Now let us turn together in our
own Bibles to 1 Peter and chapter 4, 1 Peter chapter 4, and I shall
read the first six verses in your hearing. Forasmuch then as Christ suffered
in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For
he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that you
no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to
the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past is
sufficient to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles and to
have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revelings,
carousings, and abominable idolatries wherein they think it strange
that you do not run with them into the same excessive riot
speaking evil of you. who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the living and the dead for unto this end
was the gospel preached even to the dead that they might be
judged indeed according to men in the flesh but live according
to God in the spirit. Now as we again ask God's help
in the preaching of the word Let us pray that the sobering
things of which we have sung may somehow become to us more
than words. It's an awesome, awesome thing
to preach against the backdrop of the day of judgment. As surely
as you look on my face and I look on yours, we're all going to
be gathered together again at a moment in history And the face
that will be fastened, all our eyes will be fastened upon is
the face of the glorified Son of God who will determine your
eternal destiny and mine. Let us pray that God will help
me to preach as one who believes this and help you to listen as
those who ought to believe the same. Let's pray. Our Father, you know us all together. You know the horrible power of
that foul fiend of hell who wants to drag each one of us with him
into the pit. How he blinds the minds of your
creatures, marked for judgment, and in eternal heaven or hell,
Oh, how He has succeeded to make us dull and stupid and indifferent
before these awesome realities. We plead with You, Holy Father,
come upon Your servant. May his own heart and mind be
gripped with these realities. Come upon this people gathered
in this place, and may we together taste the powers of the age to
come. O God, break in upon us by the
Holy Spirit and rivet our minds and our hearts to your truth.
And may the same Spirit constrain our hearts to lay hold of you
in the light of that truth. Hear us for the good of our souls
and for the glory of Christ we pray. Amen. Now the vast majority of you
who are here tonight know that this morning I said that our
study in the Word of God this evening would be a continuation
of an effort to expound 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 1 to 6. And I chose to do this for two
very simple reasons. Number one, I felt the Connection
of the various strands of the mind of God in this passage were
such that I didn't want to allow a whole week for leakage before
we came back to the passage. And I also judged that the next
paragraph, beginning in verse seven, contains material more
appropriate to that opening day of the pastor's conference. And
so I decided to preach on this passage both this morning and
again this evening. Now, because most of you were
here, but a few of you who are present tonight were not here,
let me take just a few moments to sketch in the substance of
this section in Peter's letter to the people of God in those
five Roman provinces in Asia Minor. Starting in chapter 3
and verse 13, Peter comes to the very heart of his pastoral
burden in this epistle. And that pastoral burden is to
enlighten, to strengthen, and to encourage the saints of God
there in Asia Minor in the light of their present sufferings and
in the light of future sufferings that Peter is certain will come
upon them. And in the unfolding of that
pastoral burden, here in chapter 4, he lays before them one central
imperative. It is found in the words of verse
1. Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves
also with the same mind. He is saying that the mind, the
disposition, the mindset, these are all ways that we might render
that Greek term, the mindset, the attitude, the disposition
of the Lord Jesus when he faced his suffering was this. I will
suffer, but I will not sin. I will choose suffering rather
than sin. If the unfolding of the will
of God for me brings me into the crucible of suffering, I
can bear suffering in the strength of my God, but I will not sin
against Him." And so Peter says to these believers, you need
to be armed, you need to be furnished, you need to be equipped. with
that very mindset that our Lord Jesus Christ had in the face
of his sufferings. And as they are armed with that
mindset, Peter says, they demonstrate that the reign of sin has been
broken in their lives. He that has suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin. When a man, when a woman, when
a boy or girl has come to the place where he or she is willing
to endure the most intense suffering, even martyrdom, rather than sin
against God, that person makes it evident that the grace of
God has so united them to the virtue of Christ's death and
resurrection that they too have died with Him, to the reign of
