Give your attention to verses 11 and 12 in 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, They may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word this day. Up to this point in 1 Peter, we're taught quite a bit of theology. And we're taught many ways to apply that theology to our lives. But this morning, we come to a part of the letter where we will be given some very straightforward application to our lives. It's here that Peter shifts things a bit to give us some instruction as to how we should live our daily lives surrounded by our three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and how it is we are to evangelize in this context. Verses 11 and 12 are basically a summary statement. with general instructions about what our conduct should be like living here as sojourners and pilgrims in this world, and the effect that our conduct should have on those who live around us. He will begin with the negative, and then he will move on to the positive. He will first tell us those things we should not be doing, and then he will tell us those things that we should be doing. And then beginning in verse 13, he moves on from being general to being specific in his instruction to us. We won't be looking at that. I've already preached through 1 Peter. We're not going to go all the way there, but I do want to just give you that as a backdrop. And we should also note that in the next few sections of this letter, as you look on, Peter places a huge emphasis on the subject of evangelism, on evangelism as it relates to our conduct, in this world. In fact, in this letter, we are given what is perhaps the clearest teaching in all of scripture on the subject of evangelism. You'll be hard-pressed to find more straightforward and clear teaching on the subject than what Peter gives to us here in his epistle. Now, if you paid close attention over the years, you may have noticed how often the trends in the methods of evangelism have changed within the broader evangelical church. Not very long ago, the cutting edge evangelists used to say that the best methods for sharing your faith with the lost was doing things like handing out tracts or going door to door in your local neighborhood. Not long after those trends, they then told us that the best way to evangelize was to do things like share the four spiritual laws with folks or to try to get into conversations about the evidences of the Bible, to try and reason with people about the reasonableness of our faith. At the same time, there was always the option of inviting people to the next evangelistic crusade that went from town to town. Sometime later, we were given methods that are supposed to be especially effective in evangelizing the people in our postmodern culture. Additionally, there were and there still are all sorts of programs and seminars we can go to and books that we can buy and read. in order to learn the latest and greatest methods of evangelism, according to the supposed experts in the field. But have you ever wondered why it is these supposed cutting edge gurus of evangelism continue to come up with so many new and improved methods? It's because none of their methods are as effective as they claimed them to be. Generally speaking, their methods don't work. And the reason we know that they don't work is because their methods are always changing. And the further along we go, the more rapid we see the methods changing. What was hot last year isn't necessarily what's hot today. Now, part of the cause behind all these changes has much to do with a basic presupposition that is held by these folks. You see, they're convinced that the church needs to change its method of evangelism in accordance with our changing culture. So for them, our culture is the driving force behind discovering a method that will prove productive. But folks, the method that works is the method that was given to the church long ago. And by the way, the biblical method isn't something that has recently been discovered by the so-called modern day experts of evangelism. The biblical method is a simple one that applies to all cultures and in all times. In fact, it's so simple. This method is so simple that even our children, even the youngest of our children can use it. Simply put, biblical evangelism begins with Christians living lives that have been personally transformed by the gospel. Let's look at our text to learn more about this method. Peter begins this new section with his words, Beloved, I beg you. as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." First of all, we notice that Peter begins this new section begging his readers. The fact that Peter resorts to begging tells us it's something important, very important, that he's about to tell us. He begs us to obey Him with the following words. He says, as aliens and sojourners abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Some of the works of the flesh are spelled out for us in Galatians 5, and also later on in 1 Peter 4. I read that long list to you already in Galatians 5. I won't read it again. But in 1 Peter 4, verse 3, we read these words. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries." You see much of the overlap there with what Paul has written in Galatians 5. And folks, these lists are not exhaustive. They are not exhaustive. Here's the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, every desire that we have which is contrary to God's will is a lust of the flesh and is to be put far from us. In verse 14 of chapter 1, Peter already told us that our lives are not to be conformed to the former lusts which were ours in our ignorance. And here, he goes a step further and he tells us that we shouldn't even entertain the desires. We shouldn't even entertain the desires. So not only should we not allow those lusts to have an influence in shaping our lives, being conformed by them, but we shouldn't even be entertaining the lustful desires in our hearts and minds. Therefore, this isn't just a case of not giving in to the lust of the flesh. It's not just that. But it's a matter of distancing ourselves far from them. That would therefore mean that we