Condemned and Crowned

to learn. We're going to open up our lives to love. Um we we love the word of God because uh what we've just done so far is we've prayed to God. We've communicated to him. We've sung songs of praise to him. We've blessed him.

We've praised him. We've honored him. But at the same time, we want to learn from him. We want to hear what he has to say. And the way we do that is I don't get up here and just give a TED talk about any type of ideas or opinions that I think are good. What I do is I get up here and I open up the word of God and we go through it verse by verse so that we can expound upon what it is that God is teaching us, what it is that God wants us to know about himself and about his plans and his purposes for each of our lives.

And he also lets us in on the different types of things that we're going to experience as we walk through this life. And it's not all bells and whistles. It's not all uh um um all pleasurable and all fun things at all times. Uh and so it's very good for us to be aware of what to expect when we walk through life, especially when we walk through life following Christ. Following Christ. And that's one of the big things that Peter's been talking and walking us through as we've been going through First Peter, um the book of First Peter.

And we're about 60% of the way through. All right. So, we've we've closed out chapter 3. We're moving into chapter 4 this morning, and we're going to be looking at verses 1-6. And I titled this condemned by culture crowned by Christ. Um, and you're going to be like, man, is this another sermon on suffering?

Yes, it is. It is another sermon on suffering. uh because that is again it's just one of the major themes that Peter is uh teaching the sojouring exiles um that are God's elect that are um dispersed throughout the the the different uh region of Asia and Pontius and and and so forth and uh really Roman Empire and he's wanting them to not be surprised when they experience suffering for following Jesus. And so it's very important. And it's not because he's trying to just tell them, he's not actually trying to discourage them that they're going to experience suffering. He's actually trying to encourage them that they're going to experience suffering.

And so I hope that the same thing happens for us is that we would be encouraged again by just the message, but also encouraged when we actually experience some of the same things by following Jesus in life. And so the big idea I want you to take away from this is that even though culture may condemn you, Christ will crown you. Even though culture may condemn you, Christ will crown you. And so Peter's going to continue this teaching on suffering today and how Christians ought to view it in light of God's will for their lives. God's will for their lives. Because again, God's heart in all honesty, God's heart is not for you to experience pain and suffering.

That's not his heart's not for you to experience pain and suffering, but rather pleasures forever more. We actually talked about that a little bit last week. So then, why are we faced with the experience of suffering in this world, especially as Christians? That's the question we aim to answer today because it's not simply enough. It's not enough to simply say Christ suffered therefore Christians will suffer. I actually think that's incomplete.

That's an incomplete statement. That that's not enough to say that. I believe Peter's desire for the church is to again be encouraged rather than discouraged. And so how suffering is taught matters. It matters so that it doesn't lead you into despair. It's better to ask why did Christ suffer?

Why did Christ suffer? And if we are followers of Christ, does it make sense that we too might experience something similar? And if so, what does God do about it? What does God do about it? And these are good questions to ponder. So, I'm glad you're asking them.

Let's see what God's word teaches us about it this morning. Let's start in verse one, chapter 4. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, and anytime you see a therefore, it's therefore a reason and it's connecting a continuing thought. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. 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.

So yes, those things existed 2,000 years ago. That's not just modern day us thinking, man, our world, as my dad used to say, has gone to hell in a hand basket. There's no new sin under the sun. With respect to this, that is that list of sin that the Gentiles are engaging in. With respect to this, they, the Gentiles, they're surprised when you, the Christians, do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. and they malign you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead. That though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. Father, as we unpack these verses this morning, you have an intended meaning for us to understand. This is your story. This is your truth and it is your spirit that guides us in understanding it so that it transforms us to become more like Jesus. even as it says, arm ourselves with the same way of thinking for us to have the mind of Christ.

And so, Father, right now, I I know that as we come into this room, there's so many things that are vying for our mind. There's so many things that are in competition for our attention. Every single day we hold a device in our hands that is demanding of us to think a certain way. And I just pray that when we open up verses like this and read them and study them and meditate on them, may our minds be captured and captivated by the mind of Christ. And may we become more like him in our thinking. So that as we experience life every single day and even in that suffering that might come because of following you, may we be prepared.

