The sermon 'Worthy of Praise' by Jason Dohm focuses on 1 Peter 2:4-10, highlighting the spiritual identity and privilege of believers in Christ. Believers are likened to 'living stones' being built into a spiritual house, with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, signifying their integration into God's work and purpose. The sermon outlines four identities for believers: a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God's own special people. These terms historically applied to Israel now encompass all who have faith in Christ, bridging Old and New Testament concepts. The sermon contrasts believers with those who reject Christ, highlighting the consequences of disobedience. It emphasizes the transformation from darkness to light, underscoring God's mercy and love. The believers' response should be one of continual praise, acknowledging their redemption and new identity in Christ. The sermon encourages believers to live out their calling despite challenges, maintaining focus on their spiritual blessings and identity.

Please remain standing and opening your Bibles to 1st Peter chapter 2. 1st Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 4 through 10. Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.

Therefore to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation of royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light Who once were not a people but are now the people of God? Who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy Lord we come to you as we're preparing our hearts Lord help us to Put aside all all thoughts and focus on on your word on your teaching Lord As brother dome comes up and and preaches from this text, Lord, open up our hearts. Lord, reveal to us this glorious mystery that you've unfolded to us since the revelation of Christ and how blessed we are Lord to receive your mercy.

Thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, is worthy of praise. And that's what these two verses are all about. It's about a God who is worthy of praise because of the kindness he's displayed in redeeming sinners who never deserved it. So he's worthy.

He's worthy that those sinners would bow down in their hearts every day, every hour of every day and that his praise would be on their lips. Peter has been profiling those who are the people of God and he's been profiling the people who are not the people of God. In verses 4 through 6, two weeks ago, we got the first installment of this as Peter is profiling those who are the people of God. And he says there's a living stone. He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then there are living stones. That's us, those who have repented and believed the gospel and been redeemed. They derive their life from that great living stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God is taking these living stones and He's building a building. It's a spiritual house so that a holy priesthood can offer spiritual sacrifices.

And the picture is a redeemed people who are so glad that they've been redeemed that now their lives are offered back to the one who redeemed them to spend their lives as living stones in whatever way the chief cornerstone wants to spend those lives. That's the picture. So Paul is pulling back the veil just a little bit so that a persecuted people can understand what is actually happening in this life so that the pressure and Persecution that they're experiencing isn't at the center. It's not core for them This view this beautiful view of life Being redeemed being made living stones pushes the pressure and the persecution from the center, as it often is for those who are persecuted, just pushes it off to the edges. And now they see that the center is really This building that God is building up, and it's a beautiful picture, and it lets persecuted people know how short the persecution really is.

How mild the persecution really is in comparison with the beauty of what God is doing in this life. Then in verses seven and eight after profiling those who are the people of God, he profiles those who are not the people of God, those who are disobedient to the word, those who have despised and rejected the Redeemer that God has sent. And Peter quotes a verse from Psalm 118 about the rejection of the chief cornerstone that he had heard Jesus quote in Matthew 21 when Jesus is being persecuted and rejected by the chief priests and the elders of the people. So Jesus quotes Psalm 118 just like Peter is doing here in chapter 2. But when we look at Matthew 21, Jesus doesn't stop with quoting the same Psalm, Psalm 118.

He continues and he links Psalm 118 to Daniel 2, a stone that if you fall on it, you're broken. And if it falls on you, then you're ground into powder. And that takes us right to Daniel 2. Jesus there after quoting Psalm 118, which Peter's doing, he tacks onto it. He joins it with a reference to Daniel 2 about what happens when you despise and reject the Redeemer that God has sent.

There's a rock that's been carved out without hands. It owes nothing to human fashioning. It's been made by God. And this rock, if it falls on you, it makes you like chaff that the wind blows away. And that brings us to verses 9 and 10, our verses for today.

And Peter returns to his former subject, those who are the people of God, these living stones that are being built into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices. They are a holy priesthood. And he begins with these three words, but you are. He's talked about gospel despisers and gospel rejectors. And now he draws a contrast and says, but you are.

