Clean Transcript

Are You A Traitor?

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• Two and we'll read verses 11 and 12. Won't get really to verse 12, but we'll read it in the sense that it would indeed be the end of the sentence. So look at it if you would in verse 11, 1 Peter 2: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." In the day of the visitation.

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• So, the question that I'm going to ask for the title of this message is this: Are you a traitor? So the question is one of great importance. And I've not asked this question in order to be insulting, belittling, or to instigate an argument or a fight. I've asked the question in order to provoke your thinking and to point you to a biblical answer. When we think of traitors, we normally think of individuals like Judas and Benedict Arnold, the Rosenbergs, or at least those individuals who have admitted to treason and or have been convicted of treason. I hope you remember that last year, I brought a message which I entitled, "The Bible and Treason." And in that message, I pointed out how most people normally think of treason and they think of treason against civil government.

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• In fact, I gave quotes demonstrating where even the Constitution says that treason is aiding and abetting and giving comfort to the enemy of the United States. Well, I also pointed out the fact that treason is first and foremost a sin against God, because God is the creator of all. He's the sovereign of all. And it was God who instituted the three institutions, that is, the family, as a ministry of education, and the church as a ministry of grace, and civil government as a ministry of justice. So God then gave delegated authority to each of those institutions, and of course they are answerable, accountable, and responsible to Him. So thus to violate His law and to violate the authority that was delegated to them is indeed counted treason against God. So if treason then against a state or a civil government is considered so great and deserving of the death penalty, how much worse then is treason against God who instituted everything and delegated all authority. So we must comprehend the importance of treason and being traitors.

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• This message is going to take a little different turn because it's not just treason, and it's not just being a traitor against God. I'm going to show you that, obviously and clearly, we are proven traitors in our personal life, in our daily life. And the truth is, we actually commit treason on a daily basis. So I want you to look, if you would, please, again at 1 Peter chapter 2. And I will just mention this again.

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• He said in verse 11, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." Now, we commit treason against our own souls and are traitors to ourselves. If treason consists then of aiding and abetting the enemy and giving the enemy comfort, we are guilty as charged. So there are basically three enemies we say that the Christian has. Those three enemies, of course, are the world, the flesh, and the devil. So let me just take these one at a time very quickly, and let's talk about the world. The world is classified as our enemy. And, of course, there is a remedy, there is an answer in facing the world. And the Bible tells us that remedy and that answer is faith. Because in 1 John 5, in verse 4, the Bible says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." So whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

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• So when the world then draws, when it seduces, when it attacks, we must exercise faith. And that faith, of course, is based upon the Word of God and the promises of God. And then secondly, we have the enemy, the devil. And the remedy, according to Scripture, is to fight. For instance, the Bible says in James 4 and verse 7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." So note, if you would please, the word "resist." And then when you look in 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9, the Scripture says, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." Now, it doesn't matter whether you look at James 4 and verse 7, or 1 Peter 5, 8, and 9, the word "resist" is the same, and it literally means to resist, to set oneself against, to fight against, and to oppose, and to fight.

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• So we are to overcome him by fighting. Now, I want you to look very quickly at two passages. I want you to hold 1 Peter 2, but look in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 16, and then we're going to Revelation chapter 12. So in Romans chapter 16 and verse 20, Paul wrote to the Roman Christians and he said this, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."

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• "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen." So he said, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet." So you're walking on him. You're stomping on him. That is, you are fighting, you are resisting. Then if you will look in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. Revelation 12, notice if you would, verse 10 and 11. In verse 10, "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."

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• "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." So when it comes to the enemy of our souls, when it comes to the devil, we fight. The world is faith, and the devil is fighting. And then, of course, there is the third enemy, and I actually believe this one is the greatest, and that is our flesh. And the remedy for our flesh is basically twofold. One is flight, and the other is denial, which I will get into a little bit later. And when I say flight, the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." So he says, "Flee youthful lusts." And of course, I don't think there's any greater illustration of flight than that which you find in Genesis 39, verses 11 and 12.

