We are in 1 Peter. I trust that you have been encouraged along the way as we have spent time in this letter. And we are in the second chapter and verses 11 and 12. God's word says to us, dearly beloved, I implore you as aliens and refugees abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Live your lives honorably among the Gentiles so that though they speak against you as evildoers, they shall see your good works and thereby glorify God in the day of visitation. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. I titled this message today, Living Outwardly in Light of Eternity. We want to use this text to gain some perspective because we're at a turning point in the epistle. We are at that point where, as you've heard me talk about, Peter is standing on this grand peak and this this large vista before him of all these aspects of our Christian faith, of our theology, swirl about him, blow about him, and he's making this point and making that point and bringing them to us in a way to establish us in the faith in uncertain times. And now at this point he is beginning to turn a little bit towards the application. This is a classic epistolary formula. This is the way that letters were written in that day, particularly the Christian epistles that we find in the New Testament, that the theology was laid out. This is what is true. And so then this is what should be true for you as you apply this theological truth to your life. And as this text begins, we find a couple of small aspects. These aren't the main points that we want to make today. Those are three and those will come along the way. But first we see this apostolic love that Peter has. And remember each time we come across this, I try to point it out, this great apostolic leveling that the apostles never position themselves over the other believers. They have been given a position of authority. They are those who knew Christ, experienced Christ, spoke of Christ, were sent by Christ, that apostolic band that was in that first century. They had a position that was given them by Christ, but as they executed that position, they never gave themselves that higher position than the rest of God's people. It was always an us type moment. And we find that in this text, as Peter expresses his love for the people. And he does so blatantly and he does so verbally. We all know that when we have to discipline either our children or perhaps, and it's not a wrong word to use, or what goes on at work sometimes, an employee isn't acting as they should. And many times it's hard to remember the love that we are to convey to others. We come down hard and then later, I really do love you, I enjoy you as one of my children or as an employee or whatever the case might be. But we can come down hard and we can come down impassioned and we can come through with a tenor and a tone that does not speak to the love that we have for that person. Peter doesn't seem to have that problem because he uses these terms of love and endearment for Christ's sheep. And we also see this apostolic urging, this beseeching, this imploring, um, Paraphrases aren't typically what we turn to for the study of God's words, sometimes devotionally, they're helpful, but the Phillips paraphrase actually kind of helps in this passage, because they're not terms that if I came up to you and said, I beseech you, in 21st century America, many people would probably say, I'm sorry, you do what to me? It doesn't quite make sense. really where we're at, but Philip said, I beg you as those whom I love, there is an urgency, there is a passion that is here in Peter's tone. And he's asking them to do three things as we gain them from the text. And the first is to cultivate your inner defenses against sin. In James 4 chapter 1 we're asked, where do wars and fights among you come from? Do they not come from your lust that war in your body? How often we make fights about the other person, about this issue that is before us. Even if you were to walk into a church fellowship and find people fighting about whatever it might be, the budget, or the color of the pews, or the carpet, or whatever they might be fighting about, and you think, wow, they have a lot of issues, but really the issues are not outside of our body, they are inside our body, in our flesh. In that inner man. Our lusts. that want to do battle. Any exterior conflict is merely evidence of the interior conflict that we have raging within us. Peter, as he continues to apply this theology, will tell the people to be sober and watchful. He reminds us that our adversary, the devil, walks around as a roaring lion, seeking whom? He may devour. We are at war. And we are at war in our flesh. We are at war in the spiritual realm. Here, Peter uses more of a summary phrase talking about these fleshly lusts, but elsewhere, the apostles tend to enumerate and elaborate the kinds of fleshly lusts that Peter is talking about. In fact, Paul in Galatians 5 says, Now the works of the flesh are revealed, which are these, adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, rage, selfishness, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I previously warned you, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Peter had a grand concern as he makes this turn in the text. Here there are those who are scattered from home. They are abroad in the world. Persecution has driven them far from the worlds that they know. And he was desperately afraid that while they were in Rome, they would start to do things the Romans were doing. Many of you travel for your work, and you know