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Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to 1 Peter chapter 4, day one
of our look through this chapter. It's a chapter about what to believe, what to
believe about the struggles that we go through in this life, the suffering that
we go through in this life. The truth is, too many Christians say they believe
without knowing why they believe.

And it's the reason that a lot of followers of Christ are prone to falling to
cults or false teaching, that those teachings, sometimes even false teachings
can catch hold in a church. The reason is, we have a faith that's without
reason, and so we begin to reason without faith. In 1 Peter chapter 4, Peter's
looking the entire chapter at a subject where it is all important to know what
you believe, because there's a lot of false teaching out there, and it's easy to
fall to this false teaching.

What does the Bible have to say about Christians facing suffering? There's a
popular theology out there that those who have true faith will escape suffering
on this earth. That is an attractive thought.

Who wouldn't be drawn to that? It also happens to be a lie when you study the
scripture, when you study this passage, this chapter we're going to look at
together this week. The truth is, the Bible is not a manual for how to escape
suffering while on this earth.

It's a manual for how to endure suffering while on this earth. When you read
chapter 4 and study what Peter has to say about suffering, it is impossible to
believe those who teach that real faith means you have somehow escaped suffering
in this world. The truth is, there are not many millionaires between the pages
of the Bible, but there are a lot of martyrs.

There's a lot of pain, real human pain in the lives of the saints. But
constantly shining through that is the ability of God to work in the midst of,
even through the suffering that they're facing. So 1 Peter chapter 4 is a manual
for how to handle suffering in this world.

Peter presents three simple truths which can turn your attitudes, your life, in
the right direction. We're going to look at them together during this entire
week. These three truths that suffering is necessary, suffering is short-term,
and suffering is shared.

Beginning today by looking at the truth that suffering is necessary. The
suffering of Jesus is necessary for your forgiveness and your faithfulness. So
in verse 1 of chapter 4 Peter writes, "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his
body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in
his body is done with sin.

" So Peter here says arm yourself with an attitude, the right attitude, towards
suffering. We're talking through the book of 1 Peter about how to live a cut
above in the world below. In the world below, the attitude is you defend
yourself.

You have this defensive pride even in the face of suffering. But a cut above
kind of living is you arm yourself, but you arm yourself with humility. Arm
yourself does not mean that you invite suffering into your life.

It means that you understand the place of suffering in this world. Here's the
truth. Suffering is the necessary punishment for our sin.

Now I could talk for hours about why it is necessary, but the truth is because
God is holy and we are not, there is a punishment for our sin and suffering is
the necessary punishment for our sin, ultimately in death. But the truth also is
Jesus suffered for your sin. He took that necessary punishment for you.

The truth also is that you share his suffering, and we'll get to this later this
week, while in this world, and the truth is you are released from suffering in
heaven. So let me say those four things again. First, suffering is the necessary
punishment for sin.

Second, Jesus suffered for your sin. Third, you share his suffering while in the
world and then you are released from suffering in the eternity of heaven. So
when we talk about suffering is necessary, this is not saying that you somehow
try to suffer.

It's telling you why you suffer. To try to suffer, that's the attitude that I'm
going to go out there and I'm going to suffer my little heart out for Jesus.
Honestly, too many Christians seem to have that attitude.

They suffer and the whole world knows about it. They're not really facing deep
persecution, just every little thing that goes wrong. They talk about how much
they're suffering for Jesus in this world.

That is not what Peter is talking about here. He says arm yourself with the same
attitude that you see in the suffering of Jesus. He's not talking here about the
attitude of our suffering, he's talking about the attitude of Christ's
suffering.

Seeing the suffering of Christ as being necessary for your salvation, for your
life. When you see the suffering of Christ as necessary, three things happen in
your life. They all come from your identification with Christ.

They all come from what happened on the cross. We're going to look at one of
those three things today and two of them tomorrow. When you see the suffering,
the cross as necessary, first, you are done with sin.

As Peter says here, "Done with sin. " He who suffers, he says, has ceased from
sin. Does that mean that the more you suffer, the better a person you become?

We all know that's not true. We all know plenty of people who have suffered and
they have not become a better person because of that. This can't be talking
about your suffering.

He's talking about the suffering of Christ. He's talking about the same thing
that Paul spoke of in Romans chapter 6. Suffering is the necessary punishment
for sin, but praise God that Jesus took that suffering for you.

Sin no longer has a hold on you. Yes, as a believer, a follower of Christ,
you're going to still struggle with sin while in this world, but because of what
happened on the cross, you are done with sin. Sin cannot keep you from God's
presence in eternity.

Sin cannot cause you to live the kind of life that sin is calling you to live.
You have a new choice now. Jesus suffered because of the sin in your life.

Jesus died so that you could be set free of that sin. To recognize that you are
done with sin is to pray a simple prayer that says, "Jesus, this sin that I'm
tempted by right now, you suffered because of this sin, and Jesus, you died so
that I could be free of that sin. " That is arming yourself for victory.

So in verses 2 to 3, as a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life
for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent
enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do, living in debauchery and
lust and drunkenness and orgies and carousing and detestable idolatry. This is
the power of focusing on the cross.

As a result, you live in a new way. When you focus on the cross, you're done
with sin, you're able to live in a new way. You can't cause yourself to live in
a new way, but the cross of Christ, what Jesus did for you, can cause you to
live in a new way.

The cross, in these verses, we see that the cross has the power to move you, to
move you from your will to God's will, from what pagans do to what Christians
do, from the past to the future. Did you see that? He says you don't live for
evil human desires, you live rather for the will of God.

When you look, when you focus on the cross of Christ, it has the power to move
you from your will. What you want to do, what you think is right, what you think
is good for your life, to God's will, which is what's truly good for your life,
which is truly right for your life. You move from your will to God's will.

You move from what pagans do, what you used to do while you were a pagan, isn't
that a great word, pagan, that you find several times in the Bible? It means
people that are living for this world. It means selfish.

You move from selfishness to doing what Christians do, to living more and more
like Jesus. And then he also says here, you move from the past to the future.
You've spent enough time in the past doing these things.

Live the new way. You're a new creation, so you live in a new way. Suffering is
necessary, and Jesus paid the necessary price for our sin on the cross.

And as you and I focus on the cross, we're able to live in a new way as the new
creation that God has made me to be, made you to be. Let's pray for God's
strength to focus on him today right now. Jesus, we ask that you help us to
focus on the cross through this day.

Focus on the love and the forgiveness and life that you gave us there. Lord,
instead of trying to do our will, trying to do it our way or how we did it in
the past, Lord, we know that you have a new will, a new way, a new creation you
want to work in our lives. And so right now in our mind's eye, we focus on the
cross, what you did for us there, Jesus.

We see your love. We see you pouring your life out for us so that we could have
life. And from that, Lord, we pray that we would find strength, find motivation,
find power to live the kind of life you have for us today.

We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk together about two
more ways that we arm ourselves for victory by focusing on the cross.