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Let's begin our reading today.
We shall be reading chapter 2, starting from verse 4 up to verse 12. Chapter 2, verse 4 to verse. Let's begin with verse one, right?
from verse one all the way to verse 12, 4. Our context. So I begin with verse one of 1st 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 ye may grow thereby. If so, we, ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed in the need of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, also, contain scripture. Behold, I lay in Sion a cheap cornerstone. He lack precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious, but unto him, which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made, the head of the corner. And a stone or stumbling, and a rock of fence, even to them, which stumble at a word, being disobedient, whereunto 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 marvellous light, which in time were not a people, now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Now, verses 11 and 12 together, dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly loss, which war against the soul. Having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil, evildoers, they may, by your good works, they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Amen.
Thank God for the reading of his precious word.
Now, where we left off this morning, we were talking about how important it is for believers to hold fast to our faith, despite the shift away from holiness and morality. And I ended with her, 1st 3 verses of chapter 2, right?
We know that holiness was Christ's command to us, that holiness is imputed upon us on the basis of Christ's blood, which was shed on the cross. And then lastly, which is the 1st 3 verses of chapter 2, holiness is on the basis of the teaching from the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And then verse 2 of chapter 2, right, tells us it's very important that we lay aside all those malice of the flesh, the sins of the flesh, malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speakings.
And verse 2 says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Now, I notice there's a little infant in our midst, right? Little baby Joshua is probably somewhere out there now, right?
And most of you are those, if you have raised children or you brought up little children, you know how babies desire milk? And it's very important that babies need to have that milk, otherwise, you will have a sleepless night. Mind you, it's gonna be terrible upon you, because that baby is gonna cry out for milk, without end, until he or she is satisfied.
And that's the attitude that a Christian ought to have. In relation to the word of God, I desire it. I want it.
Is it not common amongst Christians? Sometimes we wake up in the morning and we don't feel like doing our morning devotion. It happens. It happens to Christians. It happens to longtime Christians. It happens to session members. It happens to pastors as well. But there must be this constant cultivation and discipline that I want to read the word of God. I want to draw some lesson from it, which I may apply today. Or perhaps later on in life, and these are words of God.
So this is where we handed, and verse 3 ends with. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. We know the Lord is gracious to us, and therefore we want to savour it. We want to save her and live a life that is pleasing to him.
So today we move, this session, we move on to another aspect of holding fast, despite the shifting sand. The shift in the understanding of the glory of God. The shift in the understanding of the glory of God. No, we don't see it, right?
We always understand the glory of God, especially in our reading of the Old Testament, right? And we know that word. Most of you know this word, the Shekinah glory.
Right? And that's the beauty of the Lord, that shining brilliance and glory that descended upon the tabernacle when it was first, right, initiated, inaugurated, and that's the beauty of the Lord, the glory of God. We know that.
There was a physical beauty that the people of God had the opportunity to witness with their own eyes. Now, what about the abstract glory of God, by abstract, I mean, not that physical presence? Glorifying God with our lives.
The glory of God is a noun, isn't it? He describes the beauty of God. That brilliance and that wonderful attribute of God all together that bestows upon us salvation and grace and mercy. That's the glory of God. You can't see it. And then what about the verb that is associated with glory, which is to glorify? That's what we do. That's what Christians should do. We glorify God, we praise him for his goodness, for his mercy, for his grace upon us. Those are abstract once again. You may express in words, glory to God, praise to God. And it is abstract, so how do we, how do we understand and how do we express that in our lives?
And how does a man such as Peter, whom liberal scholars refer to as an ignorant fisherman, put that, inspired by the Holy Ghost, in words that we can understand? Well, we shall explore that today. We shall explore that today, and we'll learn three very important things about this passage which we have read.
One, we see the glory of God in Christ being the cornerstone of the church. Christ, the cornerstone of the church, and in him we see the glory of God. We glorify God because Christ is our cornerstone.
Secondly, we glorify God because we are chosen people for that purpose. We are chosen people not just for the benefit to ourselves, not just that we may be beneficiaries of something good that God has to bestow upon us, but we are chosen to glorify God. Firstly, we glorify God for Christ our cornerstone.
