Living As A Light In the Darkness

Transcript

GR1933
11/08/2015
Living as a Light in the Darkness
I Peter 2:11-12
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter in your Bibles and the 2nd chapter. Little did those men know when Christ called them to follow Him during His earthly ministry, Peter from the business of being a fisherman, that he would have such a role to play in the establishing of the new work God was doing in the world with the church. Little did he know when he wrote this letter that for thousands of years people would be studying what he wrote and the Spirit of God would be using it to impact hearts and lives. As he wrote he wrote to encourage and challenge Jewish believers scattered outside of Palestine but in the plan of God he was writing what would be preserved so that we could benefit from it down to today.

We are familiar with Paul’s letters. We often think of them broken down the first part of the letter would focus more heavily on theology and doctrine then the last part of the letter would focus on how that ought to be implemented and applied to our lives. In many ways I Peter is like that. From chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 10 the emphasis is strongly what we would say, “doctrinal” with some application spread through it.

When you pick up with verse 11 the change will be - there is a strong emphasis on application, conduct with the doctrine woven in as a lesser emphasis; so a similar pattern. He has laid the foundation through chapter 1 and down through chapter 2, verse 10 on basically the work of salvation provided in Christ. We have been born again by the work of God through faith in Christ and in chapter 2, verses 7 and following, verses 5 and following really. He talked about the focal point of Christ. He is either a stone of stumbling which people stumble over and are ultimately crushed by it or He is our rock of salvation and in Him we are being built to a spiritual house and again we have noted that much of this emphasis is for the Jews who have become believers. Some of them it pertains to them in particular as we noted calling them a nation, verse 9, “A chosen race, a holy nation.” The church is not a race. It is not a nation as we have noted but there are things here that are true of us that are also emphasized in other portions of Scripture because they are true of all believers; the priesthood of the believers but for these Jews coming out of their background with the priesthood of the Old Testament and then the promise of God to make them a nation of priests. They can appreciate this in a special way and realize they have a unique role. Not only have they been incorporated into the church but they continue to be that ongoing remnant of the nation that is realizing the promises of God in the salvation He provided in the Jewish Messiah. They are an ongoing testimony that God has not cast off His people as the Jews but there will come a day when the nation as a nation will come to experience these great blessings.

That contrast is between those who believe in Christ and those who don’t believe in Christ. Now Peter is going to turn his attention to the conduct of those who have come to believe in Christ. We live in an unbelieving world but we have been transformed and that is going to be his concern that we live as new creatures in Christ.

Come back to II Corinthians since we have just been there in our study and not too long ago we looked at II Corinthians chapter 5 in our Sunday morning studies. In II Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14: “For the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

So you see the coming of Christ not only cleanses us from our sin, it makes us new so that we now live differently. We conduct ourselves differently. We behave differently. The world around us has not changed but we have been changed on the inside and now the behavior on the outside is transformed as well.

Down in verse 17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. He old things passed away, behold new things have come.” Romans chapter 6 develops that. We died with Christ and we are raised with Him to newness of life now to live lives of righteousness pleasing to Him.

Come back to Peter and stop in chapter 1 of I Peter and look at verse 14: “As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” So here is an example where in the more doctrinal section of the letter he also has woven in application just as he will do it somewhat in reverse as far as the attention given in the section we are moving into where he will focus more on conduct and less on doctrine.

So here he brings the consequences of the doctrine of the salvation provided in Christ and its impact on our conduct. We are not to be conformed to our former lusts. That is when we lived in ignorance and that is going to come up in our section in a moment. We live without the knowledge of God. We didn’t know Him. We were ignorant of His salvation, of His grace and of a life that was conformed to His character but “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all behavior because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.”

We came down into chapter 2, verse 1: “Therefore putting aside all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, envy, all slander,” all those things that characterize the life apart from the redeeming work of Christ now we are to be finished with. They are to be put aside like old clothes, discarded. They are no longer to be characteristics that are part of our lives as God’s redeemed children.

So we come down to verse 11 and this follows on as he has talked about what they are now as a result of believing in Christ. “Having been made new” and as Jews the blessings they have received. He will contrast that with the unsaved Gentiles as we move on here.

Once we were not His people, now we are. Once we hadn’t received mercy, now we have, verse 10. So beloved, those that I love. I mean Peter is carrying out what he says must be true of believers.

