Alright, let me get my notes
out here. Title of the message, Arm Yourselves
Likewise. Arm Yourselves Likewise. Peter starts out here, For as
much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, Christ,
the Son of God, suffered for us. I know we can't comprehend the
sufferings of Christ. I know that we cannot fully enter
in to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He suffered the full
wrath of God for our sins. us who believe the gospel, our
sin. He suffered the full penalty
of God's law, the unmitigated wrath of God. Christ has suffered
for us in the flesh. Any suffering, any suffering
that you and I may be called upon to do is nothing It's light
in comparison to His suffering for us. Paul calls it light afflictions. He calls our sufferings and our
troubles and our trials, he calls them light afflictions. In the light of Jesus Christ's
sufferings, they are light afflictions. And He suffered. all that we
would have to suffer if He did not take our place. He did not
stand in our place. If He did not receive the blows
of justice, I'd have to, and you'd have to. Have to. And it says He suffered for us.
He suffered for a particular people. He did not suffer for
everyone. That's just so. That's so. He suffered for a particular
people, a people who deserve the wrath of God. But nonetheless, they are God's
people, chosen of God, given to Christ. And Christ came here
and took our place. I like to think He took John's
place. before God's law, hung on Calvary
in John's place, took God's wrath in my place. Now, if I'm called
upon to suffer, what's the attitude in which I ought to do it? Gladly. Gladly. You remember in Acts
when the apostles were beaten at one time for preaching the
gospel? And after they left, they left
that mob, and they left the ones who beat them, and they rejoiced
that they were, listen, that they were counted worthy, worthy
to suffer for Christ's sake. Now, arm yourselves likewise. with the same mind and with the
same attitude. Arm yourselves, arm your minds,
and it means this, arm yourselves with the heaviest armor. Put
the heaviest armor on. And when I read that, that meaning
of it, I thought of Ephesians chapter 6. What is our armor? Look over in Ephesians chapter
6. What is our armor in this warfare? Every soldier that goes
to war has armor. He's given armor to protect himself
with. And what is ours? Ephesians chapter
6. Look in Verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That's what's going on. That's
the warfare. It's a spiritual warfare that's
going on. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth." Truth. and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, and there's nothing
that can penetrate that breastplate. Not His righteousness. Not His. Mine it can, but not His. And
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above
all things, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer, supplication
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, supplication
for all saints." This is the armor. Arm yourselves likewise. We are to be ready to suffer
for Christ's sake if called upon to do so. Not disappointed, not
disappointed, but with a rejoicing attitude that the Lord would
allow me, that He would literally allow me to suffer for His namesake. Now I know this, and I know that
in the time we live in, this country we live in, We have never
even began to suffer what these people have suffered that Paul
is writing to. I mean, they gave up their lives.
Their families were split up. These are the ones who lived
in the caves. These are the ones that Nero set on fire for a spectacle
and wrapped them up in animal clothes and let the dogs tear
them apart. We haven't even come close to that. You know, I have
not suffered over the Gospel. Not in comparison to what our
ancestors, our spiritual ancestors have. I've not suffered anything.
Not really. Well, somebody didn't speak to
me. Somebody turned their back on me. I mean, I've had that
to happen. I've had somebody turn their back on me and not
speak to me. But what's that compared to being set on fire?
What's John Bunyan? was put in prison, a dungeon
now. In his day, it was a dungeon. He was put in prison for 12 years. All he had to do was denounce
the gospel. That's all he had to do. And
he sat in prison for 12 years. But arm yourselves, because who
knows? Who knows what may come our way? It's an attitude of readiness.
It's an attitude of joy to be kind of worthy to do so. And he says here in verse 1,
"...and he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin. Sin has no more dominion over
him." And here's the thought. Christ suffered for us in the
flesh. He suffered for our sins. He
died for our sins. He was buried, He rose again,
He's seated at God's right hand. That's not going to happen again
for Him. That's over with. The sin issue is over with. He'll
never ever suffer again for sin. Ever again. He bore our sins
in His body on the tree and they are gone. They're gone. He put
them away by the sacrifice of Himself. He did this one time.
