Abstain (4-25-12)

1 Peter 2:11 - "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul."

First Peter was written to believers scattered all over the world, and throughout the letter Peter identifies those he is writing to as "aliens and strangers." Another versions translates it "pilgrims." Peter is making it clear that as believers this world is not our home. We're just pilgrims here, like the heroes of the faith talked about in Hebrews 11:13, about whom it says - "having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." And so Peter urges us as aliens and strangers on this earth to "abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." Whenever there is a message preached on abstaining from sin it's inevitable that someone will ask "How close can I get before it's a sin?" There are all sorts of Christians who want to live on the fence. They want to live like the world lives and do the things that the unsaved do, but at the same time they don't want to upset God, so they try to get as close to the line as possible without crossing it. That's not how we should be living our lives. If something is a sin, or even looks like it we should flee from it. As believers we should be striving to please the Lord and draw closer to Him in order that we might see things the way He does. When Christ was on earth He wasn't living His life on the line between right and wrong, He was striving to do only those things that pleased the Father.
Living close to the fence is never commended in Scripture, and what's more, it always leads to crossing the line and getting entangled in sin. A perfect example of this is found in chapters 14-16 of the book of Judges. In these chapters we're given the account of a man by the name of Sampson. As you know, Sampson is famous for his great strength with which the Lord blessed him. We're told that Sampson was blessed by the Lord and also that the Spirit of God was working in his life. Sampson had great potential to be used by the Lord, and he was to an extent. But Sampson liked living close to the edge. Judges 14:1-2 says - "Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”" Timnah was a city that was right on the border between Judah and the land of the Philistines. Sampson should have been in his own land, but he wanted to get as close to the edge as possible, and as a result he fell in love with a Philistine, these were the enemies of Israel. But in the end this relationship didn't really work out. Sampson was a slave to his fleshly lusts, and rather than flee from them, he pursued them to the places where he could fulfill them. And ironically enough, all these places were on the borders of the land of Judah. His final mistake was made in the valley of Sorek where he met a woman named Delilah, and you all know the rest of the story. The Lord departed from Sampson, and we read in Judges 16:21 - "Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison." These things that the Philistines did to Sampson are the very things that sin does to us. Sin blinds us, it binds us, and it grinds us. Sampson should have fled from his fleshly lusts. He should have stayed well within the boundaries of the land, he should've abstained from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul, but he didn't and his own sin ensnared him. Sometimes I tend to think that I'm strong enough to get close to a certain temptation or lust, I tell myself that I won't cross the line, I'm disciplined enough not to go too far, but that's not true. All throughout his life the Philistines were trying to defeat Sampson but they never could. He always beat them. But we read this in Judges 16:20, the last time they came up against him - "She (Delilah) said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him." He had never been beaten before. He had always been strong enough to get out before things went to far, but this time he was overcome, and it's the same way with us. We can't get close to a temptation or a fleshly lust and think that we're strong enough or disciplined enough to handle it, we're not. That's why we need to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. We need to just avoid them entirely.

A good example of this is found in Jeremiah 35. In this chapter the Lord told Jeremiah to go to the house of the Rechabites and bring them into the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink. So Jeremiah did what the Lord told him. He brought them into the Lords house and verses 5-7 say - "Then I set before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!” But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever. You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.’" These men were brought into the house of the Lord by Jeremiah the prophet of the Lord under the command of the Lord, and given wine to drink. But they said that their ancestor had told them not to drink wine because they were aliens and strangers in the land. They obeyed the command of their fathers to abstain from drinking wine, even though the Lords prophet served it to them in the Lord house, they abstained from it. And the Lord commends them for it. We read in verses 18-19 - "And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.”’”  They weren't willing to compromise and the Lord commends them for it. They were told, as aliens and strangers in the land to abstain from wine and they did and were commended by the Lord. We're told as aliens and strangers on this earth to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

2 Timothy 2:22 - "Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."