Strategy For Suffering Warriors

You will have noticed by now that I've stepped away from 1 Thessalonians and stepped into 1 Peter, and there's a reason for that. We've come to the transition point in 1 Thessalonians between chapter 3 and chapter 4 where Paul moves from reflection to direction. but our study this epistle is going to be broken up in the next few weeks by a bit by the preaching schedule on the 16th dave is going to be here dave derlin will be here and on the 30th i'll be in fort worth for the acbc conference and brother jim bennett's going to be bringing the word however since first thessalonians was addressed to disciples who are suffering i thought it well to continue that theme of how should disciples suffer for Christ. And so we turn to 1 Peter.

1 Peter is God's textbook on how to suffer to the glory of God. If you are ever facing difficulties and hatred and all those sorts of things, 1 Peter is the book to go to. It is a book that deals primarily with the whole issue of our suffering. Now, 1 Thessalonians was written by the Apostle Paul to believers in what we would call today the Greek city of Thessalonica around 51 AD.

The Apostle Peter writes about 10 years after that to a group of believers in what today we would call Turkey. But both those groups faced the same problem. They had a common problem, and that is they both were suffering. They both had problems with others persecuting them. And so let's get a perspective on suffering from the Apostle Peter in these next two weeks, remembering, of course, that these different perspectives come from the same God and the same Lord, but give us some things at a different angle.

One approaches it not quite the same. That's the beauty of the Scripture, in that God, even though he inspired it, even though he caused the writers to write what he wanted, their personalities, their insights, and the kind of people they were come through. And we see that with Peter as he approaches this whole issue of suffering as well. I want you to look with me at 1 Peter chapter 2.

We're going to look at verses 11 and 12 this week And next week we look at chapter 3 verses 13 through 17 but today verses 11 and 12 in this book this textbook on suffering beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul 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. Father, open your word to us this day. Help us to understand it.

More than that, help us to seek ways that we can obey it, to think about the course of our own lives, to think about our own suffering, and then to think the ways in which we can obey you. We pray that your spirit would guide that thinking. We pray that your spirit would open this text to us now, And we will thank you for the changes that we see because of the work of your powerful spirit.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, you know, lately, our country has kind of been at odds with North Korea. And for a while there, everyone thought, oh, man, is somebody going to unleash missiles here soon? Or is there going to be war on the Korean Peninsula? I mean, those things are never far from our minds in this world.

And the thing that we have to remember is, suppose something did happen, we wouldn't be unprepared. There is, if you will, if you know, there's an operations plan 5027-92 in the Pentagon that is the strategy that allied forces intend to use should anything happen on the Korean Peninsula. There is a strategy for the warfare already planned out with what they know and how they think things are going to go. they've already got a strategy for warfare.

Now, God has for us a strategy for our spiritual warfare in suffering. And we see that in chapter two of first Peter verses 11 and 12. Now, just a real quick survey of this book. Now, in this book, Peter wants to talk to us about suffering. But from chapter one, verse one to chapter two, verse 10, he talks about who we are before he talks about how to handle suffering He talks to us about the fact that we are the chosen people of God He talks about the fact that we going to suffer trials but there joy in it He talks about the fact that we should be holy Who are we We are the people of God He talks about our position And in beginning here in chapter 2 verse 11, he tells us that we are pilgrims and strangers in this world with a mission.

Up to this point, his focus has been inward. that is inward to the people of God, showing us our identity, showing us our great salvation, showing us our privileged position as the people of God. But now he focuses our attention outward at this point, and he begins to address the people of God as those who are in conflict with the outside world, those who are in conflict with a hostile and godless society and culture. so God moves us here from our relationship with him as that's the first part of the book he moves us from our relationship with him to our relationship to the outside world how we relate to him first of all we got to get that down and then he turns our attention to how we relate to the world around us a world that inevitably as we saw in first Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 4. I told you that you're going to suffer.

Remember Apostle Paul saying that? We are destined for suffering. That's the nature of the game. That's the nature of our faith. We are destined for suffering. So now Peter moves us from looking at what God has done for us and in us and our relationship with him to our relationship to the outside world, to those who are hostile towards us.

And in this, these verses, he gives us the basic strategy of how we're going to face and unbelieving, hostile society. We find it here in verses 11 through 12. And then from 13 to the end of the book, from 13 to the end of the book, he lays out how to implement that strategy. So if you're ever reading through the book of 1 Peter, that's how you need to remember it.

