The Proper Attitude in Suffering part 1

All right, so, 1 Peter 4, 1 through 6. Just talk loud. 4, 1 through 6 is where we are today. And when I started this study, last week, Miles' lesson, bringing up baptism, threw me for a loop, right? Because I thought, hey, we're the Nephilim. And that discussion, I thought he would address that that kind of dual meaning of those verses in 1 Peter 3, 18-22. But he didn't. He went on to this phrase, baptism now saves you. So, what I did is I followed that theme because it's very important from last week, so we're going to review last week.

So, the three major themes in Peter Salvation, is it better? Salvation. Peter begins the epistle with our great salvation, ready to be fully revealed in the last time in 1.5. We are born again to a living hope in 1.3, by means of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's one major theme of salvation.

The second is sanctification, I think. Peter calls for these believers setting apart them from the world in 1, 15, and 16. And he quotes Leviticus 11, 45, you shall be holy for I am holy. And that's a sanctification call, isn't it? So he mentions that quite a bit in his review of salvation.

And then the other And the overarching theme is suffering. This is the third thread weaving through 1 Peter. And it's how we are to conduct ourselves in the midst of that suffering. Beginning with the born again ones experiencing various trials. In 1.6 you'll experience various trials. We are to bear up under undeserved suffering in 2.20. Then Peter presents Christ as the example of how to perfectly suffer under unjust circumstances in chapter 2, 21 through 25. So the main thing, I think, main theme of 1 Peter, I think, is suffering unjustly and our proper response to it.

So last week when Miles brought up this phrase, save through baptism, or baptism now saves you. And that threw everyone for a loop, right? From 321. But I think this is really key. And Miles brought this up. Peter is, what he's doing is he's presenting types and anti-types. So the type is, and the type is the arc. He's bringing that up.

The anti-type, or the real thing, is Christ's deliverance at the cross. The flood is a type. The real thing, the anti-type, is the judgment of God. The water, as a type, I think the anti-type is death. So he's bringing this up in this section. A type is a shadow of, made in the past, foreshadowing the reality to come when you use type and anti-type, or tupos and probably anti-tupos in Greek. So why is water a type of death? Anyone care to gander at that? Because it kills.

Bingo. Yeah, you're exactly right. So it would be death of the old, or the water represents death of the old, and now you're in a new place, a new psyche or a new whatever? you're two exits ahead of us now. But that's good. Well, I was thinking about water baptism. Yeah, oh yeah. You know, and how you're, you're, then you come out and you're a new, a new baptism, it represents that.

And as Miles said, don't, let's put aside water baptism and all thoughts of water baptism out of this, and let's keep it to spiritual baptism. However, The flood was real and the water was real, right? So that water is real. I don't know, people would say the water was real when they're baptized, too, because they're nervous about it.

Oh yeah, right. Isn't baptism like commandment in the church? Yeah. So think about this. Every boat or ship is a vehicle of salvation for the sailor. Would you agree? Every ship is riding on death, right? What happens if that ship goes down? You die.

I mean, if you get in the water, your body temperature will dissipate and you'll, yeah, it's just water, bodies of water are death. We just, at my brother's, he has a pool in the backyard, the discussion was how do we keep the The grandkids out of the, yeah, they can wear this little watch that if it gets wet, it sends out alarms. So yeah, that's, so this is what Peter is bringing up here, this death in the deluge of the flood. And he's, it's the type of Christ's deliverance on the cross. So as water brings certain death, One can be baptized through it and come through it and live, if you agree with that.

For instance, by getting in an ark. Here's another type of anti-type. The Red Sea, which represent, again, a body of water, death, is the anti-type to the Red Sea. The type Moses, the anti-type is Christ, leading them through the Red Sea, the path to the other side, the crossing of the Red Sea. I think it's deliverance through death. So the Israelites made it through. What happened to the Egyptian army? And they watched it. They all died in the water. They all drowned. And that was judgment on Egypt as well, wasn't it?

