Ken Smith

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Ken Smith

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Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your goodness and mercy, for your faithfulness and steadfast love.
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Thank you for the reminders that have come to us this morning as we have sung together. Help us,
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God, to rejoice in Christ and in the God of our salvation.
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Lord, as we now stand before you and we open your word, would you give us open hearts that we might receive your word with gladness, that it might fall on fertile soil and bear fruit to the glory of your name.
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We give you thanks and praise in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. As followers of Christ, Christians find themselves in a unique position, one which
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Jesus openly admitted in John 17 as he prayed for his disciples.
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Jesus first observed that his disciples are in the world, but then he went on to declare that they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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Then Jesus asked the Father not to take them out of the world, but instead he states that he has sent them into the world, in, but not of, not out of, but into.
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Christians indeed find themselves in a unique position. It was from that unique position that Christianity turned the world upside down.
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Paul Meyer, a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, made a patently obvious, but academically dangerous point to that end when he wrote, quote, in a climate of multiculturalism and its mandate to quote, find truths in all world religions, end quote.
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It is hardly politically correct to say this, yet I must. No other religion, philosophy, teaching, nation, movement, whatever, has so changed the world for the better as Christianity has done.
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How did that happen? It happened as Jesus' followers down through the centuries have lived in, but not of, the world.
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As they went, not out of, but into the world. They lived different lives that made a difference.
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They have been a changed people who changed the world. About a year before the first great persecution of Christians by the
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Roman Emperor Nero in 64 AD, Peter wrote to believers who were scattered about Asia Minor, encouraging them to rejoice in their salvation by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
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He exhorted them to prepare their minds for the coming trials and the fires of testing by holding fast to Christ so that they might be holy in all their conduct just as he who called them is holy.
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Peter reminded them that they were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that they might proclaim the excellencies of him who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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Such a life, the life of a Christian, is one in which we are engaged in an ongoing warfare and one in which we are expected to be an ongoing witness.
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It means that you must continually fight your flesh and consistently watch your walk.
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So this morning we're going to focus in on the next passage of scripture. It's been a while since we've been in 1 Peter, so I thought it was good to kind of back up and give you a little context here.
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We come to 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, just two verses that are filled with instruction and encouragement and challenge for us today just as it would have been for those to whom
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Peter wrote in 63 AD. 1
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Peter chapter 2 verse 11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
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Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify
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God on the day of visitation. Would you pray with me?
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Lord we ask that you would now bless your word, give us ears to hear, help us to heed what you have said.
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May you receive all glory and honor and praise. In Jesus' name,
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Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is
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Warfare and Witness and it just divides along the two verses, verse 11 and verse 12.
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Peter begins in verse 11 by reminding us of our warfare and there he tells us, fight your flesh, fight your flesh.
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How do you do that? He gives us some things to hang our hats on.
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First of all he says, you need to remember your position. He's done this before in some of the passages that we've already looked at in 1
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Peter but he comes back to it. He says, remember your position. And the first thing he says at the very beginning of verse 11 is as he addresses his readers.
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He calls them what? Beloved. That word strikes me coming from Peter.
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Here was a man who at one time was a man who had rough fisherman's hands and probably an even rougher heart and now we're seeing him use language that is characteristic really of John the
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Apostle. And we kind of expect that from John, we just see him as much more tender but here
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Peter expresses a tender hearted attitude towards the believers as he calls them beloved.
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Peter later in 1 Peter in chapter 5 lets it be known that he is an elder and he addresses his fellow elders of the church.
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For me as an elder of this body it's a great reminder and touches my own heart to see the tender heart of Peter as an elder toward the flock of God.
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I was thinking this morning what a blessing it is for me to serve this congregation as an elder and to look out across this body and to be able to call you beloved.
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Not only beloved of God but you are dear to my heart. So Peter here expresses something of his own heart towards these believers but in calling them beloved he also reminds them of God's heart toward them.
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The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 9 as he talks about the sovereignty of God in salvation quotes from the prophet
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Hosea. Hosea dealt with a very difficult situation, an unfaithful wife.
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But that unfaithful wife was a picture of the unfaithful people of Israel and God pronounced his judgment on those people but later he says and Paul quotes from Hosea, he says those who were not my people
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I will call my people and her who was not beloved I will call beloved.
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Beloved that was our condition before God outside of Christ and so for God to call us beloved is a great extension of grace and mercy and kindness in Christ.
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If you don't know Christ then you are among those who are not God's people and you are not beloved of God and it pains me to say that but it is true.
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God extends his hands, he holds out his hands and saying come to me, come to Christ, become a beloved one.