1.1 through 2.10, our relationship with God. 2.11 to the end of the book, our relationship to the outside world. chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 the hinge he's going to give us the basic strategy of how we approach the outside world and then from then on he lays that out in detail he gives us the tactics if you will of accomplishing that strategy so i want you to understand today as we look at suffering what the strategy that god has given us to fit as we face a hostile world that doesn like us because of our faith Let's look at it again, chapter 2, 11 and 12. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

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. The basic strategy of these verses looks like this. Verse 11, how we ought to deal with ourselves. How we ought to deal with ourselves. And verse 12, how we ought to deal with outsiders.

There's the basic strategy. If we're going to live in a hostile world, we've got to deal with ourselves and we've got to deal with the outside world. so God says in the conflict with ungodly culture you must be committed to discipline training verse 11 you must be committed to discipline training in order to fight you must be disciplined an army of undisciplined flabby soldiers is going to be an ineffective defeated army you got to be whipped into shape that's what basic training is all about some of you guys who've been in the armed forces you know what I'm talking about you go through basic training you think you're going to die but they just keep pushing you and pushing you and pushing you and disciplining you until you get it until you're in shape you're certain there are certain things you cannot do if you would do well as a soldier and so that's what he says in verse 11 if you're going to fight the conflict you got to be disciplined and God says abstain renounce the passions of the flesh. Renounce and abstain from the passions of the flesh.

What does he mean by that? Now when we look at that term passions of the flesh, what immediately jumps into your mind? What jumps into your mind is sex and drinking and immorality and all kinds of overeating and gluttony and all those sorts of things. That's what we think of as passions of the flesh. But when he talks about passions of the flesh, he's talking about natural desires.

That is gratifying ourselves, gratifying self, or finding contentment through anything I naturally want. Okay? Natural, me-centered impulses. That's what he's talking about. Not just... immorality and drunkenness, okay? Anything that's naturally and me-centered.

As you go out into a hostile world, there are those natural impulses for your own well-being, right? You're in a hostile world. You're going to have natural impulses for your own well-being, for your acceptance with others. That's a natural impulse. I want to be accepted by other people. I don't want them to hate me.

Your safety, your ease, your own rights, your fair treatment all those are those natural impulses and God says abstain and renounce those sorts of impulses in order to do well in the conflict you have to be disciplined you have to be able to put those natural pulses down you ought to renounce those things if you're going to fight well now what is he talking about in this context what is he talking about in this context well immediately what comes to my mind is, look at what he says in verse 12, that when outsiders speak of us, when unbelievers speak of us as evildoers, what's a natural impulse at that point? When someone cuts you up and someone says, you're just a bigot, what's your first natural impulse? You know what it is?

It's defense. It's to fight back. It's to argue, isn't it? Let's keep going. Verse 13, Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Now, when a government's against us, what's our natural impulse?

What is our natural impulse? That's not fair. I'm going to rebel. You cannot. You can't trample on my rights. I'm going to rebel.

Right? I'm going to fight. Look at verse 18. what do you typically do when you're being mistreated by your boss what does he say servants be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust what submit even to my unjust boss and you know he goes on to say even if your boss has beaten you you're supposed to submit you're supposed to have a submissive spirit wow someone mistreating you at work, you need to abstain from the natural desire that says, I'll do what he says if he'll start treating me right Right That a natural impulse What about a husband not treating you as you think you deserve look at chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 likewise wise be subject to your own husbands said even if some do not obey the word they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct you do you suddenly ooze respect to a husband who's not treating you well is that what normally happens that's not natural is it the natural impulse is to say, you treat me with respect, you loser.

Right? You think I'm going to put up with this? Forget it. Forget it. Those are the natural impulses. Those are the things he's talking about in verse 11.

Those natural impulses to find contentment against anything else, to find those me-centered things. You see, God has called us to something different, hasn't he? He hasn't called us to be normal. He says, renounce those passions of the flesh. How can you possibly do that? Well, look at what he says in verse 11.

He says, your sojourners and exiles, your aliens and strangers, by virtue of your election, by virtue of the fact that you belong to God, by virtue of your glorious position as God's treasured possession, as he's just got done saying in the first part of chapter 2, as God's holy nation, as the people of God. We inevitably become those who are not connected to this age. We're not connected to this world.

We belong to God, and therefore we are pilgrims. We are temporary residents. If you remember that, you'll be able to renounce those passions of the flesh. You'll be able to say no to them. If you remember, this is not my permanent home. It's not here yet.

