Scripture reading this morning, would you take your
Bibles and turn to 1 Peter 4, verses
1-7.
That's 1 Peter 4, verses 1-7.
It's on page 13-14 in some of
the better manuscripts.
Please give your attention now to the reading
from God's holy word.
For as much 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,
that he no longer should live the rest
of his time in the flesh to the
lust of men, but to the will of
God.
For the time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lust,
excessive wine, reveling, banqueting, and abominable idolatry, wherein
they think it strange that ye run not
with them through the same excessive riot, seeking
evil of you.
Who shall give account to him that is
ready to judge the quick and the dead?
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.
But the end of all things is at
hand.
Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer."
May God richly add his blessings to the
reading of his inspired words.
The patriarch Job wrestled with the problem of
why God would permit a righteous man to
suffer.
The problem that he faced was the problem
that multitudes have faced in succeeding generations.
Job was a man concerning whom God could
testify that he was a righteous man.
Because of his righteousness, it would seem that
he would have been exempt from the sufferings
and testings that God permitted to come into
his experience, and yet the testings came.
Job gave attention to that problem and listened
to the counsel of many of his friends
as they sought to solve this problem, but
it was from the lips of Job that
we get his conclusion.
He testified that through his suffering he came
to know God in a more personal and
intimate way, and the new knowledge that he
gained of God had produced a righteousness in
him, an experiential righteousness which he did not
have before.
When the apostle Peter comes to write to
those under his care concerning this same problem,
Peter comes to the same conclusion to which
Job ultimately came.
That God permits suffering to come into the
life of his children in order that his
children might come to know him more intimately,
and that through this more intimate knowledge of
him, their lives might be purified and that
they might be experientially sanctified.
Peter, in the fourth chapter of his epistle
and the first seven verses to which we
direct your attention in our study of Peter's
letter this morning, introduces us to the fact
that Jesus Christ himself suffered.
Jesus Christ was righteous in every thought and
word and deed.
God could find no flaw in his conduct
or character, his friends could not fault him,
and his adversaries could convict him of no
act, no word that would prove any unrighteousness
in him, and yet Jesus Christ suffered.
This is an evidence that Peter presents to
his hearers that suffering is not primarily punishment
for sin, for if suffering were retribution for
sin, there would have been no reason for
Jesus Christ to suffer.
And yet, Peter begins the fourth chapter and
the first verse by saying, "...forasmuch then as
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind."
Back in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter
five and verse seven, the writer refers to
Christ's experience as a sufferer, and he tells
us in that seventh and eighth verses of
two results of Christ's suffering.
He writes, "...in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death, and
was heard in that he feared, though he
were a son, yet learned he obedience by
the things which he suffered, and being made
perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him."
The writer tells us that, first of all,
through his sufferings, Jesus Christ learned obedience by
the things which he suffered.
Suffering for Christ, then, was a part of
a learning experience.
The writer does not say that Jesus Christ
learned to obey.
He does not say that Jesus Christ was
at one time obedient, and through the penalties
afflicted for disobedience, he learned that obedience paid.
Rather, the writer is saying that he experienced
all that obedience to God includes and entails.
Jesus Christ came, it is testified of him
in the tenth chapter of the book of
Hebrews, to do the will of God.
Step by step, as he walked through his
times of humiliation, he was faced with the
will of God, and step by step he
walked in perfect obedience to that revealed will
of God.
When the will of God entails rejection, he
welcomed that rejection.
When the will of God meant that he
should be despised and reproached, he accepted that.
When the will of God was that he
should go to the cross and die for
the sins of the world, he embraced that
will of God.
He learned experientially all that was involved in
obedience to the will of God, and was
perfectly obedient even unto that.
Now, because he learned through that which he
suffered what it is to be obedient to
the Father, he became the author of eternal
salvation.
A disobedient son could never have provided salvation
for sinners, and the salvation that we have
comes to us because of the perfect obedience
of Jesus Christ to the will of his
Father.
Now, the writer to the Hebrews sees a
benefit in suffering for Jesus Christ, and a
resultant benefit for sinners through that obedience of
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ experientially entered into all that obeying
the Father includes, and through his perfect obedience
he has become the author of eternal salvation
to all those that trust him.
Now, the implication of this that Peter wants
to make to his hearers in 1 Peter
4.1 is that if Jesus Christ could
learn experientially only through obedience and through suffering,
how can we expect to learn what God
has for us to learn if we escape
suffering?
If suffering was absolutely essential for Jesus Christ,
how can we come to the conclusion that
we can expect to escape suffering?
And so he says, for as much then
as Christ has suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.
