CHOSEN, ROYAL & HOLY

1 PETER 2:9-10

Steve Shepherdhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/Sermon.asp?

SermonID=138118

1 Peter 2:9 NET But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of

his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of

darkness into his marvelous light. 10 You once were not a people, (Hosea 1:9,10; 2:23) but now you are God's people. You were

shown no mercy, (Hosea 2:23) but now you have received mercy.

A guy had been feeling down for so long that he finally decided to seek the aid of a

psychiatrist.He went there, lay on the couch, spilled his guts then waited for the profound wisdom of

the psychiatrist to make him feel better.The psychiatrist asked a few questions,

took some notes then sat thinking in silence for a few minutes with a puzzled look on his

face.

Suddenly, he looked up with an expression of delight and said, "Um, I think your problem is low self-esteem. It is very

common among losers."

Well thank you very much for telling me I’m a loser!

No wonder I feel so bad.

DID YOU EVER FEEL THAT WAY?

A very homely person made an appointment with a psychiatrist. The homely person walked into the doctor’s office and said,

"Doctor, I’m so depressed and lonely. I don’t have any friends, no one will come near me, and everybody laughs at me. Can you help

me accept my ugliness?"

"I’m sure I can." the psychiatrist replied. "Just go over and lie face down on that couch."

Mary was having a tough day and had stretched herself out on the couch to do a

bit of what she thought to be well-deserved complaining and self- pitying. She moaned

to her mom and brother, "Nobody loves me ... the whole world hates me!"

Her brother, busily occupied playing a game, hardly looked up at her and passed on this

encouraging word: "That’s not true, Mary. Some people don’t even know you." Did you ever feel like nobody

loved you or cared about you? Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me.

I think I’ll go eat worms.

Take heart! There is someone who cares for you.

A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic

of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn’t read it," the friend explained.

"Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of

the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!"

His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn’t have brought a dollar. Some fellow named

Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."

Folks, that’s you! Whether you realize it or not,

you have the writing of Christ on you, in fact, all over you!

Consequently, that’s what makes you far more valuable

than you could ever imagine!

While we often devalue ourselves, God values us highly in spite of who we are or what we’ve done or even what we haven’t

done for Him!

A son stopped doing his wild thing and went back to church,

he used to say to his Father, "Dad, I don’t know how God could ever

forgive me for what I’ve done." The Father said, "Son, I forgive you.

I don’t hold anything against you. And don’t you think God is greater than

your daddy?"

Oh yes, he is far greater than any earthly daddy!

No comparison.

Therefore, His love for us is far greater than ours could ever be!

And He loves us far more than we will ever know in this life.

Our text gives us an idea of how important we are and

how we are to be.

Let’s examine this text about how important we are:

1- We are a chosen people2- We are a royal priesthood3- We are a holy nation4- We are a people of His own5- We are God’s people6- We are receiving mercy

WE ARE A CHOSEN PEOPLE

1 Peter 2:9a NET But you are a chosen race,

One day a sergeant came into the barracks and asked if any of his men knew

shorthand. The recruits thought that it would be easy duty and all of them raised their

hands.

"Good," said the sergeant, "They’re SHORTHANDED in the mess hall!“

Most of us are not chosen as special or for anything special in life. And I suppose in the armed service you don’t want t be quick to raise your hand to volunteer for anything.

Sometimes we feel like we are only chosen for the lowly things of life: lowly positions,

duties, jobs, etc.

When Steve Shepherd was just a kid he won an electric train at

the grand opening of a local grocery store in Webb City, MO.

They had a drawing and he won!

And of course, he was one excited kid. Did anything like that ever happen to you? Did anything ever come your way to make

you feel somewhat special?

Steve Shepherd’s been sending in sermons to sermon central.com for about 9 years and recently, a preacher friend wrote and said, "I see you’ve been featured lately." Oh wow!

