First Peter chapter four, let's
read the first four verses. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased
from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in
the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the
time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess
of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein
they think it strange that you run not with them to the same
excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account
to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead, the living
and the dead. 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 the end of all things is
at hand. Be ye therefore sober, and watch
unto prayer, and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves,
for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." All right. Now I want
to go through these verses with you. We'll go through each of
them hopefully together. And I want to focus especially
on the first couple verses and also verse six as we do this. And actually every verse, but
verse seven and eight as well, okay? So I've entitled this message,
let me get my title here. the gospel is preached to the
dead, and that's from verse 6. We're going to get to that, but
before we do, I want to go through these first few verses in the
beginning here. Now, a couple weeks ago, we did
touch on verses 1 and 2, and if you're anything like me, what
you heard a week ago has pretty much faded from your memory,
but hopefully you will get the sense of what's being spoken
of here in these verses and the verses that preceded chapter
4 and 1 Peter. because it has been about our
suffering, and the Lord's death for his people as our substitute,
and him as our master, and him, the one who suffered by the will
of God to put away our sins, and we have this great privilege
of following him in our life, walking by faith, and enduring
all things for his glory. Okay. The book of 1 Peter is
a wonderful, wonderful gift to God's people. It's wonderful.
It tells us about all of the greatness of God, our Savior,
and about the greatness of our salvation. And it tells us about
who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, how we have been made
all in Him. And then it brings these things
to the very practical matter of our suffering in this world,
suffering temptations, afflictions, trials, persecutions, whatever
it is, suffering for Christ's sake. And so he opens this chapter,
for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now, I don't know about
you, but those words, I've turned those words over and over in
my mind. He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin. And I wondered, what does it mean? Because when we read
the word of God, we not only want to understand it, we want
to see it through the view of our own experience in faith,
don't we? So that we can apply these things
to ourselves. The Lord saved us. He saved us
before we were born. but he brought that salvation
to us through the preaching of his word, so that he called us
to the salvation he already obtained for us, to receive it. And so
he says here that he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased
from sin. Now we know, I'm just speaking
of my own self personally, I know I haven't ceased from sin, have
I? I know you haven't, I haven't,
but he says here, for as much then as Christ has suffered for
us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, okay? Christ
suffered because he offered himself to God to bear the sins of many. This is what it says in Hebrews
9 verse 28. He offered himself once to bear
the sins of many. That's why he suffered. He was
offering himself to God. He suffered for our sins. It
was an offering of love. It was an offering of himself
as holy. But he was bearing our sins.
And so as the sin bearer, he had to suffer and die for the
punishment of our sins that came upon him. He stood in our place.
for the sins of many, not for all men, but for his people. He suffered and died. He laid
down his life for the sheep. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. And all those for whom Christ
suffered are saved. And in their experience of their
life, they would come to that salvation through the preaching
of the gospel. So Christ suffered because he
offered himself to bear the sins of many. His offering of himself
was complete. He offered himself as he suffered
and offered himself unto death. It was a complete giving of himself. He gave himself to do the will
of God. He gave himself to save his people.
He offered himself in love. It was a total sacrifice. Now,
his death released him from all sin. Because when He bore our
sins, He then bore the curse for our sins. God poured out
His wrath upon Him, and He endured the full payment God required
for our sins. because the death he suffered
was payback for our sins. That's what his suffering was.
His offering more than satisfied God, if we could say that. I
don't know exactly what this truly means, but I know that
Christ's suffering for us completely took away our sins from before
God. And he established for us an
everlasting righteousness, even though his sufferings were for
a short time, Because He is God, the Son of God, then His sufferings
in the flesh were an equivalent for all of His people. There
was not one sin left unpaid. All of God's justice was vented
on Him. The scales of His justice were
completely balanced, so much so that the blessings of all
eternity given to Christ were given to Him with His people,
all of His people receiving those blessings. That's why I say it
more than paid the debt that we owed God. Therefore, because
He suffered for us, we are released from that debt, the debt of our
crimes against God's law and justice. The penalty for our
crimes was paid for us by Christ in His death." Now this is something
we have to get a hold of, day by day, moment by moment. The
wrath of God is removed from me because Christ suffered that
wrath. We are justified by His blood. His blood was received by God
and God justified Him and raised Him up from the dead. Okay? Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of many and put away their
sins at His first coming. When Jesus comes again, his second
coming, because he offered himself in death, that first time he
came, because our sins were fully put away by God, or by him before
God, in his death, he shall appear the second time without sin.
