Please turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Peter 4:1-2 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Opening: Last week Andy Stanley's Church, North Point Community, held what they called an "Unconditional" conference. Two of the speakers were men "married" to other men. During the conference, LGBTQ was recognized as legitimate categories of human identity. When criticized, Stanley replied:
"We're dealing with real people and real relationships. ... It is not political for me. ... It is relational, because we are in ministry, and because we've learned to distinguish between theology and ministry, we can figure this out."
What Stanley is saying is that we should unhitch ministry from theology, that is, from what the Bible says. Yet Jesus never did this. When Jesus addressed His critics, it was always with "It is written".
Jesus quoted the Bible of that day, the Old Testament, 78 times, and the Law of God 26 times. He quoted Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi.
Jesus made a profound statement when He said:
John 10:35 … Scripture cannot be broken …
Word Study: The word "broken" is the Greek lyō, which means "loosed, destroyed, put off, dissolved". Stanley and other liberal "pastors" seek to break or destroy the Scripture – but the Scripture is the Word of God. Jesus told His disciples:
Luke 24:44-46 (ESV) … These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. …
Luke 16:17 (ESV) … it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
Matthew 5:17-18 (ESV) Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Jesus did not come to give us a workaround for the Law of God. Jesus came to fulfill the Law, to be the "Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Jesus did not come to make it easier for us to sin and disobey God. He came to free us from sin. America has entered a stage of paganism – ancient paganism – called Gnosticism. The Gnostic believed that Christ came to cover our sin. Since His Blood covers our sin, we are free to sin with impunity. This is not what the Bible teaches – and God through Peter explains that to us today.
Sin Is Never A Playground, But A Battleground
1 Peter 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind...
People think that sin is something to be winked at. Yet the Bible tells us "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh". Notice it does not say that "JESUS SUFFERED" (though He did), but "CHRIST SUFFERED". What is the difference? "CHRIST" is the Greek christos, which means "The One Anointed of God, the Messiah, the Son of God". What caused the Messiah – God Himself – to suffer? It was SIN.
God became Man because of Sin. God suffered as Man because of sin. Sin demands suffering, for sin departs from God.
Why is there suffering in the world? Because of sin. Because Adam failed to obey God. It was after Adam sinned that God told the woman:
Genesis 3:16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children ...
Before sin entered the world, child bearing was not bad, not painful. But because Adam and Eve walked away from God and heeded Satan, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children". The birth will be sorrow. The child raised will be at times rebellious and sinful. Some children reject all discipline, and end up incarcerated, diseased, drug addicted, and the parents weep. It is sin that does this. God told Adam:
Genesis 3:17-19 … cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee … 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground …
Those evils that are in the world today are in the world because of sin. Sin brought tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis. Sin brings murder and death into the world, rape and racism. Sin brings sexually transmitted diseases, cancers, heart failure, leprosies and horrid pandemics. Sin is seen in massive genocides, where innocents are wiped out by military coup.
And sin is insidious. It is in the smile of the whore, the grin of the pusher. It dresses up in Las Vegas and Reno, and robs families of money they need to live in state lotteries claiming to "educate the child". Sin encourages a far walk from God. Sin is in scientific evolution, for the Bible says:
Psalm 14:1 (53:1) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
The more you pursue sin, the more you suffer. You may smile for a while, but in time the pain will come. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Sin promises life, but brings death.
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind
Why did "CHRIST" come into the world? The Bible says:
1 Timothy 1:15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Illustrate: "CHRIST" did not come into the world to ENABLE sinners, but to SAVE sinners. Imagine if you will that you are at the beach, out swimming, when a riptide grabs you and begins to pull you away from shore. You cry out, drowning in the waves, for salvation. A life guard swims out. When the life guard gets to you, he begins to reason with you as to how you should not be afraid of the water. After all, humans are 60% water. The water is your friend. Before you were born, you floated in amniotic fluid, essentially water. Quit struggling. Just let the water take you! It will be all right.
Does that make sense? NO! But this is the preacher who will not warn you to run from sin and into the arms of Christ. Sin causes God suffering. Sin causes us suffering. Sin caused Christ suffering. The Bible says:
Matthew 27:28-31 {the soldiers} stripped {Jesus} and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
What had Jesus done to deserve His suffering? Had He violated God's Law? No, for the Bible says that He was "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15; 9:28). When examined of Pilate the Governor, he cried out …
Matthew 27:23 … (AP) Why should He be crucified? What evil has He done?
None could give a cause for Christ's suffering and death. They just demanded, "Let Him be crucified!". What evil had He done? None! What caused the Christ, this Righteous One, to be so cruelly treated and horribly executed? It was sin. The Prophet said:
Isaiah 53:5 But He {the Christ} was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
When Christ came to this earth, the Bible says in Hebrews 4:15, "The CHRIST was, in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin". Though Jesus never deserved what happened to Him, He bore the suffering of sin in order to save us from sin. We have previously studied:
1 Peter 3:18 (ESV) Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God ...
Christ did not suffer for sin to BRING US TO SIN, but to BRING US TO GOD.
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) {Jesus} himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Jesus Christ, an Innocent and Perfect Man, suffered the scourge and pain of the nails in order to stand in judgment in our place. Sin brings suffering. Salvation brings relief from sin. Salvation takes us to a different mindset.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake {God the Father} made {the Christ} to be sin who knew no sin, so that in {the Christ} we might become the righteousness of God.
