Living in a Lost World

Preached by Pastor Chad Rickenbaker on July 26, 2026 [watch online] | 1 Peter 2:11–12

1 Peter — “Living in a Lost World”

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.—1 Peter 2:11–12 (NKJV)

For the last several weeks we have been working our way through 1 Peter. Last Sunday Ford preached and took us as far as 1 Peter 2:10. Today we pick up with verses 11 and 12, and before we read them it helps to know that these two verses open a new section of the letter.

What follows is practical. Very, very practical. Having spent a chapter and a half establishing who we are, God’s elect, God’s chosen, a holy priesthood, living stones being built into a spiritual household, Peter now turns to how those people are to live in this world. I sort of hate saying that the world is lost, but it is, isn’t it? The world in general is separated from God and does not know the Lord. We are the ones who have been called out of darkness into the light, chosen by God and brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Peter is going to get very specific in the verses ahead. He is going to talk about how we live in relationship to our government. That is next Sunday, not today, and it ought to be an interesting one. He is going to talk about how we live in relationship to our employer. He is going to talk about how we relate to one another as husbands and wives. Real life, everyday examples. But verses 11 and 12 give us the one primary teaching that governs all of it: as God’s chosen people, as His holy priesthood, we are to abstain from fleshly lusts.

Notice how Peter opens. “Beloved, I beg you.” Some of your translations may word it “I urge you strongly.” It sounds like a request, because that is how begging sounds. But in the sentence structure of the Greek, most scholars agree that this is actually a command. If Peter were standing on this platform this morning, I think every one of us would feel his passion. I think he would scan the room and make eye contact with each one of us, so that we would not only hear his words but sense his resolve.

What Is Fleshly Lust?

So what is it? I think there are different layers to it, so let me walk through them.

At the simplest level, fleshly lusts are natural desires we have that do not align with God’s Word. Have you ever heard a juicy tidbit of information about someone? And when you heard it, did you or did you not have at least somewhat of a desire to tell someone else? The Bible says do not gossip. So when a piece of information is burning a hole in you until you can pass it along, that is a fleshly lust. Or you are driving, and someone else is not driving according to your standard, and you have an internal experience that gives outward expression. We call that road rage. A desire to act or react in a way that is not in agreement with God’s Word is fleshly lust.

But not all desire is wrong. A fleshly lust may also be a legitimate desire that you seek to fulfill in an illegitimate way. Shelter is a necessity, and wanting a place to live is a completely legitimate desire. But rent is high, housing is expensive, and interest rates are not as low as they once were. If you find yourself thinking, “I really can’t afford it, so maybe I’ll cheat on my taxes a little so I have a little more money,” then a legitimate need is being met by deceiving or stealing or cheating. That is fleshly lust.

It can also be a legitimate desire fulfilled in an excessive way. There is nothing wrong with hunger. Wanting food is fine. The problem comes when we eat too much, which the Bible calls gluttony. Joy has been away helping her mother, who has been having some health problems, and I always get a certain fleshly desire when Joy is gone. Blue Bell has a new flavor. Ask me how I know. I checked. So I went and bought a carton, brought it home, and put it in the freezer in the garage without telling Rachel or Marley it was there, which is its own fleshly desire, since I wanted to keep it for myself. The way you eat Blue Bell is in a big coffee mug with milk poured over it. That first mug was not the problem. The problem came when I ran some errands, came back through the garage, and heard the freezer say, “Chad. Chad, I’m in here. Get me out.” And so I did. I do not think a little ice cream is inherently sinful. I probably transgressed with the second mug.

Let us go a little further, because this gets deeper. The flesh has also been defined as that part of you that feels emptiness. At some point in your life, maybe even today, there is a part of you that feels an emptiness. The lust of the flesh is what happens when we sense that emptiness and try to fill it with anything other than God. We have all done it. We have all had some moment or season where we felt that hollowness and reached for what this world has to offer to fill it. It might be an obsessive pursuit of a hobby. Hobbies are not wrong in and of themselves, but we can chase one to fill something we think is missing in our lives.

Here is the thing about that pursuit. This fleshly lust is resistant. It resists finding our satisfaction in God. It is unsubmissive. It does not want to submit to God’s absolute authority or rely on God’s absolute mercy. It does not want to believe that true, meaningful fulfillment can be found in a relationship with God. You know what it is like to wrestle with this part of your nature. You know you ought to read your Bible, and you do not want to. Isn’t that a strange thing? You know you ought to pray, and praying is a very simple thing, and yet something inside you is resistant to it. Something comes across the television or your smartphone or your tablet, and you know it is inappropriate, you know it is ungodly, you know it is contrary to who God has called us to be as His holy people, and you keep watching anyway. That is the old remnant of who we were before Christ.