Secondly, we are chosen people for the purpose of glorifying God. And then thirdly, and finally, we will learn. We shall learn from the scriptures that we glorify God by our conduct, by our conduct. And I shall use the word used by the King James translator, which is the conversation, by our conversation. Now, in contemporary usage, we say conversation has been, an oral exchange, isn't it? That's our...
I just had a conversation with my session member. I just had a conversation with my family member talking. But, you know, Kim King James, vocabulary conversation means conduct. Your life, the way in which you live.
So three things, right? Related to the letter C, we glorify God because Christ is our Conor, so. We are chosen people in order that we may glorify God for the purpose of glorifying God. And then finally, we glorify God in our conduct.
Now, where we left off, so we now move on to chapter 3, chapter 2, verse 3. Right? It says, if so be that you have tasted, that the Lord is gracious, and then verse 4, what does verse 4 says, to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious. And verse 5, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Sion, a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
So you see that use of multiple adjectives, right? Especially you see that in verse 6, right? I lay in sound a chief cornerstone chief, right? It takes preeminence. It is the most important one. It is elect specially chosen. Precious, something to be treasured, something of great importance, and it bestows a benefit to the believer. And what is that, that he it bestows, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
And this is the first point that we want to note. We glorify God because Christ is our cornerstone. Christ is our cornerstone. Now, what does that word mean? Very often you find that as a name for churches, right? Many Christians would like to name their children the cornerstone church. Well, this is a direct reference to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the cornerstone.
Now, this usage of the term cornerstone has an engineering, as well as architectural relevance. We have an architect in our midst, isn't it, right? There he is right over there, right? So he will understand what this word cornerstone means.
You see, in ancient times, this is way before the days when engineers would use theodolites, you know, of all sorts of laser pointing devices for measuring straightness and angles. How do they begin or they commence the building of any structure? First of all, they must find a datum point, a reference.
And at that daytime point, they will lay a stone, a stone that is selected for its strength, it will not crack or break apart, neither will it be deformed or moved. And then they will cut it, right? so that it's exactly four square.
And that would be the point of the corner of that building. That's why it's called a cornerstone. And from that point, all other reference dimensions are taken.
The length of it, the height of it, the breath of it, and the straightness of that length that you draw for your line, or your breath, is again taken in reference to that cornerstone. So it's precious, right? And therefore, the description that you hear, right, the chief cornerstone, the preeminent one, the most important one, we find Christ being glorified as the most important person in our lives. in our faith. Christ is our cornerstone.
And the Bible describes him as being especially chosen. You don't just pick any stone from the pile and make that a cornerstone. In fact, a good engineer would study, right? That particular stone, are there any fissures, natural fissures, or cracks that will cause this stone to break apart in the midst of construction? There will be a disaster, right? Because now your cornerstone is no longer a reference and its edges are no longer straight. Maybe it's broken, nor it deformed in some manner. Chosen, elect.
You know, early on, we read about Christ, whose blood was shed for us. He is the pure and unblemished lamb of God. especially chosen. And that has a Passover reference. A reference to the Passover feast, where a family would pick a lamb and keep it for 14 days. And observe this lamb. Make sure that this lamb has no scars on it, no injuries of any kind, no scaps, and no blemish of whatsoever, and watch over it for 14 days. It must be perfect. And when it is ready, this lamb is slaughtered. At the Passover.
Perfect, unblemished, specially chosen. That's the same thing. We find in verse 6. Christ is especially glorified because he is like none other, perfect, sinless. And he's, the term of reference is cornerstone, right? He is the chief cornerstone, elect and precious, precious, meaning something that you must treasure.
We say our faith is precious, we treasure it. We treasure the Lord Jesus Christ, and his love for us, and his deed for us, how he has given himself for us. He is referred to as the chief cornerstone.
Now, why the chief? Because if you have a building that is four square, you may start with the first cornerstone, and that's your reference. But then when you come to another corner, you'll probably put another corner, another stone. An engineer will put another corner, stone there. And that's don't also have to be pretty, firm in its measurements and reference dimensions, isn't it? And then by the time you come to that 3rd corner, you probably place another corner so that all these dimensions are fixed.
