Arm Yourselves!

Sermon transcript

Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study and investigation of 1 Peter. This evening we are in 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 that begins on page 1205 in your few Bibles. Dear friends, this is the Word of God, hear it with reverence and awe. 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 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his Word this evening. Oh dear Lord and Father in heaven, your Word is precious to us. We love your Word. We desire to embrace your Word, assimilate it into us, and to live it out in our lives. We would ask that by your Spirit you would implant your Word in our souls this evening.

We ask that you would open our minds and our hearts and our consciences to behold wondrous things from your Word. We ask, heavenly Father, that you would set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may declare your Word with clarity and power and with the grace and assistance of your Holy Spirit. May Jesus be exalted in the preaching of your Word this evening, and may you, Lord God, also be exalted in our hearts and lives. We pray these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Dear friends, the title of my sermon on this Lord’s Day evening is Arm Yourselves, and there are three key words that I’d encourage you to listen for this evening, especially the children, and those words are suffering, persecution, and comfort.

Well, my dear friends, the Apostle Peter wrote this letter, this epistle, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, and he wrote to Christians who faced severe persecution for their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I imagine that many of us tend to think of persecution primarily in external and physical terms, and so, for example, say a Christian is imprisoned or tortured or killed for the faith, we would rightly consider that to be persecution. Likewise, if a Christian’s possessions are confiscated and he is displaced, thrown out into the streets, we would rightly consider that to be a form of persecution as well. All of these examples fall under the umbrella of persecution in its various forms, but Peter’s original readers also faced a form of persecution that some of you may be more familiar with in your own lives.

They faced slander and verbal abuse because of their refusal to go along, to get along, so to speak, with their pagan neighbors, as it says in verse four, speaking of the wickedness and lawless idolatries of their gentile neighbors. Peter writes in verse four, with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. They malign you. You see, dear ones, Peter’s original first century readers were engaged in an intense spiritual warfare. They were engaged in the kind of spiritual warfare that subjected them to persecution, including persecution in its verbal forms, as they became the subjects of gossip, slander, and other verbal attempts to denigrate and malign them and to destroy their public reputations. What guidance and direction does the inspired apostle Peter offer to them as he seeks to encourage them through the difficult times that they were facing?

How were they to prepare themselves to face the spiritual warfare that was ahead of them, a spiritual warfare that would confront them with what Peter describes as a fiery trial of persecutions? Well, friends, in my sermon for this Lord’s Day evening, we’re going to consider what God in his word says to his people who face the fiery trials of persecution in its various forms. And brothers and sisters in Christ, whether or not we are personally experiencing some form of persecution in our lives at this particular time, our God has much to teach us in this passage of Holy Scripture. And we know not what the future brings, and so it is important for us, whether we’re facing persecution or not, it’s important for us to be equipped to face it, should God in his providence allow it to come into our lives.

And so as we turn our attention to this portion of God’s word this evening, I would first of all point out in verse 1 that we are to arm ourselves for spiritual battle. Church of God, let us arm ourselves for spiritual battle. Peter writes, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, he’s referring back to the previous context, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. He calls us to have the mind of Christ when it comes to how we view suffering and persecution for our faith. And he goes on to say, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now let’s focus on the opening statement here, where Peter writes, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. And you know the saying, whenever you see in the Bible the word therefore, what’s the question you’re supposed to ask?

What is the therefore? Therefore. Well it’s there because Peter here in this verse, in chapter 4 verse 1, he returns to the thought that he had begun back in chapter 3 verse 18, where he says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made in the spirit. And then in verses 19 through 22, which we considered on the previous Lord’s Day evening, we learned that the end of chapter 3 is basically a parenthetical comment. Peter does a little bit of off-roading here at the end of chapter 3 as he kind of wanders off into some other subjects. And then here in chapter 4 verse 1, he returns to the subject that he had begun back in chapter 3 verse 18.