Without sin, because he put them away. And death, therefore, was
the release It was the full payment received by God from Christ in
His death. God poured out that wrath upon
Him and He died, He gave His life, He gave Himself for us.
But that death then was the end of His sin. He ceased from sin. And because our sins are fully
put away before God by Him in His death, He shall appear the
second time without sin in total victory over sin and death to
raise up His people in their bodies. In their bodies, we shall
be raised from the dead. It says in Philippians 321, who
shall change, this is Christ, He's the one who is who in this
verse, who shall change our vile body That's the sinful body you
now see, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
no sin, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue
all things to himself. Christ rose from the dead in
victory and triumph over sin and death. Therefore, all things
are given to him and he is able as God the Son and the man Christ
Jesus to subdue all things to Himself. That's amazing. That's
why He's gonna raise our bodies. Because He put away death by
His death on the cross for us. But though Christ put away our
sins before God, our physical body now, that we live in, remains
dead in sins. This body is dead because of
sin. It was made from the dust, and
to dust it must return. It says in Romans 8, verse 10,
if Christ be in you, If Christ be in you, the body is dead. So that means that even though
Christ lives in us, our body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Because of his righteousness,
because of his obedience, we live. Christ lives in us, we
live to God. But our body is yet dead because
of sin. How can we then be free from
sin in our body? How can we, who now have a body
that's dead because of sin, be free from sin in our body? Well,
here's the mystery of the gospel. And this is what, I don't know
how old I was when I understood this, late in life, because we
were joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the key that unlocks
the mystery of all of God's truth to us, is that when He chose
His Son to be Christ, He chose us in Him, chose Him such that
He would stand for us and own all of our obligations to God
and fulfill all of our obedience to God. So that what He did,
we did in Him. And what God gave to him, he
gave to him with us in him. He gave everything to his son
as Christ, all things in heaven and earth, and he gives to us
in him everything he gives to Christ. This is beyond our understanding. I wanna read this truth to you
in a book of the Bible. You may not expect to find it,
but in Zechariah chapter 2, Zechariah 2, I would encourage you to turn
there if you have your Bible and you can find the book of
Zechariah. It's near the end of the Old Testament. I'll give
you a minute to get there. Zechariah was a prophet. He was
speaking of, as it says in 1 Peter 1, he was speaking of these days. He was speaking of the salvation
that would come to us. He was not speaking about a prophecy
that would be fulfilled in his own day. He was speaking of the
time after Christ would come into the world, this prophecy
would be fulfilled. And it would be fulfilled during
that period of time from Christ's first coming until his second
coming. That's what he's speaking about
here in Zechariah chapter 2 and verse 10. Listen to this. Zechariah,
he says these words, sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion.
Now, we know daughter of Zion means the people of God, those
born of God, those called Zion. In Hebrews chapter 12, it confirms
this. It says, you're not come to Mount
Sinai, you're come to Zion. You come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You come to an innumerable company
of angels, to the church of the firstborn. All these things are
spoken in the New Covenant. So here, daughter of Zion is
not physical national people called the Jews living then. It's talking about the New Testament
church. The church of God, which is actually
not just limited to the New Testament, it spans all of history. This
is the daughter of Zion. So sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion, for lo, I come. The one who's coming is Christ.
