(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I want to say Galatians, because 1 Peter has so much in common with the book of Galatians, and that has been on my mind, and so I'm calling it Galatians now. Peter's official to the Galatians, amen? Because in Galatians, it's Paul writing to the Galatians, and in 1 Peter, if we look at 1 Peter 1, verse 1, he's writing to the Galatians. It says in verse 1 of chapter 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and these other places that are mentioned here, Pontus, Cappadocia, and Bithynia, they're all right near Galatia. It's all that same general region. So I can't stress this enough that the book of 1 Peter is being written to the people living in western Turkey in the area of Galatia, et cetera. He's writing to the Gentiles. Now, one of the biggest misunderstandings people have about this book is trying to say he's writing to the Jews, okay, when he's really just writing to Christians in general. And in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. He's writing from Babylon to Galatia. And when you study 1 Peter, one of the things that jumps out at you is how many of the same things Peter says in this epistle that Paul says in his epistle to the Galatians. And if you actually compare the two, you can unlock a lot of the mysteries of 1 Peter and really understand this book. Like, let me show you a great example of this. We were just talking about this before the service. Look if you would at Chapter 2, Verse 16, 1 Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 16, where the Bible reads, as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. And now listen to what Paul told the Galatians in Chapter 5, Verse 13. You look down there at 1 Peter where we just read, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So you see how he's giving them the same cautions about liberty? Over and over again, you'll find parallels between Galatians and 1 Peter because these two apostles are writing to the same group of people. Not only that, but if you look at 1 Peter, Chapter 5, look who actually carried the epistle of 1 Peter to the Galatians. It says in Chapter 5, Verse 12, by Silvanus. That means Silvanus is the guy who's actually carrying the letter for him. By Silvanus, a faithful brethren to you, as I suppose I've written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. And of course we know Silvanus from the Epistles of Paul at the beginning of 1 Thessalonians. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians. This is Silas, Paul's sidekick Silas, also known as Silvanus, is also buddies with Peter. Why? Because now Peter's reaching the Gentiles like he was supposed to all along when Christ told him to teach all nations. He's in Babylon, he's writing to the Galatians. And as we interpret 1 Peter, the book of Galatians is going to come in handy because like I said, the two books are related, being written to the same geography. So look at verse 1 of chapter 4. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. Now before we get into this verse, I want to explain to you the major theme of the book of 1 Peter is suffering. In fact, suffering comes up in every chapter. Look if you would at chapter 1, verse number 11. The Bible says, searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Look at chapter 2, verse number 19. It says, so in chapter 1 he talked about the suffering and then the glory that follows the suffering. Look at chapter 2, verse 19, it says, for this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto are ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Look at chapter 3, verse 14. But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Look at verse 17. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins. We just read chapter 4, verse 1. Look at chapter 4, verse 15. But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Verse 15. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. But if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. Verse 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful creator. And then chapter 5, verse 10. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. Boy, do you think that the theme of this book is suffering? Well, it just comes up over and over and over again. All five chapters hammer this, and some of what they explain is the fact that everybody suffers. Bad people suffer for the wrong things that they do. They suffer as a murderer, they suffer as a thief, they suffer as a busybody. They suffer as all these bad things. It's better to suffer for Christ. You're going to suffer in life. No one goes through life without suffering. You're going to suffer one way or the other. Christ suffered for us, the just for the unjust. He left us an example that we should follow in his steps. Remember that popular slogan, what would Jesus do? Here's the answer, suffer. Because he left us the example that we should follow in his steps, and specifically that example is that we are to suffer for righteousness sake. We are to suffer for Christ. In fact, the first word out of Jesus' mouth when you start reading the New Testament is suffer. In Matthew chapter three when Jesus speaks, the first word is suffer. Christ suffered for us. We are to be willing to suffer for Christ. In Philippians, Paul said, unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Don't some Christians today just not want to suffer at all? They want everything to go perfectly. They want everything to go well. They don't want to go through any pain or anything hard, any trials and tribulations, but the Bible tells us that suffering is a part of life and that we should not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us as though some strange thing happened to us. Of course we're going to go through suffering in this life. We should choose the right kind of suffering, suffering for Christ, rather than to suffer because of our foolishness and sin and all the bad things that we do. We are to suffer and that's the big theme of the book. Verse one is a little bit tough to understand here in 1 Peter, but Galatians is going to shed light on it. Look at 1 Peter chapter four verse one. For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. What does it mean to be armed? Being armed is to take up a weapon. Having a sword is to be armed. Having a gun is to be armed. The Bible is saying to arm yourselves with the mind of Christ, which is a mind that is willing to suffer. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Then he goes on to describe him enduring the cross in Philippians chapter two. As Christ suffered for us, arm yourselves with the same mind. You need to be armed. Take up the whole armor of God and have this weapon in your arsenal that you are ready and willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. Otherwise you're unarmed. Be armed. But the part that's a little bit tough to understand is the latter part because it says, For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. The reason this is tough to understand is because this can't be referring to Jesus because Jesus didn't cease from sin because he never sinned. You can't cease from something that you never did in the first place. How can you stop doing that which you never started? When the Bible says, He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that is talking about us as believers because we're the ones that have sinned in the past. But we don't want to misunderstand this that it's possible for a Christian to completely stop sinning because we know that the Bible says that if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Even the apostle Paul talked about the fact that in his flesh dwelled no good thing and that he was constantly doing things that he didn't want to do and the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. And so if you keep reading here and then compare it with Galatians it will make sense. So he says at the end of verse 1, For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. So we shouldn't live to the lusts of the flesh. We should live to the will of God. Now keep your finger here and let's go to Galatians to shed some light on this. Galatians chapter 2. And in this series I'm turning a lot to Galatians because of the close link between these two books they're being written to the same audience. In Galatians chapter number 2 the Bible says in verse 19, For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So what the Bible is saying here is that the apostle Paul is crucified to the flesh and Christ is living in him. Now this is similar to what Paul said when he said I die daily. This is like when Jesus said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross and follow me. He said take up your cross daily, take up your cross day by day, he said in the book of Luke. And then the apostle Paul, not only did he say I die daily, but here he said I'm crucified with Christ and in Colossians he said, Mortify your members upon this earth, mortify the flesh, put the flesh to death. So basically every day we have to die to self, deny self, mortify the flesh, take up the cross daily, be crucified with Christ daily, living the crucified Christian life, is this theme that comes up over and over again with both Paul and Peter. So with that in mind, from Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, come back to 1 Peter 4 and what he's saying here is, He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. And this is in response to the fact that Christ suffered in the flesh for us. So what it's saying is, look, Christ died on the cross for us and if we die to self, if we die daily, if we're crucified with Christ, if we mortify the flesh, then we will stop sinning. Okay? Now, the false doctrine though is where people teach that they get to a point where they just never sin again. Okay? Well, they're better than the apostle Paul, they're better than John, they're better than everyone John was writing to and they're just defying scripture that says that there's nobody on the earth that is sinless. No one is totally without sin. What the deal is that if you walk in the spirit, you'll not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So it is possible to put on the new man. It is possible to deny self, take up the cross, and be sinless temporarily. But this is something that has to happen every single day and often many times a day, right? Where you put on the new man, walk in the spirit. So yeah, there are times when you're walking in the spirit, you're doing the right things, you're living right, you've ceased from sin, you're doing things well. But here's the thing. The flesh is there again when you wake up the next morning. Or something later in the day, you might fall back into the flesh. You know, you have to make a conscious effort to constantly die to self, mortify the flesh, put on the new man. And if not, then why did Jesus say take up the cross daily? Wouldn't you just take it up one time? Oh yeah, 20 years ago I took up the cross, I stopped sinning, I was crucified with Christ, I mortified my flesh, and so now I'm without sin now for 20 years. That's not what the Bible says. It's a daily thing. It's a struggle. It's something that's constant. But we do have the power to overcome sin by putting on the new man. By walking in the spirit. And so the victory over sin is available to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, through walking in the new man. And the more you feed the new man, the more you walk in the new man, the more you deny self the less sin you're going to have in your life, and you'll go more periods without sinning. Okay? But don't go around thinking, oh, I'm past sin, I've overcome sin, I've been delivered of that sin now, and it's not even a temptation. Hey, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, because people can go back and fall back into those same sins if they're not careful. And truth be told, we all probably sin every day. Is the thought of foolishness a sin? Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So even just living a perfect day is not going to be easy, right? And it would be super rare if at all that you could do such a thing, to just be perfect Christ-like. And you know what, there are going to be times when you are doing the right things, but I don't know if you're going to go perfect a whole day, let alone two days, four days a week. You're being unrealistic at this point. Okay? And I'm not saying not to try. Try your hardest. But when you fail, don't beat yourself up too bad because of the fact that the flesh is weak. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So what do you do? When you mess up, you fall into sin, you walk in the flesh, you know what you need to do? You just confess and forsake and move on. Confess your sin, forsake your sin, move on. Don't beat yourself up about it, because Christ is there to forgive you, his mercies are new every morning. Don't get swallowed up in over much sorrow, just be sorry, move on. Okay? So that's what he's saying here about walking in the spirit, suffering with Christ, being crucified with Christ, denying self, walking in the spirit, walking in the will of God. So verse three says, for the time past of our life may suffice, suffice means it's enough. The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. Here's what he's saying, look, you've already done enough sin in your life, okay? Isn't it enough? It suffices, you've already sinned, you've done enough bad things, you need to do what's right now. So he's preaching to them to get the sin out of their life and to live right, even if they have bad things in their past, you know, you've done enough of that garbage, it's time to live right now. Now let me point out something here, this is one of the verses that people will try to twist to try to say, oh, Peter is talking to the Jews in first Peter because here he refers to the Gentiles in the third person, okay? Flip over to first Corinthians chapter 10 and let's see if that's true. First Corinthians chapter 10, because remember, he clearly says in first Peter 2, 9 and 10 that he's writing to people that in time past were not a people, but now they are the people of God. That's not the Jews. It's funny, I looked at the Scofield reference Bible, which is a pro-Zionist Bible commentary and I looked in the Zionist Scofield reference Bible and here's what it said. It said, well, first Peter's obviously written to the Jews, but he clearly has the Gentiles in mind in first Peter 2, 9 and 10. Even he had to admit that first Peter 2, 9 and 10 is talking to the Gentiles when he says you're the chosen generation. You're the peculiar people. And what's funny is, okay, if first Peter 2, 9 and 10 is talking to the Gentiles, even according to Scofield, because you'd have to be crazy to say that verses 9 and 10 are not talking to the Gentiles in light of Romans 9, which has exact same quote in the same way, then how can you say this book is only written, this is to the Jews, but then all of a sudden he's just like, here's a little commercial for the Gentiles. Hey, you guys are the chosen people. All right, back to our regular scheduled broadcast to the chosen Jews. That makes no sense, but he's all, he's kind of like squirming in that introduction to first Peter in the scope of, Oh, well, I mean, yeah, it's written to the Jews, you know, of course he doesn't give any evidence for that. We know it's written to the Jews, but you know, he's also got the Gentiles in mind in first Peter 2, 9 and 10. That's obvious. Okay. Well, if you're writing to both, why don't we just say you're writing to Christians then? And that's the true story. First Peter is written to Christians because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither bond nor free. You're all one in Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. So it's not writing to the Jews or the Gentile. He's writing to Christians in a Gentile area, Galatia. Okay. Now look at first Corinthians 10 and notice how the word Gentile is used. For example, in verse 20, it says, but I say that the things which the Gentile sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. Well, no one would argue that first Corinthians is being written to the Gentiles. First Corinthians is written to the Gentile church at Corinth, but yet he talks about the Gentiles in the third person, doesn't he? He says the Gentile sacrifice unto devils. Look at verse 32, give none offense, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God. There he is again talking about the Gentiles in the third person. Now why does he say neither to the Jews nor the Gentiles, neither to the church of God? Because here's the thing. He's referring to these groups in the third person because of the fact that the Jews are no longer Jews when they get saved and the Gentiles are no longer Gentiles when they get saved because they're just Christians now and they're all one in Christ Jesus. In fact, let me prove it to you. Look at chapter 12 verse 2. First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 2 says, ye know that ye were Gentiles. You see that? You were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as ye were led. So when he's using the word Gentiles, he's referring to the unsaved Gentiles, the unbelieving Gentiles that are still worshiping the idols of the Greek mythology and Roman mythology and stuff like that. That's what he means by Gentiles and we could look at a whole bunch of verses in the Epistles of Paul that would say the same thing that I just showed you. I'm not going to belabor the point but I just showed you those three examples in Corinthians. That doesn't prove anything about 1 Peter. It's the same way Peter is talking. So back to 1 Peter chapter 4, he says, for the time past of our life, verse 3, may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. So the will of the Gentiles is referring to those pagan Gentiles, the ones who worship idols like we saw in 1 Corinthians 10 and 12. So what did we do according to Peter back when we wrought the will of the Gentiles, back when we were living the pagan heathen lifestyle? What were the type of things that they do? Well they walk in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings and abominable idolatries. So let's break this down. Lasciviousness has to do with lust. It has to do with sins of the nature of fornication or adultery. Those type of sins are under the canopy of lasciviousness. Obviously lusts are related to those type of sins. And then of course we have excess of wine. Now excess of wine could be referring to two different things. There's one aspect of excess of wine that drunkenness is there. So this is getting drunk, which obviously is something that worldly people do, that God commands us not to do. But then another aspect of this is that wine in the Bible has to do with luxury because wine is expensive. Nowadays it's not expensive because of the fact that there are machines and so people can