Arm Yourselves: Part 2

Back to you on part two, arm yourselves, arm yourselves. I'm praying that the

Lord would minister to us as we bless Him and continue our worship, but we now continue our study of 1

Peter. It's a wonderful study, isn't it, to encourage persecuted Christians, believers in Jesus Christ.

And we're looking into the Word of God, discussing the subject that is on the apostle Peter's heart by the

Holy Spirit. Namely, he is speaking in this chapter in which we're looking at, chapter four, how to deal with our personal sin.

We're talking about sanctification, it's very practical. And not only how to deal with sin, he also encourages us how to deal with suffering.

So really, if you look at it, it's a double, two -edged sword, it's one side of the coin to the other, is sin and suffering.

And if you look at those two great doctrines in Scripture, you could take it all the way through Scripture. And the reason why there is so much suffering is because of sin.

Sin is the primary problem that we are confronted with. John Owen, the great

Puritan, also said this, I've been reading him in the past weeks, and he said this, quote, "'Sin in the believer is a burden which afflicts him "'rather than a pleasure which delights him.'"

Sin in the believer is a burden which afflicts him rather than a pleasure which delights him.

So true is that. So every believer in Jesus Christ lives in a constant, a tremendous battle, don't we, between the desire of the unredeemed flesh and the compulsions of the new man.

We read that in Romans chapter 7, the new nature, like the Apostle Paul says, we love the law of God, we delight in the law of God.

Inwardly, because of our new birth, the inward man delights in God's law.

Yet the battle of the law, the principle of sin, though there is something deep within us planted there by the

Spirit of God Himself, in a glorious and marvelous miracle of the regeneration, that new birth, there is a new life principle, and that's the

Spirit of God that's within us that longs for what is right, for what is true, what is good, what is pure, what is wholesome, what is honorable, what is noble, what is holy.

And I crave for that, don't you? I mean, I desire that. But we have a battle that's that unredeemed flesh, heard

MacArthur preach a whole sermon on this, that unredeemed flesh that, like Lazarus, being resurrected, he was bound.

And his sisters said, Lord, by now he stinks. Well, that's that unredeemed flesh that stinks.

And that is so true, in which that newness is incarcerated, in a sense, is inside, and therefore the battle is raging.

And the battle's real, isn't it? We face that battle every day in our life, but the battle is very, very real.

Question I'd like to set before you this morning, we're gonna look at this question in our text, and I'd like to pull it to the application at the end of the message, but also at the beginning of the message,

I'd like to set it before you because it's a good question. How are we to deal with that warfare?

How are we to deal with that personal conflict within us? How are we to face that stark reality of that conflict and know the path of victory?

Now, you gotta understand, as you read in Scripture, we can have that victory, but we will never have a complete, a complete overloading,

I guess you could say, a fullness of victory until we reach the other side. And what I mean by that is, sin is so ever with us.

It's kind of like pride. We think we can really defeat it in this life, but we never will.

And I know that sounds negative, but it's reality. And I remember listening years ago,

A .W. Tozer preached on this, and he said, the only thing that's gonna knock pride out of you is the grave, the cold grave.

I thought, what in the world is he talking about? And I understand. As a new convert,

I thought, can't you gain the victory? Can't you get victory? We can make victorious strides toward it, but we're not gonna get that complete, full victory until we reach the other side.

Now, a lot of people disagree with me theologically on that. There are some churches that believes you can absolutely have sin eradicated completely here on this earth.

Well, I haven't seen a completely eradicated, perfect, sinless person yet.

I haven't seen it. And if they say they are, they're lying. You know, so it's not going to happen.

You got a lot of people that believe that. And it's sad, but I've grown in Christ, and as you have grown in Christ, we all know.

We could strive, we can get victorious in Jesus Christ over sin and practicing those things that come our way and heeding to the temptations of the flesh.

But not until we're glorified. Not until we're glorified, we're gonna see a completion and we are arrived in heaven.

So our text really before us helps us answer these questions that I've mentioned to you.

So in saying that, please turn with me to 1 Peter chapter four. Aren't you so glad we have the revealed word of God before us that sanctifies us?

This is a sanctifying chapter. And chapter four, as we looked at last week, we're continuing this.

We're just gonna look at six verses and that's gonna be enough for us in this one. I wanna recap a little bit from what

I mentioned last week, but we're gonna go on to the end of the six verse.

So hear the word of the living God. Apostle Peter, by the

Holy Spirit, therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin.

In order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for the human desires, but for God's will.

For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do, carrying on an unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

They are surprised that you don't join them in the same flood of the wild living. And they slander you, they malign you.

Verse five, and they will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this reason, the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that although they might be judged in the flesh, according to the human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God's standards.

