1 Peter, 4:1-6

1 Peter 4, 1-6, we are right at the end of this Christ's example of suffering section that we've begun here. Next week we'll move on to the Christian essentials and suffering. So we're looking at the last part of Christ's example, and Peter is taking this example and making application. So that's what we'll be looking at this morning. Everybody with us so far? Okay, good deal. Yeah, she's trying to keep organized. I give her lots of challenges. It's for her spiritual growth.

Okay, so 1 Peter 4, 1 through 6, we want to underscore something. This is a point we've made before. But I call this the Peter perspective on Paul. As we go through 1 Peter, and this passage is one of those where it definitely is good for us to keep in mind, Peter did not write in ignorance of what Paul wrote. How do we know that? How do we know that Peter had some idea of what Paul was about? Peter says that he knew about Paul's writings, and he calls them scripture. So that's what he just plain lays it out. Talks about Paul, and he calls them scripture, along with the rest of scripture.

So he makes reference to that. One of the other things, I'll see if we see it today here, there is a place as well where Peter makes a statement that sounds just about like a statement Paul made in Galatians. And we'll take a look at that perhaps this morning. Oh yeah, there it is.

There's Galatians 5.13.

For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Right? What did 1 Peter 2.16 say? Act as free men and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.

Now those sound similar enough that it sounds like these guys talked with each other, or were looking at each other's writings or something. There's enough parallel in there that it's hard to deny the connection. Good morning. Make sure you've got a handout here. Can we help you with that? Great. Fantastic. Good to have you here. There we go. Okay.

The one on the top is this week's. Just the pattern, and just so you know, is we try to keep some of the prior weeks underneath. And if you need to catch up with those, you can. And if it's not there, which you need, see Nancy or Sue, and they can help pluck those out of the file for you. But the one on top is the one that's the current today's handout. So anyway, One of the other areas where it's pretty clear that Peter understood the things that Paul taught. Here's the Romans 6, 11 through 13 passage.

Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and do not go on presenting the members of your body as to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."

So Peter states those principles in brief in 1 Peter 2.24, and he himself, that is Jesus Christ, bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin, same as Paul, and live to righteousness, is the way Peter summarized that. For by his wounds you were healed. By his wounds you were healed? Out of Isaiah 53, right?

2 Peter, likely written to the same people as 1 Peter, 2 Peter 3.1 talks about, I wrote you before, includes this passage regarding Paul's writings. And this is the one that Jack made reference to, right?

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort. as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. So there are points of commonality.

What I think is important for us to keep in mind as we go reading through 1 and 2 Peter, both of them, is that Peter oftentimes will express things that Paul taught, just like we see dying to sin, alive to righteousness, right out of Romans 6. And he will often assume the things that Paul taught but not go into the detail So we're going to see that even in this morning's passage, okay? Peter and Paul are not at odds with one another Peter simply wrote assuming The truth of what what Paul taught and I think in some cases assuming that people understood Already the things that that Paul had taught okay, so Peter was looking at his letters supplemental Maryland I think there are a few different things. One is, Marilyn's asking the question, how do we know what letters Peter knew about of Paul's? One is you look at that second Peter three passage that we looked at at the bottom of page one, and one of the things that you look at is, as also in all his letters.

So he's aware of multiple letters. All his letters seems to me to imply more than two. We don't know the exact number he was aware of. He may have been aware of every single one that we're aware of. But certainly a plurality of letters, that would be one thing.

The other thing is to look at, as we've done here, indications of specific teachings or concepts, and we've given a couple of quotes here, that would indicate that Paul and Peter had some mutual contact on Galatians, that that pattern seems pretty clear, and that the very things that Paul said in Romans 6, Peter seems to summarize in the dead to sin. So I would say there are multiple indications that Peter knew of Paul's writings Specifically, which ones, beyond what we've highlighted here, it may be a little tough to tell. Let's take a look at that.

