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1st Peter chapter number 2. I want to again publicly thank
Michelle for her investment and time into the Sunday school children
and the preparation, memory work, songs that they learn. I think everyone here is pleased
to witness God inscribing truth upon the minds of of little children. What a blessed thing that is.
So thank you, Michelle, and thank you, Papi, for your good work
today. We appreciate the commendation
your teacher gave to you as someone who shows that gift of wanting
to teach as well. That's a special thing, so thank
you to you. First Peter, chapter number two. I'm going to read verses 9 through
12 because verses 9 and 10 are going to be a part of what Peter
is saying in verses 11 and 12 where we are at this time. So
follow as I read this portion. First Peter chapter 2 beginning
in verse number 9. But he, and he's contrasting
those who are not obedient. to those who are obedient, and
here it's the contrast of those before them who are disobedient,
but ye, you who are the people of God, are here identified as
a chosen generation or kindred of people, a chosen family, a
royal priesthood, a royal order of priests. You are a holy nation,
a peculiar people, a special unique possession unto God that
you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past you
were not a people of God. But now you are the people of
God, which in time past you had not obtained mercy, but now you
have obtained mercy. Oh, dearly beloved of God, I
beseech you as strangers and pilgrims that you abstain from
fleshly lusts which war against your soul, having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they may speak against
you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they behold,
glorify God in the day of visitation. One of the outstanding features
of Peter's letter, and there are many, not just this, but
one of them has been his commitment to instruct us on the importance
of knowing who we are. Peter has used a variety of words
to describe the believer. The Holy Spirit has impressed
upon Peter's mind that God's children must know and they must
understand their true identity. As we grow in our knowledge and
understanding of these terms, we will have a clearer picture
of the life we now live, including our purpose. From these words that Peter has
given to us, many of them adjectives, these adjectives are given to
inspire us to live a more devoted life as we are described, characterized,
identified by these words. Peter makes it clear that every
believer throughout history, from the Old Testament and to
this present time right now, every believer is recognized
by the same features which these words that Peter gives us describe. The same features, no matter
where we live on the earth, or when we live on the earth, including
the circumstances of our life today, all of God's children
are growing the same qualities and they are identifiable. That's
what Peter is teaching us. We may be at different levels
of development, but the qualities are the same. Quantity varies,
but the qualities are the same. Peter has given us a list of
these qualities, and we should know them. And I encourage you,
because it is the word of God, that you should reflect often
upon them and be resolved to growing in these qualities that
are given to identify you as God's people. Most of the world
stumbles through life, walking in darkness, not knowing who
they are or why they're here. You can see it in the way they
live. But Peter answers these basic
foundational human questions. And every time he gives us another
word, another adjective that describes our Christian life,
These are intended for us, who are the people of God, who know
who we are, and we know why we're here. Embedded in these words that
we have noticed in our study And there's a number of them
embedded in these words that describe who we are. We've also
identified that God's will is embedded in every one of those
words concerning us. If he calls us a particular name,
strangers and pilgrims, his will is embedded in those descriptive
words. This is who we are. This is why
we're here. And we find God's will contained
in all of those words. We don't wake up tomorrow trying
to figure it out all over again. Who are we? Why are we here? It's already been defined. It's
already been explained and it will not change until the end. And from these terms used to
describe us, God's people, I think we can also say that we have
found inspiration from these words to worship him more fully,
to be more devoted to him. These words have left an impact
upon our walk with God. And we have found God's will
unfold through these words. As we make choices in life, as
we navigate through this world, we have found they function like
chart and compass for us. And in them we have found our
mission as spiritual beings who live as human beings, Christ,
reflected that and illustrated that in his own being so beautifully
for us. We are spiritual beings who live
as human beings. And while we're here, we live
in two complete different realms, a physical material realm and
a spiritual realm. We live in both. We can enter into the spiritual
realm where it's pronounced for us maybe in a special way. When
we gather to worship God on this day, we become engaged with the
triune God in what he has called the house of God, the spiritual
house of God, in the assembly and the gathering of his people.
