Jesus is our Example

All right, remain standing. 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 18 to 25. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? but if when you do good and suffer for it you endure this is a gracious thing in the sight of God for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls so you may be seated it's my job to bring the word of God to you it's not my job to entertain you It's not my job to try to make you feel good.

There's churches that will do that. If that's what you want, we can probably recommend a few. I probably wouldn't though. The purpose of gathering together for corporate worship is to worship God. And the purpose of the man preaching the word is so that you can have an encounter with God in a unique way. And so we want to take a look at what's going on in this passage and try to understand what it's saying in the whole context of not only 1 Peter, but the context of Scripture.

And we want to be able to apply it to our lives. And so my goal is to be able to give you a little bit of an overview of what this passage is talking about. We're not going to get into all the nuances of it because, frankly, the whole concept of submission is going to be repeated. Next week, Lord willing, if I ever finish my introduction even, And next week we'll be talking about 1 Peter chapter 3.

And I already think I'm going to probably take two weeks for the wives. And then two weeks for the husbands. And so we're going to get to only the verse 7 in the next four weeks. That's if we don't end up doing some kind of Christmas sermon, which I don't anticipate. But I guess if somebody thought that was a good idea, we could. But so I want to talk to you about what's going on here.

And I want to remind you the context of 1 Peter. Peter is warning the people who are reading the letter that while they're exiles in a strange land, they're going to suffer. There's going to be difficulty that they face. And there's a way that Peter and the Lord himself expects those people to act while they're still in this world. The reality is they're exiles.

The reality is they're going to suffer. The imperative that he gives them is that they're to be holy as he is holy. Jesus Christ was in this world. he was in exile here and he was holy. And so he's our example. I want to remember there's a reason we sang and can it be it was providential but there's a reason in verse 2 that I want to remember to talk about because the wording of verse 2 was changed Some of you may have noticed that from the original.

And we'll talk about that when we talk about Jesus coming to die for us. So in verse 18, after Peter has already told us to obey our governing authorities, and we discussed what that means, and that's been discussed ad nauseum this year already, Peter moves on from there and he says, Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. So Peter's going to address a number of people.

First he addresses basically everyone. Obey your governing authorities. And then he addresses a group of people he calls servants. In some translations it would say slaves. Sometimes it might say bond servants. And the idea is that this is a person who is under somebody else's authority.

There's a relationship there. We could potentially apply this to our employee-employer relationships that we have. To some extent. This was a little bit of a unique situation. They had a form of slavery that they did back in these times. There's been slavery all over the world since the beginning of time.

So, side note, if you think you or your little group is going to end it, you're probably a little too late to try at this point. Slavery is a reality. In fact, it's such a reality in the human condition that God actually gives rules throughout the Old Testament for how to treat slaves. He tells people exactly how they are to act. And it's one of the reasons why there's forms of slavery that we can judge quite harshly, and we'd be right.

And there's forms of slavery that we shouldn't judge the same way. In fact, there's forms that are perfectly aligned with the way God would have slaves and masters treat themselves, or each other. But the point is that Paul's talking to these servants at the time, and it's going to apply to our lives. He tells them to be subject to their masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.

And he says it's a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. So there's a couple parallel passages I want to look at, just to wet your whistle that this is not happening in a vacuum. So go to Ephesians 6. Paul addresses servants in three different passages at least that I'm going to talk to you about tonight. and I just want you to get this idea of what is being said to us In verse 5 of chapter 6 of Ephesians which is another section where he starts in chapter 5 and he admonishes wives, he admonishes husbands, he admonishes children, and then he goes to servants.

So it's another passage about submission. This is a big important thing in the Bible. Paul says, Bondservants, obey your early masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. Paul's telling people that while they are on the earth and they're bond servants of some kind, that they're actually supposed to serve as if Jesus was their master.

Not by way of eye service, as people pleasers. So don't just do the things you think you want him to see you doing when he's looking. But you're supposed to actually serve your master as if Jesus Christ was there right next to you watching you the whole time, which of course he is watching you the whole time and he is with you to the end of the age. I've been guilty of that.

Have you? There used to be a game on the computer it was called Tetris. Like a long, long time ago there was a Tetris game for a PC and there was an escape key. Some of you guys are too young to know this. But when you hit the escape key it created a sheet that looked like Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. So if you don't know what Lotus 1, 2, 3 is, that's how old I am, okay?

But basically think like, it was like popping up like an Excel file. And it was called the boss function. So if your boss walked in, you could hit escape and it looked like you were working. So if he looked at your screen, there was a spreadsheet while you're sitting there playing Tetris. I mean, this is like thought through, you know what I'm saying? But I was guilty of that kind of stuff, especially before I was a Christian.

That's duplicitous, too. make it look like you're working when you're not. But he says, but as bondservants of Christ. So Paul says the same thing. You're supposed to be acting like you're a servant of Christ when you're working for your earthly master. He says, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.

It's not enough that you submit to your earthly master who may be unjust with you. It's not enough that you just do what he tells you. He says to do it with a good heart. With a good will toward him. God is looking for worshippers and he's looking for people that will worship him with their whole life and die to self this is hard to do this is probably one of the reasons why people come up with these doctrines that well the new testament is all about love and no commands because you know what there's actually so many and they're so difficult that it's easier to say well there aren't any I find it easier to trust Jesus Christ to help me But then it says, knowing whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

So there's kind of a cosmic calculation going on here that, hey, you keep doing what's right, and the Lord is watching, and he's going to pay people back for that. So I'm not saying you're going to, you know, six years from now something great is going to happen. I'm not going to promise anything like that, but it's more of an eternal promise. And the Lord knows.

And also, God's not mocked. You're going to reap what you sow. So there is a sense that even in this world you're going to understand blessing or curse based on your behavior. Turn to Colossians 3. We're going to have another parallel passage. It's not going to say anything significantly different to you.

I just want you to see that this is not happening just where Peter's writing. This isn't just some old Jewish guy telling slaves to stay slaves. This isn't something that people use. This is the kind of passages people use to justify American slavery. And that's evil, what we did here in America. And there's a difference between how the Bible handled slaves and didn't.

But for somebody to just stand up and make a blanket statement, well, slavery is bad. Well, now you're contradicting all these passages that are explaining how to do slavery. and there's a whole study on that that we did and you can learn a lot about things I'm not going to get into the details of that now but the point is you're to submit bond servants, verse 22, Colossians 3 bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters so you have an earthly master he says not by way of eye service as people pleasers does that sound familiar? yeah we're already told that but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord whatever you do work heartily is for the Lord and not to men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there is no partiality God is watching God knows what's going on turn to 1st Timothy 6 verse 106 just the first couple verses Paul again writes let all who are under a yoke as bond servants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled he says those who are believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. So you have another situation now where it's one thing to tell all the people that have wicked masters, hey, all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Your masters mean, but endure it like a good servant. That's one thing. But now you've got these other people who actually have Christian masters and they thinking hey maybe I can get away with something here that guy my Christian brother I actually worship with him and pray with him So I going to take advantage of that kindness and I not going to work as hard as I have to And so Paul's warning people about that.

And that's a temptation we have in the church. When you're in the church and you're working for someone else maybe, maybe you have a business, or maybe you're just a person that does work for others, sometimes we have this temptation to not actually put in the best effort because, well, if somebody doesn't like it, I'll just accuse them of being mean. I'll remind them that they need to forgive me.

I've dealt with that. We had a website company that was supposed to be doing work for us a long time ago when I was just driving for eternity. And it was just a complete disaster. And every time we tried to complain, it was like, oh, brother, you know. It was like, wait, you have a job to do. We're paying you. and it really violated this verse and if you look at Titus 2 maybe we'll look at it a little more next week when we talk about women in Titus 2 though in talking about women we get something that we just read though in verse 5 it says to be self-controlled, pure, working at home kind and submissive to their own husbands it says that the word of God may not be reviled and that's also what Paul said to Timothy in chapter 6, verse 1, he said, Regard your own masters as worthy of all honor, so the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.

Excuse me. I'm not sick. I've got like a tickle here. So you have this concept here that we're seeing where if you don't do what God has commanded you in relation to your authorities, in particular in this case talking about slaves and masters, God's word is being blasphemed. God's word will be reviled by people. You look around our country and you see all the unrest that's happening and I'll tell you what, people who are having trouble right now with what's going on you can turn to Matthew 5 while I'm talking they know who they can trust. in a very unsure uncertain society if you're a person that people know shows up to work does the work you're supposed to do they know that when they're not looking you're doing the right thing they know you're not stealing from them they're going to trust you and you're going to actually shine in a difficult situation and then the opposite is true if you're the Christian that's telling everybody at work that they need to believe in Jesus and you're telling people they should repent of sin and you're telling people that they're the ones that should stop marching in parades and all these things that you're telling people they shouldn't do.

Maybe you're arguing about masks or taxes or lockdowns or all the different things that maybe are worth arguing about. But you show up at work and you're basically just a buffoon. You're actually bringing hatred upon the Word of God. And people are actually right to judge the Word of God because of your testimony. now they're wrong but they're right you're the letter to them from God of what a Christian is I'm not saying you have to be perfect but you can bring reviling to God's word by your behavior people know you're a Christian so when you don't live like one that gives them their excuse now again I'm a Calvinist I believe in election if somebody goes to hell it's not all my fault but I'd rather be a tool used by God to see people saved than the tool that God used to judge somebody because of my bad behavior I hope you would too Matthew 5, Jesus uses similar wording to Peter he says in verse 46 talking about loving your neighbor and hating your enemy and then Jesus says love your enemy pray for those who persecute you and he says in 46 if you love those who love you what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same so he's saying if you love people who love you don't beat your chest about that everybody does that like the worst people in the world have like their close circle of people that they love okay like there's very few like solitary evil guys you know what I'm saying it just doesn't happen that way There's always little groups of people, and they do.

They care for each other in some kind of way, and there's a real bond they have there. They love each other. He says in 47, If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. The point is that you should be different. All these people who are doing all these things, you're doing all the things these other people can do anyway.

And that, to me, is the same concept of what Peter's telling us. when we obey an unjust master in chapter 2. We're to be subject to him with all respect. Pagans can go to work and work for a good boss. Pagans probably can work for a bad boss if they're getting paid enough. There's a lot of people in this world that have learned to work hard and they've done a good job and they've kept their nose clean enough so that they could just get earthly riches. how much more so should Christians be able to do the things that God's calling us to do?

Some of them are harder. He says, it's gracious if you endure sorrows while suffering unjustly. In verse 19, He says, you don't get credit if you sin and are beaten for it and you endure, but if you do good and suffer for it, you endure. That's a gracious thing. And then He adds, for to this you have been called. he says because Christ also suffered for you and now we get to one of the favorite parts of preaching where I get to just talk about Jesus Christ because he right there in the text now I believe what Spurgeon said that if I don see Jesus Christ name in the text I going to jump over every fence I have to to get to the point where I going to tell you he there I'm going to preach Jesus Christ from every passage of Scripture, one way or another.

But he's right here, highlighted for us. You are being told that you're to suffer like a good soldier, that you're supposed to be submissive to earthly masters, even if they're unjust. not because God's sadistic, not because this is your punishment for your sin, that you have to... It's like you're purgatory. That's not why. You're being told to do this because Jesus Christ did it for you, and He was an example.

It says, He left you an example so that you might follow in His steps. So we need to try to understand, what does it mean that He was our example in this? Because Jesus Christ did a lot of things, and He did a lot of things that we can't do. and he knew the exact right time to do all the things he did and so we have to try to understand when he's our example what exactly does that mean so turn to Philippians 1 I want to establish a couple facts here and the first fact is that you're called to suffer at the end of Philippians 1 verse 29 Paul says it's been granted to you This is a gift from God.

It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. So that if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy, listen, by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind. Go down to verse 4.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. And now here we go. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. So he's going to tell us about Christ Jesus' mind. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Jesus Christ came into the world. So you want a Christmas sermon? Here it is. He took the form of a servant. He came incarnate. God Almighty.

Perfect. Keep in mind too, like perfect joy. Like He never lacked joy. He is joy. But He decided, I'm going to go into this dirty world. And I'm going to empty myself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men. and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus Christ, the ultimate servant. So what you have to remember, when God tells you, humble yourself and submit to this wicked and unjust authority in your life, Jesus Christ already did it infinitely better, more cheerfully and willingly than you ever would and could.

He did it on our behalf. I wanted to make one note for you, and can it be? Charles Wesleyan wrote, He left his Father's throne above, so free, so infinite is grace. And then in our version it says, emptied himself to show his love. And in the original, if I remember correctly, he says, emptied himself of all but love. and there's a reason why the good people at the master's seminary changed the wording of this song and it's because jesus christ there's there's a false teaching that jesus christ actually like relinquished himself of being god in some ways that he somehow set aside certain attributes that make him god that are essential to being god so that he could come and it's it's called canonicism and it's a subtle heresy.

I don't think everybody that would maybe say things wrong in this regard are a heretic. But you should understand that Jesus Christ never ceased to be God. When he became a man, he took on human nature. We read about him in chapter 8 of the Confession. We read 10 paragraphs about him over the last 6 weeks or so. And Jesus Christ, when he came into the world and became a man, he never stopped being God.

So he didn't empty himself of all but love. It's not like he just got rid of all his attributes, but he's just held on to love. It's almost like a Hallmark movie version of describing his incarnation. Jesus Christ came down in the flesh, and he lived a perfect life, and the entire time the world was being upheld by his power. Is it mysterious? Yes. can I explain how Jesus Christ has two natures to you in a way that will sufficiently and comprehensively help you understand it?

No. I can't explain the Trinity in that way either. I can simply tell you what the word says about it. He has two natures. He's a human being. Essential human characteristics.

A will. A rational soul. Reasonable soul. And he also is God. And he has two natures. And there's no one like them.

So I can't compare them. I can't say, well, it's like an apple on top of a stick. There's just no comparison. Same with the Trinity. We don't make analogies, right? That's where you get that.

That's modalism, Patrick. You don't play games when you're trying to describe something indescribable. You simply use the words that God gave us to describe it. You accept it by faith. And then to the extent you can, you dig deeper and you listen to things. And you try to understand it.

But Jesus Christ came in the form of a servant. And we read Isaiah 53. I want you to turn back there again. I want to remind you of some things it says in Isaiah 53. Because it should have been familiar to you when I was reading 1 Peter. If you had just listened to Isaiah 53, and if you were going to memorize one passage of Scripture, and you're one of those people that says, I've never memorized before, Isaiah 53 would be an extremely good chapter to memorize.

It's 12 verses. And if you were really unaggressive, you could do it in 12 weeks. If you want to be a little bit aggressive, you could do it in 2 weeks. Beautiful chapter of Scripture, quoted throughout the New Testament. and what happens I'll give you a little memorization plug here what happens when you memorize scripture is you meditate on it while you're memorizing it you meditate on it while you're practicing it it comes to your mind more easily when you need it if you're in a desperate situation but the other thing that happens is when you're reading other passages of scripture you start to see how the other New Testament authors used the same words so Peter said in 1 Peter 2, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

In Isaiah 53, verse 9, Isaiah writes, Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Do you think Peter, a good Jew, was thinking about that passage when he wrote chapter 2 of his epistle? Peter says for you have gone astray like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls Isaiah writes in verse 6 chapter 53 all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all in case you don't believe penal substitutionary atonement there it is right there and it's right there in the Old Testament too.

In case you fall victim to one of these false teachers that tries to tell you Jesus just died as an example of love or something silly like that. Jesus died to really satisfy the wrath of God. That's why he died. To make a propitiation for sinners. That's why Jesus died. He didn't die as an example. like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it sure is silent so he opened not his mouth verse 7 again penal substitutionary atonement verse 11 second part by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities verse 12 the end yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors so in case you don't believe me that this passage is about Jesus Christ turn to Acts 2 or Acts 8 some people don't like it when we go into the Bible and we find Jesus Christ all over the place I don't apologize to those people but I understand their argument the argument a lot of times is well unless the Bible explicitly says that this is this I don't believe it as if we can't use any deduction or logic or intelligence God's given us to understand things.

But in Acts chapter 8, Philip, the evangelist, comes to this Ethiopian eunuch guy and he asks him, do you understand what you're reading? Chapter 30. And the eunuch says, how can I unless someone guides me? There's a whole sermon in there. Okay? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

So this guy's, you know, he's a court official of this queen this is probably a nice little chariot or something the passage of scripture he was reading was this see if it sounds familiar like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opens not his mouth he's reading Isaiah 53 in his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth that's Isaiah 53 also So we didn't read that part. And not recently. And the eunuch said, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?

About himself or about someone else? So he's kind of asking, Was Isaiah writing about himself or another person? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. So Philip, without the New Testament, with just a fragment of the Old Testament was able to tell this Ethiopian eunuch about the propitiation that Jesus Christ offered for sinners.

And this Ethiopian eunuch, I'm going to tell you right now, he wasn't a Jew. This was Philip proclaiming the gospel to this guy. And then if you keep reading, you see that he gets saved. And he actually wants to be baptized right away. So you've been called to suffer like Jesus Christ. we get to identify with Him. Let's look at Philippians 3 real quick.

He's an example for us. Philippians 3.10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, now that sounds nice, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. This is Paul writing. This is Paul explaining justification by faith. If you read the previous few verses, you'll see that's his whole point.

It's that it's faith in Christ alone that will save you. And he says, he may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Romans 8.17 says something similar again. So those of you who think you're going to somehow escape suffering, you're as fooled as the sinner that thinks he'll escape hell without Christ verse 17 of Romans 8 if your children your heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ sounds wonderful Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him So Jesus Christ suffered for our sake, but he didn't do it in a vacuum either.

He did it as an example for us, as well as to make the propitiation that we needed. So let's look at his suffering a little bit here. in verse 21 of 1 Peter. I'm back to 1 Peter 2. He says he's leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. So what example does he give? Well, we'll just read what it says.

He committed no sin. There's an example. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. So basically he didn't hurt people and he wasn't violent. He didn't sin. He didn't try not to.

We have to try not to. He wasn't deceitful. when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. So now we're getting somewhere. People are slandering him. People are saying things to him that are wrong. There's false witnesses saying that he said things he didn't say.

Openly lying. I mean, this is like, people just are like, here, just say something. I don't care if it's true. Just say it. We're going to kill the guy anyway. Seriously, I don't think anyone was worried about the credibility of the witnesses. at the time.

But he didn't revile in return. Is it because of his weakness, you think? Somebody yell no. He said, what, I could have 12 legions of angels or 12,000 legions? Whatever it was, he said to the guys in the garden. I know it was thousands and thousands of angels that could have been there in a moment if he had called on them.

Jesus Christ didn't have weakness he had meekness Jesus Christ was meek and lowly gentle in heart his yoke is easy his burden is light Jesus Christ who could come and destroy the whole earth anytime he wants who could destroy every sinner Jesus Christ who could have basically spoken a word and everybody who wanted to kill him could have just disappeared he could really do anything he wants There's no natural law that could control him anyway. Yet Jesus Christ didn't revile in return even. When he suffered, he did not threaten.

He didn't let him know, hey, if you go through with this, just so you know, you're going to burn in hell. I would have at least dropped a couple of those on people, just knowing my snarkiness and my heart. But Jesus Christ had a mission, and he knew what his mission was, and He wasn't going to fail to do it, and He wasn't going to fail to do it perfectly.

And so He's our example. So we shouldn't revile in return. When we suffer, we shouldn't threaten. But what did He do? He continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. Jesus Christ completely submitted His life to the Father.

He had no desire to defend Himself, no desire for self-preservation. His desire was to do the will of the Father, and He completely trusted that that will was perfect. And that's our example. So I'm not telling you that you need to be perfect, because you can't be sinless. I'm not going to tell you that somehow you're supposed to wake up every day and pray as much as Jesus and be as perfect as Jesus.

That's where I think we can get lost when we say He's our example. Well, there are certain things that He is different, but Jesus Christ had faith. He had a faithfulness to what God had promised that we can try to emulate. We can trust that the Lord will protect us. We don't have to threaten other people, revile them. And then Peter says in the end, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By His wounds you have been healed. So again, that's a quote from Isaiah 53. Matthew uses that quote actually to say Jesus fulfilled that scripture when he healed people of physical sickness. So if you just stop right there, that's all it meant. But then Peter says, by his wounds ye have been healed. And I think Peter, in context, is talking about Jesus' death as a propitiation for our sins, not earthly healing.

And so what do we see? We see that Jesus was able to clear away the penalty of sin, which was like sickness would be one of the consequences of sin. He was able to come and heal that at his will whenever he wanted. And that was very visible, right? What did Jesus say? What's harder to do, to heal a man or to say your sins are forgiven?

Well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven, right? So Jesus did the hard things that people knew were impossible to let us know that anything's possible with him. By his wounds, we've been healed. Peter says that we've been healed by his wounds, for we were straying like sheep. More Isaiah 53, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Some passages say, and it's argued by commenters, that that should say, but have now been returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. It's that you've been delivered. It's not that you were trotting around on the wrong side of the mountain as this dumb sheep, and you were just hanging out. Everything was fine. And you're like, oh, I've got to go find the shepherd.

And you just traveled back. it's more like you were like utterly lost and somebody grabbed you and like took you back to the shepherd and overseer so that you'd be safe again and so we get to identify with Jesus Christ and his suffering we have him as our example and the question is this are we dead to sin he himself bore our sins verse 24 in his body on the tree why? that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He did not bear our sins on the tree so that we could just be forgiven Now the gospel is that Jesus Christ came into the world He was born of a virgin. He lived a perfect life.

He had no stain of sin on Him. He represented Adam's helpless race, as that song said. He bled and died on the cross at the hands of wicked men. He suffered the wrath of God when He was on that cross. It pleased Yahweh to crush Him. And three days later He rose again by His own power, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Father's power.

And he offers all those who believe in him and by faith and faith alone trust in him eternal life and forgiveness of their sins. And that is the gospel. And there's no doubt about that. But if you reduce the gospel to nothing but that and it has no implications as well, which is that you've now died to sin. You've changed it ever so slightly. and because of our fear of becoming dropping into the Roman Catholic heresy of making people's salvation based on their works and making their grace that they have something that they earn by their works we've become so divorced in our society of even telling people about the works that are required in the Christian life that we've created basically an entire country of people that call themselves Christian I'll tell you, go do the numbers sometime there's more people getting abortions in our country than there are Democrats alright we don't live in a Christian nation but we live in a nation of Christians, we're told we live in a very wicked place right now and one of the reasons is that there is millions of people who have been told that because they prayed a prayer and because they asked Jesus to send them to heaven when they die, that they're actually Christian and that they can now continue to do whatever is in their heart with no consequence.

That is where we live right now. And it's because of our fear of creating little Roman Catholics by telling people they have to do some work after they profess faith. You can explain to people justification by faith and you can explain to them that that produces the good works that Ephesians 2.10 promises will be manifested in a believer's life. John the Baptist says bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

He's not talking about just pointing in your Bible to the day you prayed a prayer. So we need to live lives that show that we're dead to sin. In Romans 8 we talk about the fact that let's go to Romans 8 just at the very beginning. It says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death.

For God has done. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. So, God sent His Son into the world to do what the law could not do. Alright? So you're all in the flesh.

And you have this law. And the law says, you know, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. And you can extrapolate that out to the Ten Commandments, basically. And by the time I finish this sentence, every one of us probably sinned in our heart at least by not loving God fully. Even as Christians.

As non-Christians, the only reason we're not constantly slaughtering our neighbors is because, frankly, it's good for us not to. Because we pretty much do the worst thing we can get away with while it still benefits us. That's why some people are really successful like good people because it benefits them. It's not because they happen to be good people.

It's because living on the street and turning tricks isn't for them. Because they'd rather just have money and cars and be able to get women a different way or whatever it is. some people actually have a pride that wants to be seen as good even though in their hearts they're evil but we according to this passage could not be freed from our sin because of the law the law didn't have that power but God sent his son in the likeness of our flesh Jesus became a human being he didn't just like hang out in like a tent he became a human being you got to understand that and he condemned sin in the flesh because Jesus Christ showed that it's possible to be a human being and not sin sin is not essential to being a human do you understand that? it's not essential there's a lot of essential qualities of being a human being, sin isn't one of them it's incidental to who we are right now and one day you'll be a human being who cannot sin Lord willing, I hope all of you are but Paul continues in verse 4 he says in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit Paul in Romans is telling us hey you've been enabled to be dead to sin you're enabled to actually see God's law as something lovely something you want to obey that's what Paul tells us in Romans 8 I wish I had time to preach to Romans Maybe I will. Because Romans is such a great book.

And I just keep going back to it. So maybe I am sort of preaching it a little bit. It's a great book. So how do you know if you're dead to sin? If I turn to the front of your Bible and it says August 4, some year, you got baptized, is that how I know? How do you know if you're dead to sin?

I mean, what do dead things do? Dead things don't grow in a direction. Say that, right? So is your life marked by your growth toward holiness? or is your life marked by your growth toward unholiness? Because you're not staying the same. If you think you're staying the same, you're dead in your sin.

I'll just tell you that right now. You're either growing or you're dying, basically. But if you're dying, you're already dead in the spiritual sense we're talking about here. So how do you know if you're dead to sin? I'll give you some practical examples. do you safeguard yourself against sin? Do you have guardrails for yourself?

Do you dip your toes in the waters of sin and teeter on the edge of it? Or do you try to stay as far away from it as you can? How much do you hate it I don like to be crude so I not going to be But imagine if you were in your kitchen, right? And how many of you keep a bottle of bleach, like, on the counter where you cook? Like, a lot of you probably have bleach in your house, you have laundry detergent, you probably have all sorts of things that would be utterly poisonous if you ingested them. but you don't keep those close to where you're preparing the food you're going to give your babies, right?

You safeguard it. You wouldn't do that unless you had to. And even then, you'd create safeguards to keep contaminants out. So we all understand what it means to have a situation where I want to keep something as far away from something else as I can because this will taint this, this will poison this, this will destroy this. and yet Christians everywhere are constantly dipping our toes in the water of sin we're not jumping in we're not diving in head first we think we're better than those people that are already swimming in it but we'll sit at the edge and we'll kind of get our feet wet and just see if the water feels good maybe we'll even enjoy that little refreshment of it but we'll feel better because the people that are in it well they're way worse So you know if you're dead to sin.

If you're so disgusted by the filthiness of it, you don't even want to go near it. The stench of it from 15 feet away keeps you from even being able to walk in and dip your toes in it. That's part of how you know if you're dead to sin. It's easy to look at, again, I bring up obvious examples. It's easy to look at a gay pride parade and say, well, I'm not like that guy.

That's easy. Most people aren't. it's like 1% of our population is gay anywhere. You know what I mean? It's very easy to find bad, bad, bad examples of people like Lot's wife that you can say, well, not her. Not like that person. Not like Lot's daughters.

The question is not whether you're exactly like some of these people. The question is, are you actually like them? You just aren't ascending to the degree they are. You're deceiving yourself and being deceived. That's what you need to ask yourself honestly. Are you repentant when you're sinned or is it no big deal?

You know? I'll confess, I have good and bad days with that one. I have things that happen where I'm like, I just feel terrible. And then there's other times where I'm like, no, it's not that big a deal, just a minor thing. And when you remember that every single sin deserves God's wrath and required Jesus Christ to suffer on that cross, required Jesus to leave heaven and become a man, he willingly made himself of no reputation.

He condescended to be with us. Keep in mind that for Jesus Christ, if he had been born in the nicest house this earth ever had to offer, and he had spent his entire life eating the best food that this world ever had to offer him, and he had nothing but comfort that could have been offered, one moment of breathing our dirty air was more condescension than he should have had to endure. You have to understand that.

This is such a filthy, wicked place that the nicest things we have are infinitely incomparable to how holy God is that he came and he actually made himself of no reputation humbled himself it's arguable that he wasn't even like a good looking guy like if I got to pick who I was like there's probably good looking Hollywood guys that I'd be like well I'd rather look more like that guy you know what I mean if I got to pick he just came because he wanted to serve he came because he loved people that much so are you repentant about your sin and another one do you confess your sin do you confess to God or do you kind of do the general confession like well God I probably sinned today and just forgive me and okay thanks for the food amen or do you actually name your sins to God because he already knows he already knows and there's something in us that actually if we start to say it it actually helps you it helps you fight it when you acknowledge it out loud I've been praying before to God and I've thought about things I think I should confess and something in me like suppressed it like if I said it I know it was real but there was a part of me that wanted to still think it wasn't and it's like how asinine is that like by his grace the spirit might be bringing it even up to me that I might confess. Do you have regular confession to other people though too? The Bible tells us, confess to one another.

The prayers of a righteous man availeth much. So the way that you can be freed from your sin that you're dead to, but you're still kind of stuck in because of the corruption of our flesh, is by going to a Christian brother or sister and confessing your sin and asking them to pray to you. Now there's people that may not be the best people to confess every single sin to.

There's probably some people whose feelings could get hurt by some of your sin. And so you want to be careful who you might tell certain things to, but don't you want to be washed clean of it? If you don't have a person who you trust you can confess to, you should start looking for one right now. And they should be in your church. And Lord willing, you know, you're all members here, but we're talking about church things.

And there should be people you regularly confess to. There should be people who are allowed to ask you questions like, Hey, are you okay, brother? Did you do this this week, sister? There should be people that know what your tendencies are so they can watch for them and help you. Because you actually care that much about not sinning instead of protecting your reputation with them.

Psalm 119.27 talks about confessing our sin and the blessing that comes. Psalm 32.5 It talks about confessing our sin. real quick. Psalm 32, 5. I acknowledge my sin to you and did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's what we want to be confessors. So ask yourself those questions. Do you create safeguards to try to keep you from sin? Are you really trying even? Are you repentant when you sin? Even some of the little ones.

And do you confess your sin? If those things are struggles for you, today's the day. Work it out. I'm here. I'll talk to you about it. I'm looking around.

Other than my wife, I'm the worst sinner in the room. If there's nothing you can tell me, that'll shock me. That got some laughs. That's good. But you won't shock me with it. I've done all the bad stuff already.

So there's people that actually want to help you. That's one of the reasons why we have a church. We want to be in each other's lives, help each other with these battles. Spurgeon said, he who is his own guide is guided by a fool. So make sure you have someone else. And he says, if we are careful about our little actions, the great ones will be pretty sure to be right so think about these things Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead the offspring of David right as preached in my gospel He's the example.

He's the one that willingly submitted himself to wicked, wicked earthly authorities because there was a higher purpose to it, and he trusted the Lord with that higher purpose. And we ourselves have the same command. you don't know how your suffering and your willing, cheerful even submission to it is going to be used by God to the salvation of others so let's all submit to him in that way Father thank you for your word, thank you for providing 1 Peter to us that we may be able to understand these things, I pray that we would honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that our lives would be marked by a desire to be dead to sin and live to righteousness. You would help us each day to grow in our sanctification, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

For you are holy and you are good. We know you are powerful and more powerful than our sin. Pray for the people in this room who heard the gospel but have not yet believed that today may be the day your spirit works in their heart to open their eyes to your truth. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.