Back in chapter 1, verse 22: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” So Peter expresses that “I am writing to those that I love, loved ones who have shared in the redemption that I have in Christ. I am writing to you out of the love that I have for you. “

Back in chapter 2, verse 11: “I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” Same basic instruction but it is going to be elaborated on now that we had back in chapter 1, verse 14. “As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” Our life is to be changed. It has been changed on the inside. We have been made new and that newness now is to come out. So we are now not conformed to the former lusts but we will be conformed to the character of the Christ who has made us new.

Verse 11: “I urge you.” It is a strong appeal from one who loves them. “I urge you as aliens and strangers.” You know what happens when one becomes a believer? They no longer belong to this world. This world is no longer our home. We are just passing through. That has always been true.

Come back to Hebrews chapter 11. Just before Peter you have James and just before James you have Hebrews. They letters are written to Jewish believers, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, Jude. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13: “All these died in faith.” Those that he has been talking about were believers. They had promises from God but they did not experience the full realization of those promises but they died believing that God would be good to His word. “They died without receiving the promises but having seen them and welcomed them from a distance.” And note, “Having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” So that is true of those going back to the early days of our Old Testament; Enoch in verse 5 and Noah. These are men of faith that believed what God promised and they lived their lives realizing God has promised me something better, something more, something else than this sin cursed earth that I am now living in. So they viewed themselves as strangers and exiles on the earth.

Back up a little bit more to Philippians, the book of Philippians chapter 3, verse 20. A reminder, this is not only true of Jewish believers this is true of all of us as believers because we have all been brought into the same salvation, the same relationship to Christ and through Christ to God the Father and thus the same transformed relationship to the world in which we physically live now. Verse 20 of Philippians 3: “For our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into the conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things unto Himself.” We are citizens of heaven. Now he is going to talk about earthly citizenship later in chapter 2 and the responsibilities we have. In that sense we do live in this world but our true home is not here. All my hopes for the future are not here. So we live as we say, “Holding these things lightly.” You know it is like being on vacation. You stop at a hotel or a motel and sometimes it is nice, nice setting. I was looking in the paper and they were talking about a hotel in Carmel, California. They also gave the prices so I will never have the opportunity to be there but it is a beautiful setting, it’s wonderful. But you know if I did go there and stay I am just a visitor in that sense. It is not my home and that’s the way we are to view this world and the things we have here. I am just on my way to the home God has promised me. That is where Peter was remember in chapter 1.

Come back to I Peter chapter 2 when he talked about the inheritance we have in heaven, “imperishable and undefiled.” It is reserved there for us and we are looking for Christ to come and gather us to our heavenly home and the promises there.

So verse 11 of I Peter 2: “Beloved I urge you as aliens and strangers.” This is what you are now; “To abstain from fleshly lusts.” To abstain – present tense here. We are not to be involving ourselves. We are to keep ourselves apart, separated from, fleshly lusts; fleshly lusts – the passions and desires that characterized us apart from the work of the Spirit in our life. That use of the flesh is not just referring to the physical body but the motivations that come from within as Jesus said, “It is out of the heart of man that proceed all kinds of sinful activities,” the flesh operating apart from the powerful work of the Spirit in the life. We were absorbed with fleshly lusts. That was the way unbelievers lived their lives. That is the way we lived our lives as unbelievers.

Remind you often that we live in a fallen world and when we have been believers for a long time we forget what we were. And we are not to dwell there but remember what transformed us is the power of God’s saving grace. Other than that I was just like them.

Come back to Ephesians. Repetition, but repetition is good. Ephesians chapter 2 when we talk about “We were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we formerly walked.” That is where we lived. That was our conduct. That was our behavior. That’s what Peter is talking about is transformed and what Paul is talking about. That was “According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh.” But we say we are no longer to live in that realm. That is where we once lived. Now apart from Christ that is where people live. We can’t change that by trying to get them to reform their conduct “because it is out of the heart (Mark 7, Jesus said) proceed all these fleshly desires and sinful behaviors.” We were indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. “Were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” It is just important that we not forget what we were like. Otherwise we begin to have that disdain for the unbeliever. As though somehow we never were as evil as they are and how can they do that? But I was just like them. I may not have practiced the same things but in heart, my heart was just as desperately wicked as the worst of them. I mean that’s what he says, we formerly lived there. It is where we walked. “We were by nature children of wrath.” And the transformation is, verse 4: “But God being rich in mercy.” That is what Peter has been talking about. That is what God brings to our attention again and again and again in His Word. The transforming power of His salvation and that’s why we don’t look with disdain on the unbelieving sinners of the world as though it’s impossible for us just how they could be like that. We understand. God reminds us because He doesn’t want us to forget and thus come to the idea that He saved us because we weren’t as bad as they were. We are every bit as bad. That is the power of His saving grace. That’s all that can do it. “His rich mercy took hold of us (verse 5) even when we were dead in our transgressions.” We were spiritually dead but we were alive and active in obeying the desires and lusts of the flesh. You can go on in Ephesians 2, not now because you are coming back to I Peter 2.

