Sojourners, Exiles, and Citizens

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:08.830 It was written, we believe, from Rome about eighty sixty five to gentile 2 00:00:08.949 --> 00:00:16.870 Christians disperse throughout several provinces of Asia Minor. It's written directly to them, 3 00:00:18.309 --> 00:00:26.660 but it's also written to Gentile Christians attending covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Tucson, 4 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:33.500 Arizona, on eighteen April in two thousand and twenty one. So pay heed 5 00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:37.490 to what Peter has to say to us here. Let's stand together as I 6 00:00:37.649 --> 00:00:50.320 read First Peter to verses eleven through seventeen. Beloved, I urge you, 7 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:56.840 as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage 8 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:03.200 war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable, so that 9 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.549 when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds 10 00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:12.590 and glorify God. On the day of visitation. Be Subject, for the 11 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:17.349 Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as 12 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:23.099 supreme or to governors as sent by him, to punish those who do evil 13 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:26.939 and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God 14 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:32.379 that by doing good, you should put the silence, the ignorance of foolish 15 00:01:32.459 --> 00:01:38.609 people live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover 16 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:44.930 up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love 17 00:01:45.049 --> 00:01:49.640 the Brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. This is the word of 18 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:57.400 the Lord. Let's pray. Father, it is indeed good to be here 19 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:00.829 this morning to study this letter written by Your Apostle Peter, to your church, 20 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:07.270 written to not only disperse Christians in Peter's Day, but also to us 21 00:02:07.389 --> 00:02:12.990 in our day. Lord, come now and teach us, give us insights 22 00:02:13.030 --> 00:02:16.939 as to how we are to live as Christian men and women in this hostile 23 00:02:16.979 --> 00:02:22.060 world, in real life situations, and I pray this in Christ's name. 24 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:30.009 Men, please be seated. You know, as is not infrequently the case, 25 00:02:30.689 --> 00:02:38.009 the the chapter divisions of the Bible being added long after the completion of 26 00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:42.930 the New Testament, are not always located in the most appropriate place, and 27 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:46.080 that's the case here in our text for this morning. We should have a 28 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:53.879 chapter division here, at at Verse Eleven of Chapter Two, since verse eleven 29 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:59.669 rather obviously begins a brand new section of Peter's letter. It's here that Peter 30 00:02:59.870 --> 00:03:05.909 begins what is structurally the second half of his letter. You know, whereas 31 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:10.590 the first part of the letter is primarily theological in focus. This part, 32 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:16.419 beginning in verse eleven, is pretty much practical in emphasis. Now, in 33 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:22.379 the first part, Peter Deals with the identity of Christians, their placed in 34 00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:27.810 the Church of God and the purpose God had informing them into a kingdom of 35 00:03:28.169 --> 00:03:32.689 priests. Now, in this second part, his attention shifts to the place 36 00:03:32.849 --> 00:03:39.169 or position of Christians in the world, among gentiles, as it were. 37 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:46.439 If they are God's chosen people, a holy nation and a royal priesthood, 38 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:52.080 which people, which Peter says they are? In Verse Nine, how should 39 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:59.189 they relate to the society around them, to the governments of this world and, 40 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:04.189 in particular, how should they respond to the world's animosity and, in 41 00:04:04.349 --> 00:04:13.139 some cases, rejection? They may be the apple of God's eye, they 42 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:17.139 may be his chosen people, his servants in the world, but the world 43 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:25.050 hardly believes it. So how are Christians to relate to the unbelieving world? 