Are you prepared to defend yourself? In the 70's and 80's, self-defense classes were very popular. You'd have thirty women in the room learning karate, ready to scare attackers off. I think maybe those classes fell out of favor because they didn't work, or maybe it was the cell phone, pepper spray, or Tasers. But you live in a world where knowing how to defend yourself is very important, because you live in a world where spiritual danger still exists. The battle is not yet over, and although we celebrate the victory that Christ has won, we recognize that sin still exists outside of us and inside of us and, with it, a range of temptations.
I Adore the Bible
I have deep appreciation for the Word of God; I love the Bible - I could say, "I adore the Bible." And I can't imagine where I would be - it's just impossible for me to imagine - without the rescue of the Word of God. Now, I'm saying that because I have a particular affection for this passage we're going to look at this evening because it is eloquently and deeply theological. At the same time, it's intensely practical because this passage tells you how to defend yourself against spiritual danger in this world where you're now living.
Listen: you and I cannot live with a peace-time mentality. We can't chill out, lay back, be cool, because the war still goes on. Peace is coming, praise God! But the war still rages. And so you have to understand: how is it that God has provided defenses for me as I still live with the battle of sin going on within me and the temptations of sin going on around me? Turn if you would, in your 'Order of Worship' to page 6 there where our passage is, or you can turn to page 1016 in your church Bibles, if you want to turn there.
I want to read these words again: "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourself with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. (1 Peter 4:1-6, ESV)" Now notice what is in that very first verse, "Therefore since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking." You only need to arm yourself when there's danger. You only need to arm yourself when there's war. When there's peace, you don't need to arm yourself. So the very call to be armed is a reminder that the danger still exists; that's the context that Peter is speaking into, a very realistic view of life in this fallen world.
I'm afraid that many of us take the doctrine of The Fall not as seriously as we should, and we don't understand how tragically broken our world is, so broken that there's dysfunction and temptation everywhere you look! And we don't take, seriously, the presence and power of remaining sin; and because of that, we live na‹vely; we live with unrealistic expectations; we live na‹vely in terms of the seductiveness of sin, and because of that, we don't arm ourselves well, and because we don't arm ourselves well, we fall into areas of sin and temptation because we are not living defensively.
I'm amazed when I've spent time doing premarital counseling how na‹ve engaged couples can be about life in a fallen world and about remaining sin where they are just convinced that all the things that all other married couples have faced, they won't face. And as I'm trying to counsel them and trying to warn them, I can barely get their attention. And in those situations, about all I want to do is make trouble so that they will experience the true reality of their struggle and know that they must arm themselves.
Now that's what this passage is about. Notice the next thing, "Arm yourself with the same thinking that Christ had." Now here's the way God calls you to arm yourself: arm yourself by clear, crisp, precise, Christological thinking. Arm yourself by thinking Biblically about yourself and about life. Now know this: one of the holy functions that God has wired into you that separates you from the rest of creation is your ability to think. Some of us demonstrate that more than others, but we've all been given that ability, and you would realize that Scripture teaches that your thoughts always precede and shape your activity.
Interpreting the Facts
I've said this to you before that the Bible would teach us that human beings do not live life based on the facts of their experience, but based on their interpretation of the facts. You're always interpreting; some way, somehow, everyone in this room is a theologian; everyone in this room is a philosopher; everyone in this room is an archaeologist digging through the mound of his existence trying to make sense out of life. That's what it means to be a human being. And so, the call here is to be careful that you're thinking about life in the same way that Christ thought.
And that's really detailed for you in what happens. Look in the passage next; look at the words that follow, "Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God." Here's the first point of Christological thinking: understand what suffering is designed to do. Understand what suffering is designed to do. Now what Peter is assuming is that if you live in a fallen world, you will suffer; and if you live as the child of God, you have been called to suffer.
So he's assuming that suffering will be the universal experience, somehow, someway, of all of the people of God. And so he's saying, "The first thing you need to do as you think Christologically is you need to have a Biblical view of suffering." Why was Christ willing to suffer? The answer is very easy: because He understood that His suffering was redemptive; not redemptive for Him because He was the perfect Lamb of God, but an act of redemption for others. And so look what it said here, "For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."
What does that mean? Does it mean that suffering has some kind of magical quality - the minute I suffer, BOOM, I become holy? Well, you know that's not true. You gave empirical evidence this week that that's not true. So what does that mean? In that phrase, Peter is going back to his argument that is in the verses preceding--that when you make choices for the sake of the work of Christ to expose yourself to suffering, you have chosen to quit living for you and to start living for God, and that's a huge defeat of sin in your life, because now you're saying, "It's not all about me; it's not all about my pleasure; it's not all about my comfort; I will willingly expose myself to what is uncomfortable and what is hard for the sake of Christ."
