Looking in 1 Peter, where we've been for some
time now, I'm gonna read chapter four, chapter four of 1 Peter. 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 Gentiles, when we
walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that ye
run not with them to the same excess of right, speaking evil
of you. Who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the quick 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 therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. And above all things, have fervent
charity among yourselves. For charity shall cover the multitude
of sins. Use hospitality one to another
without grudging. As every man hath received the
gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things
might be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice in as much as ye
are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the Spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon you,
and on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he
is glorified. But let none of you suffer as
a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody
in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore,
let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the
keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful
creator. Now there's a lot of ground covered
in that chapter. And may the Lord give us a mind
over the next few days to to grasp what he is saying here,
for as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh. Now it is a needful thing that
men understand that Jesus Christ came in flesh and blood. Now we have just gone through
a season of the year when men supposedly pay homage to the
fact that Jesus Christ was born into the world. Of course there's
a lot of fanfare that goes with it that's not rightly placed
and we don't want to get involved in that sort of thing but we
do desire to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ did come in
the flesh and he walked among men. as much so in the flesh
as any man has ever been. Born as a baby, I can't quite
comprehend it. And if you think that you can,
you probably don't realize the glory that surrounds it. Just
think of those shepherds whom the Lord visited in that field,
and he told them that they would find a babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a manger, and he said, this is Christ the
Lord, the Savior. That's almost impossible to believe. A lot of people think, of course,
they love him so much, you know, as a little baby. And well, he
was a baby, no doubt, but that's not who he is. He did become
flesh. But he is that eternal God who
rules and reigns in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. There's none that can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He created all things by
his own power. And he is not in any wise lacking
as to being God. He is God, the very God, but
he is flesh. He became flesh for us, and becoming
flesh for us, He suffered. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, tried in all points like as we are, yet the
scripture says He was without sin. He did not have sin within
Him. There was nothing that inclined
Him towards sin. When Adam ate of that flesh, fruit that Eve gave to him, he
was not deceived. Eve was deceived, but Adam was
not. Adam looked on that fruit and
he made a decision based on his nature. And he ate of that fruit. And of course we know the outcome
of that. plunged his whole posterity into darkness. And that darkness
is that we have an inclination towards sin. You don't have to
teach a man to sin. No child has to be taught to
lie. No child has to be taught to
be selfish. Because that's just human nature.
That's the way we are. David understood it. He said,
in sin was I conceived. and brought forth from my mother's
womb. Scripture says that the wicked go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. And of course, you know, when
you look at a little baby, you look at that little baby and
he's as pure as he'll ever be, but yet lurking in the heart
of that little baby is a rebel against God. And apart from the
grace of God to change him, He will continue in that path and
he'll grow up and he will be a rebel against God. And I wish
I could tell you today there was something you could do to
keep that from happening, but there's not. Only the Lord in
his mercy can cause a child to grow up and to become a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be desirous of walking in his
way and following him. And thanks be unto God, he does
do that. And he gives us a charge as parents
that we are to train them up in the way that they should go.
And the biggest teaching that you'll ever give your children
is your own example. He can tell them all kind of
stuff if you want to, but what they see that you believe, is
far more important than what you tell them that you believe.
And so like I've said many times, we need to live before our children
in such a way they may never believe what we believe. They might not ever do it. But
we need to live in such fashion by the grace of God that they
will always know what we believe. And that is the work of God in
us because we can't do that by ourselves. I mean, you can't
anymore follow the Lord apart from his grace to draw you and
keep you and keep you from falling. Then you can come back from somewhere
you've never been. The Lord alone keeps his people
daily. We cry out to him, do we not? This week, that song's really
been on my mind. And now I can't, isn't that crazy? O to grace, how great a debtor
daily I am constrained to be. Let that grace now like a fetter
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it, seal it
from thy courts above. And oh, that, you know, that's
our desire, is that we might be found as a faithful people. But we do know and understand
that apart from his grace, we won't be. He alone can keep us
in that place. And he says that Christ suffered
for us in the flesh. Now, he did suffer in the flesh.
He was crucified. He was beaten. He wore a crown
of thorns. I'm not exactly sure how that
crown of thorns was. I doubt seriously that it was
as been depicted in the various artist renditions of Christ. You know, this little neat band
of vines, you know, I expect it was far more harsh than that.
I expect it caused a lot more pain than we could imagine. But
you know, while Christ did indeed suffer in the flesh, it was not
his fleshly sufferings alone that purchased our redemption.