That's a spiritual realm, spiritual house, spiritual people, spiritual
offerings. They're all defined by Peter
earlier in chapter two. And moments later, we will enter
back into the physical realm of this world as physical beings
who are commissioned every time we leave this sacred assembly,
we are on a mission. All day, every day, we are to
be mindful of our assignment from God. Peter uses these words,
these descriptive adjectives, or like windows for us to look
into and see what God's intentions are concerning us. Not only as
those who are spiritual beings do we enjoy these beautiful terms
as a part of our treasure and blessing that we are able to
hold on to and connect with as we journey through this world.
but he gives words that describe us as we go out into the darkness. He doesn't leave us without clarity
about our purpose. Our purpose when we gather in
worship, our purpose when we go into the world, it's clearly
defined for us in these terms. I want to take a few moments
this morning as we look at this unusual connection, relationship,
that exists between verses 9 and 10, which form one sentence,
and verses 11 and 12, which form another sentence. They're back
to back and they're very connected. The information, as we have studied
these in detail, the information in these two sentences seem to
be very different when we look at the information there. However,
their structure is very similar. Once we recognize what Peter's
doing here in these two sentences, the force of the language here
even becomes more intensified for us. And I hope to bring that
out as we move through our thoughts. Both sentences begin with a list
of adjectives, words that Peter uses to describe us, who we are,
right? He did that in verse 10. We have
three adjectives right at the beginning, chosen, royal, holy. These are descriptive terms that
describe God's people. And they're meant to have an
impact on. There's a lesson here. There's messages here. There's
truth from God contained in all of these words. And we have labored
to unpack that when we were working through them. And then Peter
reminds us that we are God's treasured people in the same
first portion of verse 9, that he will never relinquish the
ownership of, and no one and nothing can snatch us from God's
hand. We are his peculiar people. It means he has the title and
deed of this treasure and he will not relinquish it. This
is who we are. as the people of God. Peter immediately adds, right
after he gives these words that describe who we are, he immediately
gives a purpose clause. Okay, he stated these things,
there's a purpose now, right? Right at the middle of verse
nine, you remember this, that ye or so that ye would show forth the praises,
the virtues of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. And so every chosen, royal, holy
person of God We are now by design participants in God's great grand
plan to call his elect out of the earth who now live in spiritual
darkness. It's what drove Paul when he
wrote to Timothy that I must be willing and able to go out
and bear the sufferings so that the elect of God might also yet
receive their salvation. We participate with God in this
grand endeavor. We are participants who go out into the world where
God's elect are, in the earth as it were, who now live in spiritual
darkness as we were once in the same darkness. But now we are
enlisted in God's plan. Someone brought the gospel to
you. Maybe it was a family, a home that you grew up in, but the
gospel came to you. And others of you were living
a life of darkness and the gospel came to you. Now we, once we
are believers, the people of God, we become participants with
God in this great endeavor of taking the word into the world. And this pattern, this wonderful
pattern that is set before us here by Peter is how we participate
in sharing of the infinite grace of God that has come to us and
it has brought light and life to us. And we now become agents
of the same with God as he carries out his eternal plan. in human
history. This pattern must be known and
understood by every child of God. And verses 11 and 12 is
structured in a similar way to reinforce the same idea that
he's just stated in verses 9 and 10. He begins the same way. Mentioning three very important
words that are adjectives again to describe who we are, just
like he did in verse nine. It's like he's starting over
to drive home the same truth, but he's gonna do it from a completely
different angle. Dearly beloved. Okay, that Greek
adjective. is denoting God's dearly beloved. We spend some time just pondering
what that means to be called God's dearly beloved people. And because we know who we are
as God's dearly beloved, We must have and maintain, Peter goes
on to say, a proper relationship with the world that we presently
live in. And so he reminds us, he identifies
us as strangers and as pilgrims. And he appeals to us as strangers
and pilgrims. And so obviously we must know
and understand who we are in order for us to effectively accomplish