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• when Potiphar's wife there sought to seduce Joseph, and she laid hold of his coat, and she said, "Come lie with me." And he left the coat and fled, the Bible says, and he got himself out of the house. In other words, there is indeed a time to flee. And when we flee from temptation, that is not being a coward, that is being obedient, because flight is a necessary means to get ourselves out of the sphere and out of the area of temptation. So we not only have to flee, but according in 2 Timothy 2 in verse 22, we have to follow. We have to follow righteousness, peace and faith.

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• I've already said it, but I'm going to say it again. Of these three, I do believe that our greatest enemy is our flesh. It is true the world is seductive. It is true that the devil is devious, and yet he does not need to attack most Christians because most of us are too easily captivated by the flesh. The devil usually gets more credit than he deserves. You remember years ago there was a comedian, a black comedian by the name of Flip Wilson. And he made popular the phrase, "The devil made me do it." But the devil doesn't make you do anything.

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• The problem is what we do, we do willingly. If the devil made us do it, then we would not be accountable. We would not be responsible. But when we willingly engage in sin, it means that we are responsible.

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• Now, I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Galatians chapter 5. And here is my explanation as to why I'm telling you the devil gets more than his due. He gets more credit than he deserves. So I want you to look in Galatians 5, beginning there with verse 19. Because here the word of God is going to give us the works of the flesh. The scripture says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these." Now look at them.

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• "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." When you look at this list, it's easy for you and I to understand that adultery and fornication and uncleanness and lasciviousness are all works of the flesh. We understand that. But when you look at verse 20, and he puts idolatry and witchcraft and heresies as works of the flesh, that's very surprising to us. We do not grasp those things. So the truth of the matter is this, our flesh desires to be pampered, adored, glorified, and fulfilled. And the truth of the matter is our flesh not only longs for fulfillment and satisfaction, it will fight for that fulfillment and satisfaction.

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• Very few, if any, will ever or do ever escape the lust of the flesh. You know our Lord said this in Matthew 26 in verse 41, He said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Now if you don't believe the flesh is weak, you just try staying on a diet for three months. Try doing without sugar for three weeks. Years ago my father was a little overweight and he needed to lose some weight, so he decided he was going to go on a diet. And my mother, in order to encourage him, decided she'd go on a diet with him. And you would have to know my mother.

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• She was not any bigger than Alice. And so mother was going on the diet with dad. And so dad was uptown doing something and mother had to go buy groceries. And as she passed this little corner country store, she saw his truck parked there. So she stopped and pulled over and went in to say something to him. And when she went in, he had a diet drink in one hand and one of those 12-inch baby Ruths in the other hand. Mother said, "That's it."

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• "No more suffering with you." So the flesh is indeed weak. I can assure you of that. And if you don't believe that, you just try giving up your favorite sports or your favorite recreation. The people that love golf give it up for six months or football, give it up for six months. No, no, no, no. The flesh is weak.

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• Now, the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 3, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." When you look at that in the context, the Apostle Paul is saying that physical warfare is not going to work in a spiritual warfare. So we may not war according to the flesh, but according to Scripture, we certainly need to war against the flesh.

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• I want to show you something. The war with our flesh really and truly only began after our conversion. Before we were converted to Jesus Christ, we sided with our flesh. We wanted what our flesh wanted. If you would look in Ephesians chapter 2, and let's just read the first three verses so that you can see, it was indeed before our conversion. In verse 1, the apostle says, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

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• "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." But notice he says before our conversion we were walking in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Now that brings me back to our passage in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 11 where he says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, that you abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul."

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• Now, the interesting thing is this. When you understand what we were before our conversion and what we are to be after our conversion, after our conversion, when we side with the flesh, we're being treacherous and we're being traitors. And Peter is going to make that exceedingly clear in verse 11. He begins this verse with two words, "Dearly beloved." So he's addressing saints. He's addressing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and refers to them in this kind, loving, gracious manner.

