Sanctified Suffering

chapter 4. And I’m not downtrodden about
it. I half expected a chorus of cheers
to raise up when I said chapter 4. But it’s an interesting thing,
because really, chapter 3 isn’t quite finished. In fact, I would
put this break here, chapter 4, as being one of the most unfortunate breaks in Scripture. I think John chapter 3 is my
least favorite break in all of Scripture. But it’s one of those
chapter divisions that throughout the centuries has led people
to criticize One even said that the chapter breaks were so arbitrary
that it seemed as if a scribe did them while riding on a horseback,
you know, and every time the horse bumped is where he would
divide the chapter. The theme is the same and has
been the same really since at least chapter 3, verse 12, as
we’ve seen in weeks past. But there is a context to this
verse that obviously goes before even if you’re looking and you
see the first word. Therefore, you have to look back
over your shoulder. The subject, as we have seen
in the last several weeks or months, I don’t know, I don’t
remember, for a while now, is suffering. That’s been the theme. And we come back again to this
theme. And as I suggested at the outset of our study of Peter’s
epistle, it’s rather an absurd theme for Peter to take up at
all. But to take it up recurringly,
repeatedly throughout his epistle is almost astounding. Here’s
what Peter originally thought of suffering. Matthew 16. From
that time, Jesus began to show his disciples he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raised up on the third day. And to that,
Peter said, oh, OK. No, actually, his response was
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid
it, Lord, this shall never happen to you. Peter disdained the idea
of suffering and he could not countenance the idea of a suffering
Savior. This doesn’t make any sense,
Lord. But Jesus turned to him and said,
Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You’re a stumbling block to me,
for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but
man’s. Man’s interest is to ever live
a peaceable, tranquil, trouble-free life. That’s man’s interest. But Jesus says that’s not always
God’s interest. Then Jesus said to his disciples,
if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me. Jesus points to us that not
literally, but figuratively, there is a cross, there is suffering
that is part and parcel of the Christian life. It is to be expected. No wonder then in Peter’s epistle,
We have at least four major sections that are directly focused on
suffering, the suffering of a Christian. First Peter, chapter two, verse
18. First Peter, chapter three, verse
13 through 18, which passage we just studied. First Peter,
chapter four, verse one through six, which will begin this morning.
And then Peter isn’t even finished then. He’ll take up the theme
once again in 1 Peter 4, verse 12. Suffering is part of what it
is we’re called to in the Christian life. It just comes with the
territory. And Peter had obviously learned
that lesson. But let’s go back, if we could,
to the context. The context is back in chapter
3, beginning in verse 13. This section that we’ll consider
today is just, in a sense, an enlargement or a refocusing on
that previous purpose. What Peter does here is press
upon the saints, the Christians, the need to focus and endeavor
with all of their hearts and lives to pursue holiness, a changed
life. Look at verse 13, where Peter
said, Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what
is good? Immediately we are into the theme of suffering. He’s
talking about harm and he’s talking about, in a sense, an unjust
form of harm or suffering, persecution, suffering for the sake of righteousness.
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness,
you are blessed. God’s hand is in it. God will
smile upon you, as we’ve seen in the past. We need to remember
who we serve. We need to remember that the
smile of God awaits. We need to be composed, as he
says in the next verses. Do not fear their intimidation,
do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord of your hearts.
There is a devotional element to suffering that we are called
to. It is a suffering, a submission that issues forth. rather, a
submission to suffering that issues forth proclamation. That’s
where we get our privilege to preach. That’s where we get our
opportunity to share the hope that is within us. And finally,
there in that great section on the advice, the keys, if you
will, to responding to trouble, he says, keep a good conscience. Don’t let it be influenced by
extra biblical and don’t let it be dulled to the things of
God. Keep a good conscience in the
things in which you are slandered so that those who revile your
good behavior may be put to shame. There’s a point to our suffering,
and that is Peter’s main thrust in this whole argument. is that
suffering is not without purpose. It’s not without God’s watchful
eye. It’s not without an end in sight. It’s not without blessing.
