Hows and Whys of Strange Living, Part 1

If you have your Bible, we're in 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4, The Hows and Whys of Strange Living. Two of the most common questions that I have been asked over the years is about how and why. Basically, a lot of it has to do with why don't I do certain things. I was saved in my teenage years, and of course. I had a lot of peer pressure in my high school in terms of why I didn't do what everybody else was doing. In those days, back in the 70s, everybody had lots of long hair. And I wasn't able to have long hair.

I had real short hair. So I looked a little strange compared to my peers and how they would look and how they would dress and I would often ask the question, Well, why is my hair so short when everyone else is so long? I was asked why is it I don't go to dances when everyone else does? Why is it I don't drink when all my friends drink? Why is it I don't engage in sexual activity while all my friends engage in sexual activity? I was asked that on a continuous basis, every week in my high school. And I had to answer the why question to my peers.

Needless to say, my answers never sufficed them, and they would continue to ridicule me and make fun of me, how I looked, and what I said. What I did or didn't do, they would always ask me, why is it you go to church on Wednesdays? Why is it you always go on Sundays? Isn't once a month good enough? Do you have to go all the time? Do you have to go twice a week? Do you have to go on Sunday nights too? Why is it you always do that? And then when I went off to college, I had a, most of you know, had a football scholarship out of high school, and I didn't take that football scholarship.

Instead, I went to a Bible college. And again, I had to answer the why question. Why would you do that? Why would you go to a Bible college when you had a full ride for four years, all expenses paid? Why would you want to go to a Bible school when you go to college and play football? Well, the simple answer to that was, well, it's what my parents wanted me to do. Well, why would you do that? You're 18. You can make your own decisions. You don't have to obey your parents. But I was taught the Bible says to honor your father and mother.

And it was important for me to follow what the word of the Lord said. Remembering in the back of my mind what my father used to always say: the more they laugh at you, the more they ridicule you, the stronger you'll become if you stay true to the gospel. Little did I know that each succeeding year, as I had to take stands on issues, God was preparing me for stronger stands in the future. And so as I think back about those days and they were just small times. They weren't Big time, still people made fun of you because of what you preached, or people made fun of you because of where you went to school, or people made fun of you because of How you dressed, or because you went to church, or because you didn't go to their dances, or because you didn't engage in their sexual activity, because I was the only one on my athletic team that was a virgin, and no one else was.

They couldn't understand why I didn't swear, and so they tried to do things to get me to say swear words. It was an amazing time, and yet God was continually building into me. The fundamentals of what needed or what I needed to stand strong on the gospel. Peter, in his epistle, talks about The why of strange living. The other question is the how. Because inevitably someone will come back and say, Well, how is it, how is it you don't do those things? How is it that you believe this and someone else believes that?

Or how is it you are able to accomplish this and I'm not? Not that I was better than anybody else, because I wasn't. I was a sitter like you and like everybody else. And yet, inevitably, that question comes up: well, how is it you can stand against that? How is it you don't succumb to the peer pressure? How is it you are able to stand against your teammates when When they laugh at you and make fun of you as to your stand, and yet you don't succumb to that peer prayer. How is it you do that? And of course, Peter would answer the how question as well.

Because the people that were committed Christians lived str. And there would have to be an answer to the question, why? And also an answer to the question, how? How do you do that? And why would you even want to do that? We've told you before that you know our lives are to answer people's questions because our lives give answers to their questions And if people don't ask you why and how, it's because your life doesn't give any answers to the questions they are asking. If you live strangely, not because you're strange, but because you love the Lord, if you follow his wor, it begins to get people's attention.

And it gets their attention in such a way that they'll ridicule you, they'll malign you, they'll slander you, they'll laugh at you, they'll make fun of you, but down deep, they want to know why, they want to know how. The question is, do you have the answer? You should. You love the Lord. You want to obey His W. You should be able to answer those questions. Peter would talk to people who were being maligned and slandered and give them the exhortation as to As to why. He would give them the world's reaction and then give them the motivation.

As to how they would keep on keeping on, in spite of the slander, in spite of being blasphemed, in spite of being ridiculed. How is it they were able to stand up against the pressure? That's what we're going to cover tonight in 1 Peter 4, verses 1 to 6. Let me read it to you.

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So, as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles. having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, car, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries and in all this they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excess of dissipation.

and they malign you but they shall give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached, even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. Peter talks to us about the hows and whys of strange living. Let me begin with our exhortation, and then we'll move to the world's reaction and then our motivation.

First of all, the exhortation. Peter says, Therefore, therefore is there because of the preceding verses. Because of the fact that Jesus Christ, the just one, died for the unjust, because Jesus Christ, the perfect one, died for the imperfect ones. He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. All authority is His. All things have been subject to Him. That's all in verses 18 to 22. Now, because of all those things, there, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, or literally suffered to the point of death.