ought not to even entertain thoughts about those lusts. Right? Not even entertain the thoughts about those lusts. If we entertain those lusts in our thoughts, then Peter's saying we're too close to them. If you're even entertaining the thought, you're too close to them. Right? I don't know if you caught it or not, but by the very fact that Peter tells us to abstain from these fleshly lusts, something important is to be understood. You see, the fact that he tells us to distance ourselves or to avoid these fleshly lusts must mean and does mean that we are able to. That we are able to. Now I can already hear some Christians responding, you know, I can't help what I think about. Peter says something contrary here. If that were the case, Peter wouldn't be able to tell us to do what he's telling us to do. He wouldn't tell us to do something we're not able to do. No doubt, though, the only way we're able to do this is by the power of the Holy Spirit. By God's grace working in us and through us in our lives. But the point is, for those of us who are in Christ, we have the ability To steer clear and stay far away from sin. To stay away even from the thoughts of sin. If you're a Christian, and you're struggling with impure thoughts and impure lusts, which is easy to do, especially in this age of the internet, and you men know what I'm talking about. If you're a Christian and you're struggling with impure thoughts and impure lusts, I want you to know this morning that your situation is not hopeless. I know it can get old. You've probably fallen a million times, more times than you can count in this area. But I want you to know this morning that your case is not hopeless if you belong to Christ. There is hope. There is power by God's Spirit to overcome these sins that so easily entangle us. God is more than able to deliver us from these troubles. And so by God's grace, it is possible to distance ourselves from these fleshly lusts. Now, these are called fleshly lusts because they tend to appeal to our flesh. Now, that doesn't mean, though, that they only appeal to our flesh skin in our lives. In the Newer Testament, it generally refers to that part of us that is weak, that part of us that gives in to temptation. It typically refers to our natural appetites, those natural appetites that used to be ours from our old nature, when we used to live in the world and we're of the world. Now, it's true that the sins that we often fall into are those sins that are appealing to our physical bodies and our physical nature. That is true. But that's by no means always the case. There is another aspect of our flesh that feeds upon sin and that desires to commit sin. So our flesh here then is a reference to the appetites that used to be ours before we came to Christ. Living in this world, you all know that we are bombarded with lusts. They hit us from practically every direction you look. It's in our face, on the TV. It's in the movies. It's on the internet. It covers on the covers of the magazines at the checkout stand. It's in the music on the radio. It's in our face even from our neighbors and our fellow students in the school place. It's even in our face among our family members at times and among the people with whom we work. There's all kinds of ways in which we are confronted and bombarded with these fleshly lusts. In so many ways, we're urged to give in to those old fleshly desires. That invitation seems to always be before us. The invitation, which is the motto in the world, just do it. Just do it. If it feels right, it can't be wrong. Right? These are all lusts of the flesh. And like Joseph, we're to run from them every time they come before us. We need to distance ourselves from them at all costs. In these opening verses of this new section, Peter again refers to us as aliens and sojourners. And by doing so, he's basically reminding us of what he's already said earlier within this letter. He's reminding us that we are foreigners passing through this world. We are foreigners passing through this world. Peter is telling us, those of us who belong to the Lord, that we are citizens of heaven. As citizens of heaven, we are not to live like the natives of this world. That's what he is saying. We're not to follow after fleshly lusts like the natives of this world do. Strangers and aliens are people who hold a temporary residence in a foreign land. It might help us to think about our modern day diplomats. A diplomat goes to a foreign land on a temporary basis. He doesn't take up permanent residence and change his citizenship. He remains loyal, a loyal citizen to his homeland. Of course, while living in the foreign land, he will respect the customs of the land and obey its laws and submit to those who are in authority so long as they're not called upon to sin. But he's not expected, though, to accept its religion, the religion of the foreign land, nor the morality or immorality of the foreign land. He's not going to accept its values. He's not going to necessarily accept its lifestyle. He's going to remain true to his homeland. Now, normally when we speak of an alien or a stranger to a country, we're talking about somebody who's visiting a country that he doesn't have any prior ties to, right? Oftentimes that's the case. A person goes into a foreign land as an ambassador, maybe, or as a diplomat, I should say. And he might not have any ties to that foreign land before being sent to it. But there's a difference with regard to us Christians living in this world. You see, we do have a tie to the world that we live in. We all do. We have a tie to this world in which we live. We were once, all of us, were once native citizens of this land, of this world. But we've been given a new birth. We've been given a new citizenship in Christ Jesus. So while we really are aliens and strangers to the world, there's still a strong temptation to pick up the customs of our old ways of life. There's still a hunger and a pull in that direction, even for us who are in Christ to want to live like we used to live as natives in this world. But Peter is quick to remind us to steer clear of those ways, to distance ourselves