Unknown: Turn with me to 1 Peter in chapter 2. Our text this morning is verses 11 and 12, but exhortations based on what Peter says in the immediately preceding verses. So begin reading at verse four of 1 Peter and chapter two. This is God's word.
Unknown: [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. [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.” [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. [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.
Scripture: [11] Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. [12] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Scripture: Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's pray.
Scripture: O Lord of hosts, we thank you for your wondrous grace that you have formed us into your people.
Scripture: You have not simply put away the iniquity of our sins, but you have drawn us to yourself, you have made us your very children.
Scripture: You formed us into a people of your very own in this earth, and so we come as your people with thankful hearts for that mercy.
Scripture: We thank you for joining us together that we might honor you at one voice and one heart. We thank you, Father, for that true unity of your people throughout the world, so that he can go to India and meet their brothers and sisters who he has not yet met, and labor to bring the gospel to those who have not heard it. Thank you, Father, for great blessings upon us for Dan's ministry these last couple of weeks, and the opportunities there to interact with young men and women who might be called on to go forth at any moment to kill or to be killed as they wrestle with great issues in life, and Father, we thank you for our graduate, bless her now, and instruct her and guide her.
Scripture: We thank you for the blessings you pour out upon us as your people, your great mercies and love and kindness in so many ways, we ask now your blessing on us as we look into your word, that you truly would be given all glory and honor. We ask it in Christ's name, and to His glory. Amen.
Scripture: Everyone wants to fit in and be part of some kind of a group, that's how communities were formed. A community was derived from the word for having things in common, and so where little gatherings of people lived together and were alike, that became called a community. It's an expression and part of the social nature with which God created us. It reflects palely, and we won't go into depths on that in any way, the nature of the triune God, where Father, Son, and Spirit fellowship with one another, but He's calling us to fellowship with each other, and we want to be a part of that group, like us. In fact, if you look around the world historically, and even currently, some of the insults that are given refer to people who don't fit in, they're not a part of the group. When Rome was being. Being invaded, they call the invaders barbarians, because they couldn't speak Latin, so they thought their language was all bar, bar, bar, bar, so they named them barbarians, and that's where the word came from.
Scripture: In Russia, if you want to insult someone, you tell them they're Nietzsche, turning, they are uncultured, they don't have the culture of their own people doing things just not accepted.
Scripture: Or you head to Japan and you're a gaijin, you're the foreigner and it's an insult. You go to Uganda and you're Mazungu, that's the stranger who's there?
Scripture: My son and I would go out to the villages to evangelize, and be little kids running along, shouting and pointing, Mazungu, Mzungu. They never seen us before, never seen white skin before. So we asked our translator with us, what's the word for a person who's lived here their whole life? So the kids would come around the island, Mazungu, Mizungu, and we'd say Monassi, Monasi, and the adults on the porch would just die laughing. We didn't fit, and really we were only going to be there a couple of weeks, so there wasn't a real pressure to fit in. We were there one time on the occasion of the presidential election was 70 was elected and the people were out celebrating because they'd had a peaceful election and we were glad for it, but we didn't have a real vested interest in it in that way, not we would have in our own nation's 250th birthday because we spend most of our lives here.
Scripture: Well, Christians aren't from around here. We don't fit in with the world, and you could take any of those terms they use, the Nietzsche journey. We don't follow the culture of the world. We are barbarians because we don't speak the language of the world, particularly, and we're never going to be a part of it, and Peter addresses us as pilgrims, or the diaspora, the people of God scattered throughout the world, scattered throughout the midst of nations that are not God's people, and yet he says, Here's who you are.
Scripture: You are the people of God. You are the nation of God. You're a royal priesthood. You're His own chosen possession. You are unique gathering of people, and that's why we gather on the Lord's day, and it's a joy to be with our community, those with whom we have things in common, but then we spend six days a week out amongst those with whom we don't have things in common, and we would like to, we'd like to fit in. Nobody really enjoys being the odd duck, being recognized, and is a little strange over there. It's a temptation, then, for us to go native, to fit in, to kind of whittle away on the sharp edges of what it means to be God's own people, and to fit in. Now, I'm not talking about not doing weird things. Being God's people doesn't mean you put on a white robe and paste a halo over your head and go around trying to pretend you're strumming a harp or anything like that. Peter's talking about the Christian life, and there are things that, as a Christian, you will and will not do that. The world sees nothing wrong with and nothing to do about it. The temptation is to go native, and Peter's exhortation is that we be holy.