And what does he say? He says in chapter 4 verse 1 that Christ suffered in the flesh. We are creatures of flesh. We are body souls. We have an immaterial aspect to our being but we also live in this physical material world. And so our sufferings are not just of a mental sort or a spiritual sort but also can often be of a physical variety. But our Lord Jesus knows all the kinds of sufferings that we face in our lives. For he himself faced abuse. He himself faced the inner pain on the cross of being separated from communion with his father as the Lord poured out his wrath upon the Son of God on the cross of Calvary. He knows the agony of mental and emotional distress and he also experienced in its extremity the extremes of physical agony and pain.

Christ suffered in the flesh. Of course our Lord Jesus here is presented as the ultimate example of one who suffered unjustly at the hands of the wicked. And he did so by God’s will. It was God’s will and plan that he should suffer in this way. In order to fulfill God’s plan and purpose to save his people from their sins. Friends since Christ our Savior was willing to suffer unjustly in order to fulfill God’s will and sovereign purpose so we who are his followers are to have the same kind of willingness to suffer unjustly for righteousness sake. Now Peter is not here calling upon us to look for suffering, to search for suffering, to desire suffering for righteousness sake. But if we are faithful in following the Lord, in trusting the Lord, in bearing faithful witness to the gospel it should not surprise us if in God’s good providence he allows suffering to come into our life of one sort or another, of one variety or another.

And so we are called here to arm ourselves with this same mindset, this same willingness if God in his providence should call upon us to do so according to his sovereign purpose. And so he says Christ suffered in the flesh therefore what are we to do? Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. Now this terminology here arm yourselves is a military term in the Greek referring to a soldier putting on his weapons in preparation for battle. Peter uses this language to spur his readers on to action and preparation. This language also implies does it not that we believers are called to be soldiers in Christ’s kingdom. When Christ calls you into his kingdom and calls you to be his follower he also enlists you in his army. We are soldiers of the cross. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ not of course that we spread violence or discord or anything like that but we on a spiritual level we are called to engage in a spiritual battle against the world, against our own sinful flesh and against the devil and we do so with the weapons of warfare that the Lord has given us not carnal weapons not guns and bazookas or anything like that but the weapons of our warfare are spiritual to the tearing down of strongholds the weapons of our warfare are the word and prayer the gospel of Jesus Christ and so forth.

And so this language implies that we believers are called to be soldiers in Christ’s kingdom and as soldiers of Christ we must prepare ourselves if called upon to do so to suffer for the sake of righteousness if that should be God’s providential will. And we are to do this because we are called to follow Christ’s example and Christ himself was willing to suffer for us and for our salvation according to God’s sovereign will and redemptive plan. And then Peter goes on to make this interesting he says since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same way of thinking and then he says this for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin now Peter is here thinking of Jesus that but of course that Jesus in dying for our sins in his death has quote ceased from sin but that seems like a rather far-fetched that seems like a rather far-fetched view.

What does Peter mean when he says whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin does he say that that sinless perfection is attainable through bodily suffering is that what he’s trying to say again there is some dispute among commentators about how to understand this statement in my own studies of this passage I’ve come to the conclusion that the most likely interpretation the interpretation that makes the most sense in the context of goes something like this Peter is saying that if you are willing and armed by the grace of God to suffer for your faith if necessary if you are willing in other words to suffer for righteousness sake as indeed every true follower of Christ should seek to be willing to do if called upon by God if that is the case then in a sense you have ceased from sin now by this language it’s important not to press this language too far by this kind of language Peter is certainly not saying that suffering for our faith brings us into a state of sinless perfection or that suffering for righteousness sake somehow necessarily purges us from sin there’s no kind of Peter’s not preaching some kind of monastic ideal that says well you know we bring the flesh under control by punishing ourselves and subjecting ourselves to suffering and so forth but what this does mean is that a God bestowed willingness to suffer for righteousness sake means that you have resolutely turned your back on a lifestyle of sin now this of course happens to all true believers all the truly converted this this resolute turning from sin occurred at our initial conversion and it continues to happen as we daily renew our faith and repentance by daily denying ourselves taking up our cross and following Jesus our savior each and every day your initial turning to Christ in faith and repentance begins a life a life of daily renewed repentance and faith there’s a sense in which conversion is an ongoing thing we don’t just get converted once although there is an initial with the effectual call of God there is an initial coming to Christ in faith and repentance but that begins a life of following Jesus I think Martin Luther was correct when he said that the Christian life is a life of repentance you will never in this life come to a point where you do not need to continue repenting of your sins repentance is a daily necessity we are to daily do battle against our sin against the world against the devil and that is the Christian life is indeed a battle and therefore we ought to be willing to suffer for righteousness sake in principle if we are in Christ indwelt by the Holy Spirit in principle in principle the ruling power of sin has been broken in the lives of true believers the true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed by the grace of God resolutely turned his or her back on a lifestyle of sin although true believers will continue throughout their lives to struggle with sin since the remnants of that sin nature continue to be present in the hearts of the regenerate even in the hearts of the regenerate the remnants of the sin nature continue to make their presence felt sometimes powerfully felt the Greek term that Peter uses here is the perfect tense in the verbal form has broken with which indicates a past act that has lasting ongoing effects and this is the only commentator I’m going to quote from tonight but Dr.

