Keep sharing good news without ads.
Bro. Otis Fisher
1 Peter, the fourth chapter,
for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the
flesh has ceased from sin.
Let's take the first part of that, for as much then as Christ has
suffered for us in the flesh.
David, if Christ hadn't done that, would we have had to suffer in the flesh?
He says arm
yourself likewise, but he says with the same mind.
Now what does he mean, Joy?
For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
because he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
Well, that refers to who, Dennis?
We're still sin, so he that has suffered in the flesh ceased from sin.
That's Christ only.
David, you said we suffer in the flesh, but do we?
Alright, where is the suffering?
In your flesh or in your mind?
So first, we suffer in our mind.
My body undergoes the repercussions of it.
He said be like, be of the same mind.
He didn't say be of the same body, don't be of the same flesh.
Be of the same mind.
What's the difference, David?
Well, that's pretty good.
Christ suffered for us
in the flesh, so I don't have to suffer in the flesh.
I can't suffer in the flesh unless I suffer in the mind.
For he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
Christ ceased from sin.
Christ did not have to suffer in the flesh anymore.
Greg, do you have a Bible?
Well, you open that Bible and turn to Romans 8
.31.
8 .31,
alright?
My, what a verse.
What a verse.
God was for me on the cross.
He has been for me in this world.
He is for me in the world to come.
Now, Dennis, what do you think of when you say somebody is for
somebody else?
Alright, there's another meaning to the word for.
Greg, what other meaning is there?
Alright, there's another meaning, Joy.
Alright,
substitution, and that's what it means in Romans 8 .31.
What shall we say then to these things?
If God be for us in substitution, who is against us in
substitution?
So, going back now, for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
substituting for us in the flesh, he suffered.
We are to be of his mind.
His mind was on the Heavenly Father.
His mind was not on the suffering.
Yes.
Yes, but our suffering is in the mind, as he points out.
So, our attitude towards sin should be that of a saint, not a
sinner.
If we
can
spiritually
have this mind,
is this saying that
we have to live this?
And if we have lived all of that suffering ourselves, and it is true that the
person who has suffered is born again the person who has suffered, then it's blessed
that we live before the experiences of life, and we do that.
Now, say that again.
We're talking about a Christian.
You're not a law.
That's right.
As he goes through the experiences of life, God takes the fruit of the battering,
the bugging, the death, and he benefits from that, and he's in the flesh.
He doesn't do the same sin he did, even as
our suffering was in the flesh.
And to the extent that it would cause the person to be more holy than we have to, and that's
fine, as if we had gone through the same suffering, but we didn't go through it.
So that's why the next person, we don't have to live.
What is our suffering due to, Greg?
Our suffering is due to our not sinning.
Can you make sense out of that, Joey?
All right, let's start all over.
Sin is in the mind only.
The only place you sin is in your mind.
Now, Jesus suffered physically.
Did he not?
Did he suffer mentally?
All right.
There's another great instance in which he suffered mentally.
He was forsaken of God.
Now, that's as much as you can...
That's the ultimate sin, is separation from God.
Jesus underwent that.
So, for as much then as Christ has suffered for
us in the flesh, we don't count flesh anymore,
arm yourselves with the same mind, the mind that he had, while on
the cross.
Christ did that.
And then in Romans 8 .31, we have that wonderful verse.
Our attitude towards sin should be that of a saint, not a sinner.
I wonder how much of our life we spend as a saint.
I think too much of it is spent as a sinner.
We don't realize that the sin is in the mind.
Also, my compatibility with God through Christ is in my mind.
And that's where sin is, in the mind.
Is sin...
Let's see if I can get this right.
Is sin when you are walking with Satan?
What?
Well, when is sin?
David?
Alright.
When we decided.
At the very instant you decided.
Now, you don't decide.
I know you don't weigh things one against the other.
But when you sin, it's the leaving of the walk with Christ.
Not the walking with Satan.
When you leave Christ.