get drunk really cheap with a bottle of wine. But back in the olden days when you had to crush the grapes without machines and you actually had human beings stepping on the grapes or people crushing them with crude machines, then it was very expensive to buy any kind of fruit juice in general. Because it was all fresh. Obviously the machine produced pasteurized juice at the store is cheap. So we don't have a consequence. But even today if you go to Jamba Juice it's not cheap to get the real stuff, the fresh squeezed. And not only that, that's with the machine making it way easier. How about when you had no machine? If you try to do it by hand with no machine, have fun trying to get a glass of orange juice together. So this was very expensive in the ancient world. So excess of wine, it's not just the drunkenness aspect that he's talking about. It's also just talking about blowing money on frivolity because wine in the Bible pictures lavish luxury. And to prove that point, look what else he brings up. Revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. Obviously feasting and banqueting is okay when it's done in moderation, right? It's okay to have a feast certain times. In the Bible there were three feasts prescribed per year for the children of Israel. So it's okay every once in a while to have a party and eat a lot of good food and really feast and enjoy the sweet things and the fat things and really have a party. But there are people who take this to excess and they're constantly gorging in fine foods. Not only are they gluttonous, but also they are wasteful of money, right? People are just dumping money down the drain, going out to expensive meals all the time, right? And he's saying, look, that's what the world lives for. That's what the heathen, they want to go out and commit fornication. They want to get drunk and they want to eat a bunch of fancy food. This is their dream, to drive a fancy car, live in a fancy house, eat a bunch of fancy food. I mean think about the stupid excesses that people go to where they'll have these thousand dollar burgers. I mean food can only get so good, folks. You know what I mean? There's cheap food and then you can get some nicer food. But folks, it gets to a certain point where like this couldn't get any better. And that's called BurgerFi and it's in Tempe and it's like 10 bucks, okay? I mean you go to BurgerFi in Tempe on University and Rural. This message is brought to you in part by BurgerFi. And it's like you lay down a $10 bill, you will get the best burger known to man. So what do you need a $50 burger? $100 burger, $1,000 burger, it's just stupid at that point. They literally put gold in it. Why do I want to eat gold? That's just stupid, right? It's got gold dust and you know it's got duck fat. I mean I went to a fancy restaurant one time, they brought out the appetizer and you know what it was? It was french fries. But they were fried in duck fat. You know what it was? Really small order of french fries and I wish they would have brought me more. It was just too small of an order. And you know what it tasted like? It tasted like a french fry from In-N-Out Burger. And it was not any better or worse than any french fry from BurgerFi or In-N-Out or Long John Silver's for crying out loud, okay? I mean it was just a french fry. But they're like, oh this is fried in duck fat. And then that was the same day I learned what a truffle is because I thought a truffle was a little piece of chocolate that I put in my mouth that I get out of a stocking at Christmas time. And I had to, you know, I got to be 37 years old before I figured out what a truffle was. I had to go on Wikipedia. I still don't quite understand what it is but it turns out it's not chocolate, okay? But it's just the truffles and they find some rare animal. It's like a unicorn burger or something. You know, and instead of parsley it's like, oh this has a four leaf clover on your burger with a little gold dust and a little fairy dust, you know, and it was blessed by some shaman or something. It's like, how can you get, you know, $10 gets you the ultimate burger, folks. You can only get so expensive, right? But these people, man, the love of money is the root of all evil. That's what the Bible says. And they just covet and they want to spend more and they want to banquet more and revel and the wine cellar and the, this is a very good year, it's just, give me Welch's. The best year for wine is 2019, March, you know, I'm looking for the latest date in April I can find. The sell by date is the date I'm looking at on my wine, which is grape juice, okay? And I'm looking at the sell by date. I want it to be in the future, okay? I'm not looking to 1978 or something. So anyway, the point is that these people, they're living for their physical pleasure, lust, lasciviousness, greed, excess of wine, reveling, that's another word for like partying, right? Reveling, banqueting, and abominable idolatries, okay? So it's all the lust and the partying and then do they praise God for the abundance of wine and food and duck fat? No, they're praising the gods of stone and wood and iron and brass and gold and silver and they can neither speak nor hear nor walk nor talk. So that's what he says there. And then he says in verse four, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. So this is when the people at work find out that you don't party. You don't drink, you don't party, you don't do the same excess of riot and they think it's strange. They think it's weird and then they speak evil of you, they talk bad about you. Oh man, he's a goody two shoes, he's holier than thou, he's too good for us, he's too righteous for us, right? Even if you're humble about it, they'll still say those things. But the Bible says, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead? You know, those people are going to give account to God someday. So don't envy them because their party is going to be over someday. It says in verse six, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. What the Bible is saying here in verse number six, and this is an allusion back to the flood because if you remember, he brought up the flood in chapter three. What he's basically saying is, look, it's possible to be spiritually saved, but physically judged. Okay. So I got saved when I was a six year old boy simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. So I'm spiritually saved, I'm going to heaven. But if I go out and start living a life of sin, well, the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So if I go out and commit a bunch of sin, if I go out and start partying and reveling and excess of wine and the banqueting and the abominable idolatry, what's going to happen to me? God's going to punish me on this earth. Okay. And he will send severe judgments many times. Look what he did to King Saul. He destroyed him and his sons on Mount Gilboa in one day. God sent a punishment on Jonah where he was swallowed by a whale, right? God sends punishments on his children. And by the way, here's the proof against this sinless perfection doctrine that I mentioned a little earlier where they try to say, oh, if you're saved, you can just stop sinning or get to the point where you don't sin. Okay. Here's a verse to debunk that. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So is he just beating them for doing the right thing? If God scourges every son, you know what that means? That every son sins because he's not going to beat you for doing well. Good job. Good boy. You know, no, he's whipping you for the bad things you do. And that proves that every son whom he receiveth does wrong things because they all get a whipping. So if we go out and do bad things as Christians, we're not going to lose our salvation, but we're going to get a whipping. We're going to be scourged. We are going to be punished, okay? And so God is talking about how the people who died in the flood, the gospel was still preached unto them and the gospel wasn't in vain because many of them got saved even though they got punished for their wickedness and drowned in the flood. Obviously, most of them were unsaved. Most people in every generation have been unsaved because broad is the way that leads to destruction. But Noah was not the only person that went to heaven, folks. There were other people in that generation that went to heaven, but they all drowned except for Noah because Noah was the one that was living the godly life and got spared the flood. He said to Noah, the only have I found righteous in this generation. But we know that man began to call on the name of the Lord all the way back in Genesis chapter 4 and we know in Genesis chapter 6 that some of the people that God was mad at were the sons of God. And sons of God are people that are saved. And he was mad at them too because of their sin, because of their wickedness. And so the point is that just because you're saved doesn't mean that you're not going to be judged or punished by God or chastised. It's quite the contrary. If you live a sinful life, those things will happen. So yeah, they're going to go out and they're going to live their riotous partying life and they're going to face God for it. But then Peter's reminding us, you know, even though you're saved, you're also going to face punishments in this life as well. So therefore, be sober, watch unto prayer, and do the right things. So over and over again in 1 Peter, he's preaching to them to get the sin out of their life, to live right, to be a good Christian. He says in verse number 8, after he warns them to be sober, he warns against the excess of wine, which also is the opposite of sobriety, right? He warns against the excessive banqueting and feasting and partying and reveling and the covetousness of this world, the idolatry. Then he says, above all things, verse 8, above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. So how would you like to basically have some of your minor sins overlooked by God? I would. I don't want God coming down on me for every little sin that I do. I don't want God just on a hair trigger. He sees me do the smallest sin, and bam, he's ready to just come down on me. I want God to be gracious with me, to cut me some slack, to take it easy on me. Have you noticed that when kids are being good in general, and then they do something wrong, they don't really get in as much trouble. They're in general doing good. They're being good. They have a good attitude. And then they make a mistake. They don't just come down on them like a ton of bricks. But when they have a bad attitude, then when they mess up, you're ready to come down on them, because you want to straighten them out anyway, because they have a bad attitude. Or how about this? What if there's a child who is constantly tattling on their sibling, and what if there's a child who is constantly trying to get their sibling in trouble, and wanting to show no grace and no mercy to their sibling? They come to you and say, here, let me go get the paddle for you. And then they come and tell you what they've done. And if there's a multitude of paddles, they'll get the biggest one and say, here you go. When that kid that has that attitude, when they mess up, they're going to get less mercy from mom and dad. Now if they're actually merciful, then they'll receive mercy. Under the merciful, they shall receive mercy. If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. So if we want God to go easy on us, we're going to be disciplined. He scourges every son whom he receiveth, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. But folks, we do want to minimize the chastening of the Lord. And we'd rather judge ourselves, because the Bible says if we judge ourselves, then we'd not be judged. But when we're judged, we're chastened of the Lord. So we want to kind of chasten ourselves, get ourselves under control. We don't want God whipping us with the full force of that scourging. Well, guess how you can get more grace from God? Guess how you can get more forgiveness from God and for God to go easy on you for the things that you mess up on is by having love, by having charity, fervent charity. The Bible says that if you have fervent charity among yourselves, charity shall cover the multitude of sins. So God is going to let things slide more if you're a loving, charitable, merciful, gracious person. If you're merciful, you'll obtain mercy. So charity will cover a multitude of sins. So that's a good tip that you need to love people, forgive other people, be merciful, and it'll come back around to you. Then the Bible says in verse 9, use hospitality one to another without grudging. Did I ever strike