Amen. May God richly bless the reading of His holy word to our hearts this morning.

Let's pray. Oh God, oh God, our

Father, my prayer is this, very simple. Speak, Lord, speak,

Lord, for thy servant listens. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen and amen.

There's a wonderful book that was written back in 1669, and it's called

The Plague of Plagues. The Plague of Plagues. A man by the name of Ralph Venning, a very godly man, a very

God -fearing man, he wrote this paragraph about sin. And please hear it out as we hear this man's heart, as he speaks about the horrible, terrible devastation of sin.

He says this, quote, in general, sin is the worst of evils, the evil of evil, and indeed, the only evil.

Nothing is so evil as sin. Nothing is evil but sin.

As the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us, so neither the sufferings of this life, nor that to come, are worthy to be compared as evil with the evil of sin.

No evil is displeasing to God or destructive to men, but the evil of sin.

Listen very carefully to what he says here. Sin is worse than affliction, than death, than the devil, than hell.

And affliction is not so afflictive, and death is not so hellish as sin is.

This will help us help to fill up the charge against its sinfulness, especially as it is contrary to and against the good of man.

Then he continues, and he says this, he said the four evils I have just named are truly terrible.

And from all of them, everyone is ready to say, good Lord, deliver us. Yet none of these, nor all of them together, are as bad as sin.

Therefore, our prayer should be more to be delivered from sin. And if God hear no prayer else, yet as to this, we should say, we beseech thee to hear us, good

Lord. End quote. It's a powerful paragraph, isn't it?

It's a very eye -opening, unique way in which he puts the words.

But Ralph Venning is so true. It's so, he is so correct about the evil of sin.

It helps us understand the terrible, terribleness of the evil of sin.

It's worse than affliction. It's worse than death. It's worse than the devil. It's worse than hell. Very sobering words.

Yet it's so very, very true. Sin is the worst thing.

How horrible it is before God that he would place and allow

Jesus, the perfect son of God, to take the sin of the world. And that's why he came, to be a sin offering.

He that knew no sin became a sin offering, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Perfect son of God, who knew no sin. Something to think about.

And our cry should be some as the same, I should say, as the Apostle Paul, wretched man that I am.

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who? That's the question. And the answer is

Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus Christ, our Lord. The one person, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Well, last Lord's Day, we saw the commitment that we are to have as a believer in verse one and two.

And Jesus was committed to suffer. He was committed to suffer and to die.

And so should we, as his followers, be committed to follow him and to suffer for his name's sake.

And that's what Peter is actually teaching here. Jesus preached and taught and commanded that everyone would come after him, must take up his cross daily.

And follow him. And actually he spoke many times about what cost there is and taking up that cross daily and following after him.

There is a great cost. And that cost will cost us everything. Taking up the cross meant that you were absolutely committed to Jesus Christ and that not looking back.

And then the Apostle Peter, by the Holy Spirit, says arm yourselves, arm yourselves. That's battle language.

We're in a battle, aren't we? The world, the flesh, and the devil is ever about us.

And then he says with the same understanding, with the same mind, with the same attitude, with the same attitude, many of us are defeated in a sense in our battle against sin because we refuse or we're not willing to sacrifice everything in that battle.

And in the battle, we have to sacrifice. We have to discipline, like a good soldier. We must fight the good fight of faith.

Paul spoke of that in the language as a Christian that we are to fight in this battle as a good soldier, to be disciplined.

We only want victory if it comes easily to us, but victory doesn't come easy. But Jesus called us to have that same kind of attitude that he had, the kind of attitude that would sacrifice the battle against sin.

We looked at this verse here, but Matthew 5, 29 through 30, the

Sermon on the Mount, the greatest message, the greatest sermon ever preached, Jesus said this about repentance.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. He's talking in hyperbole.

He's not saying literally do this, but this is speaking about a besetting sin, a sin that is causing you to sin.

And he says, you've got to gouge it out and throw it out from you, throw it away. For it's better than you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Strong language. Pluck it out, gouge it out.

Stop it. Repent. And if your right hand, now he talks about the hand.

First it's the eye, now he says the hand. Notice he didn't say the left, he says the right. Something that we use most of the time.

Something that we use as power. If your right hand causes you, again, he says the word causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

For it is better than you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

It's serious. And if there's a besetting sin that causes us to sin, we need to deal with it, right?

Well, you go back to 1 Peter 4, verse 2. The apostle says, in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God.

We are to live for God's will. Now, Peter gives actually two time references that are helpful in the right attitude.

We looked at that in the following Jesus Christ. The first one is the words no longer.

No longer in order to live. In other words, we no longer should live in sin.

