Arm Yourselves w/the Mind of Christ #2

Introduction: The Sobering Reality of Eternal Destiny

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, September 12, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. It is indeed an awesome, awesome thing to be a human being.

0:24 It's a frightening thing to stand to preach, realizing there are people within the sound of my voice who someday will wish they'd been born a dog.

0:36 That's a horrible thing.

0:39 Do we believe what we've sung? If so, there are people here who one day will wish they'd been born a dog, a grasshopper, a flea, a rat, a toad, for they have no never-dying soul, and they'll not be raised in the last day. But if sure as you sit in that pew and I stand in this pulpit, this is not religious fairy stuff, dear people. Your grave will be opened and so will mine,

1:09 and the Christ of whom we speak tonight will arbitrate and determine the future of the world. Our eternal destiny. Let's pray that God will help us to hear his word as those marked for death, the grave, for judgment, for heaven, and for hell. Let's pray.

1:30 Our Father, we are indeed sobered by the words we have sung together.

1:38 And as we seek to bring before our mind's eye that awesome day when all that are in the grave shall come forth, sung to the rest of the world, to the resurrection of life, others to the resurrection of judgment. Oh, how we pray that you will help us to attend to your word and to attend to the deepest concerns of our souls as those who truly believe the things of which we've sung. Help us now as we come to your word that we may know your Spirit's presence taking the things of Christ and revealing them with clarity and with power, bringing to our hearts the full range of holy emotions, of fear, of joy, of peace, of love. Oh, God, come and visit us, we pray, for our good and for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Review of 1 Peter 4:1-2 and the Call to Arm with Christ's Mind

2:43 Now we're going to turn again tonight to 1 Peter chapter 4. For those who were here this morning, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, this will be, I'm sure for many of you. We come to 1 Peter chapter 4. I had originally planned to bring the third and final message from Mark 8 verses 34 through chapter 9 and verse 1 as we've been considering our Lord Jesus' terms of discipleship, but in the light of the fact that this morning I had only the time to give the basic exposition of the first two verses in chapter 4, I felt like I should have given you a little bit of time to do that.

3:22 I felt it would be wise and several of you were solicitous in that direction that I open up the applications and observations that I had planned to give this morning and not to allow an intervening week before we came back to the passage. So here then as I read 1 Peter 4 verses 1 through 6. For as much then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that you should no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revelings, carousing, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it's true, but it's strange that you run not with them into the same excessive riot, speaking evil of you. Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead? For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

4:48 Now what I propose to do tonight is to give a brief review of what we are going to do today. We discovered in our efforts to open up the text this morning and then move to four lines of observation and application based upon this portion of the Word of God. We saw this morning that this section continues the central pastoral burden of Peter in the book of 1 Peter, namely to give instruction and comfort and exhortation to the suffering saints in Asia Minor. Thus assisting them in their present circumstances and to prepare them for future suffering for the sake of Christ.

5:32 And we had occasion to note that after the instruction of chapter 3 verses 13 to 22, in which Peter lays out basic perspectives on the suffering of the child of God, gives directives to them in terms of the example and pattern of Christ, verses 18 to 22. Here in chapter 4 he is going to draw some practical instructions and seek to further equip the saints of God for their suffering. And in chapter 4 verses 1 to 6 he is telling them that if they are to suffer as they ought to their profit, to God's glory and to the validation of the gospel, that they must be equipped with a right attitude of mind. And so the only imperative in these first six verses focuses upon this matter of being equipped or armed with a proper mindset. And then in verses 7 through 11 he tells them that in the midst of their suffering they are to be animated by hope but to live fruitful Christian lives in the fellowship of the church while in the midst of those sufferings. Then we focused in upon verses 1 and 2, and I sought to expound the text under these four headings.

6:59 We looked at the foundational fact reasserted for as much then as Christ suffered in the flesh. Peter never tires of coming back to this theme in this epistle. And he lays the foundation for this present exhortation by reasserting that fact that Christ, suffered in the flesh. And then we looked at the central exhortation issued.

7:28 And that central exhortation is, arm yourselves with the same mind. Using the figure of a soldier putting on his armor, or possibly a farmer taking up his equipment to farm as he ought, Peter says that we are to be furnished with a specific kind of mindset. Even the mindset that regulated our Lord Jesus in the midst of his suffering. And then we looked at the underlying principle stated in the middle of, or toward the end of verse 1.

8:06 For he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. And my understanding of that portion of the text is that Peter is affirming that when one has experienced some specific crucifixion, some specific crucifixion, a crucible of suffering for righteousness sake, he validates that the dominion of sin has been broken in his life and that he is indeed a true child of God. He who has suffered in the flesh, it's not a present tense. He who is suffering, and it does not speak of something future, shall be cleansed or shall be caused to cease from sin.

8:49 He's speaking of an accomplished reality. The one who has suffered in the flesh, the one who has in some degree entered into the fellowship of Christ's suffering in the way of righteousness, makes it evident that he has been brought to the place where he has ceased from sin. Sin's lordship and dominion has been repudiated. And then we looked at the goal of the exhortation described in verse 2.