Now, fortunately, we have the Holy Spirit.
We'll come back someday, I hope.
If you don't, you're not saved.
Not sinning causes you suffering.
Mentally.
Verse 2.
That he no longer should live the rest of his life.
The rest of his time in the flesh.
To the lust of men.
But to the will of God.
This is the saved person.
You're no longer living in the flesh.
We find that any suffering we do in the flesh.
Causes to want to cease the sin.
That's true.
This is only natural.
If we cease from sin, we grow slowly toward being sinless.
The more sin you can cease from.
In the mind.
The more you grow toward Christ.
Is that right?
The will of God.
Is the will of God being done?
All the time.
Do you realize what you just said?
I'd like to meet him.
All of this happens.
God's will is being done all of the time.
I can't explain it.
I don't know.
How he ties everything together.
But he's using evil to further his purpose.
But we have to recognize it.
If we do not recognize his will being done.
Then I'm attributing to Satan.
I don't know that.
But that's what I'm doing.
It's when I realize his will is being done in my life.
Now, does that limit God to only those times that I realize it?
No.
To not do so is to live a miserable life.
Can you imagine?
A born again Christian.
Not studying.
Not coming to church.
Not reading his Bible.
What a happy life he has.
Now.
David, you grow physically.
You're watching some young boys grow physically.
Do we, in living the Christian life.
Do we grow physically?
That's exactly what we're doing.
You grow spiritually.
That's where the growth is.
If the worship is spiritual.
If the study and understanding of his word is spiritual.
Then you're growing spiritually.
Dennis, what does it mean to grow spiritually?
You understand things of his word that you didn't understand ten years ago?
You understand things this morning you didn't understand last week?
All growth is spiritual.
All blessings are spiritual.
All worship is spiritual.
Verse three.
For the time must be.
For the time past.
Let me start over.
For the time past of our life.
May suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.
When we walked in lasciviousness.
Excuses of
wine revelings.
Banquets.
Abominable idolatries.
All of this.
You have done enough of.
In fact, everybody does enough of that before they're saved.
Now, does Christianity suffer today?
David.
Does Christianity suffer today?
Well, that depends on whether it's mental or physical.
If you suffer for Christ, mental.
Now, that may bring repercussions of physical.
You may be torn apart, staked out on an anthill, whatever.
That's physical.
But you suffered mentally.
I hope this morning we can divide the two.
You cannot get run over by a car and claim that that was
suffering for Christ.
The suffering is what takes place in the mind.
Christianity doesn't suffer.
The practice of Christianity does.
Not only in the foreign governments attacking us, but right here in our own country.
We tend to think that all sin comes from other countries.
Not true.
Our greatest sin is lack of obedience to God.
There must be a day of accounting.
Why?
Well, Joy?
That's not really the answer.
But why must there be a day
of accounting?
Because there's never been one.
There shall be one because there's never been one.
Because God has made man an accountable creature.
Think about it.
He's made us accountable for what we do.
He can give and therefore he shall give an account of his
actions for he has a principle of reason to know what he
does and a liberty to do it.
It is so strange, I say that from
my viewpoint, it's so strange that God controls everything
yet man is held accountable for what he does.
The two don't go together, but they have to.
They rule to direct him what to
choose and consequently the actions proceeding from
that choice just and shall be accounted for
by that man.
Dennis, you think in your mind every day, you
get up, you go to work, you do this, you do that.
You make decisions.
In doing all of that, you're working God's plan unknown to you unless at times you think
about it.
That is an awesome, awesome thought
that this account must be given to Christ, the supreme and universal
judge, both of the quick and the dead, as Joey says,
partly as a fitting reward for his grace and humiliation
and suffering and partly that the world may see what a great,
excellent person he was who came to visit them in
great humility and partly to give advantage to the
future judgment that God has appointed a man for our judge
who in flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, one
that is sensible of our follies, temptations, and
perfections of mankind and understands them and will
make favorable allowances for them, one that is God as
well as man from whom we may expect all the goodness of a God
and all of the tender accomplishments of a man
in their utmost perfection so that no man need fear such a
judge.