Let me show you the severity of it. Paul tells us plainly what grows in a life that does not abstain, and “abstain” simply means to keep away:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.—Galatians 5:19–21

Paul says “and the like,” which tells us the list is not exhaustive. It is representative. And he is not saying that anyone who has ever committed these sins cannot go to heaven. What he is saying is that if the habit and pattern of your life aligns more with this list than with the fruit of the Spirit, it is probably an indication that you have not been born again. Do you see the importance?

Paul says something similar in Romans, and it explains why Peter is so insistent:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.—Romans 8:5–8

Live according to fleshly desire and your mind is focused there. That is what you are preoccupied with. Walk according to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and your mind is oriented toward what the Spirit desires. Then notice where Paul lands. The one who is not abstaining, who is not keeping away but simply indulging and giving himself over to these things, cannot please God.

So Peter begs. Do not entertain it. Do not indulge it. Cut it off. Jesus said radical things about this too:

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.—Matthew 5:29–30

Peter is reiterating the same idea Jesus taught. Abstain from it. Keep away from it. Push it away. Have nothing to do with it.

Why is this so important? Why should we follow what Peter is saying? First and foremost, obviously, because it is God’s Word and God’s will. But in these two verses Peter gives us four reasons.

1. God Loves You

Look at verse 11. Peter says, “Beloved.” Some of your translations may have it worded “dear friends.” I like the word beloved.

Some have taken this to mean Peter is expressing his own affection for the people reading the letter. I think he did love them. I think he was kindly and dear toward them, and I think that is true. But in this context, when Peter says beloved, I think he means those who are loved by God. One of the principles of biblical interpretation is that you interpret Scripture in light of its context. When you go back and read everything Peter wrote in chapter one and everything he has covered so far in chapter two, here is what you begin to see: God in His love chose us to be His people. God poured out His mercy on us abundantly. God has given us an inheritance in heaven that is being kept for us, incorruptible and undefiled (1 Peter 1:3–5). We are living stones being built into a spiritual household (1 Peter 2:5). All of these spiritual blessings are ours because God loves us.

When I think about God’s love expressed toward me through the giving and sending of His Son Jesus, it makes me want to please Him. And when I go back to what Paul wrote in Romans 8, Paul says that if I live according to the lust of my flesh, I cannot please Him. Are you following me? As the recipient of His love, someone blessed beyond what he deserves, someone who has received His grace and mercy, I just want to please Him. And the Bible makes it very clear that if I am living according to the lust of my flesh, gratifying myself all the time without any thought or concern for whether what I am doing aligns with His Word, there is no way I can please Him.

I apply that to my marriage. Next month Joy and I will have been married thirty-one years. God could not have blessed me more than He blessed me with my wife. She is the best. She brings out the best in me. I texted her this morning and told her I just need her to get home, because I am not the same when she is not here. Because of how she has loved me for thirty-one years, and some might say put up with me for thirty-one years, and because I want to please her, there are a lot of things in this world and in this life that I choose to abstain from. Does that make sense? If that is true of my marriage, how much more should it be true of me as the beneficiary of God’s unconditional love and abundant mercy? Put Paul and Peter together and here is the picture you get: I cannot please Him if I am indulging me.

2. This World Is Not Your Home

Look at verse 11 again. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims.” Peter is painting a new relationship that we have with this world. When you come to Jesus, your relationship with this world changes. Now your citizenship is in heaven. And because your citizenship is in heaven, your priorities and your allegiances change, so that the priorities of heaven become the priorities of your life on earth.

Sojourners and pilgrims are people journeying through. As God’s people, where are we ultimately going? We are going to be with the Lord. So the allegiances and priorities that belong to the kingdom of God in heaven are to be my allegiances here on earth. Remember how Jesus taught the disciples to pray:

Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.—Matthew 6:10

Have you ever applied that to your own life? How is God’s will being carried out in heaven? It is being carried out immediately, with total submission and complete devotion to His priorities. So when Jesus teaches us to pray that, what He is saying is that our allegiance here on earth, our commitment, is to do His will here as it is being done there.

Let me put it in local terms, and my goal here is to make both fan bases mad. Then you are going to show me grace.

This November, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Carolina and Clemson play in Death Valley. If you are part of our Carolina family and you go to that game, you are going to hear the cadence count: one, two, three, four, C‑L‑E‑M‑S‑O‑N. They have to spell it, several times a game, because apparently they need to remind each other how the name of the school is spelled. Now the Clemson fans are mad. That is good. You need some emotion when you are hearing preaching.

