Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 1 Peter 4:1-6 - Dead to Self, Alive in Christ
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. You are listening to The Bible Explained with
- 0:13Speaker 1: Jen Koukl, a P40 Ministries podcast. Hi, faithful listeners. Welcome
- 0:18Speaker 1: to The Bible Explained podcast on this absolutely lovely, lovely morning.
- 0:22Speaker 1: I hope you all are ready to read 1 Peter
- 0:26Speaker 1: chapter 4 with me, verses 1 through 6. We're going
- 0:29Speaker 1: to be talking about how we have to put the
- 0:32Speaker 1: old sins to death and live like a Christian, essentially,
- 0:36Speaker 1: and why we should do this and the benefits of
- 0:39Speaker 1: doing it as well. But before we dive into this chapter,
- 0:43Speaker 1: please take a moment to listen to the sponsored advertisements.
- 0:46Speaker 1: All right, I'm super excited because today is the federal
- 0:51Speaker 1: duck stamp competition. And you guys know that I've been
- 0:54Speaker 1: entering the federal duck stamp competition for the past two
- 0:58Speaker 1: years now. So I'm excited to see if my painting
- 1:02Speaker 1: moves forward or not this year. We'll see. We will see.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I don't have high hopes. I'm not going to lie.
- 1:09Speaker 1: There's a lot of very beautiful paintings this year, but
- 1:13Speaker 1: I will let you guys know on my Facebook if
- 1:15Speaker 1: I end up moving forward or not. So if you
- 1:19Speaker 1: haven't subscribed to my Facebook page or my email list yet,
- 1:22Speaker 1: then you should do that because that's where I keep
- 1:24Speaker 1: you guys up to date with the podcast and just
- 1:26Speaker 1: various things that's going on in my life if for
- 1:29Speaker 1: some reason you're interested in that. Let's read 1 Peter 4,
- 1:33Speaker 1: 1 through 6 today. I'll be reading as usual from
- 1:36Speaker 1: the WEB. So let's go ahead and give reverence to
- 1:39Speaker 1: the reading of God's word. Therefore, since Christ suffered for
- 1:44Speaker 1: us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.
- 1:47Speaker 1: For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased
- 1:50Speaker 1: from sin, that you no longer should live the rest
- 1:52Speaker 1: of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men,
- 1:55Speaker 1: but for the will of God. For we have spent
- 1:57Speaker 1: enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles,
- 2:01Speaker 1: and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings,
- 2:05Speaker 1: and abominable idolatries. They think it strange that you don't
- 2:09Speaker 1: run with them into the same excess of riot, speaking
- 2:12Speaker 1: evil of you. They will give an account to him
- 2:15Speaker 1: who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
- 2:18Speaker 1: For to this end the good news was preached, even
- 2:20Speaker 1: to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as
- 2:23Speaker 1: men in the flesh, but live as to God in
- 2:25Speaker 1: the Spirit. I'd say if I had to narrow down
- 2:29Speaker 1: what the book of 1 Peter is about, it's probably
- 2:32Speaker 1: about Christians suffering well and having endurance through persecution. In fact,
- 2:38Speaker 1: that's kind of what Peter said the book was about.
- 2:40Speaker 1: If you turn to the very first chapter, 1 Peter 1,
- 2:43Speaker 1: verse 6. As Peter is introducing his letter to the church,
- 2:47Speaker 1: he says, So with everything in this letter so far,
- 2:49Speaker 1: we really see Peter giving a lot of advice to
- 2:51Speaker 1: the church as to how they can suffer well. And
- 3:15Speaker 1: so now he begins to kind of conclude his point
- 3:18Speaker 1: here in 1 Peter 4, starting in verse 1. Therefore,
- 3:21Speaker 1: since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves
- 3:25Speaker 1: also with the same mind, for he who has suffered
- 3:28Speaker 1: in the flesh has ceased from sin. So this was
- 3:31Speaker 1: a verse that was kind of perplexing to me because
- 3:34Speaker 1: I was kind of like, is Peter saying that if
- 3:36Speaker 1: we suffer, you know, persecutions, like if somebody is torturing
- 3:41Speaker 1: us for Jesus, that we no longer sin? that we're
- 3:46Speaker 1: done with sin. Until I did my research and found
- 3:49Speaker 1: out that this correlates perfectly with Romans chapter six, where
- 3:53Speaker 1: Paul essentially says the same exact thing, but really explains
- 3:58Speaker 1: what he means. So let's turn to Romans six and
- 4:01Speaker 1: read verses one through seven. Here's what this says. What
- 4:06Speaker 1: shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
- 4:08Speaker 1: grace may abound? May it never be. We who died
- 4:12Speaker 1: to sin, how can we live in it any longer?
