Speaker: Well, there's no denying that we are a world at war right now.
If you've not been aware, you clearly haven't picked up a phone or turned
on a television or, or talked to another human being recently because
there's a lot going on internationally.
In fact, we have one of our own that's back safely and soundly
and we're thankful for that.
Got caught up in Dubai of all places.
You don't think that that's gonna turn into a war zone
and, and that's just the thing.
War changes things.
Uh, if you think about the people that are in Iran right now, and, and you
think about those that were going about their daily lives and, and now everything
that's happening there, they're, they're probably not as concerned about the things
that they used to be concerned about.
In fact, they're probably also not all that concerned about
the sinful things that they used to be concerned with either.
And part of the reason for that, I would like to believe is that mortality hangs in
the balance when war is in your backyard.
You are very keenly aware of the fact that I, I may not live to see another day.
And when we have that perspective, when we have that mindset, it begins to change the
way that we approach the world around us.
It begins to change the things that we want to do, the things
that we want to engage with in the world around us as Christians.
And we talked about it last week.
We have to have a wartime mentality.
We have to have a wartime mentality because we are
doing battle every single day.
There's spiritual warfare that needs to happen, and that does happen every
single day in the life of a believer, which is why Paul encourages us and tells
us to take up the full armor of God.
But we also have to have a wartime mentality because the reality is for every
single one of us in this room, mortality does hang in the basis every single day.
You may sit here this morning feeling perfectly healthy.
You may have just come off of a physical that gave you a clean bill of health.
And yet the reality is you're an aneurysm away from standing
in the presence of Jesus.
You are a car wreck away from standing in the presence of Jesus.
You're an encounter with an angry Texan, with a weapon in his car away
from standing in the presence of Jesus.
You're a missed cancer diagnosis away from standing in the presence of Jesus.
You're a heart attack away from standing in the presence of Jesus.
You're a tornado away from standing in the presence of Jesus.
All of us need to have that mentality, that mentality that says, this could be my
last day, and that should impact the way that we live as we engage with this world
around us, as those that are not just here as exiles and strangers, but those that
are here at war with the world around us.
It's gonna change the way that we approach it.
It's gonna change the way that we live.
It's gonna change the decisions that we make and the things that we.
Allowing our lives.
And in that process, it's gonna cause us to stand out in this world.
It's gonna cause the world to look at you as strange, to look at you
as weird, to look at you as odd.
And, and at the end of the day, it's okay because as we're gonna find out in our
text, it's better to be thought strange by the world than a stranger by God.
Peter's gonna give this for us in one Peter chapter four,
verses three through six.
It's better to be thought strange by the world than a stranger by God.
We pick up in one Peter, chapter four, verse three, where Peter says
this, for the time that is passed, suffices for doing what the Gentiles
want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies,
drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
He says, the time that has passed suffices That phrase, the time that has passed is
referring to the time before conversion.
The time that you lived as an unbeliever, the time that you lived,
as we were talking about earlier, even our scripture reading, as Paul
describes it in Ephesians chapter five, in Darkness rather than in Light.
And Peter is saying, the time that you lived as an unbeliever,
it's enough, it's sufficient.
It's you don't need more than what you've already spent doing What?
Living for, doing what the Gentiles want to do or living in a way that
the, the Gentiles want to live.
Uh, Peter is referring to Gentiles here, not in the same way that
sometimes Paul refers to Gentiles.
When Paul said, I'm, I'm turning from the Jews to now go to the Gentiles.
Uh, Gentiles can be good, but here it's not meant to be read that way.
In fact, here it's meant to be read more the way that we read it in
Matthew 18, the church discipline passage when Jesus says, let them
be as a tax collector in a gentile.
In other words, treat them as one outside of the community
of, of the body of Christ.
Treat them as an unbeliever.
Peter has that in mind when he says, for doing what the Gentiles want.
To do what they desire, what they lust after, what they crave doing.
You've had enough time, in other words, to live as an unbeliever
now that you are in Christ.
What follows then is a, a list of vices.
It's not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems
to be a list of those particular vices and sins that were plaguing Peter's
church and the, the, the audience that Peter was writing to in his day.
And there's quite a bit of overlap in our culture today as well, at
least if we're honest with ourselves.
But he begins by saying, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies,
drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
To live in these things is the idea of living a life characterized by them.
That's the what the word means.
It's the word that was used for going on a journey, following a path.
So Peter is saying that the time that is passed suffices for you, following
the path of worldliness for you, continuing to live a life that is
characterized and patterned by these types of things for living in them.
And his list begins with this term sensuality.
Sensuality is a term that suggests a, a sinless abandon licentiousness.
Uh, a lot of these terms you will find, suggest an uninhibited excess, and
that's what sensuality is conveying here.
Debauchery, it's used of Sodom and Gomorrah in two Peter two, seven.
The inhabitants of, of Sodom and Gomorrah.
If you know that story from the Old Testament, which was a time of
severe judgment of God upon those two cities, the inhabitants of those
cities were described as those that were characterized by sensuality.
Paul describes lost human humankind, general fallen humanity in Ephesians
four 19, as those that are marked by sensuality, it probably has a connotation
of sexual excess in it as well.
Galatians five 19 pairs it with sexual immorality and impurity There.