In the flesh, because all these things happen to Christ. And understand that Christ's suffering in the flesh wasn't just the last. Twelve hours of his life. Christ suffered in the flesh throughout his entire 3 years of living. You see, we tend to forget that throughout his ministry especially, there was a great attack upon his life. People hated him. They ridiculed him. They said that he was a son of a harlot. They said that he was just the son of Satan, that he was Satan him. And they ridiculed him, they blasphemed his name throughout his entire ministry.

And he came to do that which was right and that which was good. And yet the world was against him. And Peter says, Therefore, since Christ has also suffered in the flesh to the point of death, he says this. Arm your. Arm yourselves. Now that's a great word. It's a military term. It's only used once in the Bible. In fact, the form used once in the Bible. Hapl, which means weapons. Arm yourself with weapons. It's used, the noun form is used six other times in the scriptures. But it's a word speaking of the fact that a soldier has to arm himself to be prepared for battle.

Listen, because Christ suffered in the flesh to the point of death, you who are his children need to arm yourselves. He says, listen, also. With the same purpose. With the same purpose. Because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. That's a powerful verse. We need to arm ourselves with the same purpose. So here's the first exhortation.

Here's what you need to understand. We need to equip our minds with the same purpose as Christ. We'd arm ourselves. We're soldiers of the cross. We need to be ready for battle. Unfortunately, most of us are not ready for battle. We don't wake up in the morning thinking, you know what? I'm a soldier of the cross. I'm ready to go into battle today. I'm ready to go into spiritual warfare today. I'm ready to do what God's called me to do. I'm going to put on the armor of God and I'm going to go to battle.

We don't wake up. Thinking like that. I love what Martin Lloyd-Jones said. He said, Not to realize that you are in a conflict means one thing only, and it is that you are so hopelessly defeated. You do not even know it. You are unconscious. It means that you are completely defeated by the devil. Anyone who is not aware of a fight and a conflict in a spiritual sense. Is in a drugged and hazardous condition. He's right. We got to wake up. We've got to understand that we're in a battle and we have to arm ourselves.

That is, we have to be ready for battle. And we have to arm ourselves, as Peter says, with the same purpose that Christ had. So, in order for us to handle ridicule, to handle how people malign and blaspheme our names, how people, even as they did to Christ, ended up putting to death, how is it we face that? Well, you got arm yourself with the same purpose that Christ had. What was his purpose? What was his mission in life? What was he about? He was about doing, listen.

The will of his father, no matter what. Right? Doing the will of his father, no matter what. I love what it says over in the book of Philippians, the second chapter.

Have this attitude in yourselves. Which was also in Christ Jesus. That's how Paul says it in Philippians 2, verse number 5. You got to have the same attitude, you got to have the same mind. Which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied him, taking the form of a bonds. And being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Paul says this is the attitude you got to have. If you have a different attitude, you can't handle the criticism. You can handle the slander. You can't handle the abuse. But if you have that attitude, if you arm yourself with the same purpose that Christ had, guess what? You can handle the abuse. You can handle the criticism because you understand that Christ became obedient to his father even to the point of death, that is, death even on a c. Boy, that's so good. We need to understand that the Christian needs to be ready.

Every single day, with the exact same mind that Christ Himself had. He'd rather suffer than disobey his Father. He'd rather suffer for righteousness' sake than live in sin. He'd rather suffer for the sake of righteousness than to compromise the truth. He'd rather do what his father wanted him to do than do what he wanted to do. That's the same purpose. That's the same mind. That's the same thought. That's the same attitude. And now we begin to understand: listen, if that's our attitude, then great things will happen as a result of that, because it's our Lord who is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Who has subjected all things to himself because he is the ultimate victor. Turn with me over to the book of Mark for a moment, the eighth chapter.

Let me illustrate it for you this way. Most of you know about the situation there in Caesarea, Philippi. If you've had the opportunity to go to Israel with me and Be able to understand the whole location of Caesarea Philippi and what went on there with idol worship and satanic worship and all the statutes that were there. That were lined with all the different gods that they would worship. And Christ would ask a very simple question: Well, who do men say that I am? Who do men say that I am? We see all these gods, we see all these statues of all these great men, we understand that they're into idol worship.

And we know what they think about these false gods. Who do men say that I am? Well, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you're one of the prophets. Then Christ said, Well, who do you say that I am? Forget about the popular opinion. What's the personal opinion? What do you think? And you know what Peter said? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Matthew's account tells us that Christ said, Ah, blessed are you, Simon Bar. For flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Simon, you said the right thing. Said the right thing. But notice what Mark says. After Peter said, Thou art the Christ, he warned them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things. And be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he was stating the matter plainly or openly. In other words, listen, don't go around telling everybody I'm the Messiah because they don't understand the concept of Messiah.