- 4:15Speaker 1: Or don't you know that all of us who are
- 4:17Speaker 1: baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
- 4:21Speaker 1: were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that
- 4:24Speaker 1: just as Christ was raised from the dead through the
- 4:26Speaker 1: glory of the Father, so we also might walk in
- 4:30Speaker 1: newness of life. For if we have become united with
- 4:33Speaker 1: him in the likeness of his death, we will also
- 4:35Speaker 1: be part of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old
- 4:38Speaker 1: man was crucified with him, that the body of sin
- 4:41Speaker 1: might be done away with, so that we would no
- 4:43Speaker 1: longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has
- 4:46Speaker 1: died has been freed from sin. So Romans 6 is
- 4:52Speaker 1: not telling us that we are completely sinless when we
- 4:56Speaker 1: suffer for Christ. And unfortunately, that's kind of what a
- 4:59Speaker 1: lot of people have a tendency to think. You know,
- 5:01Speaker 1: I really enjoy reading The Voice of the Martyrs, and
- 5:04Speaker 1: I think that it's a very excellent organization. But you
- 5:07Speaker 1: can kind of tell with some of the stories that
- 5:10Speaker 1: The Voice of the Martyrs almost acts as if because
- 5:14Speaker 1: these people have suffered for Christ, that they're practically in
- 5:18Speaker 1: sinless perfection. In fact, the guy who founded The Voice
- 5:21Speaker 1: of the Martyrs, Richard Wurmbrand, was also tortured for Christ
- 5:25Speaker 1: for 14 years under the Romanian communist regime. And even
- 5:30Speaker 1: though I enjoyed the book over, well, didn't enjoy it,
- 5:33Speaker 1: it was a very heavy read, even though I liked
- 5:36Speaker 1: the book overall, you could definitely tell that Richard Wurmbrand
- 5:41Speaker 1: considered the people who suffered for Christ as almost on
- 5:45Speaker 1: a different spiritual level than people who were just Christians
- 5:49Speaker 1: and did not suffer for Christ. At least that's kind
- 5:51Speaker 1: of the feel that I got from the book. And
- 5:55Speaker 1: I can understand this thought process because if you are
- 5:58Speaker 1: going through extreme persecution for Christ and you are willing
- 6:03Speaker 1: to not break your faith in him, even though you
- 6:06Speaker 1: are pushed to your limits, I think a lot of
- 6:08Speaker 1: people would naturally think that there is something more spiritually
- 6:12Speaker 1: holy about about those people than just the average Christian
- 6:16Speaker 1: who is never tortured for Christ, who doesn't have to
- 6:19Speaker 1: put their faith to that kind of test. But to that,
- 6:23Speaker 1: I would say, do you think that Stephen, the first
- 6:26Speaker 1: martyr in scripture, is more holy than King David? Because
- 6:33Speaker 1: Stephen was obviously tortured for Christ. He was the first
- 6:36Speaker 1: Christian martyr after Jesus had ascended up into heaven. But
- 6:41Speaker 1: David was never physically tortured for Christ. In fact, we
- 6:45Speaker 1: don't know of any particular sickness or illness that he had.
- 6:49Speaker 1: We don't know if he was ever physically hurt because
- 6:53Speaker 1: of his faith. Now, he was emotionally tortured. He was
- 6:57Speaker 1: kicked out of his home and Saul was trying to
- 7:00Speaker 1: kill him. So he was living in fear for a
- 7:02Speaker 1: good portion of his life. But he was never physically
- 7:05Speaker 1: tortured for his faith that we know of. But I
- 7:08Speaker 1: don't think anybody would say that Stephen or any of
- 7:11Speaker 1: the other New Testament martyrs were any more holy than David,
- 7:16Speaker 1: the man who is considered to be after God's own heart.