So living in, in sensuality, he goes on, he talks about now passions
next and, and the passions is this is Epit Theia in the Greek.
We talked about it a little bit last week.
These are the sinful cravings and desires that we have.
Our lusts, Peter warned us last week to have nothing to do with them.
No longer live for the passions of the flesh.
First Peter four, two.
Back in chapter two, verse 11, Peter talked about the passions of the
flesh waging war against our souls.
And so Peter is saying Here, have nothing to do with this.
The, the, the time that has passed suffices for living in being characterized
by those sinful desires, those sinful lusts that you have in the flesh.
Next he says, for living in drunkenness.
Drunkenness.
It's a compound word in the Greek that has to do with wine and your tongue.
It's gossipy wine.
Is the idea there and you can see it.
Why?
Because what does drunkenness cause someone to do to,
to lose their inhibitions?
To lose their, their sense of, I probably shouldn't say this.
The filter goes away.
And it's that idea of a lack of self-control, specifically
when it comes here to alcohol.
So many of the sins in this list come back to that again.
Uninhibited excess, a lack of self-control.
And so drunkenness is one of those where it's characterized
by staggering and poverty and hallucinations and sorrow and injury.
And even as we're going to see in just a moment here, more sexual perversion.
The writer of Proverbs says in Proverbs 23, 29 through 35, uh,
some of the effects of drunkenness.
He says this, who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has strife?
Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who, Terry Long over wine.
Those who go to try mixed wine.
Do not look at the wine when it is red and when it sparkles in
the cup and goes down smoothly.
In other words, don't, don't look at it when it looks so appealing.
Look at the backside, look at the after effects of it.
He says.
Because in the end, verse 32, it bites like a serpent and stings like an er.
Your eyes will see strange things.
Your heart will utter perverse things.
You'll be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one
who lies on the top of a mast.
They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt.
They beat me, but I didn't feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.
So the writer of Proverbs, chapter 23, there is depicting the drunkard.
And it's not a pretty picture.
It's not anything that we want in our lives.
And Peter's saying this is, is is in your past, the time that has passed
suffices for living in these things.
The next on the list is orgies.
Uh, this is a, a term that that causes us to feel uncomfortable.
I hope at least as a civilized society should cause us to
feel a little uncomfortable.
And yet what he's talking about here, the, the word behind it was referring
to these feasts that they would have to celebrate bachus and esis two of
the, the gods that were characterized by excess in drinking and food.
And so these were parties where people would get together and they would
have gluttony there, they would have drunkenness, and then that would
inevitably lead to sexual perversion.
And so Peter is saying the time that has passed suffices for living this way.
Again, the uninhibited excess, the lack of self-control.
And then he goes on after that, drinking parties.
Some believe that this is a parallel term to orgies, but this was less
about the feast, less about the, the honoring of Bachus and Essis.
Instead, this was just about, Hey, we're gonna get together and socially what
we're gonna get together to do is just drink and we're gonna drink to excess,
to the point that it's going to lead to drunkenness, that it's gonna lead to the
immorality that he's been talking about.
And then finally, he sums it up with lawless idolatry.
The word lawless.
It conveys the idea of disgust, filth.
I says, the time has passed for this alcohol and sexual immorality.
Isn't it such good news that our society has evolved to the point that
that's not a problem anymore for us?
Maybe it's not for you.
Maybe it is.
Maybe Peter has you squared in his sights this morning and
you're going, yeah, that's me.
Peter would say the time that has passed suffices for living that way.
Maybe that's not you this morning and you're going, well, fine.
I'm, I'm good.
I get an ex excused absence from this sermon because I'm not
struggling with any of that stuff.
But can I suggest there's something that you are struggling with?
There's something that pulls at you.
There's something from your, your past, from your flesh that still beckons you.
There's the, the lust.
There's the craving.
There's something in your life that still lurks in the dark shadows that comes out
from time to time and beckons you to come back and indulge whatever it is for you.
Peter's point to his original readers and God's point to
us this morning is the same.
It's this, we need to leave worldliness in our past.
Point.
Number one, leave worldliness in your past
the time that has passed suffices.
This implies that there is an expected change that a company's conversion.
Sometimes you'll hear gospel messages that are all about just
come as you are and stay as you are.
It's no big deal.
As long as you have prayed the prayer, bow the, the head and, and raise the hand, and
you have have asked Jesus into your heart.
And we use this kind of ambiguous language there.
And then there's, there's no requirements of you.
As long as you've done that, go eat, drink and be merry for you will be in heaven.
And I don't know that the Bible guarantees that you can have that confidence.
Listen, let me be clear upfront.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Amen.
Okay, we're on the same page there.
Yes, you do not earn your salvation.
You cannot work for your salvation.
But let me tell you this, salvation works okay.
There is an expected change in transformation in your life if you are
in Christ Peter's saying, the time that is past suffices for who you used to be.
The implication from Peter is you should be something different now.
And this isn't just Peter.
What does Paul say in second Corinthians five?
He says, if anyone is in Christ, they are A what?
A new creation.
The old his passed away.
The new has come.
We read it in Ephesians five.
Don't walk his children of darkness.
Why?
Because you are in the light, the expectation for you and I as Christians.
