Abstain From Fleshly Lusts
1 Peter 2:11-12 · Bob Eckel · Apr 19, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261918294022

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

The lesson title today, I thought two verses were going to be short, but they're not. Raj has got a lot of wisdom in how he takes the verses. I'm glad to have you here. I didn't say hello to you, but they had me on board. So the title today is Abstaining from Fleshly Loves. And I think the first thing that comes up here, how do you do it? He sent it out late. Stop it. Those are his answers. I can't print it. We're going to be doing like this. Perhaps like this? Or like this? I'm not sure how well we're doing, but we're talking about living the spirit-led life that we're identifying with in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The flesh always can lust, and we're going to be dealing with that this morning. So let's go ahead and proceed. And verse 11, it says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. So I'm going to ultimately say that beloved is the first word in this verse. And it's used eight times by Peter in this epistle, interestingly enough. And he speaks.

Do you want to make Bob bigger? Well, it's not written. and this begins a whole sect that was part of the second chapter, as we've in fact then, you know, delving into the position of proofs, and there's sound doctrine here. Just like Paul, I think we shortchange Peter sometimes, but Peter's got that doctrine that gives us the foundation for how to live the Christian life, before in fact he gets into the So I've got five questions for us to ponder at this verse. So let's see how we're doing. I want you to be thinking about these as I post the questions before you. The first question is, why do the first 10 verses of 1 Peter 1 precede this? I've kind of already alluded to that to some extent, but we'll turn back to that in more detail.

Secondly, why does Peter call them sojourners and pilgrims? the beloved? Why does he list them as sojourners and pilgrims? Third, why is Peter begging them? Fourth, what does it mean to abstain from fleshly lusts? And how did fleshly lusts war against the soul? So these are the five questions that are directed towards 1 Peter chapter 2. Let's take on the first one. Why did the first 10 verses of 1 Peter 1 precede this?

I want class participation. But before, he was talking about who we are. Yeah. You're right, Karen. I think that's best represented by 9 and 10. We're not going to read all 10 verses. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, and who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained and uniquely honored to be God's great grace. Other thoughts about the first 10 verses summarized in 9 and 10? All right, so we're founded as a chosen generation and a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

So the question comes up, do fleshly lusts have any place here? The answer is no. And, you know, we have to think, I think, frequently remind ourselves there's no condemnation now who are those in Christ Jesus. So positionally, we're solid. We're chosen. And we, in fact, do not live a life full of lust.

At least we were called to that. So the first question was the easiest of the five. So let's move on to more difficult questions. Why does Peter call them, or us, sojourners and pilgrims? Because we're citizens of heaven. Beautiful answer. Let's pursue that. Sojourners are strangers or settlers having a house in a city without being citizens. and pilgrims are ones who come from a foreign country.

So we don't have citizenship here. And I think ultimately that's a constant reminder as we go through the day-to-day challenges of living this life in a worldly system. And I would say to you, how's this for positional truth? Let's go back and look at that again.

We're soldiers, strangers, and we're in a city with no rights to citizenship. And we've come from a different country. Boy, that isn't something we put down deeply in our souls and minds. We're kind of missing what we're being called to here. We're all sojourners and pilgrims. Any other thoughts about that being exemplary of the position of truth in which we reside? That's what Miles used to say, right? This is our business address. Heaven is our home. I love that.

I'm going through a lot of trials now with the American Diabetes Association. You know, in the times we're facing with the economic change that's going south ultimately, you know, lots of programs are being cut. And there's been some question as to what the whole research program is going to be eliminated. is really a major part of what the ADA is. So, ultimately, we'll need to be looking at that carefully going forward. You know, when you put it in perspective, this is just for a time, and it's part of our growth path here. We can't get too tied up in all the earthly circumstances, despite the pandemic we're all facing.

Other thoughts? A couple of things, Bob, if I could. Just in thinking of this passage, the people that he's addressing may not relate to being foreigners and exiles spiritually, but because they were physically in a foreign country and they were also physically exiles from their homes. if we take it literally that this is being written to folks in Greece, you know, as the epistle starts out, but it does apply in that regard that we are a royal priesthood and that is spiritual, that is who we really are. Well Roy, I'm glad you brought this up. I'm going to return to that kind of situation, the earthly letter we're in, so I thank you for bringing that up. We'll get to that in a little bit. As believers, we need to frequently remind ourselves that we're in a foreign country. This is not our home, and we've kind of just talked around that over the last couple of minutes.