the unique temptations that come when you're away from home. You know the situations that arise that you could live a thousand lifetimes within a few miles of your house, and you would never find yourself. But now you're out on that work trip, you're traveling, And now all of a sudden you're away from the familiar, you're away from the known, you are away from the habits that you normally have, and here comes the temptation. And Peter knows the temptation that can come when you are away from the familiar, when you are away from what you know, to begin to act in ways that you know you shouldn't. We are at war. We are in a battle. In our time in Ephesians, recently, we walked through that section in Ephesians 6 about the Christian's armor. William Grinnell, in the first section of his, The Christian in Complete Armor, said, it is not enough to have grace, but this grace must be kept in exercise. The Christian's armor is made to be worn. No laying down or putting off our armor till we have done our warfare and finished our course. Our armor and our garment of flesh go off together. Then indeed will be no need of watch and ward, shield or helmet. Those military duties and field graces as I may call faith hope and the rest shall be honorably discharged. In heaven we shall appear, not in armor, but in robes of glory. But here these are to be worn night and day. We must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ." Brothers and sisters, We are at war and we are at war in our own flesh. Our enemy knows us so well because we are him. I love the memes that have come out of this COVID-19 experience in 2020. All that the world has established in January, Australia burned down and it's gone downhill since then in a lot of how these things are presented. And there's one of a suit of armor that the soldier is covered head to toe except tiny slits for the eyes. And it says, me prepared for 2020. And then the next picture is an arrow through that slit and says, 2020. That is oftentimes how we feel in our spiritual battle. We suit up, we get on the armor, we feel we're covered from head to toe, but the enemy seems to find that one little sliver. In fact, if we're honest, many times we will leave parts of our armor open because we want to leave room for enjoyments of the flesh. We want to leave room for sinful pleasures. And the enemy finds that weakness and he takes advantage of it. We're at war. Grinnell says it best. We can't put it off. We can't lay it down. The war is over when this life is over. We must walk, work, and sleep in our armor. Doesn't sound too comfortable, perhaps, when we bring that into the physical understanding of armor and what it is and its weight. But how much less comfortable, as Paul reminds us in Galatians 5, that those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And that means then that their destination is a hellward one. How uncomfortable that would be for all eternity than a life of devotion to the spiritual disciplines and the matters of the faith. So cultivate. your inner defenses against sin. Secondly, cultivate your outer testimony during harassment, during persecution. We are living in a time when it seems less and less popular in some parts of the world to be a Christian. We have brothers and sisters around the globe who are losing their lives because they have claimed the name of Christ. They would much rather have their heavenly inheritance than any earthly one. In a culture like North America today, there's a lot of jargon, there's A lot of deliberation, there's a lot of speech that is said that is very down-putting of the Christian faith. Many times we will cry harassment or cry persecution when perhaps it really isn't that. But yes, there are persecutions and there are more persecutions that will come in our nation. We are in such a cycle. this time. As we think back to what these early Christians were going through, when we think of men like Nero and what he had decided and declared about Christianity, let me read this this portion of the history for you and see if any of it sounds familiar to our day. It says, This is Suetonius speaking of Nero. He devised a new style of building in the city, ordering piazzas to be erected before all households, both in the streets and detached, to give facilities from their terraces in case of fire, for preventing it from spreading. And these he built at his own expense. He likewise designed to extend the city walls as far as Osea and bring the sea from thence by a canal into the old city. Many severe regulations and new orders were made in his time. A sumptuary law was enacted. Public suppers were limited to the sportuli, which is a small wicker basket, and by extension, the events at which those were sold. And in victualing houses, restrained from selling any dressed victuals, except pulse and herbs, whereas before they sold all kinds of meat. That sounded a little familiar to the last six, eight weeks. He likewise inflicted punishments on the Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious superstition. And this is speaking of this perspective of the Christian faith of being like this witchcraft, this enchantment, this unwillingness to bow to the true God and King Caesar himself. How ought we to act in this kind of time when Christianity is waning in some parts of the world? This time in which we find ourselves now where there might be hopelessness, there might be despair. How ought we to act and respond in the face of such persecution? And Patrick Reardon writes, not every day is Sunday, nor does even the holiest soul