Proclaiming His Goodness, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Author and Pastor David Helm said that what we do with Jesus will mean everything to our standing and identity before God. Christ is the cornerstone. You cannot be indifferent about Jesus Christ. You will eventually stumble over Him or in submitting to Him, find the foundation on which to build your life.

In this message titled Proclaiming His Goodness, Rich unpacks 1 Peter 2, 4-10. Today is the third part of this sermon, first preached on September 11th, 2022. Your sociology, this is a very important thing to understand here, that he's bringing this out in describing us as a holy royal priesthood. Your sociology, what is your sociology?

It's your horizontal relations, your interactions with people. Your sociology is an outflow of your theology, your vertical relation. Now whether you like it or not, or want it to be true or not, it is true, okay?

I'm not saying it ought to be, I'm saying it is. Your sociology is an outflow of your theology. What you think of God will be reflected in how you treat others and each other. Because we're a royal priesthood. Your communion with God is the fountainhead of the ministry of reconciliation to friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors.

We call it Fran. Let me say that again, your communion with God is the fountainhead of the ministry of reconciliation. Because we're a royal priesthood. Lastly, number four, we are God's people.

It's kind of the same, different nuance. He's purified for himself his own special people, Paul says as he writes to Titus in chapter two. Philippians chapter two, Paul's writing again that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine his lights in the world. You know what we are as the church? We are living pictures of God's transforming grace. You see, you've all given living pictures.

And I didn't even have to take you out to lunch. You are a living picture. Because you're God's people. You, we, the church, we incarnate the gospel. To many people out there, the gospel is information. It's religion. It's doctrine. It's words on a page.

It's history. To some it might even be myth. But we, the church, incarnate the gospel. We live the gospel because we are God's people. As he says, you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Here's my challenge to you. Let your life give substance to that. When it says now you are the people of God, let your life give substance to that. Live your position. Hard to live it if you don't know it, right?

Live your position. You are a holy nation, he says in verse 9. A holy nation, an ethnos set apart. You are, the church is a new humanity. Members of the kingdom of God. A holy nation, a new humanity that lives for and points to God in his excellent goodness and grace and majesty. You are a people for his own possession. You know what the good news about that is?

Here's another very strong pointed statement. Everyone has a master. Everyone. There's not one person excluded from that.

Who's yours? And some people might say, I'm my own master. Congratulations. You just confessed to living in a delusion. You cannot be your master. You had nothing to do with your existence and you can't even keep yourself alive. You cannot be your own master.

Not possible. Everyone has a master. Who's yours? Very, very important to identify that. This is what Peter is doing for us as the people of God. We are a new humanity. You can truly live only when the giver of life masters you. Let me say that again. You can truly live only when the giver of life masters you.

All right. That brings us now to the final and main point here. What we do in Jesus Christ. We've looked at who Jesus Christ is. We've looked at who we are in Jesus Christ. Now, here's the final and main point. What we do in Jesus Christ.

Two things. We offer up spiritual sacrifices. Verse five. 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.

What does it mean to offer spiritual sacrifices? Well, first let's look at the body. We live. We are embodied spirits.

You got that, right? We are embodied spirits. Embodied souls. And in your body, what does the New Testament say about our body?

You are indwelt. This body is indwelt with the Holy Spirit. This becomes the temple of God.

Personally, individually and corporately. We are the temple of God. We represent the presence of God. Spiritual sacrifices. So this is what he says in First Corinthians six verses 19 to 20.

Read this with me. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Know that. It is a truth of you in Christ. Because you are a holy priesthood being built up into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

All right? Not only this is as opposed to being slaves of sin. Because the natural person who is not in Christ, all they can do ultimately is live for themselves. Christ came to rescue us from that.

So with our body now as living sacrifices and as temples of the Holy Spirit, we glorify God. Because I don't, this doesn't belong to me. It belongs to someone else. It belongs to my master.

He owns it. Think about that. Secondly, with the mind. Let's think about the mind.

Okay? The mind, spiritual sacrifices means the mind is established in the things of the Spirit. The mind is established in the things of the Spirit. Look with me at Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 8.

I'm going to read that. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is what? Death.

Lost my place. But to set the mind on the flesh is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Spiritual sacrifices. The body indwelt with the Spirit of God, a living sacrifice, and then the mind established in the things of the Spirit of God, as opposed to being disobedient to and hostile to God. It comes down to this.

This is how I'm going to encapsulate it, okay? Think of your life, your walk, everything you do during the course of the day. Offering spiritual sacrifices. And I'm not just talking about when we're in this building, when we're gathered together as a church. I'm talking about we who are in Christ, the church. We don't cease to be the church.

It comes down to this. My walk and my talk have one message. Jesus is Lord.

That's offering spiritual sacrifices. My walk and my talk have one message. Jesus is Lord.

I walk to the drumbeat of a different master, the benevolent sovereign of the universe. You know, you've probably heard that Queen Elizabeth II has died, and King Charles III ascended to the throne. And they're referring to them on the news as sovereigns.

They are anything but. They are bound to tradition and the law. It is a constitutional monarchy. They are not sovereigns. It's just a title.

For God, it's not a title. He is sovereign, meaning this. He is not bound by anything outside of himself.

You and I can't say that. That's why we can confirm that the purposes of the Lord will stand. He is sovereign. And that sovereign one is my master. In Christ, he is my master. He is the creator. He is the redeemer.

I live and operate for his pleasure and for his opinion alone. That is spiritual sacrifices. It's a service of worship. Quoted Titus 2 already, Titus 2, 14, he purified for himself his own special people to be what?

Zealous for good works. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we offer spiritual sacrifices. As we who are in Christ, what do we do in Christ? We offer spiritual sacrifices. Secondly, and lastly, we make known his excellencies. I love this verse. Look at verse 9.

A holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Have you been to a restaurant? Mm-hmm. Have you been to a good restaurant?

Yeah. What do you do when you've been to a really good restaurant and you really love the food? You talk about it. Have you read a really good book? What do you do? You talk about it.

You want others to be able to share the experience of reading this really good book in that same fashion. Have you tasted that the Lord is good? Verse 3, 1 Peter 2, 3. Have you tasted that the Lord is good? We are not talking about a good restaurant. We're not talking about a good book.

We're talking about the perfect person. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.