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• Now, the Greek word there is agapetos, which literally means well-beloved, those that are highly esteemed, those that are dear, and those who are beloved. The Apostle Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 14 when he said, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." So there is no controversy over the fact that Peter is indeed addressing believers here. But secondly, I want you to pay attention to verse 11 and notice Peter's desire to help. He says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you." Now, the word "beseech" is actually the Greek word parakaleo. We've gone over that word before.

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• Para is the preposition, kaleo is I call. And para, the preposition, means alongside of. So, if parakaleo literally means, I call along beside to help, you have to remember that in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit both are called the Paraclete. And it is from the word parakaleo or parakletos, I call alongside to help. The word Paraclete is another name for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and our Lord is our advocate. He is our Paraclete as well. So the Apostle Peter now is using this word, but he's using it to mean he exhorts, that he admonishes, he entreats, he begs, and he instructs.

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• So he says, "Dearly beloved, I exhort you, I admonish you, I instruct you." Now, notice if you would, he's admonishing them and instructing them, he says in verse 11, "as strangers and pilgrims."

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• Now before I explain those two words, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 3, and look if you would please at verse 20. Philippians 3 and verse 20. This may surprise you. Usually when we read the word "conversation" we can just change it to the word "conduct" because the word conversation means more than just how we speak and what we talk about. It actually refers to our entire conduct and the course of our life. When you look in Philippians 3 in verse 20, the Apostle Paul says, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, if I use the word "conduct" here, it might be appropriate, but it is not the same Greek word. The word here is politeuma, which actually refers to the administration of civil affairs of a commonwealth. It refers also to the constitution of a commonwealth. It refers to a form of government and the laws by which it is administered. So it refers then to a commonwealth and a commonwealth of citizens.

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• So when he says in verse 20, "For our conversation is in heaven," he is saying more than heaven is simply our heavenly country. He is saying that we have a heavenly commonwealth, and that heavenly commonwealth has a constitution, and that constitution is our Bible. And he's also saying that our commonwealth has a form of government, and that government is indeed the law of God. So he is telling us, in reality, we are indeed strangers and pilgrims, because our country has a different constitution and a different set of laws than does the world.

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• Now, I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Watch this in Hebrews chapter 11, and let's begin reading there with verse 13. Hebrews 11, verse 13. We'll read through verse 16. Hebrews 11, verse 13: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

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• "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."

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• Now, before I get any further, I want you to understand that Peter's exhortation in 1 Peter 2 and verse 11 is an exhortation for us to recognize our heavenly country, our heavenly kingdom, and that our citizenship is in heaven, and therefore we are to live here as strangers and pilgrims. Now, hold Hebrews 11, if you would, and look back to 1 Peter 2 and verse 11. We're coming right back to Hebrews 11. But he says in verse 11, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims." Peter uses the Greek word paroikos, which refers to a stranger, a sojourner, one that lives in a place without the right of citizenship.

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• So such an individual would be considered a foreigner by any stretch of the imagination. Now I'm pointing this out because if you look back to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 13, he says, "These all died in faith, and not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers." Here the Greek word is xenos, which refers not only to a stranger, but also to one that is strange, one that is an alien. When you think about all the people that are invading this country, the people bringing with them customs and forms and habits that we're not used to by any stretch of the imagination, languages that we're not accustomed to. And obviously, when you see one, you automatically assume that he is an alien. He is a stranger. He is a foreigner.

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• Now, I want you to listen very carefully. Because to the ungodly, the Bible-believing Christian, the Christian that is obedient to the Word of God, is counted a stranger, an alien, someone who is extremely, extremely strange. Let me show you. Go back in your Bibles to 1 Peter. But go, if you would, to chapter 4 and look, if you would, at verses 3 and 4. Watch this. In 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 3, Peter says, "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries."