You abstain from those fleshly lusts. Now it indicates they haven’t all gone away. I still live in this physical body. The power of the old person, the old man as he is termed in Romans 6 was broken. I was set free from slavery to Satan, to sin. That has been changed but there is the responsibility to keep myself away from fleshly lusts, the passions, and desires of that old nature. Anything contrary to the character of God would be here.

Let’s back up to Romans 1. We read these lists and they are good to read to remind ourselves how God mixes our sins together. While I may not be guilty of this particular sin that I look down on this person for doing I find myself involved in this sin but I am proud I don’t do that sin. So you see the list here. All these things are things contrary to the character of God.

Verse 29 of Romans 1, these are the manifestations of a depraved mind. Things are not proper, “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murders, strife, deceit, malice, gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.” Now we might say, “Well you know, murder that is a bad one. Greed, well you know that is a little less bad one. You know, in fact society can admire greed in one sense.” So these are the things.

Come over to Galatians, Galatians chapter 5. You know God has been so gracious to repeat things for us so many times but Peter said, “I am going to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.” Some of these passages become so familiar you know what is there before you turn there. Look in Galatians 5. Paul’s concern is Peter’s concern in Galatians as well. Verse 13 of Galatians 5: “You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another.” I have been set free. I am no longer under the Mosaic Law but I am not free to do whatever I want. I am now free to do whatever God wants. Set free so I can live to please Him. “Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take care you are not consumed by one another. I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” That indicates even as a believer if I am not careful to walk under the control and guidance of the Spirit I still have the capability to do the desires of the flesh. So that is what Paul is warning of. That is what Peter is warning of. Keep yourself back from the desires of the flesh. Hold back from them. Don’t get involved in them.

Now the unbeliever doesn’t have the Spirit. He only has one realm he lives in continually. He never does anything pleasing to God and we won’t go to Romans 3 but you can read that as it is drawn from the Old Testament.

Now I can walk by the Spirit but you know what? The desires of the flesh can be appealing. If I am not careful I find those desires pulling me that direction. That is why Peter is saying, “Abstain from fleshly desires.” Why Paul is saying, “Walk by the Spirit. You will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets the desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.” They are in opposition to another. When I am pursuing the desires of the flesh I am not living under the control of the Spirit. I am rebelling and resisting against Him. The disease of the flesh is obvious and he gives another sample list: “Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissentions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” The things which are characteristic of people apart from the work of the Spirit in their life. They are not on their way to the inheritance in a kingdom God has promised. You don’t want to live there anymore. You don’t want to conduct yourself that way. You don’t want to indulge yourself there is the point.

Rather “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” This is not living lawlessly. I mean there is no law against these things. They are beautiful characteristics. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” We would agree. It is by the work of the Spirit we have been identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. We have been made new. Now continue to conduct your life by the power of that same Spirit and then you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now I have an opportunity. This is why we want to be careful. That’s why I keep mentioning moral reformation is a denial of the Gospel. We have to be careful. We identify certain behaviors as sin and it is sin and we have to be careful. Sin is sin. He is giving examples of sin but because a person does not indulge in a certain behavior it doesn’t mean they are any less sinners before God.

So we may give the idea if we are part of – I don’t want to get in trouble with the Christian right or the moral majority – these things, what are we talking about? We don’t clean up lives from the outside. That doesn’t mean I still don’t say, “Well the Bible says ‘no, that conduct is sinful, it is wrong.’” That would give them the idea we will stop that conduct and then God will be pleased with you. He is not. There is nothing you can do to please Him apart from bowing before Him in faith and believing in the salvation He has provided in His Son and then He will transform you on the inside and enable you to conduct yourself in a way pleasing to God.