And he gives the beautiful identity of those who have been grafted in through Christ. The beautiful identity. And he talks about the four things that you are if you've repented and believed the gospel. As we go to the text, Let's begin by praying. Father, we need your help every time in the service when we come to this time where your word is read and preached and considered.

Father, please come and help. God, we love this picture of what you say your people are. God, we want to be these four things with all of our hearts. Please come and use your word as a mighty instrument to conform us to your will. Make us these four things more so than we ever have been because we've studied your word and we've loved it, we've put ourselves under the authority of it, and you've used it through the work of your Holy Spirit to conform us to these things.

May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen. The first thing that I have to say is that you'll not understand these four things that Peter says the people of God are unless you get in your mind that these are all things and these are only things that God has said repeatedly about genealogical national Israel. In other words, this is not the first appearance or the second appearance or the third appearance or the fourth appearance of any of these four things in the Bible. God has said these four things over and over and over about genealogical family out of Abraham, national Israel. So God has always been saying these four things about the people of God.

And now there's a new covenant. Now the people of God isn't just genealogical Israel. It's not just those who are of the physical bloodline of Abraham. Now it is those who are sons of Abraham in the sense of believing faith, saving faith. In Exodus 19 verses 5 and 6, God says this of His people, that His people are a special treasure to me above all people.

A kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Now you come to 1 Peter and these are exactly the same terms, exactly the same words that are being used, exactly the same terms that are being brought out that were said by God of His people, genealogical national Israel in Exodus 19. Or in Deuteronomy 7 verse 6, God says that his people are a holy people, chosen to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. It's all there. Everything that Peter is using, all the language that Peter is using, is borrowed language, the language that God has always used about his people.

In the Old Testament, it was genealogical, national Israel. But now in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, it is all those who have saving faith in Christ, who have repented and believed the Gospel. Now all those things that were true of national Israel and all the tender loving words that God used of them port over, come over and now apply to the people of God under the new covenant. Not just Jews but also Gentiles. So we could go to Deuteronomy 10, we could go to Deuteronomy 14, we could go to Deuteronomy 26, we could go to Isaiah 43, we could go to Isaiah 61 and we'd see all these same terms that Peter is using used of genealogical national Israel.

Now consider what Paul says in Romans 9. Paul says a lot in Romans 9. It's the great chapter on being chosen by God, what it means to be elect. You had to go to one spot in the Bible for what it means to be the elect of God you go to Romans 9. Well in Romans 9, Paul starts the chapter by saying, What has happened to all the promises that God made to Israel?

Have all those promises failed? Here's what he says in Romans 9 verses 6 through 8. He's arguing, No, none of those promises have failed. They're just fulfilled in the new covenant people of God. Paul in Romans 9 verses 6-8.

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called." That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. In other words, Abraham is most truly the father of all those who have been given saving faith by God. They're more truly the children of Abraham than his physical descendants are.

Doesn't that take your breath away? New covenant believers who are so far genealogically down the family tree, there are so many branches away from Abraham, but They are more truly his children because they have partaken in saving faith than those who are really close to him on the family tree. And so Israel is a picture. It's a picture. Egypt was a picture of slavery to sin.

Pharaoh was a picture of the devil who promises one thing but really causes you to work for no wages. And being redeemed out of slavery in Egypt is a picture of what God does in the Gospel. It was a picture made probably with 3 million people making this picture of what the new covenant would be. Being redeemed from slavery to sin and then being sanctified for a period of time and then crossing over the Jordan to enter into the eternal rest. So Israel is a picture.

Genealogical, national Israel is a picture for gospel times. It tells the gospel story in vivid colors. Now, Peter says that those who have life in Christ, those who have come to the living stone, are four things. And in each of these four things, each of the four has the same pattern. There's a noun, there's a something that you are if you're in Christ.

And then there's an adjective. There's something that describes this something. So there's a noun, a something, and then there's something that would explain the noun. It would describe it. It would help you understand it.

So here are the four things that Peter gives to us. Those who have life in Christ are a chosen generation. The noun, the something that those who have life in Christ are is generation. Now, we would think of generation typically in how we use it in modern English as all those who have lived during one single period of time. That's how we think of generation.

