A PILGRIM'S BATTLE

Alan Pihringer

Progressing as Pilgrims • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

1 Peter 2:11–12

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Introduction

-{1 Peter 2}

-Back in the 80s and 90s when I was a kid and teen, I really got into professional wrestling. This is back in the days of Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper and all of them—it was the era of Rock ‘n Wrestling. I really got invested in the fights and the storylines and wouldn’t miss a show if I could help it. (Now, remember, I was young, so don’t judge me too harshly.) But then in the mid-90s with Degeneration X and the Attitude Era, wrestling started to get too raunchy, so I stopped watching.

~But if you remember in those days, they tried to pass wrestling off as being real. So, there was always this question hanging over the industry with people wondering if the matches were real or not. They maintained the illusion that it was real. And to a kid and teen, you really thought it was real. Today, they don’t even try to hide the fact that its fake. They call it wrestling entertainment now. The matches are real in the sense that these athletes are doing all these stunts, and often times they really do get hurt. But the storyline and the outcome of the match are scripted, so it’s not really real. There isn’t a real battle going on in the ring.

-That’s unlike real life, because in this world we go through all sorts of different battles and they are very real—it’s not fake and it’s not an illusion and its not scripted. And even we Christians go through many battles, especially considering that we are in enemy territory and the god of this world, the serpent, the devil, Satan, doesn’t want us to have a close walk with God or do any damage to his kingdom of darkness. And so we go through a lot of real battles. This isn’t spiritual entertainment—this is the real deal. But, thankfully, the Bible warns us and equips us for these battles, and the Bible calls us to the battle.

-And in the passage that we’re looking at today, Peter tells us about one sort of battle that we need to wage; and if we don’t join the fight in this battle, it will not go well for us in this earth. What Peter tells us in these two verses we’re looking at is that because we are not of this world system, we battle against our inner desires that are inflamed by the world so that these desires don’t drag us down to embrace the world’s values.

1 Peter 2:11–12 ESV

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

-{pray}

-In this study of 1 Peter we have emphasized the theme of us being mere pilgrims on this earth. Here he repeats this theme by saying that we are sojourners and exiles. These words mean that we are not at home, but we are merely visitors who are passing through. We are on a journey to another destination, but the place where we are currently located is not our permanent goal or end. To use an airport analogy, this world is merely a layover before we get to our final destination.

-And the reason Peter keeps telling us this theme of being pilgrims is so we don’t get comfortable in this world and invest so much time and energy in this world such that we take our eyes off of the prize which is Jesus Christ and our eternity with Him. Or, to put it in terms that Jesus used, we are not to build for us treasures on earth where rust and moth destroy and thieves steal, but we are to build treasures for us in heaven where rust and moth cannot destroy and thieves cannot steal. In our passage, Peter says that it is a battle to live that way, and we have to fight for it. So, the first part of our passage and lesson today we see:

1) The reality of the battle

-Peter tells us in this letter that we have been given a new life in Jesus Christ, and we are to live like it. The world wants us to live one certain way, but because we have new life in Christ we are to live in a completely different way. Since we are mere pilgrims and sojourners and exiles, we aren’t to pick up the habits and customs of the world.

-A few weeks ago we took a vacation to the Dominican Republic. We were only there for about a week. We didn’t move there or make our residence there, so we didn’t start speaking like the residents or taking up the habits and customs of the residents—we were merely visitors. You are a mere visitor on earth, don’t take up the customs and habits of the world system that is opposed to God.

-This whole theme is picked up in these verses where the central word here is to ABSTAIN—we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh. We are to avoid and keep our distance from these sinful desires that are still within us. After we are saved we are given new life and we are made new and we are given the Holy Spirit, but we still have these same bodies with these same weaknesses that still contain the sin principle within them. So, even though we are saved, there is this thing within us that wants to go back to the old ways, and the world around us tries to influence and stoke these desires so we seek to fulfill them in sinful ways.

-I think of this combination this way: on social media there are these videos that show people doing stupid things and stupid stunts, and the music and labels in the video call it DUMB WAYS TO DIE. There are similar videos with the label WHY WOMEN LIVE LONGER THAN MEN. A lot of these videos you see people willingly putting themselves in harm’s way to do some stunt that they thought was a good idea at the time, but in the video you see how it turns into an epic fail and you cringe just thinking about how hurt that guy must be. But something you notice in the video is there is a group of people that are watching this guy do this stupid thing, and you would think that someone in that crowd might pipe up and say, HEY, THIS MIGHT NOT BE SUCH A GOOD IDEA. But they don’t try to stop the guy. In fact, you see this crowd egging him on and cheering him on, wanting him to do this stupid thing and maybe get himself killed.