But here is the point. When that cadence count starts, there probably will not be a single Gamecock fan in the stadium who joins in. They will choose to abstain. Why? Because it is not their home, not their stadium, not their team. Turn it around. Next year the game goes back to Columbia, and the Gamecock fans will get out their white towels, which as far as I have ever understood is a universal sign of surrender, otherwise known as a sandstorm. No self‑respecting Clemson fan is going to find a white towel and start waving it. Why? Not their stadium, not their team, not their allegiance.

You are amazed that I can turn this back to the Word, aren’t you? Peter says, abstain from fleshly lusts as sojourners and pilgrims. If the world is doing something, you do not do it just because the world is doing it. This is their home. It is not your home. They have a different allegiance than you do. Your allegiance is to Jesus and your home is in heaven, so live accordingly.

3. Your Old Nature Is Trying to Defeat You

Look at verse 11 one more time: “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” The picture Peter paints is of the flesh carrying on a sustained military campaign against your soul.

I do not like war. Sometimes it is necessary, and there is a whole theological category called just war, but I do not like it. We need to pray more fervently than we have been that the conflict with Iran comes to a conclusion sooner rather than later. Anybody who does not want that brought to a conclusion is not thinking right. War is never good for anyone. So I pray for the leaders, I pray for our military, and I pray that God gives wisdom and insight on how to bring this to a resolution that serves the safety of that region and the whole world.

I do not like sustained battles. But I want you to know that in your spiritual life, until Jesus comes, you will be enduring one, because the Bible says that your flesh and the Spirit in you are going to be at odds with one another. There is no peace time in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

You were not as aware of this before you got saved. Afterward you became aware very fast. You may even have thought that life was simpler before, because you sensed no internal strife or conflict at all. But now you have desires that do not align with what God wants, and there is this internal conflict. Paul describes it:

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 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.—Galatians 5:16–17

Verse 16 is an important verse. We probably need to come back one Sunday and spend the entire time on it, because Paul is answering the question of how we overcome. We walk in the Spirit. But notice verse 17. There is opposition. One is pitted against the other, and they are contrary to one another. That is what you are experiencing in your life. You got saved and you received a new nature, but the remnant of your old nature, the part that desires self‑gratification, is still there. One day when Jesus comes you will be rid of it once and for all, and praise God when that day comes. Until then, there is a war going on. That is not my word for it. Peter uses the word war. Paul uses the word conflict.

Here is the thing. Until you and I get really serious about the reality of spiritual warfare, we are going to be defeated by it. In wartime you cannot afford to be haphazard. In wartime you cannot afford to be unengaged, because if you are unengaged the enemy will bring the war to you. None of us has the luxury of sitting it out, both because of the fallen remnant of our old nature and because of our adversary, the devil, who is in the world. In this battle you will not have the option of a conscientious objector. You are not afforded the privilege of saying you do not like the sound of it and want no part of it. You do not have that choice.

When I read the Bible I try to read with an inquisitive mind and ask questions of the text. So when Peter says these fleshly lusts are warring against my soul, I want to understand what he means by soul. There are two ways this is understood. One is that the soul is the entirety of your being, meaning your old nature would like to take you out and destroy everything about you. The other is that it refers to the inner part of your spiritual nature. I can see both. After David sinned with Bathsheba, he described a physical toll:

When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.—Psalm 32:3

Can giving in to the lust of the flesh affect you physically? Yes, it can. Does it affect you spiritually? Yes, it does.

Here is something to pay attention to, because if you pay attention you will recognize the pattern and it will strengthen your resolve. When you give in to a desire of your flesh that is contrary to God’s Word, pay attention to what happens afterward. You will not be satisfied. You will experience a darkening of your relationship and fellowship with God. You will sense a separation of intimacy between you and the Lord. It is going to happen every time. In the moment it may feel good, and then you will sense this harm to your soul. That is exactly what Peter says it is doing, and when you realize what is happening, you become more resolved in your desire to abstain.

I have shared this quote with you before, but let me mention it one more time. John Piper, writing about the importance of putting sin to death, said there is a mean, violent streak to the true Christian life. That sounds very different from what we normally say, doesn’t it? But violence against whom? Violence against what? Not other people. It is violence against all the impulses in us that would make peace with our own sin and settle in with a peacetime mentality.

4. Your Life Is a Witness

The fourth reason is in verse 12: “having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

Living as Christians, as the children and people of God in a lost world, means that people are watching your life. You may not know they are watching, but they are. If they know you are a believer, they are paying attention to what you say, what you do, and what you indulge in and participate in. And as they watch, your life becomes a witness to them of the reality and the goodness of God.

