Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 58 from your hardbacked hymnal, number
58, and let's all stand together. Remember the, I think we changed
this in our book, but it's in the second verse, almost to the
end, where it says, mankind, just if it's not changed already,
pencil in our kind instead of mankind there. Number 58. Jesus, the very thought of Thee,
with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter for Thy face to see, and in Thy presence rest. Your voice can sing, your heart
can pray, nor can the memory find a sweeter sound than thy
blessed name. ? O hope of every country far ?
? O joy of all the meek ? ? To those who fall, how kind, how
kind ? ? How good to those who seek ? ? But what to those who find others
? ? Your tongue, your pen can show ? ? The love of Jesus, what
it is ? ? None but his love can show ? Jesus, our only joy, be thou,
as thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be thou our prize. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
85. Psalm 85. Oh Lord, thou hast been favorable
unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine
anger. Return us, O God, of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry
with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thy anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. For he will speak peace. He will speak peace unto his
people. And to his Saints. But let them
not turn again to folly. Surely. His salvation is not
them that fear him. A glory may dwell in our land. Mercy. And truth. are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. All of this was fulfilled at
Calvary's cross. God remained just and justified
sinners by causing mercy and truth to meet together in righteousness
and peace to kiss each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. That's
exactly what happened when our Lord was raised from the dead
and ascended back into glory. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good, and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness
shall go before him, and he shall set us in the way of his steps. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
what comforting words, what glorious promises, what hope you give
us. Lord, we live in a body of flesh
that is so prone to wander. We live with all of our doubts
and fears and sin and unbelief. Lord, we live in a world that
is completely contrary to you and to all that is true. Lord, we pray that in this hour
she would meet with us, that your righteousness would come
down. that the Lord Jesus Christ would
speak peace to our hearts and comfort us in our time of need.
Lord, that you would reveal to us his glory and his accomplished
work that we would find our place of rest. For it's in Christ's
name we ask it. Amen. Number 336 from the Hardback
Tyndall, 336. Let's all stand together again. to shine upon the road that leads
me to the land. Return, O home. sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
born and drove thee from thy rest. The dearest idol I have known, And worship only Thee. So shall my walk be close with
Thee, Calm and serene, I pray. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. I've titled this message, Ceased
from Sin. And I hope that when we leave
here tonight, that we're not anywhere near the conclusion
that most people are at when they look at this verse. I oftentimes, when I'm preparing
to preach from a particular passage, I'll go to sermon audio and just
look and see if there's some other men that I know that have
preached from this and see what they have to say. And I did that
on this verse. I tried to listen to a couple
of them, but it was very clear from the beginning that they
interpreted this verse as the natural man would. that sin is something that we
can completely cease, that we can stop doing. And the more I looked at this passage
of scripture, the more I came to realize that really what this
verse is teaching us is what it is to walk by faith. To walk by faith. The believer
walks by faith. We don't walk by sight. We believe things that we can't
see. We believe things that are often
contrary to our experience. Why would someone believe something
that they can't see? Why would they believe something
that's contrary to everything that they're experiencing? Only
one reason. Because God said so. And that's
what faith is. Faith is just believing God.
