Being Pilgrims In The Land

This evening we will be continuing our study from the book of Hebrews, but not by reading from the book of Hebrews, actually.

If you'd like to turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, we will be using this as an illustration, an application of what we looked at this morning in 1

Peter chapter 2. But before we do that, let's ask the Lord to bless our time together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we seek to make application of the commandment that we've heard from your word, we would ask that you would gather with us, you would help us to lay aside the concerns of the coming week, and for these few moments, once again, meet with you by your spirit around your word.

Minister to us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. As some of you may have noticed, it has gotten a little warm the past couple of days.

You may have noticed that today that wonderful thing called monsoon moisture arrived.

The dew point is above 55 and there are clouds out. But it started getting pretty warm a little bit earlier in the week, and so yesterday morning

I wanted to ride South Mountain, so I had to get up pretty early. You can only get into the gates about 4 .50

in the morning at the earliest. So I was down there and I had some things I needed to listen to, study, and I got done listening to what

I was listening to, and the next thing on my iPod, Pastor probably has an electronic device, you listen to things with it, and he actually says he has one.

It's collecting dust, but it's there. The next thing on my iPod, I really wasn't sure what it was, but lo and behold it ended up being a lecture,

I think by Sinclair Ferguson, on John Flavell and his preaching methodology, sort of the methodology of the preaching of the

Puritans. I found it quite interesting, very helpful. One of the things he mentioned, he was talking about a particular sermon by Flavell that was entitled

The Mystery of God's Providence. One of the things that he mentioned is that in Puritan preaching, it was one thing to exegete the text and to lay it out and to give the background and so on and so forth, but the emphasis for the

Puritans was you're only about halfway done when you got done with all of that. There needed to be the so what, the application, which was really the hardest part.

And so in thinking along those lines, I took that exhortation to heart and was thinking, well, okay, we have the commandment from Scripture to confess ourselves to be exiles and pilgrims on this earth.

What does that mean? Well, we made some application this morning. I mean, obviously, when you encounter the

Word of God, you encounter a command. If you're a mature Christian, if you're a Christian desiring to do what's right before God, you're going to ask yourself the question, what does this mean to me?

How do I make application? But it would be too simple to just simply throw that out and say, sort of like encountering a command in Scripture that says, do not be impatient.

And so when you're talking to an impatient person, they say, well, how can I do that? Well, you just don't be impatient. Well, there needs to be a little bit more to it than that.

And the Puritans sought to somewhat be doctors of the soul in the sense that they would spend some time making that kind of application on the how -to side of things.

So how do we make practical application of the exhortation we found in Scripture to view ourselves, to make confession that we are exiles and pilgrims in this world?

Well, I think there's lots of places in Scripture we could go. And if we were really, really

Puritans, we'd probably spend not only the next three hours on that subject, but we'd probably spend the next three months on that subject as well.

But just considering one particular text of Scripture that came to my mind because of the connection of terminology,

I want to look at what seems to me to be a very practical, direct teaching section on how it is, what does it look like to be a stranger and pilgrim in this world behaviorally?

How do you act if that is your confession? And I think 1 Peter 2 is an excellent example of that.

I'm going to read the entire chapter, 1 Peter 2. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the

Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. If you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord, and coming to Him as to a living stone, which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.

This precious value, then, is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they are disobedient to the Word and to this doom. They were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Behold, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify

God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.

Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For this finds favor if, for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if, when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

If you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his footsteps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while being reviled he did not revile in return.

While suffering he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

For by his wounds you were healed. You were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Amen. Now, you'll notice, of course, where the connection is to be found.

It is found in that utilization of the same kind of language in verse 11.

Verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

As aliens and strangers. And so, evidently, the terminology as used by the writer of the

Hebrews was not just something that he utilized, but was something that was common amongst the apostles in teaching all

Christians that they, in essence, were aliens, strangers, pilgrims in this world.

That from the very beginning, part and parcel of the message that was delivered to this

Nathan church, to this primitive church in those first few years, is you need to recognize the church has not been put here to somehow become part and parcel of the fabric of this world.

There will always be enmity. Jesus has said, if the world hated me, it's going to hate you.

There is going to be a constant conflict. And certainly one thing is true when we look at church history.

Every single time, the church has lost its pilgrim mentality.

Its exile and stranger mentality. And has become intimately associated with the world in the sense of finding comfort in the context in which the church finds itself.

Finding peace with the world. The results have been disastrous for the church.

Disastrous for the church, I would argue for the world as well, because the world needs that clarity of proclamation from the church.

But when you look at when the church became the most worldly, became the least effective, became the least capable of reflecting the glory of Christ, it was in those very times when it made peace with the world.

And so, Peter can refer to the Beloved and urge you as aliens and strangers.