Marilyn's asking the question, were all of Paul's letters written before Peter wrote? I would say that Peter had the opportunity to see all but perhaps the last letter or two. This would have been written about the time Paul was writing, say, 1 Timothy. So 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus might have been the only ones that he hadn't written, perhaps one or two others.

But Peter likely was given the opportunity, especially with a statement like all of Paul's letters, those kinds of statements, to have read or be aware of all but the last few of Paul's letters. And with a statement like we see there in 2 Peter, it seems like he was pretty broadly aware of Paul's letters except for the last few.

Okay, does that make sense to folks? That Peter and Paul, they also, I would add to that, they also indicating from Galatians We're going to be starting a study in Galatians in April, but indicating in Galatians that the two of them spent at least a few weeks together. And that would be a minimum because there may have been other times where they crossed paths. So they spent some time together. They seemed to be mutually aware of the other's letters and letter writing and things of that sort. I can imagine that the apostles made efforts to exchange copies of their letters with each other, that that would be something, you know, you're writing this, I'm writing that.

And this would certainly point to that. Paul was not referenced in 1 Peter. Gee, I heard he wrote a few letters, or I'm aware of one. He talks in plural terms, and all of Paul's letters seems like it's plural, but more than two or three, a number of them. Okay. Other thoughts, questions, ponderings? Okay. Let's go to the second page there, the top of page two.

1 Peter 4, 1 and 2 tops the page, and it 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. These are the in the flesh verses. The phrase occurs three times in this passage.

The word flesh, which in the Greek is sarx, is used in a few different ways in the New Testament. Paul will talk, for example, you know, the flesh of animals, or in the flesh, meaning in the body. Also, he talks specifically in Galatians, in the flesh, talking about the expressions of the sin nature through the body.

Okay. So several different uses of the word flesh. Peter has a consistency in the way he uses it, and that in each of his cases, the use in the flesh is in this human body, in this physical body. That's his pattern here. Peter does not use the term flesh in the way that Paul does, that is, the sinful human nature expressed bodily. He does use other terminology that Paul does, and we'll see it in this passage, about the expressions of the sin nature. He talks about the lusts and things of that sort. But he uses the word in the flesh, that phrase and that word talking about in this body.

Now, Peter given in 1 Peter 3, 18-22, that was the passage we looked at last week, Christ is an example of suffering for the sake of righteousness. Here he seeks to draw a logical conclusion. Therefore, since Because, words like that, okay? And he draws application to the lives of the believers. He says, okay, Christ is the example. Here's what that means for you, right? Here's the consequence of Christ being the example. Alright.

So, what is Peter doing in these two verses but moving from an understanding of our eternal position in Christ into the realm of our daily condition. We use the words around here at Holly Hill, position and condition, and I like to add the words to help underscore what that means. Can we get anything for you? Eternal position and daily condition. And I make those distinctions because our eternal position in Christ, that doesn't change, does it?

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1.3, in the heavenlies in Christ. So that means that the guys over in the Middle East that don't like us, they can touch our eternal position, right? No. It's eternal. They can't touch it. The position that we have in Christ is fixed and untouchable in the heavenlies. And it's eternal. We're not going to go home, open the mail tomorrow morning and go, oh no, my position is wrecked. You're not going to get any notices like that. Not going to happen. Our daily condition, why do we make the distinction there? Why do we talk about our daily condition? What's condition talking about? Does someone have to go to the doctor and get checked out? No. What do we mean by that?

Yeah, I have an untouchable position in the heavenlies in Christ. The world can't touch it. They can't click the undo button. There's no way they can alter that. They can't diminish it. There's nothing I can do to diminish it. But, right here, as I walk planet earth, I can choose to set aside and walk outside of that position, can't I?

Not a really good idea, but I could. And that's why you'll find the apostles, they'll teach about your position in Christ, but then they'll turn around and urge, here's the connection between your position, which is eternal and untouchable and unchangeable, and your daily condition. Some of the older writers used the terms standing and state. Standing for your position. State for, how am I doing? So, the distinction there. Now, as we look at this, we who believe have ceased from sin because having been baptized into Christ's death, we have died to sin. Died to sin, that's a Peter term too, right? Peter used it. We have died to sin in our eternal position.