Philippians 3.20 reminds us, as Paul does, in addition to Peter, for our citizenships in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And one thing I remember about Vern, Vern was always looking to the rapture, and I think ultimately we sometimes dismiss that. We're eagerly waiting for our Savior. Many of us get there by physical death, but ultimately being lifted up is something we ought to continue to look to the Lord for.

And this is also a reminder for all who live by faith in what God has revealed, and we turn to Hebrews there, and I think this is a important text to bring up. These all died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of that and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers. and the Josephs, and the Chanofs, and all the saints of the Josephs lived by faith, and often they considered themselves strangers and helpers. The church is different than Israel, and of course, Israel's future is on the earth. Nevertheless, men and women in the Old Testament were led by faith.

Third question, why is Peter begging them? Is that necessary? He wants to make sure they listen. OK. What do you think of when you're thinking of somebody begging you for something? Well, they're really concerned about you, certainly. I think that comes across. OK. That's very important. I mean, it's almost like an exclamation point. Listen to me. I'm telling you, listen to me. Well, I'm really trying to persuade you. All right.

I think if we look here, beg in the Greek and also I think in the English is to is to admonish someone, which I think is is nicely reworded as reprimand firmly. I mean, begging in a sense is please do this. But it's not only doing that, it's bringing them to the attention and reprimanding them for not doing So this is a strong term, and Peter doesn't waste words here in begging them to avoid these fleshly lusts. Why?

Because that's not who they were, and that's not who we are. We're heavenly citizens, and these fleshly lusts hamper our ongoing relationship with the Lord by breaking that fellowship. Don't do it. And the issue is where our penalty is not one of our salvation or opposition. The penalty is that fellowship which we leave aside when we in fact are ultimately succumbing to these fleshly lusts, which is by the way part of the flesh. It's part of the sin nature. and we must remind ourselves that nature has been crucified and considered dead. really give all the credit of the position of truth.

We all believe in my faith to exemplify in our lives. But, you know, I think it's always good to use the epistle when Peter's got a lot of doctrine and it applies to our mood. This is a good example of that position of truth. So notice at the top of this page, I said, how's this position of truth? And as we go about Peter, based on why they start their position, and how the Lord sees us on a day-to-day basis. Any other thoughts about this begging that Peter is doing?

All right, what does it mean to abstain from voluntarily lust? Again, how are you doing it, this? Well, I don't know. I think sometimes we focus too much on how we're doing it. That's really a pain in the back. No, I haven't found it yet, but... I think you do a word search for scripture if chocolate's not going to come up. Well, Bob, it goes back to what we were going through in Galatians there.

We're not to walk by the spirit, not by the flesh. The whole picture of you know it's impossible to carry out the desires of the flesh if we're walking by the spirit so we attack it that way not trying to suppress or reframe so I mean I don't think that explains abstain any better but it's to remove yourself from it and don't go there kind of thing so what are the fleshly lusts and what I'm not going to do today is we're not going to go back to Ephesians we're not going to go back to Galatians and list all these fleshly lusts But I think we're going to turn to the epistle of 1 John, and I think he says it best. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. So what I thought I'd do with this verse is let's maybe just provide some earthly examples of things of the world system that reflect the lust of the flesh. What might be examples of a luster of flesh?

Sports. Sports. We miss our sports. Don't go there, Margaret, please. I think it could be eating. Eating too much. It could be a lust of the flesh. The flesh. The actual body wants to eat. Money. money, money of course. What else? Ego. All right. Well, the ego kind of bleeds into the pride of life, doesn't it?

So, I mean, the lust of the flesh is anything that pleases yourself beyond just the existence we have on a day-to-day basis. The thing is, we're not here to put metrics on that. in terms of what kind of insurance policies you have, or what kind of home you have, or what kind of car you drive. But the lust of the flesh is longing for something more to please our fleshly needs. And each one of us have to answer the Lord. We're not going to kind of go and examine other people's lives and make decisions for them.