He's not having to instruct them. He's not having to say, oh by the way, you need to view yourself in this way.

It's a given. It was just part of the apostolic message that we have a heavenly home.

That there is going to be a difference between how we view things and how the world views things.

We are going to be aliens and strangers. And therefore, as aliens and strangers, here is a very, very practical instruction as to what that means.

It means, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Fleshly lusts.

Now normally when we hear that, we automatically think of sexual lusts. We think of all of the temptation that is thrown at us.

Any more while driving down the road, for crying out loud. I mean, now with these huge, bright

LCD displays that we have along the freeways. I cannot imagine.

I think the reason it's so hot right now is because of those LCD displays. I don't know why. But have you ever been near your

TV when it's been on for a while? If you've got one of those big LCD things. They put out a lot of heat. A lot of heat.

Can you imagine what those things are like at 3 o 'clock in the afternoon? I don't have any earthly idea how they survive it.

I'm surprised we have not had sinecues. You know, barbecues, carbecues, and sinecues.

I'm surprised those things just haven't gone up in a fireball of flame.

But you can't even look at those things. And they're willing to put almost anything up on those things.

And it's just all around us. Just constantly, our society has a grossly sub -biblical view of modesty, of sexuality, and everything else.

And so, we think of fleshly lusts. And, yeah, that's a major, major thing.

But that's not the only thing. That's not the only thing. There are all sorts of fleshly lusts that, unfortunately, we sometimes push off to the side and become very comfortable with.

What do I mean by that? Well, when you look at the very phrase that is used there, sarx is the term for flesh, and so it's sarcocone, fleshly desires.

They're desires that come from the flesh rather than from the spirit. And so, what does it mean to abstain from them?

How can that be possible? Well, I think the answer is to be found in asking the question, when there is a desire, when there is a lust, from whence does it come?

Now, that term, lust, almost always is negative, but sometimes it can have a positive thing. I mean, it's possible to have deep, godly desires.

But when it comes from the flesh, then its primary purpose is to make the flesh comfortable, to fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Those can be sexual desires, but they can be other desires as well. They can be desires for food.

We eat far more than most all generations prior to us, and normally not as well as generations before us did either.

They can be, obviously, fleshly lusts can be the desire to clothe this body in ways that would be inappropriate, not just immodestly, but just simply trying to draw attention to ourselves in a way that is inappropriate for a servant of Christ who is seeking, first and foremost, to please

Him in all things. Obviously, it can have to do with the type of employment that we have.

What's wrong with the kind of employment? How can there be anything wrong with any kind of employment?

Well, I could see an opportunity for a Christian to serve in almost any area. There are certainly some areas you're not going to be able to serve in, in our society and culture.

But the point is, when we make decisions regarding these things, if we even are blessed to live in a land where we get to make decisions,

I mean, a lot of places got a job. You're fortunate to have it and need to keep it, just simply to keep meat and taters on the table.

But when we look to our employment as a means of promoting ourselves, not just meeting our needs and meeting the needs of others and service and ministry, but no, it becomes that which helps us to fulfill the desires of our flesh, so much so that we can no longer serve others, so much so that we can no longer be involved in ministry.

That's a fleshly lust. There are many ways in which fleshly lusts come against us.

We are to abstain from them because they wage war against the soul. And so, in other words, anything that distracts us, takes us away from fulfilling our obligations to Christ and fulfilling the desires that should be in our heart to be ever growing in our relationship with Christ and to know

Him better. If it takes up our mind and draws us away from heavenly truths and spiritual truths, then it's a fleshly lust.

We're to abstain from it. And my, there's so many ways these come to us. And I think in our experience, and maybe

I'm just talking to myself, I don't know. But I'll talk to myself, and if you're helped by it, great.

But it seems to me that a lot of the fleshly lusts that become literally idols in our life didn't start that way.

I mean, I don't think there's anybody in this room that would just go out and, you know, there's some hideous idol on a street corner.

Wow, I think I'm going to bow down to that thing. It's normally something that's in and of itself neither good or evil.

You could engage in this activity or do this type of work in a proper way, in a balanced way.

But it's over time, we always need to recognize, every time we walk out of this building and we walk out into the world and we start facing the oppressions of the world, it's like there is a constant wind blowing from one direction.

Most of you know I'm a cyclist, so you've got a side wind, a really heavy side wind.

You look at yourself and you're having to lean into the wind. If I want to keep going straight, the wind's coming this way,

I've got to lean into it. I almost died. If the concept of a guardian angel has a real literal fulfillment, mine was kept very, very busy as a young man.

And I had just gone on a college outing up to Montezuma Well.

Anybody been to Montezuma's Well? And we had actually gotten approval to go down into the well, into the water.

We're paddling around in the water taking water samples. It was a limnology class. I was taking at Grand Canyon, one of the toughest classes

I ever took. And I had to get back to work because I worked full time at a radio station at that time.

