He Called Us Out Of Darkness

5-3-26

Hoonah-Hadley

1 Peter 2:1-10

Call to Worship Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

Daily Verse 1 Peter 2:9

He Called Us Out Of Darkness

“But you are a chosen generation, a 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.” Can we start off with an Amen? A hard-fought hallelujah? Is it too soon for a praise break? We simply cannot read God’s word and not be overwhelmed by its power and authority it has in our lives. Yes, there is a context, a historical setting here, but God’s word is living and active, it is eternal, “But the word of the Lord endures forever.” (1 Peter 1:25) It is always current and applicable. In chapter 1 through chapter 2 verse 10, “you”, “us”, “yourselves” in the NKJV are used 40 times. He is speaking to you, to us. Folks say, “It’s all about Jesus”. We could say it is a matter of perspective, because in all honesty, Jesus is all about us. Since the beginning, in the garden, humanity has been at the center of God’s ministry. For thousands of years, all the adjectives that describe our fallen, rebellious, filthy rags, God’s mercies are new every day. Why? Because they need to be. He “called” us out of darkness! It is my genuine understanding that if your name is in the Book of Life, if you are “called”, “chosen”, “elected”, “predestined”, God will call you until you answer Him. It is also my personal experience that God may call you for years without your recognition that it is He who is calling, or that it is a call at all. To the unsaved, unregenerate soul, God’s call may initially seem more of an annoyance than anything. Even once you recognize His call, out of ignorance you may let your answering machine handle it.

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1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking.” This mirrors Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus…” As a reminder, our God is a God of order, first things first, He tells us a thing, to tell us a thing. Both of these begin with the famous “Therefore”. In other words, because of what he told us in chapter 1 we are to graduate to the next thing. The author of Hebrews likens life to a race and in order that we run that race, i.e. God’s call on our lives, there are some things we need to get rid of, things that slow us down, hinder our walk, our progress, our “endurance”. We need to get verse 1 taken care of before we live in light of the following verses. Do we need a show of hands, a confession for all the sin that so easily ensnares us? Do we need to line up and one by one throw all our malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking into the burn barrel and be done with it once and for all? I’ll raise my hand and confess before you that righting the ship starts first at the pulpit. The reason God tells us to “lay aside” all these things is because He knows it is part of our nature, and our nature clouds our vision. If we are to look unto Jesus, if we are to have eyes that see, there are some things we need to “lay aside”. So, let’s get that taken care of right now, and what ever is left when you get home, set it out at the curb on garbage night, get rid of it, be done with it “because” God has more for us, much, much more. We’ll never receive the “more” while were carrying around all the garbage of the was, garbage is heavy. Among other places, Jeremiah 17:9 sets the stage. “The heart is deceitful above all things…desperately wicked…” Ecclesiastes 9:3 “…the hearts of…men are full of evil.” Evil clouds our vision, lay it aside, look unto Jesus!

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Vs. 2-3 “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” In the famous book “Dead Doctor’s Don’t Lie”, Dr. Joel Wallach says watch the cows/ horses when they come out of the barn and see where they go. They’ll go right to the thing that they crave, which is usually the thing that they lack. We, like animals, require certain minerals for a healthy life. The reason horses chew on the fence post, or the stall is generally because they lack certain minerals. New born babies, like calves “desire” pure milk as a necessary ingredient to physical growth. So, it is for those that have tasted that “the Lord is gracious”, they naturally “desire…the word” that they “may grow thereby.” Question, are you hungry, are you thirsty, are you coming to the well daily, drinking from His cup, eating your daily bread, praying, praising, meditating on His word? Some sources say our bodies need 102 minerals for optimum health. There are “essential” minerals and “trace” minerals that if we don’t get, we’ll have problems. There are 66 books in the bible, 31,102 verses available for free for optimum spiritual health, but in the least a certain daily dose “that you may grow thereby”. Psalm 34:8,10 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good…but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” (See also Psalm 1) Vs. 4 “Coming to Him as to living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious.” This may be repetitive, God supplies all our needs according to His riches and glory, but for us to grow thereby, to benefit from His finished work, we are required to get off the couch and “come to Him”. Have you ever noticed when certain folks come to visit you, the minute they come in your door they go right to the couch. Now rest is necessary and on a rainy day the couch may be a comfy place to meditate on His word, but otherwise it doesn’t require anything from us.

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If God has called you, He requires that you “come to Him”. Others have and still do “reject” Him, get over it, come to Him and be about His business. John 21:22 “If it is My will that he remain until I come, what is that to you, you follow Me.” Remember, the gate is always narrow, few enter it, the way is hard, but the couch is easy, many lounge there on, it leads to destruction. (See Matt. 7:13-14) “Chosen by God and precious.” Now here is the key in vs. 5 “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house…” What the word is saying here is that “we also are chosen by God and precious.” Hebrews 3:4,6 “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God…but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are.” We are “being built up a spiritual house”. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 “Don’t you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Vs. 7-8 “Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient…’a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” There are those that are called by God and there are those “appointed” to disobedience, period. Vs. 9 “But you are a chosen generation, a 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.” Each of these statements in vs. 9 are precious, this is a Hall of Fame verse. There is a sermon, a book, an institution in each, but each presents a question. Why? Why are we chosen, royal, holy, special, called out of darkness? “That you may proclaim the praises of Him…” The bible loves to help us answer our reason for being, our purpose in life. One version uses the word “excellencies”. We are called to be proclaimers of excellent things. “That” is why He called us out of darkness.