“Sojourners and Exiles”

And I invite you as you’re seated to turn and follow along as I read from 1 Peter and chapter 2. First Peter chapter 2. Actually, I’m going to read the closing two verses of chapter 1. So 1 Peter 1:24, and then into chapter 2:

“‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and … slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

Amen.

Speak, O Lord, as we come to you
To receive the food of your Holy Word.
Take your truth, plant it deep in us,[1]

we pray. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

A Biblical Realism in a “Strange New World”

There were, I think, one or two inquiries since last Sunday, when in preface to our pastoral prayer I quoted—actually, it was from the BBC. And people have called and said, “What was the source of the quote?” I didn’t know, but I do know now. And I mention it not so that you can know but because this quote has actually lived with me through the week that has passed and has really directed my attention in coming to the Scriptures this morning. The quote was from an article by Sarah Smith on the twenty-fourth of June. Sarah Smith is a Scottish girl, as it turns out. She’s the North American editor for BBC News. And this is what she wrote in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade reversal: “America today feels like one country that contains two very separate nations, inhabited by two tribes that have completely different values, beliefs and goals. Now, they have just moved farther apart.”[2]

Whatever you want to make of that in terms of its political terminology, there is one thing that has become crystal clear to us in the most recent times, and that is that as believing people—people who are going to take the Bible seriously, who are going to love Jesus and follow him—we are increasingly aware of the reality that we are living as “sojourners and exiles,” or strangers and exiles, in a world that was once very, very familiar to us, and one in which we felt increasingly at home. And the question that it raises—and many of us, I think, are pondering this—is: What does it look like to live in a Christian country that doesn’t like what Christians believe? What is it going to be to think properly in a Christian country where that country does not like the way in which we think? Now, because I’ve been wrestling with this, I thought I would wrestle in front of you just a little bit. And I’m not going to try and expound 1 Peter chapter 2 or even expound the two verses that I’ve read. I want, I hope, to make sure that what I’m saying is grounded in that rather than working in a very detailed way through the text.

But by way of further introduction, I was reminding myself this week that it was 1976 when Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called How Then Shall We Live? How Then Shall We Live? He was commenting on the state of affairs coming out of the ’60s and in a way that ranged through history and into politics and philosophy. He, at one point in the book, in a very prescient kind of way, imagines what might fill the vacuum that is left by the loss of Christian principles grounded in the culture and educational system and moral life of the nation.

It’s interesting that he was writing in a rather philosophical vein while the popular music of the day was addressing similar issues. For example, if he wrote that in ’76, that was five years after Don McLean reminded us that the music had died in “Bye-bye, Miss American Pie”:

And the three men I [love the] most …
They [took] the last train for the coast
The day the music died,[3]

referring to, somewhat wrongly, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, he wrote it in ’71. Lennon, who thought he knew everything in ’75, was honest enough just to give us one word: “Help!”[4] “Help!” And he was probably more on track than he even realized himself.

So, some years after Schaeffer, then Chuck Colson in 1999 wrote not How Then Shall We Live? but How Now Shall We Live?, feeling the pressure increasing in the 1990s. And in that book, Colson sounded, if you like, a more optimistic note than perhaps had been present in Schaeffer’s work.

Our minds are to be renewed by the truth of God that is given to us in the Word of God. And therefore, we forsake either some kind of crazy optimism or dreadful pessimism by embracing what we might refer to as a biblical realism.

And here we are this morning, all these years later—so many years after 1999, actually. And those of us who have nostalgia as part of our life will, on a weekend like this… I know I did. I went and looked for it. I’m unashamed of telling you that I went looking for that famous Ronald Reagan commercial. It only lasted thirty seconds, and you remember it began, “It’s morning again in America.” Well, it does induce feelings of nostalgia, even as we descend into what seems to be chaotic and uncharted darkness.

