Alright, turn with me to 1 Peter
chapter 4. Look at these first seven verses
and I'm going to recap just a little bit on things that we talked
about last week. As the revelation of Christ begins
to shine in our hearts, things begin to come into focus. We
begin to see things that were mysteries to us, things we never
heard before. Things we never considered before. And having been brought to the
place to consider these things and the light of Christ being
shined in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we begin to, things begin
to come into focus a little bit. We begin to see something about
the sovereignty of God and the election of God and all of these
things. All these mysteries begin to
unravel. Mysteries of Gentiles and Jews
and mysteries of iniquity and all of these great mysteries.
And then the Lord begins to lay a solid foundation. Through the
preaching of the gospel, the revelation of the Holy Spirit,
He lays this foundation. Now this foundation was laid
of God from all eternity. Christ's other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid. But when I say he begins
to lay a foundation, he begins to lay that foundation by faith. He gives you faith to see that
foundation that's laid. He gives you faith to see the
Christ of God and his stability and his ability and his accomplishments. And as we begin to see these
things, the more we see, the more we want to see. It's not just a boring talk anymore. These are great mysteries that
God's unraveling in our hearts and minds, and we look forward
to see them, forward to understand them. We desire to hear those
things. And the more we see, the more
we want to see. And as our sin is brought into
the light, and we begin to see the damage that it's caused,
and yet is causing, We begin to suffer in the flesh. Now that's the suffering that
he's talking. We suffer persecution and we suffer all kinds of things
and we've already talked about those things. But here in 1 Peter
chapter 4, he talks about a suffering in the flesh and this suffering
in the flesh is a suffering because of sin. In Romans chapter 7 verse
18, Paul said this, He said, for I know that in me,
in me dwelleth no good thing. Do you know that? Every man born of God knows that.
He knows that. In his flesh dwelleth no good
thing, no potential, no righteousness, no understanding, Know anything
in His flesh. In His flesh dwelleth no good
thing. The believer's hope is not a
whitewashing. Religion promotes this thing
of salvation as a whitewashing. They talk about the man is in
need of repair. He's in bad shape. You know,
he's got a door with one hinge and he's got a window that won't
shut. He's in need of repair. His house is all broken down.
It needs whitewashed. It needs fixed up. It needs reformed. Well, the believer's hope is
not a whitewashing of the old man and it's not a reformation
of the sinful flesh. It's a new creation. It's a whole
new man. And this new man is the man of
faith. That's that man created in you
by faith. Christ is the man. Christ in
you, the hope of glory. He's the new man. But we have
this new man in us by faith. And it's a new creation. If any
man be in Christ, what you say? He's a new creature. He's a new
creation. Listen to this in Ephesians 4,
verse 20, having stated the mind and motives of the world, walking
in the vanities of their mind and in darkness and all such,
having stated the mind and motives of the world, the apostle says,
but ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have heard
Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Him. Now listen,
that you put off concerning the former behavior, the former conversation,
the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put
on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. And that new man is Christ. He's
a new creature in Christ, a new creation. Christ dwells, now
listen to this, Ephesians 3.17, it says, Christ dwells in your
hearts by faith. That's how He's there. That's
how He's there. We know Him by faith. We understand
Him by faith. We've received God's testimony
concerning His Son and we've laid hold on Him. We've received
Him. We've embraced Him. And this
is what this new birth is all about. God gives His elect power
to become sons of God, enabling them to believe on His name.