We have this generation and then our children are coming up behind us and they're another generation, that our grandchildren are coming behind, they're another generation. It's just all these people who have lived in one single period of time, but that's not how it's being used here. And so the NASB and the ESB translate it race instead of generation. And the NIV translates it people. So you're a chosen generation or you're a chosen race or you're a chosen family would be an appropriate translation or you're a chosen people.

The primary meaning of the Greek word is kindred. That's why it's been rendered generation, because you've been generated by one. There is one, and then everything springs from it. It is like a family tree. We are the generation of Jesus Christ.

He generated us in a very literal sense. Here's the expansion on that in the Greek lexicon. The aggregate of many individuals, in other words, the collecting up of the many individuals of the same nature, kind, or sort. You got that? It's the collecting up of people who are just alike.

They have the same nature. They're of the same kind. They're of the same sort. And this is what we are, those who have been given life in Christ. Because Jesus is the source of life.

He is the generator of the generation. We flow. Our life flows from Jesus Christ. And so we had one nature, but now we all have the same nature in Jesus Christ. Then there's the adjective.

There's the word that describes and explains generation or race or family. And it is chosen. It's not just a generation. It is a chosen generation. This is why we are of the same nature, kind, sort, because God did something.

God before the world was ever made, God, before the foundations of the world, chose and said, I'm going to do something to that one, though I already know they're going to be in rebellion. I already know exactly how sinful and unworthy of the mercy and the grace they will be. But I'm going to reach into that life at a point in time and make them mine. I'm going to redeem that one and that one and that one and that one and I'm going to bring them in, and they will be a chosen generation. Peter's been just hammering away at this.

In chapter 1, verse 2, the second verse of the whole book, Peter's talking about who he's writing to and he says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Elect, you're chosen. You were plucked out from eternity past, you were plucked out of your sins because God decided to do something. Here's the picture. Remember what Peter's been saying in the verses that lead right into this.

Christ, the living stone, the chief cornerstone, is what? Chosen by God and precious. Christ is chosen by God and precious. And those who he's redeeming, these other living stones are going to be like him, chosen by God, marked out from eternity past, to be redeemed. We might look at the new covenant people of God and say, what a mess!

Have you ever done that? I have done that. I do that often. Look out at the new covenant people of God. I don't have to go much further than myself and say, what a mess!

Because it's easy to see this people in motion, this people who's being sanctified. And to despise all the ways in which they're not sanctified yet. But God sees a different picture. God sees a bride that He picked out and He said, You're mine. You're my bride.

And he is sanctifying this bride. She's not a finished work. She's far from a finished work. But he is cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He's got His Holy Spirit using this mighty instrument, the Word of God, to wash and cleanse.

So the things that we would look at this bride and say, what a mess, who would want to marry that? Well the answer is Jesus Christ would want to marry that. His father has arranged a wedding for his son and she's not finished yet. She's being sanctified and he himself, the groom himself will see to it that she's a beautiful bride, that she is spotless. Jesus Christ has said, I want her to be my bride.

Number two. So number one was a chosen generation, chosen family. Number two is a royal priesthood. The noun, the something, is priesthood. A priesthood is a special group designated by God to be dedicated to worship.

That's what a priesthood is. So set apart for worship. Totally dedicated to worship. We were talking about a holy priesthood a couple of weeks ago but I'm gonna go back and say some of the same things I said a couple weeks ago because it goes right to the heart of what God is trying to communicate in this. It is a special group set apart completely devoted to worship.

Now how special? Look at the Old Testament. All the nations, many nations of the world, the priesthood comes out of this one nation, a special nation. Now within that nation, there's 12 tribes. The priesthood can't come out of any of the 12 tribes.

It's this special tribe, Levi. Can only be Levites. So within the special nation, it's a special tribe. How about the tribe? Many families inside this tribe.

Can't be from just any family. There's a special family inside the special tribe inside the special nation. What about the family? Nope, it's got to be men. There are two genders inside this family.

Can't be any gender. So it's got to be a special gender inside the special family, inside the special tribe, inside the special nation. So can it be just any man? No. It's got to be within a certain age range.