Carl Trueman, in a wonderful book that will demand your attention if you’re going to pay careful attention to it, writes as follows: “The era when Christians could disagree with the broader convictions of the secular world and yet still find themselves respected as decent members of society at large is coming to an end, if indeed it has not ended already. … Many of us are … now living as strangers in a strange new world.”[5]

So what are we to do? Are we going to become debilitated by a spirit of pessimism, or are we going to embrace some kind of superficial optimism: “Don’t worry, everything will be fine in the end”? No, we have to forsake both of those alternatives. And the strategy that is given to us in the Scriptures is then to have our minds renewed. And our minds are to be renewed by the truth of God—the truth of God that is given to us in the Word of God. And therefore, we forsake either some kind of crazy optimism or dreadful pessimism by embracing what we might refer to as a biblical realism. A biblical realism: that Christians of all people understand that the world is not a utopia, that it is a broken world, it is a fallen world. But Christians also know that there is one who has stepped down into time who has made such a difference that the world can never ultimately be the same again.

And Peter, when he writes to the scattered believers of his day here in 1 Peter, is grounding them, if you like. At the end of Peter, in chapter 5, he says, “[This is why] I[’ve] written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.”[6] So he says, “This is what you’re going to have to do.” And remember, in the first century, they were facing all kinds of persecution, on the threshold of more that was yet to come. And so, as they face, if you like, stormy waters, turbulent waters, waters of persecution waving over them, he writes to encourage and to reassure them. And what he essentially does in the course of the letter is remind them of what it is they believe, remind them of where it is they belong, and remind them of how it is they are to behave. And in reminding them, he is therefore reminding us.

What Christians Believe

So first, then, what is it that they are believing? What is it that they are to believe? Do they believe what they believe? Do you believe what you believe? Do you believe what you affirm? Do I believe what I affirm as we go through this catechism? That’s why he’s writing to them. He doesn’t assume that they’re all on the page, that they’re all paying attention, that they are all moving directly in this way. That’s why when we read it, he says, “You know, this is the way you are to be, if so be that you have tasted of the kindness of the Lord.” He recognizes that there are those to whom he writes who are, if you like, outwardly engaged, but they’re not inwardly transformed. And that may ring a bell as we think of ourselves here.

Well, what was it that they needed to be reminded of? What was it that they were believing? We could spend the whole time just working on this. But we won’t. They were scattered in different locations, but they were united in the grace of God. From the very beginning, he’s reminding them of three things that are true of every Christian; you’ll see them at the beginning of the letter when you do your homework later on: chosen by God the Father, sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.[7] Every morning when you awaken, every morning when they faced the trials of their day, they were able to affirm this: “O God, you have chosen me from all eternity. Lord Jesus Christ, you have cleansed me by your blood. Holy Spirit, you’re at work in my life to make me more like Jesus.” He’s reminding them that they have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”[8]

He is reminding them that it is vital that they believe that they are being built into a “spiritual house,” that they’re not—although they may be scattered, although they may find themselves alone, although they may feel on the average Monday through Friday that somehow or another, they’re just blowing about by things, they’re pressured by so much that comes at them—he says, “No, remember this: that the God who has adopted you into his family is building you into a spiritual house. And remember this, believe this,” he says: “you’re no longer what you once were. You were once darkness, but now you’re light in the Lord. You once lived in a different department. You once were in Adam, but now you are in the Lord Jesus Christ.”[9] And he goes through a whole succession of statements, reminding them, as we must be reminded, of what we are. If your Bible is open, you will see that he says there in 2:10, “You are God’s people.” In verse 16, he says, “[You are] people who are free.” In verse 16, he says, “[You are] servants of God.”

