rather Christ is intentionally set in their way for stumbling.
The God who appointed Christ as the cornerstone for His elect also appointed Christ as the rock of offense for the reprobate. He appoints both the stone and the stumbling. So why is it that I come to Him?
Why any of us?
While others stumble over Him. What can we say for the grace of God? He's a stumbling stone to those with hearts of stone but He's made us alive. He's turned us into living stones. He is our cornerstone.
Pay close attention then if you are sitting in this room in a place like this and yet you do not believe and be warned you who persist in your disobedience to the word that the doom to which you are appointed awaits you.
As the old Puritan said terrible is your case who goes loaded with sermons to hell. Your only hope, like the rest of us, is the sovereign grace of God. But you, Christian, you also be admonished to walk circumspectly that your rock of salvation not become to you a rock of offense.
And do not boast. Even John the Baptist had to be told, blessed is the one who is not offended at me. Those who stumble are appointed to doom but you, you are a peculiar people. Verse 9. Consider the peculiarity of God's people.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. This is a significant thing that Peter is doing writing to churches made up of Jew and Gentile and because these titles were in the Old Covenant given exclusively to Israel Peter is exalting the status as it were of the Gentile church to the same privilege formerly reserved exclusively for the nation of Israel.
This is highly significant also because the Jews did so treasure their elevated status and their ancient privileges as the people of God but even though their purpose, the purpose of their privilege was to be a light to the nations, it was often a source of sinful pride and superiority.
We see this in the Jews' interactions with Jesus in John chapter 8, verse 33 through 37. They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants. Abraham is our father and have never yet been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever.
So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's descendants, yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. It was the Jews' mistaken reliance on simply being descendants of Abraham that in part causes them to stumble over Christ who made no conditions of nationality or heritage or privilege in regards to those who would be set free by the truth.
Abraham is our father. Jesus exposes the murderous intent of their hearts. You seek to kill me and provides the reason because my word has no place in you. Jesus became a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for they stumble because they are disobedient to.
The word.
And so when Peter uses these terms and applies them to you, the church is saying you are the true offspring of Abraham. A chosen race. Peter takes this title from Isaiah 43, 20 and the context there is God's promise to his people to bring them out of Babylonian exile.
He says, the beasts of the field will glorify me, the jackals and the ostriches because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to drink and to give drink to my chosen people. Now they were chosen of course long before the Babylonian exile and they went into exile as the consequence of their own sin and stubbornness but being in exile doesn't change their privilege as a chosen race.
A couple of verses before we read, the Lord says, do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. That is to say that the exodus and the great deliverance of God's people from bondage in Egypt ought to serve as a pattern for the great things God is going to do again on behalf of his people but so much greater is the thing that he's going to do that the exodus won't even compare.
Do not even call to mind the former things. That is serving as the basis for the greater thing God is going to do when he delivers his people from Babylon but these mighty acts in the history of the people of Israel are pointing forward to a greater deliverance and the new things about which Isaiah prophesies are not limited to the people's deliverance out of Babylon by Cyrus but anticipate with eschatological hope a greater deliverer coming to suffer and save them from their sins and not the Jews only but all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord revealed and the servant of the Lord will be as a light to the nations that the salvation of Yahweh may reach to the ends of the earth he has sent forth his deliverer to conduct a greater exodus for a chosen race the Israel of God and the true offspring of Abraham even the churches throughout Asia Minor comprised of Jew and Gentile to whom Peter applies this beloved title we are bonded therefore as the church not by our own blood.
But by.
The blood of Jesus Christ shed for us we are bonded as a chosen race not by natural birth but by the new birth according to God's gracious choice. And this Calvinism of ours understands that our privilege as sinners saved by grace alone puts us all on the same level before God among one another and it strips us of any imagined ground for boasting or for exalting ourselves over one another and it therefore.
Fortifies.
Us against the demonic onslaught of ungodly worldviews which would have the church tear itself apart from within into hegemonic and oppressed classes. Privileged groups and marginalized group having individuals from certain groups make reparations to other individuals within the church for sins that they've never committed and other nonsense that is totally foreign to the reality of what it means to be a chosen race.
Note.
This also.
That.
Rather than puffing us up and making us proud jerks this gospel of the Bible ought to render us a broken hearted people and the most humble and gracious among men and not adopt the carnal superiority like that of the Jews saying we have Calvin as our father we're better than you it is the blood of Jesus that reconciles us to one another and the application of that blood to make atonement and deliver us from our bondage to sin and to make us new creatures is according to the free will of God and not our own.