9:19 If we use that last phrase, or think of it as a parenthetical statement, here's the connection. For as much as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind in order that to the end that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. Now with that brief review behind us, now let us fasten upon four lines of observation and application. That I believe are warranted from our text.

The Centrality of the Cross in Apostolic Teaching

9:54 And the first is this. I want you to note with me the centrality of the cross of Christ in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. Note the centrality of the cross of Christ in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. In the previous section, Peter had gone from Christ in his suffering and death, in verse 18 of chapter 2.

10:21 In chapter 3, Christ suffered for sins, having been put to death in the flesh. He took Christ, in this description, from his death upon the cross to his enthronement at the right hand of God, in verse 22, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. But now when he goes to make application. He does not stay with Christ in glory upon the throne in heaven, but he takes us back to a suffering Christ.

11:01 For as much then, not for as much then as Christ has been enthroned as the reward of his sufferings, enthroned as the fruition of his sufferings, but he takes us back to this central issue of the death of Christ on the heaven. Now, I want you to note that this is not the case. This is not the case. This is not the case.

11:22 In fact, in the firstачtion of this genealogy, the saints of Matthew and John, they, through the epistle, understand that, as we read, the Christ in the temple in the temple of the Lord, came into the faith. And when we read the apostolic letters in the New Testament, we find that this is a dominant motif in all of their instruction on the Christian life. And what Peter does here is something that he does throughout this epistle. And when we read the apostolic letters in the New Testament, we find that this is a dominant motif in all of their instruction on the Christian life.

11:40 They constantly take us back to the cross of Christ as the central regulating element in the Christians' experience. And in this epistle, as you can see, some of the apostolic letters we have seen will always be the significant element in the Christians' experience. experience. Peter will go on in this very epistle to make further applications of the sufferings of Christ and their relationship to the life and experience of the child of God. Now why does Peter do this? Why do the other apostles do this? Why does the apostle Paul, for example, as we saw a couple of weeks ago in dealing with the problem of division at Corinth, why does he take them to the cross and say in 1 Corinthians 1.13, was Paul crucified for you? He takes them back to the cross.

12:29 In chapter 6, when he's going to deal with the subject of immorality, he says what? Don't you know you have been bought with a price? He takes them back to the cross in dealing with the problem of whether slaves should seek freedom or not. He says, look, don't become the slaves of men. Why?

12:47 You. You were bought with a price. When he's dealing with the duties of husbands in Ephesians chapter 5, husbands, love your wives. How? As Christ loved by being willing to leave heaven and become incarnate?

13:02 That would be a powerful motive. That would be an excellent paradigm for a Christian's husband's love to his wife, willing to sacrifice for her in terms of the self-emptying that Jesus underwent in coming to the cross. And he says, look, don't you know you have been bought with a price? He's willing to take true humanity to himself, but he doesn't do that. What he says is, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. In motives to holiness, the cross is brought forward again and again. Galatians 1.4, Titus 2.14. We could literally cite dozens of passages from the New Testament. Particularly the apostolic letters. Now, why do they do this? Let me suggest they do this because they believed and laid to heart the teaching of their Lord in John chapter 6. And here I would

14:03 ask you to turn to this passage with me. In John chapter 6, in the great discourse concerning his identity as the bread of life, Jesus said, in verse 53, Therefore said to them, John 6.33, Truly, truly, I say to you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh, present, and drinks my blood, present, abides in me, present, and I in him. What is the bond of the Christian's union to Christ and Christ's union with the believer? It is eating his flesh and drinking his blood, which is metaphorical language for the reality of feeding the soul upon a crucified Christ.

15:21 That's what Jesus is saying. The one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood is the one who by faith constantly feeds and nourishes his soul upon a crucified Savior. One, yes, who is no longer in the tomb, who is at the right hand of the Father, who is exalted and glorified, but we feed by faith upon him in his identity as the crucified Savior. Listen to the Apostles' verifying word in Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who was incarnate for me. That would be true. I live by faith in the Son of God who was exalted for me.

16:21 That would be true, but that isn't what the Apostle says. He says, I live by faith in the Son of God, and the Son of God particularly in the focus of faith in what identity? The Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I live by faith, and that faith in the full complex of its exercise has as its focal point a crucified Savior. The Apostle understood that eternal life in him was nourished by feeding upon Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood. And that is a vital principle of the Christian life that is illustrated here in Peter's treatment of this very practical subject of how to be prepared to suffer as we ought to suffer. As the children of God, as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. Seek to understand and appropriate to yourself the mindset that was operative in your Savior, not primarily in the full complex

17:40 of his life, but in his experience in the face of his suffering, particularly in the pinnacle of that suffering as experience. And that is what we have expressed as we saw this morning in Gethsemane and on to Golgotha. When we pick up the New Testament and we ask ourselves what are the central issues with respect to the life history of the Lord Jesus, if someone were to ask us, can you give me in a nutshell what are the historical events in the life history of the Lord Jesus that are significant for our salvation, we could answer that there are four events, historical facts that have profound saving significantly. All of them C's. His cradle, his cross, his crown and the clouds. I want to try to visualize this with me, if I had a blackboard that could be then manipulated to put it in 3 dimensions, I would place first of all on the blackboard, in a one-dimensional way, these four realities of God intervene between people Leb data Ros всегоustering in tere definitia Gratitude.