Scripture: We are called with his exhortation, which is actually verses 11 and 12, a single sentence. It's one sentence about this need, but two aspects of it. He, the two things that are least important to the unbeliever, but most important to the Christian. He says to beware of those things that war against your soul and live this way to glorify God. These are the things we, as Christians, say, yeah, that's the most important thing there is. So it comes down now to question of application. Is that important to you? How important is it to you that your soul be holy, that you walk before God be holy? And how important is it that you honor God, that He would be given all glory and praise through you and. Because of you, not a guarantee of a happy life or prosperity or health and wealth or whatever else, those things are lovely, but the question is, What do you really want, and you will see an encounter, and I'm sure you already have many groups of people that call themselves churches, who here's how you can live a happier life. Here's what you need to fulfill your world.
Scripture: Here's how to make your family better.
Scripture: That's cool, but Peter points to a motive farmer basic that's not founded on self love, but founded on awareness of God. How can I protect my soul and serve and honor Him? And He addresses to us as the beloved of God.
Scripture: It's an assurance that what he's calling us for and to do is not harmful, it's not any way detrimental to us. God is not doing it to make us feel bad in any sense. No harm is intended, nor will any result from a holy life. See, God has linked the holy and the blessed and the right and the good, and that which is right is also good, that which is holy is also blessed of God. So he says, remember your situation, that's why we read the earlier verses.
Scripture: You're a holy nation, you're a royal peace to your sojourners and exiles, now as a people of God in a hostile world, and so you can live differently. I love Pilgrim's Progress, and one of the passages that's most famous, or should be, was when Pilgrim and Faithful are going through Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair is the world with all its attractions, says now these pilgrims, as I said, must go through this fair.
Scripture: Well, so they did, but behold, even as they encountered the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself and a hubbub about them. There are several reasons. He goes on to say, but that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was that the pilgrims set very light on all their wares, they cared not so much as to look upon them, and if they called them to buy, they would put fingers in their ears and cry,"Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.
Scripture: Yeah, we see the g-jaws, the world has the little trinkets, but we see the light of God's glory, and they're not that attractive. Ever been to the state fair in the daytime? You go at night, and the lights are flashing, and the man's playing, and the crowds are there, and they're cooking all that good food. You go during the daytime, and you go by the livestock pens, and you look at what you're walking in the midst of, we see the world in the light of God, light of His world. And so we're not really interested in it. And in Pilgrim's Progress, faithful was killed by the merchants and people there because they didn't agree with what they wanted, they weren't interested in it. We are sons of God, and we are the people of God. So, Peter says exhortation is, then live like it in this journey, your pilgrims, your wanderers live in this way. He first looks at our personal struggles, and then at our corporate testimony. First, he says abstain from these carnal lusts. What carnal lusts? Well, carnal lusts in our mind immediately pop to gross sins and things that are just disgusting, even to name, Peter named some of them over in chapter four, but it's corrupted longings, things that are desired more than they really ought to be, things that are are there and maybe wholesome in themselves, but the longing for them is an unruly passion that kind of drives us. You ever seen a child bereft of their favorite toy? Toys for kids are fine, not screaming, pitching a fit over a little toy, it's a corrupted longing, and we adults are no different. What happens when your cell phone is taken away?
Scripture: What happens when the internet goes down? What happens if you go on a diet, you. My son brought over some fudge yesterday that he brought corrupted longings, longing more for things that are not conducive to godliness, but they enter into the soul and disproportionately to their proper use and enjoyment, God made the world for us to enjoy.
Scripture: I'm sure I've told you before that chocolate is proof that God is good. He gives us the world to enjoy and things about it, but not to put it above Him and to desire it disproportionately ever been driving, you're dieting strictly, driving down the road, you go by McDonald's, smell the French fries, you know what I'm talking about.
Scripture: The Puritan Robert Layton says to abstain from these lusts is to hate and fly from the very thoughts and the motions of them, and yet, if surprised by them, to kill them there, they bring not forth. He said, goes on to say, it's not that we're told not to give in to them, or to not only abstain from those things, but we're to put to death the feverish desire for them, the craving that would want to use creation in a way not serving the creator, not honoring the creator, but simply satisfying ourselves. You see, our distance from the world's desires begins in our heart, we're not disinterested in the world's goods because they don't have the money to buy it. We're disinterested in the world's good because we got better interest in our heart and mind.