We have crucified the flesh and we have been through before. The Bible says the flesh has been crucified. The old man has been crucified. Down in verse 14 of chapter 6 of Galatians Paul will say, “The world has been crucified to me.” But the world has not gone away. The flesh hasn’t gone away. It is still there to appeal to me. That is why I John says: “Love not the world neither the things in the world.” Believers have to be careful. The power has been broken but it has not ceased to exist. So I have to be careful that I don’t get drawn into these things and find myself doing those things that are not characteristic of a redeemed child of God.

Come back to I Peter 2. You live as a stranger and an alien here. There are certain things the citizens of this world in the full sense are doing. They live under the authority and control of the god of this world as I John 5 terms the devil, small ‘g’ but he is the god of this world. They serve the devil as we saw in Ephesians chapter 2.

“We abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” They wage war against the soul. You know what? There is a war going on. He is writing to believers and we want to stay away from these things because they wage war. They have a destructive purpose even in the life of a believer. In many ways they ruin our relationship with God because I can’t walk in the flesh and walk in the Spirit so I am rebelling and resisting and refusing the Spirit’s control of my life and so it has that detrimental, destructive influence on my relationship with God and my walk with Him. It doesn’t destroy it so it ceases to exist because I am His by His grace. This is a warfare. That means this is not something to be taken lightly. Now I am a Christian. I don’t have to be concerned about that. No, in some ways I have greater concerns. I didn’t have any concern about it before. Now that I belong to Him, I do. There is a war going on. The devil doesn’t give up easily. The flesh doesn’t go away. The appeal of the world hasn’t just emptied.

You know for a while we belonged to a segment of Christians who believed you could be perfected in the flesh. It is just not true and every day is a battle. I mean stop and think about it. We talk about James. How easily do I lose control of my tongue? How easily do I get thoughts in my mind and Jesus said, “If you hate your brother you are guilty of murder.” I wouldn’t think of maybe pulling out a gun and shooting him but I can think the worst thoughts about him. All of a sudden the flesh takes hold. You know my tongue, oh, I shouldn’t have said that. Why would I say that? I need to catch it that quick, other words, it goes on. The thoughts go on. There is a war going on. The devil is whispering in my ear, “it’s not so bad and you don’t have to make more of this than you should. It will be alright.” And my flesh is responding, “That sounds good to me too.” And the world is saying, “Come on in.” I have to be careful that I don’t love the world; I don’t allow the devil to assert some of his influence in my life. He can only have that influence when I let him. I have responsibility here. I am to abstain and in my salvation and provisions of the Spirit I have the power. You know what happens when I sin. I don’t want the power to abstain. Let’s just get down to the bottom line. I never said I couldn’t help myself.

Oh you know we had a comedian. His joke line was, “The devil made me do it.” Don’t believe this. It’s not funny, it’s true. The devil does move in the life of the unbeliever. But I can’t say that because I am free from his power. I can’t say the flesh made me. I was just overwhelmed. You know what? I wanted to. Now the problem with us as believers we are conflicted. I want to but I don’t want to. The desire is there but you know what? When I yield to the desire I don’t get the pleasure out of it that the unbeliever gets because that is his life and there are pleasures in sin but they are short lived. To me as a believer when I indulge in them I am conflicted and it brings misery. Not that the unbeliever doesn’t have misery in sin but they can have an enjoyment that I can’t. Not that there is not pleasure in sin for a time but there is a conflict for me as a believer because I am not my own. The Spirit of God dwells in me. He never leaves. I fight against His control and I want to indulge the flesh but He never leaves; a good reminder for me as a believer.

When I do sin the Spirit of God is right there because if He left I would be lost. If you have not the Spirit of Christ you don’t belong to Him. Just like we always live in the light we shouldn’t do the deeds of darkness because we pull the deeds of darkness into the light, scary thing. Any sin I do is done in the full light of God’s revealing presence. There is a war going on. Don’t make light of it. It is serious business. Don’t dabble with it. This is not a game. This is a war. “They wage war against the soul.”

Somebody put it this way, one commentator: “To entertain such desires may appear momentarily attractive and entirely harmless since the desires do not usually break forth into wrong actions but they are in reality enemies which inflict harm on the Christian soul weakening him, hindering his effectiveness.” And if we are not careful the desires break forth into the sinful behavior. “Abstain from them.”

