1 Peter - Prayer Meeting Address (Quality: Average)

[0:00] from the first epistle of Peter and the second chapter the first epistle of Peter chapter 2 wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that she may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious ye also as lively stones who built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold our laying Zion the chief cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient where unto also they were appointed but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy dearly beloved

[2:30] I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that were all whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the king of supreme or unto governors as unto them which are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God honour all men love the brotherhood fear God honour the king servants be subject to your masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward for this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults you take it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it you take it patiently this is acceptable for even here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed for ye were a sheep going astray but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls the verse which came into my reading in the daily light this morning and I hope came into my heart is number 9 the second chapter number 9 but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light as I read down the word having lifted up my heart for direction for something to try to think upon in the day and to bring before you this evening this word seemed to come in rather sweetly and as I tried to think about it

[5:49] I had to look into the epistle a little more deeply to its beginning to whom was Peter writing and then I had to think too was he writing to a chosen generation a people of a particular time for sometimes we think of it the term generation we think of it in the succession of people as they come through the ages of time and sometimes we speak of the previous generation perhaps meaning parents grandparents or even further back but as I began to think about it and to look into the world as I thought yes the people to whom he was writing for the most part it would seem he was writing in a particular sense to the Lord's people and it would seem as the word is looked upon very particularly that for the most part they were Jews but you read the epistle through you will find that yes there were also

[7:04] Gentiles he was writing to those who were brought into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus look right at the beginning of the first chapter to the strangers elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit that is to say we are all if brought into this blessed place in that first category for without that choice on high there can be no exercise of mind sanctification of the spirit as a little denomination sometimes we do make such an emphasis rightly but sometimes perhaps over emphasize the thought that something must be known and felt and that is the sanctification of the spirit the work of grace within us something known something realized and it was to such that people

[8:10] Peter was writing such people who had been brought then it goes a little further unto obedience yes can we look into our hearts and hope and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ then he said grace be to you and he goes on from there and then coming into this second chapter and to the other verse Peter essentially practical oh we find him so in the history we read of him we find him so in his writing he begins to look particularly and rather as you find it sometimes in Paul's writings sometimes in more than once in Peter's he's given a whole row of things for us to think upon for us to meditate on for us to question our own hearts upon yes and you'll say but surely the first question is unanswerable well yes in one sense it is it is one hymn we used to sing from

[9:28] Stephen's hymn book we used to sing it and perhaps the children we used to think of it literally there's a hymn about Gabriel doesn't ask the reasons why God makes a decree and the hymn writer said nor does the favourite angel dare to pry between the folded leaves of the book of life and to see a chosen a choice it would seem like that yet the same Peter he says wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and your election sure oh my friends to think a chosen generation how I said we had to look at it my thoughts this morning were yes was he thinking of that generation so favoured to have been perhaps and not all of them but the time this epistle was written but for Peter and for many he was writing to they had been on the earth at the time of the Lord

[10:42] Jesus was it such oh same time many Jews who had not believed on him and he had to say some some things as we read down this one chapter regarding them a stone of stumbling a rock of offense and the Lord Jesus became this to them and they were of the same literal generation but what do we read here a chosen generation oh it's very deep and the more I thought upon it the more deep it seemed to be because it speaks of a birth but it does not speak of a natural birth it speaks of a birth from on high did we not see it in that hymn the birth from above yes would not the saviour have given it to us as he thought about it he must be born again and as we look upon it here we see yes who was he writing to elect according to the foreknowledge those who were brought into the knowledge of the grace of God unto obedience yes it is those who had been yes listen who have begotten us again yes brought a new life into us regenerated begotten us again and to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus

[12:24] Christ from the dead oh my friends let me look the chosen generation those who know yes sometimes it might be a very faint knowledge but to know the life within oh what an inestimable favour it is if we can come just into this first section a chosen generation those chosen to life to the life of Christ to the life which he laid down and took again to the life of which he said because I live you shall live also the life to of which he spake to Nathanael to Nicodemus to Nicodemus when he came to him he must be born again secondly we have to look the royal priesthood if we look into the word of

[13:32] God we only find one royal priesthood that is literally shown to us not Kisedek and the only comparison we find to him is the Lord Jesus and what do we say on this if born from above we have to remember that we are born of the royalty of the king of kings and the lord of lords and it is according to his will that we shall serve him yes think of those in heaven who say made us kings and priests unto God yes we do not think of a king as one who reigns in that sense that we have those over whom we shall rule because in the equality of heaven there will be but one that rules and that will be God and Christ in the unity of the trinity but we shall know that we are of that royal blood and we shall begin to understand a little of the saviour's prayer when he said that they may be one in us even as we are one oh my friends again what do we see we think of the service of God and perhaps it seems to us as we go about it in the times in which we live a long way from priesthood as we understand it in the law but it isn't it is truly priesthood when by grace we are able to serve to serve in worship to serve in any way appointed and there is one thing another denomination where