So it's a special age range inside the special gender, inside the special family, inside the special tribe, inside the special nation. Can it just be any of them? No, if you touch the dead body you can't do it. There's a bunch of things, even if you're in the right age group. So no, within that it's a special group of the special age range, of the special gender, of the special family, of the special tribe, of the special nation.

This is a special, special, special, special, special group of people. That's how special the priesthood is. Now why take the time to go through all that? Because if you just read it you say, oh priesthood, got it, and move on. No.

Are you sure you have it? Are you sure you know how special the priesthood is to God? It's really, really, really, really special. I think I might have missed a really. It's really special.

Listen to Numbers 18 verse 20. Numbers 18 verse 20, God says something remarkable about this special priesthood, this holy priesthood. Numbers 18 verse 20, then the Lord said to Aaron, you shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel." So the tribes are coming into the land. Eleven out of the twelve tribes are going to get land, something they can touch and feel and have.

And if they trade it away at the end of seven years, they're going to be able to, at the end of fifty years, I guess this is the year of Jubilee I'm thinking about, the end of fifty years, if they got rid of the land, it's going to come back to them. It's going to be a perpetual inheritance. Well, there's this one tribe that gets none of that. This one tribe only gets God. And those who know the Lord say, they got the best inheritance.

Give me that to be set aside to be fully dedicated to worship the living God. I can forego the ten acres or the hundred acres or whatever it is. I can forego that to have this special privilege. A worldling, somebody who loves the world, hears that and says, they got the bum deal. But someone who has been redeemed and brought in and knows what the value, the privilege of worshipping God looks at being fully devoted to worship and says, that is the best inheritance of all.

We are a royal priesthood. Our inheritance is not property and goods of the world. Our inheritance is God himself that we have been given the privilege to be devoted to worshiping him through our lives. We get the best inheritance. So many worldlings will look upon us and despise us and say they're getting a bum deal in this life because they can't do this, they can't do this, they can't do this, they can't do this, they can't chase wealth, and they can't chase this, and those who have been brought from darkness into life see it completely differently.

They say, what a privilege. When Paul looks at this, go look at Philippians 3, when Paul looks at this he said, all those things that were gained to me, I count them as rubbish. I count them as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. This is what Peter is saying. So the noun, the something, is priesthood.

The adjective that explains and describes it is royal, royalty. You're a royal priesthood. This stems from two things. First, believers are brethren of the King. If you have life in Christ, then you are the king's brother or sister.

Hebrews 2 verse 11. For both he who sanctifies, this is Jesus Christ who sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified, those are all those who have life in Christ, are all of one for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. If you have life in Christ he is not ashamed to call you a brother or a sister. To have you as a brother or a sister because he's made you a brother or a sister. Your life is derived in him.

We are Royalty in Jesus Christ. We are royalty in Jesus Christ if you have life in him. Secondly, Jesus is a different kind of high priest. He's not a Levitical high priest. Listen to Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6.

As God also says in another place, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. This Jesus as the Redeemer, as the Messiah, being a high priest in the order of Melchizedek is all through Hebrews 5, and all through Hebrews 6, and all through Hebrews 7. So there's 13 chapters in Hebrews and three of those chapters are set aside to talking pretty much exclusively about Jesus being a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Now in that verse I just read, Hebrews 5 verse 6, it's a quotation of Psalm 110 verse 4. Psalm 110 verse 4.

Psalm 110 is so messianic. It's all prophecy about the Messiah, the anointed one that God would send to redeem the people. And this is in the middle of it, that this Messiah, this Christ would be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, we encounter him in Genesis 14 when the king of Salem, Salem then becomes Jerusalem so the king of what will be Jerusalem who is also priest of God Most High comes out and he serves wine and bread and Abraham tithes to him. So we think of the greatness of Abraham, that Abraham was nothing compared to Melchizedek.