- 7:20Speaker 1: So that means that physical torture is not what brings
- 7:24Speaker 1: us closer to Christ. And I don't think that's what
- 7:27Speaker 1: Peter is saying here. And I certainly don't think that's
- 7:29Speaker 1: what Romans chapter six is saying either. Instead, what these
- 7:33Speaker 1: two passages are talking about is Jesus's call for us
- 7:38Speaker 1: to take up our cross and follow him with our lives,
- 7:42Speaker 1: essentially dying to the flesh and being made alive with Christ.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Here's what Jesus says in Luke 9, 23 through 25
- 7:50Speaker 1: from the ESV version. He said to all, if anyone
- 7:55Speaker 1: would come after me, let him deny himself and take
- 7:58Speaker 1: up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would
- 8:01Speaker 1: save his life will lose it. but whoever loses his
- 8:04Speaker 1: life for my sake will save it. For what does
- 8:07Speaker 1: it profit a man if he gains the whole world
- 8:10Speaker 1: and loses or forfeits himself? That is Jesus calling us
- 8:15Speaker 1: to die to self. Essentially, killing our fleshly sinful behavior
- 8:20Speaker 1: and becoming a new person, a new man or woman
- 8:23Speaker 1: who believes in Jesus and follows after Jesus. So we
- 8:27Speaker 1: have to take up that cross daily. Don't forget the
- 8:29Speaker 1: cross was a torture instrument. And Jesus was saying all
- 8:33Speaker 1: of this before he even went to the cross, by
- 8:37Speaker 1: the way. And Jesus, of course, knew he was going
- 8:40Speaker 1: to go to the cross. And so he used it
- 8:42Speaker 1: as the perfect analogy because everyone knew what a cross
- 8:45Speaker 1: was back in the days of Jesus. It was the
- 8:47Speaker 1: torture instrument. It was death. That is what the cross meant.
- 8:52Speaker 1: And so that is what Romans chapter 6 says, going
- 8:55Speaker 1: back to verse 5. For if we have become united
- 8:58Speaker 1: with him in the likeness of his death, we will
- 9:00Speaker 1: also be part of his resurrection, knowing this, that our
- 9:04Speaker 1: old man was crucified with him, that the body of
- 9:07Speaker 1: sin might be done away with so that we would
- 9:10Speaker 1: no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who
- 9:14Speaker 1: has died has been freed from sin. And if you
- 9:17Speaker 1: continue into verse eight, it says, but if we have
- 9:19Speaker 1: died with Christ, we believe that we will also live
- 9:23Speaker 1: with him. So going back to what Peter 4 says,
- 9:26Speaker 1: just as Jesus died on the cross, it says we
- 9:29Speaker 1: have to arm ourselves also with the same mind. So
- 9:34Speaker 1: Peter is not telling every single Christian to go out
- 9:37Speaker 1: and find a way to be tortured, to be masochistic
- 9:41Speaker 1: and cut yourselves or remove any kind of comfort or
- 9:46Speaker 1: joy from your lives whatsoever. In fact, that was a
- 9:48Speaker 1: movement that was in the early medieval days. where certain
- 9:53Speaker 1: Christian monks would purposely cut themselves and hurt themselves and
- 9:59Speaker 1: torture themselves. thinking falsely that that would somehow get them
- 10:03Speaker 1: closer to Christ. That is not true. Peter does not
- 10:07Speaker 1: say to do that. He says to arm yourselves with
- 10:09Speaker 1: the same mind that Jesus had when he went to
- 10:14Speaker 1: the cross and suffered. So in other words, take up
- 10:17Speaker 1: your cross daily, and follow Jesus, putting that sinful man
- 10:22Speaker 1: to death every single day and becoming a new creation
- 10:26Speaker 1: in Christ. When you do this, when you actively do
- 10:30Speaker 1: this on a day-to-day basis, Peter says right here that
- 10:34Speaker 1: he who has suffered in this way has ceased from
- 10:37Speaker 1: sin because you are killing that sin every single day.
