Chosen Exiles

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

There are many things in life that have to be earned.  

You don’t get to call yourself a doctor until you’ve finished med school and passed the board exams. You don’t get to call yourself an attorney until you’ve finished law school and passed the BAR exams. To be a soldier, you have to finish basic training. To be a barber, you have to be licensed. 

There are many things in life that must be earned… academic honors, awards, roster spots, promotions, reputations… we expect these things to be earned.  

We are frustrated when someone gets something they haven’t earned, especially if they passed us up to get it. 

But there are also many things in life that don’t have to be earned. At least, they shouldn’t have to be earned. 

You don’t have to earn your place in a family. My children belong to my family. That’s a part of their identity they will never have to earn. 

You shouldn’t have to earn the basic respect, dignity, and value that comes with being a human being. 

I was born in the USA. That makes me a citizen. It’s not something I had to earn. 

There are some things in life that don’t have to be earned. They are just true. But because they are true, we are expected to act like they are true. 

The Apostle Peter has already said some amazing things about us. We are elect exiles. We are holy, set apart for a special purpose by God. We did not earn these things. But now, he’s going to tell us to act like it’s true. 

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,  

In other words, love each other because you want to, not because you have to. 

Peter says we have already purified our souls by obeying the truth. Believing and obeying the Gospel are two sides of the same coin. Because we believe the Gospel, we obey. Our obedience is our response to the Gospel. 

And the result is love. In fact, in context, love is how we display or prove our holiness. What has God set us apart to do? He has set us apart to love one another. 

And what did Jesus say? He said the world will know us by our love for one another. 

We, the elect exiles of the Church, holy and pure… they will know us by our reputation for loving one another. Verse 23. Love one another, 

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  

Why will we love one another? Because this is who we are. We are the “born again” people. We are alive in Christ, because His Word is like a seed that won’t die. 

24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 

Right now, in North Mississippi, it is late spring / early summer. We’ve had a lot of rain. If you look outside, everything is green! Everything is growing! 

But what happens when we go a few weeks without rain? What happens to the grass? It stops growing. It starts to turn brown. It starts to wither and die under the hot summer sun. 

Why does Peter say this? Remember the context of the whole chapter. 

He is teaching that we are not like the world. We are not trying to build a permanent home here. Everything here is seasonal. It will not last. 

But the Gospel is going to last. The promise of God is going to last. And that means WE are going to last. It the Word of the Lord remains forever, then we remain forever! 

I remember a preacher saying that the only thing we take to heaven with us are other people. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are the only things we will take with us. 

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  

This list is a good reminder that all sins are relational. Sin hurts people. It destroys relationships. And the sins on this list have something else in common. 

Malice is the same thing as bad blood. It’s hoping for or working for someone else’s downfall. Why would I do that? To promote myself. 

Deceit is lying to and manipulating other people. Why would I do that? To promote myself. 

Hypocrisy is being fake, or acting in a way that’s not genuine. Why would I do that? To promote myself. 

Envy is resentful discontent. We see someone else’s blessing, and it makes us angry. Why would it make me angry? Because I’m more concerned with myself. 

Slander is talking bad about someone else. Why would I do that? To promote myself. 

Do you see the pattern? All of these sins happen because I’m too important to myself. My life. My wants. My needs. I’ll put you down to get ahead. 

Where does that come from? It comes from a heart that is actively rejecting its God-given identity. In pride and self-sufficiency, the human heart fights for itself because it has rejected the Word of God.  

It believes the lie that this life is all there is. This is my home. I have to make the best of it, even at the expense of other people. 

But the Gospel points us to a new reality. I’ve been born again to a living hope. That’s the antidote to these relational sins. And so, Peter tells us: 

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—  

3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

This is a crucial pivot in the text. How do we learn to love one another? How do we learn to put away sins like malice and hypocrisy? How do we grow up into salvation? We return to the Gospel. 

“Grow up into salvation” is an interesting phrase. Some people make the theological mistake here of thinking that we don’t already have salvation… that it’s not yet secure. But there’s a much better way to explain it. 

I remember shopping for school clothes as a child. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we always bought clothes and shoes a little too big for us. We needed them to last. And what did my mom always say? “You’ll grow into these.” 

I think that’s closer to what Peter means. You have your salvation, but it is much bigger and better than you think it is. Keep coming back to the Gospel and you’ll grow into it. It will start to make sense. It will start to fit. 

And then, Peter gives us even more reasons to believe the Gospel. 

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,  

5 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.  

Peter says, what is true of Christ is now true of us. Living stones. Rejected by men, but chosen and precious to God. Holy priests! 

6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

What is he saying? He’s saying you will never be sorry you put your faith in Christ. In fact, you’re going to be part of this building project! God is building a temple and you’re one of the stones! 

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 

8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 

You will be sorry if you don’t put your faith in Christ. You’re either connected to the cornerstone and part of the building, or you’re stumbling over it. 

But that’s not us, church. That’s not us, Peter says. Who are we? Pay close attention. 

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, 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.  

10 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. 

Those two verses are perhaps the most famous verses in 1 Peter, probably because they are such a beautiful description of the church. 

But it’s important to see what Peter does here. He is intentionally using titles and statements to describe the Church, that were used in the Old Testament to describe Israel. 

You didn’t have to be Jewish like Peter in the first century to know that the Jews thought of themselves in this way. Chosen race? Royal priesthood? Holy nation? A people for God’s own possession? He’s talking about the Church, but he’s using Israel to do it. 

Peter does it again in verse 10 using language straight from the prophet Hosea. And in both verses, there is a rich irony underneath. 

In verse 9, the irony is that we don’t deserve any of those titles – because we are called out of darkness. 

In particular, let’s talk about the word “chosen”. We are God’s “chosen people.” The Bible teaches this doctrine about Christians in many, many places. 

And I know it makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, the idea that God chooses some and not others to be His people. 

It bothers us because we misunderstand the word chosen and the way it is used in the Bible. 

We think of it like choosing fruits and vegetables. When I go to the grocery store to buy fresh produce, I walk up to the bins, and I look for the best apples. I look for the best tomatoes. I’m making a choice and I choose the choicest produce I can find. 

But that’s not how the Bible uses the word chosen in reference to God’s people. He didn’t choose us because we were already choice.  

In Deuteronomy 7, God explicitly says He did not choose Israel because they were a better nation. 

In 1 Corinthians, Paul explicitly teaches that God chose the foolish and the weak. It’s as if God walked up the produce section in the grocery store and went looking for the bruised, forgotten apples at the bottom of the bin. 

That’s the irony! People who deserve nothing have been called chosen, royal, and holy! 

It continues in verse 10. Hosea’s children were named “Not My People” and “No Mercy” until God changed their names later in the story. 

And so, the amazing thing is not that God chooses some and not others. It’s amazing that God has chosen any of us! 

This is how the Gospel produces love in us. It breaks us. It humbles us. It reminds us of who we were and who we are now. It cancels our pride and self-sufficiency, allowing us the space in our hearts to start loving one another sincerely. 

In Christ, we are chosen and loved and forgiven – we who deserve none of it. 

The Gospel then is the good news we never graduate from. It’s the good news that we need to hear daily. It’s not just the doorway into the Christian life. It’s the floor we stand on.  

If you want to grow up into your salvation… if you want to learn how to love one another… Peter would tell us to remember what God says is already true of us and then act like it’s true.