Lust of the eyes could be, that could be money, could it? What else? Covetousness? Wanting something that somebody else has? Yeah. I always wanted to be taller. You can have it. Amen to that. Margaret, is that something you're lusting after? It's too late. I probably did when I was younger. I lusted after shoes that I can't wear because my foot's too small. Peter needs to know you're white. It's a good thing, she'd never mind. I mean, the Pride Alliance, how far can that go?

What's the world system reward? Knowledge. Well, fame, power. Good luck. The biggest one is pride, right? We're flying. Yeah, I think all these things. the pride of life can extend to far reaches, I think. Ultimately, lust of the eyes can be, you know, ultimately, you know, desire for another person or wishing they, you know, they were like them or ultimately for guys that are looking warm and etc. I mean, that can go extensively into many spaces. But what about the pride of life? How about the being proud of your children? Is that a lustfully or place we must?

I think there's a balance there. I don't appreciate who they are, but you know, I just think there's a balance there. In some of it's good, but you know, you can go overboard too. Well some in today's world, some people, some families push their children to excel in sports and music and whatever it might be. I mean the excess The excesses of the world system include how smart you are, what you've achieved, the athletic abilities, your good looks, and things like that. That's all part of the world system.

And lust for those things needs to be buried and left behind, as we consider our great position. So let's not spend any more time here, but we all kind of know the things of the world that bring us attention, and our time sometimes is overly spent in that space. So how do we do this? Abstain from fleshly lust? We don't have seen on the Lord.

The Lord does say it. near that positional truth that we have, we're increasingly being transformed. This is an ongoing process into that image. Paul, when he left his earthly body, ultimately felt that he hadn't gotten there yet. He considered himself the least among all sinners, the greatest among all sinners. In other words, fell far short of the Lord's glory.

But this is a process where you never get it totally right, but this is a process that's ongoing where we behold his face and have been transformed into that image and by the way, notice the end of the verse this is not intellectual identification with our position this is a spirit-led change in our day-to-day existence and I think one of the things, Bob, that maybe needs to be mentioned in that is the work of the Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and give them to us.

Our part is to accept them. Right, you know, and that's an act of faith, Roy. You know, this begins with an atmosphere of rest. It begins with that rest and security of who we are and where we're placed and ultimately being part of this holy priesthood that we've been called to, as Peter said. So when we're accepting this and we have peace and rest about this, that's when the we owe Him as an image, we're being transformed into that same image by our faith.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about this, Bob, in regard of the work of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't want to be recognized. He wants us to recognize Christ and His beauty. And our focus is really on Him. If we're responding correctly, if you ask, what do we do? We believe and we trust and we magnify, you know, we glorify God only by accepting the beauty of Christ and looking at it.

What do I hear? I can't. All right, good. Mark 8, 2 Corinthians 3, 18 in terms of the process. Mike has his on us over there. Why do you do this? What's that? We learn how to do it by being transformed by perceiving his presence and being positionally spaced and allowing the spirit to transform us into that life we now have in the Lord Jesus. But why do we do this?

Well, 1 Corinthians 10.31, therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all from the glory of God. Welcome to the new life, right?

And we're not in the position of keeping a list of things we're doing to bring glory to God. This is his metric, and not ours. When we live by faith, ultimately, he gets the glory. That's the end of it. We don't have to be rewarding ourselves for bringing glory to God. Andrew, your father really spent a lot of time on glory to the Lord. So that's our purpose. wonder about in the eternity to come how God's going to be magnified by all of us. His glory will be known but also appreciated and in unison the choir of heaven will sing about His glory. Right? Right. Eternally we'll do that. Even from an earthly perception it's hard for us to figure out what that looks like and how that's going to be but we know it's a better place for sure.

Alright, and finally, how do fleshly lusts war against the soul? Well, it's like the verse that Paul says, I don't do what I want to do, and I do what I don't want to do. Another one I'm talking about. Yeah, Carolyn, chapter 7 of Romans. I think Paul uses the term I 47 times in chapter 7. It's a struggle. Yeah, so this war is ongoing all the time, as long as we're in this earthly body.