Lo, I come, but he's called the Lord, Jehovah. I come and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. Notice verse 11, and
many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day. Joined,
there's the key word here, joined to the Lord. You know what happens,
God has given us the physical relationship between a man and
a woman in marriage. It's a joining of two people
as one. And God says in his own word,
this union between a man and his wife is designed to show
us a spiritual union between Christ and His people. Much more. is the reality than just the
type. And the type is a physical type,
but the reality of it is eternal. And so he says, many nations
shall be joined to the Lord in that day. Those nations, not
just Jews, but Gentiles, many nations, shall be brought into
union with Christ in spirit because they were chosen by God the Father
in Christ from eternity, as it says in Ephesians 1 verse 4 and
many other places. So many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day and shall be my people. This is Christ,
these are his people. And I will dwell in the midst
of thee. I'll dwell among them. Thou shalt
know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to thee. The Lord sent
the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts sent Christ. That's
who he's speaking about here. You see the oneness of God. And the Lord
shall inherit Judah his portion, in other words, God's people
are his inheritance, in the holy land and shall choose Jerusalem
again. It seems as if when we come to
know the gospel, God has just then chosen us. But it's revealed,
no, God's will was from eternity. All right, so I mentioned this
promise of God concerning Christ's coming and his elect people,
which are the church, who were joined to Christ in this day
of the gospel, this day we now live, this gospel era, because
this is how we now can be free from sin in our spirit, in our
soul, and in our body. Okay, let me ask you these questions
to help cement these things to you in a way that it became apparent
to me this week as I was thinking about this. Whose are you now? Whose? Who do you belong to?
Where are you now? Where are you? What are you now? Now the answer to all these,
whose we are and where we are and what we are now, The answer
to all these is that we are Christ. We are where He
is. We are what He is because we've
been joined to Him by God in this eternal union that was made
from eternity. And in time, we experience that
union when we hear the gospel and we're called from death to
life, and joined to Christ, God gives us faith to see these things
are so. Now, when did you learn this?
When did we learn this? It doesn't matter. The fact is,
it's the truth of God's word. We were joined to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we see this in many places. We were joined to him
in the everlasting covenant of God's grace, so that when Christ
lived, when he walked this earth and lived his life, When He died,
when He was buried, when He rose from the dead, when He ascended,
and when He was seated at the right hand of God, all of His
people, having been joined to Him by God, our Father, were
in Him then. We were in Him then. He didn't
do these things detached from his people, but as one with his
people, so he could do them as them. What he did, we did in
him. Where he is, that's where we are. We're with him. I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee, not only in spirit, but
in our union. Because we were in him by God's
eternal doing, in him when he engaged with his father to stand
before God as our surety. in Him as the last Adam to do
all that God required to bear our obligations and our debt
and to put away our sins by the offering of Himself. Therefore,
because God did this, and because Christ fulfilled that will of
God in all of these things, therefore, when the Lord Jesus Christ lived,
we lived. We obeyed in His obedience. And
when He died once to sins, we died to sins. When Christ was
buried, we were buried, and our sins were put away out of God's
memory. And when God raised Christ in
that great act whereby He justified Him in all that He did by the
will of God for us, we were raised with Him because we were in Him. Now this is too fantastic. for
our minds to get around, isn't it? It's too big, isn't it? But you can find these things
in scripture all over. When the soldiers came to take
Jesus in the garden, and he said to them, whom seek ye? They said,
Jesus of Nazareth. Remember that whole interaction
there, that first time they fell down backward? And then he asked
them again, whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth. He said, if
you seek me, and let these go their way. Because he stood one
for all, Christ died. We didn't die ourselves personally,
but we died in him. We suffered, we died, we lived,
we rose, we ascended. We're seated together, Ephesians
2.6, in heavenly places in Christ, according to God's eternal purpose.
Now, because he did these things, When Christ died once to sins,
we died to sins. And when He was buried, we were
buried, and our sins were put away. When God raised Him in
that great act whereby He justified Him in all that He did, we were
raised, we were justified. And when Christ ascended in victorious
triumph, we ascended in victory in Him, with Him. When Christ
was seated at the right hand of God, we were seated in Him
because He's our surety. He's our representative head.