May we be equipped to be able to handle the suffering and not just lament it but actually praise you for it because we're experiencing and sharing in the same sufferings of Christ. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. First thing I want you to see out of this really I got two points. The second point's going to have a lot of stuff in it, but the first point that I want you to see is that he calls us to prepare our minds for perseverance. I believe that's one of the aims Peter's doing here.

He's saying, "Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking." Prepare your mind to persevere whatever may come your way because of following Jesus. Because of following Jesus. But he starts it off since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. We all know that Christ suffered a brutal and public death by crucifixion. We all know that even extra biblical, historical, and archaeological sources agree that Jesus suffered an agonizing and torturous trial and death.

That's a fact. All right? So, there is no there is no more at this point in our day and age where we're like, "Ah, I don't even think the guy existed." No, that that's just complete ignorance. We know that he is true, that he actually lived, that he went on trial before Pontius Pilate, and that he suffered a crucifixion, which was the worst possible death that you could suffer in that day. And so my question is not whether or not that happened.

My question is, what was the mind of Christ during it? What was the mind of Christ in his suffering? What was God also doing in Christ's suffering behind the scenes? Because I think we need to understand that so that when we experience suffering, we're not left wondering, why are bad things happening to me? But we're actually maybe even getting a little excited that Christ would allow us to go through something that he himself shared in. So, let's do a bit of theology this morning.

Christ did not suffer merely because people did not like him or what he had to say. All right? He did not suffer just because people didn't like what he had to say. That's part of it. Certainly, that's part of it. They didn't like that he called himself the son of God.

They did not like that he claimed to forgive people's sins on the spot. They did not like that he refused to submit to their extra biblical traditions. So in other ways they had a way of living that they felt and when I say they I'm just referring to first century Jewish people religious leaders society and culture as well whatever was the majority at the time did not like what Jesus had to say and they did not like that he did not fit the mold of everything that they expected everything that they wanted. So, sure, that's part of it. I think that's maybe some of the things that got the ball rolling, but Christ ultimately suffered because of what 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us. For our sake, he made him, that's he being God, made him, that's Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin.

So in him becoming sin, he's going to suffer because of that. And the suffering is not just coming from the people. They are actually just the means by which Christ is or God is using their evil and ill intent towards Christ. God uses it to exact his judgment and justice on sin. In other words, he is beginning to pour his wrath out on Christ. On Christ.

There is no greater suffering than that alone. There is no greater suffering than that alone. Christ's suffering was the payment for our sins. As we saw last week, the righteous suffered for the unrighteous. And so in God's infinite wisdom, he used the world's rejection of Christ as the very means by which he accomplishes his redemption. What Satan intended for evil, God intended for the salvation of his people.

I mean, God's playing a cosmic chess match with Satan and evil and sin. And as they believe that they are winning, they're actually realizing or not are coming to the realization that it's their own suicide. It's their own suicide. But the point is that Christ who was perfectly righteous was hated and mistreated by those who were unrighteous, evil, and had nothing but ill intent towards him. John 1:9 through13 puts it this way, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. So that's just talking about the incarnation of Christ.

Him leaving the second person of the Trinity and entering into our humanity and he's coming in and becoming a man, becoming one of us. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. The world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

In other words, he was rejected and despised as Isaiah 53 says, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, which I love that because that's where Peter begins, as I even read in the opening um call to worship. Peter begins his letter by reminding believers that God caused them to be born again. God caused them to be born again. And so this is always this is actually more from a an apologetic standpoint. If you ever get in a conversation with someone and they're like, I it's it's the will of man that like it's my free will. It's my ability to choose which is what allows me to be able to come to God.