And we know this from 1 Corinthians 10, 1 and 2, where Paul says, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. So, God uses so many of these physical illustrations in the old, that really happened, historical events, to foreshadow exactly what happened at the cross, which is pretty cool. And that's what Peter is kind of getting at here. So all the types that we discussed, the ark, the flood, the deluge, the Red Sea, the crossing of the Red Sea, prefigures the cross and Christ's deliverance, delivering work in it, right? Christ and his cross are, the anti-types, yet future of the types.

Noah and the seven others were saved through the deluge on the ark. Yet they went through it. The Israelites were saved through the collapsing of the Red Sea walls, weren't they? So the walls were here and that was death on either side of these Israelites and they came through it Here is a key point One person did not get delivered in all this but did die Can you think of someone who did not get delivered?

The Egyptians Yeah, good, good, but I'm thinking... You mentioned those people. Yeah, I'm thinking... And since we're studying Corinthians in our Bible study, we just did that passage where we had a big discussion about all of the Egyptians that died when the water came back down after the Israelites had passed through. Yeah. But there's... There's a person, okay.

Yeah, who So, the Israelites got delivered, the Noah's family got delivered, we got delivered by Christ, by His death on the cross, so who did not get delivered? You're talking about the Lord, or something, on the cross? Yeah, Christ Himself, right? So He didn't get any deliverance, He didn't get salvation in Himself, He had to suffer death for everyone. on behalf of all. You could say he suffered death so we could...

Yeah, right. But every other circumstance, God provided a vessel, an ark, to deliver people through, which is kind of cool. So, summing up, I think the whole thrust of this Peter 3, 18 through 22 is Peter's way of... it's his Roman six. That's all he's doing, is he's describing Romans 6.

I think they're parallel. They both start with death. You know, don't you know that you've died with Christ, is how Paul states his. Death is first, and Peter brings up death and baptism in the flood, and he brings that up first as well. And then, I think it's in verse 22, then he mentions the resurrection, but it's It's just Peter's prose-y way of describing Romans 6.

And he just uses this type and anti-type illustration. Whereas Paul just gives you, here's the facts. So I think the whole discussion about the spirits and those are just the people that when Noah was building the ark and they asked, what are you doing, Noah? Noah would tell them, there's a flood coming. Help me build this ark. Get on and be saved. And they rejected that message. And now those spirits are in prison and they were proclaimed to, right?

So yeah, Peter's unique way here of explaining the identification truths. And it's a wide lens, I call it, a presentation of all the, I think of all the gloriousness of the cross and all that it entailed. It was substitution, but it's also identification, it's deliverance, it's a new life. So it's a really, it's a really vast thing, isn't it, the cross, when we discuss what happened at the cross. So with that, He goes now in to bring up our verses that we're going to study this week and the next in 1 Peter 4, 1 through 6.

So in 1, he says, therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time is already sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In all this they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God."

Wow, that's a mouthful, isn't it? That's why you have two weeks. Yeah, right, right. I'm sorry. Something I'm taking, it's giving me a cotton mouth. It's one of the, yeah, things. So, I'm like panting for water here, as a deer panted for, what is that verse?

So, and we'll deal with this next week, but he's, you'll see this future judgment coming up again in five and six. So it's going to get re-related back to what he was talking about in 318-322 about the judgment of the flood, because there's a future judgment. So that'll be really interesting. So a major theme of all these verses is, with so great a salvation, how then are we to suffer in order to bring glory to Christ? is, I think, a thematic thing that you could describe these verses with.

And I did this six years ago, these verses. That's good. Yeah. The same verse. I didn't realize that. Yeah, the exact same one. So it was good, because it fell on this. I was busy this last week with some things. So no, but I look back at these notes, and I like this.

I'm going to do a brief study on the subject of suffering from Louis Sperry Schaeffer's Systematic Theology. So the sufferings of Christ were infinite. They come from two sources, from God the Father and from men. And as I said six years ago, I would add Satan and the world system, the cosmos system. And you see John 15, 18 through 20 there.

Christ says, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would not love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

And that's suffering from man and the world system. The second thing Schaeffer says is we cannot share in the source of source number one suffering from God bringing judgment on Christ for our sins, Christ suffering from the Father on behalf of our sin. That was for Christ solely to do. But we can share in this second type of suffering from men, the cosmos system, and Satan. And there's some verses there that support that. We share in that suffering. Suffering is a natural part, a phase of the Christian life and experience.

