Well, dear congregation, let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering His Word. If you're a visitor this morning, this is our time of what we call the ministry of the Word. This is where we open God's Word and unpack it and seek to draw from it consolation, hope, an application for how we are to think about God, life, and all things in this world. So we have been working through the book of 1 Peter, and this morning we find ourselves in 1 Peter 4. So I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 4. We have spent two weeks, and now this will be the third week, on verses 1-6. So this morning I would like to read in your hearing all six verses, even though our time of exposition will be on verses four through six. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word, 1 Peter 4, verses one through six. The Apostle Peter says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. But they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead. Though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. As for the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever, and we are grateful for it. Congregation, let's ask the Lord one last time this morning for help as we come before his holy word. Father God, we have poured out our hearts this morning to you. And we've done so, Father, through the merit of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We have sought this morning, Lord, to cling closely to Jesus, to His promises, to His work. And Father, we have sought in the last three or four weeks to mine out what it means to have the mind of Christ. And we confess to You, Father, Though we might understand this intellectually, it is oftentimes difficult to apply this practically. We pray, Lord, that as we put all these pieces together of what it means to be willing. To suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, then for doing evil. To suffer for doing good, even if that means the loss of things that we count dear to us. That Father, you would fortify us in this moment. You would fortify us in this day, in this week, in the rest of our lives, to really and honestly and genuinely do that for your honor and your glory. And I pray specifically this morning, Father, that you would help us to see how the final judgment fits into this mind of Christ. That Father, we would not have fear of the final judgment, but rejoice in its coming. Not because we are worthy in and of ourselves to stand in that final judgment, but because your son makes us worthy by his perfect righteousness and sinless death. Lift our hearts up to heaven, we pray. Help your servant to unpack this word for your honor and your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen. So as I said, we have been spending now, this will be the third week that we have been looking at verses one through six, and what I've tried to do over the last two weeks and now in this final installment of these six verses is just mine out what it means to have the mind of Christ. You see in verse one that he says it's the only imperative or the only command in this text, verses one through six, to arm ourselves with the same way of thinking as Christ. In other words, the mindset of Christ, the intention of Christ, the purpose of Christ. And we saw two weeks ago that that mindset is a willingness and a preference to suffer for doing good, even if that means that we would lose things dear to us. That we would suffer for doing good, rather than for doing evil, no matter what that means. And then, I believe it was last week, we looked at three litmus tests to try to ask ourselves, do we have the mind of Christ within us? And we saw in verses really one through four, three litmus tests. Number one, we saw that we suffer for Christ and our suffering for Christ shows that we have made a break with sin. That the dominion of sin over our lives has been broken. Not that we no longer sin, we still do. but that when it comes down to it, our master is no longer sin, but our master is Christ. And the principle way, Peter says, that that's manifested is if we are willing to put it all on the line for Christ and suffer. So that is a good litmus test to see whether or not we have the mind of Christ. But secondly, we saw another litmus test for mining out the mind of Christ within us is that there is a contrast between our old life and our new life. There's not a seamless continuity from our days of paganism and false religion to our days of true religion and Christ-honoring religion, but there is a marked contrast between our old life and our new life. And then finally, we saw another litmus test for the mind of Christ is that unbelievers are surprised by us. Especially those unbelievers who knew us before we were in Christ and now see us now that we live in Christ. They're surprised to see that we don't join ourselves or throw in our lot to the same the same line of debauchery that they do. And not only that, but they malign us for it. They they may say our hope. But now in this final section, I'd like to focus on what I see is really one last feature of the mind of Christ, and it's this the final judgment, the final judgment. The final judgment of the living and the dead. If the mind of Christ is a willingness to suffer for the will of God no matter what, then the final judgment is the reason why all the suffering is worth it. And when I say final judgment, I do not simply mean when Christ is gonna come back and judge the living and the dead as we confess in the Apostles' Creed together with the Bible. I do not simply refer to that judgment, but I refer to everything that is caught up with that event of the final judgment. Jesus judging the living and the dead, Jesus ushering in the new heavens and the new earth, Jesus reigning over all things. Us, in our resurrected bodies, never to die again, never to be sick again, never to have sore joints again, never to experience doubt and fear and depression and discouragement