1 Peter 2:4-10 "Mercy and Fate"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the

types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Bow our heads in prayer, remaining standing. Father, you know how easily we get startled and

confused and misunderstand things. And so Father, when that happens to us, we ask that your Holy Spirit

just continue to remind us that shows how much you love us and care for us, that seeing how we stumble

and make mistakes, that you still, you care for us. You don't abandon us, but draw us more to yourself.

So Father, we confess that there are words today that we're going to look at that you meant to provide

great comfort to us, but that we take as troublesome. And so Father, we invite your Holy Spirit to move

and speak deeply within our lives and to bring your word deep within us so that we might receive the

comfort and the hope that you desire us to have and know and to walk in. And we ask this in Jesus's name,

your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

So I don't know how many of you have ever come to the 8 a.m. service. Sometimes when people come to the 8 a.m. service

after they've just been at this service, they're a bit taken aback. I wear robes and there's no screen.

We have little booklets. And if you'll open up the booklets, a couple of pieces have been removed,

but it's basically the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Service, which is basically the 1552 Book of Common

Prayer Service and has these and those, and it's a bit of a surprise. Some of you who've been at it

will know that I speak a bit differently. I mean, not only is my sermon half the length,

but because I'm not on YouTube, I sometimes say things and I'll tell them, this is one of the

advantages you have of coming at 8. I'm not going to say this at 10 because I'm going to be on YouTube.

And this morning for my sermon, I said that, and I said a couple of things. I had a different way

to opening the sermon than I'm doing right now, actually. But as the service progressed,

I came under conviction that I had to start the service in a different way, which is what I'm

doing now. But I'm going to say, in fact, something similar to what I said at 8 that I wasn't going to

say because I'm on YouTube. And just for those, I think I'm probably fine here, but especially for

those who are online or maybe online downstream, if you just give me mercy for a couple of minutes,

and then you can send me an angry email potentially or do whatever it is that you're going to do.

We're part of the Anglican Network in Canada. We're not part of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Canada and Anglican Network in Canada, the bishops have asked that today would be Pro-Life Sunday,

that in some way we make some type of comment, whether it's in the prayers of the people or in

the sermon about the pro-life issue. And I, you know, I'm not embarrassed about talking about it,

but I wasn't going to particularly talk about it today. But it actually, I realized, this is part of

the whole insight that I had later on that talking about this today is actually a perfect introduction

for the Bible text that Victor read and that I'm going to talk about. And so here's where I just

need a little bit of mercy. I'm a Christian. This is a Christian congregation. We believe that Jesus is

our Savior, and we believe that he is our Lord. And we believe that the Bible is words that ultimately

God wanted written and he spoke to us, and that we're bound by them. And that these words are actually true

words, not just for Christians, but for all people. But we as Christians have a special obligation to believe

them and trust them. And that means that we do not believe that you can kill human life in the womb,

that abortion is wrong. You cannot take innocent life. It's breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

We believe that you cannot kill mentally ill people or elderly people or even people in pain,

because that is taking innocent life. We are to care for the weak and the vulnerable. We are to figure

out how to give them more resources to help them. We are not to kill them. We believe that God created all

human beings and he created human beings with sexuality and sexual knowing in mind.

But his intention in creation was that people would either be chased and celibate in singleness,

or if they were called into marriage, that they would be chased and celibate there, the marriage of one man

to one woman, one biological male to one biological female. And that outside of marriage,

people were not to practice sexual knowing that they were to be celibate. That's what we believe

the Bible teaches. And that means we're going to oppose things like same-sex marriage, amongst other

things. We also believe that since God has created us as male and female, he didn't just create us as

male and female, but we believe the Bible teaches that he's also called us to be for a man to be a male and

a female to be a woman. And that the way towards wholeness is to be at peace in our body. That's

always the way of wholeness. And it's the way of holiness, not just for those who are Christians,

but for all people. And that means we're going to be on an opposite side of a very, very important

cultural issue today, which is talked about and shouted about an awful lot. And we believe these

things because we believe the Bible teaches this, but it's important for you to hear that we do not

believe that any of these things that I've touched on, whether it be abortion, whether it be same-sex

marriage or a whole lot of other issues connected to LGBTQ plus issues, or whether it be euthanasia

or the trans issue, we do not believe that these are us versus them issues. What I need you to

understand is we are not the holy and the pure. We are not the people who have never sinned.