44 00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:30.009 And Peter Answers that here in this short text. So, as I see 45 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:36.889 it, here's the main theme of this passage. Nations, their governments and 46 00:04:38.129 --> 00:04:45.920 other worldly things provide simply an environment in which Christians can demonstrate their faith, 47 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:49.800 give glory to God. and to love their neighbor. And so I want 48 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:57.550 to want us to take a look this morning and develop that theme. Versus 49 00:04:57.629 --> 00:05:00.870 Eleven and twelve here in the text are a general introduction to this new chapter 50 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:06.259 in which Peter gives us. He gives us three general principles which then lead 51 00:05:06.339 --> 00:05:15.459 into a long series of ethical exhortations. And these principles provide the context, 52 00:05:15.379 --> 00:05:23.129 they provide the foundation for Peter's description of what your Christian life and my Christian 53 00:05:23.209 --> 00:05:29.410 life should look like as we live in this hostile world. And Peter begins 54 00:05:29.569 --> 00:05:33.610 by repeating what he said about these people at the beginning of the letter, 55 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:42.360 that they are so journals, that is, their resident aliens, people who 56 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:50.110 don't have a permanent place in this world. They're also exiles, their foreigners, 57 00:05:51.310 --> 00:05:56.750 that is, they don't belong to the world's native population. They're outsiders, 58 00:05:56.790 --> 00:06:02.069 they never fully fit in. Now Peters talking about ethics. Here he's 59 00:06:02.110 --> 00:06:11.459 talking about how Christians are to behave because their sojourners and exiles in this world 60 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:15.459 and because it cannot be their home, not only because it's passing away, 61 00:06:17.139 --> 00:06:24.009 but because it's not it's not congenial to their life as the people of God. 62 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:30.970 They have to take their ethics, their way of life, not from 63 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:38.120 the world around them but from their true homeland, and their true homeland is 64 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:46.079 a very different moral and spiritual culture. Now, Peter is certainly not recommending 65 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:51.509 that Christians withdraw from the world. I think a lot of Christians have sometimes 66 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:58.870 misunderstood Peter in this way. Some forms of for example, monasticism, were 67 00:06:58.910 --> 00:07:03.259 an attempt to separate Christians from the world. But that's not what peters getting 68 00:07:03.300 --> 00:07:11.060 at here. Indeed, I think he would certainly attest that Christians were and 69 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:15.490 are to be worldly in the best sense of that word. The Apostle Paul 70 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:20.209 certainly was. He wore the same clothes, he ate the same food, 71 00:07:21.850 --> 00:07:29.209 he earned his living in the same way as unbelieving people around him. He 72 00:07:29.329 --> 00:07:33.639 read the world's books, he knew the world's poetry. Remember, he was 73 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:41.680 a Roman citizen, which he proved himself quite willing to appeal to as his 74 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:46.149 rights as a citizen of the empire. He was in those respects. Paul 75 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:50.709 was thoroughly at home in the world. So Peter is speaking here. I 76 00:07:50.750 --> 00:07:59.740 think his verse twelve confirms of Christians as sojourners and exiles in the moral and 77 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:07.139 ethical sense. He's speaking about their conduct, how they are to behave as 78 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:13.610 they move in and about the world in which we live. The lives of 79 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:20.170 Christians are to be nourished by, and I are to reflect the principles and 80 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:28.480 practices of that place and that world to which they're heading. And there's such 81 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:35.000 a difference between this world and that world that it's inevitable that each world should 82 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:41.029 produce a very different way of life, a different so fundamental that it ought 83 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:48.990 to be distinctly visible and impressive to unbelievers. So here's what Peter is asking 84 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:58.580 of these people, asking us. In what ways is it obvious that you 85 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:05.379 and I do not live the world's life, that we belong to another country, 86 00:09:07.139 --> 00:09:13.730 that our speech, our customs, our habits are very different from those 87 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:20.409 of this world? That's what he's asking. Have we taken, in this 88 00:09:20.649 --> 00:09:26.600 way or in that way, our values from the world are? Are they 89 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:35.120 consistent with the life of our homeland? Are Our business ethics those of this 90 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:46.230 world or those of Heaven? Is Our family organization worldly or heavenly? What 91 00:09:46.350 --> 00:09:56.340 about our thinking about the use of money or time or the choice of entertainment? 