Hmm first Peter chapter 2 The Apostle Peter From verse 11 to verse 20 in
this chapter Gives us instructions on how
believers are to live in this world and And these are good
instructions. These are such good instructions. I first when I first looked at
him, I thought about going through all of those verses and just
looking at all of the instructions together. And when I got into
it, I only made it to verse 11. We're just going to look at one
one verse this morning. But he deals with not only how
we are to be inside. how we are to conduct ourselves,
conduct our person. Not only does he deal with that,
he deals with particular situations. And you'll see, you'll agree,
this is needful, needful instruction for all believers. He deals with
how to handle and how to respond to certain things that we all
deal with, things we're faced with every day. The reason that
our God has recorded this in his word is because we need to
know what his will is concerning a lot of different things in
this world. We need to know his will. Peter
starts with the inner man. And then he talks about the outer
man. He is going to talk about the
government. He's going to talk about our
jobs. He's going to talk about our relationships with other
people. How we are to conduct ourselves in this world and it's
important that we understand this is extremely important. That we understand that at no
time does Peter preach works for salvation. At no time he's
about to tell us how to be and how to conduct ourselves and
what we ought to do. And at no time does he preach
works for salvation. None of these instructions are
conditions for salvation. None of them. None of them. Look at verse 11. This is the
first one and the one we'll look at today. Dearly beloved, I beseech
you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul. If we don't do that, if we don't abstain from fleshly
lusts, If we end up not being able to ward those off, if they
overtake us, we will not fall from God's free grace for it. We will not. We will not end
up losing our salvation over it. Peter knew that firsthand. Peter knew it firsthand. He could
not ward it off. while our Lord was standing there
on trial, about to go to the cross. He could not ward it off. As soon as he finished denying
his Lord, rejecting his Lord, cursing his Lord, as soon as
he finished doing all that, the Lord looked at him. That's always
been such an awesome moment. Here he is, denying the Lord,
rejecting the Lord, cursing the Lord. I don't know him. I don't
want to know him. How dare you associate me with
him? And the Lord just looked at him.
And it slew him. It slew him. You know there are
things that happen to us in life that we never get over. Some
things we just never... You think Peter ever got over
that? How often did that come back to his mind? I can't believe
I did that. Well, that's the reason why Peter
wrote what he wrote. That's the, um, that's what we're
going to look at in these verses as we, as we go through them.
But Peter could say from firsthand experience after the Lord, after
the Lord had risen and he told Mary, you go tell my disciples
and Peter. You go tell Peter. He knew from
first-hand experience that God's grace was God's grace, ordered
and sure. And Peter said in this chapter,
he said, if you believe on the chief cornerstone, if you have
cast your all, if you have fallen on him for mercy, Lord, I need
mercy. I am not what I want to be. I'm
not what I ought to be. I'm the opposite of that. And
I need mercy. I need your blood to cover me.
He said, if you've fallen on him for mercy, you're secure.
You're secure. Look at verse nine. But you are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a
peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which
in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
If God chose to save you, then that election And that salvation
is ordered and sure. It is ordered and sure. Don't
we all say, thank God for that. Ordered and sure. Your eternal
security is not dependent on anything but the work that Christ
accomplished on the cross. That's it. All right, now there
are two responses to that. There are two responses to that. This will evidence whether Christ
has performed that work for me. All right, there are two responses
to that. And once you hear them, you probably
have run into it. You've probably experienced it
firsthand. You have an unbeliever's response
to that. And you have a believer's response
to that. The unbeliever says, well if
that's the case, if it's ordered and sure, if Christ accomplished
the work and it's finished and done and I can't mess it up and
all of these things, I don't have to do that. I don't have to do that. If it's
ordered and sure, all these instructions that he's given, I don't have
to listen to that. I can do whatever I want to do.
I can just live like I want to. If that's the case, I can just
go live like I want to. That's an unbeliever's response. A believer says, this is how
I want to live. Now, I don't do it. Not like
I want to. Not like I'm looking forward
to doing one day soon. But I want to. I do. I want to. If that's what my
God has instructed me to do, then that's what I want to do.
And the reason is because I love Him. I love Him. I respect His Word. Don't we
respect His Word? I respect my Father's Word. I respect Marvin Stoniker's Word. I just do. I love Him. And we say the same thing about
our Heavenly Father. We respect His Word. We desire
to honor and obey and please and serve and follow the God
that we love. We do. And we know that if we
do follow Him, that's Him drawing us and dragging us along the
way. We give Him all glory for all things. But we do. We do. That's a believer's response
to it. Now, if God has put that heart in us, then this is the
instruction he gives to us. He says in verse 11, dearly beloved,
dearly beloved, those that I dearly love, I beseech you as strangers
and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. May this sink in for our good.
I mean, may this sink in for our good. We know what fleshly
lusts are. We know what fleshly lusts are.