In other words, they and we need to understand our identity. Our identity is made up of a lot of things. I am Scottish born, but I am also an American citizen. I am “the husband of one wife.”[10] I am this; I am that; I am the next thing. We can put it all together. But the really unbelievable thing and the thing that is most true and most significant is that by grace, I am a child of God. I am one of the people of God, “elect from every nation, yet one [through] all the earth.” We’re part of that. In Jesus, we’re part of that. And we have a “mystic, sweet communion”[11] with those whom God has already taken to himself, a vast company. It’s quite amazing! You tend not to think about that as you begin your day, but maybe as you drive around, not just thanking God for the beauty of the place but saying, “What an amazing thing! You have made me one of your people.”

You see, when you become one of the people of God, you’re no longer the person that you once were. This week, if you’ve been going through M’Cheyne’s readings, you will have been struck by this, I hope, as I was, in—part of our reading was in Isaiah chapter 65. And in Isaiah 65, he refers to his servants again and again: “Thus says the Lord God: … ‘My servants shall eat, … my servants shall drink, … my servants shall rejoice, … my servants shall sing.”[12] But he’s pointing that out in contrast with those who are not his servants. He says, “These other people insulted me on the hills. They gathered up into the mountains to make offerings to something other than me, the living God.”[13]

Now, in the prophecy of Isaiah, the clarity is unmistakable. Either they were the servants of God, or they were the servants of themselves. Either they were listening to God’s Word, or they were deaf to God’s Word. Either they were delighting in that which God has given for us to delight in, or they were delighting in whatever they fancied. Either they were gathering to God on the mountain that he said he’d meet them, or they were scurrying up into the hills in order to offer sacrifices to themselves and to other things. Now, I have to say to you quite honestly: that distinction runs throughout the whole of the Bible and throughout the whole of the world. You see, the issue that young Sarah is mentioning there about the divisions—there are all kinds of divisions in our world. But the great division is the division that exists between those who by grace are members of God’s family and those who remain outside of God’s family.

When you become one of the people of God, you’re no longer the person that you once were.

Well, is it then somehow or another that God is very limited in his designs and in his desires—that he’s only got a small group that he’s interested in? No, no! The chapter, Isaiah 65, begins quite amazingly. This is God speaking. He said, “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.”[14] You see what he’s saying? God is such a seeking God and a gracious God that he makes overtures to people who find him even when they’re not looking for him!

Jesus my Savior to Bethlehem came,
Born in a manager to sorrow and shame;
Oh, it was wonderful—blest be his name! …
Seeking for me, for me![15]

These are the things that Peter is saying the believers of his day need to make sure they believe. “Once you were not a people … now you are [a] people; once you had not received mercy, … now you have received mercy.”

Where Christians Belong

Secondly, he is making sure that they understand where they belong. Where they really belong. Where do you belong? Again, you say, “Well, I belong here. I belong in Ohio. I belong in America. I belong to this club and that club and the next thing.” But what is he doing here? He’s pointing out the fact that they don’t really belong where they live. Oh, they may live in Bithynia or Cappadocia or Pontus or Galatia—parts of Asia, parts of modern-day Turkey. But he says to them, “That’s not really your place. You don’t really belong there.”

You say, “Well, is he diminishing that in any way?” No, he’s not. He’s simply saying, “Listen, this world is not your home. You’re actually passing through.[16] Wherever you live is a temporary residence. One day we’ll be away from the body, and we will be at home.”[17] At home! Where’s our true home? In the presence of God. The psalmist this morning, Psalm 134: “Come, bless the Lord, all you [people] of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!”[18] This is where you belong. “I’d rather live here and open the doors in the morning,” says the psalmist, “than dwell in the tents of wickedness.[19] Because you took me out of that camp, and you put me in a new camp. And, therefore, I belong somewhere else.”

Here’s the challenge that existed then and, frankly, exists now: there is no social benefit now to being a Christian in North America. There’s no social benefit. People don’t go, “Oh, we’ve got some wonderful Christians here today. We thought we’d like to introduce you to them.” No, not at all! No, it’s actually a cost. And why is that? Because there is a prevailing hostility against the teaching of the Bible and therefore against those who will affirm the teaching of the Bible—and, better than that, who will actually live it out. We’re living in a culture that has actually dismissed biblical Christianity. Superstitious beliefs that once were regarded as remote from our nation have now been imported to our nation—are embraced as somehow or another mainstream. And the problem that our culture has is that they believe Christianity to be responsible for superstitious beliefs, beliefs that are tied to a bygone age, an age of myths and an age of bigotry. So I say to you again: What is it going to take to live in this kind of framework?