Scripture: We want something more and something better that's there.
Scripture: Calvin says when we pass as strangers through this life, we're not in bondage to the flesh, we're just passing through, we're in this world, but we don't belong here, we're long-term alien residents, but we're on our way through to our country to go to where we belong, where our people are, and they think like we do, or like we should, and we're going to be a part of it. We're only passing through. Is an old gospel song that keeps popping up in my mind, and no, I'm not going to sing it. And this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. The angels, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Or, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, Lord, what will I do? You're not a part of the world we participate in it, we live in it, we have to abide by its laws and governance, but we're not caught up in the lust, we're not captive in the heart to the things of this world, we're not going to get sidetracked. What is your calling, child of God?
Scripture: Who are you, child of God? Can you pick up that hint? Who are you? What are you? Royal priesthood, holy possession, God's own people. And you're going to get distracted by the little stuff, it's going to catch your heart and attention.
Scripture: You put your efforts into that.
Scripture: No, we cannot be distracted.
Scripture: That's why Peter says these things war against your soul.
Scripture: They promise contentment. If I could only get that new iPhone, not last year's iPhone, but this year's iPhone. If only I can have this, if I only can have that, or do that, then my wife would be made complete. No, it wouldn't. You're seeking to find completion and satisfaction in this world, and you're not going to find it, child of God. He says, "Don't give way to the passions. Now, is that a command not to enjoy things? No.
Scripture: Christian life and the Bible is not saying don't enjoy stuff.
Scripture: You remember when Jesus made went to the wedding feast of Canaan. They ran out of wine, and he said, "You shouldn't be drinking that anyway. Drink some water, it's better for you. No, he made wine, and he made a lot of wine, and when they tasted it, said, "Oh man, this is the good stuff." Is to enjoy it in God's service, in His honor, enjoy it proportionately with grateful heart and service to Him in doing it. See, God doesn't require impossibility.
Scripture: He doesn't say don't enjoy anything. He says count your joys proportionately. Who are you? What do you need? What do you want? When we first moved here, we had a big old van. I mean, it was a Whopper Sienna big wagon. We got it. We thought, well, we're taking grandkids everywhere, so we need lots of room. It turns out by the time we got here, we only had two grandkids left that didn't have driver's license of their own, and of course they're going to drive. So, why do we need it? Well, it's nice to have room, put anything and everything, and not worry about getting out. But no, now we got a little teeny Mazda. Your life gets to enjoy the things God made, but you don't let the carnal cravings rule your life.
Scripture: There's always in mind, in the front of the mind, not simply in the back, the front of the mind, in the heart. I'm a child of God, I'm God's own, I'm a part of his people, and what I want is going to be determined by that which benefits my soul. So, do your desires draw you closer to God? Do they provoke you to honor and thank Him? Do they make you more Christ-like, or do they sap your energy and your strength and your service? Does your family's approach to things reflect that pilgrim attitude?
Scripture: See, don't bleed away your spiritual life by the death of many cuts, don't be a worldling who loves the world. Peter says, remember who you are. You have these things that war against the flesh, war against your soul. And then he says there's another aspect of it, one that we usually don't think a lot of, the victory over those lusts in our hearts leads to obedience to the second, because we're not laid captive to our carnal desires. Then we give honor and praise to God. A heart set on heaven will show itself with other worldliness. We're obviously not caught up in things the way our unbelieving neighbors are. We have a whole different approach, and so we act differently about it. Our carnal joys or griefs will be met by a measure of indifference. Does that mean stoic, so you don't notice them?
Scripture: No, but they're not that important. What's more important is our walk with God. So, whoever got elected or didn't get elected, or wherever law got passed or didn't pass. Okay, we have an interest in that. We think it's good or it's bad, but moreover, How does this affect my walk with God? And how do I serve Him? There's no lack of feeling, but it's all moderated by the anticipation of heaven, and that's the purpose of God, that we would be to His glory, and we would honor Him. We're pilgrims, we're traveling through, we're witnesses along the way, but a witness not only declares the gospel, he displays the gospel. You know what, there's a technical term for someone who declares the gospel but doesn't live according to it. It's called hypocrite, and as we love the Lord and love His ways and throw at war against being involved in the heart craving level of the unbelievers will be living differently.
