Let us turn tonight to 1 Peter,
chapter two. I know it's been several weeks
since we have looked in 1 Peter. We started with the first verse
and first chapter several weeks, maybe months ago now, and then
it's been several weeks since I've brought a message from this
letter, but tonight we've come to verse 11, 2 Peter chapter
2 and verse 11. And with this verse, the apostle
begins to exhort Christians to exhort believers in practical
things concerning our conduct in this world. What we believe
will always influence the way we live. And it should. And those of us who believe and
rejoice in God's sovereign grace, we should live a gracious life. Our conduct should be that of
grace. And so this evening we will notice
several things in these next few verses, verses 11 through
17. Three parts to the message. First,
Peter's expression of love. Dearly beloved, I beseech you. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ
told his disciples before his crucifixion, by this shall all
men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another,
one to another. And then the Apostle John in
his letter, first letter, chapter five and verse one, he said,
whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that beget, that is everyone who loves the Father, because
he is the one who beget those who are begotten again, born
again. Everyone that loveth him that
begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. In other words,
those who are saved by the grace of God, who are born again, who
have a new life, we love God. In fact, in 1 John, he tells
us that if we do not love our brother whom we have seen, How
could we love God, the Father, who we have never seen? Everyone who is begotten of God,
born of God, we love God, and we love all of those also who
are likewise born of God. The apostles, and Peter was,
of course, an apostle. The apostles of Christ, they
had authority. that other ministers do not have
as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was able to write
the church at Corinth and tell them what they were to do with
that man who was living in incest. He was able to do that because
he was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had authority
that other ministers of the gospel we don't have. And Peter could
have written, dearly beloved, I command you. He could have
done that. He had that authority as an apostle,
but he didn't. No, dearly beloved, I beseech
you. Much like the Apostle Paul in
Romans chapter 12, when he begins the practical part of that letter. And most of the letters in the
New Testament are divided into what men have called the doctrinal
part and then the practical part. And some of Paul's letters, the
way the scriptures have been divided into chapters, equally
half of the epistle, I think of the epistle of Ephesians,
especially the first three chapters doctrinal and the last three
chapters practical. But when Paul came to the practical
part of that letter of Romans, chapter 12, it's much the same
as here. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. These words, dearly beloved,
I beseech you, should have, and I believe they did no doubt,
convey to those who first read this letter, and to you and I
as we read this letter, the apostle's love. Remember, the Lord Jesus
asked this particular apostle who had denied him three times,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Simon, of course, said,
yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And each time, the
Lord said, feed my lambs. How was he to show his love to
Christ? By faithfully feeding the flock,
feeding the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, his lambs. These exhortations that we are
going to read, as I said, these beginning words, dearly beloved,
I beseech you should remind these believers, and you and I, believers
in every age, that these exhortations are for our good. They're for
our good, and they are, of course, for the glory of God, first of
all, and for the good of God's people. And I think of Paul's
closing words to the Hebrews in the letter of Hebrews when
he said, I beseech you, brethren, suffer, suffer. The Word of Exhortation. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. And the Word of God, sometimes
it is explicitly for our correction, for our instruction in how we
should live. And sometimes it goes against
the grain of some believers. But we should suffer the word
of exhortation, realizing that God's word and these men who
were used of God in writing God's word is for our good, these exhortations. It's for our good, for our peace. for our joy to be full. So that's
the first thing, Peter's expression of love. Dearly beloved, I beseech
you. But now notice, second, the position
of Christians in this world, strangers and pilgrims. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims. Now let's look at these two terms.