For the heartache that he bore for us as he carried our griefs
and our sorrows was much more than simply the physical pain. Now the physical pain is often
the thing that men think about, but the anguish of heart that
he had in the garden when he poured out, as it were, great
drops of blood, sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, pouring
from his pores because of the anguish that he was under. Oh, the Lord, you know, as he
suffered in the flesh, and the scripture says that the angel
came and ministered to him. in the midst of that suffering.
Engel didn't take the suffering away, he just was there with
him, and surely you can imagine the wonderment that must have
been in his mind as he saw the one who created him suffering
in the flesh, pouring out blood, crying out unto his father. And
he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from him. Now
some have characterized that suffering that he had, And this
prayer there that he was desiring to be set free from that, that
was not it at all. The thing that he desired more
than anything else was to be found pleasing in his father's
presence. He said, I came not to do my
own will, but the will of him that sent me. I mean, he came
with a pure and perfect desire that everything that he did in
his life would be pleasing unto God. Was never any other thought. And yet here he is, as one might
say, between a rock and a hard place. He is desiring to do his
father's will, and yet the only way that he can do his father's
will is to become displeasing in his father's sight, to be
cast away. Did he not say on the cross,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, you know, that's
bad enough for anybody, but think about him who purely desired
to serve his father, and every day did exactly what his father
told him to do, and yet he is forsaken by his own father. Now that's a suffering beyond
comprehension. We're not able to understand
it. It can't possibly be entered
into by us, but we do know that he suffered in the flesh for
us, in the anguish of heart. There's never been an anguish
that you've had. that's greater than the anguish
of Christ. Not even beginning to touch it. You know, we often get bowed
down under our great trials and troubles that we have, but they're
really nothing compared to Christ and the sufferings that he bore
for us. For as much then, in light of this, for as much then
as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind. That is, put on the mind of Christ. Now, how can you do that? You
can't. But the Lord can give you a mind to do that. He gives
you a heart to do it. He gives you a hunger to do it.
He gives you a want to do it. Oh, Lord, let me walk with Christ. Let me be as He was. Arm yourselves
with the same mind. What was the mind that He had
to do His Father's will? That's why he suffered in the
flesh, was to do his father's will. You know, the Lord taught
us to pray, did he not? May thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven. I mean, is that not what prayer
is designed to do, to bring us into conformity with the will
of God? Now, I know you listen to a lot of these preachers around,
especially some of these radio preachers. They get on there
and they tell you, well, you can cause God to do all these
things, and you can change God's mind, and you can do all of that.
That's blasphemy. We ought never to think the thought
of changing God's mind does not need to be in our heart. Rather,
Father, may thy will be done. Now, I might not like it. You
know, I might not desire those things at that time in my flesh,
but by the Spirit of God, we pray, Father, not my will, but
Thine. And so when we pray, the Lord is working in us to bring
us into conformity to His will, not to give us power to change
His mind. And may He teach us that. Now we're the ones that need
to change, He doesn't. He knows the end from the beginning.
There's not a thing in the world that you can improve. How could
you improve with that which God has ordained to be? You can't
do it. But by His grace, He does cause us to be brought into conformity
with Him, so that we might pray with the Lord Jesus, Father,
not my will, but Thine, be done. The same mind, that was the same
mind that was in Christ, for He hath suffered in the flesh,
hath ceased from sin. Now that's speaking, of course,
of Christ. He has ceased from sin. He was made sin for us,
but he made a once and for all offering, did he not? There's not another one to be
made. There's not a continual. Some people have the idea that,
well, Christ paid for our sin, but we've gotta pay for them
too. There's coming a judgment and
we're gonna have to pay for our sin. Well, brother, you're in
trouble. Because if you have to pay for one sin, the least
sin you can even come up with in your mind, if you had to pay
for it, you would be cast out from the presence of God forever.
You can't pay it. Nothing you can do to earn his
favor. But Christ has suffered the just
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, to make us clean
before him. He has suffered in the flesh,
hath ceased from sin. Now this also has an application
to us. That is, as we recognize the
sufferings of Christ, the fact he suffered for us in the flesh,
that's what John said. He said, little children, these
things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man say he has no
sin, then the truth's not in him. But you see, we do have
the calling and we do have the desire by the grace of God that's
given to us that we sin not. And that's what he's saying here,
you know, as we look at Christ, he that has suffered in the flesh,
that is, Christ has ceased from sin, thereby let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That's what he's saying
here. Even as he, 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. That is the desire of God's people, is it not? Not
to walk in the way of the world. See, you don't have to have anybody,
I don't have to encourage you to walk in the way of the world.