Featured on the internet site sermon central. Not much wow! Yes, they actually put his

picture on their opening page but he doubts seriously that it gets a lot of attention. Some

told him, "You look a lot older in your picture." THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

If nothing outstanding or exciting has ever happened to you or come your way, please remember your position in Christ! You are a

chosen person in Christ.

C. S. Lewis wrote: When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to

invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a

dream and something else comes crashing in?

This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike

either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we

discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now,

today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.

Some day God, the author of all life, will walk onto the stage of planet earth and time will be no more. What has been done, will be. And as Lewis said, "It will be too late to

choose your side."

But thank God, we’ve already made our choice in life! We have chosen Jesus to be our Savior, our deliverer! And because we

have chosen Him, God has chosen us!

Ephesians 1:3 NET Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in

the heavenly realms in Christ. 4 For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of

the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. 5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his

sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will —

Ephesians 1:11 NET In Christ we too have been claimed as God's own possession,

since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all

things according to the counsel of his will 12 so that we, who were the first to set our

hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.

God’s chosen people are those who have chosen His Son whom He gave as a

sacrifice for our sins! God decided before creation that His chosen ones would be

those who would choose His Son.

WE ARE SPECIAL IN THE EYES OF GOD BECAUSE WE HAVE CHOSEN HIS SON!

WE ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD1 Peter 2:9a,b NET But you are a chosen race, a

royal priesthood, You are both royalty and you are a priest.

There was a wealthy man who, in his old age, was asked to recall the happiest experience of

his life. He said, "It was when I was in a hospital in a strange town, seriously ill for three weeks

with typhoid fever."

When his listeners expressed surprise that this was the happiest situation of his life,

he continued: "The hospital was understaffed and

overcrowded with patients. It was a difficult time for everyone.

But there was one nurse who never let it get her down, who treated each one of us patients

as if we were royalty. Every time she came into my room, I felt a deep sense of peace.

"I have never felt anything like it since and I have never forgotten her. It was the

happiest period of my life in spite of the physical suffering.“

Doesn’t that sound great? I felt special. I felt like royalty. It would be great if all people

were treated that way when they are hospitalized.

An old LPN, when she was hospitalized numerous times, for gall bladder surgery, eye infection, and several other things,

would say how different it was when she was a nurse. She said, "We used to give the patients back rubs." It sounds like the

old days were better days in making a patient feel like they were royalty.

He was so different from the other boys in the school. He was always kind, helpful, willing, and cheerful. When there was any rough play, or a fight, or any dishonesty, you could be sure he

was not in it. Why was he so different? His teacher determined to find out. One day after

school she called him to her desk.

After thanking him for his helpfulness and unfailing willingness, she said, "You must have a

good mother.

Won’t you take me to see her someday?" "I’m afraid I can’t," he replied. "I have no mother." "I’m sorry," apologized the teacher. "Take me

to see you father, then."

"I have no father, either," said the little fellow. "I’m living with kind friends. If I tell you my

story, you’ll promise not to let the other boys know?" he queried. "Why, of course, if you

would rather I didn’t."

Then he told the teacher of a little French school he once attended in Eastern Europe, how invading armies raided his homeland,

and how his mother and father, a prince and princess, had be led away from their home to

the place of execution. Just before they parted, his father had said to

him, "Remember, dear boy, wherever you may go, that you are the son of royalty. Never stoop to anything unworthy of your high rank."

The boy’s tears flowed freely. The teacher laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

Now she understood. Though he might mingle with all types of boys on the

playground, some rough and uncouth, he always remembered his father’s last words.

He was a prince!

We, too, are royalty. We are children of the King. And never forget it. And never forget to

do your priestly thing. What’s that? Make intercession on behalf of others. Pray

constantly for others. And please remember: The prayer of a righteous person has great

effectiveness. James 5:16c NET

THE PRAYER OF ROYAL PRIESTS IS ALWAYS POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE.

WE ARE A HOLY NATION1 Peter 2:9a,b,c NET

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,

a holy nation,

We are also a holy nation or a holy people. I am sure, however, there are days when you don’t

feel very holy.

When?