again. That whole thing, the whole kit and caboodle, if you want to put that, is composed in this idea of final judgment. So if the mind of Christ is a willingness to suffer for the will of God no matter what, then the final judgment is the reason, I say, the reason why all that suffering is worth it. So let me suggest this morning and submit to you three ways that the judgment serves, listen, as an encouragement to and motivation for believers to stand strong in their faith and stay close to Jesus. Three reasons. while the final judgment is an encouragement to and a motivation for believers to stand strong in their faith and stay close to their covenant Lord as they exhibit this mind of Christ. Three ways, and here's the first way. We see it in verse five. The first way in which the final judgment serves as an encouragement to us is that the final judgment reminds us that justice will be the last word. The final judgment reminds us that justice, not corruption, justice, not lies, justice, not wickedness or lawlessness or corrupt politicians or corrupt business dealings, justice will be the last word. Look at verse five. I'm gonna start at verse four and read four and five together. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you, verse five, but. They, these naysayers, these non-believers, will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. After explaining in verse 4 that unbelievers are surprised by our willingness to suffer for Christ, and that as a result of that many of them malign us, Peter now follows that up by saying, but mark this, Those mockers, those naysayers, they are going to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. And who is He who is ready to judge the living and the dead? It is Jesus Christ. All judgment has been given by the Father to the Son. It has been placed in His hand. It is one of the things that He has obtained through His life of perfect obedience, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coronation at the right hand of the Father. The Father gives Him the right to judge the living and the dead. And notice that the text says that He is ready. He is ready. He is ready and willing and prepared to come on that last day, a date of which we do not know, a date toward which we anticipate with great joy and anticipation, but a date that He is ready to come and judge the living and the dead. This meek and mild lamb who came 2,000 years ago will be when he comes, the roaring lion with piercing eyes and a blazing sword to judge the living and the dead. And Peter rounds off what it means to have the mind of Christ with a consideration of the eschaton. What is that? The end, the new heavens and the new earth, the last day of reckoning. And I want you to notice something here. I want you to notice something about Peter, about Jesus, about Paul, and virtually every New Testament writer. Listen, they can't talk long without coming to the end. They can't talk long without coming to the end. Why is that? The end of all things is like a soda can shaken up and ready to burst. And why can't they hold themselves back from talking about the end? Listen, because the fullness of the gospel is not experienced now. Let me say that again. The fullness of the gospel, the fullness of Christianity, the fullness of true religion, the fullness of all the promises that God gives to his children is not experienced now. And to the degree that either in your individual life or your cultural life or your political life, you try to pull the eschaton into the now time, the new heavens and the new earth into the now time, try to create this sort of individual or cultural or political or public utopia, you are going to be discouraged. Because the fullness of the gospel and the promises of God are not fully experienced now. And that's why Peter, together with Paul and Jesus, are so eager and so excited to talk about the end. Because it is in the end that the fullness of all God's promises are fulfilled. This is what Peter said in chapter one, verse four. He said that what God has promised you is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept where? In heaven. for you. That's what he says in chapter 1 verse 4. So Jesus is the anchor in the present for your inheritance in the future. Let me say that again. Jesus is the anchor in the present for your inheritance in the future. Your inheritance is waiting for you in heaven, and one of those many impeccable promises is that Jesus, I love this from Isaiah, will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law. There's the readiness of which Peter mentions. Jesus will not grow faint. He will not grow discouraged. He sees all the political muck in the mire that we see. He sees all the cultural unrest. He sees all the things that you are experiencing in your life. He is not discouraged. He is not fainthearted because he has an inheritance waiting in heaven for us. He's not disturbed by it. He's not bothered by it. He knows exactly what he's doing and that child of God is something in which you can find comfort. Jesus is not discouraged or faint hearted. He will not be until he establishes justice in the earth. Justice, justice, real, lasting justice. And the coastlands wait for his law. What is another one of those promises, precious and comforting? That the blood of the martyrs will be avenged. I wait for that. I long for that. Do you ever find yourself praying for that? If you don't, maybe you're not aware of our many brothers and sisters in places like China and other parts of Asia and other countries where Christianity is not only outlawed but persecuted, whose lives are taken by bloodthirsty men and women, lawless, wicked men and women. And we see this image in the book of Revelation where the martyrs are under the altar and they're crying out to God, The day is coming, a day of reckoning, a day of reckoning where the blood of the martyrs will be avenged. What is another one of those promises that is