Dave Rich explores how believers can engage critics through godly living that demonstrates their identity in Christ. The passage reveals that Christians, though beloved by God and united in Christ, live as sojourners and exiles in a world that opposes them. By abstaining from fleshly lusts and maintaining excellent conduct among unbelievers, Christians adorn the gospel message. This approach to converting the critics involves internal warfare against sin while displaying observable righteousness that may lead to the salvation of those who initially slander believers as evildoers. 
The process of converting the critics requires consistent Christian character that flows from union with Christ, ultimately glorifying God when former opponents respond positively to the gospel. Through this faithful witness, believers participate in converting the critics by demonstrating the transformative power of the gospel through their conduct.

In this sermon on 1 Peter 2:9, Dave Rich emphasizes the Christian's identity and calling to proclaim His excellencies. He explains that believers are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God's own possession. This new identity empowers and obligates believers to proclaim His excellence in word and deed. Rich reminds us that who we are in Christ determines what we do for Christ.

God is fully sovereign, ordaining all that comes to pass—including every human action and thought, even sinful ones. In this passage, Peter reassures his readers by showing that their persecutors' actions are not beyond God's sovereign will. This all-encompassing sovereignty offers profound comfort to the suffering believer's soul.

Dave Rich examines Peter's metaphor of the church as living stones in 1 Peter 2:5. This imagery portrays believers as components of a spiritual house, functioning as a holy priesthood. Rich explains how the church, as living stones, offers acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. He outlines seven types of spiritual sacrifices: self-dedication, love, giving, praise, service, gospel proclamation, and prayer. The metaphor represents God's presence on earth and the church's role in fulfilling His purpose. By depicting the church as living stones, Peter emphasizes the active participation of believers in God's plan through sanctification and service.

Dave Rich explores the significance of Jesus Christ as the living stone in 1 Peter 2:4-10. Highlighting how one’s valuation of Christ impacts their eternal destiny, Rich emphasizes that esteeming Jesus as precious and chosen by God leads to salvation and spiritual blessings. Conversely, rejecting the living stone results in spiritual peril. This sermon urges believers to align their lives with the cornerstone of their faith.

God's will for every believer is their sanctification. That is the purpose of this life, with all of its trials and temptations. God has given us His word as a means of sanctification, but to gain from it, we must first put away our sins. Putting away sin and desiring God's word is impossible apart from the regenerating, converting work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the gospel, we are made new creatures, fully capable of warring against our sins, loving God's word, and moving upward to conform to the likeness of our Lord. An exposition of 1 Peter 2:1-3

Peter commands believers to love one another fervently and from the heart. This kind of love is not without sacrifice, but this investment of love is guaranteed to result in eternal benefit. Because our new life has its source in God's word, and because God's word endures forever, we can have confidence that the relationships we build with other believers are also eternal. We will forever share in the benefits of the sacrificial love we share on this side of eternity. An exposition of 1 Peter 1:23-25.

Every Christian loves other believers. By living in obedience to the truth of God's Word, we grow in sanctification, increasing in our love for one another to the point where our love can be described as sincere. We are commanded to push that love to its limits, both in its depth and breadth outward toward other believers, and also inwardly through all of the faculties of the inner person. We are to love one another comprehensively, and that love is not to be done against our affections, reason, or will. An exposition of 1 Peter 1:22-25.

This passage provides further comfort to suffering saints by providing assurance that the pactum salutis, God's eternal plan of redemption, and all that arises from that plan, including the sanctifying trials of life, are for the sake of those of us who are believers in Christ. For this reason, we may trust completely in Christ not only for our ultimate salvation but in and through all of the otherwise mystifying events of our short lives on this planet. An exposition of 1 Peter 1:20-21.

Christians have been purchased from slavery to sin at an incredibly high price, the death of the eternal Second Person of the Divine Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ. Contemplation of this reality is great motivation for lives of obedience. An exposition of 1 Peter 1:18-19.