Kistermacher points out helpfully that the verb form has broken with can be interpreted in the passive voice as the Greek text indicates literally we read he has been released from sin this means that God is the implied agent in other words God has stopped man from living in continual sin when Peter writes Christ suffered in the flesh therefore arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin it doesn’t mean that we by our own willpower by our own fleshly strength can resolve to turn from sin no this is something that the Lord does in us he has stopped those whom he has brought into his kingdom he has stopped us from living in continual unrepentant sin so what are some of the lessons we can learn from this first of all friends we learn here that God himself supplies your battle armor and he does so through the gifts the sovereignly bestowed gifts of regeneration and conversion we use the means of grace we put ourselves in the place where where God is pleased to work his regenerating and converting grace in us but only God himself can equip us to arm ourselves with the same mind that Christ had but nevertheless while God gets all the glory in our conversion and salvation that does not absolve us from personal responsibility we are to seek to arm ourselves for battle by having the same mind as Christ had towards suffering for righteousness sake and by seeking no longer to live for our own sinful desires but instead by seeking to live for the will of God as revealed in his word dear friend have you come to Christ have you recognized that he alone can rescue you from your sin this morning we consider the fact that Christ and Christ alone is our refuge from the righteous and holy wrath of God against our sin and that we run from God’s wrath by running to God in Christ and his offer of grace Jesus Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification and that we might receive the gift of eternal life and the scriptures promise that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you trust him alone for your salvation you will not perish but receive the gift of eternal life and God will take you as his child so turn to Christ the God man the word made flesh today and those of us who by grace have come to faith in Christ how is it that we arm ourselves well I would encourage you brothers and sisters to diligently use the ordinary means of grace it’s encouraging to see you here this evening many Christians today do not diligently use the means of grace as they ought they are only occasional in their attendance upon the means of grace the word and the sacraments and public prayer and worship but these ordinary means God chooses to use these ordinary means to do extraordinary things and blesses those means by the presence of his spirit so let us arm ourselves by continuing on diligently using the means of grace but as we move on in our passage we’re called upon as we see in verse one to arm ourselves but next notice the two ways of living that Peter describes here in verse two the two ways of living he goes on to say in verse two he says we are to arm ourselves for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin verse two so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God you see the two options there there’s basically two ways of life you can either live for yourself for your own sinful self-absorbed passions and desires whatever manifestations those passions of desires may take for the will of God meaning the revealed will of God the will of God revealed in his word the will of God that we who trust in Christ and submit to his lordship seek to follow again ultimately there are only two possible ways of life there are only two paths in life that are available to us there’s no in between there is what our lord Jesus called the broad way that leads to destruction and then there is the narrow way that leads to life Jesus makes this clear for example in his sermon on the mount if you turn to Matthew seven excuse me Matthew seven let me read just verses 13 and 14 in the midst of this famous sermon on the mount the lord Jesus says this he says enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction so there’s the narrow gate the narrow way and he says the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few what does Jesus mean by this narrow way well elsewhere in scripture our lord indicates that he himself is that narrow way for he is the one and only way back into a right relationship with God the father as Jesus says in John 14 verse 6 I am the way and the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father except by me Christ is the way and the reason that the narrow way the way of salvation through faith in Christ alone apart from works of the law the reason that that way is hard to fall in sinners is that it is so humbling it requires that you say lord I’m inadequate I can’t do it I need you to do it for me it takes a miracle of grace to humble us to humble our pride that we come to the lord recognizing our utter dependence upon him the broad way it is the way of self-salvation it is the way of works righteousness it is the way of man-made religion and mere human piety the way of self-indulgence and self-worship but the narrow way