One of the ways you know you’re in a place that’s not your home as you travel the world is you discover that people are not speaking the way you’re speaking. I had an Uber driver this week, and he was from Benin, which is a French-speaking—I think it was once British. I don’t know. But anyway, that’s where he was from. And so I spoke to him for all of, like, a half a second in French. And then we tried English, both of us. But when you travel, you realize people are—they’re obviously talking, but we’re not talking the same language.

Well, that’s understandable when the language is Chinese or French or Portuguese or German or whatever it might be. But when the same language is English, then it becomes quite alarming, doesn’t it—when we’re suddenly using words that used to be clearly defined that have apparently lost all their definition? And suddenly a word like marriage, or an institution like marriage, understood throughout time as between one man and one woman—to affirm that now is to be regarded as bigoted. When the Christian affirms these things, affirms the fact that society can only be strong and happy where the marriage bond is held in honor, instead of people standing up and saying, “Well, that is so wonderful; it helps our nation,” no, it’s regarded as a threat to the well-being of a culture—to the well-being of a culture that has actually decided that the self—the you, the me, the thinking, feeling, doing part of me—is actually at the center of the moral universe.

You see what has happened in the period of time that some of us have most recently lived through? That ideas and concepts in France in the nineteenth century that finally filter into the university and college structure of Western thought finally make themselves down into the movies, into the books, into the educational principles. So young people are growing up being told, “How you think and how you feel and what you desire is the key to your entire existence, and you’re able to make sense of yourself in that way.” So, “if we are,” says Carl Trueman, “above all what we think, … feel, … [or] desire, then anything,” or anyone, “that interferes or obstructs those thoughts, feelings, or desires, inhibits us as people and prevents us from being the self that we are convinced … we are.”[20] “The self that we are convinced that we are,” not the self that God has made us.

Now, I listened to the BBC this week. Sometimes at lunchtime I do on the BBC app. (It’s a good app, incidentally. Strange accents, but it’s quite all right.) And it just so happened it was around the noon hour, and so it happened that I clicked onto a conversation that was taking place between a British journalist and two people. Two people. One was a girl, and one was a boy. One was a man, and one was a woman. They were talking about transgenderism. And the journalist said, “What about your pronouns?” The girl said, “I am they and them.” “I am they and them.” He pressed on her a little bit, and he asked her, “How do you get into that plurality?” “Well,” she said, “I am nonbinary.” “How does that work?” he said. “Well, it works in one of two ways: I can either be gender-absent or I can be gender-fluid. And so in myself, sometimes I like to be, and other times I feel this way to be. And the point is that whatever I am or believe myself to be by self-definition, that makes sense of it all.” The fellow, when he asked, “About your pronouns?” he said, “I am she and her.”

One of the ways you know you’re in a foreign place is by the use of language. By the use of language. When words no longer mean what they clearly mean—when we have, if you like, now moved into a realm where the syntax has completely changed and where language means whatever we want it to mean—then we’re really in trouble.

Now, so, don’t misunderstand me on this. This is not a diatribe about sex per se. But when I preached at the very end of ’99 into the beginning of 2000, for those seven of you who are still here, we said on that occasion the challenge going into the twenty-first century would be, as always, if we’re going to affirm the exclusivity of Christ, if we’re going to affirm the absolute authority and sufficiency of the Bible, and if we’re going to maintain a biblical framework of human sexuality. And, we said, the challenge to number one, exclusivity of Jesus, and to number two, the authority of the Bible—that challenge, we said, will be waged out in realm number three, in the realm of sexuality.