What He did, we did. This is fantastic, isn't it?
His obedience, His obedience is our obedience. His offering
of Himself is our satisfaction to God. His righteousness is
our own righteousness before God. God did this. How could anyone have even imagined
this to be so? And yet God set down the prototype
in Adam, so that what God did in Adam, when he gave Adam that
one command, and he disobeyed that one command, and we sinned
in that one act, and we died in that death, he was looking
forward to Christ, how we meant it for evil, but God meant it
for good. to bring many to salvation, to life. What a blessed thing this is.
And this is how we can be free. Now listen, when he arose from
the dead, he himself by his divine nature as God, he raised himself. He who is the resurrection and
the life took his human nature into union with his divine nature
to fill his human nature with all the fullness of his Godhead. And he now is the quickening
spirit. We saw that last week. And He
gives life, even eternal life, to all of His people in their
spirit, soul, and in their body. So now the question that how
can we be free from sin in our body? The answer to that question
is we can be free from sin in our body because we're joined
to Christ who is free from sin in His body because He put away
our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Yes, our body is dead because
of sin, but Christ purchased. He purchased us and He purchased
all that's ours. Remember Ruth? Boaz said, I'll
buy her and I'll buy everything that's hers. We are not our own,
therefore we belong to Jesus. He now lives in us by His Spirit. God has raised up the Lord. He
says, God has both raised up the Lord and He will raise up
us by His own power. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? If He has risen from the dead,
what do you think's gonna happen to your body? If His death put
away sin from Him and put it away from His people, then He
put away sin for our body too. The Apostle Paul is asked this
question in 1 Corinthians 6. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have
of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with
a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's. Because Christ dwells in us,
though the body is dead because of sin, as I read before, he
shall change our vile body, that it might be fashioned like his
glorious body, according, I love these words, to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Now listen
to this verse from Romans chapter 8 and verse 11. If the spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, and who was that spirit?
the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God. He raised Himself, God
raised Him from the dead. If the Spirit of Him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, or since the Spirit of
God dwells in us, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in
you. so that our bodies shall die. They're dead because of
sin. They have to go back to the dust.
But when our bodies die, we and our souls immediately go to be
with the Lord. And on the last day, the last
day, Christ is going to call every body to life again. Some to the resurrection of life,
some to the resurrection of damnation. Read John chapter five, verse
21 through 29. So our bodies shall die, and
when we die, our souls will go to be with the Lord. And on the
last day, Christ shall raise up our bodies by his sovereign,
omnipotent power, because he was once offered to bear the
sins of many, to put their sins away by the sacrifice of himself. And because he now dwells in
us by his spirit, he will quicken us, he will make us alive, give
everlasting life to our bodies, okay? Now, this is spoken of
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and I have to read this to you.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he says this, beginning at verse
53. Listen to this. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That's amazing. We're gonna drop
this flesh, we're gonna put on incorruption and immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." What precious
words. What precious words of victory.
By the sin-atoning death of Christ, death releases us from sin, and
in the resurrection, that release will be brought to final victory
when Christ changes our vile body to be like His glorious
body. So the conclusion of these things
brings this exhortation to us from this verse here in 1 Peter
4. As Christ has suffered for us
in the flesh, Now bring along all these things we've been talking
about, our union with Christ. And his suffering for us was
our suffering in him. As he suffered for us in the
flesh, therefore arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the
flesh has ceased from sin. Christ suffered, His body died,
sin was no more with Him. He put away sin, and that's the
way our sin is put away from us. In this body now, in this
present time, in this world, now we live by faith, don't we? We live by faith. We don't have
a body that's immortal without corruption. Our body's full of
corruption. It's mortal. It's going to die.