To remember dear friends that you are a chosen race. Of course I'm preaching to the choir here so allow me to gently take a shot at your gut and ask you why you have stopped rejoicing in your election.
Why are you no longer awestruck by this truth. When was the last time it brought you to your knees. When did you become ashamed of it. When did you start trying to hide it. When did you start shrinking back from declaring the whole counsel of God your chosen race and the royal priesthood.
Exodus 19 6 the Lord says to Israel you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. Now you can imagine that this designation might fall or settle awkwardly in the minds of the Jews a royal priesthood because the royal line was from Judah.
Genesis 49 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah and the priestly line was from Levi. And priests didn't really do what kings did and kings didn't do what priests did. And yet there is no contradiction because these offices are shadows the substance of which is in Christ our priest king after the order of Melchizedek king of Salem and priest of the most high God.
And in him we are a chosen race of priest kings. We wear the royal attire of his robe of righteousness and we are anointed with the Holy Spirit and able to draw near unto him to offer spiritual sacrifices.
You are a royal priesthood and a holy nation. This is again taken from Exodus 19 6. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This phrase continues to emphasize the peculiarity of the church.
When God called Abraham he called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Israel was chosen out of all the nations to be separate from all the nations. God chose Israel and gave his people laws which so drastically distinguish them from the surrounding nations.
And so is the church elected by God to be set apart to be peculiar to be holy as he is holy. And he calls them a nation writing not just to one congregation but to multiple congregations and ultimately to the church at large.
It means that you are part of something bigger than yourself. Peter writes to scattered aliens and calls them a holy nation which denotes common bond and laws and government and organization and the big God.
Theology of Calvinism reminds us and assures us that we are not alone.
That while.
What calls itself the church today often looks like such a mess. God will save his elect.
But.
Christ is the head of the church and with those brothers and sisters we are a holy nation. And sometimes it may look like your church is alone but she is not. We are a people for God's own possession.
From Exodus 19 5 now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession among the peoples for all the earth is mine. Notice the emphasis of God's own possession that is not mere inherent ownership but ownership by purpose.
Bought with the blood of his own son he redeems a people for his own possession a peculiar people on whom he bestows a peculiar love. Now last time I was down here for the new year's conference just Jeff only gave me 30 minutes to preach so I'm at liberty to take an extra 30 today.
I'm kidding. Okay. God doesn't love everyone the same way.
He loves you.
God has a.
Special salvific love for his elect as a husband. Has a special covenant love for his bride as a father. I have a peculiar love for my own children. Why. Because they're mine. But don't forget the condition of Exodus 19 5 here if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant.
Of course Israel disobeyed and broke God's covenant. They were to him as an adulterous wife. And so have we. How then can we be counted as a people for God's own possession. Because Jesus Christ obeyed God's voice and kept his covenant in our place and purchased us with his own blood and consecrated us to God in himself as the true Israel.
And so you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God's own possession. The theme of God's sovereign choice of both Christ and the church is inescapable in this passage and in this gospel of the Bible.
And you may be cast out and rejected by friends and family in the world. But God.
Has called you mine.
But not so that you may sit on your hands. Consider finally the mercy fueled mission in our text. Now Peter continues to apply Old Testament texts and concepts with a heightened meaning to the church so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
For once you were not a people but now you are the people of God you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. Let me call your attention under this first heading. Under this heading first to the mission it was Israel's God given mission to be a light to the nations to spread the knowledge of Yahweh to the ends of the earth.
She forsook the mission and rejected her Messiah who having died for the church is risen to take up that mission and complete it through those who are united to him.
That's you.
So that.
You may.
Proclaim and inescapable you. You might as well insert your name so that you may proclaim that word is to sound out to show forth to make known what are we to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Now notice that it doesn't say excellency but excellencies in the plural his virtues the glory of his attributes and his deeds revealed in the gospel. Even those or perhaps especially those which often offend the carnal mind.
Natural men grope around in the darkness and they see nothing. Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides. They led people into the pit of self excellency because in the darkness we are blind to God's excellencies.
And so we substitute his excellencies for our own. And this is what has happened to every person that you have a conversation with or to whom you preach who cannot understand the true nature of sin nor the righteousness of God.
They examine their vices and deem them virtues and in proclaiming the truth to them that their eyes might be opened and they might see we fulfill the purpose for which we have been called out of darkness.