going to be fulfilled, this inheritance, part and parcel of the inheritance that is kept in heaven for us? It is that every knee will bow in heaven and under the heaven and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Every tongue. Even the naysayers? Yes. They will bow the knee. All their wickedness and chicanery that they are exhibiting in this life, acting as if God is not there, acting as if God has not spoken, acting as if God is not the lawgiver of their life and the judge with whom they have to do, all their talking, all their belligerence, all their wickedness will have to be given an account of on the day when Jesus, who is ready to judge the living and the dead, stands before them and says, you must give an account. Final judgment is coming. And we should long for it. While all these precious promises will one day break forth before our eyes, they will not happen without the judgment of the wicked. And Peter can't help but include that promise of judgment as he consoles these anxious believers in the seven provinces of Asia Minor. Beloved, this first point is very simple, okay? People are gonna get their up and comings, okay? People are going to get their up and comings. You can blaspheme God, you can mock God, you can mock his followers for believing in a fairy tale or a myth. You could do that all you want, but the day is coming where you are going to have to give an account for all your foolishness and all your wickedness. That day is coming. That train of judgment is barreling down the tracks. And Jesus, the holy conductor, stands ready to bring it in all its fullness. But now secondly, secondly, consider this. Please listen to me very carefully. The final judgment functions like guardrails to keep us from wandering away from the eye of the hurricane. The final judgment functions like guardrails to keep us from wandering away from the eye of the hurricane. In coming to Jesus, do you know that we don't run away from the wrath of God? Do you know that we find security in the eye of the hurricane of God's wrath through the personal work of Jesus Christ? Do you know that in coming to Christ, it is not without wrath, it is not without blood, it is not without pain, it is not without sacrifice? For this reason, we actually look forward to the final judgment. In fact, the final judgment, listen to me very carefully, the final judgment serves as a tractor beam calling us to our true home. We look forward to justice pervading all the earth. We look forward to Christ reigning from Zion and his law going out into all the nations. We look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. The final judgment functions for us as believers as guardrails to keep our eyes on Christ, our covenant Lord. And so let's unpack that a little bit more. Let me share with you a recent discouraging experience I had. Just recently I read of yet another Christian contemporary music artist who just years ago renounced the faith, he apostatized, he just walked away, not only from the music industry, which, whatever, but from Jesus. Walked away from Jesus. And he now refers to himself as an ex-Christian. I guess that's what they're calling it these days. He blasphemes the name of God and even mocks him. I listened to him on an interview in a podcast, and he basically says, either God doesn't exist, or if he does exist, he's a, explicative, explicative, bold, unbridled, brash, blasphemous words against the Lord that for many, many years, he not only professed, but sang about and told other people to love. This was a man who was part of a Christian band that I used to listen to in college, a band, quite frankly, whose lyrics greatly helped me through dark times in my own life, whose lyrics caused me and motivated me to love Jesus more, to love the church more. And when I first read of this man's apostasy, I was sick to my stomach. And then I got a little depressed. But then, listen, I was able to thank God for it. You wanna know why? because it gave me a renewed holy fear of falling away from the Lord. It gave me a renewed hatred for sin. You think this man just woke up one day and decided that he didn't want to follow Jesus anymore? It doesn't happen like that, folks. It was a long, slow, painful departure that started with a little compromise here, a little compromise there. It turns out, before he apostatized, that he was involved in an adulterous relationship. And he confessed, semi-confessed to his wife, semi-repented. He repented in his way, kind of like the Burger King way, you know, your way, right away. He repented in his way, not in a way that conformed to Scripture, not in a brokenness, not in a worldly sorrow, not in a godly sorrow, but a worldly sorrow. And then, because I think, among other things, that repentance was not genuine, he ended up getting a divorce from his wife. Things were falling apart in his life. And guess what, can I just say, can I just interject this? Even then, in a broken marriage, even then in a broken marriage covenant, Christ still stood ready to forgive this man. Christ still stood ready to receive him. We don't know why, because Jesus died for adulterers. Jesus died for liars and perjurers. Jesus died for broken men and women. And the offer of the gospel was on the table ready for him to come, but it was not good enough for this man. And so he. Went solo from this band and started producing his own albums, and you could hear in his early songs. There was an edge and an angst about his faith. You might call it even a brutal honesty. He would question orthodoxy by dancing on the lines of what was appropriate and what was inappropriate. He would complain about how God operated, about God's sovereignty and our free will and trying to figure that out and complaining to God that it wasn't fair. Complaining about what God allowed and what he didn't allow. Complaining about the trials that the Lord sent his way and the hardships that God causes people to endure. This man