Everybody, not everybody, everybody in this congregation is in fact sexually broken.

We are not perfect in our sexual and your sexual knowing. And in our congregation, both today and in

the past, our people who in fact have had abortions, encouraged abortions, struggle with a wide range of

sexual temptations, have lived non-celibate gay or lesbian lives, and almost undoubtedly struggle with

whether they are in the right gender and feel at peace with their bodies. So for us as Christians,

this is not an us versus them issue. But it doesn't mean that we can be silent about it. Because you see,

in the end of the day, we are very, very similar to what Charles Spurgeon said that all Christians are.

Christians are beggars. We are, I'm one beggar telling another beggar where to find free bread.

I am one sexually broken person telling other sexually broken people where to find the bread of life.

And that's what we are. That's all we are. It's not an us versus them issue.

Now, I mention all of this not only because I'm honoring my denomination and my bishop who said

that we should mention something about pro-life issues this particular Sunday.

I'm also mentioning it because by the providence of God, I'm not smart enough to organize things

like this. I really am not. I don't know what I'm going to be preaching on in three weeks. I can

tell you the scripture text, but I can't tell you what it says. I can tell you, by the way, since I'm on all the

big issues, you could pray for me. Next Sunday, I know many people who are outside the Christian

faith say that one of the reasons they can't be Christians is they believe that Christianity

encourages slavery. I'm going to, the Bible text next week is going to look at slavery.

I also know that many people say they can't be Christians because they believe the Bible oppresses

women. I'm going to look at that two Sundays from now, our scripture text is wives be subject to

your husbands. And there's a whole lot of other commands to the husband as well. If you can pray

that I can do those things well in honoring Christ. But in this particular day, one of the things that

we're going to see, there's like a foreshadowing of what's going to be the issue in a big issue in

the rest of the book, which is that sometimes being a Christian costs you a lot and you're going to suffer.

The topics which I just said, and those of you who are outside of the Christian faith who might be

watching this, you know very well that what I have just said could easily get me canceled in a variety

of careers. In fact, I'm conscious that even saying that I could run into trouble with the group that we

rent this building from. And that's why it's a perfect text for today. Because it's going to start,

this book of first Peter is going to begin to look at issues of rejection and suffering,

suffering in general, by the way, but also rejection and suffering for following Christ.

So let's turn and look and see what it says. It's a foretaste, a foreshadowing of what's going to become

a far bigger theme in the book. And it's a foreshadowing, which is profoundly hopeful. So if you would turn in your

Bibles with me to 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 4, we'll continue this letter that Peter, Peter is the

fellow who was one of Jesus's closest disciples. He spent three years with Jesus, three plus years with

Jesus in his public ministry. He would have been an eyewitness of most of the miracles that Jesus

performed. He was famously denied Jesus on what we now consider to be Maundy Thursday or

yeah, it's no, Good Friday, I guess he denied Jesus. But he is also one of the people who saw Jesus

after he rose from the dead. He saw that the grave was empty. And Peter is writing this to a group of

Christians who came out of pagan backgrounds primarily and become Christians living in what

we now call Turkey. It was a circular letter to be designed to be read to a variety of different

churches. And about a two year, year or two years after this letter is written, Peter will die

because he will maintain that Jesus in fact did rise from the dead, that the grave was empty,

that they actually saw him and he'll die for proclaiming that truth. And here's,

here's what he says. Verse four, as you come to Jesus, to him, a living stone rejected by men,

but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up

as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through

Jesus Christ. Now just sort of pause. Here's the foreshadowing that's coming. Look at verse four

again. As you come to him, that's Jesus, a living stone rejected by human beings, but in the sight of