18:53 realities cradle cross clouds there I'm speaking of the clouds that enveloped him when after his resurrection he ascended to heaven and then above these three cradle cross clouds there would be I'm sorry uh yeah crown crown is when he's exalted and then the clouds when he comes in glory so we have cradle cross crown and clouds then I would ask you here they are all on a flat projection now if we're to put it in three dimensions which one or more of these ought to be drawn out so that it is prominent that when we look at all others we see the others with that prominent one stamped upon our eyeballs but when we read through the new testament there's no question it is the cross in the center that would be pushed forward and standing either side would be cradle and crown and then above it the clouds of glory in which he comes it is the cradle that gives worth to the cross if it is not Immanuel God with us if it is not the word made flesh then his death can have no more value than yours or mine but it is the sinless incarnation of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit and the Holy

20:19 Spirit and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit are in it's son of God that gives it's son of God that gives worth and validity to the cross the cross without the resurrection would be empty and vain for certain interesting Christ be not raised let that are not great our theta's painting we're getting our sin and slowly days who complex with his exaltation culminating in his being seetha the right hand of God the ballot drawing and r prejudice of the significant sense that unethical spirit blindness searing which is Destruction of the living being. He lived Catholic in His colonialiebengnacaz acknowledge the el 잘못gla กерж mio�논ש יי anh Saint' shares us both the significance this believersagar supply of the HO Cen plus who does all these things and of the cross and all of it will come to glorious consummation when he comes in the clouds of power but prominent and standing out in front of the others is his cross now why do i take the time to underscore this and to isolate this principle that is embedded in peter's treatment of the doctrine of suffering i do it for the simple reason that i want you as god's people to be armed with a test for the teaching to which you are exposed whether from this pulpit in books that you read in radio broadcasts that you listen to in anything that purports to be an expression of biblical truth ask yourself the question what place does it give to christ crucified now you must ask who is the christ of whom they speak as having died for sinners is he incarnate deity

21:47 is he the christ of the biblical cradle well if he is then you must ask what place is given to his cross yes we must ascertain if christ is preached as having been raised and exalted if the cross is flanked on the other side by the crown and if there is a full-armed conviction that he will come again in clouds of glory and of power i am not saying that the only note to be sounded is the cross no is the cross flanked by the cradle flanked by the crown and overshadowed from above by the clouds but it is the cross that is to be central from the proclamation of the gospel on the threshold all the way through to the most mature deep rich teaching on the christian life we never move beyond the cross we move deeper into its unfathomable depths we come to a place where we have a broader richer understanding of its implications but we do not move from christ crucified we move into and deeper into christ crucified now apply this with respect to his three offices you're introduced to his offices this morning

23:06 you'll be hearing more of that in the adult class as our redeemer christ occupies the office of prophet priest and king shorter catechism both in the state of his humiliation and his exaltation and that is true he is prophet to teach priest to forgive and intercede for us king to rule over and to protect us and the shorter catechism definitions of those offices are beautiful and i commend them to you for your memorization however we must not think of them again as being one-dimensional as though he is to be thought of and fed upon in the christian life equally as prophet priest and king for the apostolic doctrine of the christian life gives a prominence to his priestly function that overshadows it does not negate it does not cancel but it overshadows and in a real sense is there to make sense of his office as prophet and as king and when you get around teaching on the christian life that is biblically imbalanced and there is an improper emphasis upon christ as prophet you will

24:27 often find there people emphasizing that we as christians and any ministry that is a biblical ministry ought to be addressing the great social and political issues of the day and there will be an emphasis upon the kingship of christ over every discipline christ kingship in the arts in the sciences christ kingship in culture all of which have a very substantial biblical element of truth but when christ is king overshadows christ as priest something is out of whack there may not be blatant heresy but there is an imbalance jesus did not say he who feeds upon my crown and he who eats my scepter has eternal life but he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life paul did not say i live by faith in the son of god who is exalted and enthroned and reigns for me he said the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me so beware of teaching that may be in many ways substantially and essentially biblical but it gives an emphasis to the kingship of christ that overshadows his role as priest and likewise with the king of the church and the king of the church and the king of the church and the king of the church and the king of the church and the king of the church and the king of the church and the

25:50 with regard to this matter of being progress progress the emphasis will fall upon christ the sin rebuker of the social reformist king christ a commercial price the one who wants all of life and every stream of blood under his kingship at the expense of that do emphasis upon christまぁ priest dr baptist words are never out beat when the lord jesus came within the u He pointed to him and said, Behold, not the voice of God who takes away the ignorance of the world, though that's true. He could have said, Behold the voice of God. Behold the prophet of whom Moses spoke. The prophet who would dispel our ignorance and fully and perfectly reveal the Father.

26:42 Behold the voice of God that dispels the ignorance of the world. He didn't say that. Nor did he say, Behold the rule of God who takes away the rebellion of the world. He didn't say that.

26:57 He said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. Am I making sense? And if that little rule of thumb is embedded within your spirit and your eye is keen to catch the emphases that are there, in the New Testament, you will be furnished with something that will keep you from even getting close enough to imbalance in these matters, to be ensnared by it. I have lived long enough in my 47 years as a Christian to see good and godly men rendered far less useful than they could have been because they didn't grasp this principle.