You always got to come back to verses like this. All who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, meaning it doesn't matter who your daddy is, nor of the will of the flesh, which means it doesn't matter what your passions are, your desires are, nor of the will of man. It doesn't matter what you think is going to be your greatest plan in life, but of God. Which means when we sing songs, there should never be a song that we sing that highlights or celebrates the fact that we chose God. There should never be one. There should never be a song that boasts in us coming to God, but rather that God came to us and intervened into our mess and began the work and process of redeeming sinners who are separated from him.

And the way in which he did it is by himself coming and not only becoming 100% man, but then becoming 100% sin and suffering for it in order for us to not suffer and instead receive pleasures forever more. The great exchange. No greater news in all the world than that. No greater news. Even if I even as I said this morning, if someone were to ask me, "Hey, would you have liked to have worked for SpaceX for the last 10 years?" Well, yeah, that'd be great.

Or would you rather have someone come and pay the penalty that you owe God because of your sin and imperfection and then receive an inheritance because of his work that he accomplished in which he grants you righteousness and perfection that allows you to be brought to God as we looked at last week so that you get to now be in relationship with him for all eternity. I'll take that deal every single day. Every single day. I'll take that deal. It would be foolish not to. So, the world's rejection of Christ that led to his suffering and death was ultimately the way in which Jesus laid down his life as the perfect spotless lamb to be sacrificed for our sins once and for all to bear the penalty and the wrath of God simultaneously.

That's what was happening. That's what Christ was experiencing in his suffering. So, his suffering was not merely tolerated inconvenience. It's not like he moved into the neighborhood and it was a bad neighborhood and he's just getting his house broken into all the time and he's like, "This is just dumb. It wasn't tolerated inconvenience." What Christ was doing in experiencing his suffering was willfully and joyfully enduring it because he knew what it was accomplishing.

He knew what it was accomplishing. He humbled himself. He obeyed the father. He suffered death. And he was afterward exalted to the right hand of God. But not only is he basically going back to where he was, but now he's created a way to bring a whole new community of people to join him there.

To join him there. And so with that in mind and the glory that that brings to God because there's no greater story in all of human history. I mean, this is the reason why movies are the way they are in that they have redemptive stories is because it's an imagebearer situation. They realize that there is no greater story than a helpless people in need of a savior that comes and intervenes into their context and then helps and secures and saves them from whatever the evil is. It's every superhero movie that exists. They didn't just come up with that in backwoods Hollywood.

It's written on our image bearsers of God. This is God's will for the world that he sends a savior, Christ. The interesting thing is that again most of those there are these and again Christ was perfect. Christ was holy. Christ is the superhero of all superheroes. But in those movies, usually it's just the superhero who who exerts all of his dominance and destroys the evil in regards to that.

But what Christ does is he actually doesn't do that. He does the opposite. He comes in and he empties himself and he humbles himself and he takes the form of a bondervant. Basically, he gets into a war and a battle with them and lets them kill him because he knows God uses that as a judgment on him becoming sin. Him becoming sin. So Christ's suffering was not merely tolerated inconvenience.

It was joyful, willing, and purposeful endurance because he knew why he was suffering and he knew what he would receive in the end. In Philippians 2:5 tells us, "Have that mindset among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." And because our leader did this, Peter says, "We too should arm ourselves with the same way of thinking." Peter uses military language here. This is language of a commander preparing soldiers for battle. Arm yourselves.

It's going to get hard. It's going to get difficult. There are going to be people who don't like what you are doing and they don't like what you are saying and they're going to malign you for it. And so what Peter is telling them is you have to resolve, you have to settle in your mind beforehand that there's no other way in which we are going to live. We are going to prepare ourselves for this perseverance by having the mind of Christ once and for all. Once and for all.

So there's never going to be a moment in the battle where we say, "Retreat, retreat. Let's go back and maybe re restrategize. Let's reconvene. Let's re plan. Let's let's maybe try to flank it this way." No, no, no.

He's saying have the same mind that Christ had that if you experience suffering for your faith, don't alter the course. Stay the course. Receive it. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now, Peter is not teaching sinless perfection here, but he is teaching that true conversion involves a decisive break with sin's dominion. Because here's the reality is that if we're following Christ and we're and therefore what I mean by that, both as we've been talking about for three chapters, our speech and our conduct are transformed to follow God's design for our lives, not the world's way.

