Romans 12:19

Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

The Memory That Shuns Sin, Part 1
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:1
Code: 60-39

Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4. We now come to a brand new chapter in our ongoing
study of this wonderful epistle. We come to the first six verses of this great fourth chapter. We are in
for some marvelous things as we examine this chapter. But to begin with, let me read you the first six
verses of 1 Peter chapter 4. “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. So as to live
the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God. For the time
already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the gentiles, having pursued a
course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. And
in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation and
they malign you, but they shall give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For
the gospel has for this purpose been preached, even to those who are dead, that though they are
judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”
I would like to title these six verses, “A Memory That Shuns Sin.” In his rich book called The Plagues
of Plagues written in 1669, a godly man by the name of Ralph Venning, wrote this paragraph about
sin, listen to it. “In general, sin is the worst of evils, the evil of evil, and indeed the only evil. Nothing is
so evil as sin. Nothing is evil, but sin. As the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared to the glory that shall be reveled in us, so neither the sufferings of this life nor of that to
come are worthy to be compared as evil with the evil of sin. No evil is displeasing to God or
destructive to men, but the evil of sin. Sin is worse than affliction, than death, than the devil, than hell.
Affliction is not so afflictive, death is not so deadly, the devil is not so devilish, hell is not so hellish as
sin is. This will help to fill up the charge against its sinfulness especially as it is contrary to and
against the good of man.” Then he says, the four evils I have just named are truly terrible. And from
all of them, everyone is ready to say, good Lord, deliver us. Yet none of these nor all of them
together, are as bad as sin. Therefore, our prayers should be more to be delivered from sin and if
God hear no prayer else, yet as to this we should say, we beseech thee to hear us good Lord.” In a
unique way, with a strange but interesting choice of words, does Ralph Venning help us understand
the evil of sin. It is worse than affliction. It is worse than death. It is worse than the devil. It is worse
than hell.
Now it is true that a believer hates sin. It is true that a believer desires to flee from sin. It is true that a
believer longs to be freed from sin. All of us at some point or another in our lives in one way or
another in some words or another have cried out, “Oh wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?” We have all cried against our own wretchedness. We have all longed at
some point in time to be delivered from the bondage of sin. Now the question comes, since sin is the
evil of all evils, yes indeed, the only evil and since we hate it and long to be free from it, how can we
avoid it?
What is required of us if we are to stay away from sin? Well, obviously, it is the major effort of our life,
would you not agree to that? It is the major effort of the life of every believer to avoid sinning. Now in
order to avoid sinning, we must have three perspectives, in a sense we have to live in three tenses,
future, present, and past. Some would say to us, in order to avoid sin, you have to have a future look.
What we do mean by that? You have got to be watching for that temptation that hasn’t arrived yet.
But you’ve got to be ready so you are not caught unawares. You have to look into the future. You
need to do what the disciples failed to do and Jesus said to them, watch and pray lest you enter into
temptation. We have to be on the alert. We have to be watchful, careful, always looking ahead,
anticipating what might come, walking circumspectly, walking wisely in light of the danger ahead.
We also have to have a present look. Not only are we looking ahead anticipating what might come,
but we are looking at the present tense, what is surrounding us so that we are not duped unwittingly
into sin. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:9, he says, “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” That is
present tenses, whatever you see that is evil, hate it. Whatever you see that is good, cling to it. Paul
said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul said in Romans 13:14, “Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision of the flesh in regard to its lusts.” So we are constantly
looking to the future anticipating what might come of sin. We are also very carefully assessing the
present so that we may shun sin.
But there is the need as well, to look to the past. One of the most important faculties for dealing with
the evil of all evils, indeed, the only evil is a good memory, a good memory. And that is really what’s
in Peter’s words here. He is calling on us to remember some things that will enable us to shun sin.
The key to the passage is in verse 2 where Peter says that we are to live the rest of the time that we
are in this flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. We are to live the rest of our
lives, shunning sin and living out the will of God.