It's almost everything. Almost every single thing. Almost everything in this world,
almost everything that is in us, and the only reason I say
almost is because Christ dwells in His people. Everything out there, everything
in here is at war with our soul. This is the honest truth. This
is the honest truth. Everything out there and in here
is at war with our soul. It's at war with the stance that
we've taken for the gospel. It's at war with our desire for
the things of God. We have a desire for these things
and everything is against that. It's at war with our peace. We could have absolute peace.
If we would just trust the Lord Jesus Christ, we could have absolute
peace and contentment. But everything is going against
us. Everything is at war with our peace. Everything is at war
with our conscience. Turn over a few pages to 1 John
chapter 2. 1 John 2 verse 16 says, For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Everything
that is out there in the world, all of it is the lust of the
flesh the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and that's
not of the Father, that's of the world. Look with me at James
chapter 1. James 1 verse 13 says, Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And what a horrible thing to
be. Drawn away of our own lust and enticed. So these lusts of
the flesh are without and they are within. We are bombarded
with them. We are bombarded with them. All
of us. We're bombarded by them. Peter said, Believers. Believers. If a person is a believer,
not every person is a believer. Believers. I'm sending out a
call to action. With whatever ability the Lord
will give us, let's try to actively, consciously hinder some of these
things that are harmful to us spiritually. It's a call to action. Hindrances to our spiritual state
Hindrances to our spiritual worship. Hindrances to our spiritual growth. We want to grow. We do. We want to grow. Spiritually. Look with me at Mark chapter
4. This is our Lord giving the parable
of the sower. The seed is thrown out, which
is the word of God, the seed, the words of our God there. They're thrown out and he says
in Mark 4 verse 18. And these are they which are
sown among thorns. This is a thorny ground healer. Such as hear the word. And the cares of this world. And the deceitfulness of riches. And the lusts of other things
entering in. choke the word and it becometh
unfruitful. Now can we not identify with
that? I'm a thorny ground hearer. Okay, that's me. That's me. The word goes out
and we want so badly to hear it. If you had your choice, would
you rather soak up every word that God gives to us or have
it choked out? We want to soak it up. We want
to hear it so badly. But what we believe are such
important matters, and I have them too, We think that's something
I really need to think about right now. I've got to go ahead
and get that settled in my mind. It's an important matter. Let
me take care of that and then I'll get back to things that
we believe are such important matters. The cares of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, they
start entering in and they choke the Word. They choke the Word. It becomes unfruitful. The seed
is not planted. and the fruit of the Spirit does
not grow. This happens to believers all the time. All the time, all
the time, all the time. What Peter is saying is, go to
war with these things. Go to war with these things.
This is vital instruction from one of God's apostles. Go to
war with these things. They're at war with you. They're
at war with you. They're actually called fiery
darts sent from the adversary. And they don't just come during
a worship service. They come all the time. All the
time. Go to the movies. All right. Buy a movie ticket. Get you some
popcorn and a Coke. And sit down and see how hard
it is for you to focus on that movie. It's not going to be hard
at all. You're going to soak it up. You're
going to remember it. You're going to walk out singing
the songs. There are no fiery darts during
that. That's what got your attention. But daily, daily, try to get
your mind on Christ. Try to think on Christ. Try to
pray to Him. Try to do these things and see
what happens. Just see what happens. Peter said, go to war. Go to
war. Fleshly temptations of every kind. Not just lewd, you know,
inappropriate things. All kinds of things. All kinds
of things. Anything that will steal our
attention away from Christ Jesus our Lord. And the faith that
comes from hearing more of Him. The more we hear of Him, the
more faith we have. The peace that comes from hearing
His voice. If he just will bless one word,
he speaks through his word. And if he'll take one word and
bless it to the heart, that brings so much peace. It reminds us
he's still near to me. I'm still his. He's still mine. The assurance that comes from
remembering his blood. We come in here and we say, yeah,
we're as bad as we think we are and we're as bad as this word
says we are. But the blood of Christ has covered all that. And the comfort that comes from
reading his promises. The happiness that comes from
looking to eternity with him. Every time I'm able to enter
into that moment of eternity, that brings me happiness. Peter
said, try as hard as you can to block out every fleshly lust
that wars against that. Make a conscious effort. A conscious
effort to abstain from these things. Now I have an illustration
that I believe is a pretty good one. This is not an illustration
of a fleshly lust. This is an illustration of a
conscious effort to abstain. Alright, a conscious effort for
some of these things that are dangerous. The necessity, the
absolute necessity of a believer abstaining from all these things,
not for eternal good. Christ settled that. But for
the course of this life, for our everything spiritual about
the course of our life, the necessity of this conscious effort, it
has started to sink in to me how bad and how dangerous texting
while driving is. Everybody said that, everybody
said don't do it, and I didn't care. I've been guilty of it many times. But it is starting to hit me
that I could bring great harm to myself. I could bring great
harm to my family if I don't stop doing that. What I'm doing
is, is I'm taking my mind in that moment off of the one thing
needful. I got something necessary in
front of me. I got something that is an issue
of life in front of me. And I'm distracting myself with
fleshly lust. It just goes, di-di-ding, whoa,
who was that? You know what I'm talking about.