Let's begin by defining the soul. What is the soul? That's our immaterial part that relates to each other as humans, right? How's this for a definition? for many definitions, the seed of feelings, desires, affections, and aversions. That could be modified. The real you, the part that makes you happy, sad, mad, and glad. That was Ruthie saying, the part of you that's real, that makes you happy, sad, and glad. The child version. That's a child version, she says.

Is the soul Moral or immoral or amoral? Amoral. And what are your thoughts about the fact that the soul, what nature does it take? I would say it's neutral because it was created by God in the beginning and it sort of has a neutral position and it can go either way. Think about Adam and Eve. They have a soul, correct? I don't think so. When we go to heaven, does the soul come with us? I don't know. Yes. Well, good question. I would say...

Go ahead, Laurie. You were going to comment. I don't know if this is a surprise or not, but in every part of us we're going to have a new body, a new soul, a new spirit, and we have that now, but we're not experiencing it with the freedom from the sin nature right now, and so there's that warfare going on. My opinion would be the soul does accompany us in heavenly places, the resurrected Christ had feelings, desires, affections, and aversions, and he's purely holy. and our soul will be transformed by the power of the indefinite eternal position of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing wrong with feelings, desires, affections, and aversions. The question is what's leading them. So let's pursue this further. I think Thayer kind of had a nice view of this.

Insofar as it is so constituted by the right of the use of the aids offered by God, it can attain its highest end and secure eternal blessedness, the soul regarded as a moral being designed for everlasting life. Now I would say the soul is created innocent in Adam and Eve, but God has the capability of modifying our soul, our seed of feelings, desires, affections, and aversions to bring about that confidence of our eternal blessedness and everlasting life. It may not be perfect, but our soul can be modified by the Spirit of God or by the fleshly sin nature in which it dwells. Why do fleshly lust war against the soul? Because the soul is intended by God to be modified by the Spirit of God.

And what's this war all about? Well, James 4.1, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lust and war of your members? So James is considering this kind of war in our members very similar to an earthly battle, where in fact there are wars and fighting among you, as James said. and we're talking about earthly wars and fights, but also your lusts in the flesh also war your members.

And then I think what Roger was alluding to earlier in the teaching of Galatians that for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. Roger, you want to reflect back from the teaching and go twice just for a moment.

Well, the thing is that we're talking about how to control the flesh. And it's interesting, the Lord doesn't give you a recipe for controlling the flesh. He says, don't focus on the flesh, focus on the spirit, focus on Christ, basically. And that will, in and of itself, make it impossible to do the desires of the flesh.

So it's interesting how the Lord approaches that, and I think we need to remind ourselves Because our approach is many times, let's attack the source of the problem. Get rid of that anger or that lust or whatever. And the Lord says, no, I want you to focus on me and walk with me. And that's how you can attain, that's how that can solve the problem. So it's different, it's man's way, you know, God's ways are not man's ways.

Right, I think one thing that helps me a little bit is when I come to the Romans 7 passage in here, the end, Carolyn, and Paul says, Oh, wretched man that I am. And what follows that, then, that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. So we need, that's our citizenship. And when we fall short of that by lust of a flesh, we can test that, move on, and remind ourselves of the citizenship that God sees us as perfectly holy and holy, pristine, and righteous.

That should help. One of the things in that passage you just quoted is that he then, he asks the question, who shall rule over me? And his focus goes on the Lord right away. and I jump at verse 4 into the first, contemporary verse 1, and there's no competition. Yes, who shall deliver us? And it's the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, so we've answered all five questions, at least in part. You can decide yourself whether we've answered them sufficiently.

But anyway, this is what the Lord has led me to in terms of sharing verse 11. So it's a stacked verse. And many questions come about in that verse that I think matures an understanding of what Peter's calling us to. Verse 12, then, having your conduct, and by the way, remember, these fleshly lusts war against the spirit. Having your conduct related to conduct, then, that reflects these fleshly lusts. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observed glorified God in the day of visitation. Lots of components of this verse that raise also some questions. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles.