Now, in order to do that, yes, we must look ahead and anticipate watchfully that which might come
and yes, we must apprise ourselves of the present tense, but Peter’s main point is, we must look
back, we must have a good memory. Now, remember where we are before we dig into this particular
text. This whole epistle is written to people who are suffering. And it has reached a certain climax
actually at the end of chapter 3. And the climax there was that Peter was saying in all of your
suffering remember this, suffering can be triumphant. You can be a victor even in suffering and the
model for that is whom? Christ. And he shows us in chapter 3, verses 18 through 22, how Christ in
the midst of unjust suffering triumphed. In fact, he gained his greatest victory at the time of his
greatest suffering. And we noted in our last several studies that when Jesus was being unjustly killed,
on the cross, when he was being unfairly treated, when he was being punished, the result of hatred,
the result of rejection, at the very time when he was suffering unjust treatment, dying the just for the
unjust, he was triumphing over sin.
He was triumphing over the demon forces of hell. He was triumphing over the judgment of God and
he was gaining for himself the ultimate supremacy as it says in verse 22 of being seated at the right
hand of God. So in the moment of his death, he triumphed over sin. He triumphed not only over sin,
but he triumphed over the demon forces of hell. He triumphed over the judgment of God, which he
endured and came out victorious and he triumphed over all created beings. And it was all in his
greatest suffering that he gained his greatest triumph. Peter’s point is that when you view your
suffering, remember it maybe the moment of your greatest triumph. So it was with the suffering of
Christ and so it may be with you as well.
Now, with that in mind, let’s look at verse 1. “Therefore,” which obviously ties us into what he has just
said in chapter 3. Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose.
That’s really the summation of what he has just said, that’s why the therefore is there. You have seen
Christ suffer in the flesh and his suffering was triumphant, so arm yourselves with that same purpose.
What purpose? To be willing to suffer in the flesh knowing it produces potentially the greatest triumph.
That is a marvelous statement and that is the application of all that has gone before. It is better to
suffer for Christ than to suffer with the world. It is better because in our suffering for righteousness
sake, when we suffer for doing what is right, when we suffer unjustly, when we are persecuted and
treated unfairly and unkindly, it is that very suffering which can produce our greatest spiritual triumph,
so we are to arm ourselves with that same purpose.
Now let me look more specifically at this statement so that you’ll understand it because the verse
itself can appear at the outset to be somewhat difficult. Please note that first statement, since Christ
has suffered in the flesh. That simply means, Christ has died. That’s what it’s talking about. It’s talking
about his death. Back in verse 18, it says, Christ died, at the beginning of the verse. At the end of the
verse it says, he was put to death in the flesh, being put to death in the flesh, in verse 18 suffering in
the flesh here in verse 1, both refer to the same thing. They refer to his death. That’s what Peter has
been talking about.
Since Christ died, implied and had such great triumph in his death, then arm yourselves also with the
same purpose. Now what do we mean here by this arm yourselves, well, it is a military term properly
translated. It refers to a soldier putting on weapons to fight. And in Ephesians 6:11, a form of this
word is translated armor. Or the whole armor of God. Put on your armor. Arm yourselves. Take up
your weapons, why? For a battle. Your life is going to be a battle and you need to be armed with this
ultimate weapon. What is it? Arm yourselves also with the same ennoia, in the Greek, what does that
mean? Same mind, same idea, same principle, same thought. What do you mean by that?
Listen very carefully, arm yourself with the same realization, the same idea, and the same principle
that was manifest in the suffering of Christ. What is that? The principle that even in death I can what?
Triumph. That’s the idea. Arm yourself with that great thought. In other words, be willing, listen
carefully, be willing to die. Arm yourself with that great thought, that’s exactly what I believe that Peter
is saying here. It’s very simple statement. Christ died and you need to arm yourself with that same
idea, that you too are willing to die, because you understand that in dying, there is triumph. Now you
have an alternative, if you are persecuted, and they threaten your life, you can just recant.