The lesser tithes to the greater. This is the argument made in Hebrews. And so as great as Father Abraham was, he was tithing to the King of Salem, To the priest of God most high and it's a different kind of priest than the levitical priest its king priests Its king high priest and Jesus is in that mold not in the mold of the levitical priesthood We are a royal priesthood because our head, our high priest, the high priest of our priesthood is in the order of Melchizedek who are king priests. So, number one, we are a chosen generation, generated from the head of our family, Jesus Christ. Number two, we are a royal priesthood, those who have life in Jesus Christ.

Number three, we are a holy nation. The noun, the something, is nation. When we think of nations, we often think in terms of geography. In other words, there's a border, there's a line on the map and everything within the line. That's the nation.

But that isn't really what defines the nation. It's the result of what defines the nation. Here's what I mean. A modern example. United States and Alaska aren't like that.

It's not geography. You can tell it's not geography. If it is, Alaska would be part of Canada. It's not an island. We have no border with Alaska.

Well, why is it the United States then? Because of government and laws and citizenship. It's about who governs that territory, not the territory itself, because the lines through history have changed, haven't they? They've changed depending on who's ruling that turf. That's really the issue.

Who's ruling that turf? And we are turf. We're a holy nation. We're the nation of God. God is ruling this turf because we're a purchased people.

And so it's his laws. It's his government. Our citizenship is there. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, the first verse of the whole book, the King James says to the strangers scattered throughout these five geographies. The strangers scattered.

So, particularly for this nation, it's not geographic. The subjects of this kingdom are scattered all over the geography of the world. There's not a nation you can go to where you can't find one, whose citizenship is somewhere else. So they have a primary citizenship in heaven. They're out of their native land.

Geographically, they're out of their native land, because their native land is heaven. And they'll go there one day, but right now their king has them scattered geographically among the other nations. Now the adjective, the word that describes nation is holy. God has set apart this nation of those who have life in Christ for himself, for his glory, for his own purposes. Now apply that.

Apply that. What does that mean about us, that we're a holy nation? It means that our citizenship is somewhere else and that he has set us aside for his own glory, for his own purposes, for himself. And we are to bear the marks of this king. We are to be the aroma of Christ in all these other geographies.

Peter is writing to these scattered pilgrims, these scattered strangers through these five geographies. And those are the people in those five geographies. And now, many centuries later, we're reading it in another geography still. People are reading it in Asia, and people are reading it in Australia, et cetera, et cetera. And now, we are the aroma of Christ in those geographies.

We are to bear the marks of this King in all the geographies of the world. A holy nation set aside for his purposes, for his glory, for himself, so that we would be this people who bring the aroma of our King into all these different geographies. This is what we are. So number one, we're a chosen generation, a chosen family. Number two, we're a royal priesthood.

Number three, we're a holy nation. Number four, we're his own special people. The noun, the something is people, specifically his own people. He has laid claim to us. He has said, you are mine.

You are my own people. The adjective, the word that's going to use to describe and explain is special. We're a special people. We're His own special people. We sang this this morning, it was remarkable to find it in the music we were singing.

In Deuteronomy 32 verse 10 and in Psalm 17 verse 8 and in Zechariah 2 verse 8, God calls his people something very specific and wonderful. He calls his people the apple of his eye. The apple of his eye. Deuteronomy, Psalm, Zechariah. My people are the apple of my eye.

What does that mean? It means they're the object of his affection. Yes, we exist for his glory, but that is not separate from being the object of his love. Not Only are we for his glory, we are also the object of his love, we're the apple of his eye. What's the great commandment?

Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is not one-way love. We're not called to love God with no reciprocation. In fact, it's God's love that initiates our love. We love him because he first loved us.

So it's two-way love. That has always been the design and intent of God, is that it's two-way love. And that actually it's his love that initiates and brings us to the place where we would love him. We are the apple of his eye. Doesn't that take your breath away?

It ought to. It ought to make you so happy. We are the object of His affection. Why? Why has God done all this?

Why would He take sinners Who have already determined who they are and what they deserve, what they've thought, and what they've said and what they've done a thousand times over. Why would God take people like that and make them a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, his own special people, a holy nation. Why would God do that? That you may proclaim his praises. It's right there in the text.