92 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:05.419 Is Our life related to God in the way this world prefers distant, 93 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:13.490 attenuated, irrelevant in most respects, or as it is in heaven, where 94 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:18.929 his glory, his purpose, his wonderful love and wisdom dominate everything and preoccupy 95 00:10:20.450 --> 00:10:28.120 everybody. Do we speaking of foreign accent that demonstrate to the people of this 96 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:35.710 world that we are from another place? Ought we not to take care never 97 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:41.429 to behave in ways that suggest that we would rather live here than they're in 98 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:48.269 heaven? Ought we not to have such a sense of heaven as our home 99 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:56.980 that we feel detached from this world and unimpressed by its allurements? You know, 100 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:00.980 of course we should, but the question is, you know, do 101 00:11:01.179 --> 00:11:07.809 we? So Peter tells us to live here on Earth as strangers and aliens. 102 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:13.610 This is Peter's thought, this challenge to us here in verse eleven. 103 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:18.519 I hope you see that. You know a Parentan by the name of Thomas 104 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:26.000 Kin one, said this of his friend Isaac Walton. He said of this 105 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:33.110 just man. Let this do praise beginning. Heaven was in him before he 106 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:39.629 was in heaven. You know, does that describe you? Your thoughts, 107 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:45.750 your actions? So I think that's one general, general principle that Peter lays 108 00:11:45.789 --> 00:11:52.100 out here. The next of these general principles is found in this exhortation of 109 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:58.740 Peter here in verse twelve. Keep your conduct among the gentile as honorable, 110 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:03.610 so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good 111 00:12:03.730 --> 00:12:09.210 works and glorify God on the day of visitation. You know, Jesus said 112 00:12:09.330 --> 00:12:13.610 something similar to this earlier in his sermon on the Mount. Memory said, 113 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:18.320 let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise 114 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:22.519 your father in heaven. So what Peter gives us here, because the Lord 115 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:28.559 did before him. It's an exhortation with a motive. It's an exhortation with 116 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:33.830 an intention. The exhortation is pretty plain. It's right there on the service 117 00:12:35.029 --> 00:12:39.870 live a life of love and good deeds, and so is the modive for 118 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:46.980 doing that. Live your lives for the effect they will have on unbelievers who 119 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:52.500 are watching you. You know, there's a lot of reasons we're living a 120 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:56.860 faithful Christian life. A great many modives for God, Godliness that the Bible 121 00:12:56.899 --> 00:13:03.649 speaks of. There's a love for God, gratitude to God, there's a 122 00:13:03.730 --> 00:13:09.970 desire for reward, there's a fear of God and his judgments. At the 123 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:13.639 same time, there's a sense of duty and honor. All of those things 124 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.440 and others are to drive us on to love and good deeds. And Peter 125 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:26.960 adds one more motivation here. We're also to act out of the desire to 126 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:33.549 see our lives produce a spiritual effect in the hearts of others and the prospect 127 00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:39.710 of people who do not believe giving glory to God as a result. We're 128 00:13:39.789 --> 00:13:43.779 to live, Peter says, so as to make unbelievers set up and take 129 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:50.019 notice of the kind of life that we live, whether in marriage, family, 130 00:13:50.419 --> 00:13:54.299 neighborhood, at work, school, play. You know. Do we 131 00:13:54.419 --> 00:13:58.450 think of this? Is this part of who we are as Christian men and 132 00:14:00.009 --> 00:14:05.769 women? Well, Peter Thinks so. He says so. Men, do 133 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:13.039 we treat our wives with patience, Love, grace forgiveness? Do we treat 134 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:20.279 our children with affection, with consideration? Who We treat our parents and friends 135 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.029 in a way that will make