our mission in the world. This makes no sense unless we
grasp these things at some level. To know who we are is essential
to know our mission. That's how Peter is working all
of this out for us. We must maintain our distinctions
if we're going to have an impact on the world. We are not permanent dwellers
here in this world. We're just passing through on
our way to a heavenly land. We are not citizens here. That's what strangers and pilgrims
implies and teaches us. Therefore, we must not allow
our life to become entangled with temporal things. Yes, we
are free to use the things of this physical material world,
but we must not allow our fleshly nature to become entangled with
the lusts of our own flesh that naturally gravitate to the things
of this world which God has forbidden us to engage in. And so therefore we must impose
on our fleshly lust. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts. And so we impose on our fleshly
nature its tendencies to lust. We impose restraints. We develop
disciplines, abstinence. We learn to say no to the temptation
and to the promised gratification that the world suggests to our
flesh and seeks to allure it into its pleasure. To become
entangled with sinful desires and not restrain from lust. Peter says, we'll do harm to
your own soul as a believer. The damage is not the loss of
our salvation, but the joy and the peace and comfort that can
be diminished greatly. Brethren, when we add up all
the benefits and blessings that come by way of our salvation,
which Peter has identified and described for us. And then we
look at the shallow, cheap, temporary, satisfying things of this world. There is no comparison between
the two. Surely we are inspired to live
according to our descriptions, as God's people and to become
more devoted to God and his purpose for us. But to do this work in the world
effectively, we must be practicing abstinence from fleshly lust. Peter has just declared that
our purpose as God's people in verse 9, the second half, is
to show forth. He uses this purpose clause.
We are to show forth. We are physical beings. We are
called to be refractors of the virtues of God, shining into
the darkness where we once lived with them. God's light is meant
to shine through his creatures, whether it's his angels or his
people. But in order to do this effectively,
we must know and understand who we are and that as God's dearly
beloved, we must live as strangers and pilgrims constantly practicing
abstinence from fleshly lusts. My emphasis this morning is that
there's more at stake here than just our soul. Just like the previous sentence
in verses 9 and 10, verses 11 and 12 moves us to a similar
place in our thinking here in verse number 12. having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles. That whereas they speak against
you as evildoers, they may buy your good works, which they behold,
which they see and behold your good works, that they shall glorify
God in the day of visitation. And so again, we are reminded
by Peter who we are in relationship to those souls around us, as
well as our relationship and connection to the glory of God
and our good works. Let me give you a summarized
statement here before we move closer to verse 12. Because of
who we are now in Christ, We ought to be motivated to live
in a manner that reflects that we know and understand who we
are so that God is glorified by our life in the world and
the world is forced to see God through us by our good works. There are some important, very
important information here contained in these words in verse 12 that
I want to draw out. First this phrase, having your
conversation honest among the Gentiles. We can look at this phrase this
way, we could say, Looking back at verse 11, abstaining
from fleshly lust, we can say, we must do that so that we can do this, having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles. If you're not doing
that, you can't do this. There is a connection here. Having this The Greek word that's translated
here for speaks of a present and continuous ongoing action
that is taking place. It's an action that we are presently
in control of and it relates to our conversation. Having our
conversation. We are presently in control management
of our conversation. We're making sure that our conversation
is an honest life. That's what Peter uses here. It's translated this way. We'll
go back and look at it in a little more detail in a moment. But
is an honest life being lived in the presence of the nations,
the Gentiles. Wherever we live, the nations
are beholding us. Wherever we live, whenever we
live, however we live. We are to be actively having
our conversation honest among the Gentiles, the nations of
the world. My conversation, your conversation,
simply refers to our way of thinking, our disposition, Peter uses this
same word six times in his first epistle here. It's only used
12 times. He uses it half the time. It
seems to be one of Peter's favorite words. And in every case, he
uses it here. We've already looked at it twice.