But we possess by faith all that God says we have in Christ. We
now possess it by faith so that we look upon it. We're persuaded
of it. We embrace it. And we confess
we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And it's that that
causes us to take these words here in 1 John chapter 4. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as he is, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he
is now, so are we in this world. Only faith can see that, can
it? Since the body is dead because of sin, and since we long to
be clothed in our tabernacle from heaven, the one that God
makes for us in heaven, therefore, by faith in our Savior and in
His word now, in His word and His work, we are to consider
all the suffering, all suffering, the will of God, that we follow
our Master in this suffering, and even our death and our body,
that it will be far better Far better for us to depart and to
be with the Lord, because we'll be with Christ. So knowing these
things, that this is the very truth of God from His Word, that
we're convinced of them by His Holy Spirit, what do we do? What
is our attitude then? The next verse of 1 Peter chapter
4 says, we've ceased from sin. No, not in our own experience,
nor even in our body now. But by faith, what we have, we've
experienced this. I mean, we have it in Christ,
and we are going to put this body off, this body of sin and
death. We're gonna put it away. Therefore,
we no longer should live the rest of this time in this flesh
to the lust of men, but to the will of God. Do you see that?
This body's gonna be put away. It's temporary. It's mortal. It's corrupt. And we loathe,
we're frustrated, like the Apostle Paul said, we say, wretched man
that I am. We want to be rid of it. The
only way to be rid of it is for it to die. And because Christ
put our sins away, our body, when it dies, will be our release
from sin and our entrance into glory. Our soul will go to be
immediately with the Lord and shortly thereafter, there will
be a general resurrection and we will be raised again in our
body. Our body and soul will be joined together by the quickening
spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, we relinquish therefore
our former attachment and our former service to our sinful
bodies in order that we might live by faith to the will of
God. That's what he's saying here.
No longer you should live the rest of your time in the flesh
to the lust of men, but to the will of God. We forsake the old
and we lay hold on the new. We lay hold on Christ, whose
we are, what we are, and where we are in him. We look to Him. And we live looking to and looking
for our Savior. And this causes those who knew
us before to think we are strange. Doesn't it? It does, that's what
he says. Verse three, he says, for the
time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles, that's what we were by nature, when we walked
in lasciviousness, lust, excessive wine, revelings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you
run not with them to the same excessive riots, speaking evil
of you. Look at you. You won't even hang out with
us anymore. You won't, you know, carouse around and chamber, whatever
they call it, you know, shacking up and all these other things.
You won't do these things because you have a, your whole mind has
been changed. What's wrong with you? You're
strange to us, yeah? You won't run to the same excessive
riot. Yeah, that's true. But he says here in verse five,
who shall give account? They speak evil of you, but they
shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick
and the dead, the living and the dead. All right? And then
the next verse. For, for this cause was the gospel
preached. Now, what is this cause here?
The cause for which the gospel is preached is that the dead
might know that they have to give an account. That's what
verse 5 says, who shall give account to him that's ready to
judge the living and the dead. Therefore, this cause he's about
to go into here is that they might know they have to give
an account and stand now in judgment in their conscience when the
gospel is preached. That's what he's saying in verse
6. He says, for this cause, the gospel is 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. Okay, so
there's the preaching of the gospel here. This is connected
with what was said before about Noah. Remember, Noah preached
the gospel. The spirit of Christ was in him,
preaching the gospel to who? Those who were dead in spirit. dead in spirit, and they were
in disobedience to the gospel. Only Noah and his family were
saved. But for this cause, the gospel
is preached also to them that are dead. Now, the gospel is
preached to those that are dead in sins. Remember Ephesians chapter
2? Even when we were dead in sins,
God, for his great love, or with he loved us, has quickened us
together with Christ. Now, that's the first thing.
Why is the gospel preached to them that are dead? He says the
next part. It was preached to them that
are dead, dead in sins, that they might be judged according
to men in the flesh. Judged how? Well, that they might
be judged because when the gospel comes, when it's preached to
men, what happens to those who hear it? They come under judgment. Men come under judgment when
the gospel is preached. It lays them bare. It discovers
them for what they are before God. It exposes us. We're guilty. We're corrupt. We're condemned. We're under the judgment of God.