That's the message of Romans 6 summarized in 1 Peter 2.24. Peter's choice of the word translated ceased is a perfect indicative. Now, what does that mean? It means a completed past action with ongoing results.

Have we died to sin just kind of, sorta, more or less, off and on, occasionally, fluctuating? No. Our having died to sin is a permanent occurrence. It doesn't flip-flop. as believers in our position in Christ, and this is not talking about what's naturally and automatically the case, but he's saying you have ceased permanently from sin. Does Peter have the illusion that Christians will never again sin? No, and we'll see that. Yes?

Can you talk about the Kadesh tradition, however that's pronounced, that the Jews used to talk about? I think that really helps clarify the dead Jews. Yeah. One of the illustrations that Nancy is asking that we bring up here is, in the Jewish culture, those Jews who were really careful to follow the steps of the law, it was forbidden, of course, to do a great number of things.

The Mosaic Law lists 365 things explicitly. And then on top of that, the Jews came up with additional laws to make sure you didn't break the 365. How would you like that? How would you like to keep track of that? The bottom line is it amounts to thousands of laws. They would sometimes create a half dozen, even more laws, and even more are created through technology. How about that? In order to make sure you don't break the law. If someone who was very careful and conscientious about the law would have a fellow Jew, whether a family member even, who would break a law that was a serious problem in terms of breaking the law.

They would declare to them, you are dead to me. Does that mean the person's dead? No. Dead in relationship to. I am to live life as if you were dead, even though I see you walking around. Pardon? Yeah, Carol's making the point, isn't that if they become a Christian? Yes. I would say that's one of the different things. Pardon? Yes. Here's a for instance.

Timothy had a Jewish mother and grandmother. And how about Timothy's father? Greek. That was a forbidden wedding. That was a marriage that according to Jewish law and custom should not have taken place. We don't know whether it was Timothy's mother that made the error or whether Timothy's grandparents basically made some arrangement in disregard for the law. A conscientious Jew would have treated that Jewish daughter as dead to them.

So that's when Peter talks about being dead to. It's not something that's just sort of invented or theological talk. It is a matter of taking something that they well understood and said, here's how it applies to my life. Not that we go around doing this dead to this person and dead to that one. but taking the real application of it, dead to sin, dead to the sin nature, dead to the law. Okay? How about that? Thank you. So, is Peter saying that the believer will never again sin or err? Nyet. Okay? Nine.

Galatians 2, 11-14, 1 Peter 2.20, it is not saying here that the believer will never sin. Peter acknowledges in his own letter, he has previously done so, that believers can sin. But what distinction is he making? Why isn't he just throwing up his hands and saying, well, Christians will sin, and I guess that's the way it is. Christians will be Christians, right? What is he saying here?

One way to look at it, and Paul does use this terminology regularly, the terminology of slavery. We no longer have the sin nature as a slave master. To use it this way, suppose I put myself, I step back into the New Testament era, and I am a slave. I may have spent some years even with this slave master. This slave master called the shots in every aspect of my life. This original slave master. I may have grown up under that original slave master. If you are born into slavery, that's called a verna. Just take my name and put an A at the end of it. A verna is a person born into slavery. That is the way, spiritually speaking, all of us would be characterized. Born into slavery. We are vernas. When we put our trust in Christ, our slave-master relationship with the sin nature and to the world, and to the law, is cut off. Now, the sin nature, let's take it for instance, take this slave in the New Testament era.

He's now over at his new master's house. He's sweeping off the front porch. The old slave master comes up to the sidewalk in front of the house and says, Hey, what are you doing there? Get back over here, I've got piles of stuff for you to do. Man, you wouldn't believe the stuff I... Get over here! What are you doing there? And you might have that talk, or you might have, hey, if you come back over to my place, I've got a bunch of cool stuff for you. You're going to love it.