Is that an encounter with the saving grace of Jesus is going to produce
a transformation in our lives.
We're not going to be who we used to be, nor are we going to be characterized
by what we used to be characterized by.
I listened to an interview this week with Michael Jordan and the
interviewer was asking him, so do you still play basketball?
And he said, you know, I, I don't really play basketball much anymore at all.
He said, in fact, it had been years since I'd picked up a basketball until recently,
he was at a golf tournament and he rented a house and the owner of the house,
because it was Michael Jordan running his house, showed up to, to kind of greet
him and to say, Hey, here's the house.
And he brought his kids along with him because when, uh, when
do you get to meet Michael Jordan?
Right?
The, the greatest basketball player of all time.
And he's going through the house and everything else.
And he, he takes him in where he has a gym and he shows him the
gym and he's like, Michael, will you shoot a free throw for me?
Jordan said this was the most nervous that he had been in years.
Think about that.
Mj, right?
Nervous to shoot a single free throw in somebody's private house, gymnasium
in front of a dad and his kids.
And the interviewer were like, you were nervous.
He said, yeah, I was nervous.
He said, because here's why.
This dad had told his kids all about who I used to be.
He had told him about Dunking from the free throw line.
He had told him about hitting the game-winning shot for the,
the, the bulls over the jazz.
He had told him about all the rings that I've won.
He had told him about who I used to be, and Jordan said,
but I'm not that guy anymore.
And so for, for me, when I'm picking up that ball, I'm not picking up that ball
as that, that guy that was taking out from the free throw line, like it was nothing.
He said I wasn't playing basketball anymore.
Aren't those things characterized who I used to be, but but not who I am now.
And so Jordan said he was super nervous to, to shoot the shot.
I don't know if he made it or not,
but y'all, here's the thing.
We used to be known by those sins in our lives.
We used to be known by the, the passions and the desires that the
world held out to us and said, this is where you're gonna find joy.
We used to be known.
By our dependence on alcohol, our drunkenness, we used
to be known by our lust.
We used to be known by our profanity.
We used to be known by our slothfulness.
We used to be known by our covetousness and our greed and our stinginess.
We used to be known by our anger and our short temper and our wrath.
We used to be known for all those things, but that's not who we are anymore.
It's not who we are anymore.
If you're in Christ and you're a new creation, then there is a
severing that takes place between who you used to be and who you are.
Now.
That's the whole point of the Holy Spirit coming and taking
up resonance in our lives.
Not only does he seal us for the day of redemption, but he begins to make
us more like Jesus while we're here.
He begins to help us put off the old man and and to put on more of the new.
And so whatever that sin is in your heart that still beckons you.
This still pulls you back to who you used to be to leave that behind.
What does that look like?
How do I leave worldliness in my past?
I wanna suggest a few things for us this morning.
Number one, know yourself.
You wanna leave worldliness behind.
Know yourself.
You have an enemy that is studying you, that knows your weakness.
Peter's gonna say in, in chapter five, be alert because your enemy,
the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
Or you remember the story of Cain and Abel where God told,
told, lemme get this right.
I always Ms.
Cain where God told Cain, if you do well then you'll be fine.
But if you don't, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you.
You need to know the doors in your life and what sins are crouching,
desiring to overpower you.
You need to know yourself.
To know yourself is is going to involve asking the questions,
what are my weaknesses?
What are my weak spots?
What are the temptations that I face?
What are the worldly passions that still lurk in the corners of my life?
And asking also, what are the triggers to them does, does being alone trigger one
of your, your worldly passions, your lust?
Driving by that same spot that you used to go to when you would drink or
get get drunk, or get intoxicated or whatever, whatever it was in your life.
Does that trigger something in you being wise about those things?
You have to know yourself because you have an enemy that does know you, and
if you're not knowing yourself, then you're gonna fall prey to his schemes
to tempt you and lead you into sin.
Maybe you're aware of two or three of those things.
You say, well, I know the, the two or three big things in my
life that I'm constantly fighting and that gets most of my energy.
And I would say, good, but don't settle for that.
Be like King David who prayed this in Psalm 1 39, 23 through 24.
King David said, search me oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there'd be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Th That needs to be our, our mentality.
We need to pray with King David, that God would give us such a keen
awareness of ourselves, that there won't be anything in our life that
would be grievous in the sight of God.
Know yourself to that extent.
Know yourself second, know the world.
You need to know the battlefield that you are stepping foot into every single
day, and you need to understand that one of the things that this world is
gonna do is it's gonna take sin and it's gonna make sin less of a big deal.
It's gonna take sin and it's gonna make sin a, a, a thing that is,
is not as, as big of a deal as the Bible would say that it is.
The world's doing that left and right.
Right now there's a growing trend in the psychology world for microdosing.
On psychedelics.
We're talking about LSD, things like that.
Shrooms that are now being given to patients who are dealing
with anxiety and depression.
To accommodate for that.
And the argument is, well, it's such a minor dose.
It's not, I'm not de developing an A.
A dependence.
I'm not hallucinating, I'm not, but there's so much unknown in this besides
the fact that psychedelics are illegal and doctors aren't writing scripts for
them, but we don't know about dependence.
We don't know about how microdosing then becomes medium dosing,
then becomes macro dosing.