We have to give an answer to our judge. How can we do that? The gospel also brings this glorious
news, not by righteousness in you, but in your judge who became
your redeemer. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. So it's got to be done here. Men who live in the flesh preach
the gospel to men who are dead in the sins. We preach. We're
just in our bodies now. And those who preach are merely
men. But when the gospel is preached, men come under the judgment of
it through those who preach it. And the gospel pronounces us
to be guilty and sinful and helpless in our sin and condemned and
unable in any way to justify ourselves before God. We cannot
stand before God. We cannot make God happy with
us. Someone else has to. That's what
the gospel tells us. It shuts us up to one hope, not
our obedience, but the righteousness of God. And so that men are left
to seek salvation and everything from Christ the Lord. The judge
of all, the only redeemer of God's elect people. This is what
the gospel does, doesn't it? It shuts men up to Christ. God's
gospel judges us when it's preached now. And men must answer in their
conscience. They must give an account to
God now in their conscience when the gospel is preached. How are
you going to answer? What account will you give? The
gospel reveals the only answer God will accept in judgment.
What is that? I hope that you know this answer.
I hope that you have found this to be the answer to every question. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Do you have that answer? Is that
the answer of your heart? Being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Is that your answer? Is that all of your answer? Is
that the only thing you have, Christ and Him crucified? In your conscience, when the
gospel is preached, when you get up in the morning, you go
to bed at night, and you lay there awake, or when you are
at work, when you think about standing before God, in your
conscience, do you have this answer? Lord, Let me flee to
the rock that is higher than I. Hide me in the cliff to the
rock. Put me in Christ. Keep me in
Him. And show me that, say unto my
soul, I am thy salvation. The gospel tells all to whom
it is preached that Christ is the only answer to God for sinners. He's the only answer to God for
the guilt of our sins, and for righteousness which God requires
of us, and for our own sinful hearts. This is all in the gospel. The gospel judges all who hear
it by discovering and exposing them, and it is to those who
hear it Both a saver of life, it's either a saver of life to
life, or it's a saver of death to death. And this is the way
it judges. It's just like on the last day,
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to separate the sheep from the
goats. So when the gospel is preached,
there's a judging that occurs. Those who hear it fleeing to
Christ, that gospel is to them a saver of life to life. But
those who hear it and say, I could care less. I have an answer. It's not this. And they are those
who, it's a saver of death to death. It's a sad thing, isn't
it? It's a horrible, terrible thing. See how the gospel is
God's saving message to his sheep. The gospel is for believers,
isn't it? It's for believers. Have you
noticed that? There's not a bunch of people
here. Why? Because not all men have faith. And how do we have it? It was
given. By what? By something God found in us?
No, by grace. We received it freely, by His
grace. And He persuaded us. He showed
Christ to us. And we said, that's the answer. That's all of my salvation. What God has done, what Christ
has done, and what God thinks and receives from Him for sinners,
that's it. And we come in our hearts to
Him. We say, Lord, receive me for Christ's sake alone. so that
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. I was thinking about this. Denise
and I, and I know many of you do too, frequently listen to
sermons from Sermon Audio. And we listen to these preachers
that we have come to love because they preach the gospel. Aren't
you glad? And I know I wouldn't know the
gospel hadn't had someone not preached it to me clearly. I
wouldn't. I remember when I was 17, I first
heard, it's not what God thinks of you that justifies you. It's
not your sincerity. It's not your commitment or dedication. It's what God thinks of Christ,
period. What a truth that was. And it continues to be the one
truth I love to hear. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. See, we're all
messed up. But we preach Christ crucified. Christ crucified, that's the
sum, that's the entirety of the counsel of God. This world, I
heard a preacher this week, I think it might have been Todd. He said,
this world was created for the cross. It's true. It was created for the cross
because in the cross of Christ, God sets forth his glory. Why would we want something more?
