Be Armed With the Mindset of Obedience

Transcript

GR1943
02/28/2016
Be Armed with the Mindset of Obedience
I Peter 4:1
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter chapter 4 in your Bibles. We are well familiar with the Apostle Peter. Apart from the Apostle Paul he is probably the most familiar figure among the apostles without doubt to us. He stands out because he is such a prominent figure in the Gospels during the earthly ministry of Christ as well as through the first part of the book of Acts. Now he is writing a letter to Jewish believers. The focus of Peter’s ministry was to the Jews. Paul said that God had given him an apostleship to the Jews and given to Paul an apostleship to the Gentiles. That didn’t mean that they didn’t minister outside those realms, they did, but Peter’s focus and primary burden was to the Jews. And so he writes this letter to Jewish believers scattered outside the land of Israel, outside their homeland, going through sufferings and persecutions because of their testimony and faith in Christ, being persecuted by unbelievers and they would have the added difficulty of persecution from their own people, the Jews for having turned to Christ as their Messiah.

Peter is concerned that these believers maintain a proper testimony for the Lord in the midst of their trials and difficulties. Trials bring pressure to our lives. Persecution, unjust suffering, unjust treatment makes life more difficult and sometimes that pressure moves us into things that we shouldn’t be into. We have to be careful we don’t grow weary in the difficulties and trials that come.

So woven through this letter is the repeated example of Christ to encourage them, to remind them of what He has done, how He conducted Himself and the provision He has made for them to live in a manner pleasing to Him.

As we open chapter 4 in these opening verses, really the first six verses, we are not going to get that far, but he is talking to them about holiness in their conduct. This is not a new theme. Back in chapter 1 he told them in verse 15: “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior because it is written” and he quoted from the book of Leviticus. “You shall be holy for I am holy.” “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during your stay on the earth.”

Consistency in their conduct and how they handle persecution and how they handle unfair, unjust suffering and how they are careful about the allurements of the world and being drawn back into the old life styles and patterns, picking up sins that should not be part of a believer’s life.

You will note chapter 4 opens up with the word ‘therefore’ and indicates Peter is drawing some conclusions on what he has just said and it connects back to verse 18 of chapter 3. “For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the 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. Therefore, (chapter 4, verse 1) since Christ has suffered in the flesh” referring to the events around His life and crucifixion, the finality of His earthly suffering.

It is the death and resurrection of Christ that is the foundation and basis for our living lives of holiness and godliness. When he says, “Since Christ has suffered in the flesh” the focal point of His suffering is His death on the cross, events immediately preceding that but the cross is the focal point of that suffering. He keeps drawing their attention back to this.

Come back to chapter 1. The Old Testament prophets wrote about Christ. In verse 11: “Seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicated as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow.” The Old Testament prophets as they wrote did not have clarity on how the Messiah would suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin and yet be the One who was raised in glory. They didn’t understand the two parts of His coming, 1st coming to earth to die for sins then to come again to establish the kingdom. The first part was essential because the issue of sin had to be dealt with but you will note they predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow. Then he will pick that up in verse 18: “Knowing you were not redeemed with perishable things but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished, the spotless blood of Christ.”

You come over to chapter 2 and verse 21: “You have been called for this purpose. Since Christ also suffered for you and He left you an example to follow in His steps.” And how did He handle it? He was sinless but when He was reviled He didn’t revile in return. He didn’t utter threats. He kept entrusting Himself to God and His purpose and plan as the One who judges righteously. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds you were healed.” His death brought about our salvation.

You know we might die to sin and live to righteousness and that is not compartmentalized to just one area of life, not just handling persecution for the testimony we have for Christ, handling it properly. But our whole life is to be lived for Him.

As we move into chapter 4 here that is what he is going to talk about, sinful conduct and sinful practices. Christ died so that we might die, spiritually with Him and have a new life, a life lived for righteousness.

When you come into chapter 3 and down to verse 18 which we just read you have the same emphasis, Christ died to bring us to God, put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit; therefore since Christ has suffered in the flesh His suffering and death has made possible a new life so we are now to arm ourselves with this same purpose. “Arm yourselves.” Paul is fond of military metaphors. Peter also picks it up. These men so greatly used of God. Their own lives are an example and they are used to record what God intends for us to realize. The Christian life is a war and if we lose sight of that we will soon be off track. Arm yourselves. It is a military metaphor. It would be used of a soldier. You know the instruction would come; the command to arm yourself. That would mean he would put on his armor. He would get his weapons ready. You be ready for battle all the time now. You are on high alert so to speak. Lackadaisical, lazy, unprepared Christians they are in a danger they don’t realize.