This understanding comes to our mind. You don't have to be, you know, a very highly trained engineer, a mathematician, or architect to understand this. Do you know why? Because Peter, the fisherman, understood this. And why would he understand that? Liberal scholars say, Oh, he's an ignorant fisherman. So, for him to write this, it's very absurd, unlikely, so, perhaps, the epistle, 1st Peter, was not written by the Apostle Peter, after all. And I say wrong. That's very wrong.
Because in the past, who built houses? You built your own house, isn't it? And how do you learn to build your own house? If you have a father who will teach you, he'll teach you to do that. If not, you learn from your neighbours, or your fellow villagers, or men, from the synagogue, with the expertise will teach you and guide you. So men in times, in ancient times, ah, by far, greater DI wires than most of us. They can fish, they can build, they probably know how to do agriculture and grow crops as well, and do all the things necessary to feed the family. So we put to sleep all these detractors and liberal scholars who say, Oh, the pistol of Peter can't be written by a fisherman. What would he know? He does know.
Just as many of you, know many aspects of other sciences and other traits, isn't it? You may be an architect, but I'm sure you know a little bit about electrical engineering, right? You probably can buy your house to some extent, right, without breaching the local codes. Of course, right? Right?
You may be a doctor, but I'm sure you know enough to fix a car, you know, change a flat tire at least, or be able to service your car to some extent. True. You may be an accountant, but you shouldn't know how to do a little bit of plumbing. All of us know a little of everything. True. So is Peter.
He knows about buildings. And Christ is that chief cornerstone, the first one that you put in, the most important one. And we glorify him for that purpose. We glorify him for that purpose. The glory of God. The glory of God in our lives.
You see, that understanding has shifted. And that understanding will further erode when persecution hits the church. It's nice, and then the, you know, when beautiful surroundings and air conditioned comfort, you know, beautiful scenery around us, families are healthy, everybody is well. We praise God, isn't it? We sing beautiful hymns to praise God. We pray to him.
But if you were in the 1st century, and the Roman soldiers will come in for you, and perhaps your neighbour, a very fervent Christian, have already been captured and crucified. Your thoughts will be very much different. The understanding of the glory of God will probably be overtaken by your needs for survival.
Right? You want to run away, you want to escape. You want to take your loved ones, your wife, your children, your lovely little baby, and find a safe place to hide. Isn't that so? And you'll think to yourself, only then, when we are safe, then we will think about worshipping God. But we will see and understand that in this passage we have read that Peter is trying to focus the attention of the reader on the praise of God and the glory of God.
So besides glorifying Christ as our cornerstone, you will see the word priest repeated. For instance, just very quickly go to verse nine, right? Your chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous, like praising God. That must not end. Persecution or no persecution, whether there are pressures in this world that will move us from our historic faith, that should not deter us from glorifying God and praising God.
And then, in fact, in the very last verse which we have read in verse 12, wasn't it? which we have read, right, having our conversation on us among the Gentiles, 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. Glory to God.
The believer's life should be fully engrossed with glorifying God. And the 1st point we want to understand is, is we glorify Christ, our cornerstone. He's the cornerstone of our faith. He's the one who shed his blood in order that we may have this faith. He's the one who gave himself on the cross in order that we may have the indwelling of the Spirit and the conviction to put our faith and trust in him. Therefore, we glorify him.
You know, early on, I talk about the shift from holiness and morality. I mentioned some examples, isn't it? I talk about some who have committed, you know, who have been in a ministry for many years, and yet fall in the standards of holiness.
And how we must also pray for the servants of God always, and pray for one another, that we do not fall away from that standard.
You may have known some years ago, there was this big scandal in a mega church in the Southeast Asian region. Millions were taken away because a pastor wanted to develop a musical career for his wife. I think it was 25 million or some ginormous amount, right?
The standard of holiness does not only impinge on sexual purity. It impinges upon morality as well. Honesty. And the pastor was able to do that, or allowed to do that, or permits his staff to abet him in doing that, have lost sight of morality.
And then there was another man, again, a pastor for many, many years, although he was pasturing a church which, from the BP standpoint, would be a heretical church. It was a church that believed in the speaking of tongues and false miracles and all kinds of other so-called Holy Spirit acts of miracles. And then he was found with a male prostitute. Terrible. Right? Deviation from the morality and the norms that we know and understand to be.