You can just deny Christ. You can just bail out. But that’s not an option, is it? So what he’s saying
here is look, just what Jesus said in John 16 is going to come to pass in many of your lives, some of
you are going to be persecuted, some of you are going to be killed. Some of you are going to be
martyrs, arm yourself with that idea. That as Christ was willing to die because he knew in it there was
triumph, you have the same thought, be willing to die for righteousness sake, because you know it
can be triumphant.
Now let me say it simply, voluntarily accept the potential of death as a part of the Christian life. Now is
that a new thought to you? It shouldn’t be. Matthew chapter 10 verse 38 and 39, Jesus said this, take
up your what? Cross and follow me. And he said, if any man is not willing to take up his cross, having
denied himself, he is not worthy to be my disciple. What did he mean by that? What does he mean
take up your cross? What does that mean? That means be willing to die. There’s nothing mystical
about it. It isn’t some spiritual dedication he’s talking about, no. When he said to them, be willing to
deny yourself and take up your cross, they knew exactly what he meant because a cross is where
people got executed. He was saying, be willing to die for me. BE willing to give your life. And for
many, many Christians, that has been a reality. Paul said, frankly, 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die every
day.” What did he mean by that? I’m living on the edge. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 as he talked about
the character of his own ministry, he said, we are persecuted. We are struck down, we are always
carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus. We are constantly being delivered over to death for
Jesus sake, Death works in us, in other words, he was always on the edge of death and one day he
died for Christ, didn’t he? But he was ready for that.
Remember when he wrote his last letter? He said, I am ready to be offered. You see, he had armed
himself with the same idea. He had looked at the death of Christ and seen Christ triumph in it and so
he armed himself with the same idea, that I am willing to die for Christ. And Peter here, like Paul, has
the same thing in mind. You will find, dear friends, that that is the ultimate weapon, that is the ultimate
weapon.
Say, what do you mean that’s the ultimate weapon? Look, if the worst they can do to you is kill you
and from your view point the best that can happen to you is to die, then you have ultimately thwarted
them. That is the greatest weapon you possess. You see, that is why so many martyrs throughout the
history of the church have been willing to die, because they armed themselves with that same idea,
that there is great triumph in death. Jesus died and triumphed over sin. And if I die, look at it in verse
1. Because he who has suffered in the flesh, what does that phrase mean? To die, has ceased from
sin. Did you get that? Is death so bad? You know what happens when you die? What happens? You
don’t sin anymore. That’s good. Because you hate sin and you would like to be delivered from sin and
you would like to be godly and virtuous and pure and holy and spotless. And you see, if I am armed
with the goal of being delivered from sin and that goal is only achieved through my death and the
ultimate that anything that anyone can do to me is kill me, they can only bring about that which is
most precious to me. So I thwart them. So he’s telling these persecuted Christians to look for the
triumph in death. The worst that the hostile persecuting world can do is kill the believer and if the
believer is willing to die then that’s no threat.
You read through Foxes Book of Martyrs or you read the story of John and Betty Stam or you read
the story of the missionaries in Ecuador or even more contemporary missionaries who were really
killed for the cause of Christ or people in communist lands or pagan lands whose lives were taken
because of their faith in Christ and you ask yourself, how is it that they could endure that and the
answer is, because they view death as triumph, they have armed themselves with that idea because
they know that in death they cease from sin, then death has about it a certain sweetness, does it not?
The one who dies has ceased from sin. It’s a perfect tense verb and it emphasizes a state or
condition. You enter into a condition, a permanent, eternal state free from sin. Is that bad? Not if
that’s the goal of my life. What am I trying to do through my whole Christian life? What am I trying to
eliminate in my life? Sin. In one fell swoop, it’s gone. So if I have that idea in my mind, hey, kill me
and I’m going to be where I’m trying to get. Free from sin. Then all the fear is gone. All the threatening
is gone out of persecution.