There's also other things that are out there that the world is substituting, zen.
Those little pouches that you stick between your, your, your gum line
and your cheek, and people are going, well, it's not, it's not
tobacco, it's not, it doesn't have carcinogens in it, so it's fine.
And yet what they are is they're still just as addictive as the cigarettes are.
The nicotine is still there.
It's still cosing through your veins, just like it does in the cigarettes.
But it's not as, it is not as big of a deal.
Probiotics, there's one that's out there that you can take before
you go out drinking to lessen the effects of alcohol the next morning.
The world has invented a way for you to have your hangover be lessened so that
you can go out and get just as drunk as you want to get without having to fear the
physical consequences the next morning.
How about online chat rooms?
Logging in talking with somebody that's not your spouse and you think, but
it's fine because it's, it's not, it's not in person, it's not a, it's not
an actual relationship, so it's okay.
Emotional affairs
cheating on our taxes.
It's not that big of a deal.
We don't wanna support that government anyways because look at all the
ways that they're spending our money
using AI to cheat, using AI to not have to do the hard work.
So when I say know the world, I'm not asking you to go and indulge in the world.
I'm asking you to be aware of the world's schemes and to be armed against their
ways of substituting darkness for light.
Know the world.
Well, once you know yourself and you know the world, if you're gonna be effective
in those fights against the world and against your weaknesses, you have to
third know the word, know the word.
This is foundational.
If you wanna be armed for whatever the world is gonna bring at you, lob at you.
If you wanna be discerning enough to know the, the way to navigate the
temptations that exist out there, you have to know the word of God.
And you might say, well, but pastor, the, the word doesn't
say anything about microdosing.
Okay.
But it does speak to sober mindedness.
Yes.
It it does speak to the sufficiency of scripture.
Yes, right.
It does speak to addiction.
It does speak to dependence issues.
It does speak to being wise stewards of our body, right?
God's word does address things like that, that help us then make
a wise decision with something like that, that the world is saying.
It's no big deal.
And we can, if we know the word of God, go to the Word of God and say,
actually, I think it might be, oh, the Bible doesn't address online chat rooms.
Okay?
But it does address the heart as the seat of adultery, doesn't it?
The Bible may not speak to ai, but it does address integrity.
It addresses, it addresses having a, a, a strong work ethic.
It addresses the dangers of sloth and laziness and taking shortcuts.
It speaks to the importance of, of not lying and speaking the truth, right?
The word does that.
This is why we want y'all in the Bible every single day.
This is why we encourage the Daily Bible Reading program.
This is why we encourage you to, to jump on the Bible
Reading Podcast train with us.
It it's not just because we want a, a church that's smarter.
We would love to have a church that is, is more biblically lit, literate
than any church in the world.
I, I will unapologetically say I want our church to be more
biblically literate than anyone else.
'cause I want you in your Bible every single day.
But that's not my ultimate goal.
My ultimate goal is that the word of God will have the
intended impact in your life.
That the Spirit would take it and help you apply it to your life so
that you will be more like Jesus.
That's why you need to be in the Word every single day.
You need to know yourself.
You need to know the world.
You need to know the word.
And then finally, you need to practice self-control.
This is the, the, the, the kicker in the end.
This takes all the other three components and then acts on it.
If we're not gonna do that, if we're not gonna discipline ourselves, if
we're not gonna say no to our desires of the temptations of the world in
order to obey Christ, then none of our knowledge matters in the end.
After all, one Corinthians 9 27, Paul said, I discipline my body, I discipline
my body, and I keep it under control.
Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.
Again, the dangers of lack of self-control.
Proverbs 25, 28, Proverbs 25, 28.
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without
walls, defenseless, vulnerable.
This is where you can have as much accountability as you want in your
life, but if you're not willing to deny yourself by practicing self-control,
which is a fruit of the spirit, right?
If you're not willing to deny yourself and practice self-control to say no to
what the world tells you, you should have, no one else can do it for you.
No one else can do it for you.
And what's more is we're about to see the world in which we live is
not gonna make it easy for you.
In fact, the world in which we live, when they see you resistant,
they're gonna do everything they can to work against that resistance.
They're gonna make it feel even harder.
And that's what Peter addresses.
Next look down at verses four and five.
Peter says, with respect to this, now this is the abstention.
This is you not doing everything that the world is, is saying you should do.
This is you saying the time that is passed suffices, and
I'm done with respect to this.
They, the world that is are surprised when you do not join them in the same
flood of debauchery and them malign you.
But they will give an account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead.
All right.
As we we get into this, they are surprised.
What that means is they receive it as strange.
It seems foreign.
It seems weird to them that you don't join with them.
It's a word that means to run with them in the same flood of debauchery.
See, it comes so naturally to the world to to pursue sin, to eat,
drink, and be merry for tomorrow.
We die.
That when they see you saying no, they look at you like you're from outer space.
It's worse than that.
It's not just that they look at you as though you're from outer space.
They're going to actually go for further than that and they're going to malign you.
It's the word in the Greek four blaspheme.
They're going to attack you.
They're gonna slander you.
They're gonna come after your character.
They're gonna belittle you.
They're gonna call you judgmental.
They're gonna say that you think that you're holier than they,
they're going to come after you.