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Jude chapter, Jude is just one chapter but in the first verse of Jude, Jude writes and he says as he is addressing his letter he says it is to those who are called, beloved in God the
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Father and kept for Jesus Christ. Remember your position, remember that you are beloved but Peter goes on to say not only are you beloved but you are sojourners and exiles and again this is not the first time he has used this terminology.
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It appeared in the very first verse, chapter 1. It comes up again in chapter 1 verse 17.
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We are sojourners and exiles in this world. It's a picture that was prefigured in Old Testament Israel.
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I think I mentioned this before in Leviticus chapter 25 as the people are preparing for the promised land.
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God says when you go into that land and you sell and trade the land remember it's not going to be traded in perpetuity.
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It's not going to permanently become someone else's possession because all the land is mine and then
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God says for you are strangers and sojourners with me. It's a reminder that God is the one who is going to take care of them.
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God is the one who is going to watch over them. God is the one who is going to provide for them even when they come into that land and settle down they are still to consider themselves as being sojourners with God.
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This past week as I was doing my Bible reading I was in 1
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Chronicles and I come to the end of 1 Chronicles chapter 29 and it's the end of David's life.
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It's not long before he dies and he is about to pass the reigns of the kingdom over to his son Solomon. David has made all these preparations for the building of the temple and setting up all the divisions of the priests and all the sort of stuff that happens there in 1
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Chronicles and you come to 1 Chronicles chapter 29 and David offers this amazing prayer.
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Every time I read it I am struck by it. David's humility before God when he says who am
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I and who are my people that you have brought us this far? But in the midst of that prayer
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David makes this admission. He says for we are strangers before you and sojourners as all our fathers were.
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Our days on earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding.
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David points out something here that we would all do well to acknowledge and to embrace and that is the fact that this place is not permanent.
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Our time here is limited and God has made it clear that there is coming a day when all this place will be burned up in the fire and will be made new by God.
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Truly we are sojourners with God in this place.
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What was prefigured in the Old Testament is applied then to the New Testament church.
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That's the point that was made by Peter in chapter 1 verse 1 and in verse 17 and now again here in chapter 2 verse 11 that the church of Jesus Christ is the new
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Israel, God's new chosen people and as they sojourned with God so now we are sojourners and exiles on this earth.
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It is a point that was similarly made by Paul but he uses a little bit different terminology.
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He doesn't talk about being exiles and strangers so much as he focuses on the other side of the coin and that is where our citizenship really is.
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Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, there
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Paul says, for our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Paul made a similar point but kind of takes both sides, the whole alien, stranger, exile part and combines it with our citizenship in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19.
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He says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
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Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the
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Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
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Spirit. Paul's point in Philippians and in Ephesians is that in relation to God, believers have been brought near and are no longer strangers and aliens before God because of the reconciling work of Christ.
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They are now citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Peter's point is similar but expressed differently.
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Peter's point is that because believers are citizens of the kingdom of God, they are now in relation to the world sojourners and exiles.
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Therefore don't expect the world to do you any favors nor should you conform to the world in order to fit in.
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No, here you are sojourners and exiles. Your citizenship and your home is in heaven.
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And so Peter says, beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles, remember your position, remember who you are.
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As sojourners and exiles and as those who are beloved of God in Christ, secondly he says to fight your flesh, refuse your passions, refuse your passions.
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Peter uses pretty forceful language here. It doesn't come across to us so much in our
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English language but in the original language it is forceful words on the part of Peter.
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He says I urge you, I urge you to continually abstain from the passions of the flesh.
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This is no mere suggestion on Peter's part that it would be maybe a good idea if you should kind of maybe want to sometime here and there do this sort of thing.
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Peter is saying as directly and as forcefully as he knows to do,
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I urge you to continually abstain from the passions of the flesh. This is a strong command.
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It is not to be a one time or occasional setting aside but an ongoing keeping away from the passions of the flesh.
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Well what are those passions of the flesh that we're supposed to continually stay away from?
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They are those sinful desires that you entertain in your heart and often carry out in your body.
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Turn to Romans chapter 13 and Paul throws a little light on the passions of the flesh for us.
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Romans chapter 13 starting in verse 12, there he says, the night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
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Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
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Those are the passions of the flesh. It's not an exhaustive list but it's a representative list of what the passions of the flesh are.
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Those sinful desires that we entertain in our hearts and carry out in our bodies.
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Orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality and sensuality, quarreling and jealousy.
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Paul says make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. That's what Peter is telling us here in a similar way back in 1
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Peter chapter 2. Abstain from the passions of the flesh.
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That forceful language then focuses in on the fact that to abstain from the passions of the flesh we have to engage in the warfare.