God chosen and precious. Now this is going to become, you know, it's, it's, we all know this. I, I remember

quite a few years ago talking to a woman who's outside the Christian faith, but a really, really

great woman and she'd had a miscarriage and she was marveling with me that her woman boss was completely

and utterly unsympathetic to her. But her boss, which was a guy, was very sympathetic to her,

even though she just had a miscarriage and she was really, really, really struggling, struggling with

it emotionally and in all sorts of ways. And we all know that, you know, just somehow the way it is

that we can talk to some people who've been through situations similar to ours and they show no compassion

or understanding to us. And sometimes that we can talk to people who haven't experienced anything

that we have, but they just really have a gift of compassion and empathy. And we all know that that's the

case, but there is something very specially precious when you come across somebody who has suffered in

the same way that you have and is also compassionate. You know, there's an extra depth of empathy that you

can come to them as you're dealing and sharing with these issues. And that's what, that's what Peter's

beginning to give a bit of a foretaste. Later on, he's going to be talking about people who suffer for

being a Christian and suffering in general. And he begins that sort of stirring that whole process

by reminding people who are maybe struggling with the fact that they've been rejected from a promotion

or from being in a guild or rejected by their family, but rejected by their parents, rejected by

their children, rejected by their community, now are struggling financially as a result of it,

that when we come to Jesus, we come to one who has been rejected by the human race.

And it's very interesting in the original language. You can see it in English if you read it very

carefully. The language is not as you come to him occasionally, but the implication is, is that as you

come to him in your daily prayers, as you come to him in your daily Bible reading, as you come to him

in your weekly small group, as you come to him on Sunday when you gather in public worship, as you're

coming to him regularly, as you come to him, remember that he was rejected by human beings.

In other words, this is an invitation. Peter's saying, loved my brothers and sisters, my friends,

you can pour out your heart to Jesus about these issues. He understands what it means to be rejected.

He understands. And it's also very hopeful because they're reminding, Peter's reminding them that Jesus

was rejected by humans. But he, look at verse 4, he, in God's eyes, the triune God's eyes,

was chosen and is, is chosen and precious. And then you notice what it says, verse 5,

view yourselves like living stones. And there the idea is that Jesus is portrayed, we'll see why he's

called a living stone in a moment. There's sort of three Old Testament references to this idea of a

stone. And Peter's going to quote all of them. So he's, he's, there's a reason why he uses this

analogy. But when we put our trust and faith in Christ, in a sense, we become like him. And, and,

and, and in other words, like him, we might be rejected. But we are going to see as the text goes

on that we are also chosen and precious to him. And that even if we are being rejected,

even if there is a cost to following Jesus, look at what it says in verse 5,

you yourselves like living stones are being built up. And this is a beautiful image that God is

building us up, you and me up. He's building us up like a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,

to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And this is a very, very,

you know, powerful issue. Those of you who've come to the church more than once know that we often pray

for the persecuted church. And that's a very good thing to do in and of itself. But here's the thing,

it doesn't say that he's building spiritual houses. He's not building a spiritual house called Church of

the Messiah, another spiritual house called Calvary Baptist, another spiritual house called the

Metropolitan Bible Church. He's only building one house. And in that house are Christians who've

worshipped today earlier in the day in Korea, and in Saigon, and in Manila, and in, I think of a city

in India, and all of a sudden my mind's gone blank, Chennai, and in Nairobi, and in Laos, and Lagos,

and in Manhattan, and in Ottawa. He's only building one house. And it's the other thing about which is

so needed, but he's only building one house. It also means that in that house is Augustine,

and Athanasius, is Chrysostom. Our friend Steve here did his doctoral dissertation on the short-lived

Spanish Reformation. They're all part of our house too. And he's got ordained while he was in Egypt.

That's all part of the house too. Just one house. Just one house. And this idea of the spiritual worship

and the spiritual house. Spiritual to us as Canadians often means it's something emotional,

or something about affections, or something intellectual. But in the original language

here, it's pneumatikos. And what that means is Holy Spirit empowered. So it's a Holy Spirit directed

building of a house. A Holy Spirit empowered building of a house. And it also means Holy Spirit

inspired sacrifices, which does not mean sacrificing animals. It means sacrificing it in the sense that

money says that I should hold on to as much money as I possibly can. And a pneumatikos, a Holy Spirit

inspired sacrifice is to realize that I am to give part of my money away. That, you know, that I'm to order

my sexuality in one particular way. The Holy Spirit leads us to move towards, you know, chastity and,

you know, repentance when we fail of that. And, you know, in terms of power, the Holy Spirit,

our culture teaches us to use power in particular ways. And the Holy Spirit is leading us to use power

in very different ways. And that's what's being talked about. The Holy Spirit in all of our life

is forming us to live in a different way. See, when you give your life to Christ,

there's all these other things that happen. And one of the things that happens is that the Holy Spirit

now indwells you. You're born again. And that means the Holy Spirit is going to propel you and

empower you and point you in certain types of directions, some of which are very countercultural.