We have a judge.
We are admonished in this lesson to be of the same mind that he was.
It's pointed out to us that he ceased from sin.
It's pointed out to us that if we,
as we live for him, in reality,
we will suffer mentally.
Now, you may suffer physically from the mental suffering.
Now, let me go a little further.
Yes,
from not sinning.
That's what I said.
Well, all of your personal suffering
has been mental, and it's been because you didn't sin.
Let me see if I can help you.
Let me go back to it.
The joy you got up this morning and times that you didn't sin, you were worshiping God, you
got ready, you came, you looked after Fred, whatever it was he needed.
Greg, you did the same thing, only you didn't look after Fred.
All of us did the same thing.
We came.
We got ready.
Now, I did not sin while I was doing that.
Let's see if I can get it on.
Let's take my neighbor.
We go about our work.
He goes about his work.
He sees that we are strong in the Lord, and he
makes fun of it.
He tells us so.
Now, I suffer because of that, and
that's not sinning.
Exactly.
Our born -again nature brought the suffering.
You want to say something, Joey?
He said, Remember, if they hate you, they hated me first.
They hated Jesus.
Everybody admits there's a God, but very few admit there's Jesus.
So, as we go about our daily life,
and somebody ridicules you for it, you suffer mentally for that person.
You don't suffer for the good life.
All suffering is spiritual.
Or
was I?
The only suffering Paul did was mental.
Now, that carried over to the physical and suffering physically.
That's an evidence of your suffering.
And man has looked too long at the physical suffering.
The suffering we do is spiritual, mental.
Verse 4.
Wherein they think it strange that you
run not with them, to the same excess of rioting, speaking
evil of you,
that we be not moved with the enemy's
perverse and slanderous judgments.
Our judgment of us.
Now, that we not move, be not moved
with the enemy's.
The person said something, and I'm not going to let that bother me.
Perverse and slanderous judgments of us.
And they will do that.
Whether they be then found living or were dead before
shall escape it.
Those that suffer in this life.
Now, it's hard for, well, I guess you can,
only he wouldn't recognize it.
A dead person, the world can
still slander him, but he doesn't know it.
The world can curse him, can hold him up to ridicule, but he doesn't know it.
Would you say that was true, Dave and Greg?
Somewhat?
Oh.
Are you not dead in Christ?
Then it should roll off of us as though we were dead.
Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the
quick and the dead?
Those that are already dead and those that are living will someday
stand before him, acknowledge him, and be punished for their
evil doing.
Now, again, a dividing point.
I've said so many times that you're spiritual.
Is that true?
The real you is the born -again part, the part that he recalled, the part that's going home, is spiritual.
Is not the physical, is not the seed of Satan the same way?
Is not the seed of Satan spiritual?
Spirituality, evil, all of that is spiritual.
Now, they will give an account to him that is ready to judge
the dead and those that are alive.
Makes no difference to him.
One more verse.
For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are
dead, preached to them when they were alive, that they
might be judged according to men in the flesh, but have
according to God in the spirit, but live according to God in the spirit.
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 alive according to God in the spirit.
The Christian's life is a banquet, but it's no picnic.
The Christian's life,
it's hard to teach suffering physically, I mean mentally,
when we're really not being charged with a lot of it.
I think we are, the more we become aware of Christ, the
more we live the Christian life, the more it's not just coming here on
Sunday, far be it.
We meet here to study, to share our thoughts and grow.
How do you grow, Dennis?
How do you suffer, David?
Greg, why do you suffer mentally?
Well, it's because
his life in this world is spiritual.
It's a mental thing.
How do we worship God?
In the spirit.
What did you say?
In the mind which goes into the spirit.
Peter's going to be a great book.
I think we could go over the same lesson next week.
Dennis dismisses, please.