1 Peter 4. This is a difficult passage, and yet the Lord has given us
an understanding. We've looked at this many times
before. There are so many scriptures
just like it. We're going to turn to Romans
6 in a minute. The problem is, and it's talking about the new
man and the believer, he talks about our past life and our present
life. There's a very real change that
takes place in a believer. However, it's a paradox. We've got this old man in us
that still seems just as strong as ever. He doesn't seem any
different. And he's not. He's going to ever
be with us until the day we die. But there is a very real new
man, a new creature created in Christ Jesus in all of his people.
It's an old man and a new man. I like that illustration of the
two men living in the same house, don't you? That's the way it
is. The new man dwells up on the upper floor where there's
lights. The old man likes darkness, lives in a gutter in the basement,
you know. And they meet together all the time and have a fight.
But that's down to God, he said, who giveth us the victory. He
said, sin shall not have dominion over you. And he said, that old
man, soon enough, is going to be put away forever. And there's
no more matter. It's a mystery, isn't it? It's
a mystery. We struggle with sin. The temptations
are probably greater than they've ever been. As I've said, the child of God,
Satan knows who he does not have absolute control over. He knows
that. Like Job, didn't he? He said,
Job fears you for nothing because you put an ant in him. Didn't
he? He fears you for nothing. No,
you can't get out because you've hedged him back. That's right.
Aren't you glad? We're kept by the power of God.
But he said, you try him and he'll curse you. Did he? No, he didn't. He didn't. So we're kept by the same Lord,
by the same power, and it's new. And you know, there's nothing wrong with looking
for evidences of salvation. Paul said, no, you're not your
own selves. How does Christ be in you unless
you be a reprobate? Right? Don't look to them. Don't trust in them. Don't try to get some assurance
from them, nevertheless. I love, don't you love John Newton's
poem, or his saying, I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what
I ought to be, and I'm sure not what I'm going to be, but thank
God I'm not what I used to be. And the author of the scripture,
such were some of you, but you're washed. He said, I don't feel
like it. That's why Peter said, when the Lord said, you're clean,
he said, wash me all over, I don't feel clean. And you know, Peter wouldn't
have been with the Lord right then, would he? He wouldn't have
cared. He wouldn't have wanted washing.
You understand that? He wouldn't
have been with the Lord. But the Lord called him out of
darkness into his marvelous light, and that's the next message.
Put all those together. I've got some notes here. Margaret
used to say, I've got some notes here. I hope we don't have to
use them. Peter, Paul told Timothy, study
to show yourself through. A workman that may not be ashamed.
And I throw away more notes than I keep, but I hope, I really
don't need them, I hope the Spirit of God will bring scriptures
back to mind, thoughts, and so forth. But I went back and looked
at notes from this in 1990. And I don't very often do this,
but I've edited stuff. I've got those notes right there,
that's what I'm going to preach about. And I'm glad because I
still believe the same exact same thing. I started reading
through this, I thought it wouldn't change a thing. It hasn't changed
a thing. This is what we believe and what we preach. Let's read
it. Verses 1, 1 Peter 4. verses 1 through 6, and the title
of the subject is Past Life, Present Life, or Past Death,
Present Life. For as much then as Christ has
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. But 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 lust of men, but to the
will of God. The time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. And when
he walked in lasciviousness, and lust, and excess of wine,
and revelings, and bankruptings, and abominable idolatries, in
other words, that's what he lived for, or were dead in. Wherein now, though now, but
now, they, those same people he ran with, think it strange
you run not with them to the same excess of right." See what
he's talking about? He's talking about a new, I hate
to say way of life, but it is. He's put our feet in paths of
righteousness for His, not for our sake, not to brag on what
a good person, but for His namesake, His glory and honor. You see,
what I want us to understand, and we do, this church, I'm so
thankful for the understanding that you have. Melanie Hudson,
I asked her to record her Bible class for me, and she agreed
to it. I didn't think she would. She
said she was, and it was the first time, she said she was
so nervous through the whole thing, thinking, I'm going to
listen to this. It was fabulous. I thought, I'm
going to use it. There was things that I learned.