from our former customs. Now, since the world is no longer our home, we do well to live our lives in such a way that we resemble strangers staying at a hotel. A traveler just passing through tends to carry a light load with him while he travels, doesn't he? After all, have you ever seen a traveler staying at a hotel or bring a U-Haul with him with all of his possessions in order to bring it all into the hotel room? Do you ever see travelers hanging pictures on the walls of their hotel rooms? Do they live in a hotel with the thought that their room is going to be their permanent residence? No, of course not. And so in like manner, we should hold on to our earthly possessions in this life with a very loose grip, always being mindful of the fact that we will one day leave them behind when we go on to our eternal home. These are only temporary things. They aren't coming with us. You can't take them with you to your eternal home. We do well to keep in mind that all the possessions we have in this life are going to get left behind. Indeed, many of the things that are important to us today in this life will have no place at all in the life to come. Our houses, our cars, our investments, Even many of our pleasures will pass away one day. But the problem we face is that our flesh tends to not believe this. Our flesh tends to not believe this. That's why we feel the pull in our lives to invest ourselves fully in these things, chasing after them with all of our might. It's because our flesh doesn't believe this truth. It wages war against the spirit, telling us, no, that ain't true. Life, work, living is really living after the things like everybody else in this world is living after. Right? We tend to chase these things because we give in to the lusts of the flesh. We delude ourselves into thinking that the material things of this world and the pleasures of this world are what matter most. We believe the lie. And we think that these things are somehow eternal. That these things are what will bring us lasting joy and lasting happiness. But folks, it's all a lie. John tells us in 1 John 2, verses 15-17, tells us, speaking to the church, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. and the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are on a journey. We are on a journey. Heaven is where we are headed. For the time being, yes, we live in this world, but we need to remember that we're just passing through. We're just passing through. Having been born again from above, we need to keep our eyes and our hope fixed on where we're headed, where we are going. The more we distance ourselves from the lusts of the flesh, the better prepared we will be to arrive at our home in heaven. The better prepared we will be to receive those things of eternal weight and value. Those things of eternal significance. Those are the things we should be chasing after because those are the things that will most certainly last forever. Now, before we move on, it's important for us to recognize the main reason as to why we should distance ourselves from these fleshly lusts. Peter gives us this main reason when he refers to his readers as beloved. Beloved. He calls his readers beloved for at least two reasons. One is because he loves the saints. He loves the saints. But perhaps more importantly, he calls them beloved because we are loved by God. Because we are loved by God. And therefore, because we know that God loves us, we should distance ourselves from these lusts. Because God loves us, we should want to return the affection. And one of the ways we do this is by obeying him. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Folks, there is no greater motivation for us to distance ourselves from sin than love for God. Simply knowing that our Lord loves us should be enough. It should be enough to cause us to want nothing to do with anything that displeases Him. Now, Peter tells us that these lusts of the flesh wage war against the soul. And we should take note of this. It is a war we are fighting. It is a war we are fighting, a long-term war. It's not just a small battle or a one-time battle. It's a long-standing war that we are battling. And as in any war, your enemy wants to see you destroyed. That's the whole purpose behind this war. destroy the enemy. We both have a goal, don't we? We want to destroy our enemy through Christ Jesus, but our enemy also wants to destroy us. And so it is with this war being waged against our soul. It's a war in which the enemy desires to destroy our souls. Let us learn here that when we entertain fleshly lusts and fleshly desires within our hearts, It affects our souls. It affects our souls. In other words, the common understanding that many people have today is absolutely wrong. You may have heard people say that, you know, it's OK to think about those kinds of things just so long as you don't act on them. Right? You've heard people say that. It's OK to think about certain things. Just don't act on them. You'll be all right. That something only becomes sin for us when we carry out the desire. When we let it bear its fruit in our lives. But that's not what we're being told here. Peter's telling us that there's a war being fought in and for our inner man. He's telling us that those fleshly lusts are warring against our soul with the purpose of destroying us. So those thoughts then aren't harmless at all. Rather, they are like a Trojan horse, aren't they? When we let them in and we entertain them, they make us weak. They tear down our defenses. And then, as James says, they will eventually give birth to sin. So the point here, at least, is that we need to recognize those lusts as the enemies that they really are. We need to understand that we are fighting a war every day that we live in this world. You can rest assured while we need to sleep because we're human, our enemy does not need to sleep. Our enemy never puts up a ceasefire sign, never takes a break, always at work attempting to destroy us. If we find ourselves fighting in this war, I want you to know that that's a good sign. If you find yourself at war, fighting in this war, That's a very good