Whereas Peter says, he'll be coming up in beloved, think it not strange, concerning the fiery trial, which is about to try you. Point five suffering with Christ here is here in this fear on earth, The place where he was rejected, that's the earth, is the only path into the reward of being glorified together with him in the heavenly sphere. So we have to suffer with him earthly and we'll be glorified with him in the heavenly sphere. Romans 8, 17. If, and I'll read the last part of that, Indeed, we suffer with Him so that we may be also glorified with Him."

Co-suffering there. I have a question. Yeah. Can you explain this through reckoning? Because if I'm reckoning correctly, I see this as past tense. Because Christ already suffered for sin. And as I've been to the cross, so I reckon it true in the resurrection. That's true, but we're going to be suffering here on earth, still in the present. I think there's more mental suffering than physical suffering.

And it's not even a correct mental attitude. It is, and that's our verse. Verse 1, yeah. But yeah, and so I think we'll tie into what you're saying, Mike, with that verse. But yeah, we are going to suffer, and we can't get out of it. So anyone want to change their vote on becoming a believer and say, ah, well, let's see. Yeah, yeah.

And well, it is too late because now you're born again. No, but you know what? The more you look at the world and where it's going and what's going on in the world, you are so thankful that we do know where we're going. We do know what our outcome is because most of the world, if they're unbelievers, they're terrified of what they're seeing happen in their countries, in their government and their families.

I mean, people are apoplectic. Yeah, and that's all they have. And that's all they have. And when this ship goes down, they go down with this ship. And what we're seeing with friends of ours who are unbelievers, they are much more interested in hearing about our faith. Right now. Oh, really? Oh, that's good. Yeah. Because they're afraid. They're looking at the world, and they're afraid. and they don't have any, and they look at us and they're, you know, we're not afraid.

I was thinking about the, you know, all the political things, elections, stuff like that. So we, the world said that's bad, and it is bad. I mean, the people that want to be in charge are bad people, but sometimes. But if you look at the greater picture, if that brings more people to Christ, then that's a good thing. Well, and we have friends who have families in some of these other countries that are rioting fires and all this stuff going on.

And they are terrified. Because what they see is that could happen here in our country. And, I mean, they're just, they have no, nothing to hold on to. And they're looking at us and they're going, we don't understand why you guys, you know, you just don't seem to be all upset about all this stuff. And they can tell that.

Yeah, the clock seems to be ticking, doesn't it? With this last election. And Bob is really seeing this. He's at all these medical meetings that are international. And so people are interacting with him. And he told me yesterday, he said he has had more people that want to know about our faith than ever ever at any of these kinds of meetings.

Interesting, interesting, yeah. Yeah. I just, I mean, I think that the Lord has, I mean, this is all part of His plan, you know. And it's a, He uses it for evangelism, yeah. Absolutely. What about the God of this world is blinded by the minds of men who believe in God? Yeah. It's a blinding. Oh, sure. Sure. That's right. And it's, the problem with the nation now is the government which used to, biblically they had the mandate to restrain evil. Right.

And now they're letting up. They're joining evil. Yeah. And in California, all the murderers just got commuted. Well, they released some killers, murderers. Did they release them or just? Oh, yeah. Or maybe just somehow commuted the sentence. Commuted the death sentence. Because we all released a bunch of people, they said, we just released these guys. Yeah.

They now recognize, not a marriage, but a three couple marriage is now. And that is just the judgment of God. That's going to bring, I think, judgment. Because when governments sort of fail in their mission, it'll be time for God to step in, I think.

Point six here, do you agree with this? It does not mean that sharing in the sufferings, or sharing in the sufferings does not mean to work out your salvation or to contribute to your salvation or to become holy through suffering. Would you agree with that?

It doesn't lead, it has no salvation, benefit for you, is what that's saying. It doesn't contribute. So yeah, you don't suffer to be saved. But you may grow. You will grow through it. Yeah, right. But salvation is a one and done. Yeah, so you can't add to Christ's suffering for you on the cross for salvation. Seven, it is for future reward. The effort in suffering now results in a glorious crown given to the faithful because of our partnership in the pre-cross earthly sufferings of Christ.