Which is why he's basically saying to them, uh, as they become surprised because you're no longer engaging in sin, well, they're going to start bothering you because of that. They're going to start maligning you. They're going to start ridiculing you. They're going to start rejecting you from society. The reason why he's telling us to arm ourselves and to also um suffer it in the flesh that is ceased from sin is because the temptation for us is going to be well I don't like suffering. I don't want to receive suffering.

So the only alternative then is to go back and engage in the same sin. There is no middle ground here. And so what he's telling them is what's more worthy, what's more worthwhile, going back to doing things the world's way or staying the course and living God's way? What's the greater inheritance in the end? And what he's trying to help them understand here is that once and for all when you became a Christian, you're dead to the old way of doing things and you now live in the new way of doing things. You're now walking in the newness of life.

And so once and for all, you have a decisive break with sin. That's no longer an option for us. our only option when we are faced with suffering and are tempted to do something differently so that the suffering ceases. He says not an option for those who are Christians who follow Jesus. You have new allegiance. You have a new Lord.

You have a new master. You're not in bondage to sin anymore. That's not your God. Christ is king. Christ is your God. And he is the one in which we have allegiance to.

And if he tells us, you don't do those things anymore, then we listen and we obey. We listen and we obey. Obedience is not legalism. It's worship. It's worship. And what he's trying to help them understand is that even if you're suffering in it, you're going to be the happiest people on earth.

You're going to be the most joyful people on earth. because your circumstances, none of those things actually matter. None of those things matter. When you finally realize that what Jesus offers is better than what the world offers, the resolve of your life becomes verse two. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God because you've weighed them out. I think one of the reasons why right now Gen Z, especially Gen Z men are coming to Christ and are going to church and are buying Bibles is because they lived the life of the human passions and at the end of the day they were like, I don't like the fruit.

I don't like the fruit that comes from it. I'm not happy. I'm not fulfilled. I don't feel good about any of it. There's no joy. There's no future.

And so they want something different. They want something that's that's anchored that's grounded and they want truth. They're tired of being lied to. They're tired of being promised something that's going to be fulfilling and enjoyable and pleasurable and then afterwards they just feel awful and they're realizing that living for the will of God versus human passions that's fulfilling that's joyful. That's the good stuff. That's the good portion.

There becomes for the Christian an entirely different purpose for living. It's not because passions cease, but rather they get redeemed and then redirected. They get redeemed and then redirected. No longer do we love what God calls sin, but we love Jesus and what God calls holy. That's where that that's the shift in allegiance. It's not that we stop loving.

It's not that we stop having fun. It's not that we stop enjoying relationships and one another. It's just that we shift it into a way of doing those things in God's design that is holy and not perverted and not out of character and design of the heart of God. Think about the story of Peter and Jesus on the beach. Peter sinned on the night Jesus was crucified by denying Christ three times. And the reason why he did that was because when suffering came his way, I mean, think about it.

That was one of the first times that in following Christ, Peter, the suffering turned towards him. Because up until that moment, he's just trying to protect the suffering heading towards Jesus. That's why he chopped a guy's ear off. But now all of a sudden it's aimed towards him. And he had an option, human passions or will of God. And in that moment, three times he chose human passions.

He feared man. He tried to preserve his own life. And he didn't want to experience the suffering that he was visibly seeing happen to Jesus. And then after Jesus's resurrection, he goes and he finds Peter. Peter quit. Peter went back to fishing.

He goes and he draws Peter in and he cooks some lunch and he sits down with him. And listen to what Jesus says. He doesn't say, "Do you hate the sin that you committed?" So it wasn't behavioral modification. He asked him, "Do you love me? Do you love me?