It’s not without privileged opportunities because of it. And he points
up to us the example of examples, and we’re not going to take it
and re-preach it, but I do want to go back to verse 18 because
he points us to the example of above all examples when it comes
to suffering, and that is Christ Himself. For Christ also died,
Christ suffered and he suffered unto death. He suffered for sins
once for all, the just for the unjust, and it is on that very
phrase, for Christ also died, that the thought before us hinges. I’ve shown you in weeks past
the diagram of the passage, but our thought, therefore, goes
back to this particular thought. Christ also suffered. If you would, jump down to chapter
four with that little bit of context. The purposeful suffering
of Christ and the call to suffer as a Christian. Verse one. 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 already passed is
sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles,
having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals
and drinking parties and abominable idolatries. And in all this,
they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same
excess of dissipation and they malign you. But they shall give
an 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. Now, we’ll take those simple
verses four through six in the weeks to come. But today, enough is on our plate
just with those first three verses. There in a lot of ways, profound
truths and in a lot of ways, simple reminders, but very much
tied to the sufferings of Christ, very much pointing back to that
particular context. And in that sense, I entitled
the message sanctified suffering. There is a purpose. There is
a set apart purpose for our suffering. And the purpose is our sanctification,
as you will see as we course through this little passage.
We are very literally to get ready to suffer. We are to be
prepared so that when it comes, not if, when it comes in its
varied shades and forms, we will be ready. We will glorify Christ
in that moment. What we have before us in this
brief passage, 1-3 is, in a sense, a threefold purpose that Peter
lays out in our suffering in Christ. It doesn’t include the
sufferings that are common to humanity. That’s not the kind
of suffering that Peter’s talking about. He’s not talking about
famine and all those things. He’s talking about the suffering
that we endure because we are Christians, because we are in
Christ. And what he wants to offer up
for us is a threefold purpose. Why are we going through this?
Why am I enduring this? Why am I suffering? Peter’s main purpose in this
first part of the chapter is to stir us up as redeemed people,
as saints in the Lord, to fight against sin. to give ourselves completely
to obedience to Christ. His main argument at first here
is that from Christ’s sufferings, we have an interest in suffering
and because Christ suffered, we will suffer. If you would look back again
at verse one, The first purpose in our suffering in Christ is
that our testimony has need of verification. Our testimony has
need of verification. Look at verse one. Therefore,
since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose. If Christ endured such things,
we are not likely to escape them, no matter how much we’d like
to, no matter how unnecessary we find them to be, as Peter
originally did. Since Christ has suffered in
the flesh, we can accept similar treatment as Jesus himself taught. But let’s look again that therefore,
as I said, resumes the thought of 1 Peter 3, 18, And it draws
a conclusion really from those previous verses, the connection
between these two sections. And as I said, it’s a it’s a
hard and unnecessary break this chapter four, because the thought
is a steady stream. The connection between the two
sections is that since Christ’s suffering is the pathway to glory,
believers really should get themselves ready and prepared to suffer,
knowing that suffering is a prelude to an everlasting reward. That
much we’ve seen. Peter goes back to 3.18 really
to emphasize the importance of seeing suffering as rooted and
grounded in Christ. Peter goes on and says, therefore,
since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose.” He says that we are literally to have
a mind or a mindset that is prepared or ready or armed. Just as ships
in that day and age, chariots, even soldiers would equip themselves
for battle. That’s the image. That’s the
way that the word is used so that they as well as Christ are
furnished or ready or prepared for battle. That’s what Peter’s
calling us to. One pastor said this disposition,
this mindset will be as an armor in which to meet their persecutors. He who has no mind to suffer,
who assumes that suffering is unnecessary, that so far as it
springs from man, it is even unjust. And isn’t that our common
refrain? We see things coming our way
and we want to nudge them aside as being illegitimate simply
because they’re unfair or unjust. It’s like an unarmed man, he
concludes, on the field of battle. We don’t go about life looking
for suffering as some kind of a way to procure merit from God,
but we do need to be calmly awaiting it as inevitable as being in
Christ. It is, as one said, the dying
life voluntarily accepted and put on as armor. We don’t come
to Christ expecting a life of ease. We come to Christ expecting
the worst. The term, as I already indicated,
had military connotations. And what it calls us to is a
life of preparation, discipline, if you will, grit that are needed
for the Christian life. Believers have to arm themselves
with this mindset, this attitude that suffering is inevitable.