is the way of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance unto life it is the way of spiritual and saving union with Christ and the fruit of that narrow way the fruits of that narrow way are a walking after a new obedience a pursuit of holy living or as Peter puts it here a living for the will of God as he says in verse 2 that we who are in Christ that we have ceased from sin we’ve resolutely turned our backs upon sin to follow Christ why so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh that is to say in our bodily existence in this present life no longer for human passions but for the will of God dear listener what road are you on the broad road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life that is to say who are you trusting you’re trusting yourself your works your merits or are you trusting Christ in his perfect obedience alone and having come to Christ believer are you pursuing holiness is your deepest desire to pursue godliness and sanctification now this brings me to the next point and we consider in verses 2 and 3 Peter exhorts us not to waste our time with ungodly living brothers and sisters in Christ don’t waste your time with ungodly living Peter talks about that we are not to live the rest of our time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God and then he goes on to say in verse 3 for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles in other words the idol worshipping unbelievers that they had been before their conversion the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do and then he gives a sampling of the kinds of behaviors that the typical pagan idol worshipping Gentile of his time used to engage in he mentions living in sensuality passions drunkenness orgies drinking parties and lawless idolatry he’s not giving an exhaustive list of the Gentile lifestyle but he’s giving a sampling of what was common behavior in his own day and by the way from passages like this we see that the author of Ecclesiastes is correct there is nothing new under the sun this is the bent of the human heart and the lifestyle that we would give ourselves over to unless god and his grace intervenes in sovereign grace and mercy in our lives but I want you to notice friends that Peter is here concerned that believers be good stewards of their time and besides being an offense to our holy god doing what in verse 3 he calls what the Gentiles want to do in other words living according to your own sinful fallen desires is a very poor stewardship of our time life is short life is fragile we hang on to life by a thread recent events have shown that to be the case life is so fragile it can slip away from us at any time but we have been blessed with life right now every new day is a new opportunity to choose one of two ways to choose the way of self-indulgence and thus to waste your time in godless living or to choose to live for the will of god these are the choices before us and we are against for us and we are accountable to god for our stewardship of our time Peter’s original readers had apparently already spent a good part of their lives prior to their conversion to christ living as idol worshipping pagans giving themselves over to a debauched lifestyle but now that they by grace had been converted to christ Peter in effect says to them hey listen now remember remember that you have had done with sin you’ve resolutely turned your back on sin you’ve already wasted enough of your life living as a pagan now it’s time to live the rest of your brief life doing something much more fruitful much more productive much more worthwhile now make it your intention by the grace of god to live the rest of your earthly existence the rest of your time in the flesh according to the will of god be a good steward of whatever remaining time god has allotted to your life brothers and sisters in christ when we allow ourselves to become overcome by temptation and to slip back into ungodly patterns of living we are being poor stewards of the time that god has given to us when we through the temptations of satan and the allurements of the world and of our own sinful nature when we backslide into ungodly patterns of living we are wasting precious kingdom time we are wasting time that should instead instead be stewarding to serve the cause of god’s kingdom brothers and sisters let us stop wasting time time is precious by the grace of god let us strive to live the rest of our time in this life not for our own sinful passions the sinful passions of our fallen nature but instead for the will of god as revealed in his word and let us do so not to earn points with god or to make ourselves more commendable to god we are already accepted in the beloved if you are in christ you are already accepted by god as you will ever be because god sees you in his son he loves you as much as he loves his son he sees you as righteous as his son is righteous because you are clothed in christ’s righteousness why then are we to live as good stewards of our time serving god out of gratitude for god’s gift of salvation in jesus but finally beloved let us take comfort in the judgment and vindication turn our attention to the final three verses of this passage verses four through six