And at that time, I rode a Kawasaki 440 motorcycle. And so I had to leave a little bit early, and there was a wicked wind blowing out of the west.

And I'm going down I -17 toward Phoenix, and so I'm leaning into this wind.

And it's really whipping. I mean, we're talking 30 -mile -an -hour wind. Well, you know what you have on freeways?

You have these cutouts. And have you ever noticed? You might not notice it so much in a car, truck, something like that, unless you're really sort of sensitive to these things.

But you hit those cutouts, and what happens? All of a sudden, not only does the wind stop, but very frequently it reverses because the wind swirls in those cutouts.

And so I'm whipping along at, you know, 65 miles an hour or something like that on this motorcycle, leaning into the wind, hit this cutout, and all of a sudden, the wind's gone.

And now it's coming just as hard from that direction. And I'm literally one foot way in the air trying to hold this bike up.

I mean, I just about went down right then and there. It was one of the closest calls I had ever had.

Well, the point is that when we live our lives, the world is constantly pushing against us.

It's constantly trying to get us to veer. And unless we are putting out effort,

I mean, there's a turning of the wheel. There's a leaning into it. Unless we're putting out an effort, there is going to be deviation from the line you want to go at.

And if we're not constantly putting energy out, and we just face it, sometimes we get tired. We get weary in well -doing.

And once you do, then the path starts to change just a little bit. And you've all heard the story about what was that Korean Airlines Flight 5 something, whatever it was, the one that the

Russians shot down. You've all heard the story that when they first took off, it was just a slight deviation.

They didn't take off headed straight for Russia. They had a long ways to fly, but when you have to fly that far, the slightest deviation at the beginning, the farther and farther you go, the more and more the deviation becomes.

I think that's what happens with most of us. Starts off, slight deviation.

The thing we were doing wasn't sinful in and of itself, but if there's apathy, if there's not constant attention, if there's not constant discipline, the deviation can become more and more.

And since it starts slowly, we're comfortable with it. We're comfortable with it.

And if there's not a constant exposure to the Word of God, if there's not prayer, if there's not fellowship, we can become comfortable and comfortable and comfortable until all of a sudden we wake up and we are so far from where we should be.

And that activity that was once a matter of indifference, it's become a fleshly lust that has waged war against the soul and it's won.

It's been victorious. So you see, Peter can address the people as aliens and strangers and then on that basis make a very practical exhortation as to how we are to live.

He says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify

God in the day of visitation. Now, think about what that means.

Because certainly in our day today, when people see good behavior, depending on what the behavior is about, they may actually identify it as evil.

I mean, these early Christians were slandered. They were slandered on many levels. When we look at what was said against the early

Christians, they were accused of all sorts of wild and insane things. Some of the wildest stuff, they were accused of incest, because they called each other brother and sister, and cannibalism because of the

Lord's Supper, and wild and crazy stuff like that. But most of the time, what they were accused of was just being freakish.

You people actually think that there's only one true God? The Jews have been accused of that for a long time.

The Jews have always been looked at as being very odd and strange because the general prevailing attitude was that there were many gods and that the best way to show that you're a good person was to accept everybody's beliefs.

Sound familiar? Yeah, we're really getting right back to the old pagan

Rome here. There's no question about it. And this idea that you would say that, no, no, no, no, there's one

God, and there's one way of salvation, there's one truth, that was considered, well, they actually called the

Christians atheists. In fact, according to legend anyways, I sort of doubt this happened in exactly this way, but when one of the martyrs was about to be martyred, the proconsul said, just say, away with the atheists, and we'll let you go, identifying the

Christians as atheists. And they called us atheists because we said all those other gods didn't exist.

And so what he did is he waved to all the crowd, all the rabble that were yelling, and he says, yes, away with the atheists.

That didn't help. He was martyred. But that was the whole idea. They were being slandered.

Falsehoods were being put toward them. And Peter's exhortation is, you can't change their hearts, but you can behave in such a way that in the day of visitation, when that day of judgment comes, they'll have to confess that they saw, and that they may glorify

God in the day of visitation, because they saw your good deeds, they observed their good deeds.

Remember what it said in Hebrews 11? What did Noah do by his faith?

What did he do? He condemned the world. By his faith, he condemned the world, by his steadfastness.

And what we're told is, by keeping our behavior excellent, by acting as true

Christians, even in the face of scorn and ridicule, we are glorifying

God. And then there's tough words.

Submit yourselves to the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to his governors, sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right.

That was not easy for Christians to do. Rome was not, at this point in time, an overly righteous place, and it was only going to get worse as time went by, and corruption became more the watchword of things.

Now, of course, we don't have time this evening to try to unpack and make application of the phrase, for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right.