As one person said it just simply in a simple verse, even in his
dying life. And indeed, most of all then,
the Christian is a soldier. And you see, most of us forget
that, don’t we? We get caught up in the life of ease. We get caught up in all the recreations
that life offers. We get caught up in all the good
things. We get caught up in our non-Christian friends. We get
caught up in the world and really the world’s blinding rays. And we forget that at all times
we are in a battle. We’re in a battle for souls.
We’re in a battle. And that’s what Peter wants to
remind us of, that we are to be armed and ready. One Puritan said it this way,
the believers best armor. And by the way, I’m going to
take this. I’ve talked about doing this
for weeks. This comes to me from a book
that a dear saint gave me who I’ll leave unnamed this morning
But it reminds me of this point. I keep a running list of a wish
list of books On my birthday don’t buy me chocolates Buy me
what Emmy used to call God books. I You know, let’s use our resources
wisely. And I’m not appealing to you
to rush out and get something. But someday, if you think you’ve
got to buy me something, don’t buy me chocolate. Don’t buy me
stuff that’s just going to add to my ever growing girth. Buy
me a God book. This comes from a God book. The
advertisement’s over. The believer’s best armor against
his spiritual enemies. And by the way, the reason I
want you to buy me these things is I read them. You know what? Seriously, I have bought commentaries
more than 100 years old, and as I open them, you can tell
they’ve never been read. And you know how? In the olden
days, they used to put them through a guillotine cutter that would
all of a sudden cut all the pages. All the pages go in folded and
the end of it gets cut off so that you can open the pages.
The reason I know they haven’t been read is none of the pages
have been cut. And I have to go in and tear
some of these books, you know, and I know I have too many books
on my shelf that have gone unread. But the God books get read, the
commentaries on God’s word get read. And this is where it comes
from. Now, where was I? I promise you, the advertisement’s
over. The believers best armor against his spiritual enemies,
especially temptations to sin, is the believing consideration
of Christ’s suffering in his name and nature, which cannot
but give him courage and strength in the battle. All he’s saying
is we are aligned with Christ and just as Christ suffered.
So we, too, can expect to suffer. And Christ enduring that and
embracing that and conquering that suffering gives us great
courage. He goes on and he says, seeing
by these sufferings of Christ for him, his spiritual enemies
are spoiled of all power of overcoming. though of not molesting, so that
he may be sure of victory.” In other words, he says Christ ultimately
conquers, but the demons are going to harass us until Christ
returns. And he closes and says, for with
this very same consideration or notion, as the word signifies,
that Christ has suffered in our room instead, the apostle exhorts
believers to arm themselves against all temptations. His thought there, His words,
even though they’re weighty and archaic and difficult to embrace,
He’s saying that look at what Christ and His suffering accomplished. We don’t even need to accomplish
the same thing. But our suffering has purpose. And the purpose is that our testimony
has need of verification. It’s an easy thing to name the
name of Christ. It’s another thing to bear up
under sorrows when suffering unjustly. And what he says is
Christ is our great motivation to do so. Jesus and what he endured
and accomplished on our behalf is our great motivation to embrace
these sufferings, these catcalls, this persecution, this difficult
life that we assume as Christians. It’s a common thought, this thought
of warfare. Somehow we miss it. Somehow we
skip over it. Romans 13, 12, the night is almost
gone. The day is near. Therefore, let
us lay aside the deep deeds of darkness and put on the armor
of light. Paul had this imagery of a battle. Paul knew what was at stake.