unbeliever unbelievers notice because it's so different from what 136 00:14:26.149 --> 00:14:31.110 they ordinarily see, even in a way that will make them envy us and 137 00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:37.710 want to imitate us in our behavior? Do we do those things? So 138 00:14:37.909 --> 00:14:41.940 there are lots of good reasons to live a committed, faithful, obedient, 139 00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:48.779 consecrated, sacrificial Christian life. This is but one of them, but it's 140 00:14:48.820 --> 00:14:56.450 important nonetheless that we can live so as to bring even pagans to give glory 141 00:14:56.610 --> 00:15:01.009 to God. God help us all to influence those around us for him. 142 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:09.120 God help us all to do that on purpose. The third and final perspective 143 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.799 that Peter gives us here. It's not an approach that defines our way of 144 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.679 life necessarily so much as it is a description of what it will take to 145 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:24.190 live it. I'm speaking of that little phrase at the end of Versalleven, 146 00:15:26.830 --> 00:15:33.029 which wage war against your soul. You know, I suppose, that it's 147 00:15:33.110 --> 00:15:39.379 the it's the universal experience of Christians that it comes as a shock to discover 148 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:46.100 that the Christian life is as difficult as it is, you know, more 149 00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:50.409 demoralizing. I think still is a discovery that most of the difficulty is within 150 00:15:50.490 --> 00:16:00.649 us. It's our own predilection for sin, our own unwillingness to submit to 151 00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:06.919 the rule of our savior and these and his law, our own continuing fascination 152 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:15.320 with the allurements of the world. The longer I live as a Christian man, 153 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:23.629 the more unassailable is the fact that the passions of my own flesh are 154 00:16:23.750 --> 00:16:30.230 waging constant warfare again since my soul and I'm a big fan of Winston Churchill. 155 00:16:30.470 --> 00:16:34.179 Some of you know that he wrote a book entitled Blood, Sweat and 156 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:41.179 tears about the difficult progress and the impact of World War II on the people 157 00:16:41.259 --> 00:16:45.659 of England. Well, here is the blood's blood, sweat and tears of 158 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:51.850 the Christian life. This is the pain and the anguish, the humiliation, 159 00:16:52.889 --> 00:16:57.690 the frustration. Here's the all too frequent defeat, but here too is the 160 00:16:57.730 --> 00:17:04.559 victory. You know, when job said that he abhorred himself, he was 161 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.440 speaking for you and me, for every believer. You know, I cannot 162 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:15.829 believe some of the things I do. I cannot believe some of the things 163 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:23.230 I think, but the Bible teaches us that this is so. There will 164 00:17:23.309 --> 00:17:30.099 be struggle, failure, pain, frustration and exhaustion in our Christian lives, 165 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:33.900 everyone's. That is the way it is. You know, the Christian life 166 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:41.500 is described as a battle or warfare in many different ways. You know, 167 00:17:41.579 --> 00:17:48.690 our enemies are identified as the world, the flesh, the devil. We're 168 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:52.569 taught in scripture what weapons were to wield, to put on the whole armor 169 00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:56.529 of God, as Paul describes it, and how we're to fight the good 170 00:17:56.609 --> 00:18:02.640 fight of faith with the weapons of our warfare, by which we take every 171 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:10.799 thought captive to Christ. But that the Christian life is war. No one 172 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:18.150 with the Bible in his hand can deny that it's a war. Christ himself 173 00:18:18.710 --> 00:18:25.109 is frequently depicted in the Bible as a warrior, most famously, I suppose, 174 00:18:25.349 --> 00:18:27.819 in the account of the second coming and revelation. Nineteen go home today. 175 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:32.900 Read that, read that passage, and we who follow him are, 176 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:37.380 in the nature of the case, soldiers in his army, doing battle with 177 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:44.849 his enemies as well as ours. Spiritual warfare certainly has other dimensions, but 178 00:18:45.049 --> 00:18:49.130 first and foremost it is what Peter describes it to be. Here. Abstain 179 00:18:49.329 --> 00:18:56.720 from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul. You know 180 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:03.039 they're are certainly a biblical text that might seem to suggest that in Christ have 181 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:07.079 a one the great victory over sin and devil. Those who trust in Christ 182 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:15.230 would find the passions of the fleace flesh a toothless full without power to do 183 00:19:15.349 --> 00:19:22.029 US harm. And I think you know, certainly that's ultimately true. But 184 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:27.660 though the enemy is beaten, whether our own sinful flesh or Satan himself, 185 00:19:30.019 --> 00:19:34.819 he has not left the field, he's not going quietly into the night. 