Imagine all the obstacles a person might have to overcome if he were to walk from New York City to San Francisco. One man who accomplished this rare achievement

mentioned a rather surprising difficulty when asked to tell of his biggest hurdle. He said

that the toughest part of the trip wasn’t traversing the steep slopes of the

mountains or crossing hot, dry, barren stretches of desert.

Instead, he said, "The thing that came the closest to defeating me was the sand in my

shoes.“

Such a small thing and yet, it became a big hindrance in his walk. The same thing may be true with us. Small things often trip us up

more than big things.

For example, we would never be guilty of murdering someone and yet Jesus said in

Matthew 5:21 NET"You have heard that it was said to an older

generation, 'Do not murder,' (Exo 20:13; Deu 5:17) and 'whoever murders will be subjected to

judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to

judgment. And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says

'Fool' will be sent to fiery hell.

We wouldn’t even dream of murdering someone but we would become very angry

toward someone. We don’t condone murder but we may well

condone our anger toward someone, claiming it was justified. It was "righteous" anger.

We think nothing of calling someone a fool, an idiot! Do we realize the

seriousness of those little words so easily released from our lips?

Matthew 12:36 NET I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they

speak.James 1:26 NET If someone thinks he is religious yet does

not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.

Or again, most would never commit adultery but Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 NET "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not

commit adultery.' (Exo 20:14; Deu 5:18) 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman

to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Where do these verses put most of us? Do we dare answer? Even though we have sinned,

small or large, we are called to be a holy nation, a holy people.

When do you feel most holy? At what time or place or situation? I feel most holy when I am on

holy ground, worshiping the Lord. I feel most holy when I partake of the Lord’s Supper, and

when I am singing hymns of praise, and when I am in prayer. I feel most holy when I am alone

with God!

We need more time alone with God! We need to sing to Him, praise Him and pray to

Him. And the more we focus on Him, the less likely we’ll sin, small or large. This must mean we need to focus on Him as much as

possible. We need to be in His presence continually, constantly talking to Him. We

need Him and the holiness that comes from being with Him.

WE ARE A PEOPLE OF HIS OWN

1 Peter 2:9a,b,c,d NET But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a

people of his own,Christians are a people for God specially to

possess. It frequently happens that the value of a thing lies in the fact that someone has

possessed it. A very ordinary thing acquires a new value, if it has been possessed by some

famous person.

In any museum we find quite ordinary things--clothes, a walking-stick, a pen, books, pieces of furniture--which are of

value only because they were once possessed by some great person. It is so with the Christian. The Christian may be a

very ordinary person but he acquires a new value because he belongs to God. (DSB)

Malachi 3:17 NET "They will belong to me," says the LORD who rules over all, "in the

day when I prepare my own special property. I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more

you will see that I make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked,

between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Bill Smith. There may be no name more common in the English language. In a

seminary class, one professor related an event that happened his first day in college.

His teacher possessed an uncanny command of the English language. It

seemed that he always pulled out the most appropriate word for the occasion.

On this, the first day of school, he was calling the roll. After recognizing each student he made some pertinent comment about his

name-its history, meaning, or some historically related story. Finally, he came to

Bill Smith. He said with a pause and in a reflective tone, "Bill Smith...that is a common name." Stirred from within, Bill arose from his seat and said in a loving but firm tone, "Sir,

Bill Smith may be frequent but not common."

Who among us has not lived under the teacher's philosophy? Thinking there is

nothing special about ourselves, we have concluded that we are common, everyday,

ordinary. Let us continually remind ourselves that each one of us is a chosen person, a royal priest, a member of a holy

nation, a person that belongs to God. (1Peter 2:9)

WE ARE GOD’S PEOPLEOn top of all this Peter quotes what Hosea said

about Israel and applies it to Christians. 10a,b You once were not a people, (Hosea 1:9-

10; 2:23) but now you are God's people. An American tourist in Paris who purchased an inexpensive amber necklace in a trinket shop was shocked when he had to pay quite a high

duty on it to clear customs in New York.