Second Corinthians. The word of truth and the power
of God by the weapons of righteousness for the right and the left, he
says, go in fully armed. 2 Corinthians 10, 4, the weapons
of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful
for the destruction of fortresses. Paul says it’s a battle. Peter
concurred it’s a battle. We’re going to go walking into
battle unprepared. No, no. In fact, the famous illustration
that Peter uses is the believer’s armor in Ephesians 6. Look there,
if you would, just Ephesians 6 real quickly. In Ephesians
6, you’re immediately thrust into first century Christianity. You’re immediately thrust into
the life of Paul, who daily was going about with an armed guard
at this point. And you can just see Paul as
he’s penning this letter to the Ephesians, looking out and glancing
at the Roman guards that were guarding him. And Paul says this
regarding the Christian life, put on the full armor of God,
verse 11, so that you’ll be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers powers, against the
world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places. You see, Christianity
is not some kind of Christian version of Disneyland. It’s a battle. It’s a battlefield. And believers, because of that,
should resolve to suffer. They should prepare themselves
in their minds to suffer. One Puritan said it this way,
Christ has suffered for us not only to give us an example of
patience and submission to the will of God, but for the taking
away of sin, both the guilt and the power of it, that he might
be the procurer as well as the pattern of our mortification. We’ll come back to mortification
in a minute. But he says that just as Christ
took sin upon him and put it to death. That’s exactly what
we’re called to do. Secondly, there’s a second purpose
in suffering in Christ. Actually, and I’m going to I
want to delve deeper into that first purpose that our testimony
has need of verification. Look at look at at the end of
verse one when it says, because he who has suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin. This is an interesting thought,
isn’t it? Because he’s writing to Christians and he’s addressing sin and he’s
even issuing forth a fresh call to holiness. And now at the same
time and in the same breath, he tells them that somehow those
who’ve suffered have ceased from sin. You see, this is the mindset with
which we’re to approach suffering. That’s the purpose that was mentioned
in verse one. And here you have suffering pictured
as a purifier, a sanctifying element, if you will, that through
suffering sin ceases to have rule over the Christian. God
uses this suffering to purify us and to call us back to a holier
walk with Him. Now, suffering in and of itself
doesn’t do that. We don’t gain our salvation merely
by suffering. Otherwise, there’d be thousands
crawling as Martin Luther did on his knees to gain some kind
of forgiveness from God, some kind of redemption. But affliction,
when as one said, it is sweetly and humbly carried, it does purify
and disengage the heart from sin, wean it from the world and
the common ways of it. Romans six, Paul called it dying
to sin and rising to newness of life. Remember of what baptism
is merely a picture. The Christian who is dead with
Christ, and that’s the image and going down into the water,
the Christian that is dead spiritually with Christ, whose old man was
crucified with Christ, has ceased from sin. That doesn’t mean that
we never dabble in sin again, but that means that our heart
no longer embraces sin. We no longer sin willfully and
delightfully and yield ourselves up to the power of sin. It doesn’t
mean that we’ll never sin again. As one said, the point is not that
believers who suffer have attained some kind of sinless perfection,
as if they do not sin at all after suffering. What Peter emphasized
was that those who commit themselves to suffer, those who willingly
endure scorn and who commit and mockery for their faith show
that they have triumphed over sin. They have broken with sin
because they have ceased to participate with lawless activities. Those
of the unbelievers, and they have endured the criticisms that
have come from such a decision. That’s what Peter’s calling us
to. He says to say that you trust Christ with your mouth is simply
not enough. You need to be willing to suffer
with Christ and to stand with Christ and to endure what Christ
endured. He who has suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin. There are those that wanted to
take a completely future look at that because they’re so uncomfortable
with this thought of ceasing from sin. And that this idea
that it somehow teaches a sinless perfection in this life. And
so in order to do away with that line of reasoning, they merely
say that if we suffer now, one day we’re going to embrace glory
and there we will be sinless. I don’t believe it teaches sinlessness. That ceased from sin is just
the mentality, the love, the embracing of sin. Again, one pastor said, the apostle
speaks of their ceasing from sin as a thing already done in
regard of the certainty of it. If you have embraced Christ,
you have already turned your back on sin. That doesn’t mean
you never glance back over your shoulder, but your heart is with
Christ. Your purpose is with Christ.
Your intention is with Christ. It is a thing already done in
regard to the certainty of it and their obligation to it. It
being ordinary in Scripture to affirm the duty of believers
is already done and thereby to assure them that it shall be
done and to oblige them more strongly to the study of it.