So Roy, you contended that Peter was writing mostly to the Jews, and this verse reflects that to some extent. In that, oh, by the way, it's not only the Jewish believers that I'm writing to, but I'm also asking them, and actually all believers, to having The Gentiles also notice our conduct. So we'll just remind ourselves that Peter's epistle was directed to both Jews and Gentiles, preferentially to the Jew before the Gentile believers alone. Constable, I like this.

Part of the suffering Peter's original readers were experiencing, Roy, this gets back to what you mentioned earlier, was due, evidently, to slander from unbelieving Gentile pagans. they appear to have been accusing them unjustly of doing evil. And we're going to get into the temporal sequences about this issue in a few minutes. So, ultimately, these Gentile pagans were really accusing them of doing evil. And that really reminds us of something that the Lord Jesus Christ was accused of. We'll come back to that in a second.

What's honorable among the Gentiles, and what metrics do they use? When we think about our day-to-day walk as believers positioned above the condition by the Spirit about bringing the new nature to evidence in our walk, what do the unbelieving Gentiles think? How are they measuring our performance as believers?

Against the world system? Okay, and the world system relates to ultimately the lust of the flesh, right? Yes. The world system, okay. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life, okay. So those are the metrics the world system might look at. But we preach Christ crucified, both to the Jews and the stumbling block. And remember, to the Gentile nations, Christ is foolishness. Right. I've shared this many times, I'll do it for the hundredth time. I've had better opportunities to discuss the Lord Jesus Christ with Jews than I have with Gentiles.

They think, you know, if you're educated and scientifically inclined, how can you believe in the things that are written in the Bible? And that's foolish. I mean, the unsaved Gentile thinks that's foolish. And by the way, before I was saved, I thought it was foolish.

I thought this was ridiculous. these streets Christians, the hypocritical white radical that call themselves Christians that's the world metric system they're looking at us to fail and pointing out how we fail that our faith can't really be true can anybody relate to this? how can we not relate to it? it seems like daily we're bombarded by how Christians are very few Christians are lifted up almost true Christians true Christians are always put down or slandered or whatever ones that kind of I would say have compromised that maybe we have some and we see it in the arena of preaching maybe some preachers that preach a health and wealth gospel they may be lifted up but the ones that preach Christ are not well but don't you think that Gentiles look at the true Christian and won't let the Lord define that? in terms of his judgment, but ultimately, when we fall short, doesn't the skeptic, the gentile skeptic who looks at us as fools, think our faith can't be true because we've fallen short? Yes.

A lot of people say that about churches, too. They say all churches are full of hypocrites, and it's not a good church, because those people don't practice what they preach. Some people say that kind of stuff about churches in general, too, a lot of them. Well, they can point to people in their community who are believers, but who do good things, and who, you know, they say, well, and that's who they're comparing some people to Christians, or pro-Christians, to these people in their community who, you know, those people are good people. And look at these Christians. They're, like you say, Carol, hypocritical.

What do you think the best thing is for us to do as believers when we do fall short? Confess it. Tell people we made a mistake. I think that's incredibly important. And by the way, I found that on a couple of circumstances of opportunity to share the Lord. Because yes, you know, I've fallen short. Forgive me for my wrongdoing. And by the way, you know, even though I've fallen short, my relationship to my Heavenly Father is still there. And you go into a little bit more detail.

Sometimes they're questions to follow, and sometimes they're not. But it's a good opportunity to see Christ and the Lord open the door to share more about our faith. So asking forgiveness when we're wronging somebody is incredibly important. And I think that's important in our own homes, too. that reflects, you know, an atmosphere of humility that brings glory to God. All right, Titus 2, 7 and 8. All things showing thyself a pattern of good works. So again, who's looking at it? Well, the Lord's looking at it, but the world system around us is looking at it.

And that's a doctrine showing incorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, and a no evil thing to say about you. So in a sense, that kind of paraphrases what we just shared about walking by grace and by faith, that ultimately the things we do and say are but that as bringing glory to God. We fall short. So if we are corrupt, or we are not sincere, or our speech is flawed, you know, basically asking for forgiveness, thanking for the Lord, and moving on. Restoring that fellowship and maybe having an opportunity to share.

James 3.13, who's a wise man?