Faith is to believe God even if we can't see it. Faith is
to believe God even if what God says is contrary to what we feel
and what we're experiencing. So we could title this message
Walk by Faith, but I've chosen this phrase that's in our text,
ceased from sin. Ceased from sin. You know, we
live our lives in the present tense. And in the past, is the
past. It cannot be changed. The future
is the future and it cannot be lived. It's still in the future. We must live our lives in the
present. And if you're anything like me,
you often sacrifice the comforts and joy and pleasures of the
present by regretting the past or fearing the future. And that's
our unbelief. Our unbelief would cause us to
look back and to not believe that all that happened in the
past was purposed of God for our good and for his glory. And
that though we have no idea of what he has in store for the
future, we know that he holds the future. and that he works
all things together for good, for them that love him. Those
are the call according to his purpose. And so we ought not
to, forgetting those things which are behind, the Apostle Paul
said, we ought not to live our lives in the past, and we ought
not to live our lives not in regret of the past, and we ought
not to live our lives in fear of the future. We know who our
God is and what he's promised. That's faith, we walk by faith. But there is a sense, there is
a sense in which we do have, we live in the present with an
eye to the past and another eye to the future. And I believe
that's what the Lord is speaking of here when he says, for he
that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. Hath ceased from sin. You get a letter from a government
agency or perhaps an attorney, and on the top of that letter,
it says cease and desist. They are threatening you with
law to stop whatever it is you're doing immediately. And that's
exactly what this word cease means. It means to stop what
you're doing immediately. Now, if that means that the Lord
is somehow, telling us that we are to completely cease from our sin,
that's not our experience. Our experience is, Lord, my sin
is ever before me. Lord, this problem that I have
is continual. The natural man looks at sin
as just an outward manifestation, but we know that the sin that
sin is in the heart. You know, religious men think
that they can lock themselves up in some, or insulate themselves
from the world and lock themselves up in a closet in order to try
to avoid sin, and they don't realize they're taking the sin
with them. Sin's in the heart. It's in the heart, and that's
what grieves us, is the sin of our hearts. And we desire that
the Lord would restrain that sin of the heart, that it not
be manifested in the body. But we're acquainted, and you're
acquainted with your sin, I'm acquainted with my sin. And with
these, there is continuance. So, When the Lord says, they
who have suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. What does that mean? And I don't want to give anybody
the impression that you have to be a Greek scholar. I certainly am not. I have at
my disposal the same thing you would have at your disposal,
the ability to look up words in the Bible and find out their
meaning and their text and their sense of it. And I looked up
this word sense, ceased, ceased. And it's in the perfect tense,
which is why when it was translated into English, the word half was
put in front of it. That expresses the perfect tense.
The perfect tense is an action already completed. And so it's
expressed in the past tense for us in the English, and it's in
the perfect tense, an action completed. So when the Lord says they who
have suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, he's talking
about something that's already been done. Already been done. And this word also is in the
passive voice. Now you know what the passive
voice is. The passive voice means that the action of the verb was
done to the subject. The subject didn't act, didn't
create this action. The action was done to that person. The subject here is the person
who has suffered in the flesh. And so it's in the perfect tense,
half ceased, already done, completed, and it's in the passive voice. It's something that is done to
the person, not something that the person does. Now this is
very important. It's very important to see this,
isn't it? For as much then, verse one,
chapter four, for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us
in the flesh. He's talking about his death
on Calvary's cross. Not talking about anything, this
is, he suffered in the flesh on Calvary's cross when he bore
in his body all our sins and put them away by the sacrifice
of himself. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. Have the same mind, the same
understanding, have this understanding, the mind of Christ. Let this
mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. For he that
hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased, Cease and desist, stop
immediately. Half ceased, perfect tense, passive
voice from sin. When James and John's mother
died, came to the Lord privately and asked if her boys could sit
on his right hand and on his left hand when he established
his kingdom. She thought it was gonna be an
earthly kingdom and she wanted James and John to be up there
right and left of the throne. And the boys were standing there
sort of sheepishly, you know, letting their mother speak for
them. And so the Lord looked at them and he said, he said,
can you drink of the cup that I'm going to drink from? And
can you be baptized with the baptism that I'm going to be
baptized with? And they both spoke up immediately.