And it's really sinking in. This is dangerous. This is dangerous. Just do it once or twice and
realize I almost hit that car. Slam on your brakes. And if the
Lord will help me, and I'm not saying that I'm good at anything
and good at resolve and all that kind of stuff, but if the Lord
will help me, I want to stop. I really do. I look down, I hear
that little ding, and I want to start thinking, don't do that. It can wait. I want to stop. I want to abstain from it. I see the harm in it. I see the
danger in it. And I want, if the Lord will
allow me to, I want to make that decision. That's foolish. Stop being foolish. Don't do
that. And I want to wake up. This is it. May the Lord help
me to do that. What Peter's saying is, let's
apply this same knowledge to spiritual matters, spiritual
things. If I'm doing something that's
a hindrance to my focus on Christ and my hearing the gospel, Lord,
help me to stop doing it. Just help me to stop doing it.
Abstain from it. Paul told Timothy to warn the
brethren of the lust of wanting to be rich. There's some lusts
in particular that are mentioned through the scripture. And he
warned, he told Timothy, warned the brethren of the lust of wanting
to be rich, which every man and woman wants, without exception. He said, it's a hurtful lust
that drowns men in destruction. He said, the love of money is
the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. Brought heartache, heartache,
heartache. It's important to notice that
he didn't say money is the root of all evil. He said the love
of money. The love of money, the desire
to have it and hoard it and hold it and pile it. The love of money,
it's a hurtful to our self, fleshly lust. I want everybody in here
to do well. I want everybody in here to do
well. I want you to have good jobs. I want you to be able to
support your families. I want you to be able to support
God's gospel, his ministry, but may the Lord allow us as it comes
in to abstain from the lust of it. Just the lust of it, what
he has given to us. I got it. I want more of it.
I got to do anything it takes to get more of it. At some point,
Either you or a believer you know will say, my job is moving
me away from the gospel. At some point, either you or
a believer you know will say, my job is moving me away from
the gospel. It's a good job. I get paid well.
I have great benefits, such own and so forth. Quit your job. abstain from it. You can't tell
a man to quit his job. You're going to get behind a
pulpit. That man might listen to you. He might quit his job.
He's going to cut off his income to his family. You cannot tell
a man to quit his job. I can't tell a man to leave the
gospel. I sure can't do that. That's
the one thing needful in this life. And it's happened so many
times. It's happened so many times.
If that ever happens to anyone here, based on the Word of God,
quit your job for Christ's sake and the Gospels, and then watch
and see what happens. Based on the Word of God. I'm
totally just casting this statement on the promise of His Word. If
it's going to move you away from the gospel of Christ, quit your
job for the gospel sake and then see what happens. Paul told Timothy
to warn about youthful lust, all of these things that we went
after in our youth, things that are not really significant at
all. They don't, they just don't matter. Things that steal our
time and our attention away from Christ and his people. He warned
about naive lust. putting ourselves in a position
where we just let our guard down. We're not watchful, we're not
sober. James warned of praying to God in such a way, and see
if this one doesn't hit home, praying to God in such a way
where we're asking amiss that we may consume it upon our lust. asking, would you do this for
me because that's what I want to see done. We're our own worst enemy. He
knows the end. We don't. He knows what's best.
We don't. The Lord said, when you pray,
say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven. And just leave it there. All
right, go back to our text and we'll end with this. Peter started
this chapter, chapter 2, verse Peter 2, he started the chapter
by saying in verse 1, wherefore, laying aside all malice and all
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, those
are all fleshly lusts, and he said make a conscious effort
to lay all that stuff aside, abstain from it, And he said
in verse two, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the
word, that you may grow thereby. If so be, you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Newborn babes have not had the
opportunity to enter into too many fleshly lusts yet. They have some, but not very
many. And isn't it wonderful, isn't
it refreshing when the Lord floods us with thoughts of Him? When
He honestly sends His Spirit and we enter into His purity
and His holiness and how good He is and how right He is and
just for a second we just set the filth of the flesh down.
Isn't that wonderful? Like we're washed with the water
of the Word. Just for a moment. It's like
we take a shower. We're washed with the water of
the Word. Those moments and those times
are good for the soul. They are good for the soul. God
sends those times and He gets all the glory for it. But here's
some wise instruction from God's Apostle. He said, let's do everything
that we can to do away with everything that is a hindrance to that washing
of the Word. God does it, and God gets the
glory for it, and let's do away with everything we can to hinder
it. Moses wrote this. He said in Deuteronomy 12, verse
28, Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that
it may go well with thee. and with thy children, after
thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right
in the sight of the Lord thy God." What is good and right
in the sight of the Lord our God? Hear Him. Believe on Him. Bow to Him. Lord, help us to do that. Help
us to do that. Okay, you're dismissed.