All you gotta do is wake up in the morning. And you have a tendency
to want to go that way. But see, as we're armed by the
mind of Christ, as he is pleased to give us that and to teach
us, then he does work in us, both the will and the do of his
good pleasure. And he causes us to see that
we do not desire to walk in the lusts of the flesh. Now there's
no man alive who's ever gonna be free from these things until
the day they put him in the ground. Paul said, the good that I would
not, that I do, and that which I would not, I find myself doing. And so it is. 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. For the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. We've
had enough of that, he said. We've been there. We've done
that. We know what the fruit of that
is. What is the fruit? Walked in lasciviousness, lust,
excess of wines, revelings, bankulties, abominable idolatries. We know
what that brings about. See, a lot of times, you know,
men, they get involved in all sorts of things, and then they
find themselves in dire straits, and they wonder, well, what caused
this? Well, their own actions caused it. See, a man can't excuse
his sin by pointing to somebody else. Although that's our first
way of dealing with it, isn't it? Well, it couldn't have been
my fault, so it had to be somebody else. But it's not somebody else. It's never somebody else. You
know, we don't want to hear that, do we? It's never somebody else. It's always us. That doesn't mean everybody else
is doing the right thing. I'm just saying we're always
our own worst enemy. We're always the one causing
our problems. We should be done with that,
he says, when they think it strange that you run not with them to
the same excess of rights, speaking evil of you. You know, the people
that you hung around with, he said, in that, when you walked,
according to the prince of the power there, when you walked
in this world, he said, those people that you ran with, they
say, well, what's wrong with him? You know, he used to be
a lot of fun. Now he's no fun at all. He don't
want to do anything. And they speak evil of you. They
say, well, you know, I would never be like that. I mean, he's
went and got religion on us or something. I mean, it's some
foolishness like that. And men do speak evil of those
who would live godly in Christ Jesus. There is a persecution
of that nature for all who will stand with Christ and desire
to walk in his way and shun the world. Because the world doesn't
like that. Because that shines a light on
them. Does it not? See, that's why
men hate the people of God, is because it shines a light on
themselves, and they don't want to see it. The Pharisees hated
Christ because he shined the light on them, did he not? I
mean, they went about these big religious men, doing all these
great deeds in their mind, and yet Christ came along, and he
said, you're of your father the devil. And he showed them what
true righteousness was and they hated him. They didn't want true
righteousness. He healed on the Sabbath and
they thought that was the most terrible thing that could possibly
happen. And yet he said, you've left off to show mercy. But men will always hate the
way of God. And we're gonna stop there because I don't want to overtax your
patience. You know, the Lord, He's so kind
to draw His people unto Himself, to teach us. Now, we know nothing
as we ought to know. I mean, the Scriptures plainly
says that we don't, Paul said, I know nothing as I ought to
know. I mean, none of us have arrived at any place But by the
grace of God, we're not where we once were. And though, you know, we see
all of these things that he mentions there, and from time to time,
we might even be attracted to the ways of the world, but by
his grace, we know he teaches us, and we know that that cannot
be the place that we go. because he'd given us, well,
you remember the prodigal son. It says he fain would have filled
his belly with the husk that the swine ate. He thought, man,
I'll just eat me some of this. I'm so hungry, I'll just eat
some of it. Well, what happened? When he was there, he said, you
know, this is foolish. He said, look at where I'm at.
He said, in my father's house is great riches. What am I doing eating in the
hog pen? And see, that's the place we've
come from. We've been in the hog pen. But by the grace of
God, he brought us out. Do we want to go back? No, no,
he gives us a desire to move from it. Now, you know, some
people, it takes them longer. It takes some people longer to
see how much the hog pen stunk. Because
sometimes, you know, a man will come and begin to follow the
Lord, and then he'll say, you know, I think I might go over
here and try that again. And he doesn't realize that,
but the Lord, if he belongs to the Lord, the Lord will bring
him out of that. The Lord will not leave His people
to destruction. He will rescue His people. He's the Savior. See, I love
that word Savior. Now, that doesn't mean a whole
lot to a lot of people because they think, well, He's the Savior.
That just means He made salvation possible. No, He didn't make
salvation possible. He actually secured, He obtained,
the scripture says, eternal redemption for His people. Everyone for
whom He came and shed His blood is going to be saved. They are
saved. We're saved by the blood of Christ,
not by something we've done, but something He did. Oh, what
a glorious God He is.