Now, how does it get there? Because of the autonomous self. I left it upstairs; I wish I had it with me. But I was in a bookstore just during the week. You’re saying, “Goodness, did you ever study at all?” But anyway, I was there, and at the checkout there were journals. And it was unbelievable to me what’s on the front of this journal. It was a journal that you’re supposed to get if you’re, like, a teenager, and it just says in bold letters, “I am awesome.” “I am awesome.” And then, if you don’t like that one, there’s another one: “I got this.” “I got this.” “I am awesome” and “I got this.” And “I am whatever I say I am”—despite biology, despite sociology, and definitely despite any of that Bible stuff.

How Christians Behave

So he says to them, “You are strangers. You live in a world that does not embrace what you believe. It’s important that you are convinced about what you believe. It’s important that you understand where you belong. And thirdly, it is important how you behave.” How you behave.

Now, I’m just going to mention two things and leave them for you to follow up. Notice, first of all—negatively and then positively—from a negative perspective, there is that from which we must abstain. We must abstain from selfish, indulgent, natural appetites which feed our egos and destroy our souls. That’s what he’s saying. And it sounds out a very important note for those of us who are tempted to become very pharisaical, who can say what we say about people who have determined to think in the terminologies to which I’ve just referred, to want to adopt a position that says, “I thank you that I’m not as other men are.”[21] No, we mustn’t do that. We have to deliberately separate ourselves emotionally, physically, from all the mutineers that rise up to attack our spiritual devotion.

We have to be prepared to say that we will not rewrite the Bible in order to accommodate a society that needs the Bible and that needs the Jesus who is the focus of the Bible.

And again, let us be absolutely clear. You go to Romans 12:1–2 as a cross-reference: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may be able to test and approve what the will of God is.”[22] That’s not about finding out who you’re supposed to marry. That’s not about whether you’re supposed to move to Toronto or something like that. What he’s saying is that when you submit to God and to his Word in that way, then you’re able to say, “The will of God is the best way. The will of God is the perfect way. The will of God is the right way.” And there is no possibility of merging the two perspectives. Either we are operating from a worldview that is framed by the thought forms of the age or by a worldview that is grounded in the will of God—no possibility of compromise, actually, between the two. They’re incompatible zones. And you can try it in any area you want. What about purpose? What about meaning? Success? Ambition? Sex? Money? Gender? No, we’re to live faithfully in a fallen world. That’s the sort of private element of it. That’s what’s going on when we drive in our cars. That’s what’s going on in our bedrooms, if you like.

Now, what about when we get outside? Well, there it is. That’s the second aspect. You’re to abstain on the one hand, and you’re to become an advert on the other hand. An advert for what? An advert for Jesus. “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles”—that’s amongst those who do not believe. “Keep your conduct … honorable.” Look at verse 16: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God,” not engaging in the culture warfare using the tools that the world offers us—rhetorical tools and weapons that destroy and demean and are cruel. No, the weapons that we’ve been given—2 Corinthians 10:4—are weapons “not of the flesh,” but they are the weapons that have the “power to destroy strongholds.”

Well, how comprehensive is this? Well, it’s very comprehensive. That’s why I read verse 17 very slowly. “Who am I supposed to be honorable about and to and with?” Everyone. “Oh, you mean the people that you just talked about on the BBC?” Exactly.

You see, when you think about homosexuality per se—forget transgenderism for the moment—but homosexual people are either hated, or they are affirmed. Those are the only two options. “Either you hate me, or you affirm me.” The Christian actually does neither. We do not hate, but nor do we affirm. We cannot hate because of God’s Word, and we cannot affirm because of God’s Word. And we have to be prepared to say that we are unprepared to rewrite the Bible in order to accommodate a society that needs the Bible and that needs the Jesus who is the focus of the Bible.