And God is using that moment to work grace in me and to deliver me from sin. And then he says, "So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God." There you have, in a few words, a theology of suffering--what is God working in us so that we would be those who no longer live a life driven by selfish, sinful, human desire, but we would become people who find joy in the will of God. Suffering is meant by God to pry open your hands, your hands that hold tightly onto your pleasure, your hands that hold tightly onto your comfort, your hands that hold tightly on to things that are not God's will for you.
Suffering is meant to pry open your hands so that you would let go of those things; and with your hands, you would take up the work of the Kingdom of God. That only happens by the dramatic power of transforming grace. Now here's why this is important: in moments of suffering, you will be tempted to wonder if God is with you. In moments of suffering, you will be tempted to wonder if God is for you. In moments of suffering, you'll be tempted to wonder if God is good, if God is faithful, if His Word is true.
A Moment of Divine Grace
That's why you need to be thinking, "This moment of suffering is not a moment of divine absence; this moment of suffering is a moment of divine grace." And when you say that to yourself, you are protected against the evil lies of the enemy. How practical is that? Because in those moments when you're facing what is, for you, unthinkable and unexpected, you are in a place of spiritual vulnerability and spiritual danger. And God is using the tool of suffering to do what only His grace can do to rescue me from me, to rescue me from my bondage to my own desires, to rescue me from my dedication to what I want, and where I want it, and when I want it to be a person who actually is willing to suffer for the sake of the will of God and who actually finds joy in that.
What a transformation! Do you see that work of transformation in your life? Do you still find your greatest joy when you get your way? Would you rather have your definition of comfort, or a moment, when by transforming grace, your life actually pointed to the glory of God? The second area of thinking: we must understand the present temptation in which we live. Look at verse 3 and 4: "For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you." If you are God's child, if you have given your heart to Him, if He has invaded your life by His grace, then this old way of living must be, should be, has to be, something in your past. But the reason that Peter is saying that is those things, those temptations, still exist around us. In fact, this passage really does lay out what I would say is a three stage or a threefold temptation.
First it is a temptation to give yourself to sensuality. What does that mean? To go wherever the physical desires of your body lead you. And so if I find pleasure in food, it doesn't make any difference if I'm hungry; it doesn't make any difference if the food is healthy; it doesn't make any difference if I'm eating in a way that is not a glory to the Lord, I'm going to go wherever that desire leads me. If I have a desire for sexuality, I am going to go somehow, someway; if it's in a private, secret moment, but somehow, I'm going to satisfy that desire.
If I want to be the center of attention, I'm going to work myself into the center of attention. I'm going to try to tell a better story than anybody has told, or try to be smarter on a topic than anybody is, or try to control the moment; I'm going to go wherever those desires lead me. If I'm in a discussion, I'm going to win the argument so that I can have that pleasure of winning - that's sensuality: I'm going wherever those desires lead me. Now here's what Peter names that - "lawless idolatry."
I actually think that a better translation for 'and' would be 'even.' What all these things add up to is idolatry, and what is the idol there? It's the idol of self. If you are not serving God, if you are not recognizing His position in your life, you will always insert yourself into that position. And what life will become is satisfying your cravings. Now look at me: tell me that that is not still a temptation to you. Tell me, husbands, that you are never tempted to use the force of your personality and strength of your logic in the volume or voice to put your wife in her place, and you don't get some kind of power and pleasure out of that.
Wives, quit doing this (elbowing) to your husbands. Men, tell me that you are free from all forms of sexual temptation; that there's never a moment when you look too long where your mind moves to thoughts that it should not move to; when you watch a program on television you know does not protect your soul; when you run to a website you know you have no business being on. Tell me we're free of using good gifts like wine in ways that were not meant to be used, where we drink too much, or we drink too often, or we drink to numb our hearts, and we run to that instead of running to the Messiah.
Temptations Everywhere
You need to be realistic; these temptations are everywhere around us! Think about sexual temptation; there is such sexual insanity in our culture at this moment, you can barely listen to a piece of contemporary music; you can barely look at a magazine or a newspaper or watch television or go to a movie or even be in a mall without having your morals assaulted. We need to be wise and humble when it comes to temptation. You need to say, "I wish I could say these things were totally in my Gentile past, but Father, I would say to you, they're not."
There's an added pressure; look what he says, "With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them." This temptation is not only personal and spiritual; it becomes a communal, a societal, a relational temptation where it's hard to be the salmon going upstream; it's hard to live differently. Parents, it's hard for your children in school to stand for what is right. It's hard for a man in business not to be part of that horrible course joking that he knows is wrong. It's hard not to enter into conversations, not to want to be accepted, want to be part of the group, but I know I cannot be, and I must not be, because in order to do that, I have to give myself to things I can't give myself to.