Because Jesus understands that no one's going to follow him just because they don't like things that didn't work out. They'll follow him because they see who he is and they love him more than they love those things. Do you love me? Do you love Jesus more than you love sin? Because if Jesus is not your greatest treasure and pleasure, then you stand no chance when suffering comes your way. You'll stand no chance when suffering comes your way.

Jesus has to be your greatest treasure and your greatest pleasure so that when suffering does come, you can say, "Go ahead. Go ahead. If you even want to kill me, thank you. You're introducing me to eternity so much earlier. For to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Second thing I want you to see here is that the worthy way is the worthwhile way.

The worthy way is the worthwhile way. Peter juxtaposes two ways of living here. And I think he's just doing this to highlight a couple of things. One, the the way that the world lives and thinks that this is fun and enjoyable and pleasurable, but also juxtaposes it with the way God is calling us to endure things, but also what comes out of us when we endure those things. So, if look at it this way, I'm going to draw you over to 2 Corinthians 6 3-10 to show you God's way. God's way teaches us that we are to be willing to endure what Paul explains here.

He starts off in verse three, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. He's basically just saying we're we're we're we're trying to live our ways above reproach. We're trying to live an honorable way. We're trying to keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles. As Peter explained to us a couple of chapters ago, Paul's saying that's the way we want to live among the people. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.

So he's basically saying this is how we present ourselves. This is with our speech, with our life, with our conduct, with our behavior, everything. Because we've been captured by Christ. We've been captivated by him. We've been controlled and compelled that he is the way to live, not this other way. And this is what they experience because of it.

He says by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. So they didn't have the best experience in life, would we say? I mean, no one's looking at them and saying like asking them to be influencers on Instagram so that their lives can become like theirs. No one would want to follow this. Verse six, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. So, they're experiencing those things because of Christ, but it's also producing something in them.

purity and knowledge and patience and kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love by truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left through honor and dishonor through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying. And behold, we live as punished and yet not killed. As sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. What Paul's doing in there is he's juxtaposing the difference between when you follow Christ and he is your allegiance and the culture around you wants nothing to do with him, it might strip you of everything that would be considered pleasurable in the world. But in all of that, you're also simultaneously experiencing and receiving the greatest pleasure that there is to have, Jesus alone.

Jesus alone. And so it dumbfounds the world because it looks like you should be the most miserable miserable person that exists. But yet it looks like I'm dying but I'm alive. It looks like I'm being punished and yet not killed. It looks like I'm sorrowful yet I'm rejoicing in it. Paul's point is that the Christian life is often marked by endurance, affliction, hardship, slander, and suffering.

Yet, it's also marked by purity, truth, love, the power of God. The Christian may appear poor, yet possesses everything. Possesses everything. May appear sorrowful yet rejoicing. May appear dying, yet behold, he lives. That's God's way.

That's God's way. And that when you look at it, I mean, if you were to make a movie about it, I don't think there would be any critic that would not look at that and say, "That's honorable. That's actually pretty worthy." Now, juxtapose that with the world's way as Peter describes it in verse three. For the time has passed that suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

If you put Paul's list and then their list next to each other, which one's worthy? Which one's worthwhile? And Peter's response is looking at the gentile list of things, looking at the sinner's list, Peter's response is simple, enough. When he's talking about the the time has passed suffices, he's saying now that you are in Christ, none of that is a part of your life anymore. So I don't care if you got saved when you were 5 years old, 15, 25, 50 years old. It doesn't matter when you get saved.

If that was a part of your life, the time has passed. It's done with. It's done with. We now have a new way to live. We have a new master that we're following and a new life that is worthy and worthwhile to live. The old life is over.

The old way is dead. Because again, Christ died for it. So if it's serious enough for Christ to come and die for it, it's serious enough for us to say no to it. For us to say no to it. What's ironic is that the world presents its list as a way of freedom, fulfillment, life. Yet it leads to bondage.

It leads to addiction. It leads to death. Like that's the irony that we actually see here. Because at the same time, based on what God calls us to, the world will look at it and say, "That looks like bondage. That looks like affliction. That looks like death.