And I told her something so, for lack of a better word, I'm
so proud of it. She said, you have such an understanding. No
stone unturned. Seriously, she said, it's about
my fellowship. How many times have I preached for my fellowship?
Well, I learned some things. I told her, I'm going to use
some of that, but I'm not giving you credit for it. Like Manoah's wife, there's Manoah
back there, his wife's a woman of understanding, as is my wife,
and so many of you are, these ladies. Where was I when I said
that? I forget. Anyway, oh, Paul said
to Thessalonians, see, and you know this thing, see, I know
you know this thing, before him. You know this. You know, we're
not talking about establishing a righteousness. We're not talking
about earning our way to heaven or earning God's favor and works.
This is the last time I'm going to say this. Because the Spirit
of God has given us an understanding. Establishes in and through and
by and because of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. But we're created to do
good works. which God had before ordained,
that we should walk in them. This is talking about the believers
walking over and over again. It talks about the will of God,
the will of God, the will of God. This is the will of God,
your sanctification, that you possess your vessel, that you're
not being given over. There was a time when you were
given wholly to this world and the flesh and these things. But
God delivered us, not only from the penalty of sin, But the power
of it, the reigning ruling power of it. There are times we don't
feel like it, but it's so. Why are you here? Why are you
here? If you'd have known Peter before
the Lord called him and saved him, you'd have said, he'll never
darken the door of a church house. That old rough cussing sailor,
he ain't You know, everybody maybe tried to talk to him. He
ain't coming. He yelled, yes he is. And then you can't drive
him away. And the Lord changed him. Like all those animals in the
ark. How could they get along like
that? The Lord changed their nature. The lion laying down
with the lamb. And they all ate straw. Not each
other. That's the only way you can explain
this. And it's not of ourselves. I didn't have anything to do
with it. That lion knew the reason he was in there. Noah brought
me in here. I wouldn't be here. But he had the knowledge about
it, Kelly. I'm here by the grace of God. And I don't want to leave. Shut that door and pitch it. That's what we say. Don't let
this old man get out. He'll ruin me. But our Lord said he won't. You're
not under the law. You're under grace, the grace
of our Lord, and his grace is special. Okay, where am I? All right. It says, verse 4, I think it's strange you run
not with them, the same excess of right and speaking evil of
you." He's talking about believers who've got a new, a change of
heart, a change of mind, a change of masters, a change of family
and people and walk, talk, everything. And he says, they all, verse
5, shall give an account to him that's ready to judge the quick
and the dead, the living and the dead. And for this cause,
verse 6, was the gospel preached also to them that are dead. We'll
bring that out in a minute. It says you might be judged according
to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit,
and by the Spirit. A man hath not the Spirit of
God, he's none of it. All right, let's go back to verse
1. Now he begins by saying, he begins,
he gives a preeminence where it belongs. Christ suffered sin. Christ came down to this world
to save his people from their sin. And that's not just from
the penalty of it. That's from the power of it,
like we've been saying. It's a denial of the salvation
of God and the work of God's Holy Spirit if there's not a
real change in somebody. And we're going to look at that
in a minute. How this came about and the work done in us and for
us is Christ and Him crucified. Christ came down here to be made
sin, to suffer for sin, the just for the unjust, to bring us to
God. Christ came down here to be made sin for us. He who knew
no sin. That, well, we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. That's righteousness imputed
and it's also righteousness imparted, partakers of the divine nature,
a new creature created in Christ by Christ who prevailed on the
cross till we were born. Like Adam in the garden, when
the Lord created the woman, he cut Adam's side open, and out
of his riven or wounded side, he made a woman. Well, when Christ
was on the Calvary tree, and they cut his side open, he died,
they cut his side open, out flowed blood and water, water and blood. It's a justification of sanctification. You know what else came out of
his side? His bride, his church. So Christ suffered for our sin
and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Yes, he did. That's
how sin is put away. We can't put away one sin. Christ
did it. He came to be made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All right, now
keep that in mind. There's no mortification of our
members, there's no strength to resist, except by looking
to Christ's crucifixion. Do you understand? As William
Romaine, we love that statement by Romaine, sin will not be,
cannot be fought against, cannot be mortified unless you see that
Christ put it away, or else it's a losing battle. Don't you love it, Kelly, when
the Lord says, sin shall not have dominion over you? I love
that. I love that. Why? We've got a new master.