When a believer dies, he enters a permanent condition free from sin. Christ is the model of that. This
was true of Christ, by the way. You say, wait a minute, he wasn’t a sinner. That’s right, he never
sinned, he was without sin, but he came, listen carefully, into a world and it says in Romans 8:3, in
the likeness of sinful flesh. And he came not only in the likeness of sinful flesh, but for sin. And then
he subjected himself to evil men doing wicked things to him, so he felt the brunt of sin, didn’t he. And
then on the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says he was made sin and 1 Peter 2:24 says, he bore our sin.
He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came to receive the worst evil that sinful men could do to
him. He went to the cross and was made sin and bore sin, but when he died, he was what? Free from
sin. And all of that which he suffered in his incarnation came to an end. He was no more in the
likeness of sinful flesh. He had a glorified body. He will never again be subjected to the evil deeds by
evil people and demons. He will never again bear sin, it was once for all.
And so Christ also, in his death ceased from sin. He has nothing more to do with it. It has nothing
more to do with him. And so, says Peter, arm yourselves with the same thought. You want to have
the ultimate weapon, then understand when you die, you are free from sin forever. Now, only a fool
would look at that and say, nah, I would rather have what I’ve got. Wait a minute, impossible. But
beloved, cessation of sin is related to the death of the flesh. By the way, this verse is a good one to
give a perfectionists. People who believe you can be perfect in this life, Peter says no, the only way
you cease from sin is when you are dead. The only sinless people are dead in the flesh. Dead to this
world. Any of them who are alive in this world have sin in their life, so Christ by his death was freed
from the sinful powers under whose sway he voluntarily placed himself by identifying with man in the
incarnation and by bearing the sin of man in the crucifixion. And I suppose that was in his mind when
it says in Hebrews that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. And what was that
joy? Being forever free from sin.
And we can also look forward to death, because it frees us from sin. Just to tighten that thought down
a little bit and make it firmer in your mind. Listen to Romans 7:5. So while we were in the flesh, the
sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body, as long as
you’re in the flesh, sinful passions are as work. Romans 7:18. I know that nothing good dwells in me.
That is in my flesh. Verse 23. I see the law of sin, which is in my members. Hey, as long as you are
alive in this human body, you have a sin problem and the only relief you are going to get is when you
leave this body. When your flesh dies.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 15 and you’ll hear the comparison verse 42, he’s talking about the resurrection
and he says, our bodies are sown a perishable body, raised an imperishable. Sown in dishonor,
raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power. Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.
Verse 49, just as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
It’s not until we die that we get that imperishable, honorable, glorious, powerful spiritual heavenly
body. And that’s when the sting of death which is sin is forever removed. He says, later, in that same
chapter. Now, beloved, if you are a Christian, you are going to get there sooner or later, right? Would
sooner be too bad or would you rather wait till later? And indulge yourself as long as possible in your
sinful flesh? Now, do you understand why a deeply thinking Christian does not fear death? We’re all
headed for that. We’re all going to ultimately reach the blessing of sinlessness, and if you think about
it, you ought to be saying, the sooner, the better. Now, since that is our goal and since that is our
destiny, then we don’t fear suffering because the worst that suffering can do is kill us and give us the
best. The goal of our life and bring us into sinless perfection.
Now, if you ever happen to be being burned at the stake, crucified upside down, suspended by pins
between your ankles, or if you happen to be massacred and there’s a slight chance, very slight, I
suppose, you can simply remind your persecutors that they are doing you an immense favor, for in
the process they are brining you to sinless perfect glory. Which is that for which you were saved in
the first place and you can give them your deep appreciation for that generous gift which they have
rendered in behalf of your eternal perfection.
Now, if that all sounds very strange to you, it shows you how confused our thinking is, right? Now why
do I want to be armed with this idea? Verse 2, I want to be armed with this idea so as to live the rest
of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God. You say, how does that tie
in? Just this way, look, if the goal of my life is sinlessness, in the end, then I got to be on the way to
that.