It looks restrictive. It looks joyless. It looks burdensome. Yet, it's the very path that leads to life." To life. The worthy way is the worthwhile way.

I think that's why Peter says in verse four, with respect to this, man, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you for it. The world is surprised because Christians refuse to participate in the only things the world has for pleasure and worship. They they don't understand anything else. And so to them, honestly, this is the weird way of saying it, but they're still living in Genesis 1 and two that says, "Eat of every tree that is available to you." Not realizing that the tree of life is Christ himself, and we are to come to it and eat of that all the days of our life. So they're still hardwired to seek joy from something, but because they don't know the source of life, they're looking for it and longing for it in everything else that God created.

And so they've concluded that, well, if I don't um like who I am and I don't find fulfillment in who I am, well then I'll just change it. I'll just figure out a different way. I'll change my name. I'll change my gender. I'll change my job. I'll change, you know, I'll just I'll change my relationships.

If if I'm not finding fulfillment in who I married or whoever it is, then I will find a different one and I'll look for another one. If I don't find like if when I eat food and I enjoy it, but 30 minutes later I'm hungry again. It wasn't as satisfying as I thought it was. So, I need more of it. I need better food. I need whatever.

Like, it's just an in unending cycle. But they don't know any better. I think that's why again Peter said earlier for us to abstain from the former passions of our ignorance because that's exactly what it is. It's ignorance. And so what it should actually do is just as much as they are surprised when we don't engage in what they believe is going to provide for them life and life forever more. We also should not be surprised when that's what they are engaging in.

I think that's one of the craziest things about and maybe this was it was a bit more in southern culture is that people just expected everyone to live like Christians. And so like if someone, you know, cussed, they'd be like, "Hold up a second. You're not allowed to cuss." And they're like, "What? What do you mean?" or when someone had like when someone sleeps around with someone and then goes and sleeps around with someone else, we're like, "Hold up a second.

You're not supposed to do that. Sex is for marriage." They're like, "What? What are you talking about?" Like, for whatever reason, we just assume that everyone should understand how they are to live. But the realiz the realization is that they're they're ignorant.

They don't know Jesus. They don't know Jesus. They don't know the worthwhile way of living. They don't know what's worthy and what's good. And that's why it's so important for us, as Peter has explained to us already, to keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, to practice what you preach, to live out what you believe is the truth of the scriptures. that he's pulled us out of the world, but then sent us back into the world to subject ourselves to every human institution in such a way that we're bringing Jesus into our relationships, that we're living an a a biblical ethic that God says leads to the flourishing of society that the world would look at and say, "That doesn't make sense."

Well, of course, it's not going to make sense to them. They don't know the God who created it and designed it. We are the mouthpiece. We are the viceroys. We are the ones who come in and introduce a new way of living. And show them that your fruit rots.

This fruit doesn't. This is better. This is good. This leads to life where yours leads to death. And so with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you for it. Again, it's revealing to them that our loves have changed.

Our priorities have changed. I think one of the first times that I ever really experienced this was in high school. So I I always I just played football from like pee-wee all the way through graduation. And when I became a Christian, there were there were 18 guys that were in my class on the football team. Uh and I was the only one that became a Christian. And so when I stopped doing the things that they were doing, I didn't understand it.

But this is what was happening in that moment. Dwayne, how come you're not coming out with us on Friday night? And the funny thing was is I was so young and dumb at the time. I would just tell I was like, "You guys are just absolute idiots. You keep doing the same thing over and over and over and then you feel awful on Saturday. You're getting in trouble with the police."

But this is what we should expect. We should expect people around us. The hard thing is is if no one if you get saved and the friends that knew you before you were saved now see no difference. I'd question whether or not you got saved. I'd question whether or not you know Jesus. I'd question whether or not you're learning and growing in his word that cause you to abstain from the passions of your flesh which were a former ignorance and now walk in step with the spirit of God who has a specific design for you.

