Being and Doing

Sojourners and exiles. - Spend any amount of time in a shopping mall, or a movie theatre or even a grocery store and you will discover that we…the church are no longer the majority culture in society. We are outsiders. We are outcasts. We ARE sojourners and exiles.

We have our citizenship in heaven not on earth.

The passions of the flesh, will destroy your soul if you give over to their supremacy and let them reign in your life with no repentance.

Being - this is who we are in Christ. These have been put within us and made into by the new birth. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

You ARE a chosen race.

You ARE a royal priesthood.

You ARE a holy nation.

You ARE a people for his own possession.

You ARE God’s people

You ARE beneficiaries of mercy

Therefore, because of what you ARE abstain from passions of the flesh. (1 Peter 2:11)

Some might say…if we ARE new and if we ARE already in Christ and we ARE already secure…these type of commands aren’t necessary for us. We can avoid those. That’s just legal talk.

The other end of the pendulum we aren’t new…we don’t really have our standing yet…therefore we better abstain from these passions in order that we might BECOME new creatures.

Piper says, both of those are DREADFUL mistakes. They ignore what the text is telling us.

What it is telling us is WHO we are…vv. 9-10.

Those who DO fight off the passions of the flesh…those who do walk in love…those who do destroy there own sins and fight (not to perfection but in a new direction…are showing that they really are the new and true people of God. THIS IS THE POINT OF vs. 12.

Here’s the pattern 1 Corinthians 5:6–7 “6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

That boasting is going to ruin the church and ruin lives.

Cleanse out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump sounds like work you’ve got to do until Peter says…AS YOU REALLY Are without leaven. Piper “says that’s the genius of NT ethics. That’s not double talk, that’s who we ARE…a new unleavened lump”

Because we ARE…Act like it by abstaining from the passions of the flesh that war against your soul.

How did Jesus talk about the relationship between the Who and the What…Matthew 7:17–20 “17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will GINOSKO them by their fruits.”

The function of the fruit is not to make a tree a tree. You don’t become a good tree by bearing good fruit. You bear good fruit so that the goodness of the tree can be Ginosko…recognized. You know it is a good tree by its fruit.

When you abstain from the passions of the flesh…you’re not making yourself God’s possession you are showing that you ARE God’s chosen possession.

How do the passions of the flesh wage ware against our soul. How do they go about trying to destroy the soul?

1 Peter 2:9–11 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

Your soul was made for this...We exist to proclaim the excellencies (The Beauties) of him who called you out of the darkness into HIS marvelous light.

ANY passions that causes you to stop MARVELING most in the light of God. Passions will dim and destroy the marveling.

You can tell when it is happening…when the passions make other things look more bright and more exciting than the light that you have been brought into in Christ...excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; then you are talking about a destructing waring passion.

Or put another way…the passions of the flesh that cause you to no longer be thrilled by the excellencies of Him above all other excellencies.

NOOOWWW. The passions are making other excellencies appear more valuable.

The way these destroy your soul is they’re stripping you of the capacity of the very thing you were created to do namely…vs. 9 proclaim the excellencies of Him.

You know the people that are not proclaiming the excellencies of God are the people that are not FEELING the excellencies of God…they’re not FEELING the Marvelous light of God because the PASSIONS of the flesh are dominating their lives. They love other things more than they love God.

Is that you? Do you FEEL the excellencies of God in .... Do you marvel in God’s ...

We shouldn’t be quick to think of who we might know in this condition?

How do we abstain from the passions of the flesh?

Cut off your hand or gouge out your eye. Jesus said in Matthew 5 Which means you’re feeling the passions but God has given you the grace at least to not to act on that passion. It is as though the hand that wants to reach out to steal, or to hit somebody you cut it off. You gouge out your eye so you don’t look at the pornography. Even though all the desires are there.

Replacing those desires or passions. PUSH them out. Peter has set the stage for this 1 Peter 1:13 “13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The great passion of the Christian life is this fixing your hope on the completely on grace. BUILD up that hope until it is WHITE HOT for the grace of God more than anything else.