Turn over to Romans chapter 13; just some examples. These again are the kind of picture that pervades the Scripture. Somehow we easily, especially you know, we live basically in a country where we have an easy Christianity and we begin to desire a comfortable Christianity. You know we want to be faithful to the Lord but we want to do that within reason. We don’t want to stir up problems. We don’t want to have trouble and we get the idea that we should expect God to make our life relatively carefree. I know I am going to have trouble but I belong to the Lord and we think when we have that kind of adjustment where the world doesn’t bother us and things are going well and then you know, we live in the world, a little bit of worldliness isn’t a problem. We forget. We are in a war.

In Romans chapter 13, verse 12: “The night is almost gone. The day is near. Therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness.” Peter is going to talk about this with a little different picture. “Put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day. Not carousing, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, strife, jealousy.” You put on the Lord Jesus Christ you don’t make provision for the flesh. There we have that, put on the armor of light. We are the children of light. We are lights in the darkness. That puts us in a battle. We are living so to speak in enemy territory. We are surrounded by the devil and his forces. We live in a world when “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life;” the things that we are to stay out of. You must be armed, put on the armor.

We just finished II Corinthians. Come over to II Corinthians to remind you of what was recent. In chapter 6, II Corinthians chapter 6, verse 7 Paul is talking about the conflicts and battles that he has been in and we will just break into this because of the long sentence. “In the Word of truth, in the power of God by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.” You see he just weaves that military metaphor into it. The picture he has of a soldier and he’s got a weapon in both hands, a spiritual weapon because what? The battle is ongoing. The war. There may be times of more of a lull so to speak but the war hasn’t stopped. So we have the weapons of righteousness in both hands.

Over in chapter 10 of II Corinthians, verse 3: “Though we walk in the flesh (in these physical bodies) we do not war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive” and that is where Peter is going to go. Talk about our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Our weapons aren’t the physical weapons. They are the spiritual weapons and they have the divine power of God. That is what enables us to do war against the devil and his forces. We don’t look to handle it in spiritual ways. We are dependent. Evangelicals think it will help them if we get the right politicians in, if we get the right legislation passed. I am not saying that sometimes those things are good. That’s not what the war is. We lose sight. We get all confused. We are in, you know, this spiritual battle. It can’t be won by fleshly weapons. That’s the way the world does it and Christians jump in to use the world’s methodology. Paul said that is not the way we do our battle. We do our battle with the spiritually provided, divinely powerful weapons that are effective for the destruction of fortresses. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” When believers begin to think this is the kind of battle that we will win if we get the right votes, if we get the right person, if we get the right legislation, if we… We have lost the battle. The devil wins so to speak because you can’t do battle with him. These are part of his fortresses and his methodology, his people.

So that military metaphor again. Of course, Ephesians chapter 6 you keep going past Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians chapter 6. Here is the reminder and there are several commands here but verse 10: “Finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.” That is where our strength is. It is not our strength. It is His strength. “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil for our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” I keep using the example of Paul next because I keep turning on the TV, watch the news and they keep talking about the evangelical vote and the evangelical block and who are the evangelicals for. I don’t want to be called an evangelical if that is what they are thinking of. I am not a part of a political block. I am not in a political fight. I don’t think that the success of what God has called us as believers to do is dependent upon whoever gets to be president, whoever gets appointed to the Supreme Court. We are in a totally different battle than the world is looking for. They are looking and trying to measure us according to what, worldly standards. Just like you have this group and this group and this group, you have evangelicals. They are part of the political… no we are not. We are not. I just pray the Lord will put the one in place of His appointment as He will and He will use us and give us the opportunity to continue to proclaim the truth, to reach out to the lost and use it to His honor.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is “against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual force of the wickedness in the heavenlies.” This is serious business. “Therefore take up the full armor of God.” There we go again with the metaphor, that picture of the armament of the day. “So that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm,” that is what we want. When the next battle is over we are still standing firm. “Stand firm therefore having girded your loins with truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In addition, taking up this shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” And then you are praying all the time with all prayer. These are spiritual weapons. We as believers don’t often take into consideration the seriousness of the battle. The world thinks it is being battled out in the political arena or things like that. We know better. This battle is a spiritual battle. It doesn’t have anything to do with who gets voted to what or who gets appointed to what. This is a spiritual battle against spiritual forces. The world forces of this darkness, rulers, powers. This is not a game. You understand as a believer you are the targeted enemy of the devil. He is the enemy of our souls. You can’t hide from him. You are his targeted enemy. We are. Believing churches are. Yes, that’s why we need the right president. No, no, no you don’t understand. This is spiritual battle and we battle it with spiritual forces. I wish every evangelical would just say I am not part of that political process. That doesn’t mean they can’t vote but I hate the identification that has been taken that puts us out there as a political block, the evangelical vote. Well, the evangelicals are greater numbers here. They will vote this way and we throw ourselves out there as though this is a battle we may lose. No, the battle we are fighting can only be won with spiritual weapons.