- 10:42Speaker 1: Moving on to verse two, that you should no longer
- 10:44Speaker 1: live the rest of your time in the flesh for
- 10:47Speaker 1: the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
- 10:51Speaker 1: So that's the key right here. You don't go back
- 10:54Speaker 1: to the same sinful behavior that you knew before you
- 10:57Speaker 1: became a Christian. I remember listening to some of the
- 11:02Speaker 1: controversies that came out about Todd White, who is one
- 11:07Speaker 1: of the big mega church pastors in America. who is
- 11:11Speaker 1: kind of part of the NAR movement and all of that.
- 11:14Speaker 1: And I was listening to one of Todd White's sermons
- 11:17Speaker 1: that I thought was really bizarre because apparently, according to him,
- 11:22Speaker 1: he became a Christian and he went home like super elated,
- 11:26Speaker 1: super excited. And then the very next day, he started
- 11:31Speaker 1: screaming at his wife and he punched a hole in
- 11:33Speaker 1: the wall and he was doing drugs with his friends.
- 11:35Speaker 1: But while he's doing these drugs, he's telling his friends
- 11:37Speaker 1: about how wonderful Jesus is. And then the next day,
- 11:41Speaker 1: he's doing the same thing over and over and over again,
- 11:44Speaker 1: yet confessing to his friends how wonderful Jesus is while
- 11:48Speaker 1: neglecting and mistreating and abusing his wife and also neglecting
- 11:53Speaker 1: his own daughter and taking drugs every single day. And
- 11:56Speaker 1: he was saying all of this as if it's just
- 11:59Speaker 1: part of the faith journey that you just keep going
- 12:03Speaker 1: back to the same old sins that you used to
- 12:05Speaker 1: do without having any real heart change. And actually all
- 12:10Speaker 1: of his friends that he did drugs with ended up
- 12:12Speaker 1: abandoning him because they were like irritated with his hypocrisy
- 12:17Speaker 1: because he'd be sitting there doing drugs with all of them,
- 12:20Speaker 1: but talking about how wonderful Jesus was. And finally, one
- 12:23Speaker 1: of his friends, like the only one that stuck around
- 12:25Speaker 1: him was like, man, you need help because how do
- 12:28Speaker 1: you keep, you know, doing all this terrible stuff, but
- 12:31Speaker 1: then talking about how great Jesus is. So like even
- 12:35Speaker 1: the friend that Todd White had, knew that there was
- 12:38Speaker 1: something wrong with Todd White's behavior. And this wasn't just
- 12:40Speaker 1: like a week. This was months and months and months.
- 12:44Speaker 1: It was like close to a year that Todd White
- 12:46Speaker 1: was doing this while claiming to be this really strong
- 12:49Speaker 1: and great Christian during this entire time. Now, by saying that,
- 12:53Speaker 1: I'm not trying to throw shade on anybody who is
- 12:56Speaker 1: struggling with a particular sin. We all struggle with sin.
- 13:00Speaker 1: This is something, again, we got to crucify every single day.
- 13:05Speaker 1: We have to take up our cross and actively put
- 13:08Speaker 1: to death that sin that wants to creep up in
- 13:11Speaker 1: our lives. And nobody is perfect at this. Even Paul
- 13:14Speaker 1: the Apostle, you know, the guy that we think of
- 13:17Speaker 1: as like the pinnacle of Christian piety. Even Paul said,
- 13:23Speaker 1: the things that I want to do, I do not do.
- 13:25Speaker 1: And the things that I don't want to do, well,
- 13:28Speaker 1: those are the things that I do. And isn't that
- 13:31Speaker 1: true for every single one of us? We all struggle
- 13:35Speaker 1: and we're all going to have sin problems in our lives,
- 13:39Speaker 1: especially if we are addicted to a certain sin. But
- 13:42Speaker 1: the problem is you can't just keep going back to
- 13:45Speaker 1: that sin and having no remorse over it. Kind of
- 13:49Speaker 1: like how Todd White was acting as if that's just
- 13:51Speaker 1: the normal part of the Christian walk. No, I would
- 13:55Speaker 1: argue at that point, if you have no remorse for
- 13:57Speaker 1: the sins that you are living in, then you haven't
- 14:00Speaker 1: been truly changed by God. You might be having the
- 14:05Speaker 1: type of faith that James talks about, you know, where
- 14:08Speaker 1: he says that faith without works is dead. And James
- 14:12Speaker 1: goes on to explain what works means. He's not talking
- 14:15Speaker 1: about good works. He's talking about obedience to Jesus. So
- 14:19Speaker 1: faith and obedience go hand in hand. And if you
- 14:22Speaker 1: don't have the obedience along with the faith, then your
- 14:25Speaker 1: faith is actually no better than a demon's faith. Because
- 14:29Speaker 1: the demons believe in Jesus. They shudder at his name,
- 14:32Speaker 1: but they do not obey him. They do whatever they
- 14:36Speaker 1: want to do. They are going against Jesus all the time.