abide permanently on the mountaintop. Rather, our lives tend to be full of weekdays as we plot a humbler path down below, through the valleys, unable for a season to gain that greater overview of things that allow us to make better sense of them. How do we live in not only the mundane of a weekday, but in the negativity of harassment and persecution? Psalm 39 has some answers for us regarding that. Let me read that Psalm to you and see these few things that help us in this type of season. for the music director to Juduthon, a Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed of my ways so that I do not sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth muzzled while the wicked are before me. I was speechless in silence. I was silent to no avail, but my anguish was stirred up. My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned, then I spoke with my tongue. Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days. that I may know how transient I am. Indeed, you have made my days as a hand breath and my age as nothing before you. Indeed, every man at his best is as a breath." Selah. Surely every man walks in a mere shadow. Surely he goes as a breath. He heaps up riches and does not know who will gather them. Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the reproach of the foolish. I was speechless. I did not open my mouth because you did it. Remove your blow from me. I am consumed by the hostility of your hand. When with rebukes you correct a man for iniquity, you consume like a moth what is dear to him. Surely every man is a vapor. Selah. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears, for I am a stranger with you and a sojourner as all my fathers were. Turn your gaze of displeasure from me that I may smile before I go away and am no more." What do we do in these times when we feel as if we are wasting away and as if life is about to end and that's coming even from the harassments and persecutions of the world around us as David was facing. David did three things. One, he guarded his mouth. He didn't just say what was on his mind. He watched what he said. He also remembered the shortness of life. Man is a breath. Man is a vapor. Man is as smoke. Man is as the grass of the field, which grows and is cut down and grows again. And David also hoped in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, I would encourage you even in this time of a pandemic in our land to do those three things. Watch what you say. Guard your mouth. Be careful how you speak. Remember how short life is anyway. And hope in the Lord. Hope in him. It is He who controls all of these things. Our oldest church member, who will go unnamed because all of you know who she is, always has a wonderful way of putting things. And I was struck as I was speaking with her on the phone this week, she made a statement. How often do you hear of prayers? I'm just gonna put it in God's hands. That's what I'm doing in prayer. I'm taking this out of my control and my understanding and my wisdom. I'm putting it in the hands of God. This is what she said to me. I was asking her about a difficulty in her life. And she said, it's in God's hands. So I pray about it. What a great perspective as we hope in the Lord that this belongs to him. This, this is all him. He has it, He holds it. So let's go to Him in prayer and let's talk to Him about it. What a wonderful perspective. So why do we do these things? Why do we cultivate this inner defense against sin? Why do we cultivate this outer testimony during harassment? Why do we live our lives honorably among the Gentiles, as Peter says. Well, it's so that, and this is number three, it's so that we reap a harvest of souls. Why do we cultivate those things? So that we can reap a harvest. We are to live this way in the face of Gentiles, here a summary word for unbelievers, so that Though they speak against you as evildoers, they shall see your good works and thereby glorify God in the day of visitation. Now, Peter hangs these two previous urgings, this issue of inner cultivation of defense against sin, this cultivation of this outer testimony, on the fact that we are aliens and strangers. And Calvin said, and he so calls them, not because they were banished from their country and scattered into various lands. Remember earlier in the letter, he had talked about their wandering, their sojourning, but that's not why he's calling them that now. Calvin says, but because the children of God wherever they may be, are only guests in this world. We are only guests. Now, our experience of being guests in this world might make us want to hop on Yelp and give a bad review. This place is not very hospitable. The towels were scratchy, the shower was cold, and the food was horrible. But we remember brothers and sisters that this life is not all that there is, but everything in this life is pointing us to and preparing us for the life to come. Bolstered by God's promises that there is the world to come and we will be in it, in Him. Aliens and strangers. aliens and refugees, as the modern English version puts it. And this is language that we hear elsewhere in scripture. This is the language that is used of Abraham in Genesis 23. I am a stranger and a foreigner among you. Give me property for a burying place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. Remember that this Abraham uses this terminology in this first fulfillment of God's promise to him that he would possess the land. And what was that first fulfillment? Remember all the promises of God to Abraham. Abraham was going without knowing. And he arrives in the land and God says, everything that you see, as far as you can see, everywhere your foot goes will be yours. And Abraham is waiting, when will this be fulfilled? When will I own this land? When will it be mine? And finally, he has the chance to buy some property. And what is it? It's a burial plot for his beloved Sarah. In life, he had given her over two times to the arms of another man. But now he had given her over to the arms of death and he would not get her back. He would not see her again until he also entered eternity. Aliens and strangers. We already saw the other place where this language is used in Psalm 39. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears, for I am a stranger with you and a sojourner as all my fathers were. See, we see again how Peter will make these little offhanded references to scripture And out of that scripture flows all of this glorious theology. Peter is already focused on the shortness of life that all man is like grass. Here we're reminded again in how we are to act in this life, in this society, in this culture, how we are to act. Part of how we are to act is remembering how short our lives are. is remembering that this life is not all there is, that we are aliens and strangers. We are sojourners. We are refugees in this life and in this world. Since we are aliens and strangers, brothers and sisters, our home is in eternity with God. Since we are preparing in this life to be in that life, all we do should point to that future reality for us. And what better way to prepare for this grand existential shift than to see as many this life enemies as life to come. friends, that they might make that transition. Peter here speaks of them seeing our good works and thereby glorifying God in the day of visitation. Now, just a glancing quick read through that, that sounds moderately like the judgment day. But in the Greek text, there's no definite article. And Peter's language structure seems to show that there's no coded reference here to the judgment day. He's not using language that is used elsewhere to reflect the day of judgment. But he's more likely speaking of the day of visitation that is an offer of salvation as Jesus speaks of in Luke 19. So in other words, unbelievers see our inner life of holiness doing battle, doing warfare against the sin that is in us, that is at war with us. They also see then our response and our lives in light of their harassment. They're lying about us. They're taking all that we say and twisting it and turning it. We are against murdering babies, therefore we don't care about other people. We're so heavenly minded we're no earthly good. And they'll take any twisting and turning of that and anything that we believe and practice to make it sound bad. The early Christians were incestuous because they loved each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. They were They were eating human flesh. They were cannibals because they were eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood. Everything is just twisted and distorted. And even when those lies are told against us, seeing how we respond to that, remember we guard our words. We remember the shortness of this life and we hope in the Lord. When we act that way in the light of harassment and persecution, God uses that in the lives of unbelievers. So let us be diligent to live godly lives before the unbelieving so that the Lord can use that as another means to present the glories of the gospel to them. And they will in turn receive and rest upon Christ as he is offered to them in the gospel on that day when the Lord visits them by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit and grants them new life. Brothers and sisters, we are to live outwardly in the light of eternity. We are to remember that this life is not all that there is, that there is a life to come. And the only thing that we can take with us into that next life is people. Nothing else. Not our investments, not our homes, nothing else. Only people. And Peter here. is seeking to give these overarching applications as he then works into more specific applications through the rest of the book by saying, let's live in light of that eternity. Let us live inwardly in a way that does battle against our sinful flesh. And let's live outwardly in a way that exposes others to the graces of Jesus Christ. and they will be saved. They, on the day of their visitation, will glorify God. They will be turned into worshipers of the Most High God. And what more could we want? What more could we hope for? That this life enemies are turned to life to come friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, worshiping our heavenly father together. Let's pray. Father, as we bow before you now, we ask that you would use us as a picture of gospel graces to the world around us, not in a prideful way, but in a way that understands our sinfulness and the war that must rage in us against our sinful flesh and in the externalities of our life and the ways that we are confronted and harassed and persecuted, that we live honorable lives before unbelievers, that they will see how we are treated when they lie about us, when they use us, when they persecute us, when they mistreat us, and they will see Christ at work in us. and they will glorify God. Let it be so. Let it be so that you use us to win others to Christ. We have vowed to do so in our membership. Let it be so in our experience day to day. We ask in Jesus name and church, let us pray together. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen, and amen.