sign. You see, before we came to Christ, there was no war. Or at least, if the war was going on, we were already held in captivity by our enemy, right? Before we came to Christ, we were conquered by our fleshly lusts, and we willingly walked according to the lust of our flesh. There was no battle there. We willingly obeyed the lusts of the flesh. As Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, he says, and you, speaking to Christians he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." Before Christ, whatever our flesh desired, we followed to the extent that we were able to satisfy those lusts. We carried them out. But now that we are in Christ, we've entered into a battle. We've entered into a long-term war. Our enemies are then the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now that we've come to Christ, we are faced with many troubles, many battles in this life. Again, before Christ, there was no battle. We were at peace with living our lives of sin, right? But now that we are in Christ, it is then that we've engaged into the battle. And folks, it's important for us to recognize that it is a war we are engaged in. Too many of us fail to see the importance of this war. We take it lightly. I include myself. We tend to take this war lightly from time to time. Just to show how little we do sometimes regard this war, consider for a moment just how careful we are to protect our physical bodies from harm. Think about that in your everyday life, how it is you are very mindful of taking care of your physical body. We wear seat belts in our cars every time we get in them. We wear gloves when we handle poisonous materials. We lock our doors at night. We have home protection of various kinds, whether you have a house alarm, or a gun, or a dog, or all of these things. We want to protect ourselves. You see, when it comes to the safety and the well-beings of our bodies, most of us are very careful. We realize how frail our bodies are. We tend to do all that we can to protect them on a daily basis. But isn't it ironic that when it comes to caring for and watching out for our souls, we tend to be reckless and even, dare I say, careless? Why is that? Well, it's because we fail to see the war for what it really is. We fail to see that it is a war of eternal consequences. That it's a war over our very own souls. And so then when we do come around to recognizing this war going on, what are we supposed to do? How are we to fight? How do we fight against these fleshly lusts? Well, Paul gives us the answer in Galatians 5. Just before listing some of the lusts of the flesh, he commands us with these words, he says, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Walk in or by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The way we abstain from these fleshly lusts is by walking in the Spirit. Now that's not just some spiritual mumbo-jumbo talk. This is the real deal. This is the real answer to our real problem. When Paul says walk by the Spirit, he's not saying, oh, your problems are only spiritual and all you need to do is lock yourself up in a closet, go cross your legs, say some ohms, and you'll be flying with victory over your problems. He's not saying that at all. That's not walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is to be guided by the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to live your life in agreement with the Spirit's Word, which is the Bible. When we obey God's law, His Word, we're walking in the Spirit. When we love our Lord and our neighbor, we're walking in the Spirit. When we keep the Lord's Day holy and honor our parents, we're walking in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 5, verse 18, Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit." His purpose for mentioning wine there is not to show us that wine is some abomination or evil thing in this world. He's using it to show a contrast between two things. When a person has consumed, for instance, too much alcohol, it's common to say that that person is under the influence. That person is no longer guided by their normal selves, but they are instead guided by the influence of alcohol. Drunk people, as you may have witnessed, don't act the way they do when they're drunk as contrasted when they're not drunk. They're like two different people. One's guided under the influence and the other one's when they're normal, right? Likewise, Christians are to live in such a way that they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, which doesn't mean we need some second blessing or we need to speak in tongues. It's not talking about spiritual gifts that way here. But rather, what he is saying is that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning to be under his influence. By living our lives under the Spirit's influence, we will distance ourselves from the enemy of fleshly lusts. We will distance ourselves from that enemy if we walk by the Spirit. So when you find yourself wanting to do something you know you ought not to do. All of us find ourselves in this place on a daily basis. When you find yourself wanting to do something you know you ought not to do. When you find yourself entertaining those sinful desires, let me encourage you. Get to the battle. Go to battle. Man up. Go to the guns. Go to what you need by God's grace to fight that battle. Recall the fact, again, that you're in a war over your soul. Run to Christ when you find yourself being tempted. Run to Him in prayer. Run to Him in His Word. And pray for victory over each and every battle. Look to Christ and recall His love for you. He loved you so much that He gave Himself for you. How will you show your love and return to Him? Will you continue to play with your sin? Will you continue to pretend that it's harmless? Or will you see it for what it really is? Will you instead choose to show your love to Christ by distancing yourself from those sins and obeying His Word? In verse 12, Peter goes on to say, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." The word conduct here is a reference to our day-to-day pattern of life or behavior. Peter tells us to have our conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And by using this term Gentiles, Peter means the unbelieving world. You'll recall that he refers to the church as Israel, as the true Israel of God. And then those who are outside the church, he refers to as Gentiles. And Paul goes on to emphasize that as well. Paul calls the church the Israel of God. That being the case, Peter refers to the rest of the unbelieving population as the Gentiles. And he tells us to have our day-to-day pattern of life or behavior honorable. among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers. Now, the word translated honorable here is a word that can also be translated as beautiful, as handsome, as admirable, as commendable. It could even mean good. So we're to live our lives in such a way that our conduct, our outward behavior, is attractive to others. Now take note, what this means and what it implies is that people will be watching us. For him to tell us to keep our conduct honorable among the unbelievers tells us necessarily that there will be unbelievers watching us. Peter says that people looking at how we live our lives should be able to see something different about us that causes them to want what we have. In other words, the Holy Spirit living in us and through us will be attractive to unbelievers around us, as God is working in their lives, of course. And this is where Peter begins to tie all this stuff together to the subject of evangelism. The reason he tells us to keep our behavior, our day-to-day life, honorable among the unbelievers is so that the Lord might be pleased to use our good deeds to shut their mouths from slander and to draw them into the kingdom of heaven." Now the slander that Peter speaks about here was a reality, a common reality for the Christians of his day. You recall how we considered way back when the many ways in which unbelievers slandered the Christians because they wouldn't participate in the wicked customs of their day. Those Christians who had been born again would no longer participate in the drunkenness and the sexually immoral parties that they used to participate in. They would no longer chase after and satisfy the lusts of the flesh as they used to do. Peter puts it like this in chapter 4, verse 4. In regard to these ways of living, they think it strange now that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation. Now instead of running along with you in these evil things, now they're speaking evil of you because you don't participate in them. That same thing happens today, doesn't it? Once we stop running around with the world satisfying the lusts of our flesh, the world then looks for all sorts of ways to then ridicule us, to make fun of us. Now that we won't join them, they turn on us. and accuse us of all sorts of things that aren't true. So what are we to do in these situations? Do we try to defend ourselves? Do we turn around and proceed to debate with them and try to show them that they're the ones who are in the wrong? Do we run away from them and huddle together with other Christians in our own little private communities so that we stay clear from them? What are we supposed to do? Well, Peter tells us exactly what we are to do. First of all, it should be obvious to us that we're not supposed to run away from the world and form our own private communities. This is plain to see in the fact that Peter tells us to live our lives in such a way that unbelievers will be able to see our good deeds. How can they see our good deeds if we're not living among them? And by the way, when Peter says that they may magnify God, because they observe our good deeds, that word observe carries with it the idea of long-term observance. Not just something they see one time, but long-term observance. The verb there is in the present participle, observing. I believe the only other place that this word is used in the Newer Testament is in this epistle, and it's used in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. And there, the meaning is quite clear. The hope there is that the Lord might be pleased to use the observable godliness in the life of the believing wife to draw the unbelieving husband to faith in Christ. It's by his daily observance of her godly behavior, of her godly lifestyle, that the Lord might use to draw him in. It's by what can be observed with the eyes, and not just once, but on an extended basis. So unbelievers then should be able to observe our day-to-day lives and our good deeds, not just once, but for some period of time. Indeed, by this we should know that the Lord has purposely placed us in this world. It's no accident, folks, that he has placed us in the midst of unbelievers in this world. We are to be a light to the world. We are to be a witness to the world of Christ. And that we are able to do by how we live as citizens of his kingdom. So then there's no place for the idea of retreating from the world, as some Christians have chosen to do. Rather, we are to actively and purposely live in the world, glorifying the Lord with the hope that he might use our lives to lead others to him. and that they too might glorify him by coming to worship and singing of his praises and proclaiming the excellencies of him who has called us, all of us, out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so there you have it, folks. This is the biblical method of evangelism. It's a method that the church needs to rediscover today. God wants to use us to draw others into his kingdom, and he will use us according to his will. But as I said at the beginning of this message, what kind of a witness will we be if we've not been transformed ourselves by the power of God through the gospel in our lives? How will the Christian who lives just like the world be an effective witness of the power of the gospel? You see, there's truth to that old adage that actions speak louder than words. Some Christians would do well to stop spending so much time and energy trying to learn the latest and greatest methods for evangelism and just commit themselves to the simple and straightforward method taught to us here by Peter. This is the