27:40 And they haven't denied the Christian faith. They haven't thrown over their belief in the Scriptures. As the infallible, inspired Word of God, the deity of Christ, the historicity of all the things affirmed of Him. But Christ crucified is no longer the central passion of their hearts and of their ministries.

28:02 And it's tragic because the great and most delightful work of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to Christ. And in bearing witness to Christ, He delights in nothing more than to bear witness to Him as the Lamb of God. Who takes away the sin of the world. This is why Paul, coming to Corinth, could say, and looking back upon his evangelistic endeavors, And I, brethren, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 and 2, And I, brethren, when I came among you, determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him as what?

28:38 Not Him as prophet, not Him as king, but Him as priest, and Him as crucified. I knew, he said, That this message would be offensive to Jews, it would be foolishness to Greeks, but to those whom God was calling, it would be the what? The very instrument of divine power. We preach Christ what?

29:01 Christ crucified. Yes, not an unincarnate Christ. Yes, not one who was not raised and exalted. Those things flank the message.

The Recurring Emphasis on the Imitation of Christ

29:12 But central is Christ and Him crucified. And all the way along, the entire Christian life, we never grow beyond, but grow in that reality. But then, notice secondly from our passage, another principle. Note the recurring emphasis on the imitation of Christ in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life.

29:35 The recurring emphasis on the imitation of Christ in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. Here in our passage, Peter says, Then as Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. He is calling to an aspect of the imitation of Christ. He is calling these believers to imbibe, and by the grace of God, to be possessed with the same mindset with which their Lord was possessed as He faced and went through His sufferings victoriously.

30:16 He had done this earlier in chapter 2 and verse 21. Speaking to the household slaves, for here unto were you called because Christ also suffered for you. That's vicarious, substitutionary sin-bearing on the part of Jesus. But He not only suffered for you to be your substitute, He suffered for you to be your example, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example.

30:47 He not only suffered for you, procuring your redemption, but he suffered leaving you an example. Not an example of how to be a savior of others. That's impossible for us. But an example of how to suffer to the glory of God. And not only does Peter do this, but Paul does this. Paul in his epistles tells us to look to Christ as an example of specific Christian graces. I've already alluded to Ephesians 5. He's to be our example as husbands. When we ask how and in what way am I to love my wife, Paul says look to the example of Christ who loved the church, gave himself up for it, who nourishes, who cherishes the church because it is his very own body. John does it.

31:40 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. In 2 Corinthians 3 18 Paul says, but we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another. Underscoring that the imitation of Christ is not wooden and external. It is dynamic. It is spiritual. It is effected by the work of the spirit in the heart. But imitation it is. Not bare imitation. It's imitation that effects transformation. But imitation.

32:18 It is imitation. It is imitation. Christ himself said I've left you an example to do as I have done to you. Follow my example. I've taken the role of a servant. I've done the servant's task. Follow my example. Now I don't want to beat it thin at the edges but I want to give enough text to substantiate for some newer to the Christian faith that this is indeed a recurring emphasis in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. The imitation of Christ. Now why have many of us been a bit skittish about this emphasis? And we don't like to talk too much about imitating Christ. Well it's probably because consciously or unconsciously we are overreacting to liberalism that wants nothing of a Christ who suffers for us. The concept of substitutionary blood atonement is offensive to the liberal. He calls that a slaughterhouse religion.

33:18 He doesn't want a God who has righteous fury against sin and whose fury can only be satisfied and his sword of justice slaked in the heart of his own son. He doesn't want that. And in our overreaction to liberalism that makes much of imitating Christ perhaps we have so overreacted that we do not give due place to this biblical emphasis. And then of course it may be an overreaction to the liberalism that is imitating Christ. And then of course it may be an overreaction to mysticism and monasticism in which the imitation of Christ led to such extremes as claiming to be marked by the very wounds of Christ and this fixation upon a crucifix and trying as it were to project from the crucifix into the experience of the so-called believer something of the felt sufferings of Christ. Perhaps it's an overreaction to that. And for some of us I'm sure it's an overreaction to fadism. You have to again be living on another planet as far as what's going on in the evangelical circles if you don't know what I'm saying

34:27 when I talk about the WWJD fad. How many of you don't know what the WWJD fad is? How many of you do not? I'm not being insulting. I want to know them. Well the WWJD fad is bracelets, t-shirts, maybe they even have underwear. I don't know but they've got everything short of that that has on it the letters WWJD. What would Jesus do? And this stuff is being marketed millions of dollars being turned over supposedly to help people to witness. I went to a conference last year and everyone who attended that conference had a room key and you had to have your room key checked. Problem was most people don't have a lariat on which to carry this big room key, motel sized key. The conference grounds just happened to make available WWJD lanyards for about $3.50 so you could hang your key on it. And the thought is that this will give you opportunities to