The cause and effect couldn't be more explicit than that. That you may proclaim his praises. If you've been redeemed, if you have found life in Jesus Christ, God did it to glorify Himself. He has made you the object of His love, the apple of His eye to glorify Himself. So His people, knowing what God has done for them, knowing what they deserve, knowing what they're now destined to, proclaim His goodness.

They say, look what God has done to this sinner. Come and look what God has done for this sinner. Look at what he is doing in my life now. And then the onlookers say, wow. Wow.

The text says what we praise Him for, calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. If you ever need a reason to praise God, think about the darkness that he has pulled you out of. Think about the light that he's pulled you into and his praises will be on your lips. Listen to Matthew. Matthew is setting the stage of his gospel.

And he quotes Isaiah 9 verse 12, which is absolutely about the Messiah. Matthew quoting Isaiah 9 verse 12. This is Matthew chapter 4 verses 15 and 16. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea, behold the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.

Have you ever heard a more hopeless description of people than that? Here are these people and they're sitting in darkness, they're just sitting there in darkness. And then it repeats that by saying, they're those who sat in the region and shadow of death. They're just sitting there in darkness in the region and shadow of death. And then light dawns.

Jesus Christ comes onto the scene to redeem sinners, to redeem people who are just sitting there in darkness and in the region of shadow and death. And then light. Listen to what Jesus says in John 8 verse 12, then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Life is in Jesus Christ.

He is the light of the world. And he plucks a sinful people out of darkness and he brings them into a kingdom of light. Praise the Lord. This is what we are to praise God for. That you may proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous life.

If you were in charge of writing this chapter and you had to find a way to contrast kingdoms, just as much as you could possibly contrast them, how would you do better than this? Darkness to light, they have nothing in common. When there's light, there's no darkness. When there's darkness, there's no light. They define the poles, their polar opposites, darkness and light.

This is what it's like when you've been redeemed. You couldn't have been more hopeless and desperate. You couldn't have been in a worse pinch than to be in a kingdom of darkness. And you can never be in a better kingdom than the kingdom of light. They're the polar opposites.

They define the ends of the continuum. Darkness and light. The kingdom of the devil and the world and the kingdom of Jesus Christ the King. It's called marvelous light. In other words, you ought to marvel.

Worthy of marveling. It's light that is worthy to be marveled at. It's jaw dropping. Makes you say, wow. I don't even know what wow means, but it just seems like the right word.

It is its own definition, I think. Wow. You think of this kingdom of marvelous light. It is worthy of marveling about. Praises should be on the lips of his people.

Is there anything more fitting than praises, than for praises to be on our lips? You were in a kingdom of darkness, but now you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. What's left to do but to praise him? I want to just, I didn't even think of it in these terms until this week, but here's the pendulum I've been on, okay? Early in my Christian life, it was all personal testimony.

Those were the people I was around. That was evangelism. Evangelism equals personal testimony. What has God done in your life? Tell them how good it can be to be a Christian.

Then I start hanging around reformed people and I become reformed. And the pendulum swings and then it is, you've got to be away from that touchy feely stuff. And it's theological truth. Now amen to theological truth. People who only receive a gospel of personal testimony have not received the true gospel.

They are no more saved, probably, in all likelihood. It's got to be built on a foundation of theological truth. But I'm seeing these texts, and I'm seeing how particularly Paul writes his letters. And they're chock full of personal testimony. And I'm thinking, I think for me, I'm not blaming anyone, but me, I think for me that the pendulum on evangelism swung too far to be all theological truth.

And what Peter is telling us here is there is absolutely a place to look a person in AI and say, listen to what God has done for me. Listen to what God is doing in my life. And there's all manner of ways to tie that into theological truth. But Peter here is telling us the reason we've been made into this glorious picture of what the people of God are is that we would proclaim, declare, shout from the rooftops The praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. I think we need to bring back more personal testimony.

How good God has been to us, how merciful in what he's doing in our lives. So the people will see that God can do that. And we should have a heaping dose of theological truth, all around it, through it. Verse 10 says two more things, each time beginning what we were not, what they used to be, what we used to be. Before God called you, you were not a people.