I'm waiting for the new earth because I belong to God I don't belong to this age I belong to him you know in the spring of 1975 I was just really getting interested in this girl actually she happens to be sitting on the front row right now but I was really getting interested in this girl we were in college together we were in a singing group together and I got to know her and a couple of our mutual friends were getting married and they asked us to participate in the wedding and so we came up to this town we'd never heard of before called Marion Ohio so that weekend we were there and they got married and everything and then we headed home School was over we were headed home We you know Beck was headed to Iowa I was headed to Indiana where I lived at the time And so we kind of traveled together, you know. And believe it or not, I didn't know it at the time, but we passed right five miles north of this town on 309. Back then, if you remember, it was called 30S, right?

Remember that? Some of you remember that. So we're traveling west on 309. And you know what? And I can remember the church that's between here and Kenton. We stopped there to talk for a little bit.

Now, we had absolutely no concern, no interest in the quality of education in this part of the world. We had absolutely no thoughts about the property tax burden here. we didn't even give a thought to the employment opportunities that were available in larue you know why because we were just passing through we didn't know anything about this place we were just passing through we were we were pilgrims on our way home that's the point that he's making that's we're just passing through he says you are not permanent residents of this age now you are permanent residents of this world you're going to spend the rest of eternity on a brand new renewed world. But this age is not our age.

Our age is coming. Our age, we don't belong to this age. We are strangers and aliens in this age. And that will help us renounce those passions. You'll not be entangled in those natural impulses for security, for acceptance, for ease, for fair treatment. Because this isn't where we belong.

We're not going to get all tangled up in those things right ask yourself how do you know when i'm getting entangled in those things how do you know well here's how you know let's just i'll just take an example the present political situation in this country okay it's nothing wrong with being concerned i'm i'm a person who says man i'm all for freedom of religion and whatever supreme court justice will uphold that. I'm all for it. But I'll tell you what, you know you're entangled when you start losing hope when you start despairing when things aren going the way you think they ought to in the present political situation are you starting to despair You know what that means That means you putting your roots down too far You're not seeing yourself as an alien, as a stranger right now.

You are getting tangled up. You're putting your roots down too deep. Or, you know what else you're going to find? You're going to find people who don't think the way you think, you're going to start hating them. you're going to start thinking poorly of them. You're going to start cutting them off. You're going to start having nothing to do with them.

You know what? You know what that says? You're not acting like a stranger and an alien. Okay? So he says, renounce those passions. How can you do it?

Start thinking of yourself as a stranger, an exile, a sojourner, not one who's permanently rooted in this age. And you can abstain so long as you realize that those desires war against your soul. He says abstain from them because they war against your soul. Now, he doesn't just mean here the immaterial part of you called the soul or the spirit. It's that aspect of your life that is devoted to God.

And it can be undermined by those natural impulses that want ease and comfort and fairness and all those other things. One Puritan wrote this, Our selfish, indulgent, and potentially vicious natural appetites are by their very nature like mutineers, capable of raising an insurrection and waging a campaign against our spiritual devotion. So when you start saying, I need to be treated fairly, you're giving in to something that's going to war against your soul, that's going to undermine your effectiveness for God, as long as that's happening. so you got to realize that these desires these passions war against the soul let me suggest a third way that you can abstain jump ahead a little bit in chapter 2 verse 24 we we talked about it already or we can we we already heard it in the gospel this morning he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed that is to say you can abstain because of the cross of our savior jesus by dying on the cross has severed the controlling nature of those impulses so that we now have the ability to renounce them and live for him so because of the cross and I look to the cross and say there, there the controlling aspect, the controlling power of those impulses has been severed.

I don't have to give in to them. I do have the ability to renounce them. So in the battle plan you must realize that the first and most immediate conflict is first of all within you, within you. You must fight those natural impulses for acceptance, for survival in our godless culture. So that's the first thing. You've got to be disciplined.

You must be disciplined. Now let's look at the second prong of God's strategy for you. Verse 12, you must be committed to an aggressive campaign of good works. You must be committed to an aggressive, listen, an aggressive campaign of good works. verse 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 how many remember the persian gulf war i mean you know that to me that was like yesterday right to a lot of you here you were either about that old or you weren't even born yet when we went to war against iraq and kicked the iraqis out of kuwait you remember that there was this huge build-up for months remember there's this huge build-up for months in saudi arabia they just kept pouring troops over there the troops were going over there constantly and they built up this incredible um armada this incredible uh force of infantry and armor and air power and sea power i mean they just concentrated it and then when the the kickoff day came, they went.

And it wasn't a defensive campaign. They rolled into Kuwait. With all that power, man, they amassed an incredible force. I mean, I don't understand why the Iraqis didn't look at that and say, you know, it'd probably be better if we went home. Because it was unbelievable how much they stockpiled there. And then they went in and just did the job.