was lamenting, and guess what? Lamenting has a place in the life of the child of God. You can't read the Psalter without reading lament after lament after lament. So there's a place for lamenting, but. This man's lamenting was not like the psalmists and the prophets of Israel that I read in my Bible. The psalmists and the prophets like Asaph and Job and Habakkuk would cry out to God with painful questions, hard questions that openly inquired the legitimacy of what God was doing. But they would always come back, listen, They would always come back to humble submission to His will. And you know what almost always brought them back to a humble submission to the Lord in the midst of their ignorance, in the midst of their anger, in the midst of their depression, and in the midst of their heartache? You know what always brought them back at the end of the Psalm or the end of the book or the end of the chapter? It was the final judgment. It was the final judgment. They all concluded with the fact that judgment was coming. Can I just give you a few examples? You don't need to turn there, just let me read them. Let them fall upon your ears and hear how these troubled psalmists and troubled prophets who did have, yes, angst and brutal, hard questions for God, how they concluded at the end of their wrestling. Let me just give you a sample. Kohelet in the book of Ecclesiastes. He says in chapter 12, verse one, listen, listen, and young people, please listen to this. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth. before the evil days come and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. He says in verses 13 and 14, and this is the apogee, the climax of all that he has said. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? If you've read Ecclesiastes and you find yourself, for example, in chapter eight or nine, if you didn't know what you were reading, you would not automatically think that they were the ramblings or thoughts of a godly man. You would think, this guy kind of sounds like there's no hope in the world. This guy is asking questions that maybe are not allowed in Sunday school. And yet, and yet, after all his wrestling, After all his struggles, after all his angst, after all his brutal honesty, he comes back and says, the end of the matter is this, God is gonna call every deed into judgment. That's the end. Listen to Asaph in Psalm 73. Many of you know this is my favorite psalm, but you remember the struggle that he had, looking at wicked men and women and seeing the prosperity. They prosper in their wickedness, they prosper in their lawlessness, and then I overhear, Father, I'm inflicted by my conscience. But at the end, this is what he says. As he's wrestling and working through his angst, what does he come to at the end? Psalm 73, 23 and following. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward, you will receive me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, listen, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you, but as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. What brought Asaph, what brought Kohelet back to faithfulness to the Lord? The final judgment. Do you see how the faithful, yes, they question God, they doubt, they fret, they cry out, but in their concluding sigh, they claim God, you are good. You are just, and thank you that I am shielded from your wrath on that final day. Though all my questions are not answered, my heart remains in the hand of my King. That is what the faithful say. Listen to Habakkuk in chapter three, verses 16 through 18. He saw the Babylonians coming against his people, about to ravage his people, take them into captivity. Women would be raped, cities would be pillaged, young children would be murdered. He saw all of this coming in a prophecy. And if that wouldn't cause you to at least doubt the goodness of God, you're not thinking. But he was thinking. And in his thinking, he was worshiping. And he cried out to God, God, this does not comport with what I know to be true of your character. You are holy, you cannot look upon sin with approval. So why, Babylonians, why? How does he answer? Chapter three, verses 16 through 18. I hear, I hear what you're about to do, Lord, and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me, yet. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation. What does Job say? Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Yet I will argue my ways to his face. Yes, I will argue, I will question, but I will trust in him. He says in Job 19, 25 to 27. I know my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. Final judgment. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another. My heart faints within me. This is how Job, this is how Asaph, this is how Habakkuk, this is how Kohelet all bring themselves, or shall I say, are brought back to covenant fealty to their Lord through final judgment. It was the final judgment, the final appearing of the Lord of creation that ultimately quieted their souls despite what their emotions told them, despite what the world told them, despite what Satan told them, even despite what they told themselves. Do you find yourself telling yourself things that aren't true? Do you find yourself telling yourself things that have no grounding in Scripture whatsoever? Do you find yourself being a self-proclaimed prophet of doom of whom you have no authority whatsoever? It is in those times when you are telling yourself those things that you need the promises and the words of God to smother your false ideas and your lies with hope. In other words, who am I? Who am I but a miserable worm? Who am I to think that I am smarter than God, wiser than God? God has reasons for doing what he does, and though I don't understand those ways, though his ways often slay me, silence me, set me in a heap of ashes and mourning, yet this I know, his glory will one day rise from the ash heap of my ignorance and doubts and restore my soul and body