you where it says use hospitality? Use hospitality. Because when we would think of hospitality, we would be thinking give hospitality, right? Because when we think of hospitality, we think of, okay, someone comes over and I'm going to feed them, take care of them, be nice to them. But here's what you have to understand. In the ancient world, if you study the Bible, you'll notice hospitality is an important thing because of the fact that they didn't have Holiday Inn Express. They don't have Best Western. They don't have all these hotel chains where you know it's a safe place. You got the Deadbolt. It's a reputable chain. You check the Google reviews. You check Priceline's reviews, right? You know, this has a 9.2 customer satisfaction rating. Folks, in the Bible, they show up in a town and it gets dark, they need somewhere to sleep. They need safety. You know what they usually would do in those days is go to a private home. They would go to a private home. Remember when Jesus sent out the disciples two by two to travel all throughout Israel preaching? They would come into a house and they would dwell in that house until they departed from that city. And that was the hospitality that they needed. They relied on that hospitality. And if you remember how it went bad, hospitality went bad with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Hospitality went bad in Judges chapter 19. These are the type of bad scenarios that you don't want to run into. So there's a lot of trust involved with hospitality. You're trusting these people not to be a psycho killer. They're trusting you not to be a psycho killer. And you have to be hospitable. And this hospitable mentality or this hospitality was actually a two-way street. So when it says use hospitality, see, here's the thing, sometimes you're the one who's using the hospitality, meaning you're the guest. That's why it says use hospitality one to another because the concept of hospitality is a two-way street. It has to do with you using other people's house and then it also has to do with them using your house. So the way that it would work in the ancient world is that basically let's say I come to Tempe and I don't have anywhere to stay and so I go to Paul's house and I just show up at his door and he just brings me in, feeds me, gives me a place to stay, and then usually gifts would be exchanged or something like that. And then what would happen is, let's say I'm from Sacramento, California, next time he's in Sacramento, he's like, I know a guy here, and then he'll kind of cash in that favor. And it would just be ridiculous for me to say, oh, sorry, I can't help you because he already helped me out when I was in his area. So this is a two-way street here. So that's what the Bible is saying here when it says, use hospitality one to another without grudging. Grudging would be like, oh, man, what a burden, what a pain, I have to give away my food, I have to give a gift or provide lodging because there's a financial cost there to help a person out. The Bible is saying use it without grudging, be polite, follow the etiquette, give the hospitality, receive the hospitality, so be a good guest and be a good host. It's not just be a good host, it's also be a good guest, do both. And that's why when the Bible says, given to hospitality as one of the qualifications for being a pastor or a deacon, it means you know how to use this system right. Like when you go to somebody's house, you're not a pain, but you're a good guest. And then when you have people over to your house, you're a good host. Now obviously this concept is a little bit outdated in the sense of just showing up and knocking on a stranger's door, hey, I need a place to stay tonight. That wouldn't fly in 2019 America. Obviously now we have a different culture, we have hotels. But obviously there are times when you're still going to use hospitality, right? There are going to be times when you do end up staying with people or having them stay with you and you're going to use this same attitude and not begrudge someone. So we can apply this as, hey, take somebody out to eat and buy their dinner, don't have an attitude about it. Well, they owe me one. Don't be like that. Don't have a grudge about it, like, you know. Here's a good rule of thumb, either give something freely or don't give it at all. If you give someone something, don't expect something in return. That's not a gift. When you give, expect nothing in return. Now again, with the hospitality, yeah, you can go ahead and cash that in. But let's say I gave hospitality to Paul. Paul comes up to Sacramento and I give him hospitality. Then I come to Tempe and he's like, hey, sorry, I can't help you. Now he's doing it wrong at that point, but I'm not going to grudge though. I'm going to use hospitality without grudging. I'm going to say, okay, no problem. I understand. I caught you on a bad day, bad time, even though he owes me one. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do the Christian thing and say, you know what? I forgive you, buddy, and go to the next door and find a new, uh, you know, buddy to lodge with, right? A new home away from home when I'm in Tempe or whatever. So this is the way things work because they didn't have the hotel chains that we have now. So this is an important issue and we see it through Genesis and throughout the Bible, this concept. So the Bible says in verse 10, as every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So of course you could apply this to the hospitality concept. Hey, you received the hospitality, then minister the hospitality. You received the gift when you were a visitor, give them a gift when they're visiting, but then also this could just be a generalization that you could use and you could of course even apply this to the gift of salvation as a, as a secondary meaning, the eternal life that is the most important gift. Hey, did you receive the gift of eternal life? Then minister that gift. Don't just receive that gift of eternal life and not share it. Pass that thing on. Right? Preach the gospel to every creature. So he says in verse 11, if any man speak and notice he keeps, he's kind of changing the subject every verse. Why? He's just giving a list of ways to be a good Christian. He's telling them, look, cease from sin, do what's right, walk in the spirit. He's just saying a list of things. Don't be like the Gentiles with all the partying. Focus on having charity, using hospitality, ministering the gift as you received the gift, and then he's giving more advice on being a good Christian. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. You know what that means? The oracles of God are the word of God, the Bible. When the Bible says that the Jew has an advantage, it's that unto them were committed the oracles of God, and that means that they are the ones who received the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament. So the Bible calls the Old Testament scriptures the oracles of God. So when the Bible says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, meaning that we should speak the way the Bible speaks and use biblical terminology and say things that are biblical and speak in a way that's compatible with scripture. Our opinions should jive with what the Bible teaches. We should speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God and all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to be praise and dominion forever and ever, amen. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God rested upon you. On their part, he's evil spoken of, but on your part, he's glorified, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other men's matters. So look, this concludes here the list of things that we should and shouldn't do. What should we not do? Excessive wine, lust, lasciviousness, revelings, banquetings, abominable idolatries, and then what else should we not do? We shouldn't do murder, stealing, evil, nor should we be a busy body about other men's matters, right? Mind your own business. Don't get involved in other people's business. Being a busy body, a tattler, somebody who is gossiping, making false accusations, railing accusations, or just getting involved in strife not belonging to you and being a busy body in other men's matters. And then the things that we should do are we should have love, charity, we should be hospitable, we should be generous, we should give gifts, not expecting anything in return, not hold a grudge, praise God, go through the trials, go through the suffering, et cetera. So he says, don't suffer as an evildoer, verse 16, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. Now this is very significant because this is one of only three places in the Bible where the word Christian is used. We use the word Christian all the time. We talk about being a Christian and it rolls off our tongue. It's a very common word and it's a great word. We should use it, amen? But it's not that common in the Bible, okay? The Bible only uses it three times. Once it mentions in the book of Acts that the believers were first called Christians at Antioch. So they were first called Christians at Antioch. Then we see that when Paul is preaching to King Agrippa and begging Agrippa to get saved, Agrippa says, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. You've almost convinced me to be a Christian. And then in First Peter here he talks about suffering as a Christian. Now why does it talk about suffering as a Christian? Because you are never more Christ-like than when you are suffering for righteousness because Christ suffered for us and he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. So the most Christian thing you can do is to suffer for doing what's right. Be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. That is Christianity. The Bible says that if you suffer as a Christian, don't be ashamed, don't be embarrassed about that. Rather, glorify God on this behalf. Praise God that you are able to suffer as a Christian. Now look at verse 17. Verses 17 and 18 are often taken out of context, okay? 17 and 18 come between 16 and 19. And 16 and 19 are both talking about the same thing. It makes like a sandwich, okay? So you've got to get it in the context and not just rip it out of context. He says, For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarily be saved, wherein shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? So in this scripture some people will try to make this about spiritual salvation as in getting to heaven. And then it's basically saying, man, the righteous can barely get into heaven. Sinners don't even have a chance. And look, there have been false prophets over the years who've preached that. There was a guy, there was a false prophet, charismatic guy back in olden days called Charles G. Finney, and he preached a sermon called Salvation, Difficult for the Righteous, Impossible for Sinners. That was the title of his sermon. Salvation is difficult for the righteous, impossible for sinners. And he taught that you have to be totally sinless to be saved. What I preached against earlier in the sermon, sinless perfection, just that you have to get rid of all sin and be totally sinless in order to get into heaven. Well, good luck with that, buddy. In fact, Charles G. Finney's burning in hell because he preached that sinless perfection garbage that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he was one of these holy roller, wild-eyed Charismaniacs. And I don't know why Baptists will quote this guy who's not even close to being Baptist, didn't believe the things that we believe about the gospel, and preached this sinless perfection gospel, which is bad news. But here what we see is that when he says saved here, he's not talking about going to heaven. And when you say the Bible, often the word saved is talking about a temporal salvation or a physical salvation. Like when Peter is drowning and he says, Lord, save me, that's when he got saved. No. When Peter's drowning and said, Lord, save me, he's saying, like, pull me out of this water. Matthew 24 talks about he that endureth to the end shall be saved. And it says, except those days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved. So we're talking about flesh being saved, right? People being saved from physical destruction, physical judgment. He said that women would be saved in childbearing. It's not like, oh, you gave birth to a baby, now you're going to heaven. He's talking about being spared from problem, troubles. There are all kinds of examples we could use in the Bible where saved is not referring to going to heaven or your soul. Look at the context here. In verse 