Many of you are feeling that pressure: it's not just individual spiritual but is the pressure of community to move in a direction that you know you shouldn't move. There's a third part of that temptation. It says, "And they malign you." And not only is it hard to stand alone, but often when you do that, you expose yourself to misunderstanding and mockery; it hurts. God has wired us as social beings. Now I would ask you: are you thinking wisely and carefully about the temptation that's everywhere around you?
Your Lord was tempted in all points like you are being tempted, yet without sin, and you can go to Him in the midst of your struggle, and you'll find an understanding High Priest because He's been where you are. Or, are you naive? Is there perhaps, in your life, a disconnect when it comes to sin and temptation between your public Sunday persona and the actual realities of your private life the rest of the week? Would you be comfortable with having your thoughts exposed? Would you be comfortable with people knowing (your Lord knows) what you do in those private moments in your life--is there a disconnect?
Are you thinking Biblically about temptation? Third thing that Peter calls us to is to understand the reality of coming judgment - understanding what suffering is designed to do, understanding the present temptation in which you live, understanding the reality of coming judgment. Verse 5, "But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." We believe that we serve a holy God who is the definition of righteousness and justice; and this world is marching toward justice.
There will be a day when your faith, and your suffering, and your obedience will be vindicated by His justice; and there will be a day when the mocker will be defeated and judged forever! And so I live in hope, knowing that this story is not just stuck in this moment of suffering, knowing that what I'm going through is not just meaningless fate that sort of cycles around and occasionally hits me, but knowing that I'm part of His grand story of redemption that's marching its way toward culmination, and some day justice will be done!
The Sure Promise
Brothers and sisters, there will be moments in your life when that's all you have: the sure promise that wrong will be dealt with, that evil will be defeated, that sin will die, and righteousness and truth and justice will reign forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever! Praise God! And then a final thing, in all of this, it's very important to understand the hope of the Gospel: "For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does."
Again, a bit confusing words, but here's what he's saying, "The Gospel was preached to those who have since died, and they will live by the Spirit of God." Now here's what he's saying, "All of us still will face the result of the sin of Adam." What did the sin of Adam bring into life? Physical death. So all of us will physically die, but the hope of the Gospel is this - that there is life on the other side of that. We really do believe in eternal life. We don't believe that this is all that there is.
Paul says in First Corinthians 15, "If only in this life we have Christ, we're of all people most miserable." You see, this life that we've been called to makes no sense without eternity. And so we hold on with both hands the Gospel promise of eternal life, that Jesus Christ came: He lived a perfect life; He shed His blood for sin; He rose again, conquering death, so that He may gift us with this thing that is impossible, it seems, to put into our brains - eternal life, life that lasts forever! In that moment when you're being mocked, in that moment when you're struggling so with temptation, in that moment where you're misunderstood, in that moment when you've suffered in ways you never thought you would suffer, you say to yourself, "This is not all there is.
This is not all there is. This is not all there is. Eternity is sure and true and real, and I will live beyond this forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever!" Praise God! Now, are you thinking this way? Not tonight when this overly passionate man has reminded you of these things, but is this the way you think in those mundane moments of everyday life in a fallen world where all of us live? Do you have a Biblical view of suffering that guards you against the lies of the enemy? Do you have a realistic view of the tri-fold temptations that all of us face in this fallen world; not just tempted to sin, but that the communal pressures that are around that and the suffering of mockery and misunderstanding that often results?
Do you think Biblically about coming judgment and the justice of God in a way that gives you hope? And is your life now shaped by a belief in "Then"? You're living in light of eternity in the 'here and now.' See, that way of thinking gives you a defense against the war that will be fought again in your life, tonight and tomorrow and the next day. Oh how great is the love of God that, in His grace, He would unfold these mysteries to us so in moments of danger, by His grace, we would be ready. Are you ready?
Are you ready? Are you ready? Let's pray: Lord, how deeply appreciative we are this evening with the majestic wisdom of Your Word. How grateful we are for the example of the Lord Jesus Christ; and even more so, how grateful we are for the suffering of Jesus Christ. Friend, His suffering is our forgiveness and His death is our life. Lord, I would pray for those who may be in this room this evening to whom life has seemed hard and meaningless; it has seemed like a cycle of unexpected things that have no purpose--that they will be drawn to You, and drawn to Your wisdom, and drawn to Your forgiveness, and drawn to the hope that could only be found in You.
Lord, I pray that we would take Your warning seriously from this passage, and we would arm ourselves with the thinking of Christ so that when danger comes, we will be prepared. In Jesus's name, Amen.