And a dude with the knowledge among you. Let him show out of a good conversation his worth. Look at the modifier, with meekness of wisdom. Somebody define meekness of wisdom. One of the definitions I learned early on about the meekness is using what you know correctly. It isn't being braggadocious about it, but using it correctly. That's nice, Roy. Other thoughts? Well, I like the little phrase, meekness is not weakness.

That's a component of it, too. I think Roy expressed part of that. having the right words at the right time, the honest words, consistent with what the truth is. In the light of our being, you know, unaccepted believers, our Lord indicated that that would be the case. They hated Him, and people that do not love God, they hate us also. Is it also not being boastful of wisdom? Yes. The neatest way for me to think of meekness is Christ himself. And he related to himself as being meek. Not pushy. So that nature is exemplified in us by our meekness of wisdom. Ruthie added the words, not pushy.

Right, and wisdom too needs definition. Wisdom is that application. And for the believer, it's the application of spiritual knowledge and position to our condition. And when that's expressed in meekness, it's a good conversation that is reflected in our works. Bob, we also see that wisdom is granted by God. and the Holy Spirit enlightens us. And so realizing that we're not the ones who are generating this with some humility. I think that's a good reflection of what this means.

Yes? Should we be able to say that it is Christ speaking through us? Yeah, I mean, that'd be tough to sell to the psychiatrist in the emergency department. But, you know, if I've always thought about this, you know, if you have something, you know, in the ER and we're medically ill and being seen there and evaluated, somehow it relates to a mistake we made that might be perceived by this Gentile world system as not being a Christian. And then sharing that we have two natures. And then the psychiatrist is going to be called down. You have two majors. How long has this hallucinatory behavior been ongoing here?

Anyway, so we don't need to worry about that. That's one of those what-if questions. And whenever somebody asks you a hypothetical question, it's good to not be willing to offer opinion. Because if it's hypothetical, you don't know if this will ever occur. So we need to pause, but ask a hypothetical.

All right, Luther, a good walk, and this is not perfect, but going back to Mark Luther, remember what Mark Luther did for the body of Christ. A good walk does not make us pious, but we must first be pious, that's a new nature, isn't it? And believe before we attempt to believe in a good course. Rest, peace, I'm paraphrasing. Faith first receives from God, then love gives to our neighbor. So in a sense, I think that we could argue with that sentence a little bit. But Luther had something in mind here, didn't he? Remember, Luther, what was his major contribution?

Return of salvation. To the body of Christ. Personal salvation. We're saved by faith, right? We're not saved by works. Giving the Bible to the masses, not just to the priesthood. That's right. And accurate translation and extending that beyond the priesthood. So Luther, we owe a lot to him. I think this quote from him comes close. It's not perfect, but it helps. Because our pious walk is that new nature of spirit life.

All right. When they speak against you as evildoers, I referred to this a little earlier. They speak against you, by the way. They're doing it, and they will do it. This is present, active, indicative. It's factual. They're doing it. And by the way, they're going to continue to do it, as the Gentiles and actually Jewish unbelievers are doing today.

Why would they speak of us as evil doers? Is this only when our conduct is less honorable? They speak of Jesus. No, I think they feel intimidated by believers. show them that in fact, and make them feel guilty. That's a lot of times what it is. It's a guilt. They don't want to admit. Well, and God is offensive to them, so we're offensive to them. Right. And now, notice how this relates to our crucified and risen cornerstone.

John 18.30, they answered and said to him, the Jewish leaders now, if he were not an evildoer we would have delivered him up to you what? and why was Christ an evildoer? if he were not an evildoer we would not have delivered him up you spoke against them he said he was God and that went against the grain of the world system didn't it? one of the things that we might look at this word when they speak evil of you, that word really means slander they're actually telling lies about you ok, that's good, thanks so anyway, this is another example of identification Christ himself was an evildoer, he was perceived by the world system around him so, when they think of us as evildoers putting a metric on it that relates to the world system, the cosmos, the environment in which we all live. And so us falling short of what their expectations are for taking this holier-than-thou position that they perceive makes us an evildoer. And I think it's another sign of our identification where we need to be honorable in that Christ We need to mention here that James goes into details about this, is suffering for maybe things that we do that are evil, and then they criticize us directly. Versus here, we're being exhorted to live exemplary lives so that their lies, you know, would be revealed to be lies.