186 00:19:36.819 --> 00:19:41.049 He's still hoping, in the fury and bitterness of his defeat, to do 187 00:19:41.170 --> 00:19:45.490 all the harm that he can. You know that. You know the famous 188 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:51.609 illustration, I think, of that situation that prevails in this spiritual warfare, 189 00:19:51.769 --> 00:19:55.000 the Christian life. It was provided by a man by the name of Oscar 190 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.839 Coolman. He's a swims Swiss theologian in the middle of the twentye century, 191 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:06.759 and he likened our situation to that of the Allies After d day in World 192 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:11.829 War II. He referred to it as the D day analogy. Said even 193 00:20:11.910 --> 00:20:18.069 the German generals, even the German generals, knew that once the allied armies 194 00:20:18.109 --> 00:20:22.619 were safely ashore at Normandy and ready to confront the Verrmoch, that the war 195 00:20:22.819 --> 00:20:29.740 was essentially over. Germany's defeat was now inevitable. There was nothing that the 196 00:20:29.859 --> 00:20:34.140 Germans could do to prevent the advance of the allied armies, larger they were 197 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:38.410 better equipped than they all the more as the immense Soviet army was at the 198 00:20:38.490 --> 00:20:45.289 same time breathing down Germany's neck from the east. The decisive battle had been 199 00:20:45.369 --> 00:20:53.400 fought and one the decision had been reached, but bitter fighting remained. We 200 00:20:53.559 --> 00:21:02.440 know that because most American casualties in Europe occurred after d day, after the 201 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:10.430 issue had been settled. Well, it's so with us. Christ's victory on 202 00:21:10.549 --> 00:21:15.829 the Cross and in the Tomb meant that the victory he won for us was 203 00:21:15.990 --> 00:21:23.059 now guaranteed. But dear one's bitter fighting remains before the enemy of our souls 204 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:30.059 will be finally laid into dust. The trouble us no more, you know? 205 00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:37.049 I think so. May wonder why Peter Uses it's violent warlike extravagant language 206 00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:42.890 here the passions, the sinful desires that wage war against our soul. No 207 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:52.359 Christian who has been in this battle for any length of time wonders about Peter's 208 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:56.279 choice of words here. They know them to be true. They have the 209 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:02.910 battle scars which proved them to be true. We are in a war, 210 00:22:03.549 --> 00:22:10.869 nothing short of a war, and it's being waged within us, and the 211 00:22:10.950 --> 00:22:21.579 recesses of our hearts and our long experience of this divided mind that's so troubles 212 00:22:21.619 --> 00:22:23.500 US has taught us that if you and I. If we put up a 213 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:30.089 real struggle against sinful desire, if, for Christ's sake, we stand up 214 00:22:30.130 --> 00:22:36.930 and refuse to budge, refuse to give in to temptation, refuse to admit 215 00:22:37.130 --> 00:22:41.369 to permit our minds or bodies to be put to unholy uses, refuse to 216 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:45.920 employ our tongue as an instrument of hate and not love. If we do 217 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:51.799 that, we're going to have a battle on our hands. It's going to 218 00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:56.920 happen, the temptations will come after us with a vengeance and they will not 219 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:04.309 cease in many cases until we're left victorious but bloody and utterly exhausted in the 220 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:11.859 field. But it's also very clear to us that it's just this spiritual fight, 221 00:23:12.619 --> 00:23:18.980 it's just this spiritual fight for our own holiness, this refusal to give 222 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:23.900 in to sinful desires which rise in the heart and which are strengthened so by 223 00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:30.329 the temptations of the world and the devil. It's these things that determines the 224 00:23:30.410 --> 00:23:37.170 character of our Christian lives. Martin Luther said he didn't learn all at once 225 00:23:37.410 --> 00:23:44.200 how to be a minister of Christ. It was his temptations and his corruptions 226 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:49.000 and his sinful desires that taught him how to preach Christ the devil, he 227 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:53.039 said, had been his best teacher of Practical