"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God."
In our society today, people want to be known. And like everything else in our world of obsession and excess, some people take their need to be known to the extreme. The need to be known is a powerful motivator for much of our society. These people are powerfully driven, motivated by ensuring others will know who they are. They seem to find pleasure by being known without any apparent regard for how they are known. And, we think that's great. It's really kind of a curious thing to me.
Another thing that I find very curious, is that everybody wants to talk about family values, moral values, traditional
values, and I believe that is a rather a fruitless discussion since no
one is willing to talk about sin. If anything is true of our society, it is certainly true that we don't want to acknowledge sin. Psychologists continue down a path of improperly diagnosing man's behavior, while not having any clue about how to cure it.
Some years ago, a world-famous psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Karl Menninger, of the famous Menninger Clinic, wrote a book entitled Whatever Happened To Sin? He tried to make people face the reality of sin as the curse that creates the problems of life. Basically, he said "I operate a psychiatric clinic and if I'm going to help people with their problems, I have got to tell them about sin." Though the book was somewhat widely read, as you can imagine, it was also widely rejected. Today in our culture, the subject of sin isn't as marketable as other things. In fact, I believe that it would be fair to say that sin isn't even an acceptable word in our culture. Since sin is not only an unacceptable word, it is therefore, an unacceptable cause for the troubles of man.
And since sin is not an acceptable diagnosis of man's problems, we look at the world around us and see evil everywhere yet it's not defined as evil. Since sin is not an acceptable word in society, therefore, evil is not an acceptable diagnosis of man's nature. In fact, things that we used to willingly and openly call sin, we don't want to call sin anymore. It's syndrome. A syndrome for which we blame others, it's not our fault, we cannot help it, because it is a syndrome that is caused by what someone else did to us. Therefore, there is no accountability for it. We're not responsible for our own actions, because someone else caused us to be the way we are.
And, to further validate that it's not our fault, we have even taken this a step further, claiming that it's not only what you did to me, but other before me, it's generational, causing me to be they way I am. We have come to the point where we will literally blame anyone and everything for our problems, except ourselves. Because we refuse to acknowledge our own sin. We live in a culture that denies the reality of sin. And, if you alleviate people of the responsibility for dealing with the sin
in their lives, you have, in effect, made them unredeemable. In other words, you have eternally damned them.
In our society, fame, fortune and pleasure are the dominating themes. It has become completely unimportant as to how we find our self gratifying pleasure, just so long as we are able to find it. Even as temporary and fleeting as that pleasure may be. So, we are always searching for some new way to find pleasure.
Sin seems to have gained respectability through politics and profitability. Tragically, that's the kind of culture we now live in. However, do not be fearful, because if you have read the last page of the Bible, then you know as well as I do, it all turns out just fine!
Yet, I contend that the greatest pleasure is not found in what others think of me, it's not found in how well I am known, in fact, if I am to be known for anything, let it be for my love of Jesus Christ. Because I find my greatest joy, my greatest pleasure is found in God. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to resolve to find your greatest pleasure in Jesus Christ despite any opposition, for one day, we will all give an account for our lives before Him.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for this much needed Word today. Lord, thank you for the reminder, that while we are to love others, we should hate sin. When we see what it does to our fellow Christians, and us, may we hate sin all the more. Thank You especially for this great reminder of what sin did to Christ. Lord, we thank You for granting us the grace, that gives us promise to live in an eternity where sin has forever been abolished. It is almost unimaginable to think we can live where sin no longer exists, thank You for such a tremendous gift. Father, arm us with the mind of Christ, that we would live in such a way that honors and glorifies You.
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Today's Message: Now More Than Ever
In our ongoing study of I Peter, today, we find ourselves in a new chapter. I Peter chapter 4, we will be looking at the first four verses. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7, we struggle with that unredeemed flesh, in which that which is our new creation is incarcerated. Thus, the battle.
Even while doing what Jesus said, praying and watching, just ahead of us, at any given moment, is some formidable temptation. So, there must be a sense in which we live in anticipation of the future. Though we may live in anticipation, we are still faced with dealing with what is here in the present. We must not only hate what is evil, we must cling to what is good. We must put on on the Lord Jesus Christ, in the present tense make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. By anticipating what is imminent in the future, living in what is reality in the present, will enable us to deal with sin.
However, there is another aspect in which we are to consider. And that is looking backward. Open with me your Bibles to the fourth chapter of first Peter verses one through six. Looking backward is the look which Peter really focuses on in our text. Peter tells us there has to be a view of the past as well.
On a number of occasions, Peter has spoken about the difficulty of a godly person living in an ungodly environment. Remember, Peter has been writing to Christians who are scattered and suffering direct persecution. At the end of chapter 3, Peter made the very strong point that in the greatest suffering there may be the greatest triumph. There is one thing that becomes clear when you study I Peter, and that is that suffering is the backdrop. And, the greatest example of that, is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ, at the greatest hour of His suffering, His greatest pain and most severe persecution, namely the hour of His death, He was winning the greatest victory the world has ever known. Suffering is not a sign of weakness, it is a pathway to victory!