In other words, he says, if you put your hand to the plow, don’t
look back. Don’t return back, don’t give
in. Our testimony has need of verification. It’s not enough to say it with
our words. We’re called to a sanctified Christ like life. And now, secondly, Christian has a threefold purpose
in suffering in Christ as Peter lays out for us here. Not only
does our testimony have need of verification, our life has
need of a change of mastery. Our life has a need of a change
of mastery. And suffering is a great teacher
in this regard. Because you can either suffer
the effects and consequences of living a sinful life, or you
can suffer for righteousness sake alongside of Christ. Look at verse 2. He says, 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. That little word, no longer, one word in the Greek, essentially
points to the fact that there was an old life that is now considered
to be old, crucified, and should be constantly put to death. And as I said, in this context,
suffering can be a purifier. Suffering can have a refining
aspect to it. Suffering, as I said, in and
of itself doesn’t purify us, but when it’s sweetly and humbly
carried, it does. It embraces the affliction and
disengages the heart from sin and weans it from the world and
the common ways of it. This is dying to sin. This is
a daily activity that the Christian engages in. This is self-denial
in a completely self-indulgent world. We’re no longer to live for the
lusts of men. There’s a couple of different
ways to take that. One says that you’re living only
to please other people. Everybody’s looking at you and
it’s the society’s lustful desires that we’re living in accordance
with. And that’s a pretty fair… But you know, really, do I need
a bad example? Did you? Is our own heart not
sinful enough? And that’s why I think the second
way of looking at this is more accurate. The lust of men is
our own desires. He doesn’t want us living according
to our own desires any longer. One pastor said that Christians
cannot but be slaves of their own unmortified corruptions and
servants to the lusts of one another, making it their very
trade to do so until, by faith, they arm themselves. We’re stuck,
in other words, he says, except for the grace of God. Until they,
by faith, arm themselves with the consideration of Christ undertaking
to deliver them from that servitude of his purchasing virtue by his
death for that effort. You know what he says? We’re
going to be a servant to somebody. This is exactly the language
of Romans that Paul uses in Romans 6. We’re going to be someone’s
slave. It’s either going to be sin or
righteousness. Which one is it? Which one will
it be? He says, no longer let it be the
lusts of men. No longer let it be those putrid
desires of your heart. No longer let it be, if you want
to go that way, the mentality of the society in which you live.
He’s talking about our new life and by implication, our old life.
And when he says the rest of the time should be spent no longer
for lust, but the will of God. The thought here is that the
one who innocently with Christ and meekly suffers persecution
rather than joining in the wickedness that the world throws up. That’s
what Peter is urging us to. The Christian is going to carry
himself and conduct his life in the future from this point
forward, not by participating in the crazy and haphazard desires
and activities of the secular, unsaved world in which we live, But under the guidance of what
the Puritans used to call the singular principle, the will
of God. It’s the will of God. What does God want? How does
God want me to live? What does God’s word say about
our life? We live according to Him. We
live according to His will when His will is our law, when His
word is our rule, when Christ’s life is our example, when the
Spirit has sway in our heart and guides our actions. Our life has need of a change
of mastery. We were under the yoke as slaves
before we knew Christ. And now, being granted by God’s
grace a new life in Christ, we have the privilege of submitting
ourselves to a new master who is righteous and good and pure. We don’t escape suffering. The
suffering continues. but it has purpose and meaning
and blessing. I said that there was a threefold
purpose in suffering in Christ. Not only does our testimony have
need of verification and our life have need of a change of
mastery, but our sin has need of mortification. The old life
is over. And that’s what Peter wants to
focus on in the remainder of this passage. Our sin has need
of mortification. Look at verse 3. For the time
already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the
desire of the Gentiles. It’s an interesting phrase. It’s
an interesting way of looking at it. In essence, he says enough
is enough. And he tells this to Christians
whom he also just said that in some capacity had ceased from
sin. So he cannot possibly be talking about sinlessness, some
sinless perfection, and then in the next breath, call them
to holiness and to a more sanctified life. But he does have them look
over their shoulders. He does have them look into their
past and he says the time already past is sufficient. Enough is
enough. In fact, it’s the same word as
Matthew 6.34 and 10.25. Matthew 6.34 says, Don’t worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each
day has enough trouble of its own. Enough is enough. The older translations had it
sufficient is the past or sufficient unto the day. Enough is enough. When we come
to Christ, we’re called to a new life. We have new desires. We have new affections. And the bottom line is, and don’t
your hearts say it? When Peter here says of our old
life that enough is enough, even that enough of our previous life
was too much, wasn’t it? I mean, really, if you stand
before a holy God, even if we could just reduce it to one sin,
isn’t that too much? It is. So he isn’t saying, you
know, look, you had your fun. This is why sometimes I can’t
stand the tenor of some public testimonies. Because people almost
they go into their exploits as some kind of a badge of honor. And they begin to outline all
the things that they did and all the bad things that they
did. And it’s almost like they revel in it. When Peter says
enough is enough, sufficient is the time already passed. He’s
not saying that, look, you know, God knows all about that and
winks at that. God hated those sins. Christ died for those sins. He doesn’t give us some kind
of license. He doesn’t give the unbelievers
some kind of freedom to continue in sin. Not even the pastime ought to
have been wasted in lust. But the bottom line is, since
we can’t go back and redeem that time and secure those hours and
weeks and months and all those wasted resources, at least look
to the future and put your life in a better account for the future.
