Worship has been good. My heart has been richly blessed already. Let's continue in our worship as we look in God's Word as it's declared to us out of the epistle of Peter, 1 Peter, and chapter number 2. Verses 11 and 12, if you'll follow. 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 they speak against you as evildoers, they may buy your good works, which they shall behold. Glorify God in the day of their visitation. Last week, we began to look at some things in verse number 11. I did not finish, so part two, verse 11 this morning. In verse 11, beginning here at this point, as we mentioned, Peter puts into motion another set of exhortations, which always follows instruction. Teaching precedes application. This is God's method for his people. Peter is very keen on developing a list of traits whereby God's people can be identified. These traits are spiritual identification marks visible in God's people. We can and should use this checklist, not to be righteous as we were taught this morning in Sunday school, But we should follow the checklist as Peter gives to us to evaluate our spiritual growth. We can also use this list as markers to set our sights on and then strive to attain these qualities and develop them more effectively in our life. These qualities on Peter's list, and there's been a number of them already, are not just for some, but for every child of God here this morning. It's for you. This list functions as our spiritual chart so that we can examine ourselves and mark our development. These qualities are not only universal for all of God's people, they are necessary indicators of real faith, the faith of God's elect. And these qualities are to be visible regardless of the circumstances that we might find ourselves in as we journey through life. Through Peter, The Holy Spirit has given us this list to guide us all the days of our life as we journey through this time we live in and this present evil world that we take our journey in. Remember in verse 9, Peter added three more of these qualities, these descriptive adjectives that we can put on our list as qualities of God's children. We are a chosen family. We are royal priesthood. We are in a holy people group. Those are adjectives, chosen, royal, holy. This describes God's people. And God has placed an infinite value on all of us, we are told also, who are designated his treasured property, and he will never relinquish ownership. And he has done this, Peter said, so that we would show forth the virtues of our God in this dark world that we live in. And then in verse 10, he reminds both Jews and Gentiles We are reminded who were by natural birth, we were without mercy. We were not God's people, but God's grace has fitted us to be vessels upon whom his mercy would be poured out upon. And therefore we are now by God's grace objects of his mercy. We are now God's people. And so when we take Peter's instructions and compress it all together, we now are able to some degree to hear what he says in verse 11 and comprehend it a little at least that we are God's dearly beloved people. What an amazing statement. This Greek word that is generally a noun, agape, or a verb, agapeo, is here an adjective. used to describe again who we are to God. And Peter has given us many wonderful words to describe God's children, but there is none greater than to be called, identify as God's dearly beloved. Well, this is a statement of fact. concerning his people, we are his dearly beloved. It is true and will always be true, yet there's more in this statement about who we are. We are, in this statement, on God's mind. Always on God's mind. He doesn't call us dearly beloved and not think about us. We are always in his affections. Because we are in Christ, who is his only begotten Son, whom he always loves. And so when we hear that we are God's dearly beloved, how far back into eternity past is that true? How far into eternity future will it remain true? We are God's dearly beloved. And while this description is added to Peter's list that identifies God's people, I believe we should put an asterisk by this description. I know for me, when I hear this phrase, I am God's dearly beloved. For me, this is the culmination of all the markings of God in my life. For me, this is my mount of transfiguration, the place where the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ reaches its fullest glory to me, because he has made me his dearly beloved. Peter uses this glorious truth concerning who we are to inspire us. Does it? Are you moved by the reality of these truths? You are God's dearly beloved. Does that motivate you? Does that inspire you? Does that cause you to want to behave in a way that brings great joy to your father? Understanding who we are is intended to produce or inspire a response. Peter has worked that out again and again. But before Peter focuses on how, in verse 11, on how this knowledge and understanding of who we are as God's dearly beloved, he projects himself, Peter does, into the exhortation. And he states to us here, I beseech you. This is Peter talking now. He identifies himself in this moment. As an apostle of Christ, I draw near and I speak into your mind and heart in these moments. I beseech you. Those of you who are God's dearly beloved people, But Peter's not yet ready to make his appeal yet, so he reminds us again who we are. Because we are God's dearly beloved, we need to remember that we are also, and then he gives a second and third adjective describing us, we are strangers and pilgrims. So Peter uses our identity as a means to inspire the right response from us when he's going to make an appeal in just a moment. So he says, we are strangers. That's not the first time he's used that word, is it? He began his letter with that opening statement of description concerning who we are. We are strangers. This was the first description in his list. And to clarify for us who we are now in this present evil world, he uses this word again here in verse 11, when he says, we are not only the dearly beloved, but I beg you as strangers. And now he adds a slightly different Greek word or a variation of this word