This is all of our salvation. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
at the apex. of all of God's will and work
and glory for all eternity. There the Lamb of God sits on
the throne of God. So the gospel divides the sheep
from the goats as Christ divides them in the day of judgment and
every man must answer Christ in their conscience when they
hear it. So we hear these words. Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your heart. Men answer the call of the gospel
now, don't they? They either come to Christ to
be accepted by Him and in Him, or they come with their religion
and their works to be accepted because of that. We have a decision
to make. We have an altar to go to. We
have a prayer to pray. We have all these different formulas
and processes. Those things will leave you in
your sin. Only one thing will get you out
of it. Christ and Him alone. And so God's elect, God sends
His preachers to preach to His elect, those who are dead, and
the gospel judges them. They're judged according to men
in the flesh, these preachers who preach God's word, but they
live according to God in the Spirit. That's what the gospel
does. It raises us to life. And look at verse 7. But the
end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer." Be sober, be serious. Don't think of your life as,
you know what, I'd really like to just stretch out a little
bit further. I'd like to stretch the years
of my life out a little longer because really if I had my way,
I would make eternity what I have now in this life. Don't think
that way. Be sober. And he says, be sober
and watch unto prayer. What does that mean to watch?
Well, there's many examples of this in scripture. Jesus talked
about those who were awake. Remember the foolish virgins,
the wise virgins, and many different things? Watching, Jesus was in
the garden with Peter, James, and John. He says, what, could
you not watch with me one hour? Because they fell asleep. To
watch is to be awake, is to be alert, is to be on guard against
the enemy. And what does he say to do this?
Why do you do this? Unto prayer. Unto prayer. So what we need, in light of
the total weakness that we have against sin and our sinful bodies,
is we need the Lord to save us and to uphold us. We need to
be aware of that, and we need to make our path in supplication
to God, and then in thanksgiving, finding our all in Christ, trusting
Him and relying on Him, and expecting Him to do all that He said thankfulness
and worship to God for all he's done in prayer. Everything in
our life should lead us to fall on the knees of our heart and
offer our supplication and thanksgiving and praise and worship to God
in prayer. And how I'm preaching to myself here, I'm preaching
to myself. Be watchful, be sober. The end
of all things is near. Our life seems like, well, it's
quite a long time. Actually, who knows, I might
live to be 110. You might, but compared to history,
that's a very short time. Compared to eternity, it's nothing.
Just look around us. Look at all the people who are
sick and dying. Look at your own self. It doesn't
take long to recognize the fact that your body, If it's on the
uptick, if you're still growing into your body, it's just to
prepare you for the downhill. We're all going to die. I won't
be here very much longer. I remember when we began meeting
together back in 2013 here in this area. I thought at the time,
I might have 10 or 20 years. That's more than half over now.
So life is short. Your life is short. Mine is short.
Don't look to extend your life. Don't look to enhance your comforts
in this world. Because as he said, our body
is dead because of sin. Those who have suffered in the
flesh have ceased from sin. We should therefore consider
the fact that since our body is going to die and we'll be
free from sin, then don't live the rest of your life now to
the lusts of men. We don't live our life for the life in this
world. We live our life for eternity.
That's what he's saying here. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would give us this grace to pray to you, to be watchful. We can't do anything without
your grace. We're so prone to wander, Lord,
we feel it, to leave the God we love, to leave our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, even though we have heard the gospel, we're
still sinful and weak, and we need your grace every day to
uphold us, to preserve us, to keep us in the faith. Bring us
to yourself. Keep us clinging to yourself. Cause us to call upon you and
make yourself known. Cause us to know the Lord. Help
us to see we're joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to
see he alone is our all. All that he did, all that he
is, is all that we have. And having him, we have all things.
And help us to praise you for your wisdom and your goodness
and grace and mercy. Your loving kindness and your
justice and righteousness and all of this. And help us to be
thankful in Jesus' name.