They're gonna cut you outta their lives.
They're gonna say, I don't wanna be around you anymore.
All of that may feel like a lot in the moment, and it can be.
You may lose relationships with your blood family because
of your allegiance to Christ
because they don't understand, because they're surprised when you won't run with
them in the same flood of debauchery.
And so it may cost you immensely to the point that you're
saying, is it really worth it?
And I think that's why Peter goes right away to verse five, where he says,
but he says they're gonna malign you.
So he's acknowledging this is gonna hurt.
This may be painful, this may be difficult for you, but they will
give an account to him who's ready to judge the living in the dead.
That phrase, to judge the living in the dead, that that's everybody.
Everybody that eventually Christ is going to, to bring an end to all of this, and
those that are alive are gonna be judged.
Those that are dead, they're, they're gonna be judged.
He's the judge of all.
And he says that those that are going to malign you for your godliness, your
holiness being done with those things that once characterize you, they're gonna
give an account to him who's to judge the living in the dead to give an account.
It, it's to, uh, to, to provide a, a, a message.
Logos is the word there.
And they're gonna give an account to Jesus in this context.
I believe He's the one that is gonna be there.
A a and, and so for the believer and the unbeliever alike, every single person
on the face of the planet that's ever lived has an appointment with Jesus.
The believer has an appointment with Jesus that as what we know
as the the beam seed of Christ.
That's where the rewards will be assessed.
And so we as Christians will stand before Christ and give an
account for what we've done in the body, whether good or evil, okay?
And that's where our work passes through the fire and, and what is
done for good will come through as precious stones and gems that will re
down to the glory of Christ and those other things that we've done in the
flesh that have been for, for evil.
That's what burns up at that point.
So this is our divine assessment.
That's the beam, a seed of Christ that's for believers.
But then there's another category, there's another judgment, and that's
what happens in Revelation chapter 20.
And this is the great white throne.
And this is where all of the, the remaining dead who have not been raised
to life with the, the church at the return of Christ, the resurrection,
the rapture there, all of the dead that are left, they're going to
appear before the great white throne.
And it says that there are gonna be books that are open.
One of the books that's open is The Book of Life and the Dead are gonna be judged
according to what is written in the books, according to what they have done.
That's the assessment that Peter is referring to here.
They will have to give an account before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
who ultimately they are slandering.
When they slander you, they're gonna have to answer for how
they malign you before Jesus.
And so Peter is saying to the church.
In anticipating that don't give in the world is going to come after you.
They're gonna use your flesh.
They're gonna appeal to your sense of pride by trying to make you
feel dumb, trying to make you feel like you're backwards, like you're
intolerant, like you're, you're just somebody that, that's a Bible thumper.
Like you, you take God's word too seriously.
They're gonna make you feel weird.
And they're gonna call you to compromise on your convictions.
And Peter's saying, don't do it.
Stay the course and remember the outcome of those who give in.
There are consequences for compromise.
And Peter's warning against yielding to those.
So our second point this morning is this, fear consequences more than sacrifices.
Fear, consequences, more than sacrifices for every single
person that follows Christ.
Sacrifice will be involved.
You are gonna have to sacrifice some of the things the world wants to do.
Listen, let's just be honest with each other this morning.
Sin is fun.
It's, it's appealing.
It does offer some sort of pleasure.
That's why people sin.
So as a believer, you are going to have to sacrifice some earthly enjoyment
here that is going to cost you, but that sacrifice is far more worth it than the
consequence that comes if you give into the world and find yourself outside.
Of eternity with Christ.
And this is where I would encourage and, and I wanna speak to you this
morning to say that the Bible is clear, that it is good and right
for you to examine yourself to see whether or not you are truly in Christ.
Paul Washer was at the Shepherd's Conference this last week, and he
recounted his last interaction with John MacArthur, where he went to Dr.
MacArthur in his last interaction with him and pressed Dr.
MacArthur on whether or not he truly felt like he was.
Really in Christ and washers gotten blowback from that.
How could you ever question MacArthur's salvation?
And I think rightly people are, are coming out and saying, I hope I have friends
that are doing that for me on my deathbed.
Christian, it's good for you to check to see whether or not you're truly in
Christ because self-deception happens and, and self-deception can be marked
by the fact that you really don't feel the tension with the world around you.
You're gonna profess to be a believer because you've grown up in the church.
You're gonna be pro profess to be a believer because mom and dad brought you
to church when you were a baby and got you baptized in this church or that church.
You're gonna profess to be a believer because you're, you're a better person
morally than your neighbor is, but you're not gonna profess to be a
believer because you've surrendered your life in full dependence on the
lordship and salvation offered by Jesus Christ through faith and repentance.
You're not there.
And if you're not there, when you die and you stand before the Lord and
you expect entrance to heaven, what you're gonna hear is depart from me.
I never knew you.
And you're appealing to being a better person than this person you're appealing
to, to, well, I went to church.
You're appealing to I, I I was baptized as a baby.
It's not gonna get you anywhere before the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords 'cause It's not about whether or not you profess to know him.
It's about whether he knows you.
And the only way that he knows you is through you surrendering your
life to him in faith and repentance.