and it's translated pilgrims. We are strangers and we are pilgrims. Peter is building up to something here. He's using all of these descriptive adjectives to describe who we are because it's going to lend itself in how we are going to respond to his appeal that he's about to make. So he adds pilgrims. He is piggybacking or stacking one word on another that are closely connected and together they stress the fact that we are foreigners in this world. We no longer are what we once were, citizens of this world. Something has changed us and we are no longer citizens of this world. We are simply passing through. Our citizenship is in heaven. This is not our homeland. We're journeying through this present world. So he reminds us of this. Dearly beloved, your strangers, your pilgrims. And he had stated in a similar way, if you remember in chapter one in verse 17, where he refers to us as sojourning here in this world, that we are to pass through this world during the time of our sojourning in fear. I mean, we live in a foreign land, we are strangers here, we're not well liked, the enemy is around us everywhere. We need to realize where we're at and be conscious of the one who has redeemed us at a great price, which he's talked about here in these few verses in chapter one, verse 17 and 18. So this is not a new thing for Peter to bring up. started his letter that way. He works it in over here in chapter 1, verse 17 and 18, and he brings it back again here. And he's still not done. He'll remind us of this as he works through his letter. And at this point, Peter is going to add a fourth adjective of describing us in this verse. And it's found in this context of an exhortation that is in the form of a warning to us. To those who are God's dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, he goes on to say, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. That's his appeal. That's what he's building up to say and to plead with them. To live in this present evil world, God's children must know and understand who they are and where they are and the dangers we face because of who we are and where we are. We need to be conscious of that. We can't get up every day and assume that the enemy's sleeping while we go about doing our job. That's not the way it is. The enemy's waiting for you to get out of bed in the morning and start your day. We need to be conscious of this reality as we move through the world. And so for this reason, Peter appeals to us this morning to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against our soul. In this appeal, Peter acknowledges in this fourth adjective, it's not what you think, right? I mean, the descriptive term that is the adjective in this phrase is fleshly. We are fleshly beings. That's who we are. So that kind of makes us pause here because he also adds that as fleshly beings we are subject to lusts. Right? Fleshly beings are subject to lusts. Plural, many, all kinds. And because we are living in fleshly bodies with an old nature still subject to the lusts of our flesh and the world around us, and our old nature and the lusts of our nature is easily stirred up in us and naturally gravitates to the vain things of this world. That's the way it works because we are fleshly beings. We will never shed that until we die and leave this world. And so we have these bodies that just are naturally cumbered about with so many of these things of fleshly nature that are natural to us because we are fleshly beings. So to our list we add, not only, can you see the extreme here? Dearly beloved, you are fleshly beings. Both of those describe who we are. What an extreme, what a vast gulf exists. And so as strangers and pilgrims, he appeals to us to understand what we're up against and to abstain from those kinds of lusts that are natural to our own nature. Peter adds why this appeal is so important when he states, which war against the soul. That puts it into a pretty important category. Can there be anything more important that you are in possession of as a human being than your soul? A soul that referring to our life, the part of us which is alive in our fleshly bodies, my soul which is eternal and consists of my mind and my emotions and my will, these function as a part of my soul. These are real things about us. And there is an old nature that lives in my soul. There's also now a new nature, a spiritual nature in my soul. When I was regenerated by God and the spirit of life entered into me and that which was dead now became alive unto God. And now I have a new mind. I have new affections, desires, to obey God's will. But all of this is happening in my soul, in my fleshly body, which leans naturally and gravitates toward lusts that surround me. And so we know the old nature still has the power to push back against the new nature. And as the scriptures indicate, these are warring all the time, one against the other. They are seeking our thoughts. They are seeking our affections. Both are seeking action from us. And Peter is telling us that we must do something in this war. We must abstain from fleshly lusts which war against our soul. Not all fleshly experiences are categorized as evil, so I need to indicate that. Lusts here in verse 11 is referring to our physical desires that are contrary to God's will for his children. We, God's people, follow a standard established for us in God's word. But we are fleshly beings. God has given us a fleshly nature. And it is a means for enjoying life and allows us the privilege of experiencing physical things. Take that away from you. You have no capacity to feel anything and to enjoy anything. That's a gift from God to us. However, it can control us. It can rule over us. It can make a slave of us. And so Peter's appeal, he comes near to his brothers and sisters here, and he appeals to us. 2,000 years later, the apostle's voice still speaks to us. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And for that reason then, because we are naturally, who are we? Well, we're dearly beloved, we're strangers, we're pilgrims, and we're fleshly. These are things that we are. And for that reason then, because he says abstain, we've got to figure out how to manage the fleshly nature, right? How do we manage our flesh? Surely there are standards and restrictions that God has set up for us that we need to consider. Just because we have a fleshly nature, we can't just go around saying, well, that's just my fleshly nature and do whatever we want to do or say what we ever want to say. No, we must abstain from fleshly lusts, which were against our soul. Our pilgrimage takes us through the world, and we know that it is not a friend to grace. We journey in a fleshly nature that can easily be enticed to sell out our soul to minimize eternal things and exaggerate worldly things, forbidden things. That rationale goes on all the time. Don't you feel the battle in your mind and your factions and your decision-making? Isn't that real for all of you? It is for me. I know it is for you. And so, therefore, we must set a watch and be ready to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against our soul. This exhortation warning also implies that we can be successful in this effort. We can abstain from. This is something that, this is not unique to Peter, this appeal. We are challenged throughout God's word to do what Peter has called abstaining from fleshly lusts. This is all over the Bible. This exhortation and warning is not only in the New Testament, it's in the Old, and we hear similar appeals as we read God's Word. And we are given many examples of those who practiced abstaining from a fleshly lust that can war against the soul. We observe the good outcome of those who practiced that in their life, as well as we can observe the consequences for those who do not maintain this practice. And we see the outcome and the difficulties they bring upon themselves because they did not manage their flesh. It doesn't manage itself. And God in his wisdom has chose to involve us in the process with the necessary resources to do it. But we cannot in any way separate ourselves from this activity of abstaining from. Peter is speaking to strangers and pilgrims, believers on the earth. They need to do this. We need to do this because we're fleshly beings. We're very susceptible to temptation. appeals can be made to our flesh, and our flesh is very eager to respond. And so we must know how to manage those things well in our life. And so with God's word and spirit, As we yield to those influences in our life, we can indeed walk worthy of our calling. We don't need to be constantly just in bondage to sinful fleshly things. That is not God's will for his people. There are a few references I want to draw your attention to that just support what Peter is saying to us here, several. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine. And here Paul draws from something. Everybody in the city of Corinth understood as a Greek culture, the Olympics. Those were the things that had begun too many years before and they were highlights to Greek culture. And those things continue down to this day. And Paul uses this to illustrate a point that Peter is making here about not allowing the flesh to control you, but you controlling your flesh. God has given you a fleshly nature. There's a lot of good about that. But there's potentially a lot of bad that can occur as well. So we have it here as Paul writes it, beginning in verse 24. Know ye not. That's sort of, I know you can't be ignorant of this. I know every one of you have this idea in your mind. You've seen it, you've maybe attended some of the sporting games. So he uses this, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but they're all in the race to run, but yet only one receives the prize. A lot of competitors lining up at the starting line. When the sound is made, they begin to run. There are many running, but only one gets the prize. Sometimes we look at life and God as saying, well, God's gonna give a participation award, you know? And to a certain degree, I believe that is true. But Paul doesn't say that here. He says run like there's only one that's going to get the prize. Do you want the prize? That's what he's saying. So run. Run like that guy. Run like that person who wants to win the prize. Spend your life moving forward through life to win the prize. That's how you ought to look at life. So run that ye may obtain. For every man that striveth for the mastery, every man that wants to achieve this crown and this victory, this award, this honor, every man that wants that is temperate in all things. It's one thing to say, yes, I want the crown. Yes, I'm gonna run hard. But that's just not going to happen naturally. You have to be committed to what it takes, Paul says. And he says here, every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. And this is a verb that denotes at its very essence self-control. He takes control of his life and he realizes that if winning the crown is my goal, then I'm going to have to manage my life and control the details of my life if that is really what I want to obtain. I'm preaching these things to you, but believe me, I'm preaching these things to me as well. Because we all struggle with this. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in some things, no. He realizes that every facet of his life must be brought under control. He cannot afford to ignore certain areas of his training and preparation to compete and win the crown. He brings every area under control. Some form of discipline and training that is necessary that will enable him to win the crown. This is what Peter is saying. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Paul is saying it a little differently here, but it's the same idea. They do it, the competitors in the Olympic Games, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. a wreath that's going to fade over time. You might have a few vines you can hang up somewhere in your home, but the beauty of that crown is going to fade and it's going to be gone. And once you pass, nobody's going to care anyway. That's the kind of crown that Olympians spent their whole life training and disciplining their bodies in order to win was that kind of crown, a corruptible crown. And yet we stand back when you watch the Olympics and you hear the stories of how many years and hours and constant training and training and training, hoping to win a medal. And what is the ultimate value of that? Not that much when we think of eternal values. They do it for a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible crown. And then Paul projects himself into it again. I therefore so run. See the resolve of this man. Was he perfect at this? Absolutely not. Are we perfect at this? Absolutely not. But the determination, the will to do it is here. I therefore so run to receive the incorruptible crown that he just stated. And I do so not as uncertainly. I'm just not running chaotically. God has a roadmap for me, a course that he has set before me. And I'm running that course. Paul will talk about that at the end of his life. I've run the course. I've finished the course that was set before me. And so fight I. These physical matches against opponents. Wrestling, boxing, different things that were used to fight and to grapple with another opponent, as this word denotes. I do this not as one that's beating the air. I know what I'm up against. I know my opponent. I know what I have to defeat. This is not a mystery to Paul. We all know what they are, do we not? Don't they loom large in our own mind, even as we talk about them? We know what our opponents are. I'm not doing it, running a race aimlessly or fighting something, you know, like I'm beating and fighting the air, but I keep, here's what he's up against. I keep under my body, that is, I keep my body under control. My fleshly appetites, my lusts, my desires, I keep them under control. Perfectly? No, Paul wouldn't say that. Romans 7 pretty well clarifies Paul couldn't say that. He knows what the battles are about. Often tormented by his failure in the battles. And so I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. It's interesting he's referring to kind of an option that we have here. Your fleshly lusts can be seen as masters that want to control you and make you a slave. And so we have an option here to take that which wants to control us and control it. Bring it into subjection, do whatever it takes. I beat my body is a very graphic image of buffeting, doing whatever it takes. to keep his lusts under control. He doesn't want to be found at the end of his life having run and preached and done all the things that he has done in ministry and found to be a man who is disqualified because he didn't run the race as God had prescribed. Paul goes into a lot of detail in Romans 6, 7, and 8, and again in Galatians 5. He deals with these issues pretty thoroughly. So Peter is not bringing up something new and unique when he says, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. He's talking about something that's all over the Bible. We see the carnage of men and women who did not do that. And we see the joy and the victories of those who did. This is not to earn your salvation. No. This is about living and enjoying and working out your salvation into your daily life. A couple of others quickly, and then we will be done with this. Look at 1 Thessalonians. We read this quickly last week. Let me draw your attention to it again, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And I'm not exhausting the subject. It would take years to exhaust this subject of flesh and spirit battling and abstaining from because of the dangers and risks because we are fleshly beings. It's all over the Bible. These are just a few selections I hope will help establish Peter's comments in your mind. First Thessalonians chapter four, beginning in verse two, we'll just read two verses, two and three. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. And so Paul is referring to the time that he spent there among them and what he's writing to them. And so here it is, for this is the will of God. I love things that are simplified, boiled down to very basic elements. This is the will of God. What is God's will? Often left as some kind of mysterious thing. It's not mysterious. This is the will of God for you. Here it is. Same thing that Peter said. Your sanctification. Keep growing spiritually. Get holier and holier. Put off the things that can deter you and hinder you. Abstain from those things and put on those things that are in agreement with your Father's will. The will of God, your sanctification that you should abstain And here he moves into a realm of sexuality because we're fleshly beings, right? We have impulses and we have interests in fleshly things, but they must be managed. It is a gift of God that we are fleshly beings. But we must not allow any form of pornea, any form of distortion of sexuality to come into our life and control it. No! Put it off, say no to it. Abstain. Word that Peter uses. So this is the will of God, not a mystery. Get holier. Put off more of the old and put on more of the new. That's sanctification. Renew your mind. Put on, put on. Put off, put off. This is your sanctification. And that is the will of God for us. Look at 1 John 2, the epistle of John. 1 John 2, another familiar passage to all of us. that aligns with what Peter says, supports what Peter is exhorting us to do, abstain from fleshly lust which war against our soul. These fleshly lusts that can war against our soul are extreme cravings that are illegitimate and not allowed for us to experience, according to God's Word, these lusts. And so, John writes about how going through this life as God's children in this world, little children is a common thing that he uses here in his letter. He is telling them, love not the world in verse 15, 1 John 2 verse 15. Love not. Here is that word that Peter uses as an adjective when he calls us dearly beloved. Here it's the verb. And it's telling us that we are not to allow certain things to take place in our life. What is that? We are not to allow our mind and affections to be fastened to the things of this world. Love not. Don't allow your mind and your affections and your actions, don't allow them to be governed by the world. Don't love the world. Love not. Neither, he says, the things that are in the world. So he goes into a little more detail here. We could spend some time developing that with conversation. What are the things of the world that we're not to love? Well, probably each of us have some common things, but each of us probably has some different things that we know appeal to us and draw us draw out our affections, draw out our thoughts, lead us to make decisions. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, because if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That's startling to me. If the love of the world, in a sense, is dominating our mind and our affections and our actions, that means there's something missing. God. Love for God. We can't love both at the same time. Jesus said that very clearly in Matthew chapter 6. We can't love God and the world at the same time. You're gonna have to cling to one and despise the other, but you can't cling to both. And so love not. And if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So Peter's exhortation to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, includes this. We are God's beloved. Why would we love the things of the world when we have been loved by God? Surely it draws our love out to him. more forcefully and more consistently to him than the things of the world. And he goes on in verse 16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and here's the idea that Peter is speaking about. Flesh itself is not used here the same way, but Peter uses it as this is who we are. We are fleshly beings. John is writing that in our flesh we have lusts. For all that is in the world can be summed up in several things. There is the lust of the flesh, we have the lust of the eyes, and we have the pride of life. This is not of the father. God does not put these things into his children to do. God does not encourage us in these things. These are things that come from our own flesh and the world we live in. And remember, verse 17, the world passes away and the lusts thereof, all of the lusts that are attached to the world, they are going to perish, go up in smoke in the day of judgment. What survives? He that doeth the will of God, who shows his love for God in their desire to be obedient to him. That lasts. That's forever. That's sort of like crossing the finish line and gaining the crown, the reward. That is for eternity. Jesus in this idea in both Matthew and Luke, he makes these statements, if any man will come after me, he must make a decision. Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. So there is what abstaining from fleshly lusts looks like. How do I achieve this? How do I do this? From all the things we've heard so far, again, this sort of, Jesus compresses it together for us. If you want to follow me, want to come after me, you want to be my disciple, then you'll need to take up your cross. And on that cross is the emblem of your self-denial, or as Paul says in Galatians, you must crucify the flesh with its affections and lust. Crucify it. And so Paul even takes it another step here to kind of develop a force in our mind. We have to be willing to mortify, to say no to the flesh when it's drawing us to things that we know to be wrong. Take up your cross. Follow me. Deny yourself on a daily basis. Having said all that I've said from Peter's statement, this is really not all that complicated. It's not all that complicated. There's not a mystical system here that we've got to figure out so that we can be better people, so that we can work our salvation out in a better way. I mean, whether it's Paul or Peter or John or Jesus, they boil it down to some pretty simple basic things. Who do you love most? That's really what it's about. Who do I love most? Do I love myself and my desires and my fleshly interests above my love for God? And sadly, I would have to confess to you that is often the case. Not always willing are we to crucify those things to the cross. The cross where my sin concerning those things have already been punished and crucified, that I'm not willing to take those same things and do what Christ did for them, not to receive redemption from it, but to be sanctified from those things. So, Peter says it well for us here. Verse number 11. Dearly beloved, you are beloved of God, that's who you are. And I come near unto you, my dear friends, and I identify you again as those who are strangers and pilgrims in this earth. I appeal to you, abstain from fleshly, physical lust. Yes, you are fleshly, that's who you are. But you must learn to abstain from, discipline, say no to, mortify, put to death those things that war against your soul. The salvation of our soul is an amazing gift of eternal life that God has granted to us out of his grace toward us. But we need to be concerned about its well-being, about its joy. You heard earlier about peace. God has already made peace with us through the work of his son. But how much we enjoy of that peace does involve our own relationship to him on a daily basis. Your fellowship with God can be hindered. He can't take your soul. The devil cannot snatch your soul. God will never relinquish that treasure to him. But we often fail to nurture our soul with joy, peace, and fellowship with God. because we allow ourselves to be entangled with things that are contrary to God. So, the appeal. Brethren, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Father, we thank you for your word and its constant reminders of basic things We don't sit here this morning and stand in awe of new things. We are being reminded of things we already know. But I pray, Father, that the reminder would be used by your Spirit in our life to stir up our commitment to be a more holy, sanctified people that you have called us to be, even though we're fleshly, Thank you for making us fleshly beings. And yet in that we recognize there are many dangers and we are responsible to utilize your resources of ministry of spirit and ministry of word and ministry of the church and ministry of one another to help each other as we seek to say no and deny. those things that would pull our affections and our thoughts away from you. Bless your word, in Christ's name I pray.