One more of this analogy. II Timothy chapter 2. You get into these military metaphors you get these emphases. “Be strong, be firm.” I mean what do you expect of a soldier? You know he’s got to know his duty and stand firm in his position. “Be strong, be strong” the chapter opens up. “My son in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And you entrust these truths I have taught you to faithful men who will teach others.” Verse 3: “Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” That doesn’t mean we don’t have responsibilities. We have duties that are ours, jobs and homes and so on but we don’t get entangled in the affairs of this world. We are not caught up in these things. We are ready to suffer hardship because when the devil who is the god of this world (small ‘g’) turns his forces against us life gets difficult in many ways that often aren’t clearly identified as a spiritual issue. He can bring the pressure in many ways. Remember the book of Job, all the death of family members, the loss of wealth, the loss of health. There is a spiritual battle going on. Job could only fight with spiritual provision from God.

Alright, come back to Peter. Keep going back to II Peter. All of that out of the metaphor here, the picture, “Arm yourselves with the same purpose,” with the same way of thinking and the determination that comes from that way of thinking. The concept of with the same purpose has to do with your mind and your thoughts and the results of that mindset, that way of thinking.

Back in chapter 1, verse 13 Peter said a similar thing in a little different way when he said in verse 13: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action.” That is the point. It starts with the mind, the way we are thinking. He didn’t say “Arm yourself with the same feelings;” that subjectivity there, no. We have a mental set. We talk about having mental toughness. That is what he is talking about. You prepare your minds for action. I am committed to see this through. Now you see somebody who doesn’t follow through on something and you say, “Well I didn’t think they were committed from the beginning.” And in another case you see someone. They say, “I knew their mind was set. They were determined.” That is what God expects of us. We have the same mindset as our Lord who suffered for us, who followed through for us. This is not something we are testing out. We are in the war and God expects us to have our mind set.

Back in chapter 4, to be armed with the same purpose Christ had. Well, I don’t know if I will go through with this. He determined he would do it, do it the way God the Father would have him do it, handling it properly. We saw that earlier. “He didn’t revile when He was reviled.” He didn’t get off track even under the worst treatment. He handled it as He should, as He had to and we have to have that same determination. A little bit of obstacle and we think well, maybe then it is not what the Lord wants. Maybe He doesn’t want me to be so open with my testimony. Maybe I am not good at sharing the Gospel. Maybe… What do you mean? We are determined. You know when you are a light in the darkness and people love the darkness rather than the light they want to put the light out and as Christ used in the Sermon on the Mount you don’t have a light, light a candle and put it under a bushel. He didn’t make us lights in the darkness so we could try to hide under the covers but that has consequences because we live in a world of darkness that hates light. “Arm yourselves with the same mindset, because he who has suffered in the flesh as ceased from sin.”

You have this mindset that I have died to sin so now I no longer am involved in it. Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. And you are not to be conformed to this world. You are to be transformed by the making new of your mind in order that you may prove what the will of God is;” that area of that mindset. That’s why we study the Scriptures together. We fill our mind with it.

I read another article in the paper. They’ve got a new thing that moved beyond meditation. It is mindlessness and somehow this will bring you peace, tranquility, keep your life. You just stop and think of nothing. When the phone rings don’t answer it right away. Put your mind in neutral for a little bit, calm yourself and all these techniques but we have our mind set. We have filled it with the Word of God. We are here to obey Him, carry out His will. We are an army but not for the political realm. Don’t try to recruit me for your army. I am already enlisted in the army that is most important.

“He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Suffering in the flesh is referring to the events of Christ’s death. We just looked at those passages that are repeated. And “The one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Christ never did commit sin but His work in dealing with sin was over. All that needed to be done had been done. Remember on the cross in John 19:30 “It is finished.” And He dies. The work of redemption is accomplished with His death.