I already said we have to serve someone. We are in submission
to someone. It’s either going to be to a
life of sin or to Christ, to a righteous God. We’re going
to suffer. And those in sin suffer the consequences
as well. One pastor said, the memory of
the pain and misery of those deeds that those deeds caused them
was to motivate his readers to diligently avoid such behavior.
Every one of us can look back, no matter how early we were saved,
and look back to that putrid mindset and that vile life and cause us to desire to live
differently by God’s grace. In fact, there’s a little song
when we were in seminary, one of the seminary professors put
together, his family recorded it. And I think it was their
four or five year old that sang the song. I don’t remember exactly,
but the words are just so haunting. By and by, when I look on his
face, look on his face, look on his face. By and by, when
I look on his face, I wish I had given Christ more. And what it
goes through, it just walks through the difficulty of life of squandering
opportunity after opportunity. And when you think of it, we’ve
already squandered too much. Just because of the life that
we lived before Christ. I wish that I had come to Christ
earlier in life in my teens or even earlier. But I came in my
mid to late twenties.” And you think, that’s a quarter of a
very old man’s life. And then Peter, he does this,
I think, not in any way to revel in these things, but in order
to look at his precious and to call them away from a world that
was completely out of control. He says that the one who has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest
of the time Even if Christian, it’s from this moment forward.
The rest of your life is to be lived in the flesh no longer
for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time
already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire
of the Gentiles. What was it? Having pursued a
course of sensuality, the old Puritan word was licentiousness.
This just speaks of a heart that knows no restraint, dares to
sin any sin. This is what some titled or termed
debauchery, an unchecked lawlessness, just completely wild in their
life. And the interesting thing is
the word is in its plural. Debaucheries, sensualities, licentiousnesses,
if you may. It is in the plural because it
expresses not only the repeated acts of sin, but a variety, a
great variety. They just sent it up in every
different direction. It included all forms of impure
desire. 1 John 2.16, all that is in the
world, The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. That’s a great commentary
on this word. Just refers to all those unbridled
and unrestrained vices. And then Peter turns immediately
to that word lusts. which can be used in a good sense. It just speaks of deep desires,
but in this case, it’s desires for evil. It’s almost animal
mentality here. Mindless indulgence and passionate
desires, sinful passions that push people over the edge into
self-indulgence. Not only sensuality and lust,
but drunkenness. The word literally means bubbling
up wine and liquor overflowing. It just speaks of this habitual
intoxication that was so common, not only to that day, but even
to our own. And then what comes from that?
Carousals. What is a carousal? It literally
is a party that goes from town to town by way of the street.
It goes from place to place, carousing. All you’ve got to
do Come to my block and roll down your window on a Friday
night. Just referred to a band of drunken
people singing and staggering wildly through the streets. You
get the sense as you read through this list of a progression, a
downward progression, if you will, a degeneration into wild
and godless behavior. The last few take us to the bottom. Drinking parties is the next.