35:37 witness. Well whatever the motives may be I leave that with God. But perhaps in reacting against that we said wait a minute this is cheap. This cheapens the sobriety and seriousness and it has a fundamental fad. If they're going to put out armbands and lanyards and t-shirts it shouldn't be WWJD because what that leads to is people thinking what they think Jesus would do. What would Jesus do? We're not called to imitate what we think Jesus would do. It should be WWDJD. What did Jesus do? And that locks us into an objective revelation in the Bible. Now you see the difference? And you say pastor oh you're a stickler for words. Yes words embody thoughts and thoughts either damn or save. I don't care what anybody thinks about what would

36:32 Jesus do. I'm deeply concerned with what Jesus actually did. That's what I'm called to imitate and the only way I know what Jesus did is to see what he did in my Bible and that's the Christ whom I am to imitate. And Peter was not at all afflicted with any drawing back in fear that there would be some excesses and therefore as he carries on his treatment of suffering he picks up that theme already clearly articulated in chapter 2 and he plunks it right down again in the entire Christian community and says as Christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same mind imitate the mindset of Jesus. That means that if we are to follow the apostolic directives to the imitation of Christ we must constantly be beholding him in the scriptures. Am I saying that no Christian is a healthy Christian who doesn't continually read as part of his devotions a section of the gospels? No. I have no biblical warrant to say that. But I can say if you go

37:52 through lengthy patches with no significant reflective reading in the gospels there will most likely be some marked deficiencies in your Christian life. How can you imitate an unknown Christ and where do you get to know him except as he's revealed in the word. So if you don't have the habit of reading regularly. I didn't say every day. I'm not binding consciences but with some degree of reading regularly. I'm not binding consciences but with some degree of reading regularly. Beholding Christ in the word. How can you imitate him? And especially in terms of our text today that link our successful dealing with suffering with having the mindset that regulated our Lord in his suffering and each of the gospels takes up a minimum of one fourth of its entire content with the last week of our Lord. Someone has called the gospels passionately.

38:53 Narratives with lengthy prefixes. Narratives of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. And so I would urge you to behold him regularly in the word. And then when you see him in the word to specifically pray Lord Jesus make me like yourself in that area. When you see him patient with his thick headed disciples. You say Lord Jesus make me patient with my thick headed kids.

39:24 How many times if I had to tell them the same thing over and over and over and over again. When you see the Lord Jesus with his disciples patiently especially in that latter section of his earthly pilgrimage. He begins to tell them plainly I'm going to suffer and die. They don't get it. It says this saying was held from them. So he again tells them I'm going to suffer and die. They still don't get it. But he patiently patiently instructs them. You see that and you say oh Lord make me like yourself. Give me the patience.

39:54 To be like you in that. When you see him in his tender sensitive response to human needs. Say Lord pull the layers of calloused indifference off my heart. Jesus could not see human need without being stirred. That untranslatable word is found several times in the gospels. Moved with compassion. His viscera. His bowels are ripped open and stirred.

40:21 And you say oh God forgive me. I can see human need. I can see human need and suffering and not feel an inward twitch. Have mercy upon my hard calloused heart. Then you see the Lord Jesus in his righteous resolve. We talk about the need for men who are men. See the Lord Jesus when his eyes flash fire and he sees his father's house turned into a zoo. He takes a scourge of cords and with manly courage and strength rips through the temple.

40:55 And the Greek is bitted. He overturns the tables. They weren't made of stamped metal weighing 20 pounds. Heavy wooden tables. And he turns them over. You can hear the coins clattering upon the stone floor. And he's driving out the beast. Can you see the ox and the cattle and the peacocks flapping and squawking. And in the midst is someone that looks like a madman. Driving them out.

41:25 And Mark says. He stands as a sentinel then and he would not permit anyone to pass through the temple. How does one man keep at bay dozens or hundreds of the worshippers who come from all over the world expecting to find their zoo in the temple. And one man keeps them away. I tell you it wasn't some laid back dude looking half asleep. He had the vigor and the fire of resolute manhood stirred to its heightest pitch.

41:57 It was a beautiful thing to see a man acting with manly courage. And you see that and say oh God take the wimp out of me. God take the wimp out of me. As a woman what manly courage means for you as a woman. Christ is your perfect model. It will find a difference psychological and physical and emotional expression. But Christ is the perfect model for every woman as well as for every man in his graces.

42:27 And you pray for his temple. You pray for his forgiveness. You pray for his courage. I leave the rest. I've sown a few seeds for you. And then having beheld him in the word. Having prayed to be like him in specific revelations of his character and the way he responded to people. The way he dealt with people. Then you consciously set out to imitate him. Though it is imitation by internal transformation. It is not impassive imitation.

42:59 And you fix in your mind that aspect of our Lord's character. And when you're in a parallel situation you say now Lord help me. I'm going to try to be like you. And actually try to be like him. Lord Jesus give me grace. As I seek to walk as you walk. The walking is your task. He that sayeth he abideth in him ought to walk as he walked. Peter has said arm yourself.

43:30 Peter scored this morning. It's an imperative. It's an aorist imperative. It means decisive action. It's a middle. Arm for yourself. You do it. Arm yourself with the very mind that Christ had as he faced his sufferings.