sin and have risen to newness of life, the life of righteousness
and obedience. Now having laid before them that
central imperative, Peter knowing that this is not comfortable
teaching, that this is difficult upon frail, weak humanity, humanity
still afflicted with remaining sin, seeks to buttress their
faith and their resolve by surrounding that imperative with various
motives. And we looked at the first two
motivations this morning. The first motivation is that
which is drawn from their sinful past, verse 3. Four, the time
past is sufficient to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles and
to have walked, and then he names these six categories of gross
manifestations of the lust of men, of the will of the Gentiles. And he says in essence to these
believers, when the life of obedience is bringing you into the crucible
of suffering, and you are tempted to turn aside from the path of
obedience and righteousness into sin in order to avoid the suffering,
remember, you owe nothing to your sinful past. Enough time
has been spent in the service of sin. Remember that from which
God has delivered you, and remembering that, press on in the way of
gospel obedience. And then he draws, secondly,
a motivation from present opposition. Wherein, that is, in the light
of this transformation that has been wrought in your life, they,
your former companions in sin, do two things. They think something
and they do something. They think it strange that you
do not run with them into the same excess of riot. You do not
plunge with them into this torrent of sinful passions. And because they think this of
you, they speak evil of you, they blaspheme, they slander
you and your God and your, quote, new religion. Now tonight we
come to consider the third category of motivation with which Peter
seeks to furnish these believers in the light of that central
imperative. And it's found in verses 5 and
6. Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the
living and the dead? For unto this end was the gospel
preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according
to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. And this is the motivation drawn
from the fact of future judgment. The motivation drawn from the
fact of future judgment. The blasphemy of the non-Christians
mentioned at the end of verse 4 turns Peter's mind towards
the fact of future judgment. And he assures his readers that
those who persecute them now, those who blaspheme them now,
those who speak evil of them now, will one day give an account
to the living God. Verse 5. These who think it strange
that you do not run with them, These who speak evil of you are
those who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge
the living and the dead." So he focuses first upon the judgment
of those who oppose the people of God, and then secondly, in
verse 6, he speaks of a judgment that has been passed upon the
dead. For unto this end was the gospel
preached, even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according
to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. So we'll consider then under
this heading of the motivation drawn from the fact of future
judgment, the judgment of those who oppose the people of God,
and secondly, the judgment of the dead. And it's very interesting
that in this simple statement in verse 5, Peter brings into
the theater of the consciousness of these believers a marvelous
distilled statement of the theology of the judgment of the final
day. Here writing to ordinary believers, many of them slaves,
for remember in chapter 2 he speaks to these house slaves,
many of them ordinary housewives, people married to unconverted
spouses, chapter 3, the rank and file, the foot soldiers in
God's army, he puts in the midst of his effort To strengthen their
resolve to maintain the disposition and mindset of Christ, I would
rather suffer than sin, he dumps this rich, distilled theology
of the Day of Judgment. Underscoring again that all theology
is practical. All theology has tremendous implications
for life and for our ordinary experience as the people of God.
Now notice what he says about this judgment of those who oppose
the people of God. He says three things about it.
The essence of this judgment, the identity of the judge, and
the subjects of the judgment. What is the essence of this judgment? Look at the text. Who shall give
account to him? Who shall give an account? Now this little phrase, comprised
of two Greek words, is the word you would use if you were speaking
to someone who was given a stewardship and you were requesting that
he come and take the books and give an account of his stewardship
in the handling of your property. That's precisely the way it is
used in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16 and verse 2. And he said also to the disciples,
there was a certain rich man who had a steward, and the same
was accused unto him that he was wasting his goods, that is,
his master's goods. And he, the master, called him
and said to him, What is this that I hear of you? Render the
account of thy stewardship. That's the same Greek phrase.