And we should answer every temptation and simple impulse with the reply, no longer.

I am resolved to give it up for Jesus' sake. If you go with me to Romans chapter 6 very quickly, let's look at Romans 6.

I'd like to read a few verses here. The apostle Paul brings this out in his letter to the

Romans, but he deals with this. I think this chapter needs to be preached more often, especially among the reformed camps.

Because there's so many that's taken the grace of God and turned it into a license to sin.

Dieter Bonhoeffer called it cheap grace. But Paul deals with this.

Romans 6. Notice what the word of God says. What should we say then? It begins with a question.

Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply or abound?

Some translation says, God forbid! God forbid!

Absolutely not! It's almost like there's a holy anger as he pinned this down.

Absolutely not! God forbid! Paul was radically against cheap grace.

How can we who died to sin live in it? Notice the death to sin.

The first thing he brings out. Notice in this chapter how many times he talks about dying to sin. Dying to sin.

We're dead to sin. Or, are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Spiritually speaking. No water is implied here. He's talking about the baptism within the body of Christ.

Then he says this, Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, so that we too may walk in newness of life. For if, if, that word if is there, if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Let me stop right there and comment. There is no likeness of His resurrection until there is likeness into His death.

And Jesus said to His disciples, Are you willing to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized of?

In other words, are you ready to suffer like I am going to suffer? That's what

He's actually asking the disciples. And they basically say, Oh yes, we're ready. And you know what happened?

They all forsook Him. Paul goes on to say, For we know, we know,

I love that word know, that our old self was crucified with Him so that the bodies ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.

And since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

Because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again.

Death no longer rules over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all time.

But the life He lives, He lives to God. So you too, consider, count it done in other words, count it done by faith, yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

Dead to sin and alive to God. That's the key. In Christ Jesus. And I'll stop right there.

The glorious, glorious truth of the gospel. That's the heart of the gospel. The death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And how we are in His likeness. A glorious, glorious truth that is found in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

And faith in Him alone. And the Apostle Peter is basically speaking the same kind of truth here.

But first of all, like I said, Peter speaks about no longer, in order to live, no longer should we live in that sin.

But we also, secondly, he says we should be carefully considered how to live the rest of our time here on this earth.

There is a way we should live. We should live holy. And notice throughout this book how many times the

Apostle Peter speaks about holy living. He's constantly bringing up, you are a peculiar people, you are a holy generation.

You are holy unto the Lord. Be ye holy for I am holy. We are to live holy.

Separated from the world. In the world but not of the world. Peter says we should carefully consider how to live the rest of our time.

Remaining, our time remaining in the flesh. The believer chooses to live the rest of his time for the glory of God.

Now that's what we live for now, right? We don't live for ourselves. We live for the glory of God.

Rather than for the gratification of sensual appetite. And right here as I was pinning down some notes and everything,

I couldn't help but think of old C .T. Studd's great old poem.

Needs to be put in a song, I think. But I want to just give you a few verses. There's many, many verses to it.

But listen to what he says here. It's called, Only one life to soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes, only one life soon will be fleeting. Hours be done.

Then that day, my Lord, to meet and stand before his judgment seat. Only one life to soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last. When this bright world would tempt me sore. When Satan would a victory score.

When self would seek to have its way. Then help me, Lord, with joy to say.

Only one life to soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. Oh, let my love with fervor burn.

And from the world now let me turn. Living for thee and thee alone.

Bringing thee pleasure on thy throne. Only one life to soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life, yes, only one.

Now let me say, thy will be done. And when at last I'll hear the call.

I know I'll say to it's worth it all. Hallelujah. Only one life to soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last. We need to let that ring in our hearts and our minds.

And say this is only one life that will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

We need to, in the remaining of our time on this earth, in the flesh, live for the glory of God.

Now verses 3 and 6, 3 through 6, I'm sorry. The believer is to have not only a commitment, his attitude of a commitment, but he's also to have an attitude of wisdom.

Wisdom. I think that's a good word because the word here, wisdom, is heavenly wisdom and it speaks about wisdom.

We know what Scripture says about wisdom. The only way you can get wisdom is to fear

God. Matter of fact, the Scripture says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the

Lord. The book of Proverbs begins by saying this in chapter 1, verse 7.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So of true knowledge.

The knowledge of God and the knowledge of who we are. And then he says this. Fools despise wisdom.

Fools. And discipline. We'll look at verse 3 in chapter 4 of Peter.

Peter says this. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do.

Carrying on an unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousings, and lawless idolatry.

Listen to all those sins that he names. Beloved, if the goal of the Christian's life is freedom from sin which comes at death, then he should live the remainder of his life on earth pursuing holiness in the fear of the

Lord and in the will of God. Rather than ungodly lust of the flesh, we should and by no means be partakers with that.