Oh, yay, Lord. Yeah, we can do that. And the Lord looked at them and
said, and you shall. And you shall. drink from the
cup that I'm gonna drink from. And you shall be baptized with
the baptism that I'm going to be baptized with, but to sit
on my right hand and my left, that's my father's, that's my
father's decision. And when did James and John,
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he went to Calvary's cross, prayed,
Father, if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it
be nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done. And he
did the Father's will when he drank dry the bitter dregs of
the cup of sin and suffered the full wrath of God's justice to
put away those sins. He was baptized with the baptism
of fire when the fiery wrath of God's justice fell on him
on Calvary's cross. And Paul said, Paul said, I am
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith. You see, what the Lord Jesus was saying to James
and John and what he's saying to me and you is that when I
drink that cup and when I quench that fire, you will be in me
and you will suffer as part of my body, the same judgment that
I'm going to suffer. This is when righteousness and
truth met together. So let this mind be in you, that
when Christ suffered for us in the flesh, for he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin. Been put away. Colossians chapter one, verse
21 says, you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind, hath
he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death in order
to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. So we were alienated. We were
at enmity with God because of our sin. Our sin had separated
us from God. And the Lord Jesus Christ in
the body of his flesh through death was able to present us holy. Sinless, unblameable, unreprovable. The wrath, the law of God has
no charge to make against those for whom Christ died. They've ceased from sin. Hebrews chapter 10, we are sanctified,
made holy, Perfect, through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Once for all. Now I know somebody right now
is thinking, what are you, are you, are you saying it's okay
to sin? You're advocating sin, you're
approving of sin? No, you know that's not. What I'm saying is that the only thing that enables me
to hate my sin and to whatever degree the Lord enables me to
turn from my sin, it's because I'm already ceased from sin. That's what we saw Sunday in
Romans chapter six. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. He that has suffered in the flesh
hath ceased from sin. Reckon it to be so because it
is, it is. When Christ died, we died and
we ceased from sin by the sacrifice of himself. by one offering he
hath, perfect tense, perfected forever them that are sanctified. Let this be your mind. Let this
be your mind. As he is, so are we in this world. We have no sin before God. If
what Christ did was successful, and we know it was, he covered all of our sin by
his blood. Turn with me to 1 John 3. 1 John
3. You're familiar with this passage. Verse 8, he that commit a sin
is of the devil. Say all that. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning for this purpose, for this purpose, The Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil,
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed,
that's Christ, remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's
born of God. Someone's thinking, well, sin
is so, Sin is so real. If that's talking about my experience,
then I'm of the devil. If that's talking about my daily
struggle with sin, then I know nothing of God's grace. I know
nothing of God's mercy. And that's not what this is talking
about. This is talking about who we
are in Christ. our position in Christ. His seed remaineth in you. He
that has suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. He cannot sin because his seed
is in him. This is the only way that God
can have anything to do with us, is for Christ to make us
sinless before God. Oh, what hope. We can come into
the very presence of a holy God boldly before the throne of grace
to find help in our time of need. You see, this is what faith is. Faith is believing that which
you cannot see and believing that which is even contrary to
your experience. Why would we believe something
we can't see? Why would we believe something
that's contrary to our experience? Because God said it. God said
it. God gives you faith. You just
bow and you say with the Syrophoenician woman, truth, Lord, truth, Lord,
whatever you say, whatever you say is true. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three. This is what Paul was spending
his life to know. Scott, you and I were talking
about the simplicity of the gospel and knowledge Can an unbeliever
have knowledge of the gospel? This is what we pursue to have
the knowledge of. We believe it, and yet we want
to believe it more. We want to understand it better. Paul said in verse nine of Philippians
chapter three, and to be found in him, in Christ. not having
my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I might know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, being made
conformable unto his death. This is what Peter's talking
about. They that have suffered in the
flesh, they that have died have ceased from sin. Paul said, I
just, I want to, I want to know this truth more, more confidently,
more experientially, more truly. I want to know him. The power of
his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering. Paul's not
saying, oh, I want more. Paul had been beaten and left
for dead and shipwrecked and time and time again. He wasn't
looking for that. Thrown in prison. He wasn't saying, I'll just want
it. I want to suffer more for the Lord. No, he wanted to be
more acquainted with the fellowship of his suffering. that I may know him, the power
of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, be made conformable
unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after that if I may apprehend
that for which I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. But this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press
towards the mark for the prize. You see, This is what Paul's
talking about. I want to know more fully. Look at verse 15. Let us therefore,
as many as be perfect, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything you'd be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless,
whereunto we've already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. That's what Peter's saying. He's
saying, let this mind be in you. For he that, arm yourself with
the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh, hath ceased
from sin. Child of God, there's nothing
that you would, that you long for more than that day when you
can, in your experience, done with sin. Here's our hope. We walk by faith,
looking back, not with regret of something that we've done,
you know, paralyzing ourselves with all that, you know, no,
no, but looking back further than that. Look back 2000 years
ago. when Christ Jesus the Lord went
to Calvary's cross and bore in his body our sins. Look back
further than that. Look back to eternity past when
the Lord Jesus Christ became our surety in the covenant of
grace and is called the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. Before the foundation of the
world, he's the Lamb slain. He that has suffered in the flesh
hath ceased from sin. He's done with it. He's put away. There's our rest. There's our comfort. There's
our hope. There's the power of God over
the struggles of sin that we have. is that there's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Who shall charge anything to
God's elect? It's God that justified. When
did we justify? We justified Christ rose from
the dead. Christ died. He bore our sins
and he died for our justification. for our offenses and raised again
because of our justification. Colossians, turn with me to Colossians
chapter three. Colossians chapter three. You
see, in a works gospel, in a works gospel, your position with God
is determined by your practice. So if you cease from sin, you
can earn favor with God. If you dress up the outside of
the, wash the outside of the cup, whitewash the tomb and turn
over a new leaf and fix this habit and that habit in your
life, by your practice, You can work your way into a position
of favor with God. And if you pray the right prayer,
make the right decisions by your practice, you can earn a position
of favor with God. Truth is just the opposite. Truth is just the opposite. Our practice comes from our position. It comes from our position. Our position doesn't come from
our practice. Our practice comes from our position. That's why
it's so important that we believe what God has said about the putting
away of our sin. about being holy and undefiled
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight by the sacrifice
that Christ made because the only hope of practice will come
from that position. It's not the other way around.
There's the difference between works and grace. Isn't that glorious? Look at Colossians chapter three.
If you then be risen with Christ, If when Christ read, that's what
Paul was saying, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his suffering, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things of
the earth, for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ
in God. They that have suffered in the
flesh path ceased from sin. So what the Lord is telling us
here is consider your position in Christ and look to him, the
one who's seated at the right hand of God. We have an advocate
with the Father. We have a righteousness with
God in Christ. We have perfect acceptance and
love before God. Our sins have been buried in
the depths of the sea. It's been put away. God said,
I've separated them from you as far as the east is from the
west. I don't remember them anymore. He that has suffered in the flesh
hath, present tense, perfect tense, past tense, perfect tense,
completed. Passive voice. Something's done
to you. Not something you did. Done to
you. So if these things be true, and
if you be dead, you died with Christ, when Christ who is our
life shall appear, then you shall also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore. You see the
next verse? Verse 5 is the practice, mortifying
the members of our body because of the position that we have. Practice comes from position,
not position from practice. That's so clear in the scriptures.
And it's so glorious and liberating to the child of God to know that
I don't have to earn favor with God by my practice. I've suffered
in the flesh. And as a result of that, I've
ceased from sin, no longer exist. and whatever ability I have to
mortify the members of my body, to look in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ, to arm myself. Go back with me to our text. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. Now you can't read that without
thinking about Ephesians chapter six. When, let's go there. Let's go to Ephesians chapter
six. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rules of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And I thought the Lord
came to destroy the works of the devil. And I thought I had
already ceased from sin. How do you work these things
together? What Peter's speaking of in 1
Peter chapter four, verse one, is everything that we've already
looked at in the scriptures in terms of our position in Christ. On Calvary's cross, sin's been
put away. Now the Lord's talking about
this daily struggle that we have with this old man. What are we
gonna do? You're gonna arm yourself, that's
what you're gonna do. But what is the armor? Take unto you the
whole armor of God. Verse 13, that you may be able
to withstand in the day, in the evil day, and having done all
to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.