James 1.12 and Revelation 2.10 say that by suffering we'll earn a trial crown, a crown of life for suffering. Eight, if we share in his sufferings, we shall also share in his glory, and because of our our identity with him here, we will have an identity with him up there in his glory. And then Romans 8, 16 through 21 supports that, that point from Schaeffer. Christ left his native place, the sphere of glory, and went all the way down to suffer a felon's death.

We can have the mind, Christ's mind in the midst of suffering. And of course we can, because that's the verse we're studying today. The parallel verse to 1 Peter 4, 1 is Philippians 2, 5 through 11. Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and it goes on from there. So we can have his mind in our suffering. The mind of Christ is to be reproduced in us by the power of God.

And Schaeffer quotes Philippians 2.13, for it is God who is at work with you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So I like that. suffering summary from Chafer. So with this, here's 4.1. And we're going slowly, aren't we? But here's the first verse we're studying today.

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same purpose or the same mind, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. And the therefore is, therefore, because it ties together what Peter set forth in 3.18, and he says there that Christ has suffered unto death for the sins of us all, that just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. And then you can say therefore, since Christ, go back to verse 1 of chapter 4. Christ's example, he was tempted to the utmost by sin, without, but not within.

You see what Hamilton Smith says there? He had no sin desire in him. Yeah, inside of him. So every conceivable adverse power was arrayed against him. The contradiction of sinners, the power of the devil, the claims of natural relationships like his mother and his family, the ignorance of the disciples, which we are studying in Mark and John and all, yeah, and suffering from the Pharisees, the mob, suffering from King Herod as a baby, from Pontius Pilate, from Judas, and at last, the power of death, all brought to bear upon Christ is what Hamilton Smith says. So you see this, I like this section, I like this study because it really, it's all about Christ and all about his suffering. And it ties in with Paul.

Yeah. And it all put on the whole arm of God. Yes. A little bit off the track, but notice he's talking about the mind here. Yeah. In the main service, Miles is going to talk more about the mind, set your mind. Oh yeah. key in this whole thing. Yeah. Where's your mind at? Or where's your head at? Yeah, and I think there's two words from, I didn't look at Fresneo, and this is another word for mind, but yeah, and the New American Standard has that. Purpose, I don't know. Yeah, purpose.

And I think it can be both there, but So this verse is a command to take up arms with the same purpose of Christ. And this armament is not, the Greek word for arms is not the light day armament that a soldier would carry, but this, a heavily armed foot soldier who is battle ready, who carries not a sword, but with a pike weapon, you know what those are, really big and you, yeah, yeah, and you can, you can really, the spirit will probably, it's a battering ram, it'll probably knock down the door. So a pike weapon is what we're to arm ourselves with, is what it's calling for us. So, spiritually, what is this armament then? Yeah, prepare our mind. That's what I was going to say. To prepare our mind for the battery ramp, basically. For all the negative and wrong things that are going to try to be going after our mind. Yeah, yeah.

And first we are to arm ourselves, as it says, with the mind of Christ. as Lou Sparish Chafer said, the power of God will work in his mind to us by his power. But specifically, one way we can do that is we can resist temptation as Paul did by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. where he says in Romans, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Romans 13, 14. Or Hebrews 2, 2, 18, for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

So that's armament is to put on Christ. And what did Christ himself arm himself with? I have the verses there, but... I heard it. Your word. Yes, from Bonnie, yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah, yep, he... That's right. He just quoted scripture to Satan, right? Yeah, that was his defense against Satan. And it says in... Paul says that the... The sword of the spirit is the word. Yeah, so it's an armament, it's a weapon.

Now this, let's go into this phrase, he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So, do we actually cease from sin? We never cease again? I have a has-been-released-from-sin possibility. You could render that has-been-released-from-sin. Sin's still around. The nature's still around. But we've been separated.