beloved take comfort in the judgment and vindication of god in this passage peter touches upon the treatment that believers sometimes receive at the hands of unbelievers he gives an example of this in verse four he says with respect to this with respect to his readers refusal to go along with the pagan lifestyle that was all around them he says with respect to this they’re surprised that you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery now what’s wrong with you why won’t you loosen up why won’t you relax and just kind of join in with us we’re having lots of fun join in on the fun right and they’re surprised that you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you if i’m remembering correctly i believe the greek word that is translated here as malign is the word from which we derive the word blaspheme they blaspheme you they malign you they they verbally attack you and seek to denigrate your good name and reputation unbelievers we believers are strange because we won’t give ourselves over to sin in the way that they often choose to do and as a result they may heap abuse and insults upon us in the eyes of some unbelievers we christians if we’re not viewed as being a bit odd a lot of times they look at us and they say what a bunch of weirdos what a bunch of weirdos what’s wrong with you people your refusal to participate in their pagan godless lifestyle your refusal to go along just to get along often provokes the hostility of the godless and they may respond by speaking evil of you even seeking to destroy your good name and reputation what are we to do if such is to happen to us let us not despair for they will have to answer to god certainly love our enemies jesus commands us to and we should pray for the conversion and salvation of even the most hardened persecutors of god’s people we can also take comfort beloved in knowing that if our god chooses not to deal with our enemies in mercy and grace he will nevertheless vindicate us in the end by judging all of his and our enemies and he will do so on the final judgment day in the meantime let us not despair let us hold up our heads high and realize that though the world may heap abuse and scorn upon us by the grace of god our father looks with favor and love upon us in christ and we are assured here in verse five that the persecutors of god’s people will in the end be judged by god if they continue unrepentant in that persecution it says in verse five but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead and as we learned this morning this morning sermon there will be no escape in the end all will give an account to almighty god are you ready ready to give an account to your maker if you are in christ you will be ready if you are outside of christ there is no escape turn to christ rest in him and then verse six is a again at one of the messages it says 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 so what’s what’s peter getting at here again there are some differences in the pit in opinion among the commentators but what peter seems to be talking about here are those believers who had died perhaps died as a result of persecution they had had the gospel preached to them and even though they were judged in the flesh the way people are their persecutors judged them as worthy of death yet they live in the spirit the way god does the fact that they are person the fact that they are martyr does not end their life for now they live on in the spirit with god forever those sinful men condemn judge god’s people in the flesh by persecuting them god vindicates his persecuted people because they live on in his presence as it says in verse six that they might live in the spirit the way god does and this this truth would have been a great comfort to peter’s first century audience it should be a great comfort to you and to me as we seek by the grace of god to faithfully follow jesus we can do so with courage because come what may come what may if we are called upon in god’s providence even to lay down our lives for the lord we can have hope and assurance for we will live on in the spirit as god has promised dear ones in closing let us arm ourselves with the mind of christ let us stop wasting time in ungodly living and instead let us pursue the will of god are you pursuing godliness are you pursuing holiness let us be comforted as well by god’s promise of vindication for in christ we are vindicated amen let us pray heavenly father sovereign and eternal god we praise you and thank you that you have been so merciful and kind to us and we thank you that you have given us new life in christ we thank you that you have called us to live a life that is full of meaning and purpose a life that is meant to be full of joy we are called upon to glorify you and to enjoy you both now and forever grant us the grace lord to pursue you to pursue your holy will out of gratitude for all that you’ve done for us and make us faithful in bearing witness to the gospel of jesus christ we pray all of these things heavenly father in jesus name and all of god’s people said amen as we close our time this evening let’s rise and we’ll sing together 465 love divine all loves excelling 465

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