Even them that believe on His name, which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man. That
is, it's not your will and it's not my will. And it's not of
blood. It's not of your kinship. But
it's of God. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
3. The man who sees this, who sees this old flesh and sees
sin and what it's done and what it's caused and what it's yet
causing, he sees the corruption of it. He received God's testimony
concerning his sins. This man loses his confidence
in the flesh. Now watch this, Philippians chapter
3, verse 3. We are the circumcision, that
is God's people, those who have received his seal. We are the
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, now watch this, and have no confidence in the flesh. We've got no confidence in this
place. Well, I'll just keep on holding
on. I hope that's not your confidence. Your confidence ought to be,
I hope he keeps holding on to me. If he holds on to you, you'll
hold on to him. You're in his hand. No man's
going to pluck you out of his hand. But the man who has confidence
in the flesh, he'll continue to feed it. The man who rests
in the flesh, trusts in the flesh, abides in the flesh, knows nothing
whatsoever about Christ. He's all profession. He's all
taught. He's all whatever. The man who
does that, the man who has confidence in the flesh, he'll keep right
on feeding the flesh. He'll keep right on following
the flesh, and He'll keep right on rejoicing in the flesh. But
the man who's come to see sin for what it is, and to see this
flesh for what it is, depraved, cursed, ignorant, he loses his
confidence in it. And then in verses 4 through
6, Paul speaks of the days before his conversion, and of his confidence
in the flesh. He said, you think you've got
where of to trust in the flesh? He said, I more. I'm a Hebrew
of the Hebrews. When I was eight days old, my
mother had me circumcised. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
I can trace my bloodline right back to Abraham. You think you
got? I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
I got a master's degree in theology. I know the scriptures inside
out. And I've got all the backing of accepted religion, world accepted
religion. I have all those things to my
account. You think you've got something to trust in, I've got
more. Verse 7, but what things were
gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless,
verse 8, and I count all things but loss. for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things, that is, everything that gave him
confidence in the flesh, and do count them but dumb that I
might win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness. That is, not hoping in my good
deeds, not hoping in my church attendance, not hoping in my
faithfulness. Not hoping in the offerings I
give, not hoping in those things. He said, I want to be found in
Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Found in his righteousness, imputed
to me. Believers trust themselves wholly. and completely on Christ, having
no confidence in the flesh. In fact, the more they discover
about the flesh, the less confidence they have in it. I bet you're
a lot less confident in the flesh now than you were 40 years ago.
Huh? Sure you are. You that have been
on the way for a while, you're a whole lot less confident in
the flesh than you were at the beginning. So suffering in the flesh is
something common, and this is what I want you to see, only
to believers. They have this suffering in the
flesh. There's a warfare that goes on
that's common only to believers. Believers are awakened to see
and to feel its corruption. Listen to Paul as he talks about
his flesh in the scriptures when he talks about himself. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who talks like that? Only a believer. Only a believer. You won't find
one of these religious folks over here talking like that.
But Paul did. Oh, wretched man. He didn't say
that I used to be. That's how religion talks. I
used to be around her. Yeah, you still are. You still
are. He said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He said this. He said, this is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Now listen, of
whom I am chief. He didn't say I used to be. He
said, I am. Whom I am chief. And then he
said this, he's talking about these great mysteries and the
ministry that God by His grace had given to him. He said, unto
me were these things given who am less than the least of all
saints. Less than the least. Believers
constantly suffer in the flesh because the flesh is contrary
to the spirit and the spirit is contrary to the flesh so that
he can't do what he would. Either direction. I can't be
exactly like Christ, nor can I follow after the things I used
to follow after. I can't do either one. But thanks be unto God, we're
not left alone in our flesh. By virtue of the person and work
of Christ, God has called us out of darkness and delivered
us from the bondage of sin. Sin no longer reigns as it once
did. Grace now reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And if a person suffers,
as I've just described, this man has ceased from sin. He's no longer dominated by its
lies and deceit, no longer led about as a slave to it. The enemy has been exposed. Now
look here in 1 Peter 4, verse 2. He's ceased from sin, I'm going
to tell you in what sense that he's talking about. It says here
in verse 2 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. He's born of God. He has a new
hope. He's a new creature. He has light. He's not walking in darkness
anymore. He's not dead anymore. He's alive. He's alive. He's been given eternal life. Eternal life is to know God.
He knows God. Listen to this, 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, revelings, banqueting, and abominable idolatry. Everything
the believer did before conversion, he did against not only the law
and authority of God, but he did it against the love of God.
what broke the prodigal's heart. And that was the sermon that,
as far as I'm concerned, that I was converted under was a sermon
about the prodigal son. And what the prodigal son, the
way the father broke the prodigal's heart is by knowledge that he
had sinned against one who loved him. He sinned against one who
loved him. He cared for him, provided for
him. He was his father. And now look
at him. He's down in the hog pen. He's
down here with the hogs wallowing around in the slop. And while
he's down there, he gets to thinking. He gets to looking around and
gets to smelling them old swine. And here he is and would have
ate from the husk. That's what's left after the
hog gets done with that corn cob, just the husk. And he would
have eaten from the husk from the hogs. And he was sitting
there looking at that in that slop, and he said, boy, you know,
back in my father's house, the servants lived better than this.
