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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.
Abstain from Fleshly Lusts
Series Exposition of 1 Peter
1 Peter 2:11–12; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Corinthians 9:24–27; 1 Thessalonians 4:2–3; 1 John 2:15–17; Matthew 6:24; Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24.
| Sermon ID | 99241548225772 |
| Duration | 53:15 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 2:11 |
| Language | English |
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