I am to live my life shunning sin. I am to live the rest of the time in my flesh, until the day that I cease
from sin through death, no longer for the lusts of men, but the will of God, since that is the goal of my
life, I got to get my life moving in the right track now. So what do I live for the rest of my life? To avoid
sin, so as to live that’s the word from which we get biology, it talks about earthly life. I am to live on
this earth live out my human existence, the rest of the time God gives me, in this flesh, not for the
lusts of men, but for the will of God. Whatever is left of the years of my life. Whatever is left for me in
this fleshly sinful body will no longer be for the lusts of men, no longer motivated, energized by
epithumia, you know that strong word that means evil desire. I’m not going to live that way anymore.
I’m going to shun that for the will of God. So this is very practical application of what Peter’s been
teaching. Christ triumphed in his death, you out of the same mind. That you are headed to a triumph
over sin and it won’t come to you either until your death, so your death will be your greatest triumph,
and since the goal of your life is the death that frees you from sin, then the present tense of your life
should be the pursuit of the goal of your life which is to be as free forms in as you possibly can here
and now, so, for the rest of the time in the flesh, you don’t pursue the lusts of men. You pursue the
will of God.
Peter then is calling us to shun sin and not live any longer driven by our evil desire, rooted in our
flesh, and if you want a good picture of that you need only remember Paul’s letter to the church at
Ephesus, where he says, in Chapter 2 describing the unregenerate, you were dead in your
trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is working in the sons of disobedience, among
them we all too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the
mind. It’s the way we live.
But he says, now I’m a Christian and the rest of my time I will no longer live that way. So the goal of
the Christian life is to avoid sin. Now, Peter is going to help us a little bit in this passage to avoid sin
not by giving us a forward look or even a present look, but by leaving us a remember looking, calling
on our memories. Let me at least give you two points tonight and we’ll finish it up next time. One very
important stimulus to shunning sin which we should do since that is the goal of our life, one very, very
important stimulus is a good memory. And the first thing I would like to suggest that we need to
remember is this, what sin did to Jesus Christ. Okay?
We need to remember what sin did to Jesus Christ. That should help you to hate it. That should help
you to shun it. That should help you to avoid it. Now as the long years of our life go by, until we cease
from sin through death, through all of this time, we are going to do everything we can to avoid it and
in order to want to avoid it, I believe you have got to really hate it. And in order to really hate it, you’ve
got to understand what it’s like. And to understand what it’s like, you need to start by seeing what it
did to Christ. What did it do to Christ? Verse 1.
Christ has suffered in the flesh. You tell me what did it do to Christ, in one word? Killed him. Killed
him. Cost him his life. Can you enjoy it when you know what it did to Christ? When you realize that he
was made sin. When you realize that he bore in his body our sins on the cross. When you realize the
body says he was made a curse for us, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, in Galatians. When
you realize that he was the spotless, pure and holy second member of the trinity who never had come
into any contact with sin and who then was made sin and bore the sins of the world on his body and
they took his life, they killed him. They separated him from God so that he cried, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? When you realize that it put him on a cross and nails were hammered
through is limbs and thorns crushed into his brown and spit dripped off his body and a spear was
rammed into his side, when you realize all of that and all of that was caused by sin, it ought to help
you to hate sin, right?
If you love Christ. I watch people who are full of vengeance, because somebody has harmed
someone they love. I sometimes see an interview of a parent whose child has been killed a drunk
driver. A parent whose child has been killed by even a disease. I watch a spouse who has lost a
partner in a crime where they were an innocent victim and I hear the bitterness and the vengeance
and the hatred toward the perpetrator of the crime and as a father and a husband, and a friend, I
understand that. I remember the day when there was a knock on the door or my own home and a
man on the porch with a butcher knife threatening to take Melinda when she was just a little tiny girl,
and I remember the feelings in my own heart and the fact that I had a baseball bat in my hand and in
fact, I said to him, if you come through that door, you are going to find your head in Encino and I think
that’s a direct quote.