-This is the picture in my head of what the world does for these tendencies and passions that are within us. These tendencies are still part of the fallen humanness that we still carry around with us. Each of us, having different personalities and different upbringings and different environments, have different desires within us that are already pulling at us, wanting us to give in and fulfill these passions in a way that is not pleasing to God. And the world is egging these desires on and cheering these passions on and offering ways to fulfill these passions and desires in ways that are sinful. The world wants us to give in to these passions of the flesh in ways that dishonor our bodies and dishonor God.

-Now, keep in mind, not all of the desires and passions are sinful in and of themselves, but God has placed boundaries. But the passions within us don’t want to follow those boundaries, and the world is trying to tell us that it has so many different ways to scratch the itch that is gnawing at us inside. And so we have these strong desires for physical intimacy that God bounded within marriage, but the world says HEY, WHO NEEDS THAT, HERE’S SOME PORNOGRAPHY. We have a strong desire for a relationship with spiritual connection, and God offers Himself and prayer and His Word, but the world says LET’S SPEND HOURS OF MINDLESS TIME IN SOCIAL MEDIA LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES. We have this anger and hate within us and we desire vengeance of some sort, but God says not to sin in our anger and vengeance belongs to Him. But the world says, WHY WAIT, GET YOUR REVENGE NOW—KILL THEM LITERALLY OR METAPHORICALLY THROUGH SLANDER AND GOSSIP.

-And Peter says we are to abstain, we are to run away, we are to keep our distance from these passions and the way the world wants us to fulfill them. These passions are waging war against us, so we need to wage war against them. These things fight against us—we are not to just sit back and give in. We are to take the fight right back at them—we are to wage war, we are to battle, we are to fight against these things. The problem is that most modern Christians are just too lazy to put up a fight, or they enjoy the sin too much, that they just allow the passions of the flesh and the world to have its way with them, not knowing the damage that they are causing to themselves. And that brings us to the second of our two lessons for today, because next Peter gives us...

2) The reasons for the battle

-Each of these two verses gives us a reason why we are to put up a fight—because there is great harm if we don’t battle against these things. The first reason we need to battle is that...

a) We battle to have a healthy spirituality (v. 11)

-Peter says that these passions of the flesh are fighting against our very souls. And it’s not just talking about the immaterial, invisible part of us, but the term really speaks of us as a wholistic person. These passions want to cause some heavy damage to us spiritually and emotionally as well as physically. The word for soul here is literally the word Psyche—it wants to hurt us in our mind and spirit—in our essence. These desires want to drag us down and make us something less than who we truly are.

-What it is is that these desires, egged on by the world, are looking for illegitimate sources of satisfaction. And in this search, they try to distract you and take you away from the only legitimate source. They will try to keep you away from God through Jesus Christ, who is our source of satisfaction.

-Picture these desires, with the help of the world, like an anchor that is trying to drag you down to the bottom of the sea where it is dark and cold. This anchor doesn’t want you to get to the light and air where there is life. It wants to take you down and keep you down.

-And we will give in to these inner desires if our desire for God in Christ is weak. When we do not see the infinite value of Jesus Christ and how He alone can satisfy the soul, then it is all too easy to go with the flow of our passions and the world. I cannot put it more eloquently than John Piper, so listen to this:

So, when the desires of the body, which themselves may be innocent, become sovereign and independent of God, now the soul is enveloped in a sea of desires that are communicating to the soul continually that it should join them in the pursuit not of God, but of this world as the source of satisfaction. That is idolatry, and that is deadly and destructive. That is war on the soul. When we don’t know the infinite desirability of God and how he’s for us in Christ, our desires will inevitably latch on to lesser things and drag the soul down away from Christ. So, the way out of soul-destroying into soul-saving truth is to see Christ and have a true knowledge of him — and his beauty and his worth — so that the soul embraces him, and with him a whole new constellation of desires....