And when you do that, as I've been saying, as Peter's been laying
out for us in the text, there's a transformation that takes place.
And so if you are not sacrificing on this earth, the things that the world
would hold out to you as pleasurable and desirable, if you're just giving
yourself over to those things, then can I just warn you this morning
to do some work to examine whether or not you're truly in Christ?
Because if you are, there should be sacrifices here.
But those sacrifices are far more worth it than the consequences of ending
up standing there saying, Lord, Lord, it's me to hear him say depart from me.
I never knew you.
I read a story this week of a woman who was on a ski lift and she
thought it would be funny to prank her friends to lower herself down
and, and hang from the ski lift.
I don't know what she, she was thinking because she thought she
would be able to pull herself back up.
Well, it turns out that she couldn't.
She got down there and she's hanging from the ski lift and the skis were too heavy
for herself to, to be pulled back up.
So now she's 65 feet above the air on this chairlift that's
going up the side of a mountain.
And as she's going up the side of the mountain, 65 feet in the air, her
grip is, is struggling to hold on.
So her friends.
Thankfully she had friends on the chairlift with her, are holding onto
her arms as she's dangling there, and her arms are screaming at her right
now because her full body weight plus the skis are just being suspended
there, held there by her friends.
So great was the pain of her trying to hold on and be held by her friends
that at one point she just started begging her friends to just let her
drop, let me go, let me go, let me go.
And thankfully her friends didn't.
Because what she lacked was the foresight to know what was temporary relief,
what would be pleasurable for the moment, and being let go from having
her arms taxed so much by the weight of her body was gonna result in a far
greater pain when she hit the ground and ended up with at minimum broken
bones, if not loss of life or paralysis.
She was in that moment, so focused on the, the, the pain of the arms that
she was willing to sacrifice her body and her health, and even potentially
her life just to get the brief moment of peace that she fell through the air
because her arms didn't hurt her anymore.
Christian, it is sometimes hard for us to resist the temptations of the world.
It's painful, it's exhausting.
And we want to just, our, our flesh is screaming at us and we want
to be able to say, okay, fine.
I'll give in just to get the momentary relief, the momentary pleasure, the
momentary peace from this tension I feel of having to resist this.
And it's such a shortsighted decision because we are sacrificing
so much for that moment.
If you're in Christ, you, you, you're sacrificing reward.
You're sacrificing intimacy with the Lord.
You're sacrificing closeness.
You're sacrificing closeness to the relationships on earth that you have here.
You're sacrificing confidence.
You're sacrificing all of these things for that brief time of
giving into your sinful impulses.
If you're self-deceived and you've just got a pattern of sacrificing over and
over and over again in your life, giving in what you're giving up is you're giving
it up an eternity in the presence of the Lord where there's fullness of joy.
For an eternity under the full wrath of God and the fires of hell.
I guarantee you, there's not gonna be anything this world offers you
in that moment that you're gonna say it was worth it, and so please
examine your heart right now.
I had somebody in college tell me, PJ don't sacrifice eternity
on the altar of the immediate.
It's, it's like if you go fishing, you take the the lure and you
cast it out into the water.
And that large mouth bass sees the lure, hit the water, and it looks appealing.
It looks shiny, it looks multicolored, and it, the way it moves through
the water, it's like, man, this is gonna be a delicious meal.
And that bass comes out, strikes that lure.
And what happens?
The hook that the lure conceals sets in the bass and that bass is done.
That's sin.
It looks good.
It looks appealing.
You want it, but you have to remember what you know to be true,
that it's concealing the hook.
Resist it.
Radio Hord said this in his book on Heaven.
He said, for Christians this present life is the closest they will come to hell.
For Christians, this present life, the pain that you have to go through as
you sacrifice some of the pleasures in this world, the pain that you have
to go through in this world through suffering, through persecution,
through them, be maligning you.
Everything else, that's as close to hell as you will ever get.
But then he says, the inverse is true as well for unbelievers.
This is the closest they will come to heaven.
The pleasures that they indulge in on this side of eternity is the
closest they will ever get to heaven.
And that's why they don't get it.
When you don't join them.
When you don't run after the same things with them.
When you don't come with you, they think it's weird.
They're like, you are bizarre.
Why aren't you doing this?
What's wrong with you?
But not only that, it draws their eye because I think two things
are happening at the same time.
Number one, they look at you and they think about you and they
think, man, you think you've got something better than what I have.
And the answer is yes.
And then the second thing is they look at you and they realize that
the life that you are living in your godliness is, is causing them to feel
shame that they don't like to feel.
And that's the conscience.
That's what Paul talks about in Romans two, that they show that the work of
the law is written on their hearts.
And so rather than responding to say, how do I get what you have so often
they're gonna come after you, they're gonna malign you, they're gonna
slander you, they're gonna attack you.
But if you do it charitably, they may come to you and say,
how do I have what you have?
I want to know.
So don't yield church.
Don't give in, and lemme just encourage you too.
This is not just saying that that life as a Christian on earth is miserable.
It's not the joy, the peace, the confidence, the contentment that
comes with a clean conscience that you can have as a believer, as
a follower of Jesus is so sweet.
It's so sweet and it's so much better than the shame.
The guilt that you carry when you give into temptation.