It's not going to happen again. Now you who believe, You who
believe were crucified with Christ, you're buried with Christ, you're
risen with Christ, you're not the servants of men, you're the
servants of God now. You're done with sin. You're
done with it. Sin is not your master. It's not your master. If it is,
you're lost. You're still lost. Turn over
to Romans chapter 6. I saw this just a little bit
ago before coming down here. Romans chapter 6. I'm going to
read verse 14 verses. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? We died in Christ to
sin. We've been born again. We have
a new nature in us that's born of God. We are dead to sin. We're
dead to its reigning power, not to its presence, not to its presence,
but to its reigning power and to its guilt. Know you not that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into His death? Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life." That old life is past. We'll see this
in the next verse. That old life is gone. It's gone. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, he is not in control no more, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, we are
not the servants of sin no more. For he that is dead is freed
from sin, Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dies no more. Death has no more dominion over
Him, and it has no more dominion over you either. It's in Christ.
And sin has no more dominion over you. If you're in Christ,
it has no dominion over you. Now you know and I know we still
sin. We know that, but it doesn't
dominate our lives. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Now
likewise, likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
to sin. Sin's not your master. When it
whistles, you don't come to it anymore. You don't run to it anymore.
But you are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have
dominion over you, you are not under the law, you are under
grace. I think that explains it. I think what I just read
there explains it. We live now to please God, not
ourselves. And we're not the servants of
sin anymore. We're servants. Think about it. Do you see yourself this way?
Servants of God. I didn't believe on Jesus Christ
just to keep from going to hell. That's not salvation. Even though
it's part of it, it's included in it, but we are His servants. We're His servants. And He's
our master. Sin's not my master. Satan's
not my master. Christ is. But here's what another
interpretation of this is this. The believer has got released
from the power of sin that he or she may serve God. You've
got release from it. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
through His sufferings, through His death, you and I have gotten
released from sin. It's controlling power. You're God's servants now. Christ
has saved us. We don't live after this flesh
anymore. Let me go back to 1 Peter here. He says here in verse 2 that
he no longer should live the rest of his life, his time, on
this earth in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will
of God. Christ has saved us. And we don't live after the lust
of our flesh. We don't live after the appetite
of our flesh anymore. But we live after the will of
God. We seek God's will. We seek to do God's will. That's
our desire. Lord, not my will, but Thine
be done. And look in verse 3. For the
time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess
of wine, drinking bouts, Ravelings, banquetings, abominable idolatries. The best way I can sum up that
verse is this. That course is closed. There have been a few times I've
went to play golf, and I've gotten to the golf course, and it says,
Course Closed. And this is what Peter is saying. The time past of your life was
sufficient for you to live like a bunch of hellions, for you
to fill up the lust of your flesh. And now that course is closed.
That's over with. You're not going to travel that
course again. That road's closed. To every believer, that road's
closed. We had enough time in the past to live after this flesh
and fulfill the lust of the flesh and to walk in wickedness, but
that's over with now. That's what he's saying. That
course is over with. That chapter of our lives is
over. That's not you anymore. That's
the old man. But that's not that new man that's
creating Christ Jesus. And the reason we don't judge
others is because we were once just like them. You know, that course is close
to us, but we're not going to turn around and those who are
still on it and just despise them, look down on them like
the Pharisees did, because we were just like them. Look over
in Titus chapter 3. Over here in Titus. Titus chapter 3, look in verse 2 and 3. He says here, speak evil of no
man. Henry used to tell us in the
Bible class all the time, he said, if you don't have anything
good to say about somebody, just don't say it at all. just don't
say it at all, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, we were just like them, disobedient,
deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice,
envy, hateful, hating one another, Look at that next verse. And
after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared. But we were just like him. That's what he's saying. You
know, Solomon said, I'm going to paraphrase this. Solomon said
in one place, don't get upset when you hear somebody say something
about you, because you know yourself that you have said the same thing
about others. He said, so don't get so upset
when you hear it said about you. Now, where am I at here? Now,
in verse 4. Verse 4. Now, this is the way
we walked, and the course of our life is over with. That course
of our life is over with. Now, he's talking here about
the ones we used to run with, the people we used to run with. They think it's strange that
you run not with them, to the same excess of riot, speaking
evil of you. They think it's strange that
you don't run with them anymore. That's why the scripture says
that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country
and among his own brethren. But they think it's strange that
you don't run with this crowd anymore. They think it, and that
word strange means foreign to them. That's what it means. It means that we're strange.