And so it is with us. we have to amass an arsenal of good lives and good deeds and pursue that strategy aggressively of good works now what is life like for Christians among unbelievers among modern pagans Notice what he says in verse 12. This is what it's like. They speak against you as evildoers. We will be the subject of hateful, malicious slander.

And you look around and say, how in the world are people calling us evil? we just want to do what's right and when we try to do what's right what are we called evildoers that's the nature of it people are going to say oh those people at larue baptist church they're nothing but a cult now if you haven't heard that about us you haven't had your ear to the ground that's what people say in this town about larue baptist church we're a cult some of you have heard it. I've heard it, right? We're a cult, you know, because they'll hear about some church discipline thing or something going on.

You know, I don't know whether I should give credit or not sometimes. You know, I don't want you to think I come up with these things. But let me just say this. I remember Pam Thomas one time telling us, in today's world a cult is anytime you have three people who agree what the right thing to do is okay and that's about the way it is but we're called a cult we've been called a cult we've been accused of that several times or those christians are harsh unloving judgmental people you ever hear that that's so common today if you say anything that speaks of righteousness oh you're just judgmental you're harsh you don't love those people you're bigots um you know you get one of those christians working in this department they're going to disrupt everything you know i remember one time working at a factory i used to work at during the summers when i was in college and the quotas are up there how much we had to produce and like it wasn't that bad i mean i just started pushing pushing it right okay they they need 12 i'll give them 24 and i could do it it wasn't that hard.

And man, I'll tell you, the guys in my department were ticked at me. Why? Because I was making their life hard now. They had to produce more too. It wasn't that hard either, you know. So they're going to get on your case.

You're doing what's right. You're doing what's good. And people think you're just a troublemaker. You're a bunch of fundamentalist bigots. You go around frightening people and blowing up abortion clinics whenever you get the chance right That what we all are aren we Right That what they that we painted with that kind of a brush Get used to that And in their slander, they accuse us of being wrongdoers, of evildoers, right?

They switch it all. They call white black and black white. And we are called evildoers. That's the kind of life that it is like to live. And even though we're not suffering yet, I can't say that we as Americans are suffering terribly. We think we are, but we're really not.

At least we got this much. At least we have slander. At least this is common. Right? We're evildoers. We're bigots.

We're judgmental. We're harsh. We're awful people. That's what's being said about us. And we should expect that. We should expect that.

Well, what do you do about it, though? What do you do about that slander? What does he say? You pursue an aggressive campaign of good lives and good deeds. Now that goes right against, that's so counterintuitive. It is not the way we normally think, which is why he says, renounce natural impulses.

Our natural impulse is to defend. Our natural impulse is to prove you wrong. No, but he says instead, a disciple of Christ, one of these strangers in this age, will not be a rebel. He won't be a rebel. Verse 13, instead of being a rebel, you're going to be a model citizen. You're going to be a model citizen, right?

You know, I remember years ago, years ago, and some of you have heard this story. I'm getting old enough where I repeat my stories and don't remember if I told you or not. Years ago, I remember I was coming down Elgin Road, and it was right around when school was let out, and I was going too fast, and a policeman pulled me over. And so there's Pastor Tim sitting on the side of the road as all the buses are going by.

Right? and um policeman comes up and you know we do our thing i get a ticket the next day i'm talking to my supervisor i was going through my counseling supervision right then my counseling supervisor was doc smith one of the old granddaddies in biblical counseling and so i'm telling him about this and he says to me this he says oh did you thank that officer for being god minister for your good I said actually that slipped my mind The point is, instead of being rebels in a government that hates us, we ought to be model citizens. All right? Rebels make poor witnesses.

Rebels make poor witnesses, folks. you're not going to be a rabble rouser at work but the best employee at the job you're not going to be a rebellious wife or a harsh husband you're going to be the epitome of submission and the greatest example of love you're not going to be a lawbreaker you're not going to block abortion clinics you're not going to blow them up but you're going to be one who loves sinners and reaches out with deeds of mercy to people who hate you an aggressive campaign of mercy several years ago and some of you remember this some of you have been here years and years and years but um we used to be involved with an organization called baptist for life and they started a pregnancy center in kalamazoo michigan and the day they were opening was an extraordinarily cold day it was the middle of the winter it was it was sub-zero weather almost and a bunch of pro-abortion people had showed up to protest and they were they were standing outside this pregnancy center right if you will pregnancy resource center they're standing outside with their placards and their chants and it's freezing cold do you know what the people in that pregnancy resource center did they went outside and they said look it's really cold why don't you come in and get warmed up. They invited them in and they gave them hot chocolate and coffee so they could get all warmed up again and then go back out and protest if they wanted to. See, that's what he's talking about here.