So church one, you're tempted identify the lie that reveal,
that conceals the enemy's hook.
When, when you're tempted to, to not consider the consequences to, to think
that the sacrifice is too much for you.
Consider the lie that conceals the enemy's hook.
Counter it with the truth of God's word, what you know to be true.
Rehearse the promises of God that await for rejecting the world to choose him.
And remember the consequences that await for rejecting him to choose the world,
the enemy, the world.
They're gonna do everything they can to get you to take your mind off
eternity and get it on the here and now.
But remembering the consequences is gonna help you be willing
to make the sacrifices.
It's not just the negative side of eternity though that Peter uses here.
It's also the positive side that keeps us going.
Look down again.
Verse six.
He says, for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead.
This is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead.
Alright, who are the dead ones that Peter's talking about here?
Well, I think there's three options for us.
Option number one that he's talking about spiritually dead.
Spiritually dead.
This is what Paul does.
In Ephesians chapter two, he says, for you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
So Peter's saying, this is why the gospels preached to the spiritual, uh, those
that are spiritually dead to sinners, so that there would be hope that though they
are judged in the flesh away, men are.
We'll talk about that in just a second.
They can live eternally with God.
Okay.
The problem is that's reading Pauline Theology into Peter.
Initially when I came to this passage, I was like, yeah, I think that makes sense.
This is, is spiritually dead.
But that's reading Paul back into Peter.
Peter doesn't use the term dead to refer to those that are spiritually dead.
He, when he uses the term dead, he's, he's referring to those that are actually dead.
Physically dead.
So it's probably not the spiritually dead there.
So the second option would be that these, these are the Old Testament
saints or these are, are people who died without hearing the gospel.
Some people have suggested that too, that Christ is going back
to preach the gospel to the dead.
Those that are already dead.
Couple of problems with dad.
Number one, uh, this word to preach the, the gospel here from Yuan Gozo,
which is to, to proclaim the good news, the gospel, uh, when it's used
in the epistles, is only used of human beings preaching the gospel.
It's not used of Jesus preaching the gospel.
And, and so this would be, uh, an, an albatross for Peter to be using in, in
a way to refer to Christ, going back to preach the gospel to those that are dead.
Second.
The idea of preaching the gospel to those that never got a chance to hear it.
We don't find that concept anywhere else in the scripture,
and we don't find it here even.
We're implying that we're reading into it, and so we're putting something
on the text that's not, that's not there, that's not in the text.
Third, when we talked about earlier, Christ declaring to the spirits in prison.
Some wanna make the connection here between those two passages.
That was not the, the word zo or the verb form of it.
That was the word for proclaim and proclaiming victory.
And we talked about that in that passage.
The spirits in prison there.
So rather this seems to be something else.
Well, what's the third option?
The third option, and I think this is the, the option that is, is preferable
here, is that this is the dead are those believers who have died.
And here's what I think Peter's doing.
So Peter's talking to a group that's saying, we're not gonna
live like we used to live.
We're gonna live differently.
The world is gonna hate them for that and malign them for that.
I think Peter's anticipating an objection from the world, and it's this, the world
is gonna look at the Christian and the unbeliever, and they're gonna say the
same thing that King Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes, that that death is
batting a thousand for both of them.
So the world is gonna look at the Christian and the non-Christian
alike and be like, why would I choose to live my life?
Sacrificing all of the pleasures that, that I have in my life right now.
When in the end you die and I die.
What's the point?
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow.
We all die.
In fact, you can even see the unbeliever who has lived a longer life than the
believer going, look at that believer.
That believer died and their their twenties.
And I'm here in my forties and, and I'm doing much better than they are.
And so look at how much I'm enjoying my life.
They had to give up so much.
Was it really worth it?
I think that's why Peter says this is why the gospel was preached to
those who are dead, though judged in the flesh the way men are.
Here's the thing, y'all.
The gospel doesn't free you from physical death.
We are all going to die unless we fly, depending on what happens, right?
Jesus comes back first, then we'll fly.
We won't die.
But if he doesn't, we're all gonna die.
That here's a cheery message for you this morning.
Everybody's gonna die.
It is the brick wall into which every human being runs at some point in their
life, and there's not a philosophy.
There's not a religion out there.
Save Christianity that can overcome the brick wall.
You will run splat into the brick wall of death and be done.
Your body will be finished, you'll be put six feet under.
The question is what happens after that?
That's where the gospel matters.
This is why the gospel was preached to those who are dead.
That though judged in the flesh the way that men are.
In other words, they're gonna die.
Everybody dies.
Peter's conceding that point.
They will live in the spirit the way that God does.
See Christian, what sustains our hope, what continues to
further our hope in this life?
As we sacrifice, as we continually say, I'm not who I used to be.
I'm now this person in Christ.
As we give up, as we suffer from the world, as we are maligned, as we are
cursed, what sustains our hope is not that things are gonna get better here.
They may never get better here, but that they will be better
there when we're with him.
Our final point this morning towards that end is this, allow
the gospel to sustain your hope.
Allow the gospel to sustain your hope.
Peter's saying, this is why the gospel was preached to those who are
dead, because their hope was not in the here and now like it is for all
the people that are running after all the debauchery of the world.
That's why.
That's why they go after the alcohol.