Back up just before Peter a few pages. James is in front of Peter. Then you will be in Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 28, Hebrews 9:28: “So Christ also having been offered once to bare the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin.” When He comes the second time to earth it won’t be to have to deal with the issue of paying the penalty for sin. That was dealt with in His first coming. Now it will be to mete out punishment on sinners and to provide the kingdom that is promised to those who have experienced His redemption.

So the second time He comes won’t be to deal with sin. So His first coming and the suffering associated with that, the second coming will have no suffering for Christ. Why? He dealt with sin once for all. Verse 26: “Once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” It is done with so “He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Sin has been dealt with.

Now how does that relate to us? “So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer in the lust of men.” Really the application is to us. Since Christ suffered in the flesh He was doing it as our representative so we are identified with Him in His death as it was put in verse 24 of chapter 2: “For our sins in His body on the cross.” So we are identified with Him. So we have died with Him so that we would “Now (verse 24) live to righteousness,” because by His wounds, His death, His being nailed to that cross and dying, we were healed, made well from the sickness of sin.

Come back to Romans 6. This is the same truth mentioned here. This will be as far as we will be able to go in that it is the point Peter is going to. “What shall we say then (as the chapter opens up) are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be.” The idea was, well God’s grace is magnified by the multitude of sins He has forgiven. Well then maybe sin isn’t bad because every time I sin His grace is demonstrated in His forgiveness. No, God’s grace is not an excuse to sin. “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” So you see the picture.

Then he goes on to say that “We have been identified with Christ in His death, His burial, in His resurrection.” Verse 4: “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we might walk in newness of life. If we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death we will be in the likeness of His resurrection. Our old self, our old man was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with.” That way we would no longer be slaves to sin. “For He who has died is freed from sin.” That is what Peter said in a very concise way. “He who has suffered has ceased from sin.” Suffering being used as another name for death. “He who has died has ceased from sin.” With Christ’s death He was done dealing with sin, the penalty was paid in full. We are identified with him.

So dying with Him set us free from sin, its power as well as its penalty. That is what he is talking about here. The end of verse 6: “So we would no longer be slaves to sin.” I think you come back to this truth. That is why we want people to be clear. You can’t clean up your life to become acceptable to God. We don’t want to imply to people if you wouldn’t commit that sin you would be acceptable to God. No. God has to set you free. “He who has died is freed from sin.” The only way you can be free from sin, its penalty and its power is to die. That’s it. That is the penalty. “If we have died with Christ we believe we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again.” Death is no longer master over Him. It was master over Him because He came and voluntarily chose to take our sin on Himself. “He himself bore our sin in His body on the cross.” Well, He submitted Himself to our penalty so that we, verse 9: “Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again. Death is no longer master over Him. The death He died He died for sin once for all. The life He lives He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves dead to sin. Don’t let sin reign in your mortal body that you obey its lust. Don’t go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead; the members of your body as instruments of righteousness. Sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace.”

The Mosaic Law could command Israel to do what was right but it didn’t empower Israel to do what was right. “So by the works of the law no flesh can be justified.”

Verse 14 is encouraging. “Sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace. Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be.” On he goes.

Verse 17: “Thanks be to God though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient to the heart, to that form of teaching to which you were committed.” You believed what you were taught, the Gospel “Having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.”

Verse 22: “Having been freed from sin and enslaved to God.” You know I haven’t been set free to live my own life. I have been set free to live the new life that I have in Christ. That is what Peter is doing as he builds on this. He is concerned that these Jewish believers in difficult situations don’t get off track under difficulties, under trials, under persecutions, under the allurements to go back to the old ways and the old sins, that is really not an option for us as believers.

We will stop there and then we will pick up with Peter and how he develops this next stop. Let’s pray. Lord thank You for the power of the Gospel. We have been reminded of in our time together this evening both through the remembrance of the death of Christ. Lord that death was followed by a glorious resurrection in that supernatural way that only You could bring about when we placed our faith by Your grace in Jesus Christ and His finished work on our behalf. We were miraculously cleansed from the guilt and defilement of sin, the chains of sin that enslaved us. The power of the devil over us was broken. We were set free to live a life of slavery to You, to live as we were created to function. We thank You for such a glorious salvation. Thank You Lord for the privilege we have to be lights in the midst of the darkness in these days. Lord may our focus and our mindset be firm and be clear and may we be bold with the Gospel so those in darkness might be exposed to the light by Your grace and have opportunity hear and believe. Use us to that end in the week before us we pray in Christ’s name, amen.