Well, what happens when they're not doing that? What happens when they do the opposite of that? Which, unfortunately, has happened.

The point is that Peter's writing to the Christians, and he's not trying to raise a revolutionary army.

In fact, I have noticed that many people condemn the

New Testament because of what is said here, not only by Peter, but by Paul.

Peter says in verse 18, Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For this finds favor, if, for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

And I've very often had people say, See, the New Testament condones slavery. As if the only thing the

New Testament could have done to be a morally praiseworthy document would have been to all slaves,

Rise up against your masters! Throw off the yoke! Start wars! As if that was the means by which the gospel would be promulgated.

Instead, servants are told to be submissive to their masters with all respect, even if they are not being treated justly and fairly.

Why? For this finds favor, for if, for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly,

What credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

Because that's just what you get for your behavior. But if, when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

Wow, is that a practical sentence for us today in seeking to be strangers and pilgrims in this world.

It doesn't go real well with the American way of thought, does it? I have my rights. We have the

Constitution. But if, when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

It seems that in God's providence there are a lot of times, many times, when

God's people suffer unjustly. Now, they look forward to a day of justice. They look forward to the day when everything is going to be set right, but hopefully not with the attitude that, you just wait, you just wait.

That's not the attitude we have because that's a self -righteous attitude. That's an attitude that forgets that if it weren't for the grace of God, we'd be engaged in the very same type of evil behavior that the people in the world are.

You have been called to this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.

You want an example? How often was Jesus mistreated?

Especially in His arrest and crucifixion, yes. But throughout

His life, dogged by the very people that should have recognized who

He was and should have been pointing all the people to Him, the constant pressure that was upon Him, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His footsteps, that means, yes, it has always been the revelation of the

Word of God that in God's sovereign plan, His people will experience suffering.

Royal priesthood, chosen people, yes. And the result of that? Suffer in this world.

Experience the slander of this world. What does all of it do? It's supposed to conform us closer to the image of Christ.

It's supposed to make us more like Him. And so, though we don't have time to go through the entirety of the chapter, it just struck me that here we have what the

Puritans said was the so what, the application, that last half of the sermon.

They confessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims, and therefore God was not ashamed to be called their

God. Well, what kind of a person? What kind of a person lives a life where God is not ashamed to be called the

God of Tom? The God of Mary? The God of Bill?

What does that person look like? What's their life like? Well, you could say, well, just look at all the moral excitations of the

Bible, that would be one way of looking at it. But I'm so thankful that the epistles of the

New Testament make practical applications, speak to people who are in situations very much like that which you and I face, surrounded by a hostile world that will always be hostile when we do not bow the knee to its lordship, but face away from its pagan altars and bow the knee only to Jesus Christ.

That's considered an act of rebellion. We are rebels against this world's authority and this world's power.

So how do we live? How do we live? Well, we follow in the example of Christ, who left us an example of suffering.

He did not seek redress. He did not promote his own rights.

If anyone had a clear vision of what exactly he must do, a clear vision of eternal values, it was our

Lord. That's what we're called to as well. Now, the

Puritan preacher can make the application, direct you to these things, but only you can, in the quietness of your heart and mind, make application to what exactly these things mean in your life in this coming week.

Only you can go, alright, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

What has been waging war against my soul? When I ask, in what ways am

I most unlike my Lord? What is it that trips me up every week?

Where have the snipers of my soul taken refuge?

How can I get rid of them? How can I take another path where they will not be there?

How can I abstain from these fleshly lusts? That's application that you must make in light of the

Word of God and by the Spirit. And one of the greatest temptations that you will face, actually, is to avoid doing that.

Become distracted immediately upon the final note of the time of meditation.

We all have so much coming up tomorrow. I've got things due tomorrow, I bet you do too.

So many details. Very easy to just put these things aside.

But my hope and prayer for each one of us is that you will consider, even tomorrow morning as that rush begins, maybe the alarm won't go off, maybe you hit snooze more times than you thought, maybe instead of hitting snooze you hit off and then oh no.

But even in the midst of all that, you will ask yourself the question, will anyone know today that I confess to be a stranger and pilgrim on this earth?

That their prayer will be God by my life. May anyone who's looking, who by your

Spirit has been given the vision to see, anyone who's looking, they'll be able to see. I'm making a confession by my life that I am a stranger and pilgrim on this earth.

I'm headed for the heavenly city. I worship the king of that city. I do not bow the knee before any other.

May that be our prayer. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word.

It's balance, it's consistency, it's harmony. Your Spirit, you have drawn us to be obedient to it.

We love it. It is spoken to us this day. May we be obedient servants.

May we indeed make a good confession this week that we are strangers and pilgrims, that we are on our way to the heavenly city.

O Lord, may it all be for your honor and glory. We pray in Christ's name.