Now, is that old voice familiar? Oh yeah. You grew up with it, right? The old voice may be threatening. The old voice may be seducing. But does that old slave master have any real rightful command over you? Not one shred. Not the slightest. If I respond to the old slave master, which I could, there is absolutely no validity to my response based on who I serve now. Right?

And so this is the analogy that Paul refers to frequently. And in fact, even you get into James and some of the other writers of the New Testament, they'd say, I'm a bond slave of Christ. And so that set of word pictures illustrates very well also, and Paul uses it in Romans 6. So the died to picture is one way of relating it. The slave and master and slavery vocabulary is also another way to illustrate it well. Let's take a look here.

Yes, Doug. Yeah. Yes, Doug's asking the question, what about if I fall back under the old slave master? Yeah. Fall back under the old slave master. Okay. Then what? Ah, okay. Doug's asking, and this is a practical question, I fall back under the old slave master, now what do I do?

Okay, the old slave master's now calling the shots. What's going to happen to a believer who's in that daily condition. What happens to a believer who falls under the old slave master? And remember, the slave master has got kind of an army of different people, because remember, we've died to the sin nature, we've died to the world, and we've died to the law.

All three of those are in cahoots to tell us what to do. And all three of those are things that we've rightfully died to, but we can slip back under. All right? Now, so Doug's asking the question, what happens then? Do we just say, oh, well, I guess I'm done for? I'm sorry, what?

First John 1.9 is what Doug is saying? You're talking about the conscience? Okay. All right. Any other thoughts? Ah, okay.

This is one thing, and this is what Paul reminds the believers, and essentially, you know, Peter makes less reference to it, but uses some of the same vocabulary, is that a starting point is to recognize who's calling the shots in my life? Who is rightfully the one to say what I do and don't do? Who is the voice that I should listen to?

There is a ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict us, and I think in the believer, this puts together the Holy Spirit's conviction and what you're calling conscience, because Peter does make reference to a clear conscience. We don't have simply a human conscience. We have one, but we don't have simply that because we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit in any instance.

What happens if I am a believer and I am under the old slave master's voice. If I'm listening to the old slave master's voice, what's the Holy Spirit's response to that? What's that? Okay, and what does Paul describe as the response that comes out of the Holy Spirit in that instance? Pardon? Okay, this is the end of Romans 7, yes, because we've died to the law. If we go and put ourselves under it, we'll find that's wretchedness.

Yeah, and then Nancy's pointing to Ephesians 4.30, grieving the Holy Spirit. We're going to see that in the main service because Isaiah says the same thing. Talks about grieving the Holy Spirit.

Isn't that something? Okay, so that's one thing. There's going to be a response from the Holy Spirit, which is a spiritual enhancement, and that may be an understatement, of the human conscience, which Monique pointed to. Alright, what else happens? Ah, okay.

If, and this is the end of Romans 6, which by the way is written to Christians, the wages of sin is Joy, right? No. The wages of sin is death. And is that written to Christians? Yes. If a believer, even though positionally, that position is untouchable, is the rightful ownership ever in question? No. But what happens is we live outside of, at those moments, we live outside of the rightful ownership. And we listen to the wrong voice. There will be a payment for that. And here's what's amazing.

The wages of sin is death. If you want death, you're going to work for it. If you want death, you're going to work for it. But the free gift of God is eternal life. And that's not just a salvation message and something for the unbeliever to hear. This is primarily written to believers to recognize that as a believer, I can earn death. It doesn't mean I'm going to lose my salvation. It doesn't mean I'm going to hell. But my daily life can be lived out with spiritual death. What is death? Death is separation. It's separation from the Lord. I've got to earn that. But if I want to walk with the Lord, live alive to righteousness, alive to God, in Jesus Christ, in that condition, it's free.

Yes. People will talk about being backslidden, and it's interesting, if you look at it, that's not explicitly a biblical term, but yeah, at one moment I could say I'm backslidden. If that gets to be more of an ongoing and chronic problem, then people tend to use that as the backslidden terminology. But the reality is, it's a day-by-day, moment-by-moment thing, isn't it? I'm sorry, what?