1 Peter 2:2–3 “2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

MAKE WAR FOR YOUR SOUL! Preserving the very reason why you were created. Namely to savor the excellencies of God’s kindness and his Word.

Part 2 1 Peter 2:11-12 Level of Passions to the Level of Conduct

Being 2:9-10 Who we are in Christ

Feeling 2:11 Shapes how we have affections and feelings and emotions and loves and passions in Christ

Conduct v.12 leading to a conduct in which the world will see.

Lest we forget 1 Peter 1:14 “14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,”

Ignorance leads to sinful passions because they aren’t based in truth…they’re all flowing out of error which leads to conformity to those old passions.

BUT…if we change the ignorance with NEW TRUTH which this whole letter is designed to give us. Then we will have NEW PASSIONS will come into being and we will NOT be conformed to the old passions.

This is what is supposed to be happening in vs. 11. Abstain from the passions…don’t be conformed to these old passions and the best way to do this. Is to kill them and get rid of them and replace them with NEW PASSIONS of love for God and love for People hoping fully in the grace that is being brought to us and earnestly desiring the sincere spiritual milk because we tasted that the Lord is good and he is now our new passion.

So now we are moving to a level of conduct which leads to a level of seeing by the world which hopefully leads them to glorify God. That is our purpose…that is what we were created for.

1 Peter 2:12 “12 Keep your behavior excellent (KALEN - Beautiful) among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

What is the Purpose…the so that…of the conduct that is beautiful that is in conformity with new passions for Christ that reflect His beauty.

SO that when they speak against you as evildoers…this is what the world thinks of us. We are evil because we don’t want to give a woman the right to kill her unborn baby…we are evildoers because we don’t agree in so called same sex marriage…we are evildoers because ....the world calls us evildoers…we are the outcast.

How do we conduct ourselves so this slander goes away. That’s what Peter is calling us to. Conduct ourselves in such beautiful ways…that the world might see our good deeds and change their mind about Christians being evil…and turn to God and glorify Him…so that they will Proclaim His excellencies.

This SO THAT is so important to this context that Peter just 3 verses later says 1 Peter 2:15 “15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”

What is that Ignorance actually saying…”You are evildoers.

Peter wants that silenced and you silence it with good deeds.

The danger here is taking that as meaning we have to do whatever we need to do to keep the world from calling us evildoers…keep the world from maligning us.

That is absolutely NOT what Peter is saying. We know this because later in this letter Peter says: 1 Peter 4:3–4 “3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you;”

Peter is saying those days are over. You used to join them in all sorts of debauchery but you’re not going to do that any of that anymore...No matter what they say...no matter how they malign you.

You don’t join in those things anymore and people say you’re strange…a goody goody…soft. You don’t say…well I don’t want them to malign me so I guess I’ll go back to doing those things. That is a mistake people think you have to do in order to win people to Christ.

That is not the strategy of this letter. Vs. 12 says good deeds....not join them in their debauchery…in their sin. He means being proactive in doing the things even the World knows are good deeds.

There are many things that Christians will do and not do that the world will think are evil deeds. But we can overcome that by an abundance of good deeds.

***** An example related to something that is near and dear to our heart here at FCC. I was convicted by Jeff saying, “It would break my heart to know somebody wasn’t coming to softball because they played bad…or because we didn’t win.” He said this because I made an thoughtless comment “Losin ain’t fun.” One of the ways in which we Keep our behavior excellent illustration Softball…or any competitive thing…how do we respond to a bad call? Not when we’re down by 10 points, but when we’re down by 1 point. The game is on the line. If that person doesn’t get on base, game over, season over. How do respond to the Umpire calling him out when even the other team knows it was a bad call. I’m not saying you’re a robot and you don’t FEEL the frustration. I’m not saying you don’t get angry and frustrated. But I am saying, you don’t lash out at the ump. You don’t create a riot. You don’t participate in a riot. I don’t think it stops there…what is going on in your heart. Jesus said you can murder someone in your heart and that is not good. If you have pushed out all the bad passions and are filled with the good passion that is found IN Jesus…you won’t respond externally or internally. This behaviour in front of the gentiles PROCLAIMS His excellencies. If you can’t hold it together in the pressures of competition, how will you ever hold it together when facing REAL suffering. When you’re facing REAL persecution.*****

Part 3

Now the process that leads from conduct that is honorable among the gentiles to the Gentiles honoring God on the day of visitation. What is visitation and how does it happen.