It means foreign. It means foreign in nature to them. They don't
understand what happened. They can't understand, you don't
enjoy this no more? They don't understand this kind
of behavior. It's foreign to them. How can
you not enjoy reveling, drinking bouts, Chasing after loose women,
or loose women chasing after stupid men. How could you not
enjoy that no more? That's foreign to them. That's
foreign to the lost man. He can't get it. He can't comprehend
it. They can't understand this kind of behavior. That's what
he's saying. It's strange to them. What happened? I'll tell you what happened.
The grace of God happened. God chose you like a brand in
the fire. He plucked you out. All of you
on that broad road headed to hell, and God pulled this one
out and set him on the straight and narrow way. I know I've told
you this before, but I had a friend that I grew up with. He was killed
at the age of 19. We ran around together, did some
stupid stuff together, and the Lord took me and pulled me away
from Him. And I could have just as easily
been right there with Him at night. Because I was with Him
plenty of those nights. And God killed Him. But I was just a bran plucked
from the fire. And here I stand. Forty-some
years later, preaching the gospel. Isn't that amazing? I never forget
those things. Those are things I can look back
and I can see the hand of God, the grace of God, the love of
God in Christ. But now all those who live, in
verse 5, all those who live after the flesh, all those who think
it's strange that you don't carry on like this anymore, you don't
enjoy this anymore, I'm gonna have to give account to Jesus
Christ, who is the judge of the quick and the dead. You know, nobody gets away with
anything. Nobody. Every thought, every idle thought,
every idle word, God is gonna bring into judgment. And Jesus
Christ is gonna be the judge of the quick and dead. Now this
verse 6 is not an easy verse. I'm just going to give you basically
what I read. in several places today, gleaned. I'll give you what I gleaned
today from this verse 6. For this cause was the gospel
preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in
the Spirit. But what he's saying here, this is the reason the
gospel was preached to those that are dead. And he's speaking
of Noah, Abraham, David, those old saints. They're dead to us. They're not in this world no
more. Now they're with the Lord. They're alive, they're with the
Lord, to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord.
But they're dead to us, but the gospel was preached to them.
It was preached to them. They were men like us. They were
subject to the things you and I are subject to. They were men
of like passion. But the gospel was preached to
them as well as us. And they live to the glory of
God in spirit now, just as someday when we die, and we put this
body of sin in the grave, we're gonna go right there and join
them. We'll be right there with them. Worshiping God in the spirit. I think verse seven is a sobering
verse. And I don't think we think of
it enough. I don't think we keep it before us enough. I know I
don't. I know I don't. But the end of all things is
at hand. You know, a day with the Lord
is a thousand years and a thousand years one day. What's six days have gone by?
Six thousand years, six days. What's that to God? And when
Christ came, He said that He came in the end of the time,
end of the world. He came. They're in Hebrews. Well, it's
just been a couple days. That's just been a couple days. And I think it's close. I think
it's close. But the end of all things is
at hand. There is an end to this. I was saying this to Jason yesterday.
We were talking something about the way things are going now.
And I said, I said, this has to come to an end. This has to
come to an end. God said so. God said He's going
to put an end to all this. He's going to burn this earth
up. We might see it. We might see
it. The end of all things is at hand.
How this ought to make and keep us sober-minded. How this ought to make us set
our hearts on things above where it's not going to be burned up. Wouldn't you think it'd be foolish
if you was going to go buy a house tomorrow that you know the next
day is going to be burned down? Say, I'm going to go buy that
house. That's a nice looking house.