We've got someone leading us, the Spirit of God. Thank God. We're not under the law. The
strength of sin is the law. That means two things. That means
that the law shows us the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It shows us
that it requires perfection in thought, in word, in deed, and
we're guilty. We were guilty, are guilty, and
shall be guilty until the day we die. That the strength of
sin is the law. It shows us, Paul said, I wouldn't
have known sin except for the law. He said, I was alive without
the law one time. He thought he knew the law. He
liked being under it. He didn't understand it then. Christ magnified, showed, listen,
if you look on someone, you're guilty. All right? And the strength of sin is the
law, the old man, all he wants to do is break that law. You
give him something to do, you know what that old man wants
to do? The opposite. Adam. And Adam all died. The Lord said,
Adam, you can have anything but that tree. What'd Adam do? And that's what this old man
did. Then our Lord said, you're not under the law. You're under me. Oh, thank God. I'm married to
another. And he takes care of us. He sends
his Spirit to lead us and guide us. He says, let this mind be
of you, this same mind. Christ suffered in the flesh
and he was made sin. He rose again and he, what's
the scripture says, he appeared the second time without sin.
He was made sin, put in the grave because of sin. He became us.
God crucified him, buried him, what does Paul say, we're crucified
with Christ, buried What else? Risen. He says risen to do what? Walk in newness. That's what
it says. That old man. And that's what
we all want. Put that old man down. Never
let him rear his ugly head again. I want to be like crying. I want
to walk with him. I want to walk like him. I want
to talk like him. It was only one way. Look at
him. I may say this a hundred times.
Without him, we can do nothing. Without him, we can do nothing. Simon Peter. He said, everybody
else may, but not me. Okay, Simon. You're going to
be a shining example or a dark example of how as soon as a child
of God says, not me, Yes, you. But for my grace. But for my
power. But now, John, you love the Scripture.
I can do all things through Christ's strength. A man can't walk on
the water. A human being can't walk on the
water. A sinner, a son of Adam can't rise above sin and temptation. He can't do that. Huh? He'll
fall. Simon Peter did. He really did. How? How? One way. Look into Christ. Look into Christ. Look into Christ. Walk the way of water. Now, look at verses 2 and 3.
It says, He that suffered in the flesh and ceased from sin.
Christ suffered for us to put away our sin. This is not talking
about Us acquiring or reaching some kind of sinless perfection
or even progressive sanctification. Christ was sanctified, we're
sanctified once for all by the body of Christ. You know that,
okay? This new man, this new creature is without sin. That's
1 John 3. 1 John 3. Those that have been crucified
with Christ, have no sin. Isn't that good news? No sin. And my father used to say scriptures
are bifocal. Bifocal. It means a whole lot
more than our finite understanding can know. Right? So that's what
that means. Hang on now. Paul said we know
in part. This is very really dealing with
this struggle in a believer. against sin. It wasn't there
before. Read on, verse 2, that he should
no longer live the rest of his time and have pledged to the
lust of men, to the will of God. The time past of our life may
have sufficed us to rock the will of the Gentiles. We walked
in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelry, banquet, and
abominable idolatries, and now they think it's strange that
you don't do the same. What happened? Look at Titus. Go over to Titus
chapter 2 or 3. Titus chapter 3. As said, this new creature in
Christ has a new will. Before, the only will we were
concerned about is my will. Right? Not now. No. Not my will. We don't want our
will to do it. We want His will to be done. We want to know His
good and perfect will and walk in it. Look at Titus chapter
3. It says in verse 3, We ourselves
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers less. Serving. Remember that. Pleasures,
that's what we lived for, or rather we're dead in, living
in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But after, here's what it took. Kindness, mercy, and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared. Oh, he said, it's not by works
of righteousness, which we've done. What is it? It's his work
of righteousness for us and in us. According to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration. That's a new creature. Born of
God, renewing of the Holy Spirit, new man, he shed on us abundantly,
did all this through Jesus Christ our Savior, justified by his
grace, heirs according to the hope of eternal life. It doesn't
stop there. So this is the faith to say,
these things I will that thou affirm constantly. What's that?