biblical method. No doubt Peter didn't dream this method up on his own. He was taught it by our master himself. Remember what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 5.16. He says, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. That's evangelism, biblical style. Do good works, serve the Lord, live lives that are in accordance with his word. And God will use that in drawing others to himself. We're going to look again next week at some more of this. But for now, I want you to get at least that much. We have a practical example in the book of Acts of how this was carried out. In Acts 2, verses 42-47, we read this, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed worked together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. And so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. The world looked in on the church as it was living, as the people of God, and God was adding to the number of the church on a daily basis through that means. It's amazing. You see, folks, we don't need any more programs. We don't need any more seminars or books or new techniques to evangelize. What we do need are Christians who will be faithful in their everyday lives. Christians who will walk in the power of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Christians who will live in such a way that they can be used by the Lord as witnesses to the world around them. That's what we need. In the older testament, we looked at it earlier in the service, as Israel lived in obedience to God's law, they were a witness to the surrounding nations. By their obedience, they showed that they were a different people. By their lives, they were a witness of the grace of God. And in that way, they were a light to the world. Likewise, when we live as Christ has called us to live, we are a witness to this lost and dying world. Folks, if we desire to see people saved, we need to live what we believe. Again, this is where evangelism begins. If we don't start with this understanding here, then we have no basis for thinking that our evangelism will be effective. It's essential that we first believe the gospel ourselves. We need to believe it, and we need to live lives that prove that we believe it. We need to be concerned about living lives that show we've been transformed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we must first believe and see that the gospel is the power of God's salvation for ourselves. before we can ever hope to see those around us come to Christ and be attracted to that same gospel. There is no reason to doubt that such a strategy for evangelism would, in fact, still work today. And not that the end has justified the means, but we see here that this is a biblical model for how we ought to conduct evangelism. Too many of the current trends and the methods of evangelism are more influenced by our culture than they are by the scriptures. But folks, our culture doesn't determine how we are to evangelize, the scriptures do. In fact, there's nothing cultural at all about evangelism. In every age, the unbelieving world looks upon all forms of evangelism as foolishness. No one method looks better to them than the other. It's all foolishness if it's centered on the gospel at all. If it has any tie to the gospel, it's foolishness to the culture. And so therefore, it doesn't matter how culturally relevant you try to make evangelism, it will always be looked down upon by the unbelieving world. God has given us some very basic and easy to understand principles for evangelism. The thing is, much of the church is bought into the wrong ideas of evangelism, in part, at least it seems to me, because it's easier to go out and ask people questions door-to-door, or passing out tracts or going to a mall and asking people a list of questions about their worldviews, than it is to living a life of godliness day-to-day. You see, we find it easier, at least it seems easier in my eyes at least, to spend some of our time doing evangelism rather than spending all of our time evangelizing by our lifestyles. In fact, some of us would be better witnesses to our unbelieving friends and families if we would do less talking with our mouths and more talking with our lives. So if we're concerned about doing our part in witnessing to the world, then we do well to give more thought as to how we are living. Of course, there are also times when we ought to be sharing the gospel with our mouths. And that's going to be the subject for next floor's day. But the point is, for this morning, we have far more opportunities to be witnessing by how we live than we do have opportunities to share with our mouth. As we conclude, we should also be mindful of two final things. We're coming to a close here. Number one, none of us will be perfect witnesses in this life. Put that thought away from your mind. You're not going to be a perfect witness of God's grace in this world. Perfection, praise be to God, isn't required to be used of the Lord in drawing others to the faith. True Christians continue to wrestle with sin in this life. We still sin, even as Christians, and that will be true of us all the way up to that moment when we enter into glory. So perfection, then, in our lives is not a prerequisite to being used of the Lord in evangelism. In fact, it is the grace of God that we need, and it is the grace of God that we proclaim, is what makes it attractive to those in whom the Lord is working. And then secondly, and finally, no matter how attractive our lives may be, no matter how godly we might happen to be, the only way our lives will be attracted to the unbeliever is if the Lord visits them. in mercy and in grace, which we see at the end of chapter 12, that they may be able to glorify God on the day of visitation. The day of visitation meaning the day when God visits them in grace and mercy. May the Lord add his blessing to the preaching of his word this morning. May we be encouraged to go out and to the people use of the Lord to draw others into his glorious kingdom. And may he grant us the strength to overcome the loss of the flesh as we do so. Amen. Please join your hearts with me in prayer.