- 14:39Speaker 1: So we don't want to have faith like the demons.
- 14:42Speaker 1: We want to have the kind of faith that Peter
- 14:43Speaker 1: is talking about right here, where we are done with sin,
- 14:47Speaker 1: where we're putting that old man on the cross with
- 14:50Speaker 1: Jesus and becoming new and alive in him for a
- 14:54Speaker 1: few reasons. Because firstly, it's better for us. You know,
- 14:58Speaker 1: I don't think anybody is truly happy in their sin.
- 15:01Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think they're happy in sin,
- 15:04Speaker 1: but ultimately it's an empty kind of existence to just
- 15:08Speaker 1: live for pleasing yourself all the time. And it's bad
- 15:11Speaker 1: for the people around us. You know, sin, a lot
- 15:13Speaker 1: of people think it only affects us, but that is
- 15:15Speaker 1: not true. It affects all of the people who are
- 15:18Speaker 1: around us as well. And it affects our relationship with
- 15:21Speaker 1: Jesus and grieves the Holy Spirit. So there's a lot
- 15:24Speaker 1: of reasons why us Christians should actually want to put
- 15:27Speaker 1: those sins to death as best as we possibly can,
- 15:31Speaker 1: at least. And with the grace of Jesus, he will
- 15:34Speaker 1: help us do it as he forms us into a
- 15:37Speaker 1: new creation, more and more like him every single day.
- 15:41Speaker 1: So how do we do this if we are addicted
- 15:43Speaker 1: to a particular sin? Well, I think the best way
- 15:45Speaker 1: to do it is to study the life of Jesus,
- 15:50Speaker 1: to truly fall in love with who Jesus is. Because
- 15:54Speaker 1: if you fall in love with Jesus, you're going to
- 15:57Speaker 1: start understanding the things that truly grieve him. And you're
- 16:01Speaker 1: also not going to want to grieve him any longer.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Just as how many of you want to please the
- 16:08Speaker 1: person that you like, or if some of you are
- 16:11Speaker 1: married and you want to please your spouses, because you
- 16:14Speaker 1: like your spouse, hopefully, you want to please them. You
- 16:19Speaker 1: don't want to make them sad. You want to give
- 16:21Speaker 1: them things that make them happy. You don't want to
- 16:23Speaker 1: do things that are going to make them embarrassed or miserable.
- 16:28Speaker 1: Hopefully you don't want to do any of these things
- 16:31Speaker 1: because you love that person. If you start falling in
- 16:33Speaker 1: love with Jesus, then you're going to progressively want to
- 16:38Speaker 1: please him in that way more and more. And Jesus
- 16:42Speaker 1: will help you with all of this, especially if there
- 16:45Speaker 1: is a sin in your life that you truly want
- 16:47Speaker 1: to break, but it is so difficult to break. Jesus
- 16:51Speaker 1: will give you the tools to do it. And so
- 16:53Speaker 1: now Peter gives an example of some of the things
- 16:56Speaker 1: that he wants Christians to just stop partaking in. He says,
- 17:01Speaker 1: we have spent enough of our past time doing the
- 17:04Speaker 1: desires of the Gentiles, having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings,
- 17:12Speaker 1: and abominable idolatries. So this was something that was very
- 17:16Speaker 1: common in the Roman Greco world, which was these big
- 17:20Speaker 1: parties that were very idolatrous. And there was a lot
- 17:25Speaker 1: of drunkenness that went on, a lot of sexual immorality,
- 17:28Speaker 1: a lot of orgies, and even idolatry. Before every single meal,
- 17:34Speaker 1: there would be a little food offering that would be
- 17:38Speaker 1: given to one of the idols. This was common. And
- 17:41Speaker 1: the Romans did not like the fact that the Jewish
- 17:45Speaker 1: people did not go along with any of this, as
- 17:47Speaker 1: well as the Christians later on. They did not like that.