The gospel right there. What he just said. And that they
which believe in God might be careful to maintain good work.
Why? It's good and profitable. You remember what he said about
Old Philemon? What he said about Onesimus? What Paul said about Onesimus
to Philemon? He said, he was before unprofitable,
but now profitable to thee and me. Now you know Onesimus said,
I ain't good for nothing. I ain't good for nothing. No. Not in yourself, you're not.
In your quest for us, no good thing. But God's put a man in,
a new man in there. He's good for something. What's
he good for? The glory of God. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. They can take an old rotten apple and make a good
pie with it. Go back to our text. No, go to
Romans 6. Romans 6, this whole chapter.
If we do well, just read it right now. Romans 6. Talk about living in sin. Well,
Paul said you were dead in sin. You who are dead in sin are now
quick and alive. Verse 1. What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How? How shall we that are dead
to sin live any longer therein? Here's a good illustration. He
can take a sheep, he can take a sheep and wash him clean. His nature is a sheep, right? Follow the shepherd. But he's
prone to wander to him. Will a sheep, sheep are white,
you know, they're good for something. Good for the master's use, so
forth and so forth. They congregate together. Can
a sheep wander off by itself? Surely can. Can a sheep fall
and get dirty? Surely can. Will a sheep fall
in the muck in the mire and get filthy and dirty? He surely will.
Well, what's going to happen? He doesn't want to stay in that
puddle. And he's not going to stay in that puddle. Why? Somebody's
going to come get him and wash him again. Not eternally, but
speedily. Say, look at you. Look what you've
done. Put him back on his shoulder, carry him. Left to yourself. You'll want him. You'll follow
him. You'll get muddy. You'll get dirty. Do you like
it? Do you like it? No. Now, pigs? Now, pigs? That's another story. They want
to stay there. And you can take them out. They're
going to run that to you. You can take them out and wash them.
You can't fully clean up a pig. Read on, verse 3 of Romans 6. Know ye not that so many of us
that were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death,
were buried with Him by baptism in death, that like as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life? planted in his likeness,
and death will be raised in his likeness in the resurrection.
Verse 6, our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Look down at verse 19. Verse
18, he made free from sin, he became a servant of Christ, free
from the penalty of it, free from the power of it, the reigning
and ruling power of it. Now I speak, he says in verse
19, after the matter of men because of your flesh. and your flesh
will have no good thing. It's a constant war and a constant
battle. He says you yielded yourselves
before. You yielded. There was no battle,
was there brother and sister? There was no battle before, none
whatsoever. You didn't have to yield. You
pursued it. This is what I want. Like Moses. Moses was going to be next Pharaoh. He was in Egypt. He lived for
Egypt, the things of the world. That's all he wanted. Egypt. Something happened. What happened? Burning bush. He came down from
that mountain of chains. Man. It says he chose rather,
now Moses, who are your companions? Not Egypt. I'm not of that. I refuse to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter. I choose rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God who reproach for Christ than all the treasures
of Egypt. Oh, this is not my land, Moses
said. It was before what happened.