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• That's what we did before we were converted. We were lost. We went with them. We did those things. Then he says in verse 4, "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." Now the word "strange" in 1 Peter chapter 4 in verse 4 is the same root word as you find in Hebrews 11 verse 13.

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• So we really are aliens and strangers in that we do not live like or act like the ungodly. And when we don't participate with them, when we don't think the way they think and talk the way they talk and act the way they act, they think that we are indeed strange. So a godly, obedient, Bible-believing life is something that is totally strange and alien to the unsaved. And consequently, according to verse 4, we're being spoken evil of, that is, we're mocked, we're ridiculed, we're persecuted, simply because we do not live like them or act like them.

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• Now, when you look back in 1 Peter 2 and verse 11, he says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims." Now, the word "pilgrims" is parepidemos, which means one who comes from a foreign country or into a city or land to reside there by the side of the natives. Hence, it is a stranger. It is a pilgrim. It is a foreigner. It is someone who is just passing through or someone who just stays for a short period of time. And the truth of the matter is, this world is one in which we really stay for a short or brief period of time. Even if you live to be 150 years old, or if you made it 930 like Adam or 969 years like Methuselah, it's still a brief and a short period of time, especially compared to eternity. So the word "pilgrim" here just simply means someone who is passing through.

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• Now, I want you to listen carefully. If you are genuinely and sincerely a stranger and a pilgrim, if you genuinely and sincerely believe that your citizenship is in heaven, why would you be a traitor to yourself? And why would you act treacherously to yourself? You say, "I don't understand that." Well, I want you to listen to me. It was Justin Martyr who described a Christian in the first century, and he said this.

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• He said, "They inhabit their own countries, but as strangers; they partake of all as citizens, yet suffer all as foreigners. Every strange land is a country to them, and every country a strange land." How could he say that? And here's my question. Think back about this. Peter's saying, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims." So what Peter is doing, he's enforcing upon us our status as being Christians, being converted.

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• And he says, "You need to recognize this." Well, we have a commonwealth in heaven. We have a different law. We have a different Lord. We have a different governor. We have a different constitution. Everything about us is different. Ah, watch. He says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul."

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• Now, the word "abstain" is apechomai, and it literally means to abstain, to refrain from, and to hold oneself away from. So answer this question. What is it that we're to hold ourselves away from? What is it that we're to abstain from and refrain from? Well, look at it. He says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts." What in the world are fleshly lusts? Sarkikos is the Greek word from the word sarx, which means flesh. It's translated in our Bibles as carnal and fleshly. The word refers to those things that have the nature of the flesh, those things that have their seed in the animal nature or aroused by the animal nature, those things that are under the control of an animal appetite, and those things that are governed by the mere human appetite and not the Spirit of God. You might say the fleshly desires or the fleshly lusts are those things that stem from our depraved nature and are contrary to the Spirit of God.

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• Now I want you to think about this. I want you to listen very carefully because I'm going to very quickly tell you how these fleshly lusts are labeled in the scripture. In Mark 4 and verse 19, they're called the lusts for other things. In Romans 1 and verse 24, they're called the lusts of our own hearts. In Ephesians 2 and verse 3, they're called the lust of the flesh. In Ephesians 4 and verse 22, they're called deceitful lusts. In 1 Timothy 6 and verse 9, they're called hurtful lusts. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22, they're called youthful lusts. In Titus 2 and verse 12, they're called worldly lusts. In 2 Timothy 4 and verse 3, they're called their own lust. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 11, they're called fleshly lust. In 1 Peter 4 and verse 2, they're called the lust of men. In 2 Peter 2 and verse 18, they're called the lust of the flesh. And in Jude verse 18, they are called ungodly lust. Now, it should be easily understood why Peter said, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust."