Render an account. Come with your books. Let us
look together into the specifics of what you've done with that
which was entrusted to you that belongs to me. It's the same
word used in Acts 19 and verse 40. The same phrase. Acts 19
and verse 40. not in an economic framework, an employer-employee
relationship, but within the structures of government. Acts
19 and verse 40, in a situation where there is this tumult, precipitated
by the Apostle Paul and the impact of his ministry there at Ephesus. We read in verse 40, For indeed
we are in danger to be accused concerning this day's riot, there
being no cause for it, and as touching it, we shall not be
able to give account of this concourse. When we stand before
those who are over us in the chain of command in government,
we shall be unable to give a rational explanation, a justifiable explanation,
to render an account. That's the sense of the Greek
phrase, and it's exactly the same phrase used in the familiar
words of Matthew 12, 36. Every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give an account. in the day of judgment. They
shall give an account. What is the essence of the coming
judgment? As Peter writes to these ordinary
believers, seeking to strengthen their resolve to persevere in
the way of gospel obedience, even when it brings them into
suffering, he says this to them. Remember, while the slander still
rings in your ears, And while the blasphemy directed to your
God grieves your spirit, look upon the blasphemer and remember,
he is one who regards himself as his own man. She regards herself
as her own woman, answerable to nothing but his or her own
passions and lusts. But the fact is, they are answerable
to the God who made them, and they, each one, shall render
an account. There shall be a day of reckoning,
a day when the accountability of moral agents will find them
rendering an account to God down even to every last idle word. The words of blasphemy against
the people of God and the God of his people. The words and
the thoughts and the deeds by which they have opposed Christ
and his people. The essence of this judgment
is the rendering of an account. For then, Peter sets out the
identity of the judge. Look at the text. Who shall give
account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead. The identity of the judge is
given to us in these words, the one who is ready to judge. And who is that? Well, you say
it could be God the Father. Because Peter in chapter 1 in
verse 17 had written, if you call on him as father, who without
respect of persons judges according to each man's work, past the
time of your sojourning in fear, it could be the father. There
in chapter 1 in verse 17, Peter specifically names the father
as the judge. But when we study the Scriptures,
we see that God the Father has entrusted to God the Son the
administration of this judgment in its actual performance in
the last day. This is made clear in a number
of passages. We look only at several. John
chapter 5. Our Lord Himself was conscious
that He had been appointed by the Father to actually be the
judge who sits upon the throne in the last day. John chapter
5 and verse 22. For neither does the Father judge
any man that he has given all judgment unto the Son. Words could not be clearer. The
Father actually does not Engage in that work of final judgment. It has been deposited in the
hands of the Son. Verse 27, He gave Him authority
to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. And this is
precisely what the Apostle Paul preached there on Mars Hill in
the city of Athens at the conclusion of his sermon, Acts 17, verses
30 and 31. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked, but
now he commands that they should all everywhere repent inasmuch
as he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. whereof he has
given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from
the dead. Christ will be the one who will
sit upon the throne of judgment and administer justice in that
day. And it was Peter who preached
in a similar vein in the household of Cornelius. Acts chapter 10,
this is our last cross-reference, Acts 10 and verse 42. Speaking of the Lord Jesus giving
a commission to the apostles, we read, and he charged us to
preach unto the people and to testify that this is he who is
ordained of God to be the judge of the living and the dead. And
one wonders if this terminology was not so much a part of Peter's
preaching that it came out when he wrote this letter. It is Jesus
Christ ordained of God to be judge of the living and the dead. And I'm quite certain that some
of you have already thought of that majestic passage in Matthew's
Gospel 25 and 31 and following where the Lord Jesus speaks of
the Son of Man coming in His glory and sitting upon His throne,
and the King shall say, and the King shall say, here He points
to Himself as the Judge appointed for the last day. So we have
in the passage then the essence of the judgment, it is giving
an account. the identity of the judge. It
is the risen Christ. But who are the subjects of the
judgment? Peter tells us in this brief
statement. Who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the living and the dead? That is, those
who live when He comes in glory and power to set His throne of
judgment, and those who have died prior to His coming and
to the day of judgment, He will judge the living and the dead. This is but a distillation of
what Jesus himself said in John 5, 28 and 29, marvel not at this
for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall
hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth. They
that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation and they that have
done evil to the resurrection of life. The subjects of the
judgment, all men, without asking for anyone's consent. without
asking for anyone's vote, without in any way seeking to discern
whether men would like to be summoned to judgment. Again,
the majestic passage of Revelation 20, 15 and following, where John
demonstrates that the grave and the sea and every chamber of
the dead will give up its dead and all will stand before the
great white throne to be judged by the Lord Jesus. Now you may
ask, how does this fact of future judgment on those who revile
them become a motivation to be armed with the mind of Christ?