That is encouragement. I don’t have to sin. Abstain from it recognizing this is a spiritual warfare and these fleshly lusts wage war against my soul. They have a destructive impact on me, a harmful impact. We talk about certain things you wouldn’t want to put into your body because they are destructive. Well, I don’t want to bring sin into my life as a believer. It is destructive in my very soul.

Verse 12 really doesn’t begin a new sentence but we have it here. It is a participle. We usually have them with ‘i-n-g’ on the word in English. So we are to “abstain, keeping our behavior excellent among the Gentiles.” This is an elaboration further on what it means to “abstain from the fleshly lusts waging war against the soul.” We are keeping our behavior, our day to day conduct.

Back in chapter 1, verse 15: “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior.” That is the word. Verse 17: “If you address as ‘Father’ the One who impartially judges each one according to his work, conduct yourselves, behave yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.” Our day to day conduct, the walk of our life, keep your behavior excellent; conduct that is beautiful, noble, praise worthy. It commends itself. It is conduct of excellence and the emphasis Peter is developing here beginning in verse 11 and it is going to run down into chapter 3 is our conduct in the context of unbelievers and that comes out here; “Keeping your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.”

Now when we talked about the earlier verses, verses 9 and 10 for example we noted some commentators say, “well the church has become Israel” and so on and this becomes another place they say that is evident. The Gentiles, well that really refers to those who are not part of the new Israel but not really. The Gentiles are the Gentiles because he is writing to Jewish believers and these are things that characterize the unbelieving world, the Gentiles in particular that the Jews would have recognized because they didn’t even have the law. They lived outside of that. “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.”

So how do we conduct ourselves? This is part of the pressure. We live in this world and the world is populated by unbelievers. Jesus said He has called us out of the world. Come back to John 15, John’s Gospel chapter 15. Look at verse 18 and he has talked about it in preceding verses. We won’t take the time to go there. “You did not choose Me but I chose you,” in verse 16. Verse 18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world the world would love its own. Because you are not of the world I chose you out of the world because of this the world hates you.” There is the foundational issue. There is not going to be any peace between believers and the world, unbelievers. That doesn’t mean I am always going to be fighting with my neighbor but you understand the root issue is a spiritual issue that is why it divides even our physical families. That is what Jesus was talking about. “I came to divide parents and children,” and so on in the Gospels. It is a dividing influence. At the root there is enmity between a believer and an unbeliever, between a child of God and a child of the devil. That doesn’t mean we don’t love our unbelieving family members or unbelieving friends and so on and desire them to come to salvation. We realize the root issue. That is why when we try to think if we do this the world will love us, the world hates us. Now we can conduct ourselves in a way that God can use our conduct to impact the world. That’s where Peter is going. But you understand the root issue is.

So you come back to I Peter chapter 2, verse 12: “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.” This is the realm of unbelievers. And here for these Jews looking at the unbelieving Gentiles. “So that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers. Keeping your behavior excellent, noble, praise worthy, honorable will not keep them from saying evil things about you. You can’t change what they say. All you can change is what you do but you can’t change someone else. They will still slander you as an evil doer. Why would do that? Why would they say that? I mean I have been trying to live a godly life before them, a life that is honorable, above reproach, noble, respectable. That antagonizes them. They say evil things about you, slanderous things to try to what? Ruin your reputation because they don’t want the truth. They hate the truth. What did they do to Christ, a man who told you the truth? Jesus said, “We shouldn’t expect any better response,” that’s where John 15 went on “than He received.”

Sometimes we get so caught up and so concerned here. Why? It must be something I am doing. Maybe you are living a holy, godly life but maybe you are not. We want to be careful this doesn’t become an excuse for behavior. We are talking about having behavior that is praise worthy, pleasing to God, honorable but they will slander even though you do as though you were an evil doer. “They may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation.”

The goal is to please God and to be a testimony; an example of the power of His saving grace in our life and God in His grace and mercy may use that to impact people. So they realize they slander you, they say evil things about you but you continue to do those good things. They observe that. Your conduct remains consistent. You don’t become bitter. You don’t become angry with them. You don’t lash back at them. You have a character consistent.

Now I find it helpful to read and this summer when I was gone I was reading in some of the Puritans, the Anabaptists and some of the suffering they went through. You know their suffering was so consistent that pretty soon the miserable way they were being treated and God began to work on the hearts of unbelievers and said this is not right. These are good people that don’t deserve this and God used that in an impacting way. That alone doesn’t save them but that life and the testimony they bore through their suffering has Jesus being crucified, what? “Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing.” And Christ is going to become the example down later in chapter 2; so the impact of that life.