This should be true of every one of us tonight as God's children. We are strangers and we are pilgrims. Strangers, the Greek word that
is here translated strangers, it's only found three other times
in the New Testament. Four times, four texts in which
this word is given to us. And two of those four times it's
translated like it is here as strangers, but one other time
as sojourn and another time as foreigners. So strangers, sojourners,
foreigners. A believer, a child of God, our
citizenship is in heaven. Now that's what the Apostle Paul
tells us. Our citizenship is in heaven. And in this world, or this world
in many ways, we are foreigners. We are sojourners. We're strangers
in a country of which we are not citizens. Our citizenship
is in heaven. I don't know how many of you
have ever lived in a foreign land. But I have my family and
we lived in a foreign land. And there's there's privileges
that citizens have that foreigners do not have. And depending on
your status in a foreign land, you don't have the rights, the
liberty that citizens have. I remember when We drove across
the border in Brownsville, Texas in 1977 and left Mexico for the
last time as missionaries. I later told Brother Gruber,
I said, Walter, I said, you can't believe the pressure that was
lifted off of me. Pressure I didn't even realize
I had until I was back in this country. I'm a citizen of this
country. And I have certain rights, and
you do, right? Our citizenship is in heaven. We're foreigners here, as this
verse tells us. We're strangers, just like Pilgrim
in Pilgrim's Progress, when he made his way through the land
to the Celestial City. You remember, he came to Vanity
Fair, and everything there was to allure to distract him, to
hinder him, to discourage him on his way to heaven. His citizenship
was no longer in this world. And the same is true, this is
what the Apostle Paul, or Apostle Peter, excuse me, says here,
you're strangers. I beseech you, dearly beloved,
as strangers. And not only strangers, but pilgrims. Now the meaning is that this
world is not our permanent home. We're pilgrims here. We're passing
on to our eternal home. The definition, if you were to
look up the definition of a pilgrim in the dictionary, it's very
interesting. I looked it up this past week
and you know there's a reason why those settlers that came
from England in the 1600s to the United States, to the shores
of this country, why they were called pilgrims. There's a reason
why they were called pilgrims. And the same is true of us as
believers. There's a reason why we are referred
to here as believers or pilgrims in this world. We are seeking
a country. that have foundations, and those
foundations, of course, are the purposes of God, the design of
God, the decrees of God. There's a wealth, really, of
instruction. I encourage you. to look up these
two words and look them up in a dictionary, look them up in
the scriptures and think about these words. Because this is
what we are. We're strangers and we are pilgrims
in this world. As Christians in this world,
we are in the world, but we're not of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ said that in his prayer in John chapter 17. And yet,
as Christians, you have obligations. We have obligations in this world. You have obligations to be a
good citizen. You have obligations to support
your family, to earn a living. We have obligations in this world. Yet, there are two things that
we should remember. Even though we have these obligations,
And we want to fulfill them, but we should, as believers.
Now, I'm not talking to unbelievers. That's a fault that sometimes
people try to take the word of God, which speaks to God's children,
and apply it to those who are not God's children. And they
think, well, that's crazy, that's ridiculous. It is, if you're
not a child of God. But to God's children, these
things are pertinent, they're real. But there are two things
we should remember. Yes, we have these obligations
as we live in this country. But as pilgrims, we are to travel
lightly, travel lightly. Have you ever visited the ship
down there in Galveston? I think it's called Alicia. And
and real and just going on that ship and just see how small Those
pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean and they didn't have GPS's,
they didn't have any of these things that men who sail today
have. I mean a storm could just come
up out of nowhere. They had no warning. But the
point is how small they were. And there would be a number of
people on those ships. They didn't bring much with them.
They couldn't. There was no room. And we're
pilgrims in this world, and as pilgrims, travel lightly. So we should not live and acquire
things in this world as though the world is our permanent place
of residence, because it's not. Years ago, back in the 1970s,
I believe, I was at a Bible conference in Kentucky, and I heard a preacher
preach on that rich, young ruler. who came running up to the Lord
and said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And I've never forgotten what
the preacher said. He was, he was a missionary,
a pastor rather from the Caribbean. But I remember what he, he said,
this man was so wealthy, he wanted to live two lives in this world.
He had so much money, he was a rich young ruler. He didn't
want to leave this world. He had so much, he could live
two lifetimes in this world, and that's what he was interested
in. No, a pilgrim is someone who travels lightly, travels
lightly. And number two, as strangers,
strangers think of their homeland, no matter where they may be,
They think of their home, their land, where they are citizens.