Did Peter just have a lapse of memory and forget that what he
was doing was trying to strengthen the arm of these Christians to
bear up under the pressure of affliction and persecution? No,
Peter has not forgotten his intention. having told them that they are
to arm themselves with the mind of Christ. It is better to suffer
than to sin. He has now told them that as
a result of leaving their sinful companions and their sinful ways,
these very people now think they are weird. They can't figure
them out. They can't compute what has happened to them. And
so because they don't understand it, and the light of their transformed
lives exposes their darkness, they blaspheme. They blaspheme
the people of God, revile them, speak evil of them and to them.
They revile and blaspheme their God, Peter says. Dear people
of God, when you're tempted to cave in under that pressure,
remember, the full story hasn't yet been told. There's a day
of judgment coming. Look through and listen through
their blasphemy. Look through and listen through
their reviling. And bring to mind that great
day when these who think it strange that you do not run with them
who blaspheme you and your God. Think of the day when the one
who is ready to judge He has already accomplished his redemptive
mission. He has come from heaven by way
of Mary's womb. He's lived the perfect life under
the law, died under the curse of the law, been raised from
the dead, exalted to the right hand of the Father. There is
nothing more that needs to be done to qualify him as judge. He has validated his claims by
his resurrection. Dear child of God, remember this. The ones who think it strange
that you do not run with them, the ones who speak evil of you,
they shall give an account to this very Christ. They shall
give an account of all that they have said and done. And remember
in that day, Jesus underscores the truth that the treatment
of Christ's people is regarded by Christ as their treatment
of him. This is what Peter's doing to
comfort them, saying, as scripture does again and again, that when
the going gets rough for the child of God, he is to lift up
his eyes and fasten his gaze upon that unseen world of future
reality. That's what Moses did. The scripture
says, by faith Moses was able to refuse to be the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to what? Suffer affliction with
the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season. Why? The text tells us why. He had respect to the recompense
of the reward. He looked beyond the gold and
the glitter and the glamorous gals in Egypt. That was all in
his hands if he wanted it. And with it every sensuous pleasure
a man could desire. And he refuses that and chooses
to go out into a wilderness with a bunch of ex-slaves. Why in
the world does a man do that unless he's lost his sanity? It's because he is thinking with
the sanity of one who faces ultimate reality. He looked to the recompense
of the reward. Stay in Egypt, be reckoned as
son of Pharaoh. There in Egypt, all the wealth,
all the influence, all the prestige, all the pleasure of sin, but
damnation at the end. Turn my back on that. and identify
myself with the coming Messiah. The scripture says he counted
the reproach of Christ. He knew something that his identification
with the people of God had something to do with that ancient promise
given in the garden, that one would come and bruise the head
of the serpent. And he said, I'll choose this
because I see something beyond. the glitter, the gold, the clamor,
and the cows in Egypt. I see that eternal city. And his choice was the only wise
one. The Apostle Paul said the same
thing. Why in the world a man would subject himself to the
kind of suffering that he endured? He says, I'll tell you why. While
we look, 2 Corinthians 4.18, while we look not on the things
that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. You see, there's
two sets of things. Things that are seen, things
that are not seen. The problem with some of you
is you think if it's not a thing you can see, there is no thing
else but the thing to be seen. Ah no, there are two sets of
things. Seen things with these eyes,
and unseen things declared to be by the Word of God. And Paul
says, we look not on the things that are seen, but on the things
that are not seen. For the things that are seen
are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. And within that general perspective,
there is a unique application of this to God's suffering saints.