And then there were further deviations and movement away. Look at today, right? There's a huge debate in the West about gender, true. I think it hasn't come here yet. It's beginning to, but I don't think it's becoming a problem yet, right? Right? Maybe it's beginning to, as taking root, but you see that momentum taking on.
And then the idea of sexual orientation has changed completely. Right? There's holiness and sexual purity, and then when it comes to morality, the sanctity of life is being impinged upon. True, life doesn't hold its sacred place anymore. Anywhere. You can take the life of a baby, just because I don't like this particular sex or this gender of the baby. Take it away. I don't waste my time raising a little girl or a little boy or whatever. Terrible, isn't it? Morality has changed.
And how does that relate to the shift from the glory of God? You see, when humans stop perceiving that there is a true and living God, what comes next? I become God with a small G. And I, and you, and you, can come together and decide what is moral. And I and you and you can form a committee and decide what is right and what is wrong. And if taking the life is necessary, in our opinion, then let it be so. A shift in the understanding of the glory of God.
And this very first point that Peter brings forth is this Christ is our cornerstone. The chief one, by the way, the most important one, and don't take away that glory from him. He's not only the most important one, he is elect, specially chosen by God because he's pure and sinless, and there's none other that can take his place. And he is precious to be treasured. Not to be thought of as just a historical figure, not to be thought of as just a mere prophet. Not to be thought of as merely a wise man with good sayings that we can live our lives with. But the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. And as Peter would say, though, we see him not yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable. That's how precious Christ is to us.
That is how we are to glorify Christ in our lives. You lay in bed and you think about Christ, how wonderful my Lord and Saviour, who gave himself for me. That I, a sinner, am now a saint in God's sight. He is precious to me. You sing that hymn often, isn't it? For he is so precious to me. He is so precious to us, to you and you, and to me. A wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord. That's how we are to see him and glorify him.
And to a persecuted church or churches in diaspora who will be about to be persecuted, that thought is all the more important, never lose sight of the glory of God. Never lose sight of glory in Christ because he's a chief cornerstone in our life. The most important, and the most important in the church, because we are all described as living stones.
The word lively stone, you see, it's an adverb, right? A lively stone. But if you were to take the language of the text, and you have to translate into contemporary language that we speak, I would say, living stones. A stone that is in the wall. But that's a dead stone. It doesn't move, it doesn't breathe. It just a part of the structure.
But we, each one of us is a living stone. We are living, we are serving, we are responding to God's love. We are loving one another fervently as the word of God hath exalted us. That's what we are. And that's why it's called Livingstone. And it's also called Livingstone because we have a living hope, the hope of the forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life, and eternal fellowship with God. This you find in the passage which we have read, we are living stone, verse 4, to whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Now, this is referring to Christ. Verse 5, ye also as lively stones built up a spiritual house. We are part of that. We are a living participant in the church as the body of Christ.
And as a part of that church, we glorify God. Now, how does that connect with what I said earlier about the shift from holiness, morality, and the shift away from the glory of God? You see, in the 1st century, I'm repeating history again, right? The reigning power: Rome.
Who were the leaders of the Roman Empire? The Caesars. So it is within the doctrine and philosophy of the Roman governance. What do they do? They elevated the Caesar to Godhead. Caesar is God.
And that is why a lot of the persecutions that come about, not just to Christians, but to different religions in those times, was for the fact that they deny the worship of Caesar as God. The Jews were persecuted also for that reason. They refuse idolatry, and they, you know, least of all, they want to worship Caesar.
Christians are the same. Who is our God? Our living God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would we want to worship a man? Caesar? And that was why when Nero came about and also other Caesars, the Christians became a very convenient target, right? They denied the godhead of the Roman Empire. And since the peace and the unity of the Roman Empire is also founded upon this kind of philosophy, well, let's persecute them. Let's get rid of them, they are nuisance, right? They are nuisance to our governance. They are nuisance to all our civil orders. And Paul the apostle faced that in many places, isn't it? He was in Ephesus at one and they brought him up and they said, look, these men are stirring up trouble. Right? In other places, in the book of Acts, you see, what about the apostles? Oh, these are the men that turn the world upside down. Right? They disrupt the social and civil order of the day. Because Caesar is God. And you glorify him.