And I know what I would have had to deal with in my own heart, had she been able to open the door,
which fortunately was double bolted when she was trying to let him in. And I know what I as a father
might have felt, except by the grace of God. I understand that when something very precious to us is
assaulted and devastated and crushed and killed that there wells up in our heart a hatred of that. If
not a hatred of the person, a hatred of the deed.
And certainly, if we understand that the murder of Jesus Christ was sin, then we should hate sin.
Does not that seem a reasonable conclusion. So, if you have a good memory, it might help you to
shun sin and the first thing to remember is what sin did to Jesus Christ. Second thing to remember,
remember what sin has done to Christians. Remember what sin has done to Christians. You say,
well, what’s that? Well, I’ll tell you what it’s done to us, it’s messed us up. In fact, it’s messed us up so
badly, that we can’t even get deliverance from it, until we are what? Dead. Don’t you hate that?
Would you like to have one week without sin? It’s messed us up. Verse 1, “He who has suffered in
the flesh has ceased from sin.” What sin has done to us is so infect us is that the only way we can
cease from it is to be dead. Conversely, as long as we are alive, we are assaulted by it. You read
Romans chapter 7, and the apostle Paul is crying out, that I love the law of God with my inner man,
but there is something else in me. There is something warring with that love for what is right. Sin that
is in my flesh and the things that I want to do I don’t do and the things I don’t want to do I do. Oh
wretched man that I am. Romans chapter 8, the whole creation groans, waiting for the glorious
manifestation of the children of God. You want to know what the whole creating is waiting for? Death.
And resurrection. It wants a new creation, just like we want a new life. No wonder Paul said, when he
wrote to Timothy, I’m ready. I’m ready to be offered. He says in 2 Timothy 4:18, “The Lord will deliver
me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.” Isn’t that good? Paul says,
I am looking forward to the day when I die. Because when I die, the Lord will deliver me from every
evil deed and bring me safely into his kingdom. No wonder he said, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith, I’m ready to go. Get me out. I have had enough. And some people want to live on this
world as long as they possibly can.
Titus 2:14 says he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify
for himself a people for his own possession. Let’s be who we were supposed to be, right? I hate sin,
not only because what it did to Christ, but what it’s done to Christians. I mean, it would be wonderful
to pastor perfect people. Oh, to be a perfect pastor of perfect people. It’s tough to be an imperfect
pastor of imperfect people.
To be a sinful leader of sinful people. Very difficult. Very difficult. And if I remember what sin does to
Christians, I’ll grow to hate it. I’ll tell you something, the longer you are in the ministry the more you
hate it, the longer you live as a Christian, the more you hate it. Because you continue to amass a
very, very large file on what it does to Christians. How it devastates their lives so that only in death
can there be relief. Well, that’s only part of what Peter says here. That’s only one verse of what he
says.
We’ll have to wait to find out what else it’s done that we need to remember. Let’s bow in a word of
prayer. Lord, thank you for the reminder tonight, that we should hate sin and arm ourselves with the
mind of Christ who was willing to die because in dying, he would cease from having anything to do
from sin. It would all be over with. Lord, when we see what sin did to him, when we see what it does
to Christians, to us, may we hate it. May we hate it enough to arm ourselves with the same idea that
we are willing to die because to die is to be delivered from sin forever. Oh, unimaginable bliss and
joy. Father, we thank you for the grace that would even grant such a gift to us as to be forever free
from sin. To think of the alternative is to think of an eternal hell, which is the eternal presence of sin
and only sin. Oh, what an unthinkable, horrible thought. Thank you for the grace that has granted us
the promise of an eternity where sin has forever ceased.
What grace. We thank you in the name of our Lord, amen.

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