They should be surprised. People around you should be surprised. We should expect to be misunderstood and even treated as outsiders because our lives exhibit a different way of living. Even more so, we should expect to be maligned because we don't merely abstain from the world, the way of the world, but we also call it out and we expose it of its emptiness and its empty promises. Again, this is this is where I think sometimes we we cease in the process of our transformation is that we may stop doing it, but we never get to the point where we call it out, where we expose This is evangelism. This is Jesus walking up to the woman at the well.

I know you're not married. You got five husbands. The one you're with right now is not even your husband. Like, he didn't come up to her and just say, "Oh, yeah, okay. I understand life's hard. I get it.

Oh, you got relationships. You got a guy. Okay. Yeah. I'm not married, but you know. All right.

Well, I don't do what you do, but that you know, no, he tells her, I know what you're doing. Go and sin no more. Like, there has to be a combination of us practicing what we also are preaching. How else will they ever know their ignorance unless the word of God gets to them and exposes the ignorance, exposes the sin. It's very important. It cannot be just that's why I hate the I understand the phrase or the the this quote but preach the gospel and if necessary use words.

I get the concept live the Christian life but use words. Use words because here's the truth. I grew up in a southern culture that majority of the people lived a life that looked Christian and weren't. And so in that context, the only way you know a difference is whether is what they actually preach, what words come out of their mouth, what are they actually holding on to and believing in and putting all of their faith in. So yes, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, preach the gospel with your life, but also preach the gospel with your words. that will cause people to possibly malign you as Peter encourages us here because they don't like for their way of living that they believe leads to life to be exposed as something that leads to death.

No one likes that. But we are called to tell them. We're called to tell them go and make disciples of all nations. It's a command, not a suggestion. And they might even think that in doing so we are disrupting the status quo, that we are creating problems, that we are narrow-minded and bigoted, that we are on the wrong side of history, that we're creating trouble. Like Elijah in First Kings 18, believers are often accused of being the troublemakers when in reality we're simply refusing to compromise with the trouble and rather expose it.

That's what we're called to do. And so Peter immediately reminds us that man's verdict is never the final verdict. Man's verdict is never the final verdict. Look at verse five. They'll give an account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead. In other words, the world may judge Christians temporarily.

God's going to judge everyone eternally. So, it's okay if they judge you temporarily and even kill you for it. That's fine. We rest in knowing the judgment that's going to come that's eternal. And God's going to judge everyone according to their deeds. The wonderful thing is that God's given us a courtappointed attorney.

on our behalf who gets to walk into the room as we are being judged for our deeds and he comes in and says that's one of mine. What I accomplished at the cross in my suffering and the wrath poured out for the sin that I became covers his sin and her sin. And therefore, they have nothing to pay. It's free. They've received the grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're one of ours.

And the father will look down and say, "Yeah, they are. They're one of my sons and daughters that have that I've adopted. And I've brought them home. Come on in. Well done, good and faithful servant." He will judge the living and the dead.

And so the Christian suffering for righteousness can rest knowing that God will judge unrighteousness perfectly. And that brings Peter to his final encouragement. Verse six. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. Peter's point is that some believers had already suffered and died. and to the watching world around them.

It may have appeared that they lost. But they did not lose. They did not lose. The gospel was preached. They believed. And though their bodies wasted away and died, they now live with God.

They now live with God. Think about Easter weekend. Think about Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Good Friday looked like victory for Satan and defeat for Christ. In other words, on Good Friday when Jesus breathed his last, Satan, sinners, the the demons were celebrating celebrating. But Resurrection Sunday came and no longer were they celebrating.

The angels and saints began celebrating. The same is true for every believer. Death does not nullify God's promises for you. Just because suffering might come in our life does not mean that God is absent or that God is not in control. It actually might be evidence that you're right where God wants you to be. And that you're living out a life that God has designed for you to live out.

I will say before we close here, and this was covered a couple of weeks ago, but I want to bring it back up just one more time. It's really important that we understand that there are different types of sufferings that we experience. There's the sufferings, as we just talked about, by following Jesus and the world not liking it and causing suffering for that reason. That's good. But if our suffering is brought on by ourselves because we go back and we engage in the passions of this world. Let's not mistake those two things to be the same thing because they're not.