- 17:50Speaker 1: So Nero, one of the emperors of Rome, started severely
- 17:56Speaker 1: persecuting the Christians during the days of Peter and Paul,
- 18:00Speaker 1: specifically because Christians were antisocial and haters of men. That
- 18:07Speaker 1: is what Nero called the Christians, haters of men. Because
- 18:11Speaker 1: the Christians would not engage in the same kind of
- 18:14Speaker 1: debaucherous behavior that every other Roman on the planet engaged in.
- 18:19Speaker 1: And people just did not like this. In fact, that
- 18:21Speaker 1: is what Peter says right here in verse 4. They
- 18:24Speaker 1: think it is strange that you don't run with them
- 18:27Speaker 1: into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. Now,
- 18:31Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys have experienced this in your own ways,
- 18:35Speaker 1: how somebody just gets mad at you because you won't
- 18:38Speaker 1: partake in a particular sin that they want you to
- 18:41Speaker 1: partake in. A lot of people just cannot handle the
- 18:46Speaker 1: idea that they are doing something wrong and that somebody
- 18:51Speaker 1: else is not willing to go along with the wrong
- 18:54Speaker 1: thing that they are doing. I remember one time back
- 18:57Speaker 1: when I worked in the salon, a couple of the
- 19:00Speaker 1: girls would regularly go out to dinner with each other
- 19:05Speaker 1: after the shift was over. So one time, and only once,
- 19:09Speaker 1: the girls invited me out to one of their dinners.
- 19:13Speaker 1: And one of the girls, for whatever reason, enjoyed the
- 19:19Speaker 1: ugly ceramic salt shaker. I think it was. Or maybe
- 19:23Speaker 1: it was a little ramekin bowl. I don't know what
- 19:26Speaker 1: it was. That was like sitting on the table. And
- 19:28Speaker 1: she just like put it in her purse. And I
- 19:31Speaker 1: just looked at her and I'm just like, did you
- 19:33Speaker 1: just take that? And she was like, yeah, yeah. yeah, Jen,
- 19:37Speaker 1: don't you just, you know, see something at restaurants that
- 19:40Speaker 1: you like and just take it? And I was like, no,
- 19:43Speaker 1: because that's stealing. And things got really awkward after that.
- 19:47Speaker 1: And she just kind of looked at me and the
- 19:49Speaker 1: whole table. got a little bit silent. And they never
- 19:53Speaker 1: invited me to dinner ever again after that. But to
- 19:57Speaker 1: be fair, it was so bizarre to me because, you know,
- 20:00Speaker 1: that thing that she wanted off the table so badly,
- 20:02Speaker 1: she could have gone to the dollar store and gotten
- 20:05Speaker 1: it for like 50 cents if she wanted it that bad.
- 20:09Speaker 1: instead of just stealing it. And so I thought that
- 20:11Speaker 1: was very strange. But I'm sure there's something in your
- 20:14Speaker 1: life that you guys who are listening to this can
- 20:17Speaker 1: think back on where you're like, yeah, somebody got mad
- 20:20Speaker 1: at me because I wouldn't go along with whatever sin
- 20:23Speaker 1: they were partaking in. And then they didn't want anything
- 20:25Speaker 1: to do with me after that. That's what Peter is
- 20:29Speaker 1: talking about right here. They think it's strange that you
- 20:32Speaker 1: don't run with them into the same excess that they
- 20:35Speaker 1: are doing. So after that, they speak evil of you.
- 20:38Speaker 1: I mean, they do evil things potentially to you because
- 20:41Speaker 1: they don't want to be in the wrong and they
- 20:43Speaker 1: don't want their sin to be called out. But here's
- 20:46Speaker 1: the consolation that Peter gives right here. They will give
- 20:50Speaker 1: an account to him who is ready to judge the
- 20:53Speaker 1: living and the dead. So those who mistreated you because
- 20:57Speaker 1: you wouldn't go along with their sin, They're going to
- 21:00Speaker 1: have to give an account to God for that, whatever
- 21:02Speaker 1: it might be. And then Peter concludes right here, for
- 21:05Speaker 1: to this end, the good news was preached even to
- 21:08Speaker 1: the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men
- 21:11Speaker 1: in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.