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We have to fight the flesh. Galatians 5 .24
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Paul says, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 says, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body, that is the flesh and spirit bringing holiness into completion in the fear of God.
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Peter says, abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
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The attacks of the flesh are a mortal threat to your soul, to your whole person.
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Peter is making what would probably be more evident to his first century readers than it is to us but Peter was making sort of a world view statement here when he talks about the passions of the flesh waging war against your soul.
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You see the Greek perspective of what it meant to be a human being was the soul is really separate from the body.
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They are not really related to one another.
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You can do whatever you want with the body and it doesn't really touch the soul because it is inherently good.
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Peter is making a stab at that, a jab at that philosophy, that way of thinking and saying that no, these passions of the flesh wage war against your soul, your entire person.
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There is no dichotomy here. There is no division between soul and body.
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You are a complete person. We see that is evident in the fact that when
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Jesus returns and the dead are raised, what is raised?
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Their bodies and reunited with their spirit, making us whole again.
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Christ was raised physically from the grave. We are a whole person, spirit and body.
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So Peter is attacking this notion that somehow our bodies, our flesh is different and separate from our soul.
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He says no, you are an entire person. Therefore abstain from the desires of the flesh because they wage war against your soul, your whole person.
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Peter here is saying that the prevailing world view is a false perspective, a false dichotomy.
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We are a people made in the image of God, an integrated whole. Paul says kind of the same thing, makes a similar point in 1
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Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 23 and 24 near the end of that letter, if I can find it here.
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1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 says, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, make you holy completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.
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So if we are going to fight the flesh, if you and I are going to fight our flesh, we need to remember our position and we need to refuse our passions.
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If we are indeed a different people who are called to make a difference, then you must not only fight your flesh, but you must also watch your walk.
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Verse 12 naturally flows out of verse 11. Believers are to have their inner lives under control so that their outer lives are honoring to God.
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So verse 12 moves us to the other side of the coin and that is watch your walk by first of all maintaining godly conduct.
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Again Peter says in verse 12, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds and glorify
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God on the day of visitation. Maintain godly conduct, that's one way in which you watch your walk.
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Peter points us to two things here. First of all to the content of your lifestyle.
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The content of your lifestyle. Keep your conduct among the
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Gentiles honorable. Some translations translate it as noble.
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We might say above reproach or to use terminology that Peter sprinkles throughout this letter, holy.
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That should be the content of your lifestyle.
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Honorable, noble, above reproach, holy. But he also gives us the context of our lives and that is among the
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Gentiles, among the pagans. It's one thing to live
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Christianly among Christians. It's another thing to live
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Christianly among the pagans. And that's what we're called to do.
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Not that our fellowship with one another is unimportant or not needed but the challenge before us and the call of God upon us is live a godly life in the world in which you are.
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In the culture in which God has placed you. My time in the last three and a half to four years has put me directly into that kind of culture.
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Let me tell you it's a whole different deal living Christianly at a home improvement store and in a grocery store.
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It's a whole different deal living Christianly in a warehouse than living Christianly as a pastor of a church and a teacher in a
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Christian school. I'm grateful for those opportunities but I'm grateful too for the opportunity
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God gave me to put my faith into practice in a context that was way different than what
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I've been used to. And truth be told that is the context of living in which most of you find yourselves and it was certainly the context in which the readers of this letter found themselves.
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Keep your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. Paul writes in 1
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Corinthians 5 what that context is.
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The pagans. They are the fallen and lost who are all around us.
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Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 he says they are the sexually immoral of this world. The greedy and swindlers and idolaters.
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We'd like to just be off in our own little holy huddle. Off in our safe protected corner.
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But Paul says no. Peter says no.
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Jesus says no. You are the salt of the world.
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You are the light of the world. Don't put your light under a basket. Brothers and sisters, yes we are called to walk in holiness.
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That's why God gave us his word. That's why God gave us the blessing of our church family is to encourage us to continue to be faithful and to walk in holiness.
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But God has for us in this place right now to be a godly influence in our culture.
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In our city. In our neighborhood. Among your co -workers and your friends and your family.
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Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Maintain godly conduct.
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Watch your walk. How do you maintain that godly conduct?
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Peter says by manifesting good deeds. It's interesting.
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Peter says keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, when they slander you and call you names and point out all the failures of Christians before you and that will come.
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When they do all that, keep your conduct honorable among them so that they may see your good deeds.
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Slanderous accusations in response to godly actions are no new thing.
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Peter addresses it repeatedly in this letter and we're going to come across some more as we continue to make our way through it over time.