But let me tell you openly and plainly what you need to tell them. The Son of Man has come to suffer and to die and to rise again three days later. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Peter says, You know, Christ, I'm not sure, Lord, that's what you want us to tell people. You want us to tell people you're going to die? Well, what kind of Messiah is that? You want to tell people you're going to suffer? Lord, I'm not sure we want to do that.

Let me tell you, Lord, what you ought to be telling people. And so Peter begins to rebuke the Lord. But the Lord then turns around and rebukes Peter. And listen to what the Lord says: He says, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your what? What does it say? Your mind on God's interests but on man's. Now that is exactly what Peter is referring to in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse number 1. You got to arm yourself with God's mind. You got to arm yourself with the purposes of Christ. Because if you don't, you're going to be like me, he says.

Remember me when people began to ridicule me and slander me? Oh, hey, yeah, you're with that man from Galilee. We saw you there. And Peter was unable to stand, he was a weakling. Because he didn't have the mind of Christ. He didn't arm himself with the same purpose of Christ. Peter says, or hears the Lord say, Peter, get behind me, because you don't have in mind God's interest. You have only in mind your interest. And see, that's why we fail under harsh criticism. That's why we can't stand for the gospel.

That's why, when we go to work and people begin to make fun of us, when we tell them that we can't work on Sunday because we got to go to church on Sunday, we got to honor the Lord because it's the Lord's Day, and we want to make sure that He is honored. That's why we don't stand up and say, you know what, you shouldn't be stalking like that because you see, you're taking the name of my Lord in vain, and I don't really appreciate that. And I would really appreciate it if you want to say those words, that you go someplace else, because my Lord is precious.

To me. See, we't stand up and say those things because we have our interests at stake, man's interest, not God's interest. We're not thinking about God, we're thinking about who. We're thinking about me. What people are going to think about me. Let me tell you something: nobody cares.

About what you think about you, except you. But all heaven cares about what you think about God. Right? See, we are really selfish people. Because all we can think about is ourselves. And that's Peter. Peter said, man, I was so selfish that I armed myself with my purposes. Oh Lord, you can't talk about your death. You can't talk about your suffering. But notice what Christ says.

And he summoned the multitude with his disciples and said to them: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself. And take up his cross and follow me. Whoa! For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel shall save it. If you're interested in God's purposes, then your life will be saved. If you're invested in your purposes, you're going to lose your life. For what is the profit of man to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul?

For what shall a man give in exchange? For his soul. Listen to verse 38. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with The holy angels. Listen, Christ wasn't done yet. Because if you go over to Mark chapter nine. In verse number 30, it says this: And from there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and he was unwilling for anyone to know about it, for he was teaching his disciples and telling them.

The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he has been killed, he will rise three days later. Here again, next chapter, he re what God's purpose is for him, what he is here to do, why he's going to do it. Now read the next verse, verse 32. But they did not understand the statement, and they were afraid to ask him. Why were they afraid to ask him? Because he's going to go into this tir. Our Lord's going to go off again. He's going to be saying, listen, if any man come after me, he's going to have to deny himself, take up a Cross and follow me, and if you're ashamed of me in this adulterous generation, then my father will be ashamed of you when he returns in all his glory.

And then you want to hear that again. They don't want to go through that again. They don't want to be reminded of what God has called them to do. They don't want to be reminded of God's purpose, of God's mind, because they were too wrapped up in their own mind and their own purposes. So they were afraid to ask him. And then, of course, you come to Mark chapter 10, you got the same thing. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. Jesus was walking on ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful.

And again he took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, Behold. We are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit upon him and scourge him and kill him. And three days later he will r again. Next verse, verse 35. Then James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to him, saying to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

They still didn't get it. They still had in mind their purposes. They still had in mind their interest. And of course, Christ says, What do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, Grant that we may sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, Yes, we are able. They had no idea what he was talking about. And Jesus said, Well. The cup that I drink, you shall drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those.

For whom it has been prep. He says, of course, the cup is in reference to the wrath. And the baptism is to take in all of what Christ Himself is taking in. He says, You know what? You will drink of that cup and you will be baptized. You will suffer persecution. You will suffer affliction. You will be ridiculed. You will be maligned. You bet you will. Next verse. And hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. Why were they mad? Because they asked the question that the other ten wanted to ask.

They wanted to sit on the left. They wanted to be on the right. You see that? All of that to say is Peter's taking this whole thing in. And so now he comes back over in 1 Peter 4, verse number 1. He has learned his lesson. There, since Christ has suffered to the point of death, arm yourselves. Put on your weapons of warfare. And how do you do that? By having the same purpose, the same mind, the same attitude that Christ had. It's almost as if he's saying, Because I didn't do that. I didn't do it, I failed miserably.

He says, I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to blow it. Arm yourself with that same purpose.