43:48 Here is the recurring emphasis on the imitation of Christ in the apostolic teaching of the Christian life. And while holding vigorously as Peter did to the uniqueness of Christ's suffering. As a substitute for his people. The uniqueness of Christ's life as the sinless holy undefiled son of God. Let us not be ashamed to say as we say with unashamed confession I am a believer in Christ. To say with equal conviction I am an imitator of Christ.

The Necessity for Mental Focus in Christian Living

44:23 Then thirdly note the necessity for mental focus in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. The necessity for mental focus in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life. We go back to our text. For as much then as Christ suffered in the flesh. Get a warm fuzzy feeling as you think about his sufferings and hope your feelings will carry the day.

44:56 That is what Peter says. Nothing about warm fuzzy feelings. He says arm yourselves with the same mind. Furnish yourselves with that armor that is a mindset parallel to and in some way similar to though never attaining the full standard of the mind of your blessed Lord.

45:23 The one imperative in this paragraph focuses upon the necessity or underscores the necessity for mental focus. in living the Christian life. And Peter's not unique in this. It's not the only time in his epistle.

45:41 Look back earlier in this very epistle.

45:47 His first exhortation comes in chapter 1 in verse 13. Some of you can remember way back then we had occasion to note that this was the first exhortation in the book. The first imperative comes here. It says, wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

46:15 Peter says, you cannot set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you if you don't understand the discipline of mental focus. He says, your mind is like a long flowing garment and if you're going to run, you've got to gather in all the loose folds and tie them up with a sash. He says, tie up! Tie up all the loose ends of your mind.

46:36 Mental focus. He said it's a prerequisite to setting your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And then further on in chapter 4, he's going to emphasize this again. Verse 7, the end of all things is at hand.

46:53 Be therefore of a sound mind. It's an effort to translate one Greek word. Be of a sound mind. And Peter's emphasis is the emphasis of the New Testament.

47:08 If I start quoting Romans 12, many of you could quote it with me. I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service, and be not conformed to this world or this age, but be ye transformed, how? By the warming of your affections. And in what he says,

47:37 be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. The renewing of the mind. Transformed by the renewing of your mind. Again, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17 and following, Paul says you're no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk.

47:58 And what frames their walk? How they think. This is how he describes it. No longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the vanity, of their mind.

48:09 What's the outstanding characteristic of the way the unconverted walk? It's the vanity of their mind. It's the nothingness of the way they think.

48:19 Being darkened in their understanding. Alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Vanity of the mind, darkened in the understanding because of the ignorance that is in them. Because of the hardening of the heart.

48:36 Who being past feeling, et cetera, but you did not so learn Christ. If so, be you heard him and were taught of him as the truth is in Jesus that you put away concerning your former manner of life the old man that waxes corrupt after the lust of deceit and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You see the focus upon this matter of the mind. And we could find several other pivotal passages or sites, several other passages that show the necessity for many, focus in the apostolic teaching on the Christian life.

Application: Wage War on Mental Dullness and Embrace Diligent Learning

49:12 Now, what practical use is it to underscore that? Well, I hope it is a practical use. First of all, if you're serious about growing as a Christian, you must learn to wage war upon anything that weakens or dulls your mental powers. Anything that weakens or dulls your mental powers will erode the health of your soul. You got that? If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, if we are to have the right perspective as Christians, setting our hope upon the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Christ, and we cannot do that unless we first of all gird up the loins of the mind, gather in the loose ends whatever weakens or dulls my mental powers are an enemy to my soul. No matter how innocent the thing itself may be. Now, you know where I'm going, don't you, kids? What happens

50:18 to your mental powers when you sit hour after hour in front of the tube?

50:27 What's it doing? It's dulling your mental faculties. You sit in front of your video game with your joystick with your little buttons.

50:41 What is that doing to this precious gift called your mind? It is dulling and weakening its faculties. Not to talk about the waste of time. And you will not make progress as a Christian if you squander your mental powers in that way. Now, someone may need, given amount of time in front of his TV this way or that way for mental relaxation, I am not debating that. So don't anyone go, Pastor said you like to teach, teach, teach. Pastor didn't say that. And if you say I said it, it's because I'm really pinching a nerve and you're trying to quiet your nerve.

51:25 I'm not a fanatic. I know what it is to watch the television with discretion for legitimate mental diversion.

51:36 And if that's a sin, I confess it freely. But what I'm going after is you kids have got to recognize that though your parents may be sloppy and careless in monitoring your TV, you won't be able to point an accusing finger at mom and dad for their carelessness. God commands you to love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Now, mom and dad, shame on you if you leave your kids vulnerable to the innate bent of depraved human nature, which is toward mental laziness.

52:12 But you kids have a responsibility before God. It also means you won't resent the fact that your teachers make you work. One of the greatest heresies brought in by modern educational philosophy and probably more strengthened by any other means by no other means than Sesame Street is that if it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing. If education ain't fun, I ain't going to get educated.

52:51 I'll be a jerk. And I'll be a dust. Can you make it fun for me? Somebody dancing, somebody singing.

52:59 Do-do-do-do-do-do. Where do you find in the Bible that exercising the muscles of your brain is going to be crumbed? When people find out that I'm still stupid enough to discipline myself to work out regularly on the treadmill in the weight machine. Say, do you enjoy it? I say, no.