But unfortunately, there's many God's children that fall too often and pray to the lust of the flesh and the passing pleasures of sin which is only for a season.

We know the pitfalls, we know the snares. The devil is very cunning. He always baits the hook according to what he's going to catch.

You know, if I'm going to go out bass fishing, I'm going to put a lure on there for a bass. Now, if I'm going to go out catfishing,

I'm going to go put some liver on it and go after the catfish because I know most of the time a bass don't care about liver if catfish does.

The devil is very careful and he's cunning and we're not ignorant of his devices, of the way he baits the hook.

But we need to be aware. 1 John 2, verse 15 through 17 says,

Do not love the world. Listen to that command. That's an imperative. Do not love the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If anybody loves, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

That's straight to the point, isn't it? For all that is in the world, or everything that is in the world, what is it?

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of one's life, pride of one's possessions, another translation says, is not from the

Father but is from the world and the world is passing away and the lust thereof. But the one who does the will of God abides forever.

He remains forever. It's the will of God, the will of God, the will of God. We're here for the glory of God and for the will of God.

So, we'll go back to 1 Peter, the apostle Peter is writing to some believers here, before their conversion, they had lived in all of the immoral corruptions of the

Gentile world. And he knew that. So he comes here graciously and he warns and gives heed to them and gives us warnings, you know, so they would not be casualties.

And most of the time, as I've already said, a casual Christian will be a casualty. Isn't that the truth?

But Peter exhorts them, he admonishes them, and he says, there's been enough time wasted in your life for these things.

Don't waste your life now, it's too short. Eternity is too long and you got...

We're not to live for the indulgences of the flesh. Now, as regenerated and redeemed believers, there were new creations in Jesus Christ, old things passed away, behold, all things become new, but yet there's that remaining sinful flesh, that body of sin that is still wrestling, and he knew that.

So, he exhorts them to live the remaining years of their life to the glory of God and not to waste their time in immorality.

Look how many times the epistles and all the... what the apostle wrote to the churches and to the people there, and he sends these letters to the elders for them to read.

The apostle Paul, and the apostle Peter, and the apostle James, and the apostle Jude, and the apostle

John, and all the apostles, and everything they're focusing on is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But notice how many times they warn them against falling into traps of immorality.

Especially Corinth, the Corinthian church, the church of Laodicea, being lukewarm.

Well, you see this time and time again, and there's a reason why God is, by His Spirit, speaking through the apostles about warning people against these sexual sins.

Because He knew. He knew that this was a great temptation for them, and it's a great temptation for us as well.

Especially in the wicked world in which we live. Notice the sins

He speaks of. The sins of sex, the sins of liquor, the sins of false religion, sexual appetites out of control, liquor.

Peter says the Gentiles choose to do this, carrying on an unrestrained behavior. They're unrestrained.

Evil desires, lewdness, unrestrained indulgence, primarily in sexual sins and sexual immorality.

Commentator Hibbert says this, quote, this denotes excesses of all kinds of evil, involving a lack of personal self -restraint.

The term pictures sin as an inordinate indulgence of appetites to the extent of violating a sense of public decency.

End quote. Don't we see this around today? Dare we just say the world's going to unlike the world?

What about the Christian world? What about people in the church? Look at the failures and look at the pitfalls and look at the leaders that have fallen prey to immorality.

The devil never changes his strategy. Drunkenness.

What about the sin of drunkenness? That's a whole sermon. Giving oneself over to the control of intoxicating beverages, a strong drink.

And now you've got Christians going around saying, I can drink in moderation, blah, blah, blah, and next thing you know, just a little here and a little there, and next thing you know, they're consuming it and it's taking hold of them.

They think they're strong enough. What does Scripture say? You think you stand, you're going to fall?

Stay away from it. Now, this is another sermon.

I understand, you know, in other cultures, but we've got to understand the background and the backdrop of cultures of water that was polluted.

There's a reason why light wine without alcohol was used.

But we're talking about alcohol. We're talking about a strong drink that distorts the senses and reason is taken out.

But he speaks about drunkenness, giving oneself to the control of intoxicating beverages without the resulting, the weakening of the willpower to resist temptation.

And notice there's a close link between the sexual sins and the strong drink. Always you see that.

Notice in the text that he talks about partying and then orgies and the sexual sins and the drunkenness, drinking and sex, drinking and sex.

And look about the world today. But yet what is so sad, you see the Christians doing the same thing in the name of God.

And how does God think on His throne such blasphemy against His holy name?

