Our sermon passage this morning is from 1 Peter chapter 2. And I'll be reading verses 11 through 17. 1 Peter chapter 2. First Peter, chapter 2, 11-17. Before I read, would you please join me in seeking the Lord in prayer? Lord Jesus Christ, you have sent the Holy Spirit from on high to your church, and you have given us your word. You have purposed preaching to move us to maturity, to stir us to good works, to lead us into worship. You accomplish so many things from your pulpit. And man is so weak and limited and inefficient. So I pray, Lord, that as you are our great shepherd, that we would hear the voice of our shepherd. That we as your sheep would hear you. That your spirit would quicken our hearts to be able to live in the way that you have called us to. To trust what you tell us to trust and to believe and speak to others what you instruct. to accomplish your purposes in preaching this morning, Lord, I ask you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. First Peter, chapter 2, verses 11 through 17. Please give your attention to the word of God. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do good. This is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Well, the last time we were at Peter, we talked about his burden to make sure that the church understands her identity. And one of the things that he always pairs with that identity is Peter's second concern, conduct. He's always pairing identity and conduct, who you are and how you need to act. If you remember, you can flip back there with me if you'd like, towards the later portion of chapter 1, Peter's concern was conduct. Verse 15, as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. He teaches the church that we need to be holy because our God is holy. He also says that because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we can break away from the aimless, useless conduct received from our fathers, or from traditions, or from the societies that we are in. And so in that passage, Peter also lets you know who is watching you. He says, God, that you will have to give an account of how you conducted yourself during this time of exile. We heard actually a little bit of that also in our Deuteronomy reading, that you will have to give an account. But Peter says that somebody else is watching you besides God. You have tons of other eyes watching how you live. You have your children, you have your neighbors, you have co-workers, classmates, civil leaders taking notice of what the church does. How does the church act? Peter says this is actually a good thing because the church is called to be on display. And when the church is faithful and practicing obedience, two things can happen. Either one, the church will be put to silence, excuse me, not the church, the world will be put to silence, or God will use the church for obedience and her witness to save sinners. This is what happens when the Church is faithful. People will speak negatively against the Church, only to be put to silence in the Day of Judgment, or Peter calls it the Day of Visitation, and that's the Day of Judgment. The Lord Jesus' first visit was when He took on flesh, died for our sins, resurrected. His second visit will be when He consummates the Kingdom. And those who spoke ill of the Church and did not turn to Jesus will be put to silence once and for all. There will be no more mocking or belittling God's pride. But the second thing that can happen is that people can get saved. That those who would persecute the Church say mean things about the church, untrue things about the people of God, can be saved by witnessing the people of God in obedience to the Lord. Now this is what Peter is calling the church to, and this takes courage. It takes courage to live in a place where you are at best tolerated as Christians. It takes courage to live in places where you will not be part of the group. You won't be one of the guys or gals. You won't be on the in crowd. Remember how Peter addresses us in the beginning of our passage. You're sojourners and pilgrims. You will never be properly rooted in this world. And so this takes courage to be in the world, but not of it. to be around those who are in disagreement with you, who would not call your Lord precious, and to live in obedience around them. And of course, at this point, we could ask Peter the most profound theological question there is. Why? This is the question children just know instantly. Why? Why, Peter, do I need to live in a place where when I go for a walk in my neighborhood, I see signs that let me know I am not wanted? That my beliefs and convictions are old, antiquated, oppressive, racist, homophobic. Why do I need to live here? Why do I need to work and study in a field where my belief in creation makes me an object of mockery? Why? Why live around people that don't like Jesus and don't like his church? And this is a question that these Christians in age of modern would have. Persecution at this point is not so much legal or in the court, but it's being pushed out of the markets, being kicked out of families. It's this kind of hostility, this marginalization that they're experiencing that maybe some of you are experiencing. Well, in light of that question why, I think we have two responses. One from the Lord Jesus Christ and one from Peter. And the one from Jesus is the teaching he gives us in Matthew 5. You remember the sermon on the mount. What does Jesus say? You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Jesus wants you there. Jesus wants you in those places. Jesus certainly has the power and authority to zip his Christians out of the world, place them in a nice secluded location with a sign that says, unbelievers, keep away, stay out. But he doesn't do that. He sends you in communities where you might be the only Christian. He gives you employment. where you have to show your co-workers what does it mean to be a Christian. Your jobs, your fields of study, your communities, friends, they really might not want you to be there. But Jesus does. So it doesn't really matter what the community or your co-workers may think. The Lord Jesus wants you there. Because you belong to him and he has called you to be salt and light. Jesus wants a church on Antrim Street. He wants unbelievers in Malden, Cambridge, Medford, Somerville, fill in other geography that I didn't get, to be able