But now, a word of encouragement is often for many Canadians and many Canadian Christians,

a word of discouragement. And we need to look at it. It should be a word of encouragement,

but for many it discourages. Look what happens. Look at verse 6. It says,

4. So he's going to give some Bible text to sort of back up this big claim.

4. It stands in Scripture.

Behold, I am laying in Zion, a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious,

that whoever believes in him, that is the stone, which we now know as Christ,

will not be put to shame. And then it stops the quote, and he has a bit of a comment.

So the honor is for those who believe, but for those who do not believe,

and then this Scripture quote, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,

and a different Scripture text is quoted, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Now here's the part which is very discouraging. They stumble, and the idea behind this is like a type of eternal stumbling.

It's an image of what they do and of judgment.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

And Canadian Christians go, whoa.

Whoa.

Didn't see that coming.

Now a couple of things I have to walk towards this text.

This is actually a text that's designed to be a profound encouragement to us.

It's both going to be very chastening.

In other words, it's going to be very, make us go, oh, like that's harder news than I expected to have.

The Bible is going to tell you your situation apart from Christ is vastly worse than you ever imagined.

But your situation in Christ is vastly better than you possibly could imagine.

And it's as you know that your situation apart from Christ is vastly worse,

that you have a special ability to then understand how your situation in Christ is vastly better.

So just a couple of things.

The first thing to notice with these images is that if there was a buffet of spirituality and religions,

Jesus is not on the menu.

He's not on the buffet table.

The normal way that Canadians think now about things like religion or worldviews or spirituality or therapies or ideologies

is that it's a little bit like a buffet table.

And so, you know, Steve and I and Stella and Louise, we might be walking along the buffet table

and we, you know, maybe I pile up on one thing and, you know, Steve on another thing

and Stella on another thing and Louise on another thing and we do bits and pieces of this.

And at the end, we sit down and we all have our meal.

We look and maybe say, you know, I was thinking of taking some of that.

What's it taste like, you know?

And so it is today.

You know, take a little bit of Buddhism, maybe take a little bit of Sufism,

take a little bit of Islam.

You know, you take a little bit of Wicca.

You take a little bit of, I don't know, like some crystals and stuff like that.

And then just because, just to show that you're edgy,

a little bit of Christopher Hitchens and, you know, a little bit maybe of depth therapy or psychology

and you throw it all together and it's like a buffet.

And maybe occasionally at a gathering you look and you compare.

Oh, so you've been trying this type of therapy, have you?

Like, how's it working?

Like, you know, from Jordan Peterson, you really got into Jung, yeah.

But you know, I'm more into Buddhism and a little bit of this.

Buddhism and Hitchens, I think they're really neat.

And you have a bit of a conversation about that.

And everybody's very, very cheerful about it.

I guess it could be the same if you're in a country that's been very influenced by Buddhism or Hinduism

and there's many gods and goddesses.

And you don't get into fights about it.

You just sort of may be interested.

Oh, you find this sort of god or goddess very helpful in terms of your walk.

That's who you offer your sacrifices to.

What this text is saying is that Jesus is completely and utterly different than that.

That, in fact, your whole eternal destiny of not just you, but every human being,

turns on how you respond to Jesus.

There's only two ways to respond to Jesus.

You either come across him and then you realize that he is that living stone,

that cornerstone upon which you are to base your entire life in

because he really is God's son and humanity's savior.

He really is the one who will reconcile you to God.

He really is the one who has defeated death and hell and sin and his resurrection.

And he really is the one that you are to build your life on,

imperfect as you might be doing that.

Or you are offended by him and you reject him and you disobey him.

And then the Bible says if that's the case, then you stumble over him

and you're stumbling as an eternal type of stumbling.

And then it adds to our shock, as they, as you, were destined to do.

So what's going on here in this particular text?

How are we to understand it?

Why is it good news and not something that we should be embarrassed about?

Well, the first thing is that this says the word destined, not fated.

Destined, not fated.

That's a very important distinction.