One receives a crown, the other God continues to condemn. And so he's going to tell us and he's going to continue telling us in the coming weeks, don't suffer as murderers do. Like if you lie to your friends and that brings suffering in your life, that's on you. That's not because they're living in ignorance. No, you lied to your friends. Or if you didn't uphold your end of the bargain or whatever whatever's going on in your life.

If the suffering's brought on by you, don't mistake it as what God's called you to to endure. No, that's something that needs to be repented of. And that's something that needs to be dealt with. And that's something that, as he has said, enough that time has sufficed and passed. We don't do that stuff anymore. We now live for Christ and we follow in his plan and design for us.

And so we got to remember that again the gospel vindicates us especially when we experience suffering for following Jesus. At the end of the day, if you believe in what God accomplished through the suffering of Jesus, then if you too suffer for following Jesus, you can rest assured today that nothing, absolutely nothing, will separate you from the greatest treasure and pleasure found in Christ. That's the beauty of it. I mean, the best way I like to think about it is if I'm preaching Christ and following Christ and the culture and society wants to imprison me for that. I mean, and here's the crazy thing is like we're not far away from that. If if status quo keeps going the way it is, I mean, just go back five, six years ago during COVID, there were pastors in Canada, the most polite country in the world, that were throwing pastors in prison for not closing their doors on Sundays.

So our polite neighbors were producing this type of suffering on faithful pastors who were not willing to bend to culture. So it's not far from us to be able to experience something like this. And what we need to remind ourselves is that even if that happens to us and for us maybe the best application for you right now is it might simply be a very close relationship that you have with somebody who you love dearly but you stop doing whatever they want you to do and you start telling them that this is why we follow Jesus and this is why we love Jesus and they don't like it and they break relationship from you or they start badmouthing you on Facebook or whatever it might be. Like I I know that's some of the things that we experience right now. And that's probably the start of a lot of these things that we're going to be talking about. But in that, we just have to rest in the final truth that God will deal with them.

And we hope that it becomes a dealing with them that causes them to be born again. We want that. So don't ever stop praying for them even if they break relationship with you. But we also know at the end of the day, God sees us and what we're experiencing that in that and he is going to vindicate it because of the gospel. He's going to vindicate it because of the gospel. Turn with me to Romans 8 as the band comes up.

Romans 8:31-39. I just want to read this for you and let this be an encouragement for you. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies, who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, and who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure. And when he says that I am sure, it just reminds me of this resolve that Peter is giving us once and for all, guys. We stop living in the passions of the flesh. We start living in the way of God, the will of God.

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Father, we thank you this morning. We come to you in humble gratitude for the sacrifice of your son Jesus on the cross in our place. We thank you that he suffered so much more than what we will ever suffer. that not only did he suffer just rejection from his own people, but he suffered the wrath of God poured out on him because of our sin in order to pay the penalty once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. Father, that is a suffering that we will never experience because Jesus paid for it for us.

But we might experience some suffering in this world, being rejected by the world because we follow you. And I just pray that we would be encouraged this morning. that regardless of the suffering that we experience or may experience while we were here, we will still be crowned by you with an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled. And it is worthy of living. It is worthy of counting the cost of following you. So embolden us, encourage us, lift our spirits, strengthen us, so that whatever we may face, come what may, we may do it with confidence and assurance that you are with us at all times and that nothing can separate us from the love that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. Would you go and stand with me? And as we come to communion, if you believe that Christ died for you on the cross and that he paid your sins in full by breaking his body and shedding his blood, then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seat, and we will partake together at the end of the song. times I fall to my knees. Come Jesus.

Let today be the day. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to break, but I'm holding on to a fesus. We've been waiting so long for the day you return to heal every hurt and write every wrong. We need you right now. Come and turn this around. Deep down I know this world isn't home.

So come Jesus.