But they're going to burn it down tomorrow. It won't look any better than
that. It'll just be ashes. Set your hearts on things above. And how this ought to make us
pray often for one another. Often. And to pray for the lost. Paul said in Romans 10, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Pray often for family members,
loved ones, that God would save them. He's in the saving business. He still saves sinners. Pray, he says there in verse
seven. Be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. Don't quit watching. Don't quit watching. If he doesn't
burn it up, he'll come and get me anyway. Sooner or later he's gonna come
and get me. And above all things, have fervent
love among yourselves. Have energetic, energetic, looking
after, that's what, looking after one another. Looking after one
another, not just our temporal needs, but looking after each
other spiritually. You see somebody going down a
wrong path, say, brother, listen, come back here, talk to me here. The Scripture says, and it says
here, love covers a multitude of sins, and there's no greater
proof of that than the love of God. I'm glad He doesn't expose my
sins. Love covers a multitude of sins. I don't have to worry. Somewhere
down the road, a skeleton's going to fall out of the closet. His love has covered all that.
Covered a multitude of sins. Love is the greatest of all.
It'll keep down strife. It'll keep down envy. It'll keep
down hatred. If there's anything we ought
to cultivate, it's love. Love. And be generous, he says. Hospitable. Hospitable. I tell you what, living in a
world like this, it's easy to close ourselves off, isn't it?
It's easy to close yourselves off in a world like we live in. He says, show hospitality. These are marks of grace in the
soul. And you know, this is how we serve God. You're sitting
there, and I'm standing here preaching. And people will say,
you're the servant of God. Well, so are you. And the very
way we serve God is when we serve one another. I was hungry and
you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me. In prison and you visited me. That's how we serve God is when
we serve one another. And I can tell you, my love to
you is a direct reflection of my love to God. It'll be in the
same proportion. Now he says here in verse 10-11,
I'll close, "...as every man hath received the gift..." God's
given every one of you in here, God's given you a gift. Every
one of you believe. God's given you a gift. And He's going to tell us here,
so use it. Even so, minister. Use the gift God's given you.
Don't envy another man's gifts. Use the one God's given you. Even so, minister the same one
to another. See, that's what we do with gifts. The gifts God's
given me, I use it for you. And what He's given you, we use
it for the body of Christ. It's used for the body of Christ,
as good stewards of the manifold, the many-sided grace of God. Many-sided grace of God. Now, if any man speak, let him
speak as the oracles of God. Any man minister, let him do
it as of the ability which God giveth. The ability I have to
preach is of God. It's of God. If I have the gift
at all, it's of God. That God in all things may be
glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion
forever and ever. If God's given the gift of preaching,
then preach. If God has given the gift of
singing, sing. Sing. If God's given you the
gift of giving, give. I know a man, and some of you
know him, he went to 13th Street. God gave that man the gift to
give. I watched him, he built the church
building there in Pikeville, Paul Thacker. He built the church
building there, Parsons, when there was nobody there, nobody.
He just gave the keys to Henry. I watched him give cars to people,
and he told me this one time. He said, John, and he tried to
retire twice, then he came back out of it, he said, and this
is what he told me when he came back out of retirement, he said,
John, God's given me the gift to make money. He said, I recognize
that. I mean, and then seriously, it's
this thing like whatever he touched, it just exploded. He said, God's given me the gift
to make money. And he said, now, I can't lay
that down. And he used that just liberally, liberally. When I was reading something
the other day about giving, I was thinking about him. He always
comes to my mind. If you're given the gift to preach,
preach. If it's to sing, sing. If it's
to pray, pray. Some people are given the gift
to pray. I've heard men pray that I knew they prayed. They
prayed. So whatever gifts God's given
you, use it. Use it. And brethren, we cannot
be thankful enough for what God has done for us in Christ. We can't be thankful enough. Can't worship Him too much. Can't
love Him too much. Not at all. Not at all. And if
you and I ever call on to suffer, If we're ever privileged to do
that, do it with joy. Do it with joy. Our Lord redeemed
us with joy. Okay, Craig.