Sure, in Romans 7, yes. Yeah, and that's the one thing, is there isn't some statement here, and Peter knows for sure, okay? He's the one that stood in front of a bunch of people and said several times, I never knew him, okay? He is the one that Paul even opposed him to his face because he started dropping back into the Gentile-Jew separation. That's the Galatians passage we'll be looking at. Peter himself knew that just because he was a believer, and he was the one that stood up and spoke out on the day of Pentecost, he himself knew that this believer falling back into sin was reality.

1 Peter 2.20 we're referred to there that makes reference to, in the instance, Peter's acknowledgement that believers can indeed sin. I have extended family, siblings, that have denied, you know, what they already know and everything. And the guilt with them is so great. They can't handle themselves. They can't handle that guilt. They have to know someone else.

It's interesting, and Beth bringing up the question, what happens when people get this kind of chronic pattern? They're believers, right? But then there gets to be this chronic pattern of walking in the flesh, chronic pattern of, have you grieved the Holy Spirit? Yes. But do they just stay there? They get stuck in that spiritual rut. And it can get downright serious. You know, we find the Lord in Scripture has not revealed some multitude of instances, but the Lord may do some fairly radical things. Yeah, Nancy? Yeah, certainly, you know, in the end, I'm glad it's the Lord that makes those, you know, eternal judgment calls. It's not up to me to make the call. The Lord's going to be the one that decides that.

But clearly, a believer is not to sit there with the wheel stuck in the rut and continuing on. First of all, and this is just right at the outset, the wages of sin is death, right? There will be consequences of death in that believer's life. Death in their life, death as a consequence to others, both believers and unbelievers, from that living out a life that spells death. Some notable, obvious extremes, but Ananias and Sapphira.

Here's Peter, was the guy that said, hey, you're going home. You know, you're done. Years ago there was a friend of mine who was working alongside this guy, trying to get the guy to see the light, who was stuck in a rut of sin and would not move out of it.

And my friend, Dave was his name, was driving a Volkswagen on the driver's side. This fellow was sitting to his right on the passenger side. All of a sudden, a big truck came along, totaled the right side of the VW, and the fellow sitting next to him was taken out instantly. My friend Dave, the driver, just got a few scratches and bumps, and that was it.

So, I mean, you know, I don't know. I can't say the Lord's going to do this and that in some certain circumstance. That's not right. But, you know, it just was kind of shocking. Because I knew these guys. To, whoa, this is kind of amazing stuff. Paul twice talks about, and this seems to be something specific to the apostles' ability, I don't see authorization for times after the apostles, but having turned someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That's a rather extreme thing.

But, you know, if people insist on continuing in the flesh, the Lord has various things that in His wisdom He can bring about in that believer's life. I could tell other stories, but we probably better not get too sidetracked here. Okay, Peter in the next part here says, what does Peter mean by arm yourselves also with the same purpose? Peter used a word here from military vocabulary, and let me add to what I've written here.

The word that he used here, it means heavy military armor. Okay. This isn't lightweight. This is heavy military armor. Okay. This is a word unique in the whole New Testament that believers not only could, but fully ought to be armed, heavily armed. How about that? You're not going in there lightly armed. You're heavily armed with the same purpose.

So the question is, what does Peter mean by same purpose? This word here is anoia, which doesn't have anything to do with annoying you. Anoia means in mind. In mind. This implies our having the same mindset about suffering as Christ did. This is where he draws upon the example of Christ. Paul had a few things to say on this subject. Have this attitude in you. Be minded in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. And there, particularly, he was talking about humility. But Peter took the same thing and says, have the same mindset of Christ regarding suffering.

Be armed. Be fully armed. And this is one thing. You're not going out there, and Peter's not encouraging it, you're not going out there lightly armed. You're not going out there with, gee, I've got some of my stuff on, but not the whole thing. No. You've got the full set of armor, he's saying. And matter of fact, you're heavily armed. So when he says arm yourself, he's not using lightweight words. He is using words that underscore the point big. And the people reading this knew this well. They were thinking, wow, I'm going like a heavily armed soldier, a fully armed soldier here.