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind
Word Study: The word translated "arm" is the Greek hoplizō, which means "take this up as a weapon, prepare yourself for battle with this tool". The reason God uses this word here is because we are in a battle with forces of darkness. These forces come from all directions. Sometimes
Matthew 10:36 … a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
When the devil attacks, he attacks from the family. There are many young people today confused because of the wide spread propaganda of evil on the internet. Many parents and grandparents have been confronted by children who are influenced into sexual evil or drugs – or worst! I know pastots who have compromised what the Scripture said because their children or grandchildren have "come out" in some sinful and evil way. Beloved, to normalize sin is to lose the battle.
1 Peter 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin...
In order to save us from sin, the Christ had to "cease from sin". Now Jesus never sinned. We were told in:
1 Peter 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
Jesus never had to repent of sin. When Pilate ordered Him crucified, He said in
John 19:6 … I find no guilt in Him ...
Jesus Christ was sinless, guiltless, the Lamb of God. So what is God telling us in this focal text. The point is,
Jesus' suffering on the Cross would have been USELESS had He given in to sin. Those who compromise with sin only bring damnation, not salvation.
Parents and grandparents, preachers and evangelists that put whitewash on sin, and preach a dumbed down Gospel will only bring eternal condemnation to those they claim to love. The first thing that happened in Jesus' earthly ministry was
Matthew 4:1 … (ESV) Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Do you know how Jesus responded to each temptation that the devil threw at Him? Jesus said, "IT IS WRITTEN" (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).
Jesus did not rely on what he thought, but on what the Scripture said. Why? Because He was teaching us to not be like Adam, but be like HIM. Sin is contrary to God. Sin brings death, disease, destruction and dismay. You will never bless anyone – least of all God – by compromise with sin.
Christians Are Called Out Of Darkness And Into Light
1 Peter 4:2-3 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 3 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, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
The believer in Christ is saved by the suffering of Christ for a purpose. It is so that "he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God".
Jesus Christ suffered in the flesh for sin so that He could not only COVER the sin of believers, but FREE us from sin's enslavement. Before the Christian was saved, we "walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries". In other words, as unbelievers we pursued:
lasciviousness (Greek aselgeia), wanton unbridled lust, shamelessness
lusts (Greek epithymia), desire for the forbidden
excess of wine (Greek oinophlygia), drunkenness
revelings (Greek kōmos), carousing, rioting, partying
banquetings (Greek potos), bar hopping, drinking about
abominable idolatries (Greek athemitos eidōlolatria), wokeness
Divorced from God, these things were normal to us. You may be sitting there thinking, "Well, I never did those things". That's true, you probably did worst things. You were probably "self righteous", like the Pharisees that Jesus said were "white washed mausoleums, beautiful outwardly, but filled within with dead men's bones and uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27). God said of the self righteous that they are "a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all day long" (Isaiah 65:5). Those without Christ need Jesus, need what Jesus provides.
They must be born again, just as we as Christians were born again. (John 3:3, 7). They must be "born again, the the Word of God, which lives and abides forever"
(1 Peter 1:23).
How do these lost people see Jesus? We read:
1 Peter 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
The lost world does not understand why you do not support what it does. Why we are not "woke" along with others. Why we do not endorse drug use, communism, transgenderism, homosexuality, fornication, pornography, drunkenness, and so on. We as believers do not pursue "the lusts of men", but "the will of God". Why is this? Is it because we are better than others. No.
It is because we are saved by Grace. We once were enslaved to sin and the suffering that it brings, but we met Jesus Christ. We as Christians are indwelt of God's Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9) and understand that
Romans 6:16 … to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness
We understand what the Bible says when we are told, "The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8), that Jesus came to free us from sin. For those who believe that Jesus came to save us just to enable us to freely sin, you need to read and re-read Romans chapter 6. The Apostle said:
Romans 6:1-2 … Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
When you were saved, dear Christian, you became "dead to sin". What does that mean? It means you understand that sin is no playground, but a battleground. Sin is destructive. Sin is deadly. You were not saved to freely sin, but to live within the will of God. We are told:
Romans 6:11-18 reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Christians are indwelt of God's Spirit. We belong to God. We are not children of Adam, but Children of God.
What The Christian Does Has Eternal Consequence
1 Peter 4:5-6 Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. 6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
We shall all stand before God one day. We "shall give account to Him". What does that look like for the unbeliever? They will give account at a Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15). As their name is NOT written in the "Book of Life", they will depart the Presence of God into "The Lake of Fire, the Second Death" (Revelation 20:14). But what of the Christian.
Romans 14:12 … every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
What will this look like. Let's think of it this way. You get to Heaven, and see all its splendor. You had a child, or a husband, or a wife, or a friend or co-worker that you loved who preceded you in death. So you look about Heaven. "Has anyone seen my daughter? Has anyone seen my granddaughter? I've looked and looked, but I can't seem to find her". Then you see Jesus. "Jesus, I know you know where my daughter is. I know you know where my granddaughter is, my son, my husband, my wife. Where have they gone?" Jesus looks at you, and says,
"I never knew them" (Matthew 7:23)
While you were so busy trying not to offend them, you withheld the Gospel from them. The Gospel is to REPENT and FOLLOW Jesus. You were woke. You pleased the world. And your loved one is gone forever.
Revelation 7:17 … and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
May God lead you, dear believer, to live for Christ while there is time to make a difference. May God the Holy Spirit convict and save. For the glory of God. Amen and Amen!
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