And so we should often think about our homeland. We sang that
hymn just a few minutes ago, Meet Me There. We should sing
these hymns and think about our homeland. You know, Abraham,
it is recorded of him, and I mentioned this scripture, he looked for
a city. He looked for a city. He's the
father of the faithful, isn't he? He's the father of every
one of us here tonight, Abraham. He looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heaven is expressed to us under
several different terms, but one of those terms is that of
a city. It's a country. It's called a
country, but it's also referred to as a city. And I mentioned
that tonight because in Bible times, maybe not so much today,
but in Bible times, a city, if someone heard about a city, it
would convey these truths to those persons. Safety, safety,
a city has walls. It's a place of safety. Compactness. People are building
their houses onto each other's houses. Compactness. Provision. In a city, there's provisions,
there's food, and those things necessary. And a resting place. Those four things would be conveyed
to people in Bible days about a city. Safety, provision, compactness,
and a resting place. And so when we think about heaven,
we're pilgrims and strangers. This is not our homeland. We should think about our homeland,
which is heaven, a place where we will be safe. A place where
we will be safe. We will be out of Satan's reach. As long as we're in this world,
we know that he can He can throw those fiery darts at us. He can
be allowed to tempt us as long as we're in this world. But folks,
when we cross over into Beulah land, Zayden's never going to
bother you again. Never again. And then compactness. I think about what our Lord said
in John chapter 14. In my Father's house, house,
singular, There are many mansions. That word is dwelling places,
isn't it? And I don't understand how it's
going to be. I don't have to. I just know it's going to be
good. Jim Groover told me one time, he said, we don't understand
it, but we don't have to understand it. We just know it's going to
be much better than anything we could think of. And that's
true. And just to think, tonight he's
there enjoying that already. compactness, closeness, fellowship
with our Savior and with other believers. Someone asked me just
this past week or made the comment, they said, I sure hope we're
going to know each other in heaven. Well, why wouldn't we? Henry
Mahan used to say, we know each other now. We're going to be
a whole lot more intelligent in heaven than we are now. Sure,
we're going to know each other. And that's going to be good,
isn't it? I know we want to see Christ, first of all, who loved
us and gave himself for us. But it's going to be good, isn't
it, to fellowship with those that we fellowshiped and worshipped
with down here, those that we've known, and to meet some people
that we've only read about, to meet Abraham, to sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. Think about
our homeland. And then, not only compactness,
but provision. In heaven, our homeland, there's
nothing lacking, nothing needful, and a resting place. We will
rest, and yet we will labor, but our labor will not be that
which causes us to tire like when you labor here physically. In heaven, we will never again
know by experience sickness. We have so many people in our
church. I know you pray for one another. I encourage us to do
so. How many people, members of our congregation today, seems
like to me more than any time in 40-some years, we have members
who are sick. There'll be no more sickness,
no more sadness, no more separation. In heaven, our journey is ended
and we enter into our eternal rest. All right, let's go on
now. There are several exhortations
beginning with the last part of verse 11, abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. Fleshly lusts which war against
the soul. The body is flesh, the soul is
spirit. And yet the apostle tells us
that these lusts of our flesh, they war against our spirituality,
our spiritual person. We realize that when a person
is saved, when a person is born again, regenerated, the old nature,
which is called the flesh, is not taken out of us. We are promised
a new heart, that's true, and we are given a new heart, but
the old heart remains. The flesh, it remains. And I
think we should include here in fleshly lust, Peter says,
abstain from fleshly lust, such things as food and drink, that
could be included, sex, pleasure of this world, riches, fame,
all of these things that the flesh seeks after and desires. Abstain from fleshly lust, Peter
says. Now, when I say that, we recognize
that there's moderation. Many of the things that we have
liberty to enjoy, God made us and gave us these things to enjoy. But there's moderation on the
part of a believer. And not only moderation, but
there's mortification. You know what mortification is?