You see, if I'm fated to do something,

you can think of, you know, the story in the Greek myth of Oedipus,

that no matter what he tries to do to avoid his particular fate,

he's still going to, that it's, the gods have determined this.

It doesn't matter how much he tries to fight against the gods

or maneuver or do this or that.

He is fated to do this particular thing

or have this particular tragedy happen to his life.

But destiny is something that comes from within each human being.

It's something, in a sense, that you are building by your habits,

by your thoughts, by the choices that you make,

by the micro choices and the big choices that you make.

It would be, in a sense, to use a very sort of silly example,

that if I had a grandson who dreamed of playing in the NHL at some point in time,

but as he grows older, all he does when he comes home from school

is go immediately to the basement to play video games

and eat copious amounts of potato chips and never exercise whatsoever,

we'd all say that he is not destined to play in the NHL.

That, in fact, he is destined to be overweight

and probably have a whole pile of other heart and other body problems.

And his life, rather than being famous,

might be very short if he continues in that.

And then as he gets older and he can use Uber,

he adds poutine regularly to his diet.

That's destiny.

And the Bible here says,

not that you were fated to it,

but as you were destined to.

The second thing is that

it's not the case that the Bible is saying,

here's George,

I read the Bible,

I'm still married to the same woman,

I have a master's degree,

go on and on and on,

I'm obviously destined for heaven.

You, on the other hand,

or you, on the other hand,

out there,

look at you,

you're obviously destined to eternal.

No, no, no,

that's not what the Bible is saying.

Here's the part which is very sobering.

Before I responded to Christ,

I was destined

to stumble forever.

And so were you.

And so were you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

And you.

There is nobody in this congregation

worshiping here today

that apart from Christ

we're destined to anything other

than to eternally stumble over Christ.

Paul and Romans said,

for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God.

And in a sense,

Peter is saying,

all were destined

to fall

and fall short of the glory of God

unless Christ intervened.

And Christ intervened

in a very, very powerful way.

Could you just skip ahead

to verse 10, Claire?

We'll go back to verse 9 in a moment.

But look at verse 10.

And once you were not a people

but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy

but now you have received mercy.

The Bible is saying

that the difference isn't between

some of us are destined to hell

and some of us in a sense

are destined towards eternal life.

Not in the way that destined

is used here in this particular case.

But that some of us

have received mercy

and some of us

have refused mercy.

That in a sense,

the difference is

that God in his mercy

called and saved me

out of my destiny.

God in his mercy

called and saved you

out of your destiny.

mercy.

Now what is mercy?

I talked about that

a few weeks ago.

I'm going to talk about it again

very briefly.

Mercy is compassion

to the guilty

and undeserving.

Mercy is compassion

to the guilty

and to the undeserving.

If you are, in fact,

not guilty

mercy,

then you don't deserve mercy.

You deserve justice.

If you are, in fact,

guilty

and therefore undeserving

of any type of

clemency or compassion,

you have no right

to mercy.

If you have a right

to mercy,

it's not mercy

that you have a right to.

You have a right

for some type of favor

to be shown to you

or you have a right

for justice

to be shown to you.

At the same time,

mercy cannot ignore justice.

If mercy ignores justice,

it is not mercy.

It is unjust favoritism.

In a few months' time,

if Biden loses the election

and he gives a whole pile

of people

a pass on their jail sentences

or criminal prosecution

and they're all his buddies,

nobody other than Democrats

will think that justice was done.

We'll all know

that it was unjust favoritism.

And just to show

that I'm nonpartisan,

if by chance Trump wins

and then down

when he finishes

and he does it,

other than some crazed

Trump loyalists,

just like there's

crazed Biden loyalists,

we'll all know

that what he did

was not just,

that it was unjust favoritism.

Mercy is not unjust favoritism.

You see,

that's the beauty

of the gospel.

The beauty of the gospel

is this.

By my natural nature

and by my choices,

there are things

that in me

are very dark.

You see,

on one hand,

this biblical teaching

is something

that offends us,

but we all know

on one level

that it's true.

There are things

in every human being

that are dark.

There are things

inside of us

that desire to roar,

to be ravenous,

and maybe it's

with greed,

maybe it's

with a love of power,

maybe it's

a complete

unwillingness

to forgive,

but in effect

to destroy

or to stomp

or to hoard money

or to hoard power

or to hoard influence

or there's things

within every human being

which are very dark.