You see, the tension that existed for those folks is the same tension that exists for us. Because when they were on the receiving end of Peter’s instruction here, the temptation was either to rebel against everything or to conform to everything. “We’ll pull this down. We’ll storm the Capitol.” “Well, if you can’t beat ’em, we’ll just join ’em.” Neither option is a biblical Christian option. Why? Because of the Bible.

And if you doubt any of this, just go home and read the Gospels. If you say to yourself, “Now, how would this ‘Honor people’ thing work?” You say, “Well, how did it work for Jesus?” Because one of the great tests of any exhortation such as we’re embracing now—the great test is: Does this work for Jesus? Well, think about it. As a boy in the temple, he honored his teachers.[23] He honored the woman at the well. She’d had five husbands and a live-in lover. He didn’t give her a big talk; he asked for a drink of water.[24] He honored the disciples by washing their feet, even though they were a—even though they were a challenging group.[25] And even in a series of woes against the Pharisees, he never treated them as subhuman, and he didn’t call on people to rebel against them.[26] And even when he was faced with the agonies and the humiliations that found him nailed to the cross, he did not, as he could have done, call down legions of angels to destroy.[27]

And I think that’s why Peter, when he gets out of chapter 3 and goes to chapter 4, says, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.”[28] “The same way of thinking.” Our focus is not on a kingdom in this earth—not a British kingdom, an American kingdom, a Chinese kingdom, any jolly kingdom. Our focus is not on that but on the kingdom of heaven. And our enemy is not our unjust boss. Our enemy’s not a tyrant, not an emperor, not a president. Our enemy is the great Dragon, Satan, the Evil One.

“So, my dear friends,” Peter says to them, and we say to each other, “let’s make sure that we understand our identity: people of God, people who are free, servants of God, sojourners and exiles. Let’s make sure that we engage in the activity that we’re called to engage in, abstaining from that which may bolster our self-esteem and destroy our souls and instead make sure that we are an advert for the gospel.” And then rest in the security with which Peter ends when he says, “And after you have suffered a little while”—which in some cases was their entire life—“After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory …, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”[29]

When the cares of life seem overwhelming
And my heart is sinking down,
I’m gonna lift my hands to the one [who] help[s] me,
To the one who holds my crown.

How great is the [Father’s] love …
How steady is his hand,
To guide me through this world.[30]

“This is the true grace of God,” says Peter. “Stand firm in it.” “In it.”

[1] Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “Speak O Lord” (2005). Lyrics lightly altered.

[2] Sarah Smith, “Roe v Wade: Why This Is a Seismic Day in America,” BBC News, June 24, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61929438.

[3] Don McLean, “American Pie” (1971).

[4] Paul McCartney and John Lennon, “Help!” (1965).

[5] Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), chap. 9.

[6] 1 Peter 5:12 (ESV).

[7] See 1 Peter 1:2.

[8] 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV).

[9] 1 Peter 2:9–10 (paraphrased). See also Ephesians 5:8; Romans 5:19.

[10] 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6 (ESV).

[11] Samuel J. Stone, “The Church’s One Foundation” (1866).

[12] Isaiah 65:13–14 (ESV).

[13] Isaiah 65:7 (paraphrased).

[14] Isaiah 65:1 (ESV).

[15] “Seeking for Me” (1878).

[16] See “This World Is Not My Home.”

[17] See 2 Corinthians 5:8.

[18] Psalm 134:1 (ESV).

[19] Psalm 84:10 (paraphrased).

[20] Trueman, Strange New World, chap. 8.

[21] Luke 18:11 (paraphrased).

[22] Romans 12:1–2 (paraphrased).

[23] See Luke 2:46–47.

[24] See John 4:7, 16–18.

[25] See John 13:2–5.

[26] See Matthew 23:1–36.

[27] See Matthew 26:53.

[28] 1 Peter 4:1 (ESV).

[29] 1 Peter 5:10 (ESV).

[30] Steve Earl, “Gonna Trust in God” (1997).