This is the third time. Every time it's used, it's a
noun, feminine gender, meaning it focuses on the way we think. The way we think about our life. We've formulated some ideas about
life. And we are to be having our way
of thinking and evaluating our life and the purpose of our life,
who we are in this world. This must be something we have
managed and we are controlling. It's our responsibility to have
our conversation honest among the Gentiles. No one else is
responsible for you, but you. So many professing Christians
today have the wrong idea about the Christian life, primarily
because they simply lack the knowledge and understanding of
who they are in Christ. The knowledge of our true identity,
brethren, matters. To such a degree, it must become
a mindset. It must become a disposition
in your life. It must be the way that you wake
up in the morning and go to bed at night. It must be the way
you function, not only in your community, on the job, among
your family and friends. It's to be a mindset. having
this conversation of your life, the manner, the disposition of
your life, honest. So, what is Peter suggesting here
by this word honest that we have translated into the English?
Wouldn't you know, it's another adjective. So what Peter is saying
is that God's people are honest people, whatever that word means. That's how we are to live in
the world. We are to have this mindset about being honest as
we live out our life among the Gentiles. Caving into fleshly lusts will
be a major hindrance to the joy and peace of our soul
and we cannot live as God's honest people among those who are trapped
in the darkness if we are caving into fleshly lusts. Our life is meant to communicate
a witness that we are God's dearly beloved who are showing forth
the virtues of our God, always keeping our mindset on the truth,
always thinking and striving to be God's honest people as
we live out our life in the world. So knowing and understanding
who we are, as Peter describes us, is not only for the benefit
of our own soul, it's also for the benefit of those who are,
we are amongst. Right? That's what he says here. Having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles. It matters. We live amongst the
nations of the world, Christians do. And the way that we live, we
are to have control and mastery of our life, having our conversation,
our disposition, our mindset, as that noun feminine gender
is telling us. So no matter where we are, what
we're going through, we're always focused on being God's honest
people. This Greek word that our translators
give us as honest is really a good word when it was translated originally
some few hundred years ago. This old English word was defined
according to Webster as a person who was upright in all areas
of their life. No matter what facet of their
life you investigated, you found the same thing to be consistently
true. They are upright. They were fair, always fair and
honest in their dealings with others. They avoided all trickery
and deceit. They were principled people.
That's how Webster defines honest. several hundred years ago. So
the translators chose a really good word when we look at the
Greek word. But the Greek word does provide
us some other information as well. The Greek word implies
beauty. Beauty. When the world has the opportunity
to observe our life the life being lived out visibly before
them, they are forced to see through our good works a thing
of beauty. They see a life of balanced living. There's symmetry. There is order, there is management. We are not wildly out of control
in one area while we're trying to look really good in another
area. There's beauty, there's symmetry,
there's a well-balanced life. When the world looks upon us,
that's what they are meant to see. That's what the word honest
among the Gentiles means. We want them to see not our lack
of discipline nor our cravings that we are caving into concerning
worldly things, but we want them to be persuaded by our good works. That's what Peter is telling
us here. Our good works display this honest
person A beautiful, balanced life is being witnessed by them. And it forces them to either
recognize the virtues of God in our life or will cause them
to deny God and even speak evil or maybe even worse, persecute
you for your good works. Our life is meant to force a
response without ever saying a word. Oh, if we were given
the opportunity, praise God for that. But your words mean nothing if
the life is not accomplishing this. And we're dealing with a world
that has seen many different versions of Christianity. Some
are perversions because they attempt to live a Christian life
without the knowledge and understanding of who they are in Christ, if
they are even in Christ. And all of this makes the commitment
of God's people even more important. Do you realize Peter is stressing
the critical nature of how we choose to live in the world?