16, he talks about suffering as a Christian. In verse 19, he says, wherefore, wherefore means because of this, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Do you notice how both 16 and 19 are both talking about suffering as a Christian? And then verse 17 starts with the word for, which is a conjunction, and verse 18 starts with and, which is a conjunction, and then we have verse 19 starting with wherefore, which is a conjunction, is one connected thought about suffering as a Christian. And in this thought about suffering as a Christian, he says, for the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? What this is talking about is physical judgments on this earth, the judgment that must begin at the house of God. This is not talking about a great white throne judgment where we all stand before God and the books are open. No, no, no. This is judgment. God is constantly bringing judgment on this earth. Whether he brings judgment in the form of a famine or a pestilence, a disease, warfare, natural disasters, earthquakes, fires, floods, right? So there are judgments, and those judgments often include persecution, warfare, or just being persecuted. That's what happens in a lot of judgments in the Bible. And so what the Bible is saying here is that if we are saved and we're doing what's right, we can get through some of these judgments by the skin of our teeth, whereas bad people are going to get wiped out in these judgments. That's what he's basically referring to here. And remember earlier, when he was telling them how they needed to do what was right and be sober and live right and get the sin out of their life, he said in verse number 7, but the end of all things is at hand, be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. So he's preparing them for the end times, too, when he says, hey, the end of all things is at hand. We don't know when the end times are going to happen. And here in 2019, we still don't know when they're going to happen. They might happen in our lifetime. It might be 20 years from now, 50 years from now. We don't know when. It could be 100 years from now. We don't know when it's going to happen. But we want to be prepared at all times. We want to be sober. We want to be living right. We want to be godly. And when the end of all things come, that's where the most severe judgments come that have ever come. There are going to be pestilences, famines, floods, earthquakes, warfare. And there will be greater persecution on believers than ever before because you have the martyrs of Jesus and people giving their life for the cause of Christ and everything like that. So we need to do what's right, live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world as we're looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So we're supposed to be living right, doing well, sober, godly so that when bad things come, when judgment comes, we can trust God to protect us and keep us safe and get us through it. He'll protect us. And we have that clear conscience that he talked about back in chapters 2 and 3, the good conscience. And if you have the good conscience, then you can commit the keeping of your souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator. And when you suffer as a Christian, he's talking about suffering as a Christian here, in verse 16. And then in verse 19, he's talking about suffering according to the will of God. But you know that it's all going to work together for good because you love God, right? So if you're suffering as a Christian, you're suffering according to the will of God, God's going to get you through it. It's all going to work together for good. You're going to be preserved, and God's going to bless your latter end. Like Job. I mean, Job went through horrible things, but God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. So God saw him through that, it all worked together for good, he ended up more blessed. It wasn't fun to go through it, but that's life, folks. You're going to suffer in life. You're either going to suffer as a fool, or you're going to suffer as a wise man. You're either going to suffer as a sinner, or you're going to suffer as a saint. But you know what? I'd rather suffer for Christ and get the rewards than to suffer for sin and then just get punishment. Suffering and then here's what you get for your suffering, more punishment. More suffering. And then more punishment to go with your suffering. I'd rather have suffering for Christ because the suffering that we go through for Christ, we actually even rejoice. Paul said, I'm joyful in all our tribulation. Paul found joy in tribulation. Paul found joy even in suffering. He said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory even when we're going through manifold trials and temptations. So to boil down this whole chapter, kind of tie it all together, and really this is the theme of the whole book of 1 Peter is that Christ suffered for us. He wants us to be willing to suffer for him. We need to live our lives in a godly way. These are all the things we shouldn't do. These are all the things we should be doing. If we do all those right things, guess what? You're still going to suffer, but instead of suffering for sins and it being all bad, you're suffering for Christ and you get rewarded and you're blessed and you can commit yourself unto Christ and know that he's going to take care of you. He's going to bless you. Everything's going to be cool in the end and that's what this chapter is teaching and really that's what the whole book of 1 Peter is teaching in general. Father, we thank you so much for this teaching, Lord. Help us to trust you and live the life that you want us to live. Help us to be loving, generous people who use hospitality without grudging one toward another. Lord, help us to get the sin out of our life, to die to self, get rid of the lust and the lasciviousness and the drinking and the partying, Lord, and live a godly, clean, and profitable life for you, Lord, not to just try to earn more money so that we can waste it on frivolous things. Help us to serve you with our lives, first and foremost. You are the creator. We live and exist to bring you pleasure, not ourselves. Lord, help us to be a good Christian and to be willing to suffer as a Christian and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.