Listen to the Apostle Paul's admonition to the church of Corinth and tell me what you think.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse 9 through 11. And this is one verse and chapter here you can really deal with, and especially in the world today and people who call themselves

Christians. The Bible, Paul the Apostle makes it very clear. He that names the name of Christ, let him depart from iniquity.

Let him depart from it. Don't blaspheme God's name. He says this, don't you know that the unrighteous...

He starts all those who are unrighteous and then He starts breaking it down and He shows us how unrighteousness looks like.

Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom?

Now we're talking about getting into the kingdom of God. He gives a list and the first thing

He says, do not be deceived. Deception. That's where Satan comes right there, deception.

He's not going to come and present the sin all of a sudden. Oh wow, yeah, we see it as it is.

J .C. Rouse said this, the devil never comes to present the sin as it is. It comes in a very nice way, saying it's fruit that's luscious.

Sugarcoated. Do not be deceived. Deception.

Don't be deceived. No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, one translation says effeminate, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, listen to this list, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, you know what that word revilers means?

Verbally abusive people. People who verbally abuse people. Swindlers will inherit

God's kingdom. Now that's the word of the Lord. And then

He says this in verse 11, don't you love it, and some of you used to be like this, but you were washed.

Don't you love that? You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. That's a change, that's a transformation.

Powerful, powerful truth. Spurgeon. I looked at Spurgeon's notes on this, listen to what Spurgeon says.

On that text, some of you used to be like this. Now that sounds hard and it is hard truth, but there's a graciousness behind this too.

This is a reminder, Spurgeon says, a reminder that illustrates the great power of the gospel.

And the gospel can affect the salvation of all sorts of sinners, even the most degraded.

And he goes on to say this, however depraved and fallen they may be, they cannot have gone beyond the reach of the gospel.

And the Lord saves such great sinners to glorify His gospel. And He also saves them to magnify

His mercy. Don't you love that? To glorify His gospel and to magnify

His mercy. He also saves them to magnify His mercy for the worse the sin, the worse the sin, the more is the

Lord's pity. And He does it also to confound self -righteousness.

I love that part. He confounds to self -righteousness the religious people that sit back and think they got it together.

And He says, for He said, as Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Luke 5 .32 I love that. Gracious. God's grace has more power than all the sin.

Well, let's go back to 1 Peter. Look at verse 4. And then Peter says this, and they are surprised that you don't join them in the same flood of the wild living.

Don't be surprised. You don't be surprised that they persecute you, but they are surprised that you don't join them in the same flood of wild living and they slander you for it.

Well, another verse describes this as common experiences. I'm sorry, another commentator describes this as a common experience of those who are saved from lives of outward corruption.

And the commentator says, their former friends are surprised, offended, and resentful because of the

Christian's lack of interest in ungodly living. Now, I compared this translation with the

NASB translation. It says, NASB says, in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them.

You don't run with them in the same excesses of disputation.

They malign you. The word disputation, that's a hard word, refers to the state of evil in which a person thinks nothing else.

And I think what Peter is saying here is that it's like the picture is being used here is of a large crowd of people running together in a mad dash, in a wild frenzy, confused, pursuing sin, and eventually into the abyss.

They're crazy. They're depraved. And it's almost like they're possessed with it. And notice that's the way the world is.

It's on the broad road of destruction, Jesus said. That's the road that they're on. And they're all just falling off a cliff.

In a mad frenzy, just going together into an abyss.

And our heart melts because of this. The next verse 5, notice where he says in verse 5, they will give an account.

Now he goes right to the judgment. They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge, the living and the dead.

Very similar passage there, the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 4 .1, and he charges

Timothy. He says, I solemnly charge you before God and Jesus Christ who is going to judge the living and the dead.

It's going to happen. There's no escape. And because of His appearing in His kingdom, beloved judgment is coming.

There's no escape in it. Everybody's going to be at the judgment one way or another. Judgment is coming and all will be there.

Let me give you some verses and let the word of God speak. Hebrews 9 .27, and just as it is appointed, it's appointed for people to die once and after this the judgment.

Ecclesiastes 12 .13 -14, when all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this, fear

God and keep His commands because this is for all humanity.

And then he says this, for God will bring every act of judgment including every hidden thing, whether good or evil, even the hidden things.

Jesus said that. 2 Corinthians 5 .10, the apostle Paul says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each man will be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether they're good or evil.

Notice what Peter says, they will give an account, they will give an account, they will give an account.

The verb actually means to pay back. There's an old sermon that Robert G.

Lee preached, it was a powerful Baptist preacher and he preached a lot different back in those days, but what he preached was,

Thus saith the Lord, and he preached a message called Payday Someday. You can find it on your phone sometimes and it's a good one to read.