That is, you should have this mental attitude
that since suffering was necessary for Christ, it
is no less necessary for us than it
was for him.
And if the author of our salvation was
brought to maturity through his suffering, then how
can we expect to be brought to maturity
apart from suffering?
The apostle in writing in Philippians 2.5
exhorts believers there to have the mind of
Christ in respect to his submission to the
will of God, and Peter here exhorts and
commands that we should have this same attitude
toward suffering that Christ has, for as we
follow through the life of Christ, the record
given to us in the Gospels, we are
impressed with the fact that Jesus Christ at
no point in his life sought to turn
aside from the will of God, but he
pursued and embraced that will with an avid
hunger so much that the disciples could not
understand why he would keep pressing toward Jerusalem
when Christ himself had told them that to
go to Jerusalem meant to die.
The disciples could not understand the way Christ
was committed to doing the will of God,
but Christ was determined to learn all that
obedience, to experience all that obedience that the
Father held for him in order that he
might be the obedient son.
Peter says that the believer in Jesus Christ
should have this same attitude in which he
reaches out to embrace the sufferings that God
sends, lest we, by turning away from these
sufferings, should miss some of the lessons that
God has for us to learn.
Another great lesson that God has for us
to learn from 1 Peter 4 is the
lesson of sanctification, and Peter is going to
relate suffering to the sanctification of the believer's
walk in this portion of his epistle.
He tells us at the end of verse
1, "...he that hath suffered in the flesh
hath ceased from sin."
The apostle is not relating suffering here to
the believer's salvation, as though to say that
if we suffer enough, we will be saved.
Salvation is not the result of what an
individual bears, the crosses that fall into the
life of the individual.
Salvation is based on the cross that Jesus
Christ bore once and for all for sinners.
But he does tell us there is a
relationship between practical daily sanctification and suffering, and
that apart from suffering, there will not be
sanctification.
So, since Jesus Christ embraced the sufferings that
God committed to him so that he might
experience all that the will of God tell
for him, Peter says, you have the same
attitude toward suffering, because suffering in the flesh
produces a sanctification or a separation from sin
in daily experience.
Now, why is suffering necessary?
Why is it necessary for us to learn
sanctification?
We recognize that when we trust Christ for
our salvation, we are eternally set apart under
God.
Positionally, we are sanctified.
We are the children of God.
We have a destiny that is certain and
safe and unmovable.
Why is it necessary for the believer to
learn daily, practical sanctification?
Peter tells us in the verses that follow,
in verses 2-5, we must learn this
because this is not something we can see
in the world around us.
The world never can and never will present
to the believer an example of godliness.
What do we see in the world around
us?
We see men, verse 2, living in the
flesh to do the lusts of men, not
doing the will of God.
What do we see in the world around
us?
Verse 3, we see the lasciviousness, lusts, excess
of wine, reveling, vanquishing, abominable idolatry.
Peter reminds these to whom he is writing
of the kind of life from which they
have been saved.
These people who had been brought to Jesus
Christ out of a heathen background were not
irreligious.
They had their gods, they had their temple,
they had their rituals of worship, but there
was no godliness in any of it.
Those to whom Peter was writing fashioned their
lives after their deities, and their deities spent
their times in bacchanalia and revels and drunkenness
and riotous living in chasing the fair daughters
of men.
That was the religion from which these Gentiles
had been saved.
Religious people, but people totally given over to
licentiousness and immorality because they patterned their conduct
after their gods, and they had never had
an object lesson in holiness, in godliness, in
righteousness, in a life that is sanctified and
set apart to God.
Heathen religion did not demand that a devotee
of that religion set himself apart to his
deity.
As long as one paid lip service to
the god, he could live like the gods
lived, and men followed gods so that they
could follow the gods in their daily conduct.
And life, the life of the Gentiles, was
a life of perversion, of immorality, of lust,
and licentiousness.
And Peter says that when you look into
your background, when you look into your experience,
when you look into the world of which
you are a part, you will find no
examples of righteousness, of godliness, of sanctification.
Therefore, God has to teach you what sanctification
is, what godliness is, what righteousness is, and
how does he do it?
He brings suffering into the experience of the
saint, for apart from suffering, we feel totally
self-sufficient.
When we have good health, we feel no
need of either the doctor or God.
When we have a sufficient bank account, we
feel no need of the banker or God.
When we have a good job, we feel
no need of an employer or God.
Totally self-sufficient.
It is not until health is taken away
that we feel the need of any help,
and we turn to the skilled physician and
to God for help.
And if there are financial reverses, for the
first time we feel our own insufficiency and
inadequacy, and we look to man and to
God for help.