Christianity. That sounds like Martin 228 00:23:53.079 --> 00:23:59.670 Luther. Luther want his stripes in the field before he entered battle. He 229 00:23:59.829 --> 00:24:06.230 was a child, but battle made a man out of them. Battle will 230 00:24:07.150 --> 00:24:11.579 certainly do that. You know, I read. I read that one of 231 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:18.259 the great worries of the American commanders on D Day was that they were sending 232 00:24:18.339 --> 00:24:25.210 so many untested men into battle. The very first waves were thousands of men 233 00:24:25.289 --> 00:24:27.329 who'd never been in combat before. Most of them are nineteen years old. 234 00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:34.809 They worried that the men might melt under the pressure, they might turn and 235 00:24:34.849 --> 00:24:40.599 run, might forget all they'd been taught and care only about their own survival. 236 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:45.319 But to their relief, they discovered, in the case of these young 237 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:49.720 green troops, that three minutes of real combat was worth three years of training. 238 00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:56.869 These rookie soldiers, the greatest generation, learned the craft of a soldier 239 00:24:56.990 --> 00:25:04.549 in moments, because nothing can teach that craft like battle itself. No, 240 00:25:04.789 --> 00:25:11.579 it's the same with Christian soldiers, you and me and it. You know, 241 00:25:11.660 --> 00:25:17.980 it's interesting to me, I'm a retired soldier, that here's Peter doesn't 242 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:23.569 say anything more than that we should fight, that we shouldn't man fully resist 243 00:25:23.730 --> 00:25:30.529 the attacks made upon our face, Our holiness, our faithfulness to God. 244 00:25:30.769 --> 00:25:33.329 Know, very often this is the Bible's way. It simply tells us to 245 00:25:33.410 --> 00:25:41.240 fight. It doesn't explain the command, it doesn't provide specific instructions. Simply 246 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.359 orders US onto the field. You know, the Bible does sometime provide us 247 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:52.190 with a few strategies and tactics to resist the sinful desires that wage against the 248 00:25:52.309 --> 00:25:56.670 souls. But at bottom, at bottom, the issue resolves itself into a 249 00:25:56.829 --> 00:26:04.980 test of the will. Will I or will I not do what I fully 250 00:26:06.099 --> 00:26:12.539 know is God's will, or will I do what my sinful desires incline me 251 00:26:14.099 --> 00:26:18.410 to do? The tests of the will, you know, there is the 252 00:26:18.490 --> 00:26:25.089 wisdom, I think, repeated often enough in the Bible, that those who 253 00:26:25.089 --> 00:26:30.809 would be wholly should whenever possible, avoid the occasions of sin and temptation. 254 00:26:32.049 --> 00:26:37.079 That is the best way to resist temptation is to avoid avoid it whenever possible. 255 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:40.079 But you know, you think about that, that in itself is a 256 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:45.079 test of our will. Don't go near the door of our house. That's 257 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:49.150 the father in proverb. That's what he tells his son concerning the sexual tempers. 258 00:26:51.509 --> 00:26:56.269 Flee youthful lust, we read in James. Don't entertain them, and 259 00:26:56.390 --> 00:27:03.779 we see Joseph doing just that in Potifer's house. Instead of standing and discussing 260 00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:07.980 the adultery that Potifer's wife was proposing, what do you do? He ran 261 00:27:08.140 --> 00:27:12.500 from the house, leaving his cloak behind him. I think C H spurgeon 262 00:27:14.579 --> 00:27:18.529 put this so memorably best of all. He said the answer to many temptations. 263 00:27:19.289 --> 00:27:23.410 Listen to this. The answer to many temptations is a good pair of 264 00:27:23.490 --> 00:27:30.160 legs and the King's highway. Run away from it. A good pair of 265 00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:37.279 legs and the King's High I love that. Run away from it. Well, 266 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:41.839 you know, because the Christian is a pilgrim, he's a sojourner, 267 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:47.190 he's an exile. He will never be fully at home in this world. 268 00:27:47.309 --> 00:27:51.589 I think that's what Peters telling us in these first verses. Yet we do 269 00:27:51.789 --> 00:27:56.750 reside here. This is where we live and what we do here matters. 270 00:27:57.900 --> 00:28:02.940 Therefore, Peter Moves on from these sort of general principles, if you will, 271 00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:08.259 of the Christian life and he tells disciples how to conduct themselves in public 272 00:28:10.099 --> 00:28:12.809 and that's what he does in the rest of the texts. Now here Christians 273 00:28:12.890 --> 00:28:21.250 of different stations or relations in life are given instruction as to their particular duty 274 00:28:21.529 --> 00:28:23.809 to God and man in specific situation. Now I'm not going to read these 275 00:28:25.009 --> 00:28:29.359 verses, but look there verses thirteen through seventeen. Let me just give you 276 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:37.519 the cliff notes here. Peter's argument here it's very much like the argument that 277 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:44.509 we find in Paul's letters, especially Romans. Thirteen. Governments are from God. 278 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:52.470 They serve to protect and foster public order, they punish wrong doers, 279 00:28:52.910 --> 00:28:59.460 they reward good conduct. That's what scripture says, that governments are there to 280 00:28:59.539 --> 00:29:06.180 do, and Christians are obliged to give them obedience and respect for and doing 281 00:29:06.460 --> 00:29:12.849 and doing that they're honoring God, who appointed such government. For Seventeen says 282 00:29:12.890 --> 00:29:19.690 we are to honor the emperor. So Peter says here very interesting verse thirteen. 