We've died to it. Yeah. So you're saying you would be at this first point, you would go on the positional truth and not a conditional practical living truth is what I think you're your vote for it as Roger, right? Would everyone agree with that? In my mind, I think about we have another option. We're not locked in to the sin nature. We can, you know, not go there. We can have another option, which nobody, you know, if you're not a believer, you don't have another option.

That's the only way you're going. That's your whole identity. It's your whole identity. I come up with the identity of the transmission. It's in neutral. Oh, yeah, right. It can spin its wheels all it wants, but it's still in neutral. Or, yeah, as we discuss here in this church, being offline to the signature. That was my house. That's a way to put that. So what does this mean? can we actually cease from sin, or how do we have to cease from sin? Well, I'll tell you here. It's pa-o-o. It's a perfect passive. Pa-o-o.

It's perfect tense, so it has abiding results. It's middle voice. You're involved, and you're very interested in the results of this being. But it means to have, you have got release from sin. Right. It's a fact, indicative mode. So in the Greek, it means we have got the legal cease and desist from sin already. It happened to us in the past, and it's got continuing results. So it's like a legal document, a cease and desist. And that's positional, and that's That's Roman 6 right there. And I like what Kelly says here about suffering, us suffering. He says, one suffers in refusing to sin. One judges and hates and thwarts the will of the flesh. And therefore he'll suffer, but he does not sin. If by grace our mind is set on God's will at all costs, sin does not enter. It is suffering in the flesh, and therein is separation from sin.

What we've been talking about right now. And this is the simple normal state of the Christian with the heart resting on him that went down below all the depths for him. When the heart loses sight of Christ, one shirks suffering And the will asserts fleshly activity, which we'll see next week in verses three through six of chapter four. And actual sin falls. But we are sanctified by the Spirit to the obedience of Jesus, no less than to the sprinkling of his blood. We are left here to do the will of God. We are now Christ's. That's what he said. So, you see what he's saying?

It's when you, uh, when you take, when you abide in Christ, and you take that, because you have that, the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ in you, you can resist sin. But you'll suffer for that, because, um, you know, sinning is easy, and sinning brings pleasure. So one who shirks suffering will go into sin. Because sin is easy, right? You see what he's saying there? It's an easy way out, it's just sin.

And then it relieves suffering. It's also accepted by the world. Yeah, and the old man is satisfied. That's right. But that's even if it's by the Spirit, the Lord, from glory to glory. That's where the suffering is, from glory to glory. Yeah, ever, yeah, ever. Ever increasing. Yeah. And we'll get there to where we'll be in glory and we won't suffer anymore. It'll be amazing.

So verse two, we add, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh and no longer in the lusts of men. So we just add verse two to our discussion this morning, really quickly. Verse two is, we are reckoning it as true, indeed, that we are cut loose from the sin nature, and we can ignore that siren call from the flesh and sin, and abide in Christ. By resting and abiding, we are cleared of all sin entanglements, and we are seated then in the will of God, verse two, but for the will of God. and abiding in Christ is what God wills us to do.

Christ is our perfect example on how we are to endure suffering, both unrighteous suffering for man and suffering that God appoints us to. Christ is our advocate as we go through suffering. He's gonna go through it with us here on Earth. He will lead us through it with His Word. We have oneness with Him in sufferings. Can we say we are identified or baptized into His sufferings is a question I had come up.

And then I came up with the answer after I asked myself that question. And I said no, because the identification starts with the death of Christ on the cross. But this pre-suffering, what Christ suffered prior to the cross, we're not baptized into it. I almost had that thought, well, maybe we are, but I don't think we are. I think our baptism starts with the death of Christ on the cross. But loosely, we can identify, have this in a camaraderie sense way with Christ.

Christ as he suffered. Like we can take possession. Yeah. Yeah. So Christ is our captain, our prince, our file leader of our salvation. And we are made perfect in these sufferings. Hebrews 2, 10 and 11. So there you go. All about suffering this morning. And I'll close there because 3 through 6 goes on to kind of categorize the sins of the flesh So we'll get there next week. So I'll close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and its richness and all that Peter's conveying here. And we just pray that it'll edify us and be with us here this week and in the 1030 service. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.