Scripture: We're sent to live among the Gentiles, we're God's people, but we're scattered amongst the unconverted. A society that doesn't live according to God's standards, is not concerned with His good and his glory, and as far as the world is concerned, we'll always be getting hygiene, whatever term you want to use, we're just never really going to fit in with society at large.
Scripture: Now, the world is not really good on theology, remember, about was it three years ago.
Scripture: Two in Nashville, there was a school shooting at a Christian school, PCA school, church, and went in and killed some people, and the news media reported the shooter to be a martyr, right, you see, the world will not give us the protections it affords its own citizens. We're weird, we're different, but they'll see your good deeds, they see how you live, they see the love for each other, the love for those round about, they see the pursuit of that which is good and holy at personal expense.
Scripture: They see the care that is displayed to one another. You know, that's where we got hospitals. Christian churches wanted to show hospitality to people who needed medical care, and so they got to be called hospitals from that word, just because there's love and care there, and our holy life won't be explicable to them, but it also being a wonder to them, and it will be an announcement to them again. The Puritan Nisbet says it's not so much by a fair profession or good expressions, it's not how nicely you can say the gospel that Christians show forth the praises of God as by an honest life. You live like someone who really loves God.
Scripture: Wow. you live like somebody who says this world really isn't my home, I'm passing through.
Scripture: Yeah, I'll enjoy what you have here as I go through, but I'm going through, and my interests are in the things of God, because He's so great and so wonderful and so beautiful. My focus is on him, and the world won't be able to understand that, but they see it, and they see the good that comes from it, and our concern in living this life is that all glory goes to God. We want to live in a way that causes people to look at us and give thanks to God that someone like you and me can love God that much, that it changes our lives. You know what I mean by someone like you and me, wicked sinners like us live in a way that people can see our devotion to God and obedience to Him and desire for Him and desire to be with Him. See, our concern is the praise goes to God. Doesn't matter what they really think of us, it doesn't matter what they think of us, that's irrelevant as long as they understand how great our God is, and how wondrous He is, the God whom we serve. And He says they will glorify God in the day of His visitation. Well, visitation, not just a social drop-in. John Brown, not of the ferry, but John Brown, the Puritan, says God is said to visit men when He gives very decided proofs of His presence and power, either in works of judgment or mercy. Your life is going to be effective. It's going to be a display that will be blessed of God to their salvation, or will be the subject of God's praise, even from their lips in their judgment of them. Your life will do that. Oh, because we're going to fill stadiums and lead people in chants about God, and have bumper stickers all over my car, no. no, because you reflect the nature of God, as godliness is more and more in your heart and life, as you love him more and serve him more and go forth to honor him more, more, and clearly you reflect his nature, whether it's in a stadium or foreign country or in school classroom or in a mom's gathering. How many of us think we're ever really going to real famous people for the Lord, you know. Every young man, when he says he wants to go on the ministry, has a vision of being the new Billy Graham or something, and people around the world will know that name. Yeah, well, that doesn't last long.
Scripture: Her and Lord willing, it's replaced by the realization that God's testimony is given by people who are holy, who come together with that community, that commonality of love and service to God, people who wash their kids' clothes and take care of them. People who bake cakes, people who go to classes or work in offices, people who are retired and go to doctors' offices all the time, they're going to see in our common life, you know what that means. Do you realize what that means? God is going to have praise because of your life as you seek His honor and glory. The world may never see you or hear your name or know anything about you, but God does, and the world will see the glory of a God that so transforms you into His image, that He has to be praised. Does that make you want to live a holy life? I sure hope so, because if not, there's not a whole lot of good in your soul at all. This, or if love, if God isn't that wonderful, don't know him very much, do you know him?
Scripture: Get rid of the corruptions in your own heart, look at His glory and majesty, and God will be praised because of how you've lived. Let's pray, Father and King, we thank you for your wondrous mercies to us.
Scripture: Thank you that you have made us each significant in the work of your kingdom. And so now, Lord, we ask that you would bless us in those labors, bless us as we live for you before a watching world, give us courage, give us discernment, and grant that indeed in the day of judgment they might be delivered, because they've seen and heard of the gospel from us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.