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, while we prepare our hearts for a Word from our Lord. Listen for the voice of our Lord. I Peter 4:1-6.
"Therefore,
since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the
same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you
to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For
the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are
dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in
the spirit according to the will of God."
Peter is reminding us, that no matter how difficult the hostility, how severe the persecution, that what may be the most difficult time, it may also be the most triumphant. Peter's point is that Christian suffering, can also be triumphant.
Verse 1, "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." Peter is saying that Christ suffered in the flesh triumphantly, you do the same. Here, he is talking there about crucifixion. Because it's Christ suffered, we assume that the interchange does intend to point out one the death, and one the suffering. Here is verse 1,when Peter says that Christ suffered in the flesh, it is implied in that, that He died. It is a synonym here for death.
Then, he says to "arm yourselves also with the same purpose." He uses the word "énnoia," meaning the same thought, purpose, design, or intention. In other words, that you are willing to die for righteousness sake because you know that you may triumph in it. If you are armed against persecution, you're willing to die for it. When Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, to take up your cross and follow Him, it implies a willing to die also.
Then, at the end of verse 1, Peter says "because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." He's saying that Christ died because of the joy that was set before Him, He knew what it would accomplish. He knew the victory in it. He understood the triumph. Therefore, you have to arm yourself with the same idea that Christ had when He died. What Peter is saying is if you die, you cease from sin. The point is, the worst that your persecutors can do to you is kill you and if they kill you, the battle is over. And if you are armed with that idea in mind, you will not recant. Rather, you will have courage, strength, boldness and confidence in the midst of any trial.
And, it is that kind of attitude that will produce the attitude of verse 2, "So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." If you are willing to die knowing you shall cease from sin, then you have just taken away the greatest weapon that the enemy has against you, the threat of death. That's the key! Because all death can do is bring that goal into reality. Once you understand that the goal is to be free from sin it will diffuse the threat of death, and that will control the way that you live the rest of your life. You will live your life no longer be drive by the lusts of the flesh.
never compromising because death could only be a deliverance from sin. So what threat could make you compromise.
never compromising because death could only be a deliverance from sin. So what threat could make you compromise.
So, Peter says remember what sin did to Christ, it killed Him. And, if we are going to deal with
with sin and if we are going to have victory over sin, we are going to have to hate sin! Beloved, there is no greater illustration of what sin does, than to look at what sin did to Christ. Next, we have to remember what sin does to Christians, it kills them too. But, it not only kills them, it causes them to battle all their life long until they die.
with sin and if we are going to have victory over sin, we are going to have to hate sin! Beloved, there is no greater illustration of what sin does, than to look at what sin did to Christ. Next, we have to remember what sin does to Christians, it kills them too. But, it not only kills them, it causes them to battle all their life long until they die.
We ought to hate sin because it killed Christ. And, we had to hate sin because it keeps Christians from being what God has intended them to be, Christ-like and free from sin. Sin restrains us from being what we had ought to be, perfect and holy. Sin makes us do what we don’t want to do and not do what we want to do. And when we live in sin, we violate God's will for us.
We have a choice, we can either live for God's will or human passion. Living for human passions is called hedonism. It’s the idea that only pain or pleasure motivates us. Now, I realize that most of us do not consider living for pleasure hedonism.Because we instinctively live to please ourselves. In fact, God has hard wired us to live for pleasure. Only He wants us to pause to
consider what real pleasure is and the source of where real pleasure
comes from. And believe me, when I tell you, it is not human passions that God wants us to pursue. The Bible is full of many exhortations to this matter of obedience, I won't belabor them all, allow me to just give you a few.
In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."
Ephesians 5:6, Paul says "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."
Scripture says that sin is a rebellion against God. So, if you want to understand what a despicable, hateful, disgusting thing sin is, we have to look backward, you must understand what sin did to Christ, it killed Him. You must understand what it has done to Christians. It has kept them from being what intended them to be. Then, you must understand what sin does to God. It violates God's will. Sin rebels against God.
Then, in verse 3, Peter says "For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries."
In verse 3 through 5, Peter gets to the heart of the matter. He gives us a rather graphic and tragic description of the devastating effects sin has on mankind. He says you ought to live the rest of your life no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God, because the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the pagans or the Gentiles or the nations. In other words, you have already had enough time, you have had sufficient opportunity to live in sin, the time before you came to know Christ. So, you don't need to do that any longer.
The word desire is the Greek word "boúlēma," it means purpose or will. When you were unsaved, when your life was without Christ, your heart purposed to fulfill evil desire. That's a futile way of life! You've already spent enough time doing that, so now, leave it alone. Remember what you were like before your conversion. Look back at what your life was like before Christ. You have conducted your life along the hypnotic course of sin. You have already lived your life for what the devils calls the rhythmic pattern of cadence for the downward march into sin.
Peter then uses six words to further describe that course. The first word is sensuality, which is the word "asélgeia," which literally means outrageous conduct, conduct shocking to public decency. The spirit, which dares to sin any sin. It's the old word for debauchery, meaning excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure. And that's certainly true of the culture in which we live today.
