Exiles and there witness
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Intro
Intro
Read 1 Peter 2:11-12
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.
So Peter has made a huge statement just before this look what hen says in verse 9 and 10
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
It is with this idea in mind we must look at these verses
The ones who have been saved in this great miracle are called out
A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation
Christians stand out because God causes them to stand out
In fact he has made them to stand out
They will look different
They will proclaim the excellencies of him who called them
We are a city on a hill
A beacon pointing to the God who has saved us
Dont miss this huge calling
This is not some trivial piece of information
It’s a nice thing that Peter is trying to use to encourage us with
This is a big calling
And this calling as we have discussed before will require a response from his people
So the question is ok how does one who is apart of this chosen race act
How do we act???
How do we act???
This passage tells us that
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.
We recognize we are in a foreign land
We keep ourselves away from sin
and we keep our witness pure
We recognize our position
We recognize our position
This is what we just talked about
God has made us a people for his own posession
Which means we dont fit in here in this world
We will look different
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles
you are a sojourner
you are passing through this land
You know that this life on this earth is temporary
any displeasure you have here is for but a time
Because you are just passing through
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
We do not belong here and thats ok
We dont belong here because we dont represent here
We represent something far greater
So understand you position as a sojourner and an exile
Embrace it
and Live accordingly
We Keep ourselves from Sin
We Keep ourselves from Sin
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Abstain from the passions of the flesh
Peter uses this language of the war we as engaged in
Here as sojourners and exiles
As we pass through this land we wage a war agaisnt this land
Against our very flesh
A war we are destined to loose with out the help of the Holy spirit
If we are to fight this war as a member of this world we will loose it
But since we have been called out
Since we have called to proclaim the excellencies of the one who has called us
We cannot let ourselves be defiled by the passions of the flesh
We must keep ourselves from sin
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
This is a call issued by God to cain
We must rule over the sin in our life
Jon Owen would say we must mortify our sin
We must put it to death
As christians as Sojourners and Exiles in this land it is not enough for us to just do better with our sin
We cant just push it into one area of our life
We must root out
Wage war against it
And we must wage this war as a war between life and death
Deuteronomy moses says today I lay before you life and death blessing and curses if you do the will of the Lord you will inherit life
Peter gives this call so emphatically because he wants us to inherit life
I know you feel like you dont belong here
I know its hard here
I know the desire to be like this world is strong
I know all the things around you seem so inticing but abstain from it
Dont partake in it
The nation of isreal was given this task and failed
We are now given this task and we cant afford to fail
We keep our witness pure
We keep our witness pure
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.
We abstain from the passions of the flesh so that
When satan comes to bring reproach upon the one who we proclaim they will find no fault with us because we have endeavored to keep ourselves from sin
And when we do sin we are quick to seek forgiveness
We watch closely how we walk because we know we stand out
Again how does peter refer to us
Sojourners and exiles
We will stand out becasue we dont belong
And when we do what will our lives say
Will they say I am different
Or will they say I tried to fit in
Peter’s command here is a warning too
Evil doers will speak against us
People will try to disparage us
People will be little us for our faith
They will seek to undermine us
to destroy our character
to destroy our witness
Satan needs hypocrites
He needs people who dont conduct themselves according to their call
because he wants to point at them and say see they arent really different
Who is this God thats called them to what
Look how they live
MANNERS CONVERSATION
Let us make sure our life matches our calling
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Let us walk worthy of our calling