53:22 No. The only part I enjoy is listening to tapes. I've listened through the whole Bible in the last couple of years. The New Testament, I don't know how many times I get so blessed.

53:32 But if I'm not listening to the Bible, I just, say, you dumb old fool, you've paid your dues. Quit it. Nobody's going to get mad at you. What do you expect to accomplish at this stage?

53:45 The old tent's getting all creaky and leaks in it and all the rest and soon going to get dismantled, so let it go to pot. It's not fun. But my Bible, common sense and observation, tells us that many things are not fun, that are our duty and they're good for us. And so, kids, don't buy into this nonsense that your teachers are under an obligation.

54:09 To make all your learning experience fun. And don't you teachers labor under any sense of guilt because you can't find how to make getting into some kid's thick head a grasp upon certain disciplines to make it fun and games. Life is not fun and games. And you don't start living life when you turn 19 or 18.

54:31 Welcome to the real world, kids. God put you here to work. Say in the fourth commandment, six days shall tell labor when you turn 18.

54:45 I didn't try that in my Bible.

54:49 He put you here to work. And your blessed Lord, who was a little boy, it says he grew in wisdom. You think somebody was breaking their neck in Palestine trying to find how to make learning his Hebrew alphabet fun? I doubt it.

55:07 He went to the local Hebrew school and he sat there with some old rabbi with a stern look and said, learn this or you'll get your knuckles wrapped. But he grew in wisdom. He grew in stature. And I doubt Joseph found ways to make learning all the disciplines of an efficient carpenter fun.

55:27 Certain physical disciplines aren't fun. They work. The joy comes when you accomplish a task well. And you know that God smiles.

55:37 And that far exceeds any quote, fun you get by avoiding the labor and the discipline of arduous application. So in the light of this, emphasis in the New Testament on mental focus gives give up the notion that learning's going to be all fun. The fun will come if the Lord spares you. And down the line, you have enough perspective and maturity to look back and realize how much you are reaping the fruit of diligent application.

56:12 And you'll have an exquisite joy that far exceeds any frothy little bit of fun you might have had, had you not applied yourself to that discipline.

Illustration: Miss Reynolds and the Discipline of English Grammar

56:24 Now most of you have heard about my English teacher, Miss Reynolds. My wife has threatened on more than one occasion. She said, one of these days, I'm going to scandalize you by telling the whole Christian world that for 43 years, I've lived with another woman in my home. And what she's talking about is Miss Reynolds.

56:47 She was my 8th and 9th grade English teacher. And she pounded into , uh, certain fundamental elements of English grammar, pronunciation, syntax, that my kids will tell you, they lived with Miss Reynolds. Every time they would mix things up and pronounce things incorrectly and they would use our singular nouns and plural verbs and the rest, I'd correct them. They lived with Miss Reynolds.

57:18 But I wish I could resurrect that woman and thank her. I've reaped the fruits of the discipline. And when she was pounding into us, for example, that lie and lay and how you knew which one to use, where and when, and you knew that to lay, uh, in the present tense was a transitive verb and have to have an object and you start to say something you weren't sure whether to lie or lay and say, well, I was going to lie, I put it somewhere. You chose another word because I can remember her.

57:47 Tall, stately woman with a kind of gracious intimidating bearing about her. And when I would use, the word lay in the wrong way, she'd stand up in front of the whole class and say, ha ha, Albert, what you gonna lay? An egg? You had Miss Reynolds look you in the eye and talk to you about laying an egg. You learned how to use lie and lay and lay and lane and have lane. Oh yes, you learned. Was it fun? No. No.

58:21 But I'm so thankful that I've been able to go into situations, particularly in the United Kingdom, where they're sick and tired of Americans butchering the King's English and have men come and whisper in my ear and say, my brother, I'm so glad I can listen to you preach because you respect our language. That's the thrill. You see? You want that?

Application: Desire and Expect Demanding Preaching

58:46 In this area, in that area? And above all, you want to be a mature Christian? You want to be a mature Christian? Begins here in the discipline of the Christian life. Assuming God has changed your heart, given you the desire to serve Him, and even if you're not a Christian, God will not put down in you by a deposit of supernatural grace the fruit of mental discipline that otherwise might have been there had you been more disciplined even in your unconverted experience. Then I have a third application under this matter. Don't desire or expect teaching and preaching in this place that dumbs down the Christian faith and makes your instruction entertaining. Don't desire or expect teaching and preaching which dumbs down divine truth.

59:44 We who preach and teach must labor. This is what we're set apart to do. To labor in the word and in teaching, and the word for labor means to labor, to sweat. We must labor to be accurate, biblical, simple, clear. Yes, we must labor to be engaging, interesting, arresting, compelling, in our presentation of divine truth. Some of us perhaps would live longer if we took a little more laid back approach to communicating what we've sought to prepare from the word of God. But at the end of the day, we can't think for you, we can't repent for you, we can't believe for you. And we can't dumb down God's truth so you can all sit back and just be carried along by the next anecdote.

60:37 It's lovely when you tell an anecdote and everybody comes over. I told a little incident about Miss Reynolds. Some of you are half asleep, you're all awake. You see the temptation would be, boy, if that gets in the way, let me tell another one.