Huh? Oh, my soul. We look back on those days. They really ought to be sufficient
enough without experiencing these things anymore, shouldn't they? How much sin does it take against
a loving father to fill up your cup? How much does it take? How long will you continue to
wallow with the hogs and eat their slop and smell their filthiness?
Man will go on in his rebellion until God breaks his heart and
exposes his sin and brings him to Christ. He'll keep right on
in the hog pen. And when he does, here's what
happens. Verse 4, 1 Peter chapter 4. These ones that he ran with,
the old crowd, wherein they think it strange that you run not with
them to the same excess of right speaking evil of you. Used to
be your friends. And now they see you, and they
see that change that God's brought in you, and they think it's strange.
Strange. You know, it's often said of
the believer by those who know him best. I've had it said of
me, and I know some of you have. I liked him better before he
was converted. I liked him a lot better before
he brought to Christ. And so they begin to speak evil
of you. He's a hypocrite. I know him. I ran with him. He's a hypocrite.
He's a liar. That man, he's a know-it-all. He thinks he's the only one 200
miles from here that knows the truth. He ain't no preacher. He got no papers. Where's his
diploma? He ain't even registered with
the state. If he had to marry somebody, he'd have to go down
and register with the state. He ain't no preacher. What do you do about these men?
You don't do anything. You don't do anything. Listen
here. 1 Peter 4, verse 5. He's talking about these ones
you used to run with. And they see this change, they
see this separation. Not that you don't want them
to come in here, not that you don't want to be their friend,
but they won't let you. They won't let you. You won't run
with that same degree of right that they do. You won't say the
things that they say and do the things that they do, so you can't
run with them. And so they have things to say
about that. Now, look at this here in verse
5. Who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the quick and the dead? Listen to this
over Matthew chapter 12, verse 34. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
O generation of vipers, How can you, being evil, speak good things? They were speaking evil of the
disciples, and they were speaking evil of Him, the Son of God come
into the flesh. He said, old generation of vipers, how can you speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And
a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good
things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth
evil things. But I say unto you that every
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. God will take care of it. You
don't have to do anything about it. Just let them go. Let them
go. Pray for them. Pray God will
give them some understanding before it's too late. Pray that
day don't come when they stand before the judge of all this
earth by their own works and by their own righteousness. Pray
for them. I Peter chapter 4 verse 6, for 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. Now, this is not talking about
the gospel being preached to men. It's not talking about the
Holy Spirit going into Shoal or wherever that temporary place
is the Catholics talk about where a man goes and he's kind of out
there in limbo but he's dead but he ain't in hell and he's
not in heaven and so God's merciful to some and he comes and preaches
to them in that place and then those who accept him there as
the last resort they'll be saved and the rest of them be sent
to hell. That's not what this is talking about. And this is
not talking about preaching to men in a spiritual sense who
are dead in trespasses and sins. Although that's true, the gospel
is preached to those you hath equipped and who were dead in
trespasses and sins. But Peter's simply applying the
truth he just stated to believers in previous ages. He's already
brought up Noah. He's already brought up Abraham.
And he said, these men, the same thing was true of them. Same
thing was said of them. The same things were done unto
them. And the gospel was preached unto
them, and they were judged of men in the flesh. I make mistakes,
don't you? How quick is the natural man
to pick up on your mistakes? He'll never mention anything
you ever did for the glory of God, but make one mistake, it'll
hound you till you die. Men never forget. Never forget. And these men were judged according
to men in the flesh, but they lived by the spirit of God. They lived and served God in
the spirit. Peter simply applying the truth
he just stated to believers in previous ages, men whose lives
had been preserved in the Holy Scriptures for our admonition
and example. Men like Noah and Abraham, Moses,
and David, called by grace and given the gift of faith. They
were hated by this world. Stephen knew that. When he preached
that message to that bunch Pharisees, he told them, he said, you do
always, always strive against the Holy Spirit of God. And what
he was talking about is that preaching of the fathers to them. All those prophets, all this
people of Israel, they'd always rebelled and ignored and despised
the preaching of the gospel. But out of them, God saved a
remnant. And they lived by faith, walking
in the Spirit, and they live now eternally by the grace of
God. Men judged them the same way
they judge us, according to men in the flesh. I want you to remember this when
men are talking about you, and we're quick to flare up. I'm
the same way. If somebody says something I
don't like, I'm quick to flare up. But I need to guard against
that, and so do you. A fleshly man can only go as
far as the chains of his bondage will allow him. He's on a chain.
His nature's the chain. He can only go as far as that
nature will let him. He can't go beyond it. That's
the way he thinks. That's the way he walks. That's
the way he judges things. It's according to men in the
flesh, fallen men. But God will one day awaken them
to the reality and the truth of the thing. All right, 1 Peter
4, verse 7. But the end of all things is
at hand. Be ye therefore sober, and watch
unto prayer. You know, we read a lot in the
Scriptures, and the Scriptures have a lot to say about the last
days, but are you aware here this morning, is there somebody
here that's still ignorant of this? We've been living in the
last days since Christ came into this world. These are the last
days. They're not going to be another
time. They're not going to be another like there was after
the law. There was a big space given after
the law to the coming of Christ. And men think there's going to
be other things, other what they call dispensations, and then
this is going to happen, and then another 1,000 years, and
this is going to happen. We're in the last days. And we're a
little over 2,000 years into the last days. Christ came into this world,
accomplished our redemption, and ascended back into glory.
And there upon His victorious throne, He sits, He says, expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool. A little more than
2,000 years has gone by. And this I can say. Is He coming
tomorrow? I don't know. I don't know. Is
He coming 100 years from now? I don't know. I don't know when
he's coming back, but I can tell you this, it's closer now than
it was then, and then, he said, it'd just be a short time. Just
a short time. But whether he comes 100 years
from now or 50 years from now or tomorrow, what you got to
worry about is today. Because I guarantee you, you're
going to see him. You're going to see him. And when the fullness of that
time has come, the Lord shall return in like manner as men
saw Him leave, riding upon the clouds." He'll come in clouds.
That's what it says. In clouds. With all the glory
of His Father's house. His coming will be quick, almost
instant. He shall suddenly appear, the
Scripture said, like a thief in the night. And He's going
to call the remainder of His elect to Himself. In my message
this morning, I'm going to mention something to you, what he says
there. We shall not all sleep. Everybody
ain't going to be in the grave when he comes back. Some of God's
elect still going to be alive. We shall not all sleep, but we're
all going to be changed. But I can tell you this about
His second coming, the day of grace and mercy is over. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? That's God's
testimony. That day of grace is over. All
this grace is in Christ. All in Christ. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ is now seated at the right hand of God having
power over all flesh? having the judgment of God deferred
to him, having the right and power to quicken whom he will, and that he, having saved his
elect, shall bring time itself to a close. He's going to put
one foot on the sea and one on the land. You say it says an
angel. He's talking about the angel
of the covenant. That's right. He's going to put one foot on
the land and one on the sea. And he's going to say time shall
be no more. at power beyond our wildest imagination. And then He's going to call the
small and the great, it said, to stand before Him. And all
whose names are not written in the book of life, He's going
to cast into the lake of fire forever. If you believe these things,
I have no reason not to. They're the declaration of the
Word of God. If you believe these things, Peter said, you ought
to be sober. He ain't talking about not drinking. He's talking about being quiet
and serious and solemn. These things are weighty matters
of the soul. You know, we have thoughts of
this and that, and these things occupy our mind as though there's
no tomorrow past that. It's just earthly things. And
we look to those things and cling to those things and desire those
things like there's no tomorrow. But these things here are weighty
matters of the soul. They're permanent. They're fixed.
They're unchangeable. And these things are forever.
And yet they seem to be the butt of every joke, laughed at when
they're preached. Peter said, the end of all things
are at hand. The end of the day of grace,
the end of his calling out of sinners, the end of light and
revelation, the end of all things is at hand. Be, therefore, sober
and watch unto prayer. May God make that experience
of the believers here today.