forever. Sadly, coming back to this ex-Christian, in his latest album, he gave his ignorance and his angst and I would say his pride full vent when he lamented. And I want you to now contrast what you're about to hear from this ex-Christian, which is godless, with what you just heard from the Psalms and the prophets of Israel, how they worked through their angst, how they worked through their honest questions. This man refused to let the words of Scripture bind up his restless soul. And if the words of Scripture, if the words of Scripture will not bind up our ignorance, then something else will. And that's exactly what happened with this man. Listen to the words of one of the songs off his last album. Speaking out of his great angst, this is what he wrote. Now my knees are weak, my speech is slurred. Oh, the things you shake. Oh, the things you stir. I'm calling out the only name that delivers me from my guilt and shame. What will he say? Will he be brought back to that gospel, that eternal gospel that brought him into the fold of grace in the first place? Will he come back to that name under whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess? I'm calling out the only name that delivers me from my guilt and shame, oh, alcohol, alcohol, oh, alcohol. We raise our voices for alcohol. How did this happen? It was a progression that took place over a long period of time. He fell into adultery and semi-repented. His marriage ended in divorce. But instead of going to God for healing from his own sin, he went to the bottle. He wanted a life that God refused to give him, and as a result, boom, he hits the eject button. I'm out of here. God, if you will not give me what I want, as if you're some cosmic gumball machine that I put my coin of desire in and I twist it and you give me what I want, regardless of the fact that it's Godless, regardless of the fact, listen, that it's not the purpose for which I was created. If you don't give it to me, God, I'm out. Over a long period of time, he gives himself over to sin, to angst, to silencing his conscience, refusing to accept the forgiveness and grace offered in the gospel. Why? Because he wanted something that in his eyes, listen young people, in his eyes was better than Jesus. Well, I grieve for the soul of that man. And by the way, God's not written the last chapter on him yet. I nonetheless thank God for showing me and I hope for showing you a vivid contrast for how faithful God fears and fakes approach the problems of life. You and I could be that man were it not for the grace of God. In the midst of ignorance and unanswered questions, God's people refuse, listen, to trust themselves and their own senses. but instead trust the God who will one day judge the living and the dead. Fakes trust their sinful senses and depend on them to get through. Fakes depend wholly and completely on emotions. Fakes depend wholly and completely on the empirical five senses of science. This whole episode therefore renewed in me a holy fear of God that purifies the soul. It renewed in me a holy hatred of sin, which keeps my heart close to Jesus. But here's the beautiful thing about the fear of God. To the outsider looking at the fear of God, it is a mighty and unstoppable hurricane. To the insider, the Christian, we find solace in the eye of the hurricane through Jesus Christ. He takes on the wrath of God so that we don't have to experience it. Move outside that eye, and you will be enveloped in pure, unmitigated wrath. The judgment of God on the last day reminds us to run to, hide in, and delight in the eye of the hurricane, and his name is Jesus Christ. And so this morning, dear unbeliever, Do you see in this text that Jesus is ready to judge the living and the dead? Do you see that He's ready to stand before you and call you to account for every wicked thought, every wicked action, every wicked word? And my question for you this morning is, do you have an advocate? Do you have a lawyer? Do you have one to stand in your place and cover your sins and give you a righteousness, a robe of righteousness that will make you stand in the day of judgment? If you do not have Jesus Christ, you do not. But this morning, this morning you can have that very standing if you will turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. I have a third point, beloved, but I'm going to pass it up this morning because we have a table to get to. Maybe next week I'll return to it. But as we come to the table this morning, I just have a few questions for you. As you heard this ex-Christian call out the only name that souls and consoles and saves him, alcohol. What is it for you? What is that name that you cry out to in your time of angst and despair and difficulty? Be honest with yourselves this morning. And as we come to the table, be willing as you examine your heart to confess to God anything outside of Christ to which you run in order to find consolation. And then just ask yourself this follow-up question. Whatever that thing or person is, whether it is alcohol, whether it is drugs, whether it is illicit sex, whether it is homosexuality, whether it is imbibing the cultural agenda and zeitgeist of this age, whether it is food, whether it is your husband, whether it is your wife, here's one question. How's that working out for you? How's it working out for you? Is it really giving you lasting consolation? Well, if not, I have good news for you. You could find lasting consolation in Jesus Christ that will never be depleted, that never has a bottom, and that on the last day will cause you to stand before the judge of all the earth. His name is Jesus Christ. Turn from your sins and trust in him this morning. At this time, I'm gonna ask the deacons to come forward as we come before the table. And since we do have many visitors this morning, I want to make it clear what we're doing this morning. We are observing and celebrating the Lord's table and the Lord's table is a communion with a spirit.