60:48 And another one, and another one, and that's all you'll get in many churches is anecdotes hung together with an occasional phrase from the Bible. How'd they get that way? When people got lazy and tolerated it and wanted it and asked for it. They got what they wanted. May God grant that that will never happen in this place. As I was preparing this past week and studying this text, I came across these comments from John Brown. He said, truth lodged in the mind by being understood and believed and meditated on is the grand means of warfare, both defensive and offensive with error and sin and with those malignant spiritual agencies that are constantly endeavoring to lead us into error and sin. It is by arming ourselves with true thoughts that the Christian is prepared with determined resolution to stand and withstand his good fight is the fight of faith.

61:49 His sword the word of God, his shield the confidence and his helmet the hope which that word believed excites in the soul. And in getting that truth into people's minds, John Brown said in another setting, the subject is a wide and interesting one, but I must confine myself to a hurried sketch of leading thoughts which you do well to follow out in your private meditations. My object is a Christian teacher now and at all times should be not to save my hearers the trouble of thinking but if possible to compel them to think and to furnish them with some helps for thinking rightly and usefully. He said my job is not to think for my hearers but to compel them to think and to furnish them with some helps for thinking rightly and usefully. Then I come to my final observation from the text. Having seen that people are not to think for their hearers but to think for their hearers. The reader is simply in line with the overall apostolic teaching with his fixation upon Christ crucified with his emphasis on the imitation of Christ underscoring the necessity for mental focus, we come fourthly note the sharp line of division between the people of God and the unconverted in

The Sharp Line of Division Between God's People and the Unconverted

63:19 apostolic teaching. When Peter gives the purpose of his exhortation he says it is to the end that those who by the grace of God have manifested that they have done with sin that they have ceased from sin perhaps better rendered to give the emphasis of the passage that they have been made to cease from sin is that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lust of men but to the will of God and he sets out only one of two alternatives you live to the lust of men or you live to the will of God that's it a clear line of demarcation the overall pattern and drift of every man, woman boy or girl's life is living to the desires of men framing life by the thinking and perspectives of unregenerate men or framing life, thinking, motives standards, goals, ambitions framing them all by the revealed will of God in his word a clear line of demarcation and when Peter makes it here he's only doing what the apostolic writers do again and again take a passage such as Romans 8 he goes on to say after focusing in upon flesh and spirit

64:47 to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded life and peace he's described two spheres they that are after the flesh they mind the things of the flesh they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit they that are in the flesh cannot please God you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you you're in the flesh or in the spirit is anyone perfectly working out what it means to be in the spirit no, is anyone fully and perfectly consummately wicked who is living in the flesh no, but still only two basic realms you live in the realm of the flesh in the realm of the spirit John does the same thing in 1 John for example chapter 3 he goes on to say those that are born of God they do not make a practice of sin he that makes a practice of sin is not born of God in this the children of God the children of the devil are manifest he that does righteousness he is of God, he who does not righteousness he's a child of the devil there is a clear line of demarcation Galatians 5 22-24 the works of the flesh are manifest 519, I'm sorry, they are and he lists them, the fruit of the spirit he lists them, then he puts the capstone by saying and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof the line of demarcation is clear

66:15 and it's a grievous thing to see that line blurred with all of this nonsensical teaching as we alluded to this morning we are not Christians but they are not living like Christians and they are just going to lose a bag of yo-yos when they go to heaven they trusted Christ, they nodded to Jesus way in the distant past they are fixed up no my friends, there is no such category in the word of God saved, lost the just, the unjust the righteous, the unrighteous born of God, children of the devil in the flesh, in the spirit that's the line of demarcation living in the flesh to the lust of men or living in the flesh to the will of God and isn't that what John said in 1 John 2 love not the world, neither the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world passes away in the lust thereof but he that does the will of God abides forever people who live by their lust people who do the will of God that's the line of demarcation on which side are you where do you come down on that line no there is no middle ground no middle ground my friend Jesus said he that is not with me is what against me he that gathers not with me scatters the apostles are just reflecting

Closing Prayer

67:45 what their Lord said no man can serve two masters he that loves the one and he is half cutesy with the other no, he that loves the one and what he hates the one cleaves to the one hates the other no man can serve two masters and I pray God that he will persuade you the only place of safety and bliss is to be on that side of one who having embraced the Christ to whom Peter refers again and again in this epistle it's only by embracing him that you will begin to know what it is to live the rest of your time in the flesh not to the lust of men but to the will of God he that does the will of God abides forever well may the Lord take these observations and applications from this passage and make them fruitful as we meditate upon them and pray them in in the days to come let's pray our Father we do thank you for your word we thank you that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway and we pray that you would bless the things we've considered together this night whatever's had the mixture the chaff of our own ignorance blow upon it and bring it to naught whatever has been an accurate expression of your mind in the scriptures oh Lord do not let us

69:14 escape its pressure may we know the joy of yielding to its pressure internalizing it and seeing it worked out in life by the power of the Holy Spirit oh God thank you for this day in your courts another milestone may we make our way to a better place oh God grant that others will join us in our pilgrimage and that we may know the bliss of being gathered together when we hear the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God and behold our returning Lord we ask in his name Amen