God's suffering saints are to suck sweetness from the fact
that those who cause them to suffer will be judged at the
coming of Christ. You say that's sadistic. No,
it's biblical. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. The Thessalonians were brought
to faith in the midst of suffering. Paul said in his first letter,
you receive the word with much affliction and joy in the Holy
Spirit. And now knowing that they continue
to suffer affliction, he writes to them. And he says, we glory,
verse 4 of chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians, we glory in you in the churches
for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in
all the afflictions which you endure, which is a manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God to the end that you may be
counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. If so be it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you. And
to you that are afflicted, rest with us. at the revelation of
the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming
fire rendering vengeance to them that know not God and to them
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall suffer
punishment even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and
from the glory of his might when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints. You see what he's saying? as
surely as the eye of the believer seizes the prize of being glorified
with Christ at His coming, it seizes the equal ultimate reality
of the fiery judgment of Christ upon all who oppose them. And
that's set forth for their comfort, the same way Peter does. He says,
yes, By the Spirit of God, I'm calling you saints to something
that is not comfortable to human flesh. You're to be armed with
the same mind that Christ had. It is better to suffer than to
sin. And in that suffering, there
will be former companions who, not understanding the change,
they think it's strange. They think you've gone off your
rocker. They think you've got something less than a full load.
And they revile you and revile your God. Draw sweetness from
this blessed reality. The God whom they blaspheme and
the Savior who has transformed you will deal with them in the
day of judgment, who shall give an account to him that is ready
to judge the living and the dead. And until he comes and until
their lives are snuffed out, this is the great paradox of
the disposition of the child of God. While he draws comfort
from the fact that the Lord will deal with all his and his people's
enemies, they are prepared to spend and be spent and in spirit
wrought love seek to win their very enemies to the cause and
to the blessings of the gospel. Before I leave that heading,
I want to say not only a word to you, God's people, but a word
to you who are in the company of those who blaspheme, who slander
the people of God. Some of you may do it outwardly.
When you get with your own kind, you may smart-mouth everything
you hear tonight. I have no doubt that there may
be one or two or more who at the end of this service will
find your own kind and try to, as it were, whistle in the dark
to yourself that it's all a bunch of preacher's blow and mock and
sneer at the things you've heard tonight. My friend, I tell you
one simple thing. You're going to give an account
to a Christ who's already, right now, set to judge. Who shall give an account to
him that is ready, is ready, is ready to judge the living
and the dead? There are others of you, you
wouldn't be so bold as to say it outwardly, but there's some
of you who have a deep-seated inward resentment to everything
that seeks to press you to Christ. God sees that resentment. If
you could get away with it, it would break out in words and
actions. I remind you that your dealings
are not with mom and dad who seek lovingly to press you to
Christ. Your dealings are not with your
Sunday school teacher and the pastors who seek to press you
to Christ. Your dealings are with him who's
ready to judge the living and the dead. May God haunt you with
that reality. Till you become friends of the
judge. Till you become a friend of the judge. Throw yourself
upon his mercy and know the sweetness of his forgiving grace. But then
verse six is here. This vexing verse, speaking of
another judgment, it's connected with what goes before because
it, like verse number three, begins with the word for. There's
a connection between verse 6 and verse 5. Who shall give account
to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead? For
unto this end was the gospel preached, even to the dead, that
they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit. Now our confession states that
not all parts of scripture are equally clear or equally clear
to all men. And this is one of them. And
if you had had the privilege that I've had of rooting around
in the commentaries for I don't know how many hours over the
past couple of weeks, you would discover that there are a number
of views on this passage. I will not weary you with even
naming the views, but a number of them derive from these words,
the gospel was preached even to the dead, that it must mean
to people who were dead when the gospel was preached to them.
And they come up with some form of a doctrine of a second chance,
seeking to tie it in with chapter 3 and verse 19 of Christ going
and preaching to spirits in prison, ignoring who those spirits were,
those who were disobedient in the days of Noah while the ark
was preparing. And they come up with a doctrine
that there's some second chance or has been a second chance for
some. Others say, no, that's a preaching Christ did after
he died on the cross and secured redemption in space-time history.