And what Peter is saying is that man
will continue in their independence and self-sufficiency
and will never learn godliness and sanctification until
God brings us to the end of ourselves.
And so, God brings sufferings, and testings, and
trials, and difficulties into the life of his
children to bring his children to dependence upon
himself.
Independence characterizes all of Adam's sons and daughters,
too.
And because we are independent, we resist casting
ourselves upon God.
I'd rather do it myself has become a
cliche that categorizes every area of life today.
This is true in the spiritual realm, and
as long as we look up into heaven
and say, I can do it and I
will do it myself, we declare ourselves independent
of God with no separation under God.
So, God has to say, I'll show you
you can't do it yourself, and he has
to bring things into our experience that are
too great for us to bear in order
that we will cast ourselves upon him.
And when Peter shows us that we have
to learn sanctification by suffering because we'll never
see a life set apart under God in
the world around us, he then moves on
in the fifth verse to show us the
importance and the necessity of this godly life
in the life of the child of God.
We shall give account to him that is
ready to judge the quick and the dead,
those who are physically dead and those who
are physically alive.
Peter wants to remind his readers that every
individual bears a responsibility to God.
God is a creator, and every creature is
responsible to God for his conduct.
This is true of both the saved and
the unsaved man, and if you have wondered
why Satan has propagated his doctrine of evolution,
the minds of man can be very simply
stated.
It is Satan's attempt to sever man from
any obligation to God who is a judge.
If God is not creator, men are no
longer responsible to him.
They can do as they please, they can
declare themselves independent of God.
But if God is the creator, as scripture
says he is, then all men, saved and
unsaved alike, have a responsibility to him and
are answerable to him.
And Peter reminds men here that they must
eventually give an account to God for their
conduct.
Paul developed this in 2 Corinthians 5 and
1 Corinthians 3, Romans 13 and 14, that
every believer must give an account of his
stewardship to the Lord Jesus Christ when he
stands at the judgment seat of Christ.
The scripture reminds every unbeliever that the day
must come when he will stand before the
great white throne and the books will be
opened, and the record of a man's life
will be spread before the individual to show
that individual that he is unholy, that he
is godless.
What Peter is reminding believers of in this
context is that this matter of practical holiness
and righteousness is of utmost importance to the
child of God, because God is going to
examine the manner of life, the conduct of
each one of his children, leaving out for
the moment the responsibility of the unsaved man
to God, emphasizing the responsibility of the child
of God in this matter of practical holiness
and righteousness.
Peter says, God demands an obedience and a
commitment to the will of God in your
life, the same as he demanded in the
life of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ embraced the will of God even
though it entailed suffering, and he experienced all
that obedience meant for him.
Because he was obedient, he provided salvation.
Peter says, you'll never learn obedience by looking
into the world, because the world is disobedient.
Peter says, let me remind you that you
are answerable and chargeable to God, and you
must give an account of yourself to God.
Therefore, this matter of sanctification ought to be
of utmost importance.
Peter points out in the sixth verse that
the purpose of the preaching of the gospel
is to save men from sin.
The purpose of the preaching of the gospel
is to save men from sin, for this
cause was the gospel preached also to them
that are dead.
The death referred to here could refer to
spiritual death, and that certainly is true, for
the gospel is to give life to men
who are spiritually separated from God.
Maybe better in this context to refer to
the death, to physical death.
The gospel was preached to men who rejected
that gospel and have now died in their
sin and in their godlessness, and therefore they
must face God as a judge.
But he says, the gospel was preached to
them that are dead, that they might be
judged according to men in the flesh, but
live according to God in the spirit.
That was the purpose of preaching the gospel,
that men should be delivered from sin.
What Peter wants to remind us is that
the gospel has a message for sinners that
will deliver them from sin, but also to
liberate them from sinning, and that deliverance from
control by sin is as much a part
of the gospel as deliverance from condemnation of
sin.
The idea that salvation is simply fire insurance
that delivers us from the penalty of sins,
that liberates us to live as we want
to, to live in sin, is contrary to
the holiness of God and the purpose of
the gospel.
For Jesus Christ died to provide salvation for
sinners from the condemnation of sin, but also
that those who are saved might live by
the power of the Spirit, a life of
godliness and holiness and righteousness.
Peter relates suffering to this ultimate purpose of
the gospel.
He says that we will walk in independence,
we will walk in our own way, we
will walk as God's children in rebellion against
the Father unless we learn the lesson that
God hates sin, and God hates it in
the life of the child of God as
much as he hates it in the life
of a sinner, and that God will use
suffering in order to teach us sanctification.