So that has changed. And when Nero came upon, well, I'm God, might I do what I please? And the relevance to us here today is this: never allow ourselves, me, and my loved ones to supplant that which is due to God, the glory that is due to God. Because there is how this world has gone astray altogether. I give you the early example how two or three or four men can form a committee and come to decide what is the basis for the sanctity of life, isn't it? That's already supplanting God's place. And similarly, in our schools, men and women will get together and decide what is good for our children. No longer is the word of God the basis.
But Peter, in his writing, draws us to that very important understanding that Christ is our cornerstone. So verse 7, unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. Verse 8, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.
Now, primarily, based on the language that Peter used, it seems very likely that he's also talking about the Pharisee called Jews, right? Because there are Jews in the time of Jesus, especially the Pharisees, were very offended by the teaching of the Lord Jesus. And then subsequently, when the disciples taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, how Jesus is the Son of God, they were offended by that. So Christ became a stumbling block for them. But it is also in a wider throw applied to Gentiles. Gentiles were often offended by that. The Romans especially. Look, we've got Caesar. God, GOD, with a small G. So why do you speak of Jesus as being God, the Son of God? The Saviour? And since you are a disruption to our social order and our governance and our policy, well, it's best we get rid of you. So they undergo that kind of persecution.
So Christians today, the understanding of the glory of God, can very quickly supplant and take away our praise and our worship of God. That is the beginning of the shift in the understanding of the glory of God. And it takes that glory and puts it upon self, man. Man will make that decision, and eventually, men will be glorified.
Look at verse 8, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence, even to them which stumbled at the word, being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed. You see, those who oppose the gospel, and to whom Christ is stumbling block, the Bible says they were appointed. This is one of the basis for our Reformed teaching of double predestination. The understanding that there are those who are elect in the elect of God. And there are those who are appointed, right, for disobedience. It is under the sovereign umbrella of God, understanding that God is sovereign overall. And all the more we look to Christ, and we praise Him and we thank Him. Thank you, Lord, for I am elect. I'm of that. And it's very important that we praise and look to God, with that understanding, we glorify Him.
Now we come to the next point, right? Just as those who reject Christ and are disobedient are appointed, now let's talk about us, you and me. And this is verse 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 marvellous light.
You see, just as verse 8 ends with, right, even those who stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed, verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation. So we were chosen specially. We were chosen specially of God, elect, that's the word that is used, or translated as elect. And what do we, what role do we fulfil as being the chosen of God? First of all, a royal priesthood, kings and priests. A very highly esteemed position, isn't it? How many kings would a nation have? Just one. You can't have two kings, right? You can have a king and a region. You can have a king and a prince. Or you can have a king and a next in line. But there's only one king. But we are a royal priesthood. We have a kingly heritage, and also a priestly heritage. Ye are, we are. An holy nation, collectively, we are holy. Remember how, early on, I touched about the devil wanting to move and shift God's people away from holiness and morality. But we are meant to be holy before God, and before the world. A peculiar people, special, set aside. We should not and ought not behave like the world. And at times, we know we fail, because of the weakness of the flesh.
We may have thoughts that our world be. We may have thoughts against others that are offensive to the doctrines that have been taught in the Bible. We may be even devious in our thoughts.
We may sometimes be malicious against others. We know that, that's of the flesh. When it does happen to us, we look to God and say, God, forgive me. forgive me for being so fleshly and worldly.
I should not, I ought to be, and I ought to live, as a group of people, peculiar, peculiar, not being strange or funny, but peculiar, as in special. A special group of people, select, dedicated, and dedicated for a reason and a purpose.
So this is the last part of verse 9, who have called you, sorry, verse 9, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, that he should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
This is the 2nd point I want to make. We are chosen for a purpose that our lives may show forth praise to God. People are to look at us and say how special this Christian is or how special this group of Christian is in their behaviour, in their standards of honesty, in their standards of love for one another, in their standards of compassion and kindness that they show to those around them.
They're special. They must be a people that is indoor by the Holy Spirit of God. And what a wonderful God that must be. To be so loving and kind to those who I need. The people of the world are to look at us and think this way.