He went and preached to all the Old Testament saints and took
them out of Sheol and took them into paradise with him. And they
build a doctrine of the intermediate state and of stages of redemption
found nowhere else in the Bible. And remember our three rules
whenever we come to a difficult passage. Whatever view we take,
it must be true to the language of the text. Secondly, it must
be sensitive to the context in which the passage comes to us,
and thirdly, it must not introduce a novel, strange doctrine not
taught elsewhere in the Word of God. Well then, when we take
up this verse and ask, what is this judgment of the dead? How
does it tie in with that future judgment of the living and the
dead? And what in the world does it
say to a bunch of suffering Christians in Asia Minor to strengthen them
to have the mind of Christ that it's better to suffer than to
sin? Well, I'm greatly indebted to
three or four of my constant mentors as I seek to preach through
1 Peter with you. One of those mentors is Wayne
Grudem, another is Edmund Clowney, and then also Edmund Hebert,
and then a more technical work by the name, a man by the name
of Selwyn. And I have had my judgment persuaded
as I sought to follow the track of the thinking of these men
who have a grasp upon the biblical languages beyond my own, who
have a background in general biblical studies greatly exceeding
my own, and without shame I say that having read the various
views, I am persuaded that their view most comfortably snuggles
up to those three standards. honesty with the language, sensitivity
to the context, and no introduction of any novel doctrines. Will
you indulge me as I read several paragraphs from one of my patron
saints of exposition of 1 Peter, Mr. Mr. Which one have I got here? This
is Mr. Hebert, Mr. Hebert. He writes,
a widely accepted view And that is, what I'm going to set before
you is not a novel view, it's widely accepted, is that those
described as dead in the passage, for that's a key to understanding
the passage, for unto this end was the gospel preached even
to the dead. There is a widely accepted view
that those described as dead were members of the Christian
churches addressed, but had died before the writing of 1 Peter. The New International Version
takes this exegetical judgment and inserts the word now into
their translation. It's not in the Greek, but the
NIV reads this way, for this is the reason the gospel was
preached to those who are now dead. And though that's not right
to put in the word now in translation, I believe it is right in our
understanding of the passage. Now let me try to illustrate
it. And I was racking my brain for an illustration that would
illustrate and not confuse. And this is the only one I could
come up with. Years ago, my wife and I used to be involved in
summer camp ministry before I became a pastor. And I would be camp
evangelist and she would be Aunt Mickey and I would be Uncle Al.
Aunt Mickey and Uncle Al, that's what the kids called us. And
suppose I were to take you to see or you were to visit us up
there in New Hampshire where one of the camps was located
called Camp Good News. And I was to describe the camp
and the various activities. And then after supper and after
evening activities, I was to take you to one of the cabins
and there open the door quietly. And you were to see 12 kids just
zonked out like they've been shot through the temple. They've
been going from six o'clock in the morning, flat out all day
long. And when they hit their beds at night, they're out. And
I were to say to you, I had the privilege. I had the privilege
of preaching to these sleeping kids. Now, what would you think
if I said I had the privilege of preaching to these sleeping
kids? What word would you insert in
your brain as you sought to understand what I meant when I said I had
the privilege of preaching to these sleeping kids? You put
in the word now. What you're saying to me, Pastor
Martin, is you had the privilege of preaching to these now sleeping
kids. You would not in any way read
into it that I preached to them while they were asleep. You've
got more sense than to do that, right? Right? Well, won't we give Peter
and the Holy Spirit the liberty to speak to us that way? Look
at the text. For unto this end was the gospel
preached even to the ones who are now dead. And because the doctrine that
there is no second chance, it's appointed on the men once to
die, and after this comes judgment, is so embedded in the consciousness
of these believers that Peter can speak with a little bit of
verbal shorthand and assume that they'll put the right meaning
on his words. It seems to me that that is an honest, fair,
with a contemporary parallel linguistic usage of what Peter