to point to people and say, look at those Christians. They're weird. They're different. They don't live like we do. This is the Lord's will. Second response is from Peter. A little bit of a harder response. Peter says, remember who you are really at war with. You know, the persecution or the suffering that we're experiencing here in the States can really be discouraging. It can make you lose out on opportunities in academia or in other careers. But no unbeliever can harm your soul. But Peter says your fleshly desires that are with you all the time can. Peter would by no means deny the difficulty that the church can have living in a hostile world. That's why we have first Peter. But he reminds us that as you are thinking about those who are sometimes going to be your enemy, because remember they can get saved, Don't forget to fight against what is always after your life, your fleshly desires. You know, you can think about it with marriage. You can walk down your block and see all kinds of signs and propaganda that let people know they don't like your view of marriage. But husbands, wives, what's really a threat to your marriage? Well, it's not all believers. The threat to your marriage is what? Your fleshly desires. Pride, selfishness, lust, bitterness, being unwilling to be gentle, merciful. That's what'll take your marriage out. So Peter says, hey, we are going to talk about the world. That's actually going to be next week, when you are suffering from the world and it is unjust. But he starts by saying, remember the enemy who is always with you, who you are at war with. This is verse 11. Abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. You know, I'd like to make A suggestion is maybe a different translation. So fleshly lust could just be earthly desire. The reason why I prefer that is because often when we hear lust, we think about erotic things or sexual temptation. That's not what exhausts the idea of lust. earthly desires is this strong longing or a must-have orientation to something of this world. To the detriment of your faith, the Church, the Gospel. Right, so we can't make the mistake of hearing Peter write about fleshly lust and say, well, I'm not struggling with pornography, or I'm not sweeping around, so this lust category doesn't apply to me. Remember, Peter is writing to the church. That you has that you all aspect to it, or the y'all. Although we don't really say y'all in these texts. But anyway, you get the point. And so he says, you all need to take to heart the earthly desires that are in your heart, your mind, that wage war against your soul. You can hear, again, Jesus' teaching behind Peter's teaching, particularly the parable of the sower. You remember towards the end of chapter one, Peter says that your souls have been purified by obeying the truth. by repenting and placing your faith in Christ, your souls have been purified and now you are the seed that is growing. When we get to Mark, Jesus talks about what chokes out these seeds that grow. Here's the words of our Lord Jesus, now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things. Another reason why I don't prefer the fleshly lust translation is because desires for other things is the same Greek word. It's earthly desires that enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Peter says your earthly desires want to choke the life out of you. And this means we have to change the way that we often view temptation or our earthly desires. Our earthly desires are killers, enemies. They're not donuts. Now why would I say something so silly like that? Because how do you abstain from donuts? One, you affirm the goodness of the donut. This donut is delicious. Look at it. It has sprinkles and chocolate on it. And then second, you remind yourself, well, I'm abstaining from the donut because I'd like to lose a little weight. You know, we're going to be going to the beach. I'd like to look good. Third, you return back to the goodness of the donut. I really want this donut. And then fourth, you abstain from the donut. And often, friends, That's how we can approach our earthly desires. There's something good that God is withholding from me. There's pleasure, money, comfort, success out in this world that's good and God is holding it from me, but I probably shouldn't. We try to abstain from these desires that are at war against our soul. as if it's a donut. But this isn't what Peter is saying. He rather brings us into a war zone. And when you are in a war zone, how do you abstain, with his language, from an enemy? It's very simple. I will kill this enemy, or he will kill me. You wouldn't affirm the goodness of your end. Well, I can see he's a rather fit soldier and maybe he's been working out. You wouldn't come, you wouldn't think about those things. It is either his life or my own. And Peter says this is the approach that you need to have towards temptation. You know, last week, boys and girls, I gave you some aspects from my past that I don't want you to repeat, about being tossed back and forth, about trying to figure out who you are. You don't have to do that. I think another temptation for where you're at in your Christian life is to think by saying no to the world, you're really missing out. It's so much fun and good things to be had, but because you're a Christian, I guess you're gonna have to miss out on those things. And to believe that, boys and girls, would be to fail to see how much you were loved by Jesus. He's not gonna withhold any good thing from you. He gave his life for you. And let's say you did make that mistake of saying, I'm a young Christian, so I need to indulge in the world while I can, and I'll just ask God for forgiveness later. Do you know what would happen? You would be like Augustine. Augustine, that bishop from Hippo, a great figure in church history, who says, Lord, how late, how late in life did I come to see how amazing you are? He didn't view it as getting the best of both worlds. I got my delight in the world in, and then I came to be a bishop of the church even. But he looks back and says, what a waste. Don't make that mistake. Because like, You will read Augustine and say he was right. What a waste. All this time I could have spent feeding the desires of the spirit, growing in holiness and righteousness, having a life that won't perish, I spent it on the world. Friends, you