Before God called us, we were not a people. Just think about this room. Our connection is the Kingdom of Heaven, isn't it? Would we have even met each other? Would we know each other?

Would we be friends with each other in any way if it weren't for the Kingdom of Heaven? I wouldn't have a connection to anyone in this room, including my wife. And we grew up in the same hometown, our connection is Christ. Our connection was always Christ. I grew up in a little town, and I don't have any connection with hardly any people in that town.

The connections that exist exist because of what? Because of Christ. We are a people. We didn't used to be a people. Think about the people in this room.

Why Do you even live in North Carolina? A bunch of people can say, I live in North Carolina because of Christ, and I have no other reason for it. Or Virginia. I live in Virginia because of Christ. Christ.

Before God called you, you had not obtained mercy. Before God called us, none of us had obtained mercy. We were desperately in need of it. But we had no right to claim it because By definition, mercy isn't like that. By definition, no one can have a right to claim it, or it wouldn't be mercy.

You'd have to define it as something else. We were sitting in darkness. We were sitting in the region and shadow of death. But now we've obtained mercy. Listen again to the election chapter, the Chapter of Choosing, Romans 9, verses 15 and 16.

For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. If you have life in Christ, it is all him. You can't run enough.

You can't will enough. You can't do enough. You can't try enough. It must be God because he has mercy on whomever he has mercy and he has compassion on whomever he has compassion. God is worthy of praise.

When you realize this, on the other side of the line, having been redeemed, when you realize that God never owed you anything and that he just has mercy according to his good pleasure and compassion according to your good pleasure. What a moment that is in your life. As you know, it was nothing about me. There was nothing to attract him to me. But he was just merciful.

Why would it even be me? Let's bring this to conclusion. What is this going to mean for us tomorrow or the next day? That's what we need to pull out of this. It's wonderful and it's interesting and it's truth.

But we need to understand how this is going to matter in the hours of the day tomorrow. Consider what Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 1. Ephesians 4 verse 1, Paul says, walk worthy, Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. What is that calling? To be a chosen generation, you're called to that.

To be a royal priesthood, you're called to that. To be a holy nation, we are called to that. To be His own special people. Now, we are that. God has declared we are that.

Those of us who have life in Christ, He has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And now he says, you're this, this, this, and this. And Paul follows that up with walk worthy. Walk worthy of that calling. Be the aroma of Christ in the geography that God has placed you in.

Tomorrow, you're going to encounter headwinds. The wind is going to be blowing into your face, impeding your progress. And when it does, count your blessings. Think of what you are. You are a chosen generation.

You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are his own special people. You're the apple of his eye. And the headwinds don't matter that much when you're those things.

Count your blessings. Think of what you were. Think of the darkness that he called you out of. Think of what you are. Think of the light of his kingdom.

We cannot afford to lose sight of what we were called out of. We cannot afford to lose sight of what we're called into. I want to end. We haven't turned anywhere the whole time. I've been cross referencing but they've been short so we haven't turned.

But I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, I'll begin reading in verse 9 through verse 11. Paul writes, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Paul starts this text with this list that is by no means a comprehensive list. But it's the darkness that we all wallowed in before God called us, before God put His hand on us. Think.

Expand the list for yourself if you need to. What was the darkness that God has called you out of? Probably a lot of us will find things on that list. But there are more things. We could make the list longer.

God called us out of this. But you were washed. You were one thing. But you were called out of that, and you were brought into something else. What a blessing to be able to look back and think of the darkness that we were called out of.

Some of us will look back and know that we were called out of horrific things when other people would say, he doesn't have any scandalous sins. You know what? Some of the worst sins never have to escape the heart. They just lurk there. And so some of us who have never wallowed in scandalous sin have wallowed in plenty of sin.

And they know the darkness is really not out there, it's in here. And if you've been saved from it, you can think of the darkness that God called you out of. Even if no one else who's living today can accuse you, you know what God called you out of. This should put his praises on our lips. Let's pray.

Father, may it be so that we would be a people praising you, those who have life in Christ, called out of darkness into your marvelous light oh God I pray today that as we think of it in these terms it would be a marvel to us. You are worthy of praise. God I pray that you