is saying. So what he is saying, in my judgment,
and this is most satisfactory to me at this point in my understanding,
having said that these who oppose you are going to give account
to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead. And
for this very end, the gospel was preached even to those who
are now dead, preached to them when they were alive, preached
to them and met with a believing response in order that even they
might be judged in deed according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the Spirit. Well, if I've persuaded you that
at least it's reasonable to assume that the identity of the dead
is not people who had gospel preached to them while they were
dead, that introduces an entirely novel, unscriptural notion. But
the gospel was preached to these who are now dead. What in the
world does it mean? In order that it was preached
with this end in view, with this purpose. You Greek students,
ahina, clause of purpose. In order that they might be judged
according to men, but live according to God in the Spirit. And here
you have one of those men-death constructions. Nice little shorthand
in Greek. In English, we have to say, on
the one hand, but on the other hand. In order that they might
be, on the one hand, judged according to men in the flesh, but on the
other hand, live according to God in the Spirit. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Well, let me tell you what I think it means as I lean upon
my patron saint of exposition of this passage. The true purpose
of that preaching of the gospel to these who are now dead is
stated in two different ways. That they might be judged indeed
according to men in the flesh on the one hand, but live according
to God in the spirit on the other hand. The two aspects are viewed
according to a different standard. On the one hand, according to
indicates the standard or rule by which that judgment fell upon
them. And it was a judgment that came
upon them according to the standard of men. And according to the
standard of men, these who had heard the gospel, These who had
embraced the gospel, Peter says, the gospel was preached to them
that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh,
that is, according to a human, man-made standard. And what would
that be? That would be, what's the benefit
of becoming a Christian? You people talk about the blessings
of the gospel. Your kind die just like we die. Your kind go to the grave, just
like we go to the grave. You have your funerals, just
like we do. And being judged according to
men in the flesh, the attitude would be, what benefit is the
gospel? You speak of eternal life, and
you speak of the blessings of the gospel. Your people die just
like ours do, and that's the end of them. We don't see anything
but the corpse. We put nothing in the grave but
the corpse. You're just like we are. And Peter says the gospel
was preached to those who are now dead that they may be judged. A gospel that promises resurrection
at the last day. It does not promise exemption
from death in this life. All the sons of Adam will pay
their due in death. And even though death has been
conquered by Christ, and the scripture says, all things are
yours in Christ, even death itself is now God's servant to bring
us into his presence. As men judge believers, they
say, what does your gospel do? They use the occasion of the
bodily death of believers to be another arrow in their quiver
to shoot at the people of God. But the reality is that according
to God, they are living in the Spirit. According to God, they
are living in the Spirit. And even the tenses, the word
for judge is an aorist subjunctive, that they might be judged with
a definitive judgment according to the flesh. But then you have
a present subjunctive, that they may be continually living unto
God in the Spirit. Now, if that is a right understanding,
to me, it does fit the context. It does indeed harmonize with
the overall teaching of Scripture, for remember, the early church
did not have all the epistles that we have. In the church at
Corinth, there were some denying the doctrine of bodily resurrection,
1 Corinthians 15. Paul had to write to the church
at Thessalonica and say, I would not have you ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which fell asleep, that you sorrow not as those
who have no hope. There were foggy thoughts about
what happens to believers when they die. And it is not stretching
the imagination to think some of that foggy thinking may have
been present there in Asia Minor, and that Peter became aware of
it. And so when he's nerving these people to face opposition
with holy vigor and godly boldness, he says, look, take comfort.