How about the next one, 1 Corinthians 2.16, but we have the mind of Christ, and it's part of the same word set that Peter used. We believers, in our position, have the mind of Christ. Be in that mind, is what Peter was saying. Peter pictures that Christ-like mindset is an arming, a heavy arming, I'll add, for the believer, a strong stance in the midst of suffering.

You think about suffering, what do you think of? You think of yourself being vulnerable, right? Peter says, be armed in the middle of the suffering. How about that? Be heavily armed in the midst of the suffering. We think of suffering as, oh, I just took a hit. We think of suffering as, now I'm just made weaker. And what he says is, in terms of spiritual armor, there's no reason to go lightweight here.

Armor up. Put it all on. What did Paul say? Put on the full armor. Get it all on. Every little piece. Arm yourself heavily in the midst of this suffering. This isn't vulnerability at all. This isn't weakness. This isn't just, oh, I just lost some capability or power. No. This is be heavily armed. Be fully armed. We have in the Lord the full and total equipping necessary. in the Lord.

Otherwise, he wouldn't even say it. He knew suffering. He'd seen it. He had likely watched Stephen get stoned to death. He himself had been imprisoned more than once. He had been beaten. We know that from the Book of Acts, and may have been beaten beyond what's recorded in Acts. But, here's a guy who knew that well, 30 years since he had given the address on the Day of Pentecost, and he's telling them, get armored up to the full, to the max, for the suffering. Isn't that cool? That's major cool. Alright, let's turn to page 3.

So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men. Alright, so is he exhorting you to live the rest of your time walking in the flesh? Is that what he's talking about? No. It's to live the rest of this time with this body. Okay? No longer for the lusts of men.

This word, live, is bios. That word, when it's typically used in the New Testament, is often pointing to the physical life. In your physical life here, are you going to be subject to suffering? Count on it. Yeah. In your physical life, it's going to happen. But no longer, okay, for the lust of men. Those people who live around you, yeah, they're going to have all kinds of feelings, yanking them and pulling them around. You, be fully armored. Armor up. Get it all on. Be ready. This isn't the time for vulnerability, spiritually speaking. No need for that.

This word men here is translated from Anthropos, which refers to human beings, not to males. Andros would be the word for males. It's human lust that Peter had in mind. But for the will of God, Peter was making a minor contrast here. There are a couple of different words primarily used that are translated in the English, but beauty. This one is Allah, which means typically a sharp contrast. This is a sharp distinction. In contrast for the lusts of men, sharp contrast to that, the will of God.

What God wants. What God wills. Is the will of God irresistible? There are certain aspects of the will of God that are irresistible. Is it God's will that you be in Christ? Positionally, yes. And that is untouchable. It can't be reversed. God has made it such that it's not reversible. But it is possible in our daily condition to live contrary to what God wills. God does not make us a machine that runs on autopilot.

So that's the reason for the urging here. That's the reason for the insight. Here in Luke 22, the passage that we quote here, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Here's 1 Peter 4.3, For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sexuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. The first part of verse 3 there is essentially saying, the time has come to an end. That's ended. These readers who were mostly Gentiles, and certainly all of them living among Gentiles, even if they were Jewish, were in general consumed with the passions and behaviors he tells Christians to put in their past.

The Gentiles would pray to their pagan gods to be able to sin better. Serious. We have a record of them praying to steal better, to lie better, to cheat better. Praying that this other person might die so that I can get this woman that he has. Stuff like that. How about that?

The abominable idolatries. Of course, that a lot of times went on with the sensuality and lusts and the drinking parties. The god Bacchus. would involve getting crazy drunk and ripping apart small live animals with your hands. The abominable idolatries would involve both sexual practices and drinking, sometimes drugs, all in the name of religion. Are you religious? Oh yeah, I'm religious. Paul spoke to the people at Athens, and what did he say? I see that you are very religious. You even have an altar to the unknown God.

