My Peculiar People
1Peter 2:1-25
By Brother David Rogers
Bethlehem Baptist Church
This week as I thought about the sermon that God was placing on me for this week He brought to my mind the peculiar people that I have met in my life. I have known people who did not believe in modern technology and refused to have any of the modern conveniences that many of us enjoy today and believe that we have to have fro survival. Others simply had peculiar ideas or personalities but what all had in common was that their oddity separated them from them humanity so much so that they stood out in my mind.
For instance there was a man who lived in a northern city who did several years ago. Now this man had lived an improvished life. The home he lived in did not have electrical service nor did it have running water. He survived by collecting cans and bottles and turning them in for money. When he did the city struggled for several years to locate next of kin but they could find none. Here this little man had lived alone all his life, never having friends. When he died he was buried in the paupers graveyard because there was no money for a proper burial. All his life, his neighbors and those who saw him had looked upon this little man as being peculiar. After the city had exhausted every hope of locating a relative they took over the estate and prepared to liquidate it. Workers’ clearing out the house was removing a mattress when one noticed a slit in the mattress. Out off curiosity one of the workers placed his hand into the slit and pulled out a roll of money. By the time all the money had been removed from the mattress there was nearly a million dollars hidden in that old mattress. All these years people had thought this little man was poor and all that time he was sleeping on fortune. But what good did it do him to hoard this money. It did not do him any good nor did it do any one else any good. He had no one to leave it too nor could he carry it with him when he died.
God does not call us to be peculiar in this way. No he has another sense of peculiar when He calls us His peculiar people. What God means is this, we are to be peculiar because we are not like the rest of the world. We think differently, we do things differently, we live differently, our morals and values are different from the majority, and we talk differently. Lets see how God says we are to be.
I Peter 2
1pe 2:1 Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1pe 2:2 as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;
1pe 2:3 if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious:
1pe 2:4 unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
1pe 2:5 ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1pe 2:6 Because it is contained in scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
1pe 2:7 For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner;
1pe 2:8 and, A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
1pe 2:9 But ye are a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God`s] own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1pe 2:10 who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
1pe 2:11 Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul;
1pe 2:12 having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles; that, wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
1pe 2:13 Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord`s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;
1pe 2:14 or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well.
1pe 2:15 For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
1pe 2:16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
1pe 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
1pe 2:18 Servants, [be] in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
1pe 2:19 For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully.
1pe 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted [for it], ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer [for it], ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
1pe 2:21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps:
1pe 2:22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
1pe 2:23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered threatened not; but committed [himself] to him that judgeth righteously:
1pe 2:24 who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.
1pe 2:25 For ye were going astray like sheep; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Are we peculiar? Have you ever examined what people thought about you? Do they call you peculiar because of some odd character trait of your personality or are you peculiar because you are a servant of Jesus and you walk opposite to what the world calls normal.
As a child of God we are to turn aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies or evil speaking. Now in today’s modern world this would make a person peculiar if they did not envy someone’s advancement at work or used guile to advance above someone. Every day I hear people speak evil of someone that they know and then say you should not do this or that what hypocrisies is that. God tells us, his children, not to be like the rest of the world. God has set us apart and we are better than that. We are not to hate or envy, we are not to speak evilly of someone. And above all we are not to play the hypocrite and say one thing and then do something else.
The reason why we are to be a peculiar people is because we are a chosen generation. God provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him through our faith in His son Jesus Christ. Because of this faith we will spend eternity in heaven. On top of this God has called each and every one us or Royal priesthood. We have no need for someone to carry our prayers of forgiveness, blessings, needs etc to God ourself because we are priests. And because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and our faith in Him we are covered in his blood and we can carry our own petitions to Him.
Not only are we priests but we are also the adopted children of God and because of that we are a holy nation. We are God’s children and of the royal family of heaven therefore we are a holy people just our father is holy. Our lives need to reflect this holiness. We should live a life that is different from the world. And this difference should make us a peculiar people. God does not say this something we should do but He says we are to live like the son’s of God. God lifted us from the muck and mire of the sinful world and place us above this cesspool. He wants us to be a peculiar people so that people will notice our holiness and want to live like we do instead striving to live like everyone else. We are to be different so we can be noticed.
And since we are God’s people we are not to live by the fleshly lust that drives most of the population. We as God’s people if our lives are driven by our wants we will be swimming in the cesspool that we have been lifted out off by God. Our wants should be an God and not on worldly things like the lost are. The unsaved want material things, they collect material things as states symbols but they never bring happiness, love or fulfillment. While the wants of the saved should be on the things of God, we should want to be better servants, we should want to grow spiritually, we should want to spread the gospel. This will brings happiness, love, fulfillment, contentment, and completeness. We realize that God is truly all that we need. Therefore we learn to depend on Him which makes us peculiar because the world depends on itself.
As a peculiar people we are obedient to God and to government. In a world that honors independence and rebellion this obedience is peculiar. People can’t understand how we can be so sure of what we believe. Some even call us narrow minded and you want to know the truth we are narrow minded. Jesus Christ says that He is the way, the gate to the Father and narrow is the gate that leads to salvation and wide is the gate that leads to destruction. We as God’s people, His children, are obedient to His commands found in His holy words. And we are told to obey our government but only so long as its laws are not in opposition to God Laws. Once the law of the land is in opposition to God’s word we are not to obey it.
Because of obedience to God we honor all men, love our brothers, and fear God. We don’t pay lip service to the commands of God but we strive to follow this day by day. We are a peculiar people because we can truly love a stranger, someone who we have never met, and are willing to lay down our life to carry the message of the Gospel to the if need be. Now how peculiar is that. A stranger who loves another stranger so much that they are even willing to die to bring the world of God to them.
Yes we are a peculiar people. We once were lost sheep, but our shepherd found us and now we have been returned to the flock. We are no longer required to run with the black sheep. We have been washed as white as snow with the blood of Jesus. And now we are told to be a peculiar people. Set apart, no like everyone else. Every one should be able to look at us and say not that is a peculiar person. They don’t look like us or talk like, or live like us. They are different I wonder what makes them different.
Does our lives stand out from everyone else. Can people call us peculiar? If not then right now is the time we can change it. All you have to do is ask Jesus to make you that peculiar person and turn your life over to Him.