Can you imagine an athlete appearing the afternoon
of the first game of the season to
play that game without having rigorously disciplined his
body for weeks and perhaps months before the
opening game?
Why, that athlete would not last five minutes
of the first quarter.
The athlete, knowing the nature of the conflict
and the struggle, prepares his body by rigorous
discipline and exercise for days and weeks ahead
in order that he might be prepared to
play in the game.
Now, may I say to you that many
of you are so disgustingly flabby when it
comes to doing battle with Satan you fall
flat on your face from the beginning of
the contest.
Why?
Because you have not suffered in the will
of God that you might learn what it
is to live in the spirit rather than
in the flesh.
Now, you say, Preacher, why do you make
a statement like that?
You know why I make it?
Because I hear so many of your prayer
requests.
My phone rings all the time.
Pastor, pray for me.
I have a little sniffle today, and I
don't know what it might develop into.
Ask God to take it away from me.
You get the point of what I'm trying
to say?
I don't mean I don't want you to
call and share your prayer requests.
It's a privilege for a pastor to do
that, but what I am saying is this,
that for every individual who asks me to
pray with them that they might learn the
lesson God has them to learn through the
experience they're facing, there are ninety and nine
who ask me to pray that God would
remove that difficulty.
Do you realize what you're praying?
God, let me be nice and soft.
I like my flabbiness.
Let me continue as a flabby, fat, useless
Christian.
Don't ask me to learn through suffering.
Let me learn some other way.
But the writer of the Hebrews tells us
there was no other way that Jesus Christ
could learn what was entailed in obedience other
than suffering.
You're asking God to do something for you
he couldn't even do for his own self.
Battle with the will of the Gentiles, lasciviousness
and lust and excess of wine and revelings
and vanquishings and abominable idolatries, a battle with
sin, with godlessness that surrounds us, is not
going to win by those who are soft
and undisciplined and untrained.
It can only be won by those who
have been strengthened by the Spirit of God,
who have accepted the sufferings that God sent
to them, who have been so strengthened by
their submission to the will of God that
they are strong in the Lord and the
power is might and can stand against the
evil one.
We're awed.
We're the testimony of a slip of a
young lady, such as Betty Welch, who stood
here to give her testimony last Sunday evening.
She's going along the jungles of Columbia with
all of the darkness, satanic opposition, religious oppression,
privation, sacrifice, the disease that she faced.
We say, how could she do it?
I know what a lot of you parents
are saying as you hear testimony of one
like that, saying, I hope the Lord doesn't
ask my daughter, my son, to go into
something like that.
The Lord won't send most of you nor
most of your children spiritually so flabby they
wouldn't last.
It wouldn't be worthwhile investing money in transportation,
getting them down there.
Who are undisciplined, just plain soft, not been
toughened by any testing, by any adversity, by
any submission to the will of God that
has made them men and women of God
instead of suckling babes spiritually.
Peter viewed the battle with Satan as basically
a battle of submission to the will of
God.
We win in the battle by our subjection
to the Spirit's authority.
Peter says, we will never learn what obedience
to God entails as long as we resist
God and refuse to accept the sufferings that
he has for us, that we might learn
the lesson of dependence.
We might learn the lesson of submission.
But we might learn what it is to
cease from sin in the flesh to do
the will of God, because we have learned
the lesson of sanctification through suffering.
The verse of the hymn that we always
want to omit is the verse that says,
Let sorrow have her perfect work.
Say, No, Lord, not for me.
Had Job resisted the will of God, Job
would never have been able to look up
into heaven and say that while he had
heard of God with the hearing of the
ear, now he knew him personally and intimately
and deeply.
And if you hunger for a more intimate
walk with Jesus Christ, and you hunger for
a deeper knowledge of God, then permit God
to send into your life that which will
accomplish his purpose of teaching you obedience that
you might be set apart from sin.
We pray, O Father, that the Spirit of
God may let us see from this portion
of the Word of God the part that
submission to the will of God, even though
it entails suffering, can have in our spiritual
growth and development.
Deliver us from resisting that which the will
of God brazes, and of too quickly calling
for deliverance and crying for relief from some
testing when in truth we're asking God to
stop maturing us, to stop teaching us, to
stop developing us, that we might be men
and women of God, strengthened with his power
and might.
Lord, teach us the lesson of faith that
does not ask why when testings come, but
asks, Lord, what would you have me to
learn through this that in thy will has
come?
May our lives be given over to doing
the will of God, as was Jesus Christ
during his earthly sojourn, but with each new
experience we might say, not my will, but
thine be done.
It is with the riches of thy grace
and mercy and peace upon us we pray
in Jesus' name.