What is the truth? Well, we've just been declaring
the truth from God's word. Sin's put away. It doesn't exist. That's the truth. God's satisfied. God saw the
travail of his son's soul, and God said, I'm satisfied. Sin's been buried in the depths
of the sea. It's gone. He that has suffered
in the flesh hath ceased. Cease and desist. Stop it immediately. Hath ceased from sin. Before
God Almighty, I had no sin. But I'm in Christ. I have His
righteousness. And I long to know The power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering that I might
be made conformable unto his death. That's the truth. Breastplate
of righteousness. That's not my righteousness.
I have no righteousness. That's his righteousness. That's
his righteousness. Your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. We have peace with God. The good
news of the gospel is that I'm reconciled to God,
and I can go into the very presence of God with my feet shod, with
the gospel covered. You know, those seraphim had
to take two wings and cover their feet, didn't they? when they
hovered over the throne of God and cried, holy, holy, holy.
Why? Because their feet, just like we call it, well, I have
feet of clay. What does that mean? It means
I'm a creature. I'm created. I don't have feet like the feet
that the Lord Jesus Christ has that have been tried in the fire
and been proven. Revelation talks about them being
brazen. No, my feet have to be covered.
What are they covered with? They're covered with the gospel.
Covered with the gospel. Above all, taking the shield
of faith. What is faith? It's believing
God. Just believe God. That's a work of grace in the
heart. No question about that. God has to give us faith. We
believe what we see, what we believe, what we experience,
we believe what To believe something we can't see and something that's
contrary to our experience, that's a work of grace. God has to do
that in the heart, doesn't he? And that's exactly what he does.
Exactly what he does. Wherewith you should be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the devil. Oh, the fiery darts
of doubt and fear. And what's he do? He brings up
our sin. That's what he said. That's what
he does. And the strength of sin is the
law, and he accuses us, he's the accuser of the brethren.
And what do we say? I've suffered in the flesh, and
therefore, before God Almighty, I have ceased from sin. That sin doesn't exist. He can get us to look at our
sin, and to wallow in the guilt and shame of our sin. That's
what he's... Well, I'll take you away from
grace, won't I? And take the helmet of salvation,
the sword of the spirit. Well, we know what the sword
of the spirit is. That's the word of God. The helmet of salvation. He's talking about keeping your
mind, thinking about the things that God has spoken. Believing
what God has said. Brethren, I want to close with
this glorious truth. There's going to come a day sooner
than we think that we're going to suffer in the flesh. We're going to die. And in our
experience that day, we will cease from sin. Sin will be no
more. wherein dwelleth righteousness. The only thing in heaven is righteousness. We taste of the heavenly gift
now. In that day, as a bride adorned for her husband, we will
sit at the banqueting table and feast at the wedding of the Lamb. We draw from an underground,
unseen well of water of life now. Keep drawing, but in that
day we will sit by a river clear as crystal flowing from the throne
of God and from the lamb in that day. We gather our daily bread and
like the children of Israel, we eat it in the wilderness,
but then The unleavened bread of life himself will be our daily
portion, our continual feasting. We look through glass darkly
now, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
I shall know even as I am known. Turn over just a couple of pages
in closing to 2 Peter chapter three. Second Peter chapter three. He that hath suffered in the
flesh. Perfect tense, hath suffered,
finished, done. Passive voice, done to me. Hath
ceased from sin. Ceased. Stop, cease and desist,
stop right now. Doesn't exist. One day in my experience, sin
will be no more. 2 Peter 3, verse 13. Verse 12, looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. No more sin. No more sin. Oh, what a day that'll be. He
that has suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. Amen? Amen. Tom, you come, please. Number 32 in the spiral hymnal. Children of wrath In bondage
and sin We helplessly lay Condemned and unclean But strong in its
infinite Justice and wrath Deep and in we suffer An eternal death
But long before time had ever begun, One stood in our place,
God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His whole life to atone for our sins. The great substitute, behold,
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the One, of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free.