The second word that he uses is very closely associated with the first, the word "lusts," it means evil desire. It is mindless, animal driven indulgence in the pleasures that passion pursues. It means to be completely driven by passion.
The third word Peter uses is the word "drunkenness," it is the word "oinophlugia," which again refers to debauchery. It means wine bubbling up and speaks of intoxication, inebriation. The fourth word he sues is the word is "carousing,"which is the word "kṓmos," a riotous party which hosted unbridled sexual immorality. He's talking about orgies. The term was used in extra biblical literature used to refer to a band of drunken, wildly acting people who were staggering and swaying and swaggering and singing their way through the streets, causing racket and havoc.
As a footnote, it was usually associated with the worship of false gods and the cults in ancient times. Then he adds a very similar word "drinking parties," or "potos," it means drinking just for the sake of drinking and becoming drunk.
Then, he adds "abominable idolatries." An abomination against God, the worship of false idols. This is a
characterization of the unregenerate person. As bad as they may be, this of course does not speak of everyone of course. But it is typically the lifestyle of the unregenerate person in our culture and was in Peter's day as well. Remember what a life sin did to you, you've had enough of that! Remember what sin did to Christ, it killed Him.
Then, in verse 4, Peter adds "In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you." I can speak from my own personal experience, this is so true. When friends that you used to run with call and invite you to do what you've always done and you say, "I don't so that anymore, my life has changed." Man, are they surprised. They are shocked when your life is now different from what it has normally been. It's still normal for them.
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever the different ways in which the may try to obtain it. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both. I have found nowhere in the Bible where God condemns people for longing to be happy. In fact, the Bible actually commands us to delight in the Lord. The problem is when people seek their happiness in something other than God. This is the essence of sin.
The word surprised is the Greek verb "xenizó," it means to be astonished , to be shocked. It includes the idea of taking an offense. They actually resent you, because you're not living the same excess of dissipation as they are. They are bound by the sinful habits that they cannot break, they are inflamed by lusts they cannot extinguish. They don’t understand it and it bothers them greatly. It even causes them to feel guilt and shame.
By the way, the word dissipation means the state of evil in which a person thinks about nothing but evil. It doesn't think about character or reputation, it thinks about evil. There is such a burning passion of sin, that people are mindlessly pursuing their passion of irresistibly, compulsively rushing into a cesspool of dissipation. That is hardly the place for a Christian. Sinners however, are attracted to it.
And since you are no longer doing those things, they malign you. It is the Greek verb "blasphēméō," it means to speak evil against, it the use of abusive or scurrilous language. The reluctance of Christians to participate in conventionally accepted entertainment or any function which is considered to be immoral, causes people to hate them. Once you ran with them in that same sexually perverted, drunken, idolatrous cesspool, and now, you been saved from all that. You have become the object of their bitter virulence.
In verse 5, he says "But they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." The phrase "they will give account," is the verb "apodídōmi," which means "to give back." They’ll be paid back. Those who cast dispersions at Christians, those who malign them, are amassing a debt to God, and they will be required to spend eternity paying it back. There is coming a time when they will pay it all back to God, He is keeping an account in the record books. Not one of them will have a defense! Their sin has made them enemies of the people of God, and therefore, making them enemies of God Himself. Their sin has made them the objects of eternal, damning judgement. Our lives as Christians is radically different, because when we are faced with temptation of sin, we ask ourselves, "How will this effect my eternity? How will this effect the eternity of others?"
Verse 6, "For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God." This is a profound verse. "For the gospel has for this purpose been preached," he's talking about the saving message of Jesus Christ. "Even those who are dead," he's talking about those who have heard the message of the gospel and are now dead. Perhaps, some of them were martyred. They had died for their faith in Christ.
The overreaching idea here is, that the believer, under persecution,under unjust treatment, under unfair punishment, even death, should be willing to suffer knowing there is triumph.Though they may die in the flesh, they will live in the spirit, according to the will of God. God has promised that through death, you will overcome sin. The point Peter is making here, is that no matter what they do to us, we can be victorious.
Peter then says "That though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God." Though they may kill your body, your spirit will be alive. And you will enter into the promise of eternal life.
In Closing..
We all battle sin, and what gives you victory is not some mystical perception. It's not some abstruse philosophy. But by focusing on the devastating effects of sin. If we see sin for what it really is, we are going to hate it because God hates it. Sin devastates lives, destroys marriages and families. It leads the whole of humanity into a cesspool of dissipation and ultimately damning judgment. That alone should make us hate sin. Then we look at Jesus Christ, and what the effects of sin did to Him, it killed, we should hate sin all the more.
When you look at what God has promised, there should nothing in this ungodly world that can make us fall to that standard of living. Not even the threat of death. Because any one might be dead in the next split-second, maybe we ought be extra careful what we do. We cannot just keep acting as though we can come to church on Sunday and Monday through Saturday, live anyway we want. Because now, that we are in Christ, what we do matters more than ever!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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