[15:27] I used to meet with some very gracious people they have as it were the doctrine in the denomination that everyone that is called by grace becomes that is to say a minister in one sense or another that come into the priesthood of God and when you look at such a thing as this set before us although we must not take it beyond the meaning of it there is truth there there is something that we can look upon the royal priesthood I need to hurry a holy nation Moses told the people of Israel they were a holy nation holy because they were the choice of God holy because as a nation they had been sanctified to the purpose of God we cannot look upon them as holy in and of themselves but only holy in the purposes of God as a nation and if we look into that holiness of which the Lord brings unto his people we shall ever see it only as that holiness which is in Christ

[16:54] I'm thankful for a hymn writer who left us such a wonderful truth which can easily be remembered that Christ hath holiness enough to sanctify us all and oh my friends it is only here that we shall enter in to the holiness which is set before us in so wonderful a way and then perhaps the peace that laid into my heart most of peculiar people I remember when quite a child my father was speaking from just those few words of peculiar people and first of all it seemed to me it wasn't something to boast about it was something to be if you like a little ashamed of if you were peculiar and I cannot think in sense of being able to repeat my father's words

[17:55] I was very young and as I listened I began to see yes they were peculiar to the purposes of God we have to begin to understand that the word peculiar is well like most words it is capable I think the word I want to use of nuances it has variations in meaning as you look upon it we might think it is peculiar because it is unusual but it is peculiar because it is particular in purpose and God's people are and then we have to look at the original and we find that this same phrase in a different context is the same Greek phrase in a different context is translated a purchase possession and they are peculiar to God because they are peculiar in the sense that he has chosen them ordained them called them brought them kept them for himself they are peculiar in that purpose that has been in the heart of God toward them yes and something we see then to have that peculiarity is a blessing unspeakable to be bought by the precious blood did you notice it in the hymn that we sung it was the reason why I chose the hymn for it showed to us that bought with the blood of Christ peculiar price indeed their

[19:53] God becomes their priest and they from sins are freed peculiar must the blessings be which makes insolvent riches free and oh my friends when we think of this peculiarity to be bought by the blood of Christ strange thought isn't it bought we think of ransomed from whom were we ransomed ransomed from the grave yes ransomed it's a very difficult thing to interpret to whom was the payment made for we were slaves of sin slaves of Satan we cannot believe for a moment that a payment was made for Satan who had us by shall we say his own evil assumption rather than by the will of God no but the debt which was ours and which was insolvent was paid by Christ and we have to look at it a little differently it was paid in his blood it was paid in his agony it was paid in he receiving for his people the punishment of their sins and oh my friends a peculiar people what a blessing it is to be numbered among them and then lastly these things have shown to us up to date that which

[21:24] God has ordained and brought to pass for his people if you look at them they are nothing in them there if you look at the first four sections that we have dealt with nothing of ourselves is it we can only see the truth of them as we see it in the purposes of God in Christ and as we look upon it so we find the blessing of it but do we find the effect oh my friends what is the effect that ye shall show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light what an exhortation we see here an exhortation of grace an exhortation of love an exhortation yes if this faith is given to us are there the works yes faith without works is dead

[22:27] James tells us and what he means is this if we believe we must obey and we have the same thing given to us in this chapter in this epistle in this chapter and in other parts of it that we should leaving us an example that we should walk that you should follow his steps but oh my friends to follow in that way that he set forth so as I said Peter is practical so specifically here to show forth his praise to live as those should live some of us in school life were taught not very solemnly but brought to say something of the creed and one of the things of it that stuck in my mind the chief end of man is to glorify God and yet it doesn't be done as wrote it isn't something that he's done because we're told to do it like we obeyed orders in service life and they said stop you've stopped it is something done it is something done because love constrains it it is something done because experience constrains it it is something done because there is that desire given in us that God should be honoured in our life to live to his glory oh my friends every time

[24:06] I find a meditation given to me I find oh how short we come oh what help we need how dependent we are upon the grace and yet this grace is shown who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light the words came into my mind lovely words Paul to the Corinthians God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts oh many times I looked at that and sometimes I go in recollection to what I humbly believe there are times when that word has been fulfilled because the description is there to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ I can't quote where it comes from at the moment but there is a lovely thought that comes into my heart worship

[25:15] God through Christ our King then we shall show forth his praises Amen