The lost world would like to cast aspersions on Christians, and God help us that in too many instances pastors and churches and Christians give them all the ammunition they need. It just tears me up when I see pastors make terrible decisions and churches make terrible decisions and innocent people are placed in harm’s way, and then the lost world shakes a finger and says, “There go those Christians again.” We ought not be giving the world any ammunition. Peter is saying that instead we should live in such a way that when they see our good conduct, God actually uses it to draw them to Himself.

Now, like you, I read that verse and I ask a question: what is the day of visitation? One of the primary interpretations, when it is referenced in the New Testament, is the day of judgment, when Christ returns and these unbelieving people who have seen the holy and separate witness of God’s people give glory to God on that day. I think that is a fine interpretation. The other interpretation is that the day of visitation is the day when God’s Spirit begins to contend with a lost person and brings them to salvation. With that reading, you see just how much our lives and our abstaining matter as a witness to a watching world.

One of the most transformative things in my life happened when I was about seventeen. Now, I was already saved by then; I came to Christ when I was nine. But I had not been walking with Jesus, I had not been growing in my faith, and I had a lot of unrest and a lot of angst in my heart. I went to summer camp the way our students go every year, and I saw college students who were on fire for Jesus. I saw something in them that I wanted for myself and did not have. I knew immediately I did not have what they had. And so by the grace of God I repented, rededicated my life to Christ, and began to pursue a path of walking with Him the way they did.

So as the world watches your life and as the world watches my life, are we setting forth anything that they would desire, anything that would make them want to be more like Jesus? The purpose of your life, the purpose of my life, and the purpose of our church is this: that we would glorify God and make disciples. God is not glorified when we as His children act like the world. On the other side of that, Peter is saying we ought to live in such a way that people see our good conduct and then want for themselves the life we have found in Christ. Not that we have it all figured out, but that by the grace of God, He saved us.

Feed It or Starve It

A lot of this is a choice and a decision that we make, and we need to be very deliberate in our choosing. As I said earlier, you will not have the privilege of being a conscientious objector. You are not going to be able to say thanks but no thanks. You are going to have to decide. And the best tactic for victory over the lust of the flesh is to go ahead and decide: I am keeping myself away from anything that feeds this old nature, and I am going to find everything that feeds my new nature.

You do realize that some of these desires get fed by what you watch, what you listen to, and what you pursue. You can feed a desire or you can starve it, and doing either is going to require a choice on your part, a very decisive decision. If there is something you know God does not want you to do, and you keep indulging it and keep your focus on it, before long you will find that you have done the very thing you intended not to do in the beginning.

Feeding your new nature takes a lot of effort. You have to read your Bible. You have to meditate on it. You are going to have to memorize it and go back to it again and again. Make a document with all the promises of God that you can read and reread to remind you of the life God wants to give you, because the deceiver, the adversary, is going to tell you that if you go God’s way you are going to miss out on the fun, miss out on the joy, miss out on all these good things. But listen to what Jesus said:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.—John 10:10

Not less life. More life. So you have to put the time in to be in the Word.

Spiritual warfare is real, and I would venture to say that many of us have been experiencing it, if not today then over this past week. Maybe you have been struggling with desires that are not in agreement with God’s Word, and you have been engrossed in it, and you need some help, some strength, some grace from God in this season. I want you to know that if you have not been victorious lately over the lust of the flesh, God is standing ready and willing to forgive you. You only have to confess it.

And you can resolve today. You can make the decision: I am going to keep myself away from anything that is feeding that old nature, and I am going to devote myself to everything that will feed my walk with Christ. I am going to be part of a Bible study group, whether Sunday morning, Sunday night, or Wednesday night. I am going to find a Bible reading plan and read the Word. I am going to meditate on one verse all week long so that my heart and mind are saturated with the Word of God. And I am going to remember that this world is not my home, so I will not allow the things of this world to draw me in.

One last thing. Whatever the Holy Spirit is leading you to do right now, know this: your flesh, that old part of your old nature, is probably telling you not to do it. It is telling you to do it later, or some other time, or that maybe you misunderstood what the Lord is telling you to do. Do not give in to that. Abstain from what your old nature is saying, and obey what God’s Spirit is saying.

Scripture references in this message: 1 Peter 2:11–12; Galatians 5:19–21; Romans 8:5–8; Matthew 5:29–30; Matthew 6:10; Galatians 5:16–17; Psalm 32:3; John 10:10. (NKJV)

Want to go deeper? Join us Sunday mornings at Berea First Baptist Church, or connect with one of our sermon-based small groups, where we work through the week’s message together in homes across our community.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.