Payday Someday. People have pursued a course of lewdness, verse 3 of chapter 4, and they slandered, they maligned the believers in verse 4 and will be paid back and they will be spending an eternal hell paying back for their sins.

That's a terrifying thing to think of. Terrifying. Terrifying thing to fall in the hands of the living

God. Knowing that millions of souls are perishing. God give us a burden for souls.

Romans 14, 11, and 12, for it is written, listen to the Apostle Paul, and he's speaking of what

Isaiah said, it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me and every tongue will give praise to God, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

There is a judgment. Even for the believer. The believer just doesn't have the condemnation judgment.

We're just going to be judged according to our works, whether it be good or bad. But yet, that terrifies me.

I like what Tozer says. He said he feared that he's going to go before the judgment and be embarrassed before all the apostles and the saints of the church that he's going to be coming to the throne of God as a pauper.

Dear God, give us a fire that would not be quenched and not be burned out and to give everything we have for Jesus Christ and for His glory.

Verse 6, Peter says, For this reason the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God's standards.

Now first of all, what he says there is for this reason. What is he saying? That is the vindication of the children of God.

That is vindication for God's people. For this reason. So what would that reason be?

Notice what he says. That the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead. Now, let me pause once again.

We've come to a difficult passage, haven't we? The way it reads. So does this mean that the gospel was preached to the people after they had died or while they were still alive?

And who were these people? Well, I would take it, as you study the Scripture, I really believe this and I've got some good, solid, good commentators to back this up, but the

Scripture backs up the Scripture. I'd rather go with the Scriptures. We understand that this verse refers to the people to whom the gospel was preached while they were still alive.

Not dead on earth. But what does he mean by being dead? We'll see that. And those who were alive, they believed in the gospel, see?

You can't believe in the gospel while you're dead. No, you can't. You have to be alive to believe the gospel.

Well, for the preaching of the gospel offers a rich life to people. It's ceasing from sin in verse 1, a good conscience.

But also it is an escape from the final punishment of judgment at the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20, 11 through 15.

And the apostle Peter had in mind here believers who had heard the gospel, had accepted the gospel when they were still alive, but who had died by the time

Peter wrote this letter. So you have to take it into that context because though they were dead physically, they were triumphantly alive in the spirits.

And that's exactly what Hebrews 12, 23 says. To the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, notice what he says, to the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

To the spirits of the righteous made perfect. So these believers, though judged or condemned, according to the men and the flesh, were vindicated by God.

So now they are enjoying the eternal life and the presence of Almighty God as Paul says.

Absent from the body, the present with the Lord. So we take that view that they were alive.

Well, in the remaining time, I'd like to give an application. We come to an application.

I think the personal application is critical here because we are to arm ourselves in our everyday walk with the

Lord. And I don't know about you, sanctification is hard work. We must discipline our body and beat our body and give it a black eye.

And force our body because the old flesh wants to do things it shouldn't want to do. And we've got to say, oh, hold on.

That may be comfortable and that may be good, but it could be sinful in the eyes of God.

And it could be idolatrous, whatever it may be. The sins are countless, folks. But I know this, that sanctification is hard work.

It's work. And we need the Spirit of God to help us. Now we're talking about the believer here, right?

We know that we've been saved by grace, by faith alone and through Jesus Christ alone.

But now we're talking about sanctification. Our personal walk with the

Lord. I need this. So I'm preaching to me here, okay? So what about us?

What about us here? What's required of us if we were to stay away from sin?

Think about that question. What's required of us if we're to stay away from sin? How are we to stay away from sin?

I would think it's obvious, a major effort of our life, that the life of the believer is to avoid sinning.

But it seems that when we try to avoid sin, a lot of times it just comes right to us. Or we go to it.

Sadly, but at times we do. But how are we to avoid sin?

How? How? How? That's the question. That's a good question. I think it's a question that needs to be answered.

Well, I think the first great answer to that is repent.

Repent, repent, repent. Folks, we can't repent enough, can we? Now we're not talking about earning our way to heaven by no means.

Luther said in the 95stheses, the very first article on the 95stheses, he said that the

Lord Jesus preached repentance in the gospel, and that we are to repent on a daily basis, that the whole life of the believer is to repent.

Repent. Puritan John Flavel said this, Fear nothing but sin. Study nothing so much as how to please

God. Jonathan Edwards, that great Puritan preacher said it like this,

All true and saving repentance tends to holy practice. We need to hear that, don't we?

Especially on our day. But the question is how? Well, I do like J .C.

Rowell. And he got this from the Puritans. And by the way, the Puritans got it from the Bible. So it goes back to the

Bible. The Word of God. These men studied the Word of God. You know those Puritans. Watson and Owen and Bunyan and them men.