This is the salvation, not the destruction, of the soul, because faith sees Christ for who he is, loves him, rejoices with inexpressible, glorious joy, and so attaches the soul to its life, the source of all its true and everlasting pleasures. In other words, we’re not in the grip of the desires of ignorance anymore. We are in the freedom of the desires rooted in true knowledge of Christ’s glory. So, our counterattack on the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul, our souls, is to pursue a true knowledge of the infinitely desirable Christ, and then to obey this truth by embracing it as our treasure — embracing him as our treasure — and rejoicing with inexpressible and glorified joy. That’s the battle that we fight. The desires of the flesh draw us away from the all-satisfying Christ, but God opens our eyes and draws us to the true glory. The one warfare leads to destruction; the counterattack of truth leads to salvation.

-This is what we’re saying—the passions of the flesh are not seeking your spiritual health, they are seeking your spiritual destruction. If you want a healthy spirituality, then you battle against and abstain from the passions of the flesh, and you will find peace and satisfaction in Christ. But there’s another reason we have to take up this battle.

b) We battle to have a strong witness (v. 12)

-v. 12 tells us:

1 Peter 2:12 ESV

12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

-Peter tells us to abstain and fight these passions so that the conduct of our lives would be so morally upstanding that in the long run people cannot deny that we live for God, and maybe, just maybe, our lives softened their hearts to accept Christ. While someone is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone after hearing the gospel message spoken, a life that is well-lived can open someone’s life to the truth. If we preach the gospel but our lives speak something different, people will not listen and their hearts closed to the life-giving message of Christ.

-Consider what Peter says. He says that if you live your life differently from the rest of the world in that you don’t give in to your passions and fulfill them in worldly ways, the unbelievers of the world will speak against you as evildoers at first. And boy, do we see that in our day. Even if you speak humbly in love with the truth of what Scripture says, you will be marked as an evildoer. When you do good works in the name of Christ, you will still be marked as an evildoer by unbelievers. But the emphasis is living, not in the passion of the flesh, but in the beauty of the Spirit.

-It needs to be said that you can stand for truth but do it in a very harsh, unloving way. And that is wrong. Peter would speak against that. And then, you can say that you stand for the truth, but then your own conduct of life is one of hypocrisy and you yourself give in to the passions of the flesh, and that is wrong. And Peter would speak against that.

-What Peter says, though, is that if you live your life in a manner pleasing to God that abstains from the passions of the flesh, the unbelievers may call you an evildoer, but they are in the wrong. So, this is a call to a great holiness of living. Peter is telling us not to live in these passions and live for the world. If we live according to the same passions of the flesh and we live for the world just like unbelievers do, they won’t call us evildoers because we live just like them, but neither will they see the beauty of Christ in us that they need so desperately.

-What Peter says is that if we conduct our lives in a way that we abstain from the passions of the flesh, living in holiness, unbelievers may at first call us evildoers, but God can use that life to open the door to a gospel presentation, and then those who formerly called us evildoers will glorify God because they have found the only way of saving their souls. On the day of their salvation, instead of cursing us, they will praise God because God used us as a means of leading them to truth. Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 5:16 (ESV)

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

-Our good works testify to the truth of the gospel.

-Warren Wiersbe wrote of Native American chiefs and warriors who met in 1805 at Buffalo Creek, New York, to hear a minister from the Boston Missionary Society present the gospel. In response, Red Jacket, one of the leading chiefs, responded: “Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again what you have said.”

-If you live like the world, people won’t see a Savior that saves lives, they’ll see another religious hypocrite that talks out of both sides of your mouth. So, think about the way you talk at work or school, and the actions you take: would people see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven? Consider your social media posts—is it filled with worldliness and inappropriate language that wouldn’t challenge the lifestyle of an unbeliever; or would they see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven? Is your conduct of life such that unbelievers would see it as honorable and beautiful and inviting such that, even if they call you evildoers, they cannot but glorify God because of its purity and holiness?

CONCLUSION

-It is a real battle. There is nothing fake about this war—our passions of the flesh egged on by the world is a real threat. But we must choose to fight the battle and abstain so that we remain spiritually healthy and are able to give a beautiful witness to the glories of the gospel of Christ.

-I’ll close real quick with three consideration about how to abstain from the passions of the flesh—these come from John Piper and are not original to me:

First, do whatever is radically necessary to abstain from those desires. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:29–30 ESV

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Second, replace your old passions with new passions

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Third, develop new and increasingly intense longings for God’s Word

1 Peter 2:2–3 ESV

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

-Christian, come to the altar and pray that God give you the strength to abstain and to fight this battle

-But if you are not a Christian, repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ—that He died for your sins and rose again, and you will be given new life.

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