283 00:29:19.809 --> 00:29:23.440 Their submission to the government was to be offered for the Lord's sake. 284 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:33.119 Now, of course that's not the whole story. A lawfully constituted government once 285 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:40.109 told Peter not to preach Christ and he told the representatives of that government to 286 00:29:40.230 --> 00:29:48.109 go pound. said he had to obey God. Not Men. Here he 287 00:29:48.190 --> 00:29:55.299 tells a community of Christians that may well have had good reasons to regard their 288 00:29:55.420 --> 00:30:00.619 government as an enemy to nevertheless show it respect, to obey it. You 289 00:30:00.700 --> 00:30:07.140 know, that doesn't mean that one must approve of what the government does in 290 00:30:07.329 --> 00:30:14.089 every case, or even most cases, for example, without any intention on 291 00:30:14.250 --> 00:30:18.450 its part to honor the living God. At that time, the Roman imperial 292 00:30:18.690 --> 00:30:25.799 government ensured a measure of public order, and you know that was no small 293 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:30.480 thing back then. Think of what that provided to these early Christians. No, 294 00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:33.880 Paul talks about that over in the first Timothy to he speaks of the 295 00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:38.190 great importance to the Church of Christians being able to live peaceful and quiet lives 296 00:30:40.150 --> 00:30:42.990 in the Roman Empire, the packs Romana. You've heard of that. The 297 00:30:44.029 --> 00:30:51.099 Roman peace made it possible for the Gospel to spread throughout the land. Now 298 00:30:51.180 --> 00:30:56.180 Paul could travel by sea without fear of pirates, as would not have been 299 00:30:56.220 --> 00:31:02.740 true less than a hundred years before then. He could and did, appeal 300 00:31:02.900 --> 00:31:08.529 to his Roman citizenship when assailed by a mob. Is that happened sometimes. 301 00:31:10.250 --> 00:31:15.089 So I think Christians could appreciate the role of the Roman Empire without approving of 302 00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:22.400 their conduct. In other areas as a secular nation. You know, our 303 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:26.759 situation in the united stays today. I think it is not yet to be 304 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:33.950 compared to what millions of other Christians face, but I will. I have 305 00:31:34.069 --> 00:31:40.390 to say this. It is apparent to any thoughtful Christian, you know, 306 00:31:40.950 --> 00:31:45.950 even Evangelical Christians in the US. We have to begin thinking and speaking about 307 00:31:47.029 --> 00:31:51.339 government and the Church's relation to it. You know, over these past forty 308 00:31:51.339 --> 00:31:57.819 or fifty years and ways that we've never thought or spoke before. Now our 309 00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:06.490 government is the defender of abortion a great many other practices that are directly contrary 310 00:32:07.089 --> 00:32:09.170 to the teaching of the word of God. And there's a you know, 311 00:32:09.210 --> 00:32:14.049 there are a lot of practical issues involved here in submitting to government, such 312 00:32:14.089 --> 00:32:19.680 as paying taxes, but there's something here, much more here for us, 313 00:32:19.720 --> 00:32:22.599 and I want it. We got to get into this something much more more 314 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:29.119 general, more personal and even more practical than we have to. We have 315 00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:36.750 to get our Christian arms around this and they concerns the way in which our 316 00:32:36.750 --> 00:32:45.059 Christian faith alters our perspective on life, altars, our attitude toward the world, 317 00:32:45.019 --> 00:32:52.339 altars our attitude toward our country, for I know Peter is not I 318 00:32:52.420 --> 00:32:57.700 think in the first place here concerned to answer specific questions Christians might have regarding 319 00:32:57.740 --> 00:33:01.849 their relationship to the government and their obligation to obey the civil authority. He's 320 00:33:01.970 --> 00:33:09.809 interested rather here in our outlook on life, and government is just one of 321 00:33:09.849 --> 00:33:16.279 the context it's one of the environments in which he works this out. And 322 00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:20.319 if we were to go on in this chapter, we would see the talks 323 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:24.680 about employment as an environment marriage as a context. Those would be two other 324 00:33:24.799 --> 00:33:30.670 context that he talks about. What he wants from us, I'm persuaded of 325 00:33:30.829 --> 00:33:36.309 this. What the Holy Spirit wants from us is an attitude toward life in 326 00:33:36.430 --> 00:33:45.740 this world, toward relationships of various kinds, toward other human beings, that 327 00:33:45.900 --> 00:33:57.730 is profoundly, obviously powerfully shaped and determine by the kind of spiritual detachment appropriate 328 00:33:57.970 --> 00:34:05.049 to people who are strangers and pilgrims and exiles in this world and who are 329 00:34:05.250 --> 00:34:08.369 living not for anything they will obtain in this world but for the glory of 330 00:34:08.449 --> 00:34:13.159 God. I think that's it. What he wants is to see in these 331 00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:15.920 verses, and that's that's important, I believe. Now, I want to 332 00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:28.150 be careful here, but is there anyone here who thinks that the American Congress 333 00:34:29.389 --> 00:34:35.949 or our courts or the president are the solution to the problems of this country. 334 00:34:37.780 --> 00:34:44.380 The world certainly doesn't think any such thing, and nowadays few Americans do 335 00:34:44.619 --> 00:34:52.300 either. You know, like a Syria, Babylon and Rome before her, 336 00:34:53.130 --> 00:35:00.610 America has served a purpose in the Lord's plan. And if Christ should tarry 337 00:35:01.530 --> 00:35:09.239 embracing evil with ever greater reli she too will fall under divine judgment. Then 338 00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:19.599 we'll be destroyed. Hear me, we're certainly to be grateful for the blessings 339 00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:24.590 that God gives us through our country. Were surely to be faithful citizens, 340 00:35:24.670 --> 00:35:29.630 pay our taxes, working for the best of our land and its people, 341 00:35:29.989 --> 00:35:34.750 as Jeremiah remember, he told the exiles in Babylon to do that. I 342 00:35:34.869 --> 00:35:37.420 gave twenty five years of my life to serve and protect the constitution of the 343 00:35:37.460 --> 00:35:44.820 United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that was the right 344 00:35:44.860 --> 00:35:52.809 thing to do. But we're to remember, and what Peter says about the 345 00:35:52.849 --> 00:35:59.650 Christians due to the government applies equally to the American Christian, the Russian Christian, 346 00:36:00.170 --> 00:36:08.519 the European Christian, the Chinese Christian and the Iraqi Christian. You Know 347 00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:15.400 Peter's view of government is that God has established it to keep the peace and 348 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:21.949 the foster order, and that's important. We should never deny that. That's 349 00:36:21.989 --> 00:36:30.389 what the Roman government provided Christians in Peter's Day. Nations and their institutions are 350 00:36:30.550 --> 00:36:37.219 not, however, in Peter's teasing to be objects of our trust or of 351 00:36:37.300 --> 00:36:43.980 our devotion. Our devotion needs to be where it belongs, and that's the 352 00:36:44.099 --> 00:36:47.130 God. In other words, I think what Peter is telling us here is 353 00:36:47.250 --> 00:36:52.090 that the nation in which we live, the government under which we live, 354 00:36:53.530 --> 00:37:00.210 it's but part of the environment in which we Christians are to live our lives 355 00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:07.320 and show our mental do our thing, and I think he's saying we we 356 00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:15.360 were to have a genuine spiritual detachtament from the things that belong only to this 357 00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:22.030 world so that we can be devoted to that which lasts and counts forever. 358 00:37:22.909 --> 00:37:27.030 And that's true of the government officer, that's true of the military officer, 359 00:37:28.230 --> 00:37:32.539 listed man or woman, that's true of every Christian citizen. And the things 360 00:37:32.619 --> 00:37:40.980 that belong to this world, whether government or employment or whatever, important in 361 00:37:42.139 --> 00:37:47.650 their own ways of course, are chiefly important for being God. No, 362 00:37:47.769 --> 00:37:52.530 I can't help but thank here, as I conclude, of what the Prophet 363 00:37:52.610 --> 00:37:57.769 Mica said the God's people in the Old Testament when they sought them, when 364 00:37:57.809 --> 00:38:02.079 they tried to be salt and light in the place they lived. Remember what 365 00:38:02.199 --> 00:38:06.719 Mica said to them. He God has told you, O man, what 366 00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:10.320 is good and what does the Lord require of view, but to do justice, 367 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.949 the love kindness, to walk homely with your God, your when's government 368 00:38:17.030 --> 00:38:22.150 serve the function of the public good. But government's nations come and go. 369 00:38:24.230 --> 00:38:30.940 They belong only to a world which is passing away. Nothing they do or 370 00:38:30.139 --> 00:38:37.619 can do affects the eternal destiny of men, but they do provide a way 371 00:38:37.659 --> 00:38:42.570 for us, for Christians, to demonstrate our faith, Give Glory to God 372 00:38:42.730 --> 00:38:45.690 and to love our neighbor, to do justice, to love kindness and to 373 00:38:45.769 --> 00:38:50.170 walk homely with God. Let's pray