They were saturated with the Word of God. J .C.

Rowell read them. We read them. But this is what Rowell says, And by the way, it's exactly almost word for word what

Watson says. Or should I say Owen? I think it's Owen. Is it Owen that wrote the

Doctrine of Repentance? I believe it is. Was it Watson? Thomas Watson.

Okay. I read them too so much I get amingles. Okay, so. But this is what

Rowell says, True repentance begins with knowledge of sin. It goes on to work sorrowful sin.

And it leads to confession of sin before God. And it shows itself before a person by a thorough breaking off from sin.

And it results in producing a deep hatred for all sin. Now you can read

Watson on that. And he says it almost verbatim, word for word.

And that's where Rowell gets it. Knowledge of sin. How do we get the knowledge of sin? Well, it's by the revealed law of God.

The law of God. The holiness of God. To reveal our sin. That's why the law is good and it's holy.

It condemns us. It doesn't save us. But it shows us our sin. The knowledge of sin.

We need that today in the church, don't we? We don't hear enough of that. You ever wonder why people.

You mentioned about preaching against sin. And you start preaching on holiness. People look at you. Oh, he's not preaching love.

And he's not preaching grace. Well, what's his problem? Well, the scripture says you preach the whole counsel of God.

How can you know the goodness of God? Unless you know the severity of God. How can you know the sufferings and the greatness of Christ on the cross?

Unless you know that there's a horrible wrath of God and a hell that we're going to. God saves us from something.

Knowledge of sin. Then it goes, secondly, sorrow for sin. And how does that come? By the power of the spirit of God convicting us.

Jesus says the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict of judgment and righteousness. Sorrowful sin.

Knowledge of sin. Sorrowful sin. Third, confession of sin before God. All you got to do is read

Psalm 51 and listen to David's heart as he confesses his sin before God. Against you and you alone have

I sinned. So, Psalm 51 shows us how that looks like.

And then fourth, there's a breaking off from sin. A breaking off from sin.

You got to get serious. Jesus talked about that. Plunk it out. Gouge it out. If it causes you to sin, get serious with it.

Break off from it. Depart from it. I'm trying to think of what

Spurgeon says. He said, sin and hell are married until repentance proclaims the divorce.

That's the truth. So only God can grant true repentance, right? God can only grant true repentance.

And true repentance is something God does within us. But we have to do the repenting. You see what I'm saying? God grants the grace to us graciously, the gift to us graciously.

But we must put it into practice. That's the way it works. It's a means to the end.

It's kind of like God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. I'm not talking about cooperation here.

But in a sense, in sanctification, there is a cooperation. Not salvation.

Now, salvation, regeneration is all of God. But when it comes to sanctification, yes, we must work at it.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So, there's a breaking off of sin.

Once He does that, we put it into practice, right? Then, results in a deep hatred for sin.

We see that in Romans 7, right? But how do we avoid sinning on a daily basis?

I keep bringing that question up. Let me share something with you. I read in John MacArthur's commentary.

I try to put it in my own words here. But this is not original with me, okay? I got this from MacArthur.

I thought this was really good. I said, I need to share this with you because it helps me.

If it helps me, I want to say, Lord, it may be a blessing to others.

In order to avoid sinning, we must have three perspectives. In a sense, we have to live in three tenses.

Three tenses. Those three tenses are future, present, and past.

You might have heard this before, but I thought this was really good. Future, present, and past.

And some would say to us, in order to avoid sin, you have to have a future look. It requires a future look.

What do we mean by that? You have to be watching constantly.

Watching and praying. Watch. Watch. How many times did Jesus say, watch and pray?

Yes, praying is a must.

But we must watch. And that's what he's talking about. We must be watching for the temptation.

It hasn't arrived yet, but you're watching out for it. You're on the lookout. Your antennas are up.

You've got to be ready so you're not caught off guard. You're not caught off unawares.

You have to look into the future, in a sense. You have to do what the disciples failed to do when

Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he said, watch and pray that you do not enter into the temptation.

And they entered into it. Because they were casual. They fell asleep.

Lord, help us. The church is asleep today. Watch and pray lest you enter into the temptation.

And we have to be on alert. That's what he's talking about. We have to be watchful. We have to be careful. Always looking ahead.

Always anticipating what might come. We must walk circumspectly. We must be ready.

Always walking wisely in the light of danger that could be ahead.

There has to be a future tense. That's the first one. Second, we have to have a present look.

We not only have to have a future look, but a present look. Not only are we looking ahead, participating that what might come, we're also looking at the present tense of the surrounding us so that we are not duped unwillingly into the sin.

And I thought about Romans 12, 9 here. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

That is present tense. Whatever you see is evil, hate it.