There's things

within human beings

that want to reject God.

They want to reject

the triune God.

They are offended

by the triune God.

They say,

God,

how dare you ask me

to obey that?

How dare you ask me

to obey that?

And there are things

in every single one

of us as human beings

which are,

and that describes us.

In fact,

it can describe

even more

the people

who have the custom

and the skills

and the training

and the class background

that they can always

have a very pleasant front

while inwardly

they burn

and rage.

And God,

the Son of God,

comes up beside

George Sinclair

and he says,

George,

you deserve judgment

and you deserve shame

and that's what you deserve.

But George,

you were made in my image

and because you were made

in my image,

I can stand for you

and I will take your place.

I will stand for you.

The shame that you deserve

very justly,

I will have that

fall on my shoulders,

permeate who I am.

The things that you

were done wrong

that are guilty,

the things that you

should have done right

that you didn't do

that deserve punishment,

they deserve public punishment,

I will take those

on myself

for you.

And the demands

of justice

that I cannot meet

without

being unmade

were laid on him.

And he did that

out of mercy

and justice was met.

He looked at me

and he looks at

every one of you

who are in him

and he looks at you

with eyes of compassion.

And that shame

became his,

that guilt

became his,

the punishment

they deserved

became his.

And he offers you

mercy,

new life.

He takes

what you were

destined for.

And when you

take that offer,

you find

on the other side

of that mercy

that now

you are

God's special,

precious,

treasured possession.

the mercy

is great,

the mercy

is deep,

the mercy

is thick,

the mercy

is wide,

the mercy

is high.

And he calls

me

and I respond

to that call.

He helps me

to hear that call

and to respond

to that call

to receive the mercy

from him.

And I want

to say to you

who are here,

those of you

who are online,

if you feel

that tug,

maybe wishing

it was true,

maybe you're even

feeling the tug

still have bothered

and offended

by some of

these aspects,

I want to tell

you that that's

the sign

that Jesus

is calling you

right now.

How do you

respond?

There's really

at the end

of the day,

I mean I could

tell you words

to pray

and all of that,

but it really

goes with that

inner disposition

as you look

to him

and it really

comes with

just doing

this.

I give up.

I surrender.

Take me.

Nothing more

profound than that,

but there is

nothing more

profound than that.

Why did God

show me mercy?

At the end

of the day,

the Bible said

there's nothing

particularly in me,

if there was

something particularly

in me,

that it wouldn't

be mercy,

it would be

some type

of favoritism.

All the Bible

says is that

he chose me

because he loves.

He is love.

And why do I

want to have

something deeper

than love?

What can be

deeper than

God's love?

Like what's

better than that?

Like is me

being able to

say that it's,

I don't know,

my smile or

my wit?

Those things

fade and die.

But God's love

is eternal.

What's deeper

or better than

that?

See, this is why

this is such a

profound encouragement.

That if you have

given your life

to Christ,

it's because he

called you

and saved you.

And now,

well, let's look

what he describes.

When I became

a Christian,

the people I

became a Christian

with gave me

a little piece

of cardboard

on it.

There were a

variety of Bible

passages that

they wanted me

to memorize.

And this was

one of them.

I don't remember

all of them.

I remember that

one of them was

John 3, 16,

for God so loved

the world,

you know,

that whoever

believes in him

will not perish

but have everlasting

life like God

gave his only son.

I remember that.

And another one

was Proverbs 3,

you know,

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

and lean not on

your own understanding

and in all your ways

acknowledge him

and he will

direct your paths.

And another one

was Romans 12,

1 and 2,

about not being

conformed to this

world but being

transformed and

one of them

was this text.

They wanted me

to memorize

verses 9 and 10.

They're a beautiful

text.

This is what happens

as a result of

God's call

out of mercy

to you.

Look at what it

says,

verse 9,

but you are a

chosen race.

I'll tell you

in a moment

what that is

and what it

doesn't mean

and what it

does mean.

You are a

chosen race,

a royal priesthood,

a holy nation,

a holy people group,

a people for his

own possession.

And in the

original language

this means his

treasured possession,

his precious possession.