He's still a burning wood. Spirit of God. New heart, new
mind, new thought, new desire, new creature. That old man still
there? He sure like was, Moses. So, verse 19, because of this
flesh, he yielded your members to uncleanness and iniquity unto
iniquity. Even so, now yield your members,
servants of righteousness unto the Lord. Servants of the Lord,
wash me through from my iniquity. Go back to our text, 1 Peter
4. It says, They think it strange
that you run not with them the same excess of writing, speaking
evil of you. Speaking evil of you. You know, we're no better than
the people in this world in and of ourselves. No, no, no, no. But our Lord says that his people,
the world's not worth it. He said there's a salt of the
earth, light of the world. Doesn't it? I sure don't feel
like it. I look in the mirror and I don't
see it. But God says so. And it's just so, though. It's
just so. When you think back, you think back who your companions
were and who you liked to be with and what you loved to do
and pursued, and now who you're running with. There was a time when we wouldn't
be caught dead in a church house. And now, I don't want to leave
this place. That's what David said, I want
to dwell in your house forever. There was a time I didn't want
to be here at all. Now, like David, I don't want to be anywhere
else. What happened? I said, but they think it's strange.
I remember, you know, Mindy's brother and I were companions,
partners in crime, cronies. I'm ashamed of it. But anyway, the
Lord didn't do anything for him. He did me. And here I remember when it started
happening, he told Mindy, it'll heal. It won't last. It won't
last. That's 40-some years. Why is it lasting? Because what
God does shall be forever. Thank God. Brothers and sisters,
it had nothing to do with that. And every one of God's people
know that. And if we've done all that's required of us, we
still think, I'm an unprofitable servant. I'm not going to deny what my
Lord has done for me, and I'm so thankful. I'm not taking any
credit for it, but I'm giving Him all the glory for it. Right?
If anything is strange, you don't run the same excess of right
with you. Now we're running this race looking under the Lord Jesus'
back. They speak evil of you. Verse
5, "...who shall give account to him that is ready to judge
the quick and the dead." All men shall stand before God someday
and give an account. Peter preached that God is going
to judge all men in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
Jesus Christ. The book is going to be open.
Everything that anyone has ever done, thought, or said is going
to be found in that book. Nothing hidden that shall not
be revealed. All the book is open. He got away with nothing. But there's another book called
the Lamb Book of Life. And you open that up, you'll
see names all right, all of them written in red. covered by blood, and there's
nothing. There's nothing in the ordinance that's against it.
There's not one black mark on their life. Not one. They were
able to present us thoughtless. Did you hear that? Great measurement.
Thoughtless. Let me end this. This is wonderful. I've told you before, but maybe
some people on the front row haven't heard it. This is great. when he was a young Armenian
preacher, so-called. He was a youth minister and psalm
leader of the largest Southern Baptist Church in Eastern Kentucky.
A thousand members. Zealous, just like Saul of Tarsus.
Just like him. Oh my, the Lord did something
for him, didn't he? But anyway, he was taking a bunch
of these young people somewhere in his 48 Hudson Horneter, something
like that, 48, where they weighed 100,000 pounds, you know, Steve
and Heather, all right? And they were cruising along
and he ran A stop sign, just ran a stop sign. You know, they
were talking and all that. He just ran a stop sign and a
car went by and he teed on that car and just, you know what those
big old cars would do, just destroy that car. Thank God nobody was
killed. But he's guilty. He knows it. All these witnesses knew it.
All right? He was scheduled for court, a
court date. And as the time approached where
he was supposed to stand before the judge, he scared to death. Instead, he went there with his
father. He took his father with him. My old pop took him there
and sat on the back row. Lad said that this judge was
so mean. The judge was throwing a book
at everybody. And he thought, oh, it's over.
This is going to happen to him later on, John, when he comes
before the law of God. Guilty. Well, all right, they
tried case after case after case until finally the whole room
was cleared out and the only ones left was my dad and his
dad on the back row. True story. And the judge was
looking down at his books and he looked up and said, what can
I do for you all? My dad stood up. He said, my name is Henry Mahan. And he said, I was scheduled
to appear in court this day. And the judge went. He said, it's not here. Y'all
freak out. They said, he skipped out of
that place. Our record's clean. Now you're
clean. Justified. How? God said so. And by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give him all the praise and honor
and glory. Think Dad went out and drove
recklessly from it all? I don't want to be back under that
law. It's a horrible feeling, guilt. Okay.