Not only will your opposers and detractors be judged by him who
is ready to judge at the last day, But that last day will be
not only the judgment of your enemies, but the vindication
of your friends. For this end was the gospel preached
even to those who are now dead, that they might be judged indeed
according to men in the flesh. God's not caught by surprise
with their sneering, unbelieving, cynical remarks. But the reality
is that they live according to God in the spirit, and so If
your detractors line you up to the wall and say, deny Christ,
or on the count of three the bullet will split your skull
open. And say, for to this end the
gospel was preached even unto me, that though men judge me
a fool and will see my crumpled body in the courtyard, I know
that I shall live according to God in the Spirit. And all they
can do with their bullets is chase me up to heaven sooner
than I thought I'd go there. And then in the last day when
the judge comes, he'll raise my body out of the grave and
make it a glorious body like unto his own body of glory. Well, I said I'm not ready to
die for that interpretation, but after wrestling for many
hours, I do believe it is at least a reasonable explanation
of the passage. If it's carried your judgment,
I trust you will suck sweetness from it Peter is saying in this
final motivation, a motivation drawn from the doctrine of judgment,
your persecutors will be judged. All Christians will be vindicated. That's a simple statement, but
oh, the preciousness of that to the child of God. We can afford
the luxury of being considered fools for a little while longer.
Yes, we can. We can afford the luxury of being
considered fools for a little while longer. But the moment
is coming when, as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians, we will be
admired among all those that believe. What God will do in
us and for us is unbelievably glorious. And Peter draws near
to these suffering saints, and he says, look, I'm calling upon
you to do something that I know it's not easy for flesh to embrace. Arm yourself with the same mind
that Christ had. It is better to suffer than to
sin. And if the suffering leads me
into that crucible of slander and blasphemy, speaking ill of
me and of my God and of my Savior, I must remember this. I already
gave sin enough time, enough energy, enough of my faculties.
That's a chapter behind me. And when they now do not understand
me and speak evil of me, I am in fellowship with my rejected,
maligned Lord. And I look beyond the now and
I see the one who's ready to judge the living and the dead
and will come forth from that present place at the right hand
of the Father and will vindicate all of his own. and he will be
admired among his own when those who are not his own will cry
for rocks and hills to fall upon them saying hide us from the
face of him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of
the Lamb. To me that little phrase is one
of the most frightening passages in all of the Bible, the wrath
of the Lamb. The Lamb, meek, lowly, as a lamb
before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Behold,
the Lamb of God, meek, lowly, submitting to spittle and jeering
and buffeting and a crown of thorns and crucifixion. But the
wrath of the Lamb, think of it, the wrath of the Lamb, the wrath
of the Lamb. when he comes forth in righteous
fury to consume all his and his people's enemies, all the power
of deity in the strokes of his judgment. God help you, my dear
young man, young woman, older man or woman, if you are found
among those who will pray to rocks and hills to hide you,
when all around you will be those shouting with joy exclamations
of praise and adoration. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, let's
pray. Our Father, we do earnestly pray
that your spirit would attend the preaching of your word with
power Power to encourage and strengthen your saints to face
whatever we must face before our earthly pilgrimage is over.
We do acknowledge, Lord, our awareness that there is a growing,
open, concentrated distaste for all that is Christian and decent
and honorable and lawful. We acknowledge with shame that
our society does indeed slouch slip at breakneck speed into
Gomorrah, and we pray, Lord, that the things we are studying
together would not be passed off as mere interesting facts,
but that by your grace we may store up the truths given to
us by your servant Peter, that we may be armed with the mind
of Christ when we face greater, more intense opposition and persecution
and suffering for the sake of Christ. Lord, have mercy upon
those who have sat here tonight, still unmoved, unbroken, unbent,
who are defying you, daring you to put forth your hand in judgment. Lord, have mercy, have mercy
upon them. We pray that you will not allow
them to go on in their willful blindness and rebellion. Oh God,
give them what they least want, but what they most need. the
constant, the unrelenting pressure of the Spirit through the Word
upon their consciences until they know that they are in Christ,
and in Christ are forgiven, accepted, and no longer fear the setting
of that throne of judgment, knowing that that will be the throne
of their public vindication, to hear the words of Jesus, Come,
you blessed, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Hear our prayer, O God, and may
that day reveal that these things were not preached in vain, We
ask in Jesus' name, Amen.