It’s literally drinking bouts or drinking games solely for
the purpose of getting drunk. And we’ve all heard the variety
of stories, whether they’re playing some game or whether it involves
a coin or watching a show or whatever. There are games out
there just solely for the purpose of getting drunk. And finally,
abominable idolatries. This is the bottom. This, in
essence, is their religion. This was the Jews’ description. These are the words that the
Jews used to refer to pagan cults and their practices, abominable
idolatries. They were even against the Roman
law. The Roman government had a law
against them and still they continued. It was unlawful idol worship,
which ultimately included all kinds of terrible, unspeakable
immorality connected with it. There are throughout Scripture,
those kinds of catalogs of vices, lists of sins, Galatians 5, Romans
1, you know them. But the exhortation is no different,
really. And that’s why I reiterate that
we have not achieved some kind of sinless perfection, that our
sin has need of mortification. We have to daily rise up and
kill it all over again. Romans 13, he’s speaking to Christians
here, let us behave properly as in the day, not carousing
and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not
in strife and jealousy. Now, why on earth would Paul
say such things to a Christian body? Ephesians 4, so this I say and
affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer Does
that sound familiar? Enough is enough, Paul says. That you walk no longer just
as the Gentiles also walk. How? In the futility of their
mind. Being darkened in their understanding.
Excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is within them. Because of the hardness of their heart. And
they, having become callous, have given themselves over to
sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ
in this way.” You know what Peter and Paul are both saying here? I believe that you even hear
in their voice a rejoicing. When they say, no longer, I think
that they are rejoicing at the work that God has already begun
in the saints to whom they’re speaking. Paul says it even more
graphically, such were some of you. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
6. Do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Such
were some of you.” It is that from which we were saved. In
fact, it’s interesting to note in a parallel passage in Ephesians
2, four times in those first 13 verses, Paul says, formerly,
and it’s as if he’s reminding them, look, you laid your sin
at the cross of Christ and embraced Him. Don’t pick it back up. Your sin has need of mortification. Don’t think that just because
you prayed a prayer and went to a camp or read a book that the battle is finished.
The battle just is starting, my friend, and it will not be
over until Christ returns. What Peter does here is take
us back. He has us look over our shoulder
and to all those missed spent hours and days and years of our
lives, which, except for the grace of God, are totally lost
and worthless. But here, Peter uses it as a
motivation to press us on to further holiness. What opportunities, said one,
we have lost, what privileges forfeited, what work for God
neglected. Man doing his own will is the
history of the world’s sin and woe. Peter says no longer. No longer
for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. The mortification of the old
man, the human nature that we’re born with, Insofar as it’s controlled
by sin, is that act of God. And it’s an
act of God in which we participate, whereby the pollution and the
corruption and the sin and all that comes with it is purified
from our lives and gradually removed. One Puritan had it this way,
mortification is the first part of sanctification. You’ve got
to want it. You’ve got to draw your sword and kill it. And when
it rises up and grows new legs, kill it again. This mortification
is the wasting away of sin. Thus, an inner difference arises
between the sin remaining in believers and the sin remaining
in others. In others, sin reigns, prevails,
dominates. In believers, it is broken, subdued,
and ultimately mortified. Or is it? Stephen Charnock, I close, said
this, the law of sin is that God must be at the footstool.
The law of God is that sin must be utterly deposed. We can’t
toy with it. We can’t give it a room of its
own. We can’t nurse it along or make excuse. He says, the
love of sin that has been predominant in our nature has quashed a love
to God, if not extinguished it. Hence also is the difficulty
of mortification. This is a work tending to the
honor of God, the abasing of that inordinately aspiring humor
in ourselves. That means that deep down we
love some of these things that we do. He closes with this, that if
the nature of man be inclined to sin as it is, it must needs
be bent against anything that opposes it. That means that this
mortification, this battle is not going to be easy. Your own
heart doesn’t even embrace it. And that’s why Peter issued this
challenge to us. A fresh call to holiness. in
new and completely different clothes, he caught us off guard. But he says this suffering, this
suffering with Christ is a means and a motivator and a call to
a life of righteousness. Let’s pray. O Lord God, We sung with our mouths that
holiness is what we long for. And yet, as we’ve just heard,
we know in our hearts that isn’t entirely true. We love what we do. And we’re
too easily drawn back into things that we ought not. So, Peter
has us look back on that putrid time of our own lives and calls
us to a holier walk, a walk with Christ. Grant us the grace, Father,
to take up our sword, to call on You for grace, to put to death
these things that, as the writer of Hebrews said, so easily entangle
us. Grant us the grace, Father, as
Paul said, to rise and walk in newness of life. Lord, we know
the battle will never be finished. We will never in this life experience
some kind of sinless perfection. All the more reason to call on
You for grace to fight this war. We thank You and we praise You
for this Word. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. you.