And by the way, the psalmist says, if you hate sin, that's the fear of the

Lord. It's to hate sin, to love righteousness. Whatever you see that is good, cling to it.

Cling to what is good. And I like what Brother Keith brought up as he ministered to us here a couple weeks back.

But I like those limpets. They cling to the rock. They hang to the rock. That's what we should be doing. We should be clinging to Jesus.

We should be hanging on to the rock with a life -giving...

I mean, with a clutch that we never let go by God's grace. Paul says in Romans 13, 14,

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision. In other words, don't give any room to it.

Can't pamper the flesh. No provision of the flesh in regard to its lust.

So we are constantly looking in the future, anticipating what might come of sin.

So we've got to be on guard before it comes, and in the present situation, so that we may shun the sin.

And third, we've looked at future and present, but there's also a need for the past.

I love this. When I read him on this, I thought, this is so good. I need to hear this.

Those three tenses. The past is the most important faculties for dealing with the evils of all evils.

Indeed, the only evil, and MacArthur said this, is a good memory, a good memory.

What does he mean by that? But what is really Peter's words here is calling on us to remember some things that will enable us to shun sin.

That's what he's talking about. The key to the passage is verse 2, where Peter says that we are to live in the rest of the time that we are in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God.

What God wills, not for what we will. We are to live the rest of our lives shunning sin and avoiding sin and staying away from sin and repenting from sin and living out the will of God.

And I thought about Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. Sisters, y 'all know Hebrews.

I know Sister Lillian. That's been a great scripture for her trials and her past, and Sister Linda as well, and all of us as well.

Therefore, since we are also... Listen very closely here. Since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance in the sin that so easily ensnares us.

Let us run with endurance, perseverance, the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, the author, the perfecter of our faith for the joy that lay before Him.

He endured the cross, despising the shame, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him, not the prophets, not the apostles. Consider Jesus, who endured such hostility from sinners against themselves so that you won't grow weary and give up.

Did you notice in that verse that there's a past tense, there's a present tense, and a future tense?

Did you see that? It's all there.

A .W. Tozer said it like this, danger approaches the Christian life from three directions, the world through which we journey, the

God of this world, and our unmortified flesh. And I don't know about you, the unmortified flesh is my biggest problem.

And then he says this, that's why we need a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, and a buckler, and a high tower to run to.

Hallelujah. So, let me give you one more verse.

My time is out. We just need a closer walk with Jesus Christ, don't we? We're weak, we're too weak, and Jesus is strong.

Let me give you one more verse. Watch and pray. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.

What about the necessity of prayer? Ephesians 6, verse 18. Notice the all's here.

With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance, and petition for all the saints.

Notice the all's. With all prayer, petition, pray at all times in the

Spirit, with this in view, be on the alert with all the saints.

A hundred years ago, a woman by the name of Charlotte Elliott wrote this hymn, and I'll close with this.

She said this, and it's called Watch and Pray. Watch and Pray. Christians seek not yet repose.

Hear thy gracious Savior say, thou art in the midst of foes. Watch and Pray. Principalities and powers, mustering their unseen array, wait for thy unguarded hours.

Watch and Pray. Watch as if on that alone hung the issue of the day.

Pray that help may be sent down. Watch and Pray. Watch and Pray.

Let's pray. Oh God, our Father, we need thy help.

And Lord, we know that you are faithful. As Scripture says, we need to be careful to think that when we think we stand, we must be careful that we do not fall.

Lord, help us. And you said this, Lord, no temptation has come upon us except that which is common to man.

God is faithful. You're faithful. And you will not allow anyone to be tempted beyond what we are able.

But with the temptation, you also provide the way out so that you may be able, that we may be able to bear it.

So Lord, help us, I pray. Help us, I pray, Lord, in our weakness and our state.

Help us by your grace to hate sin. Oh God, we don't hate sin enough. Forgive us.

Give us the grace and the capacity to hate sin more and more. But to love righteousness more and more.

Let us see not only the negative, but the positive that we need. The righteousness of God before us as well.

So Father, help us to arm ourselves in this battle day by day so that we may not be discouraged and may not be weary.

And that we may not be wanting to give up, but Lord, to persevere by your grace.

And help us keep in mind that Jesus Christ himself that was so willing to die in our place.

Dying a death because of his great love, but at the same time because of the hatred of sin.

Oh God, it was sin that nailed our beloved Savior to the cross.

But it was love that kept him there. Thank you for this. Help us,

Lord. Help us, Lord. I pray that we may arm ourselves and mortify the sin until the day we are called home and we're glorified.

Thank you for your grace because grace is more powerful than the sin. And where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.