That's who you

are in Christ.

And why are you,

what's the point

of all that?

That you may

proclaim the

excellencies of

him who called

you,

who called you

out of darkness,

the darkness of

what you were

destined for.

He called you

out of the

darkness that you

were destined for

into his

marvelous light.

Once you were

not a people

but now you

are God's

people.

Once you

had not

received mercy

but now you

have received

mercy.

See back to my

beginning of the

sermon.

See that's why

this is not an

us versus them

issue.

That is why it

is not the case

that nobody in

this congregation

is sexually

perfect and has

no problems with

feeling at home

with their body

or has never

been involved in

abortion or never

encouraged somebody

to commit, you

know, to do

euthanasia, never

in their entire

life.

No!

We are not

the perfect

destined for

eternity.

We were those

stumbling and

disobedient and

offending against

God and we

stand before God

purely and utterly

because he calls

people who reject

him to himself

and saves them

by what Jesus

has done.

That's who we

are.

So all we can

do is proclaim

that that's what

he does.

That it's not

just for us,

it's for you.

Just in closing,

that beautiful,

but you are a

chosen race.

Some of you

might remember

when I've talked

about racism

that the Bible

doesn't talk about

race and in some

ways this is an

unfortunate translation.

Literally it says,

but you are a

chosen lineage.

Lineage.

That's what's so

beautiful.

Listen, some of us

humanly speaking

have terrible

lineages.

I don't talk

about this very

much.

My dad spent

time in jail

as a pedophile.

I don't have a

great lineage.

Like I don't.

In my flesh.

But that's the

wonder of it.

A person today in

Malaysia who gives

their life to

Christ, me who's

given my life to

Christ, somebody in

Rwanda, somebody in

India, somebody in

Iran, somebody in

Israel, somebody in

Gaza, when we give

our lives to

Christ, we all have

the same lineage.

A new lineage.

Our lineage is from

him.

It is the most

profoundly anti-racist

text you could

possibly imagine.

It is the thing,

we're going to talk

about this a little

bit in next week

when we talk about

slavery.

The ancient mind

could not imagine a

world without

slavery.

slavery.

This little tiny

virus is eventually

going to blow up

the world.

That and the whole

teaching in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and 2.

If I owned a slave

and we both become

Christians, we have

the same lineage.

All of a sudden by

grace.

What's our vocation?

To proclaim his

excellencies in word

and deed and how we

spend our time and

how we deal with

power, how we deal

with sexuality, how

we deal with our

money, how we deal

with our families, how

we deal with our

relationships, how we

deal with being

wronged, how we deal

with forgiveness, how

we deal with

reconciliation in all

of life to proclaim

his excellencies to

the ends of the

earth, to every

people group.

That is our vocation.

Please stand.

Bow our heads in

prayer.

Father, we give you

thanks and praise that

when we respond to

your call, your

call, your merciful

call, and we come to

Jesus who saves us,

Father, that we

become this chosen

lineage that we

share in common

with people of

all different, you

know, with

handicapped people

and brilliant

people and physically

gifted people and

poor people and

rich people.

All those things,

Father, and all of

the lineages that

brought them to

those places, those

things, on one

hand, we still have

to live with them

and deal with them,

but Father, that

they fall away, that

by grace, we are

given this whole

brand new lineage

with you, Jesus, the

second Adam, that we

become yours and we

become your precious

possession.

We ask, Father, that

you bring these truths

of our identity deep

within our lives and

may these identities

form us.

And Father, grant us

the courage and the

gentleness and the

ability to proclaim

your excellencies,

proclaim them to our

children and to our

family and our

friends and in our

workplaces and to our

nation and to other

people groups in the

city and other people

groups to the very

end of the age.

And we give you

thanks and praise that

we don't do this all

by ourselves, that

there are Christians

today, Father, in

Nairobi and Seoul,

South Korea, and in

Rwanda and in Iran

and China and India

that are all, Father,

that we are doing this

together because you

just have one house.

You just have one

house and one

lineage, one chosen

lineage.

And Father, we thank

you for grace and

mercy.

Help us to live up to

our vocation.

You know how weak we

are.

We need your help.

We need the Holy

Spirit.

Help us to live in such

a way.

And we ask this in the

name of Jesus and all

God's people said,

Amen.