The Sequence

We are Slandered. That should lead to...

We do good deeds

This is more than just avoiding lying, avoiding adultery, avoiding sabbath breaking. These are things that you SHOULD do. These are the norm for the disciple’s life.

this is positive, proactive engagement in a public way of doing good things for other people. That even the world…if God is gracious…the world will recognize.

So that they SEE. Which leads to

.This step is not mentioned in this passage- SILENCING vs. 15

1 Peter 2:15 “15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”

.This step is not mentioned in this passage. SHAME

1 Peter 3:16 “16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”

THERE’S A BREAK THROUGH…Put to shame.This causes them to cease slandering and know that they’re wrong.

This step is not mentioned in this passage. Key thing missing. NEW BIRTH

1 Peter 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

WE were once just like the other Gentiles.

Blind to the Hope. God was not real, mythological, boring, a crutch. We had all kind of slanders against God and His people.

But God…sweetest words in God’s Word. I know I know…you’ve heard it so many times that it may have lost it’s effect on you. You’ve heard the story of the guy who MARVELS in this beautiful rose garden in his neighborhood that he drives by on his way to work. So much so, he would often stop and “Smell the roses” on his way home. But then days…turn into weeks…weeks turn into months…months turn into years until he barely notices the garden anymore. The garden has not lost it’s splendor…in fact it has increased in beauty and size and fragrance but it has lost its effect on him.

Ya’ll when I said those words But God in His GREAT Mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope not one of ya’ll said Amen. I ain’t asking for an Amen to my reading ability. You…WE were once dead in our trespasses. We were dead man walking. On a one way train to the lake of fire with NO HOPE but God. The infinite all powerful all knowing every present God that spoke the universe into existence, that knit you in your mother’s womb. The God that has EVERY hair on you head counted. The God that SO loved you He left the SPLENDOR and MAJESTY and GLORY and BEAUTY and SINLESS HEAVEN to Come HERE!!! To die on a tree that HE created, suffer at the hands of creatures HE created, and Died a death WE were supposed to die and ROSE VICTORIOUS AND GLORIOUS on the 3rd day Just like He said He would THAT GOD…can you please make some HOLY NOISE for THAT GOD!!!

But God…in Unbelievable GREAT Mercy…caused us to be Born Again…through the living and abiding Word and the resurrection.

NOW…we don’t see things the same anymore.

And that’s what has to happen here.

That’s what Peter is hoping our good deeds will lead to.

We do good deeds -> They see them -> They’re silenced -> They’re Shamed -> By God’s grace they’re open to the truth of the gospel, they’re brought to New birth, they see things TOTALLY differently…like God is now glorious to them and not foolish and that happens on the day of visitation.

They glorify God.

What’s the process that get’s them from Step 1 -> Step 7?

What is the day of visitation?

Could be the second coming. There’s a lot about the 2nd coming in this book.

Could be the day that God visits them to give them new birth.

Acts 15:14 “14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.”

Peter has spoke about the visitation of God to the Gentiles (Acts 10 Story about Cornelius) took for Himself a people for His name.

Luke 1:68 “68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,”

This is a reference to Jesus’ first coming. This is Zacharius prophecying after God loosed his tongue at JTB barmizpha

John Piper says these passages make him think that Peter doesn’t just mean on the day of Jesus’ second coming when belief or no belief everyone will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord.

****But this is Peter’s hope, that our doing of good deeds and them seeing them and that silencing them, making them ashamed of what they’ve been saying and God showing them Great mercy in the new birth will cause them to Join us in the very reason why they and we were created and redeemed. as verse 9 states...

1 Peter 2:9 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

Right now…these Gentiles are trapped in darkness, they’re calling good evil, they don’t see any of the excellencies of God and He calls them into MARVELOUS light and they join us in Glorifying.

This is the Call or the goal of 1 Peter