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Jesus said this. He said it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.
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If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?
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Don't expect any favors from the world. But that doesn't release you from your responsibility to walk in a holy life.
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In fact, that makes it more incumbent upon you if we can say it that way, to walk in holiness.
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Alvin J. Schmidt, who is now a retired professor of history at Illinois College, wrote a book that came out in the early 2000s called
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How Christianity Changed the World. It is a great book. In that book he wrote about the lifestyle of first century
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Christians and the response of the pagan culture around them to their godly lives.
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Listen to this. This should ring a bit of a bell. It says when people live a noticeably higher moral lifestyle, it often angers those who do not.
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Such behavior casts them into a negative light. But the higher moral values of the
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Christians in the first century had another effect. It meant that some of Rome's favorite institutionalized practices and customs received no support from Christians.
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The Romans resented this. Christians also practiced a morality that condemned the common
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Roman practices of abortion, infanticide, abandoning infants, suicide, homosexual sex, patria potestas, which was the absolute authority of the husband and father over the lives of his wife or wives and children.
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They lived or died at his discretion.
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In addition to that, the common Roman practice of the degradation of women. The moral posture of the
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Christians was one of the many reasons why they were harassed, hated, despised, and often imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
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The Romans made them into an army of martyrs. What does
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Peter say? In the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, may it be that you live such honorable lives among the
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Gentiles that they see your good deeds. That is the proper response to the maligning, the slandering.
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Isn't that the instruction of Christ? I mentioned it earlier, Matthew 5.
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Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds. It was the example of Christ himself.
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Peter mentions this just a few verses later, here in chapter 2, starting in verse 18.
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He says, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.
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For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
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For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
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For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.
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When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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The proper response to slanderous accusations is to respond with good deeds, to follow the example of Christ.
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And the hoped for outcome, Peter says, is that when they see your good deeds, that they might glorify
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God on the day of visitation. That phrase has been a troublesome one for translators and commentators alike.
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What in the world does Peter mean by the day of visitation? We kind of, in our minds, immediately go to the final day of judgment.
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And that may be a part of what Peter implies here, as part of the genius of using the terminology that he does, is that it has perhaps more than one application.
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But more likely, and perhaps more specifically, it would seem that Peter is referring to God using believers' good deeds to prove that the slanderous accusations made by others are lies.
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Thus convicting unbelievers of their sin, whereby God in grace grants them repentance and they are converted, thus glorifying
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God. So, in these two verses,
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Peter has given us a lot to chew on. He has spoken generally of our warfare and our witness.
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And in the future on, he's going to apply these general principles that we've talked about today in more specific ways, in more specific contexts.
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Let me end with two things. First, a sobering and challenging observation, again from Professor Schmidt.
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He said, Tertullian said that the Romans so despised the
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Christians that they hated the name Christian. One finds a similar hatred directed towards Christians today.
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Similar to the Romans, these critics do not like it when sensually lustful behavior is morally questioned and called sinful.
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The hateful attitudes that once were directed against the early Christians seem to be returning and for similar reasons, despite the current attention given to toleration.
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In large measure, Christians are hated because they seek to honor
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God and His laws rather than redefine God as our future selves.
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As Professor Schmidt looked at our current context, he said, it's not unlike the first century.
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And I remember several years ago when I was taking a seminary class on postmodernism and the professor there made the observation and it was a revelation to me and has stuck with me.
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He said, no other point in history is the first century like the 21st century.
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We are very much in a time and a situation as believers that first century
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Christians found themselves in. And the reaction against Christians living
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Christianly is becoming more and more in our day like it was for Christians then.
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But rather than despair about that, that's not
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Peter's point. He says this, first of all, remember our citizenship is in heaven.
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We are aliens in this world. Therefore, we must live by the rules of God's kingdom.
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Secondly, remember this, sinful desires war against our souls.
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Our bodies are good servants but tyrannical masters. Remember this, our lives will influence others.
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And lastly, remember this, Christ will return and we will want to glorify
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Him with our lives when He comes. Would you pray with me?
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Lord, how I thank you for the blessing of your word. I thank you for this timely instruction from the pen of Peter.
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Lord, our hope is not in governments but our hope is in Christ.
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Lord, give us grace in these days to hold fast to Christ, to cling to your word.
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Help us, Lord, to encourage one another and spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
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And Lord, when we find ourselves in those places where we are being slandered and where we are maligned, may we respond as Christ did and trust,
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Lord, that you will bring us safely home no matter what happens to us here.
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Thank you for the fact that our citizenship is in heaven and from it we eagerly await our
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Savior. Jesus Christ, the Lord. In His name we pray.