But sadly, we know we feel God many times, isn't it? In our behaviour, in our speech, in the way we treat others. And we ought to be very disappointed with ourselves. I have been. I've walked away from interaction, realising, I said, Lord, forgive me. I'm weak. My thoughts are weak and fleshly sometimes.
God help me change me day by day, moment by moment. You know, it took me decades. We used to sing this hymn. Some of you may be familiar. Moment by moment, I'm lost in his love. Remember that him?
And people always say, moment by moment, and the hymn writers say that some of them write that in their biographies, moment by moment I depend on Christ. I never understood that. I've always thought of it as an expression to impress upon us how much we need to depend on Christ. But as I grow older, and wiser by virtue of the mistakes I've made. I begin to understand every moment of our lives. We are assailed by the world and the flesh.
And if you're not watchful, if you do not gird up the loins of your mind and you're ready for that spiritual battle, you will fall. I failed. And I walk away disappointed. Sometimes days on end, I would think to myself, Why did I say that? How silly of me. Well, why did I treat that brother or sister in that manner? How cruel of me. It happens.
Moment by moment we are dependent on Christ. And the word God tells us, you are royal priesthood, you are to be elevated, to be looked upon. People look upon, and that's a role model. That's a king. That's the high priest, that's the priesthood. You are a holy nation, collectively, you're supposed to behave in a way that shows forth the holiness of God. And you are a special people, that your lives, when people look at you and talk about you, it is in praise of God.
You know, I saw this so and so, this man who says he attends Bethel BP Church. He's such a model of honesty and ethical behaviour. I never seen any man or woman like that before. That's what you want the world to say of you. And they might add, there must be something special about the God he believes in. I want to be like him.
That ye may show forth the praises that have brought you out of darkness into his marvellous light. That's what it means. Pray that God will help us to know and understand that, that we glorify Christ because He's our cornerstone. He is special. He brought upon our salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we may live like him.
Secondly, we are chosen for a purpose to bring forth the praises to God. And what has he done here? He has brought us out of darkness into his kingdom of marvellous light.
We were in darkness, you know? You know, very often, if you have people who've lived under very low light conditions, they seldom understand what it means to be in places where there's bright illumination. Is it true or not? If you know people who've lived in houses where, you know, their rooms and their hallways are very dim, after a while they get used to it, isn't it? And then you put them in bright light, you find they may find it very glaring.
And that's what happens if you are immersed in the world for too long. You get used to the dimness and the darkness of the world. So much so that the word of God does not strike you as being bright and illuminating, until the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. And then you see the word of God in all his brilliance and illumination in his soul, this is too bright for me. Bringing us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
But that, in itself, is the work of the Holy Spirit, because it will cause you to learn and understand, I'm supposed to be walking in that light. Not in this dimness and darkness that I've been immersed in for years and decades. I need to shed that off me.
You know, in this passage, we have read, look at verse one of chapter 2. What does it say?
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and all hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word. Lay all of that aside because our lives are meant to bring glory to God.
Wonderful thing, isn't it? Christ, our cornerstone, we glorify him. We are chosen people in order to glorify God.
And then we come to verse 11 and 12. And what does he say? Dearly beloved, sorry, starting from verse 10, 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.
And verse 11, this is the exhortation, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Having your conversation, the word here means conduct, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may be, by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
So we glorify God also in our conduct. In our conversation, we glorify Christ because it's our corner store. We are chosen as a people in order to glorify God. And how do we do it by our lives? By the way we live.
Number one, we must live verse 11 as strangers and pilgrims. Abstaining from fleshly lust. This world has a way of infecting us with a love for the world and a love for the things that are fleshly. But the word of God tells us to abstain from it, stay away from it. It is a battle at all times, and we know it, right?
And this is why early on I brought up this mention of needing and depending on Christ moment by moment. All the time we depend on him to shed away those things that are fleshly, things that are malicious, things that are harmful, things that are unholy or filthy in the sight of God. Put that away.
Verse 12 tells us what the result, the desired result is of a good Christian conduct. It says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, you know, in the times of severe persecution, especially in the early years of the Caesars, who were very much against a Christian faith.
Christians were spoken of and falsely accused of many things. Isn't it? They were accused of trying to overturn the civil order. They were accused of other things, including for taking the Lord's supper. Right, of eating flesh and blood. Cannibalism.