The application to us is that our own culture has its list of practices that it considers normal, but are driven by the sin nature, which are not within what God wills for us. But for believers, our time of carrying out those things has come to an end. Why? Just like the analogy that we brought up before, we have a new owner.

The old guy may either threaten us, speak with incredible force, and may speak as if he still called the shots. He may try to entice us, which is what a lot of people get subdued by. He may try to entice us. We may get a voice and say, boy, that sounds pretty familiar, and boy, does that siren song sound attractive.

But that's not my owner anymore. Here's another thing to think about. The sin nature is terminal. Is our relationship with Christ terminal? No. And another thing is the old voice that people respond to, it doesn't matter how attractive it is, it's going out. There's a day when it's going to drop out of the picture.

Is that where you want to invest? Is that where you want to put your time? Yeah Yeah, you know you can look at examples, and we've had a high-profile one this week where life in the flesh Might have seemed pretty good for a while. It doesn't do much good now They're just saying look there's an unbeliever You know where do you belong to whom do you belong?

1 Peter 4, 4 and 5, in all this they are surprised that you do not run with them in 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. One of the things that is interesting, and look at the verbs here. One, they're surprised. What? You're not going out with us and getting drunk and doing this and that? Shock that you're not joining us. But, and they mine you. Oh, well if you won't join us, you're just a rotten guy. You're a traitor. You're no fun anymore. Okay? But, they will give an account. One of the things that Peter had talked about before, and I'm in the middle of page four here, so just so you're with me. They will give an account.

In 1 Peter 2 that we studied previously, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. This is one that Brad taught on previously. And that looks at a different aspect.

The unbelievers that are maligning you, there's going to be two courses of future action here. One course is that, yeah, they may slander you, but they may come around and in the last day be praising the Lord with you. Or they could stay the course, the one that they've chosen, and end up answering for the Lord.

Either way, what motivation is there for the Christians to yield to the pressure. There isn't any. Not any valid. Because either that unbeliever that's doing the maligning, the slandering, is going to come around and recognize, this indeed is my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Or, turn around and have to answer on Judgment Day. Real interesting. Last year when we got to the time around Palm Sunday and Easter, I prefer to call it Resurrection Sunday, we talked about the Roman centurion who was over the troops that crucified Jesus. In the end, even being in charge of the one putting the nails, what did he say? Truly this was the Son of God. Truly this was the Son of God. He came to recognize He had crucified, or was over in charge of, crucifixion of the Son of God. What a recognition. Yeah, what a load too.

Now, 1 Peter 4, 6, 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. Now I have an expanded and explained, which is sort of a combination translation commentary. For the gospel, which is the good news of salvation, has for this purpose been preached even to those who are now physically dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, that is, they have indeed died physically, they may live in the spirit, similar to how Christ, remember as we said before, was made spiritually alive according to the will of God.

Being made spiritually alive for Christ, was being restored to relationship, no longer separated spiritually from the Father. So what does he make in comparison? Because you as a believer have been identified with Christ in His death and His resurrection. You too have been made spiritually alive, restored to fellowship with the Lord, reconciled to the Father. Those who believe are not spiritually dead, but instead the positional separation from God is in that they are made spiritually alive. As Christ was made spiritually alive after the time when he had taken the sins of the whole world upon himself.

Peter could use similar wording here as in 1 Peter 3.18 because of our identification with Christ. God has willed our identification with Christ just such that we are alive to God, alive to righteousness, and Christ is our life. As Peter put it, our living hope.

Alive. A living hope. Always alive. Ever to live. Alive always. Ever with Him. That's cool. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, boy, what what marvelous hope. Will we suffer? Yes. May we stumble? Yes. But how wonderful to look at the hope that we have, a living hope. And the hope is not just a condition or circumstance, Lord, but it's a person. It's Jesus Christ, our Lord, our life. And we give you thanks for that this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.