That's why they go after the sex.
That's why they go after the drugs.
That's why they go after the, the wealth because they're trying to
dole their senses into not having to think about the fact that someday
the timer's gonna run out for them.
And then what?
And maybe that's you here in the the room this morning.
Maybe you've been living your life just trying to keep your mind off the fact
that one day your heart will stop pumping.
Well, guess what?
Your heart is going to stop pumping and none of the money that
you have in your bank account.
None of the, the, the res, you don't take a resume to heaven with you.
Nobody's gotten into heaven based on the zip code that they live in, the car
they drive, how pretty their spouse was.
None of it's gonna matter for you when you get there.
And you'll have a sobering reality that you wasted your life trying to avoid
the stark reality that you cannot avoid anymore as you stand before a holy God.
And he says, why should I let you into my heaven?
All you can say is, I wasn't as bad as that person over there.
Listen, if that's you this morning, come to faith in Jesus Christ this morning.
Repent from your sins.
Give up trying to avoid the reality that you're going to die.
You're going to die.
Give up trying to avoid it.
Give up.
Trying to take your mind off things.
Give up.
Trying to not have to, to deal with the reality that you are a temporal being.
And come to faith in the one who has provided the solution for you.
Repent from your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ that he
died on the cross for your sins.
So that your sins can be forgiven.
He paid the penalty that you could not pay, and that he rose from
the dead three days later so that you will live with him forever.
Trust in the one that took your sin and gave you his righteousness.
That's the only way that you will have an answer sufficient when you
die and stand before a holy God who says, why should I let you into heaven?
All you can do at that point is point to him and say, because
he died for me and Rose again.
If you haven't done that, do that this morning.
Do that this morning.
Leave off the world that you've been living for and whatever you've done
to this point, you are not beyond the saving reach of the grace of God.
If you're here this morning thinking, okay, but I can't because I've done
all of these things, the Lord Jesus Christ died to a tone for those things.
He died to pay for those things.
Come to him in faith this morning.
No more excuses this morning.
Lay them down and surrender your life to Jesus in faith
and repentance this morning.
If you've done that,
the writer of Hebrews warns us against drifting from our hope and his solution
is this, in Hebrews 12, one through two, he says, therefore, since we
are surrounded by so greater a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us looking to Jesus.
If you're in Christ this morning, keep your eyes on Jesus.
Keep looking to Jesus.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
That hymn was written by a woman who shortly after she got married, was struck
with an illness that caused her to go blind, and her husband didn't want to
care for a blind wife, so he left her.
In that moment of despair, in that moment of wondering what in the world
was going on in the trial and the doubts and the questions, she came across
these words from a missionary to Algeria who said this, how do we bring things
to a focus in the world of optics?
Not by looking at the things to be dropped, but by looking at the one
point that is to be brought out.
Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus and look.
Look at him and a strange dimness will come over.
All that is apart from him.
That's the chorus of that him.
The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
If you're in Christ this morning, death is gonna come for you.
Just like it's gonna come from Me too.
If you're in Christ this morning, that death is not the end, but
simply a doorway into true life.
If you'll keep your eyes fixed there, you will be able to stay the course.
I promise you to help with that.
Lemme suggest a few things.
Read Gospely books.
Read sing gospely songs, memorize gospely passages, and surround
yourself with gospely people.
I know gospely is not a word if you're going, he doesn't know how to spell.
Sometimes I do have spelling errors on my, this one's on purpose, man.
Find those things that make you think about Jesus.
Find the people that make you think about ge.
Get into a community group here and be in relationships with people that
are gonna make you love Jesus more.
Find that church 'cause you need it.
That's why Paul wrote in one Corinthians chapter 15 verse
one, I remind you of the gospel.
I remind you of the gospel.
Allow the gospel to sustain your hope.
Y'all different isn't always a bad thing when you live different
from what the world expects.
That's not a bad thing at all.
In fact, it's another sign that you belong to Jesus.
Following Jesus is gonna cause you to look weird, and that's okay because
it's better to be thought strange by the world than a stranger by God.
Let's pray.
Father, it's overwhelming that you made a way for us to have
peace with you and not just peace with you.
That you made a way for us not to be strangers to you, but friends
with you, that you made a way for us, not just to be friends with you,
but to be sons and daughters of you.
What a glorious reality that is.
It's one that we take for granted.
It's one that we maybe initially are overwhelmed by as we come to faith,
but then it, it quickly becomes the background noise to our lives
of thinking, well, of course I'm a Christian because Jesus died for me.
When may we never lose sight of the significance of that?
May we always hold fast to that hope.
May we always live ready to be in your presence knowing that we are, but a,
a a, a hair trigger away from standing before our savior, God, we wanna live.
Weird in the world's eyes and be okay with that because it's not strange
to you because we are your sons and your daughters if we are in Christ.
But I pray this morning for anyone who may be here who has not
made the decision to trust you.
I pray this morning that you would impress upon them the urgency of
the need to do business with you, that they wouldn't delay that today
would be the day of salvation.
That they would receive your free offer of salvation through faith
and repentance in Jesus Christ.
Lord, may you do that today.
May you add more to your kingdom today.
We love you.
Father.
We're so thankful for this morning.
We pray this all in Jesus' name.