It's putting to death, putting to death the desires of the flesh. Verse 12, these are exhortations,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the spirit. So, number 12, or verse number
12, having your conversation honest. Now the word conversation
has come to mean our speech, but we know when the scriptures
were translated that the word conversation actually means your
lifestyle, the way of life, our way of life. And we should live
and walk honestly before all men. Now, in the days when Peter
wrote this letter, and for some time after that, and even today
in some countries, Christians were accused of all kinds of
evils, all kinds of evils, immoralities, seditions, principles and all
kind of evil practices. Wasn't it Nero who set Rome ablaze
because he wanted to rebuild Rome? But what did he do? He
blamed it on the Christians. That's the Context here, when the scriptures
were written, these believers, they were blamed for all, anytime
there was a tragedy, if there was an earthquake, it's because
there's too many Christians, they're believers. You know,
for a long time, until 300 A.D., Christianity was an outlawed
religion, and because The thing about Christianity, other religions
can get along. They can get along. Not Christianity. Why? Because Christianity teaches
there's one way. There's one way. There's one
way to the Father, and that's Jesus Christ. And it leaves no
wiggle room. No wiggle room. Christians were hated, and yet
the apostle Peter writes, live an honest life. Live in such
a way that all of these accusations that will be brought against
you cannot be substantiated, cannot be proven. In fact, the
way you live will just put to death those accusations. They'll be proven false. Verses
13 and 14, submission to authority. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme
or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.
I tell you folks, we live in a day when this teaching really
needs to be emphasized again in our country. Authority is
ordained of God. We think things are bad today,
but if there were no authority, if there was no policemen, for
instance, if we lived in Houston, Texas, and there was no police
force, can you imagine? I mean, with the police force,
can you imagine what it would be like? All authority is ordained
of God, but here and also in Romans chapter 13, where Paul
deals with this same thing, Authority is to punish evildoers, but to
praise those who are good, law-abiding citizens. And what we, I believe,
we're seeing in our day is that the authority is broken down
and evildoers are not being punished. And you know what that's going
to result in? Chaos. And it's going to result
in vigilante justice eventually. I believe that. People are going
to take the law into their own hands. If the authority, someone
rapes one of my daughters and the authority gives him probation,
now, there's a lot of men, they're going to satisfy justice, right? Sure they are. All authority
is ordained of God, but it is ordained for the punishment of
evildoers and for the praise of those that do well. The fourth thing, verses 15 through
17, the will of God. For so is the will of God that
with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God, honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the king. I will just say a word about
Christian liberty as it is presented to us there in verse 16. We as
God's children, we're set free. We have Christian liberty. The
Lord Jesus said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. We're free from sin, not from
the being of sin. No, we still have sin, we still
commit sin, but we're free from the punishment of sin, the condemning power of sin.
Sin can never condemn a believer. Why? Who is he that condemns? It is God that justifies. So
yes, we have freedom from sin in that sense, and the apostle
tells us that in Romans 6, I believe it is. We have freedom from the
law. The law curses and condemns everyone
that is not obedient in every matter. We're free from the condemnation
of the law. Romans 8 and verse 2, for the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. And we have freedom of access
to the Father. We have freedom. What Christians
do not have freedom to do is to use their freedom to live
and excuse sin. to act in maliciousness, that
is to hurt others, to think that we are somehow above authority.
We don't have to obey the law, the laws of the city, the laws
of the state. We don't have to obey those laws
while we're believers. We're free in Christ. It reminds me of something that
happened here several years ago. On a Wednesday night, I believe
it was, I was preaching, and somehow in my message, I mentioned
the fact that people are always talking about signs, you know,
signs of the last times and signs of this. And I just made the
statement, you don't have to consider these signs. Forget
about those signs. And one of the men here on the
way home told me that when he got down to the stop sign here,
One of his sons said, you don't have to stop for that sign. Preacher said, forget about those
signs. No, that wasn't the kind of signs
I was talking about. I pray the Lord would help each
one of us to, and I know we do, be conscientious about our life,
the way we live, our conduct in this world. We're representatives
of Christ. All right, David, let's sing
it.