Then “because of your good deeds as they observe them they glorify God in the day of visitation.” That ultimate time when God comes in judgment and sifting that they will there testify that I have come to salvation because of the impact of their life, their testimony. They not only told the truth, they lived the truth and so we look forward to that time. Won’t that be glorious? No matter how miserably they treated you.

Two men were being burned at the stake. The testimony of the one who says to the other: “Well, that’s alright brother, we will start a fire here that will burn through England.” Well that made an impact. We are not just being burned at the stake and we lose. We are being burned at the stake starting a fire the testimony of which is going to spread through the land and it did.

So that is the way we look at our life. We have a different view. We are just visitors here in that sense. We don’t belong here. This world is not our home we are just passing through. We are moving toward our heavenly home. We ought to be looking forward to the kingdom that we will be part of and we’d love you to be part of that.

Back up to Philippians again, Philippians chapter 2. Paul wrote to the Philippians and he tells them in verse 12 that “So my beloved, just as you have always obeyed not in my presence only but now much more in my absence (Philippians 2:12) work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you.” That is what Peter is talking about. You know the conducting of the life in light of the work of God in us and His continuing work and working to will and to work for His good pleasure. “Do all things without grumbling and disputing; that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach (now note this) in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the Word of life.” That is our position. We live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and we don’t live here differently because we are not as bad as them. We are there because we have been redeemed and we are lights bringing the light of God’s truth to the darkness of the world. We appear as lights in the world, as Christ when He came to be the light of the world, a light in the darkness and now with His salvation and the Spirit dwelling in us you understand everywhere you go you are a light in the darkness, a light in the darkness revealing the grace of God and His very presence who dwells in you wherever you are by your conduct, by the testimony you bear. It goes together.

We are not surprised the world is a world of darkness living in ignorance of the living God, living in constant unrelenting rebellion against Him. That doesn’t say he has transformed the world from darkness to light. He has placed us as lights in the darkness so that by His grace some might be drawn to the light and by His grace, the same grace that transformed us from belonging to the kingdom of darkness to belonging to the kingdom of light. We are testimonies. Think about that. The Spirit of God dwells in you.

Everywhere you go, every day of this week the presence of God is there. Not that you are God but He dwells in you. Your body is a dwelling place of the living God. He doesn’t leave. Oh, the people around me are so evil, so vile. Yes, that’s exactly what God says they are. That’s why He put you there. The darkness needs the light. You can’t become like them. Otherwise you put a cover over the light and Christ in that great analogy. You know, you don’t put a bushel over it. You want it to shine. It’s not only by pounding the Gospel into them. We are ready to speak to them about the Savior. We are there giving off the light of His transforming grace in all we do. But we do it with a different motivation. We have to have a consistent conduct no matter if everyone around us is conducting themselves improperly and we are not doing it to show them up or to be proud of our righteousness. We are doing it because that’s what we are. That is who we are. So that is what Peter is talking about. This transforming grace and our responsibility to live that way is to bring salvation.

And what he is going to go in the following he is going to talk about living a godly life in the context of unbelieving relationships and reflecting that work of God and our relationship to human government, our relation to masters or employers, our relationship to a spouse, all unbelievers but how our Biblical, godly conduct reflects the truth that we represent and share with others. May God use us this week wherever we are. May we be consistent if the place I am is really, really, really spiritually dark, but thank You God for Your grace in putting me there as the light of Your presence, the hope that they might be drawn to the light by Your grace and hear the truth and they can experience the beauty of the salvation that I have.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace. How amazing it is. How good it is for us to be reminded of what we were. Lord we won’t dwell there but we are reminded of the power of Your transforming grace. We were children of darkness. We lived in the darkness. We were ignorant of You. Our behavior manifested that in so many ways. Our entire life was a testimony of the darkness but Your grace has totally changed us on the inside and made us new. Lord how important it is that we draw upon that grace, the sufficiency of the Spirit who dwells in us as a war is waged against the lust of the flesh in an attempt to dim our testimony, to mar our testimony, to hinder us from manifesting the greatness of that grace. Lord you send us out to various places in the days of the week before us; may our testimony be strong. May we remember wherever we are and in whatever situation that You bring us into, we are there as lights in the darkness to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the beauty of Your character. We thank You for the salvation that is ours in Christ and we pray in His name, amen.