are at war. You are at war with desires that want to kill your soul. And the way that you defeat this is by having these new desires that you have gained from your new birth. And you remember that throughout this letter so far, Peter's also been emphasizing the new birth. You've been born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You were born again through the seed of the Word. And with that, you have been given new desires. and it is your actions that feed these desires. You want to be patient, being and acting patient, joyful, loving, merciful, giving yourself to these things. It's what causes these desires to grow. You know, I think one of the worst ways to try to abstain from sin is to make it entirely on I don't want to do this. I don't want to be grumpy. I don't want to be selfish. I don't want to have lack of discipline over my eyes or thoughts. I don't want to be vengeful. That's not going to work. You have to desire what God has placed in you through the Spirit and the Word. I want to be patient. I want to be considerate, self-sacrificial, humble. Lord, lead me to these things. Give me strength to be this way. A life led by the Spirit's desires, this would be noticeable. I think it's interesting that Peter envisions the church being public enough the unbelievers are able to see the good works. Again, he's getting this from Matthew 5, right? Let your light shine before others. So I don't think then this calls for Christians that every time they're going to do a good work to look around and make sure they announce it to the world or to, you know, take selfies as you're bringing food to somebody and push it on, you know, social media. But Christians should not be shamed, reluctant, or fearful to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in front of the eyes of all. A Christian should not live by the what-if category. What do I mean by that? If I say this out loud, what if people respond this way? If I perform this obedience to God's law, what if someone responds that way? Peter says, don't worry about the what-ifs. Obey the Lord. And it is the Lord, through your obedience, who will decide what if it comes down on you. He will determine whether, as you are being a faithful bride, obeying the Lord Jesus, whether He will save or silence. This is what we get in verse 12, that they would give glory to God in the day of visitation, which I would equate with salvation, coming to know who Jesus is, Verse 15, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, which I think would be entrusting them to the judgment of the Lord, which we'll get to next week. Here's what the church knows you are to obey. This is what you've been called to do, and in your obedience they may speak about you as evildoers. Here's what you don't know, what the result will be. You do not know whether someone will come to faith or whether they will reject you. But you should obey because this is your calling. As I was preparing this sermon, I thought about two stories that I had heard from a dear brother in faith. And both have to do with high school. He was, like many of you boys and girls, trying to live a faithful Christian life in school. And so later, much later, he gets a letter from someone who essentially says, you know, hey, I'll give him a name, Henry. Hey Henry, I was on my college campus and somebody wanted to share the gospel with me and I thought, Christians? I don't want to hear about that. But then I remembered you were a Christian and you weren't an idiot. And so I decided to give them a hearing. And now I'm a Christian. All right, so this is by him living as a Christian visibly. It gained a hearing for the gospel. And you could do this too. Second story, same individual. I think I said Henry is the name we'll go with. Henry was on a bus with some of his teammates. And one of his teammates brought beer onto the bus. And so they're doing some underage drinking, and they ask Henry, please join us. Henry says, no. When Henry graduates, what does he find in his yearbook? Hey, I really wish you would have joined with us when we were drinking. I wish you would have joined in. Henry had no idea what was going to happen in those scenarios. But he knew who he belonged to. He belonged to the Lord Jesus. And he knew what he had to do. Obey the Lord. Abstain from earthly desires. And friends, this is the reality that can happen. We pray for the Lord to do in your communities, your homes, your places of work, that by your faithfulness, they would come to hear the gospel. That you would be a people honoring all people and rulers, fearing God and loving the brotherhood. That kings and rulers would decide to rule in favor of the church, to see the church as a blessing, not a hindrance to progress. This is actually some of the earliest apologetic material you get in church history. It's not, you know, are the Gospels reliable, or so on and so forth. It's, let me tell you why, Emperor, even though we're not going to treat you like God, we're the best citizens you have. We share all of our stuff, except our wives. Think about that being a strong apologetic at the time. We save children who are thrown on trash heaps or exposed. We are poor, and yet we make everyone rich. They were making this argument that our faithfulness to the Lord Jesus doesn't cause this retreat where we're moving to Christian ghettos, but it actually makes us your most valuable citizens. And this is what Peter is calling the church to be. Honor all people and rulers. Fear God and love the brotherhood. Well, this week, you have a lot of good things to do. You need to be praying for those unbelievers who you are around. You need to be praying for the Spirit to give you strength to abstain from fleshly lust, to give you a mind to view those desires as enemies, not as donuts. And you need to be praying that in all things the Lord will be glorified. Will you do that this week? Will you take the consistent oppression and opposition of the flesh seriously? And will you seek to win others to the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Lord, who are we? to be saved, to be united to your son, to be given life, to be delivered from sin and death. Thank you so much that you have saved us and you have determined to spread and expand your kingdom through the church. Oh Lord, help us to be faithful. We pray this in Jesus' name.