And it starts with knowing who we are. And we can begin to embrace
our purpose. In that daily This is not something
you can do on Sunday and forget about the next Sunday. Daily. And this may not be something
you just do in the morning. It may be something you have
to do all day. Daily. We are identifying our life as God
has identified it. and we learn to function according
to God's intentions concerning us as it is described in these
terms. And so truly, anyone who is a
spiritual person living in human flesh knows that we are constantly
abstaining from fleshly lust which war against the soul daily
and we are constantly having our conversation honest among
the Gentiles. That's a daily effort. but you can't achieve having
a conversation honest among the Gentiles if you are not abstaining
from fleshly lust which war against the soul. And being God's honest people
means that our good works, highly valued in the scriptures for
sure, not as a means to salvation, but because we have it, And we
are obedient to God who gives us those things that matter to
him, that please him. Our good works reveal a beautiful
and well-balanced life to those who are watching. And we must
live each day with this in mind. We know that the world is impacted
by the light of our life. Some will be called by the gospel
being lived by us to come to Christ and gain what we have
for themselves while others will reject it. Paul works this out
in detail in Ephesians chapter five, verses seven through 16.
We are light and we're crashing in upon the darkness. We're causing
an uncomfortable experience for the world that lives in darkness.
We are forcing them to rethink their life. It's our good works, this honest
living, living a life that is well-balanced, symmetrical, beautiful. And so Peter reminds us that
the honest witness of our life will be ultimately in the day
of their visitation. Right? They may speak against
you. Doesn't mean all of them will,
but they may speak against you. At that time period when Peter
was writing, there was a lot of persecution. They may speak
against you as evil doers, but the goal is that they, by your
good works, which they shall behold, will glorify God in the
day of visitation. So the focus is on they. who
are observing, watching, calculating, but they can learn about God through
you, whether they're thinking that way or even wanted to be
that way. That's what's happening. A day
of visitation. They, those who are observing
your life, they have an appointment with God. Day of Visitation. What is this day? When is this
day? Who will encounter this day?
A lot of questions we could spend time on. I'm not going to try
to do that, but we need to at least be aware that there's some
things to ponder here. The context that we have read
here in verse 12 points to the world or those who are witnessing
God's people living out their good works honestly before them.
They see, what does he say? They behold your good works. Our good works are designed to
show forth the virtues, qualities of God, and the world has been
forced to see God through us. They will, at the time of their
visitation, give glory to God for what they have witnessed.
They behold your good works. And they will, at the time of
their visitation, give glory to God for what they witnessed
from your life. Is this day of visitation for
some? And I'll give you these two possibilities
because I believe they're true. Is this day of visitation for
some who see and believe what they're seeing? and are brought to a living relationship. They are called out of death
into life. The light of God now lives in
them that they saw living in another person. It will be at
that day for sure, at that moment. They will glorify God for your
light. They will praise God that you lived honestly among them. But this could also be referring
to another kind of visitation, one that many commentators think
refer to the Day of Judgment as well. When the rejecters and
haters of the good works that God's people lived out before
them that they are made to behold
and remember in that moment of their judgment it all plays before
their mind and they see it and they will glorify God in
that day for the glory of God that was refracted to them from your life. I know that Peter is primarily focusing here. Think about how many people you
pass on the sidewalk every day. He's not talking about just people
in general. He's talking about where we live
and where we work. He's talking about people who have the time
to observe and to add up what they're seeing and calculating
what they're seeing and coming to some conclusion about what
they're seeing. The good works that are here
are communicating that there is beauty and symmetry in your
life that you are living now before them. And they are forced
to see, or not to see, God. The virtues of God being refracted
through you, through your good works. So, you see how verses 9 and
10, 11 and 12 are similar in this respect? It matters how
we live in the world. God has a plan. It's us. We are his plan. We are his plan
to be the light. But the light that we live must
be a light that shows symmetry and beauty to the world. There's
balance in our Christian life. They're not going to admire us
if we're all out of whack. If we're strong in one area but
weak in all these other areas, the world will recognize that.