We who were once blind to his excellencies are now commissioned to proclaim them. And this is one of the most clear statements on the purpose of the church in the new testament we have a tendency to compartmentalize as if we can put evangelism over here and pick it up whenever we want or wherever we feel bold enough to do so.
But when we read scriptures like this it seems to me rather that a church who is not engaged in the work of proclamation has lost the plot. It's not just the work of evangelism and public proclamation.
This proclamation isn't reserved for pastors alone. Dad. Are you careful to proclaim his excellencies to your children as you lead your family in private worship and to catechize your children and raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Are you careful to proclaim his excellencies by the model of your conduct killing your sin and repenting often so that your children do not see you as a man who made sure to have his doctrine right and who was delighted to wear his Calvinist t-shirts but who could never subdue his outbursts of anger a walking contradiction of good theology and unconquered sin so that when they are grown.
God.
Forbid their view of Christ is that of a rock of offense because of your failures and your neglect praise God for his grace. Wife mother. Is your Calvinism bound up in your head and in your podcast and in your books so that you are safe from its demands upon the way you make your home.
Or do you proclaim his excellencies to your children to your neighbors by your joyous contentment under the rule of the sovereign God as you go about your daily duties to the glory of God from teaching your children to baking to dishes to your industry outside of the home for the good of the home is there Calvinism in your kitchen.
We are those who are called out of darkness from our bondage to sin chained in that dungeon of condemnation. As we were long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin in nature's night. Then I diffused a quickening ray I woke the dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off my heart was free.
I rose went forth and followed thee Wesley's hymns. The testimony of every one of us who believe. And the common charge against Calvinism that this removes all reason to evangelize is utterly stupid.
Was pleased to have mercy on us through the proclamations of his excellency to us and sins us so that through our proclamation he will have mercy on all his elect. Peter presents the sovereign choice of God in election and reprobation as an excellency a virtue.
Men will examine this virtue of as Spurgeon said in the opening quote the electing unchangeable immutable eternal conquering love of Jehovah they will examine it and declare it a vice an evil God an unjust God.
A moral.
Monster of a God who if he were real it would be humanity's duty to hunt him down and kill him. And apart from the mercy of God perhaps you would believe the same. Consider then finally under this heading the mercy you were once not a people but now you are the people of God.
You had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. Peter is quoting from Hosea one and two. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered.
And in the place where it is said to them you are not my people it will be said to them you are the sons of the living God and Hosea. God pronounces judgment on his rebellious people and yet promises their restoration upon repentance.
And Peter likens this to include the reception of the Gentiles and speaks of them before and after conversion. You were once not a people. You once were nobody. You were nothing with no heritage or legacy or name and nothing of eternal worth and value.
But you became a people by the mercy of God. You're God's people. You are the fulfillment of the promise that Israel will be like the sand of the sea. You are the ones for whom Christ lived and died and rose again.
And you ought not be ashamed of this Christ and the offense he is sure to cause to those appointed to doom. You have no need to conceal the sharp edges of this gospel of the Bible nor to bind up its claws nor to take away its bite.
And so dampen its glory. That formerly liberal pastor in that apostate denomination after opening his Bible and preaching the doctrines of grace and losing over half the congregation. After that people began to be saved upon hearing the excellencies of God proclaimed in the true gospel.
Many still continued to leave the church disobedient to the word and stumbling over the cornerstone. But the Lord began to add to the church living stones and the numbers began to rise again and people are being converted.
And at the denominational conference this pastor with whom I spoke was called up and asked very plainly what his secret was to church growth and church health because in this apostate denomination they're dying.
And this was his answer. We got rid of all the nonsense and started preaching the scriptures. His answer was received as kind of a joke and the question was repeated. And so was his answer. We got rid of all the nonsense and started preaching the scriptures.
That is what we must do brothers. Hold forth Christ the cornerstone in the gospel of the Bible boldly and unashamedly. Those who are appointed to doom will stumble and his elect those for whom he lived and died and rose again will be built and founded.
Upon him.
Let's pray father in heaven we thank you for your son our Christ our cornerstone. Build us up upon him lord for his glory for his name's sake.
Thrust us out god.
To proclaim the excellencies of him who had mercy upon us and be glorified lord in all of your sovereign justice and mercy. And let us never be ashamed of this gospel of the Bible. We pray in Jesus name amen.