- 21:14Speaker 1: So Peter alluded to something like this actually in the
- 21:16Speaker 1: last chapter, where he said that Jesus went and preached
- 21:20Speaker 1: to the imprisoned spirits who were disobedient during the days
- 21:25Speaker 1: of Noah. Now he talks about how the good news
- 21:29Speaker 1: was preached to the dead. It could be that during
- 21:33Speaker 1: the three days that Jesus was in the ground, that
- 21:38Speaker 1: he went to preach to the various dead souls, maybe
- 21:43Speaker 1: to the disobedient souls, preaching a story of victory over them, saying,
- 21:49Speaker 1: you have not won and you are not going to win.
- 21:52Speaker 1: But then to those who died faithful, but did not
- 21:55Speaker 1: know the name of Jesus. For example, David in the
- 21:58Speaker 1: Old Testament, and others who died in faith. Jesus went
- 22:04Speaker 1: to them and preached the entire story of the gospel
- 22:07Speaker 1: to them so that they could become alive, is what
- 22:11Speaker 1: it says right here, as to God in the spirit.
- 22:15Speaker 1: But Peter says that even they are going to be
- 22:18Speaker 1: judged indeed as men in the flesh. So everybody, it
- 22:22Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you died righteous or unrighteous, you're going
- 22:26Speaker 1: to be judged. And that is clear in scripture, which
- 22:29Speaker 1: is why Peter is giving this warning in the first
- 22:32Speaker 1: place that we need to die to self. We need
- 22:35Speaker 1: to put those sinful behaviors behind us and live as
- 22:40Speaker 1: a Christian, live as somebody who imitates Jesus to the
- 22:44Speaker 1: best of our ability. And we do that for many benefits,
- 22:48Speaker 1: but we also do it knowing that someday we are
- 22:51Speaker 1: going to be judged for how we behaved while we
- 22:53Speaker 1: were alive. Well, faithful listeners, I appreciate all of you
- 22:58Speaker 1: guys so much for listening to this entire episode. And
- 23:02Speaker 1: before I let you guys all go with a happy
- 23:04Speaker 1: listening and God bless, you all know the drill. One
- 23:08Speaker 1: last sponsored ad for today. All right, I'm not going
- 23:12Speaker 1: to talk your guys' ear off too long. Sometimes I do,
- 23:16Speaker 1: depending on the ending. But today I actually have to
- 23:18Speaker 1: get to a volleyball game. It starts in 20 minutes.
- 23:21Speaker 1: So I got to get moving here soon over at
- 23:24Speaker 1: the local high school. of one of my former students.
- 23:28Speaker 1: So I'm going to let you guys go, but I
- 23:30Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed 1 Peter chapter 4 and that it's
- 23:34Speaker 1: convicted you. And if it did, please share it on
- 23:36Speaker 1: your social media platforms. Tell people that the Bible Explained
- 23:39Speaker 1: podcast exists. Faithful listeners, I hope to see all of
- 23:43Speaker 1: you guys tomorrow as members. If you are not a member,
- 23:46Speaker 1: you can become one by clicking the link in the
- 23:48Speaker 1: description that says Kofi or going over to my website,
- 23:51Speaker 1: p40ministries. com slash plans, I believe it is, to become a
- 23:56Speaker 1: member and gain access to the Bible Explained on Fridays,
- 24:00Speaker 1: where currently we are going through the book of the Psalms.
- 24:03Speaker 1: Faithful listeners, hope to see all of you guys there.
- 24:05Speaker 1: But if I don't, I'll see all of you on Monday,
- 24:08Speaker 1: bright and early, 6 a.m. or whenever you choose to
- 24:10Speaker 1: wake up and listen for another episode from the book
- 24:13Speaker 1: of Job. Happy listening and God bless. I just want
- 24:22Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
- 24:24Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
- 24:27Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens
- 24:30Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
- 24:33Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.