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• Now, I'm going to finish that verse, but before I do, I want you to see how the Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, but he uses a little different terminology. So I want you to hold 1 Peter 2 and look back in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 13, and look at verse 14. Romans 13 and verse 14. Watch this carefully. Romans 13 and verse 14: the Apostle Paul says, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Now when we think about provisions we think about grocery shopping or we're thinking about going and buying clothes. Well, the word "provision" needs to be understood. It is actually from the Greek word pronoia, which is translated in our Bibles as providence and provision. It is actually from the verb pronoeo. Pro is a preposition which means before, and noeo means I think. So it literally means, I think before. In other words, the word provision means to perceive before, to foresee, to think beforehand, to take thought for something, to take care for something.

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• Now watch what the apostle says. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh." In other words, do not forethink what your flesh wants, what your flesh needs. Do not perceive it. Do not plan it. Do not premeditate it. No, no, no, no. And in other words, here's basically what he's saying. Stop thinking about your flesh. Make no provision for the flesh. Do not plan to fulfill it. Now literally, Paul is commanding us, because it is an imperative, not to even think about fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the flesh. Rather, what he says, we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in other words, we are to be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not going to be making provision for the flesh. If we're making provision for the flesh, we're not going to be putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• Let's go back to 1 Peter and let me show you here is where our treachery comes in. Here is where we become traitors. Having understood everything so far in 1 Peter 2 in verse 11, watch this. He says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain, refrain from, distance yourself from fleshly lusts." Why? "Which war against the soul." I want you to note that these fleshly lusts actually war against the soul.

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• Strateuomai is the Greek word. Stratia is the Greek word for army. That is where we get our English word strategy from. But this word literally means war, going to war, or soldier. When he says in verse 11, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul," the word "war" actually means to make a military expedition against, to lead soldiers to war in the battle, to do military duty, to do active service, to be a soldier and to fight. So literally he is saying this, abstain from these fleshly lusts which make war against us, which indeed try to subjugate us, and overcome us, and bring us into captivity.

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• When you consider then that our flesh is our enemy, and we make provision for it, and we plan for it, and we think about it, and we want it fulfilled, we're not only being a traitor and treacherous to the Lord Jesus Christ, to our commonwealth, to our constitution, to our law, to our governor, our Lord. We're actually being treacherous and traitorous to our own souls, because that's what he said, "which war against the soul." So our flesh is our enemy.

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• John Gill, the great Baptist commentator, said this, "Fleshly lusts are enemies to the spiritual peace, comfort, and welfare of the soul, and being of man's household, and in his heart, are the worst enemies he has, and are to be treated as such, to be shunned and avoided, watched and guarded against, for though they cannot destroy the souls of true believers, they may bring much leanness upon them, and greatly distress them, and spoil them of their inward joy and spiritual pleasure." So, since these fleshly lusts war against our souls, we should be warring against them.

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• So, I want you to turn in your Bibles, and look, if you would, to the book of Galatians, chapter 5, at verses 16 and 17. Here is a passage we must comprehend and understand. Look in Galatians 5 and verse 16. The Apostle says this: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other." Now watch this.

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• "So that ye cannot do the things that ye would." So he's telling us that actually the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit fights against the flesh. They're contrary, the one to the other. There is no neutral ground. There is no compromise. There is no possibility of our flesh and the spirit getting along with each other. No, no, it is a war. And he said, "Therefore, watch carefully, therefore you cannot do the things that you would." When you do what you would normally do, naturally do, as an unsaved man, you're siding with your flesh. You're a traitor, and you're treacherous. And you're being a traitor and treacherous to your own soul, as well as to the Lord Jesus.

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• Albert Barnes says it like this. The meaning is he's talking about the fleshly lust. The meaning is that indulgence in these things makes war against the nobler faculties of the soul against the conscience, the understanding, the memory, the judgment, the exercise of pure imagination. There is not a faculty of the mind, however brilliant in itself, which will not be ultimately ruined by indulgence in the carnal propensities of our nature. The effect of intemperance on the noble faculties of the soul is well known.