They'll see the inconsistencies and they'll pass judgment on
it as being hypocritical. He's this over here, but he's
not that. He's not this over in this area here. So Peter's appeal to us, dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against your soul, having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles, that whereas, even though they may
speak against you as evildoers, that's possible, that can happen,
they may buy your good works which they will behold will glorify God in the day of
visitation. Our commitment to living godly
lives devoted to God is not just for the health and the peace,
the joy of our own soul. Yes, it is for that reason. But it's for the world, out of
whom God will call his own. We become participants in that.
And those who are not called will give an account to God one
day, and our life is either going to contribute to His glory or
not. So how we live matters. There are a number of passages
that I would like to go into to bolster this, but I will I will simply use one and save
the others for our next gathering, God willing. Look at Matthew
chapter 5. This is where the whole New Testament
idea of this was first launched by Jesus Christ. And to whom
did he give this information? Our men studied this and taught
it wonderfully during our adult class for many, many months. Might've been a couple of years.
We're still in it, right? In some respects, but the Sermon
on the Mount. Who's that sermon directed to? Kingdom children. Kingdom children. He describes, he gives his manifesto
of the kingdom, describes what his kingdom is all about, what
it's like, and what his expectations are of those who are the children
of the kingdom. And it's here. In chapter five of Matthew, I'll
start with verse We don't have time to go into any detail, but
just to bolster what Peter is saying, Peter isn't kind of creating
some new idea. He's just building off of what
his Lord said to him. You are the light of the world. That's a pretty broad mission,
wouldn't you say? You're the light of the world,
a city. The imagery possibly of
Jerusalem in his mind that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light the candle and then put it under a bushel,
but rather on a candlestick that it might give light unto all
that are in the house. So there are some that are going
to profit from being around that light, being exposed to that
light. They will benefit from it. For that reason, he says, let
your light so shine before men. Those particularly that are in
your world where God has placed you. You're not placed in the
whole world. You're placed in a small corner of the world,
and it's in that corner of the world that we are responsible
for. Let your light so shine before men that they that are
in that corner of your world, that they may see, behold, your good works, they may see
that you having your conversation honest among them. They may see
your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Who
is bringing the glory here? the world, those who are observing
our life and looking at our life, seeing the light of our life,
seeing the beauty, the symmetry of our life, the balanced living
of our life. Don't give credit to God. Don't give credit to God. They
will recognize that what has happened to you is the result
of God. By their observation, it makes
the reality of God more real to them. As they behold the virtues
of God, as Peter said in that sentence in verse 9, they may
see the virtues of God shining through your life, that you may
show forth the praises, the virtues of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. Friend, it matters. It matters that we learn to live
every day of our life with this in mind. We're on a mission. We've been identified, we know
who we are, and God has clearly told us why we're here. We know
these. major important truths, and they
will not change tomorrow. They will always be true. May
we cry out to God, seek his grace, and he will supply it to his
children as we submit to him concerning this matter and seek
to obey according to his will. Father, thank you. We are so
grateful to have spent this time together, Worshiping you through
song and prayers, and worshiping you now as we've gathered around
you in your word, and we've heard from you, from your word, that
which you want us to know. And I pray that you will give
us the grace to leave here resolved to be who we are, as you have
called us, identified us, and that we will be more ready to
function as we ought to function, to behave as we ought to behave.
in this world where you have placed us to be participants
with you in the gathering of your elect to yourself. Thank
you, Father, for this morning. Bless us in our continued thoughts
as we prepare to close. In Christ's name, amen.
The Witness of an Honest Life
Series Exposition of 1 Peter
1 Peter 2:9–12; Matthew 5:14–16, Ephesians 5:7–16; Philippians 2:9–16; Titus 2:11–14.
| Sermon ID | 930241327382686 |
| Duration | 52:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 2:12 |
| Language | English |
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