Falsely accused of sins as such, they were accused of, amongst other things, infanticide, killing babies. All false accusations. That's right, even though they speak to you as evil, they were spoken of as being heretical, worshipping unknown gods, and therefore offending the pagan gods of the Roman religion.
All kinds of evil, they were accused of being miscreants, men and women who purposely set out to destroy the power and order of the Roman Empire. So, therefore, they need to be gotten rid of. They spoke of them as evil doers.
In fact, a historian once wrote that if anything were to happen, even if the river, Tiberius, were to overflow, blame it on the Christians. That's what it is, right? Easy target.
Anything that happened, that's no good, just blame it on a Christian. They spoke of them as evil doers. And this was a reality in history.
But you know what, the desired result is? Look at verse 12, the end of it. They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Then when judgement comes upon them. Now, this phrase, the day of visitation has been variously interpreted, right? Some Bible commentators refer to it as the day of visitation in the destruction of Jerusalem, right by the Roman army. Some of it refers to the end time visitation that God will cast judgement upon the living and the dead.
But whatever way we look at it, I think the message comes clear to us. That the Gentile, the unbeliever who looks at the Christian, even though he or she may have a mind that says Christianity is no good and this Christian man or woman, right, is not doing any good. They may, by your conduct, praise God and say, this must be something special that he or she believes in. This man or woman who believes in God must have an element of faith that I don't fully understand, and that God must be special. They may praise God.
This is why it says, that they may, which they behold, shall glorify God in the day of visitation. They will understand and know how righteous God is in executing his judgement and in protecting and caring for his loved ones, the saints. A wonderful thing.
So we learn from today's passage 3 important things about holding fast despite the shift in the understanding of glory of God, isn't it? We hold fast, and we are able to hold fast, because we have an unshakeable cornerstone in Christ, and we glorify him.
Secondly, we continue to hold fast, and we are not shaken, even though the world has a different idea of what is not God, and what is God, and the godless world that they want to remain being in. We know that we are chosen people for the purpose to glorify God.
And thirdly, we know that we glorify God by our conduct. So much so that even those who are detractors hate us, they can look upon us and see how wonderful this Christian is. They may even say I want to be like him.
You know, to share with you this testimony recently, over the Easter, we had a series of baptisms, there were six baptisms, right? Six baptismal candidates who were baptised just last Easter in our church. And one of them was a very senior man. I can't remember exactly how old he is. He must be in his 70s or mid or late 70s.
So as a pastor, I had to interview, we do a pre-baptismal interview. And I ask him, now, this man is suffering the onset of dementia, right? So he's not totally coherent. So I ask him very simply, is it, you know, brother? Can you tell me, right, in your own words, how you came to know Christ, how you came to know about Christ?
Of course, so he shared with me, you know, my he's living in a care home, by the way, right? The family has abandoned him, so he's living in a care home by himself. And he says, you know, my sister came to me and shared with me the gospel, you know, and told me about Jesus Christ and ask me if I wanted to be a Christian. Then I asked him, what did you say to your sister? And his answer was, he asked his sister, How can I be a Christian when I'm so full of sin? There was his answer.
He asked this question, how can I be a Christian? I'm so full of sin. And this dear sister of his shared with him that Jesus came in order that you can have the forgiveness of sins. And you know what he did? He says, I want to believe in Jesus. I want Jesus to be my Lord and my Saviour.
A man, riddled with dementia already. But still able to understand that Jesus is the chief cornerstone of his faith. I can achieve anything by myself. I'm so full of sin. And when he shared with me parts of his life, truly, he had lived not sorrowful life, battling with sin and battling with the conflicts of this flesh in this world.
But when he came to the realisation, it was only one thing, the glory of God that mattered, that Christ is chief cornerstone. There's no longer about him. It's about Christ who elected me, loved me, gave himself for me. And he gave his public testimony. Of course, he had to dictate, and someone had to write it down for him. And he was baptised.
Praise God. Wonderful understanding of faith that we must learn, cherish, and hold fast, and do not shift from the understanding of the glory of God.
Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy precious word, may thy word continue to encourage and strengthen thy people, that their faith may grow stronger moment by moment, day by day, strengthened by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen.