Ceased from Sin

I'll read 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 1 through 6, and then you can read it. Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves 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 has passed 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 we do not join them in the same flood of the laundry, and they will lie in it. 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 to make us live Peter has been exhorting us and warning us in fact what the true grace of God is he tells us in verse 12 of chapter 5 I've written briefly to you this is the true grace of God and one of the reasons why we do what I think everyone here appreciates which is verse by verse exposition of the scripture is that it's really hard to get up and talk about portion of scripture that's in chapter 4, for example, if we haven't already evaluated what happens in chapters 1 through 3. So I'm relying on the fact that you have been studying 1 Peter with me, and that you've been listening to at least what I've been saying about it, because this is we're getting to the point where Peter's concluding things.

He's telling us, he's drawing the conclusions from what we've already known. And if you just opened 1 Peter chapter 4 and thought, I'm just going to teach what's in 1 Peter 4, 1 through 6, what you'd probably find really quickly is you have to go back to 1 Peter 1, verse 1, and review everything up to that point. So we're trusting that you understand that Peter has warned the people that they are going to suffer for Jesus Christ. that the whole idea here of the letter is you're going to be persecuted.

And although you're going to be persecuted and it's difficult and it's undesirable, there's no way we're going to say, well, that's actually fun. It's not a fun thing. But Peter's going to say you've got to be holy anyway. You're supposed to put away the passions in the flesh and the way to work is your soul. You're supposed to live a life that is markedly different from how you would naturally want to live, particularly if you're suffering the worst of people.

And so I find this section to have a few important things to understand, and I thought that verse 6, when we get to verse 6, is a little bit of a confusing verse. I want to be able to explain to you what verse 6 means, and I think what verse 6 means actually helps you understand chapter 3, that section about Jesus going and proclaiming the spirits of the risen and the dead. So at the beginning of chapter 4, which there was no chapter where Peter wrote this letter, he says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, so he's referring back to Christ suffering once for sins the righteous and the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God in verse 18 of chapter 3.

So since Christ did this, he says, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. So the same way of thinking as Christ had. He says, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So now we have a little bit of an interpretive, we'll say difficulty, because what it sounds like on the surface in this meeting here is that Christ suffered in the flesh, so we also have to have the same kind of thinking Christ had, because if you've suffered in the flesh, you're going to cease from sin.

And it sounds kind of sinless perfection in the first place. The idea of ceasing from sin is something that here in this church, we would acknowledge will never happen this time in the world. In my prayer before the sermon, I actually confessed to God that we're so innately sinful that we need forgiveness for our iniquity. And it's one of the reasons why if you're in an argument, a common argument in 2021, or 2020, with a homosexual, and you say, well, this is just too old.

And the response is, that's fine. That's who you already need forgiveness for. The idea that because I am a certain way, and in fact feel like I was born that way somehow exonerates me from judgment. That's the fallacy. So I don't argue with people that say, well, I was born gay. I won't argue with them and say, no, no, no, it was a choice.

I say, great, that's got to forgive me. Because I need forgiveness for the way I was born. I need forgiveness from the moment in my conception of the original sin without caring because Adam, my representative in the garden who is a better man than I ever could be, sinning against God. And you need to sin against God. And so the problem here is then thinking that, well, OK, maybe it doesn mean that I going to cease from sin but it just means I going to sin less Like I won be as sinful as before because I being sanctified And that is true.

We hope for that. But the analogy given here is that Christ suffered in the flesh. And then if you suffer in the flesh, you agree to cease from sin. And so Christ didn't need to cease from sin. and so this idea of Christ being our example and suffering in the flesh so that he would cease from sin like this example to us doesn't apply because he would cease from sin so we need to understand what God's trying to tell us here and so in the first clause it says since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh he's talking about the flesh here Christ suffering in the flesh Peter's talking about the fact that Jesus became the incarnate.

He's not saying Jesus had a flesh in the same way that we say abstain from the passions of the flesh. Peter just said earlier, right, he said abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage mortgage and tolls. Peter's not saying Jesus had a flesh like we do in the sense that we have a sinful flesh in the name of God. But Jesus actually did have flesh.

One of the earliest heresies in the church was the Gnostic heresy that all flesh is evil, only spiritual things are good, and so therefore Jesus could not have raped and taken on flesh. That's why John says that any Christ is one that denies that Jesus came from the flesh, as said in 1 John 4. And so Jesus really did come in the flesh. He really was a human being.

He really was a man. And that's super important. it's super important because you're going to be a man or a woman for all eternity you're not going to escape you will eventually escape sinfulness when you work but so the idea here is Jesus came in the flesh and suffered becoming sin for his people and if we identify with Jesus Christ and die to sin like he did, and are raised to righteousness, then we are armed with the same way of thinking and we have now ceased to be a slave of sin. Turn to Romans 6.

We'll try to flesh this out a little bit. Romans 6, verses 1-8, gives us an exhortation here. again Romans is a thoroughly logical book you have to read one verse after another in Romans because he starts and says what shall we say well if you don't know what he just said in 5 you're going to be in trouble if you don't know what he said in 4 you're in trouble you do need to review some of it but ultimately up to this point Paul has Paul has explained that the law couldn't save anybody but Jesus could it's pretty much the summary of Romans 1 and 5 there's a little more but here we are and I say it about grace, you've been told the law cannot help you, the law is weak the law was unable to do any of the things that Jesus was able to do and so the response from the trial man is well, I guess I don't have to obey the law I guess I can just do whatever I want and if any of you have ever evangelized one of the things, if you communicate the gospel very clearly to people and people understand you that is salvation by grace through faith alone, one of the questions people will ask is, so you're saying that because I can do anything I want, I still go to heaven? It's actually a legitimate philosophical question.

I wouldn't say it's a legitimate question for a person whose heart actually loves God, but it's a legitimate question to think through. So Romans 6, 1 through 8, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? by no means. I like that other translation. God forbid. That's what he says somewhere.

Paul says, how can we who die to sin, so this is that language, suffering in the flesh, die to sin, right? He says, how can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Remember in verse 8 or 3, he just talked about baptism corresponding to the heart, right? He says, we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into his death.

So we were buried just like Jesus. Our old self was put in a tomb just like Jesus' flesh was put in a tomb. This is another reason why in this church you won't see us sprinkling people with water or pouring water over people and calling them baptism. baptism. Baptized just means immersed in grief. Literally that's the word. So when you say baptism by immersion you're repeating yourself.

It's like saying a pen number. Or a pen number. You don't say baptism by immersion. But we're baptized into his death. He says we were buried with him by baptism into death. In order that so why did we die with him in our baptism? in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So the reason why your own self had to be crucified with Christ and die with Christ and actually be put in a tomb, in a sense, with Jesus Christ's flesh that really did die and suffer the penalty of sin that he never committed, he suffered your sin for you. So that when he rose from the grave, showing that he had power over sin that he was able to create a new life that we could raise also with him so that we would walk in newness of life For if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his That's an interesting, it's a promise and a warning. So if you haven't died to sin, you don't have the promise that you'll be raised to be loved.

That's the scary warning. Again, I don't know your hearts. I can only look at the outside and one of the things we're really good at is showing up and having the outside look pretty good. Actually, the fact that it's actually a welcome thing that some of us are actually so prideful that we don't do all the evil that's really in our heart that we want to be seen as better than we are.

It's a gift to the rest of the community, actually. We're not constantly doing all the evil we really want, but you have a promise, too, if you've died in sin. If you're struggling with sin, if you're hating your sin, if you're begging God to take away your sin, if you're repenting of your sin, if you're wishing that God would help you with it, if you're fighting the means that God has given us to fight sin, if you're doing those things, you promised you'd be raised.

You'd be united with him in a resurrection like this. A new life. Right? A new body. We know that our old self, verse 6, was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. He says, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also be and that's your promise that's your promise those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin it's not saying they'll never sin again in this life but in their lives at times they will cease from sin if you have hope of that if you can identify with his death so that you die to your own son if you read through Romans 6, read Romans 7 in Romans 6, 11 Paul says so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and Christ Jesus. And then you read Romans 7.

We'll get to Romans 8 now. I want to read Romans 8, verse 8. I wish I could just read all of that. I probably could have. I guess it's not much of a sermon. It's more of just reading.

But Romans 6 is going to tell you you're no longer a slave to sin. And it's a little scary because you think to yourself, wow, I still sometimes sin and sometimes I sin a lot or sometimes I sin bad. And then Romans 7 basically promises you, like, hey, not that's okay in the sense that it's okay to sin, but that's okay in the sense that that's the Christian condition.

The Christian condition is you will still sin, and in fact, you're going to hate it so much, you'll just wish you were dead. Paul says, who's going to deliver me from this body of death? The answer to Jesus' time is he's died with Jesus in the baptism. is very different. It's very similar. It's when you make hope for the flesh. But in Romans 8, verse 8, Paul says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

And then addressing Christians, so that's what I'm doing now, he says, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if, in fact, the Spirit of God calls you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

So even though your body is dead, your flesh is dead, you're carrying around this like dead men. It's like you're a soul that's alive, and you've given the life of Christ in you, and then you're just carrying this dead weight. But the dead weight is almost alive in a weird opposite way, where it's actually almost trying to pull you toward the moon. That's why Paul said, you need this flesh.

That's why the author of Hebrews, I think, says, you haven't even suffered to the point of blood yet, and you're fighting against sin. Some of you, this is a good one. Some of you need to fight a little harder. some of you think sin happens to you some of you think you fight a little harder against it the way you fight against somebody breaking into your house and trying to take one of your kids or something some of you fight pretty hard to protect your 55 inch TV but you don't put that much thought and effort into your fight against the sin that's waiting to come and try to touch it but while you're fighting it, it's difficult and it's depressing and sometimes can be despairing and you lose the battle on a regular basis sometimes.

There's victory. And then in verse 13 of chapter 8, Romans 8, 13, he says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put the death into the body, you will live. And so there's this there's this promise to the Christians that you're going to go to you're going to go to that man Jesus you're going to identify with him in this life and while you struggle and you're still spiritually you know that he is because the spirit of God nourishes with your spirit and you're his own children and you know that he will one day be delivered from his body of God he said whoever has suffered in the flesh you see from sin so you're going to suffer and you going to suffer like Jesus did Jesus died You have to die to your flesh You have to die to yourself What did Jesus say If anybody were to come after me let them do what Take up his cross.

Yeah, it's a sinless cross, but he uses another phrase in 2. It says, deny himself. Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him. so there's a sense of denying ourselves that we all need to grow and we all live together that's one of the reasons why we have a church we go to church and the church is a place where we have a chance to deny ourselves having children if you haven't had children yet do it, it will help you grow in Christ you know one of the benefits of marriage is that you get to learn about sex education and find out pretty quickly when you're married to someone some of the things about yourself that are not so desirable.

But sometimes you can cross that bump in the first or second week. Let's keep the focus on yourself for now, all right? In Philippians 3.10, there's a nice little verse poked in the middle of there. Paul really tells us the goal of the Christian life. That I may know him, Jesus, and the power of his resurrection. And he says, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

So in case you thought Peter was like a weirdo writing in the vacuum about identifying with Christ and his sufferings so that you could be raised with him. And we'll all stand and see. So back to 1 Peter. I've got to keep moving here. I estimated my sermon would be two hours. I said everything I really wanted to say.

I was trying to talk faster, so I'm trying to get it down. I'll cut out parts here. But Gentiles. So the whole goal here of the beginning of 1 Peter 4 is actually the continuation of what he was teaching us in 3, which is the continuation of 2, which goes all the way back to the exhortation in 1, to abstain from the passions of the above, to do not be conformed to the world-based to be holy as he is holy, as obedient children don't obey the passions of the flesh, and he says you're going to live for the rest of your time in the flesh no longer for human passions in 1 Peter 4, 2, but for the will of God so the goal is, you're going to of God's will, rather than your own will, rather than sin of God's will.

How do you know what God's will is? When you read his word. In the second man, it's a really easy place to start. But now he kind of addresses these people, he says, the time that has passed, so the previous time in your life, so now you're a Christian, and the time that has passed, though, suffices, that was sufficient for doing he says what the Gentiles want to do and he's referring to non-Christians here and he says living in and then he just lists a bunch of stuff he says sensuality, passions drunkenness, orgies drinking parties and lawless idolatry and when he's exhorting these people he's saying look, your former life it's almost like you already had plenty of time to for lack of a better term enjoy these things.

These are not things that we should indulge in anymore. But I don't think Peter's really thinking of us enjoying these. He's almost making a point like, even if even if suffering in the flesh was this really horrible thing where having to fight your sin was such a hard thing to do, you've already had enough opportunity to indulge in the sins of the flesh.

But I think his point is a little greater than that. His point is that these aren't even things you should want to do at all. You have chances to do them, and even if you didn't, some of you were saved as kids. Praise the Lord. I grew up here, and I just read a list of sins, none of which you remember outwardly. But there's one thing I've noticed in Christian unity.

People who are saved at an early age, who never quite get caught up in a lot of these really gross sins, sometimes it doesn't seem like they quite get out of work. and I know it's by God's grace and I understand his word but I'm concerned I'm concerned that some people just don't even hate these things enough and when I first got saved I was so abhorred by everything about the world that I was once a part of and I saw how evil and wicked so many of those things were and then I became a Christian and I went to church and people were doing minor degrees of the same things. So instead of full-blown orgies, people in the church, if you look at the pulse of the U.S. and the United States, two-thirds of the church, we're looking at the born ring. And I come out of this horrible Gentile past, not knowing God, being completely ignorant, inheriting the futile ways that were inherited from my forefathers, we're fathers, and I think this is horrible, I don't want any piece of it.

I come to church and other people act like, well, it's no big deal, we're just getting a little bit of something to say. But we're not as bad as those guys marching on the street and raiding around. And I think it's a huge mistake. I think some of us need to fear these sins more. We need to realize these are things for people who are not us. this is their only joy in eternity this is their best life now as MacArthur says if your best life now is here then that means you're going to hell So what I want you to understand is, these are serious things.

Sensuality, sometimes people relate that to like sexuality or being provocative, and that's true. But sensuality carries with it just the root word senses, right? It's about being titillated in your senses, which for a lot of us can end up in a sinful way referring to sexual immorality. But it also refers to people who are constantly looking for miracles.

People who are constantly open to prophets, prophesying crazy things. So when you look at TBN and you look at Creflo Dollar and Paula White and Joyce Meyer and all these guys, and Joel Osteen even, he's not really a charismatic type, but he's a prosperity type. When you look at these guys that are constantly preaching, About all these things. It's about titillating your senses.

If you came in this building five hours ago, you would have heard a rock concert. And you know what I have a feeling? I have a feeling that the music during the morning here would actually get your heart pumping a little more than our music style. And you might actually start crying in a couple of the worship songs they sing, not necessarily because the lyrics themselves are deep or profound or anything like that, but simply because music can have that effect on you.

I mean, we've got two musicians here. I bet you Elijah and Bert would come up and make you guys cry in five minutes with a couple of stringed instruments. It's the nature of music, right? And there's guys that can come up here and they can give better TED Talks than all of you. And they can make you think all sorts of neat things and they can teach you heartstrings and all this different stuff.

And that's a lot of sensuality. And I stand here and I just try to tell you what God's Word says straight, and I try to sort of get out of the way of it all. I like to believe God gave me whatever talent and skill and my personality is part of it. But in the end, all that matters is if God's Word penetrates your heart, His Holy Spirit opens your mind and eyes to understand what He has said.

And whoever happens to say it to you, it doesn't really matter. You can go read a 300-year-old sermon by a guy that you don't even hear his inflection, you don't hear his tone, you don't know anything about the guy, and it's God's truth that could affect you and bring you to tears. and that's what's more important than whether I can pull it out of the stream so that it can be an analogy or a story about the past or something like that. So this is a warning because these sins are different.

Passions, drunkenness, I don't have anybody here that's getting drunk. I hope you're not. It seems like most people, I don't know a lot of people who get drunk, especially in church. It seems like people know that's not okay. I hope I don't leave you with a conventional word case here. drinking parties. And there's a difference between having a glass of wine at dinner with your friends that you're hanging out with and a drinking party.

And we don't know the difference when we talk about it. I think most people, it's some common sense here, but sensuality, that a creeper And you need to think to yourself how am I more concerned with my sight taste touch or feel or hearing How am I more concerned with those things being stimulated and stimulated than I am with being stimulated by just God's truth affecting my heart? That's something to think about.

It's not a call to moralism. Peter's not just telling you to be good lots of religions would actually list all these things as same lots of false religions some of the hardest people to witness to are people that have hardened religions that actually teach a pretty good morality morality is a really easy thing to teach because everyone believes in it pretty much when you talk to like hardened atheists and evolutionists they have some excuse for why we all still agree on morality like, only Richard Dawkins is like sick and perverted enough to proclaim there's no such thing as morality and thus making anything new you know what I mean the most hardened evolutionist will still tell you you shouldn't kill people or you know raping children is wrong everyone knows these things but what's the difference between Christian and non-Christian the difference is our motivation and it's that we actually care about our heart So while this list of sins might seem extreme to you, I want you to remember that all these sins started in someone's heart. And most of them started with just second plans.

Most of them started with just a little bit of a passing in their mind about the growth of the edge. Most of them started with a little bit of envy of something somebody else had. and the only difference between the serial killer who actually fulfilled all his games and you is the grace of God the only difference between the pedophile sitting in prison and even your baby neighbor is not doing the same things and still about to restrain and holding you back from the gravity of your heart so yeah thank God that some people who are so prideful they actually love to look righteous and they all do all the bad things they do. And I want you to remember the sins of your flesh are what put Jesus on the cross.

In Galatians 5, let's look at these sins that are no more detailed. Judas and all of his children will say they can sin for the next 50 years as much as they want. and you won't have any effect on it or on the Christ's blood. You blood-bought believers who knew you would have any pure thought Jesus had in you. So we should hate sin. In verse 16, chapter 5, Paul says, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

He's telling them, be spiritual and you won't do these things. He says the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit to the fifth chapter of 19. He says, now the works of the flesh are evidence. Okay, so this is the stuff that you supposed to be dead to according to Peter Peter only listed a few of the things that Gentiles do He says sexual morality this is impurity Sensuality, idolatry.

Sorcery, some people would say that means like drug use, also witchcraft. Enmity, strife, jealousy. Bits of anger. I will raise dissensions, divisions, envy, and then he gets into some bad ones again, drunkenness, orgies, and to imitate James as murderers. But the point is that in a lot of these cases where God groups a number of things together as the types of things that those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God, he mixes what we would call the big bad ones with the ones that we can debate in our hearts. some of which we make excuses for.

Verse 24 of Galatians 5. Parallel verse again to what we're studying. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This isn't sinless perfectionism. It's an attitude that you die to sin. That you are no longer a slave to sin.

We no longer offer up your body and your members as slaves to sin. 1 Samuel 15, 22, if you want to turn there. One of the sins mentioned in 1 Peter 4 was idolatry. sorcery was mentioned in both those lists these are bad things I'd be willing to say that anyone that murders has become an idolater or a convertor first nobody skips those so the difference between those of us who are harboring idols in our hearts and the people that are doing all the bad things that they pray about on the street is a difference in degrees, not a difference in who we are.

So we want to live like people who are Christian. Samuel, Samuel's kind of mad at Saul. It's a neat story, and Saul gets really weird. But listen to what Samuel says in 1 Samuel 15, 23. He says rebellion is as the sin of divination. Basically, rebelling and disobeying God is just like witchcraft.

He says presumption, so assuming that God is going to forgive you because you're doing the right thing, even though it's outside of what he's commanded, presumption is as iniquity. and my knowledge I told you that the most heartless sinner on the street he can sit for two three four years and he can live that long. And if he never gets saved, he's going to burn in hell, and God's going to punish him, and that's something to fear. But when you and I sin, and we presume that God's going to forgive us, we're falling on the ground. we should wish that we didn't.

We should repent when we do. Because Samuel committed those sins, he was rejected from being a king. So I have no idea how long that was, because I was in a group earlier, but I think that was probably in October 9th. So we will do verses 5 and 6 next week, because that's, actually that was the exciting part for me. I thought five and six really kind of brought everything home.

But, you know, in verse four, chapter, first Peter 4, it says that your Gentile neighbors basically are going to be surprised that you don't do the same things. I'm going to move on. Some of you know, some of you go to work and you just don't tell the sex jokes. And you don't swear. And you don't lie. And you don't even laugh when people tell those jokes.

And you don't, maybe you don't rebuke people. You just kind of stay away. And people know you're different. And they actually need to know who you are. You actually feel pressure when they actually just joke around with you guys. Or some of them are really good ladies.

There's all sorts of trashy ladies that are sitting one on one another. All sorts of little trinkets and things that you can buy into. And you'll get made fun of for not anticipating. You'll be maligned because when you stand for righteousness, you actually make people feel. Your light shining in the darkness makes them dangerous. So I want you to be strong for the battle ahead.

And we will look at what verses 5 and 6 mean. Lord willing, next week. is somebody identified with us. When you sin, remember that he died for sin. And that is asking for the good. The good. The good.

The good. Don't sin knowing that we all just ask for forgiveness. That's the presumption of the model. But he loves his people. And He loves to see us come to Him. Father, we thank You that You've sent Your Son into the world to remove our past strength.

We pray that You would bless us with strength against sin. And You would help us to have Your Word in our minds. And we may always be able to draw upon the strength that You provide. Amen.