Yes, Roy, thank you. The James passage deals with it a little bit differently. It's kind of a different issue. It's kind of like apples and oranges. It's fruit, but it's a little different piece of fruit. But the thing that we mentioned earlier about when we do fall short, and we are, in fact, criticized and called evil, again, confession's the next best step.

Asking for forgiveness. All right. may be made by your good works which they observe. Glorify God in a day of visitation. This is an interesting way to end this morning's class. So, now they observe our good works. How does this glorify God in a day of visitation? What is the day of visitation? Good question. And that leads me to ultimately answer that question.

Perhaps, I think this indicates how our good works make burning unbelievers to the Lord, that's one interpretation. But ultimately, you know, and 1 Peter gives us an example of this in the first verse in chapter 3, likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any of the name not the word, we're not going to dissect this verse now, that's going to come up in the next few weeks. They also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wise. I came to the Lord because of Sharon. I saw how the Lord was changing her life.

And ultimately, this is an indication how good works could bring someone to salvation who is currently not in the body of Christ. And then Paul has something to say about the benefit of our good works, too. Romans 8 tonight, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, for this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and saint unto thy name.

Did somebody want to say something? This day thing. We're going to come to that, Roy. But let me finish my talk, and then we'll come back to this. OK. So what does the day of visitation, as Reagan asked, refer to? Well, it's interpreted with some controversy. And I'm going to turn to a source that I would not ordinarily turn to. And you can criticize it or feel that it's right on.

This examination of the Greek word translated visitation establishes that its use here may have two meanings. One is temporal, an earthly visitation. And the other, eschological, the final visitation or the judgment day. Each of those meanings can have two purposes. visitation for blessing or for punishment and commentators take both positions and translations take both positions. What are your reflections on the day of visitation?

I was thinking of the verse in Isaiah 10.3 which says, now what will you do in the day of punishment and in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help and where will you leave your wealth It could be that he's thinking of that verse, I don't know for sure, but the day of visitation is coming when God will intervene about all things and all men will worship God, which is what this verse says, glorify God in the day of visitation. Right, and I think this could occur in two ways in context. One is that, again, like the wives leading their husbands, or it could be opposite, husbands leading their wives, or significant others, or however you want to put it, to salvation.

Ultimately, that would glorify God on the day of this attention. But also, the unsaved are going to appear before the Great White Throat Judgment. So that could reflect that even in that space, they will glorify God, even as unbelievers when they face the throne. Even when unbelievers will bow before Jesus Christ, they will glorify him. And here is a verse or two that fits into Jesus Christ's word to the glory of God the Father. That's the great white throne of judgment. and I think reflects what you were saying in Isaiah, Roy.

So ultimately, here's the final message. If you're seated with him, keep looking down. And I think from a position as royal priesthoods, a holy nation, we in fact have a life to live that's entirely based on faith, dependent on his leading us and the spirit guiding that course. Any final comments or questions about today's class? I want to say something. I want to say something.

I remember so well how Hal always said, many times you're the only Bible anyone ever reads. How you interact with your life, people pay attention. They know if you're professing to be a believer. And I think Hal is so right, because in our going, we come in contact every day with people who are not believers.

And here we're in the middle of this crisis in our world. And people are looking at us. They're watching. If you're a believer, are we panicked and thinking this is the end of the world, and things are falling apart? what the Lord, what we do, and how we are. And it's not that we try to do the right thing, but I think it's focusing on the Lord and knowing what our position is.

It's so important. Amen. Yeah, amen. OK, so Roger, you're teaching next week, right? No, actually, there's a late breaking news here. I talked with Andrew last night. home and tell you right by a zoom all right Andrew will be doing part one and part two of submission to authority yes oh yeah we're looking forward to it Andrew thank you yeah Roger closes in prayer okay we thank you father thank you for a time today Lord we thank you for the blessings we have father thank you for the wonderful life we have in our Savior we pray we would look to him during these times and trust in him in all things In Christ's name, Amen.