These totally counterintuitive things where you're aggressively pursuing good in the face of evil. You're doing good deeds to those people. You're pursuing that hard. You mount a positive campaign. The world has seen enough of angry, insistent, protesting Christians. We've done that.

We've done that game. Let's be done with that game. Okay? What we need to be about is living good lives, overflowing with good deeds, our Neighbors have to see us loving them and pursuing them and being the kind of people that they cannot explain naturally. Talking with a friend of mine some years ago who was an unbeliever, and he started talking about a member of our church who was working in his business.

And he told me that guy was a tremendous worker. He's a productive worker. He's a real asset to this company. see that's what unbelievers ought to be saying about us i remember someone else some some years ago someone else from our church was talking with an unbeliever at school one day and that person said to them um well i don't know how but i have to admit that the children associated with your church are pretty good kids now i'm not saying that we have i'm not saying pat ourselves on the back we got nice kids i'm not saying that at all what i'm saying is those are the sorts of things unbelievers should be saying about us.

They should be seeing people who love and who are overflowing with good towards them. You see, not, not, we're not trying to boast, but that's what unbelievers should be saying about us, right? I hate those people, but you know what? They were so kind to my grandma. Right? That's the kind of, that's the sort of thing that he's talking about here.

Why should we live that way? Why should we pursue that? To make our lives easier? No. What does he say? That those unbelievers who slander us may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day a visitation Here why we want to live that way so that when Jesus comes those unbelievers which once slandered us will join us in the choir when we praise God at the return of Jesus You see, that's our goal, to win them.

We don't want people who compliment us, we want people who will worship God. That's the end game. Peter is saying live such good lives that the way is paved for them to be converted now he's gonna he's already told us you're only converted by the ministry of the word of God but your ministry of the word of God is going to be useless if you're not overflowing with good deeds it paves the way for their conversion are we after compliments no we want to live such lives that it leads to their conversion.

It leads to the conversion of our enemies, so that they will look to the Savior in repentance and faith, fly to Jesus and say, I want you. They will embrace Christ in faith and become worshipers of God. that's why we live that way that's a much higher that's a much higher goal than just living in such a way that life becomes easy for us because it may not but it is the way that God calls us to live in the face of evil you ought to live your life in such a way that people will look at your good deeds and what talk about your God That what you want That what you want So are you a soldier of the cross Are you a soldier of the cross Have you committed yourself to a life of discipline Of saying no to those natural desires for acceptance and fairness and all the other things that go with it Have you committed yourself to that? Are you abstaining from those natural impulses that would make you ineffective?

That war against your soul and undermine the very thing you're trying to do? Learn to say no. are you committed to an aggressive campaign of good lives and good deeds listen we need to be aggressive in this every opportunity every day you walk down the street every day you show up at work you ought to be looking for some way of doing everything everything on the lower end of the scale from just being pleasant to i'm going to go out of my way to love this guy because he lost his wife. I'm going to go out of my way to love this guy because he's cursed me yesterday and I need to do something good to him.

From this to this, what are you going to do? Are you committed to an aggressive campaign of good lives and good deeds? We need to seek God's grace and the Spirit's power to do that. What a magnificent thing it would be. And frankly, it is happening. I know I'm not preaching to a bunch of dullards here who don't think about this.

But again, think about the impact in a world that's dark and full of hatred. What it's like to have a group of people amongst it that just flows with good deeds towards them. That the strategy in suffering That the strategy in suffering I don know where your suffering is It may be in your family It may be at work It may be just everyday life for you But God calls you to suffer in a way that's noticeably different. to suffer in a way that shows that the suffering of Jesus himself has freed you from always wanting your way and wanting for the name of Christ to be exalted.

Father, you are so good to us. And what you call for us to do, we know, is not coming from a Lord and a God and a Master who is unacquainted with suffering. for Jesus himself suffered. And as this book itself says, he refused to revile those who reviled him, but entrusted himself to his faithful God. Father, help us to entrust ourselves to you and to continue to do good.

Help us, Lord, to crucify those desires that say, I want ease and instead with our good deeds pursue conversions. That Father we would crucify the desires that we be treated a certain way and replace that with desires and deeds that overflow in love for the sake of others. God make us that kind of people. as it appears suffering looms a little larger every day help us help us to overflow with good lives and good deeds and we'll thank you in Jesus name Amen