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• And alas, there are too many instances in which the light of genius and those endowed with splendid gifts at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the Senate is extinguished by it. To need a particular description, there is one vice preeminently, which prevails all over the heathen world and extensively in Christian lands, which more than all others blunts the moral sense, pollutes the memory, defiles the imagination, hardens the heart, and sends a withering influence through all the faculties of the soul. And that is fleshly lust. And what he's saying is this, the fleshly lust will destroy anyone and everyone. I've known preachers that have left the ministry because of fleshly lust.

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• All you have to do is look around at politicians, congressmen. I had a farmer friend who was a quite successful farmer. He's in his late forties, early fifties, and he met this pretty little thing and he started messing around with her. Next thing you know, he's lost his wife, he's lost his family, he's lost his farm, he's lost the money that he had, and now the pretty little thing leaves him because he no longer has any money.

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• I'm just simply saying, what Barnes is saying is these fleshly lusts will destroy anything and everything. Fleshly lusts, according to the Scripture, marshal as an army against our souls. They fight against us. They seek to subdue us. They seek to captivate us. They seek to bring us into submission to them, to make us kneel before them. We are at war and most of us do not even realize it. And we're not just simply traitors to our commonwealth and to our Lord, we're traitors to our own souls.

  #51 | 42:57 to 43:36 | cleaned

• We never think of the depth of the treachery of our sins. So Peter says, what? "I beseech you, dearly beloved, as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." So, let me make some applications. The first one is this. If we are strangers and pilgrims, we do not belong to this corruptible world. If we are strangers and pilgrims, we are of an incorruptible race. And therefore, we must live as strangers and pilgrims. Here's a passage everyone can quote, but I want you to think about it because I mentioned the world, the flesh and the devil, but it's interesting how many times the world and the flesh are combined. Because in 1 John 2 in verse 15, the Bible says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world."

  #52 | 43:37 to 44:40 | cleaned

• Listen to what he said. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." So isn't it interesting how he mentions the word "world" and then "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride of life"?

  #53 | 44:40 to 45:06 | cleaned

• We have not realized that the great mischief of sin, no matter how pleasing it appears, no matter how titillating it appears, no matter how exciting it appears, all it's doing is making war against us and seeking to destroy us. This is why Peter says we should avoid and abstain from fleshly lusts. I suppose of all sorts of sin, and there are many sorts, but when you read Galatians 5, 19 through 21, obviously, most of the sins that are mentioned are sins of the flesh.

  #54 | 45:08 to 45:45 | cleaned

• And these are not only probably the more odious to God, they're the more destructive of our own lives and our own souls. That is why in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18, the apostle said, "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body," not just his own soul, but his own body as well. So sin makes war against us.

  #55 | 45:46 to 46:16 | cleaned

• So the question has to be asked, how do we avoid fleshly lust? How do we cease making provisions for our fleshly carnal nature? Well, the short answer is given us by the apostle Paul: by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, by clothing ourselves with Him, by walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Lord willing, in the next two messages, which will be from a different text, I'm going to answer this more fully, and I think you'll see the absolute importance of it. I think the next two messages, if most Christians grasp them and the doctrine and the implications of that doctrine, it would indeed change our lives. But we must understand that when we sin, we become traitors to ourselves as well as to our Lord. The Bible says that we're to walk in the Spirit, and we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. When we walk in the flesh, we cannot walk in the Spirit. When we make provision for the flesh, we cannot put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

  #56 | 46:17 to 47:26 | cleaned

• When we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will not make provision for the flesh. We must understand we become traitors, not only to our God, but our own souls when we engage in fleshly lust. Therefore, we're to walk as strangers and pilgrims. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the exhortation of Peter, the admonishment. And we pray, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thou wouldst help us, Lord, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Lord, may we be free men in Thee, and not slaves to our sin, to our desires, to our lusts. Give us Your grace, give us Your mercy, and help us, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we ask it. Amen.

  #57 | 47:26 to 48:21 | cleaned

• ♪

  #58 | 48:37 to 49:02 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T16:10:08Z