This aroused his curiosity, so he had it appraised. After looking at the object under

a powerful magnifying glass, the jeweler said, "I'll give you $25,000 for it." Greatly

surprised, the man decided to have another expert examine it.

When he did, he was offered $10,000 more!"What do you see that's so valuable about this old necklace," asked the astonished

man.

"Look through this glass," replied the jeweler. There before his eyes was an

inscription: "From Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine." The value of the necklace

came from its identification with a famous person.

As Christians, we are in union with one who is far more important than any human

being. It is from this union that the Christian finds his true identity and worth.

WE ARE RECEIVING MERCY

So in an age when man is searching for his past and discovering his potentials, the Christian can rejoice that his true worth

comes from God and his identity is found in Jesus Christ.

10c,d You were shown no mercy, (Hosea

2:23) but now you have received mercy.

The sweep of the paragraph concluded here is infinite. The vast dimensions of the love of God and of his overflowing mercy to all people, even to those who had fallen into

shame and debauchery, are as wide as heaven and earth. The same outflowing

love for the Gentile converts which marks much of the Pauline writings is also in

evidence here.

The "no people" are now the people of God; and the people without mercy have now

received it through Christ. How marvelous indeed is such wonderful love. (Coffman)

WE ARE TO PROCLAIM HIS VIRTUES

Why are Christians a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own,… are God's people… have received

mercy?

9e so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into

his marvelous light.

Over and over again The Word tells us to tell others, how GREAT our GOD is. Paul is sent

to tell the Gentiles.Acts 26:17 NET I will rescue you from your

own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the

power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among

those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

This brings us back to the Great Commission.

Mark 16:15 NET He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who

does not believe will be condemned.

A Generation of Mules

"The church today is raising a whole generation of mules. They know how to

sweat and to work hard but they don't know how to reproduce themselves."

It's not known who said that, but it is a statement of incredible insight.

Mules are hard workers.

They have carried supplies, plowed fields, pulled wagons and transported people. The only problem is that they are almost always sterile and thus cannot reproduce. They are

hard workers, but they are the end of the line. They do not produce more like

themselves.

The church is full of hard workers. They teach classes, serve the physical needs of others, clean up and mow the grass, cook, move tables, organize social activities, visit and even write letters and cards, and do a

host of other things. There is just one problem. They don't

"reproduce." They don't teach the gospel to the lost so others can become hard workers.

They are the end of the line.

The real job the Lord gave us is to go into the world and "reproduce ourselves" by making disciples of others. Matthew 28:18 NET Then

Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of

the age.”

It is a tough lesson to realize that you may have worked hard and yet still haven't

gotten the job done. Let us say it plainly. If we are not evangelizing, we are not doing the job completely. If we are nothing more than a generation of mules, we are on the

road to extinction.

Their first state is a state of gross darkness, but they are called out of darkness into a state of joy, pleasure, and prosperity; that they should show forth the praises of the Lord by their profession of his truth, and

their good conduct. How vast their obligations to Him who has made them his

people, and has shown mercy to them!

To be without this mercy is a woeful state, though a man have all worldly enjoyments. And there is nothing that so kindly works

repentance, as right thoughts of the mercy and love of God. Let us not dare to abuse

and affront the free grace of God, if we mean to be saved by it; but let all who

would be found among those who obtain mercy, walk as his people. (MHCC)

American artist James Whistler, who was never known to be bashful about his talent, was once advised that a shipment of blank canvases he had ordered had been lost in

the mail.

When asked if the canvases were of any great value, Whistler remarked,

"not yet, not yet."

If you don’t feel valuable yet, you will be! Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep

praying. Keep seeking. Keep worshiping. Keep serving.

You are special, chosen, royal, holy, God's people, have received mercy.

We just need to keep going forward in Christ.

He is one who makes us special!

Revelation 1:5 NET and from Jesus Christ — the faithful witness, the firstborn from

among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood 6 and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and

Father — to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen.