Well, hopefully this morning you can see why and understand why I chose four songs with hallelujah in it today to give all praise and glory to God, the Son, the Holy Spirit, who mightily is working in us and through us and for his glory. To him we say hallelujah, hallelujah. Will you pray with me this morning? Father, we continue in the hallelujah and praise to you for your glorious gospel and the word, God, that you have given us to guide us and shepherd us in this life. God, that we have, many of us in this room have committed and dedicated our lives to Jesus and following him. God, we have been captivated by his love. We've been constrained by his love so that we no longer live for ourselves, but we live for him who loved us and died for us and rose again on our behalf. And it is by your gospel work in each of us that we gather this morning, submitted under the lordship of Christ, giving you hallelujahs for your glorious love through your son, Jesus, that has made us alive together with Christ. And so, God, we pray your blessing now upon the preaching of your word. May you once again be hallelujahed. I can say it that way. This morning, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. One of the sweetest aspects of the gospel ministry is the privilege that we have of hearing brothers and sisters in Christ share their testimonies. I was just talking with Richard the other day, and man, he loves to hear the testimonies of the saints. You know, it is truly an amazing grace of God to hear how God has worked in each person's salvation and conversion, to hear how they have gone from death to life, to hear how they have gone from being enemies of God to now children of God, to hear how they have embraced the gospel of Jesus' death and His burial and His resurrection, all the work of Him in their place. It is truly an amazing grace of God to hear how God has worked in each person's salvation and conversion. Amen? But just as sweet as hearing their salvation and conversion testimony is also hearing how they have continued to pursue righteousness and holiness in Christ over time. To hear how they have made willful decisions to stop sinning in order to pursue righteousness and holiness and honoring Christ instead. To hear how they are being sanctified by the ministry of the Word and no longer indulge in the desires of the flesh to hear how they fight the fight of faith every day by clinging to Christ, the Gospel, rather than clinging to sin and the world. And it is a sweet grace of God to not only hear about these amazing works of Christ, perfecting their faith in Him, but also to see to see their maturity and growth in Christ, to watch them, to watch them shun worldliness in order to love Christ more than the world and how the world tries to tempt them with what it has. It is a sweet grace of God to see this sanctifying work of God in their lives. as they even endure slander, mockery, hardships, because of their pursuit and love of Jesus. So when we hear these stories and we see this lived out in their lives, it is a witness to us all that they have been captivated and controlled and compelled by the love of Christ that they no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again on their behalf. Folks, all of this is the ministry and the power of the gospel of Christ. working mightily in the lives of His people for His glory as He conforms us all to be more and more like Himself in all of these ways. It is the power of the Gospel of Christ in you conforming you to Jesus away from sin, away from worldliness, clinging to Christ and clinging to the Gospel, even as you are being slandered and persecuted and maligned for Christ in this work that He is doing in you. Today, in 1 Peter 4, Peter is going to testify about these fellow Christians' faith in their pursuit of holiness, just as if They were telling their story themselves. Peter is going to describe to them of what it looked like in their lives as they carried out the desires of the Gentiles and what has happened since that time. Peter is going to glory in the gospel's power that was preached to them, that led them away from sin, empowered them to endure suffering in this gospel power. that will ultimately triumph in the resurrection from the dead. Let's read our text this morning. Will you read it with me? Open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4. And by God's grace, we'll begin reading in verse 3. Peter writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Verse four, in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you. but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Verse six, 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. For those of you this morning who are taking notes, you can look on the back of your bulletin. I've titled the sermon today, The Gloriously Triumphant Gospel. And our aim is pretty simple, at least simple to understand. And that's to embrace the gospel that leads us away from sin, to empower us to endure suffering, and triumphs in the resurrection. And if you look at verse 3 this morning, Peter begins with this testimony and this description of how their former time of sin has passed away. Look at verse 3 again. He says, For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Here in verse 3, Peter is continuing his thought in what he just wrote in verse 2 about living the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. And his thought here is, for the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles. What Peter is saying is, all of that sin, All of that sin that you were committed to before God caused you to be born again to a living hope, all of that sinfulness is now in the past. And for those that it's true, you say what? Oh, hallelujah. Tommo taught us a new word today. Use it righteously and rightfully. But that's what Peter is saying. All of that sin, all of that sinfulness that you were committed to is now in the past. All of the time in the past that you spent sinning and indulged in sin, Peter says is sufficient. And this sufficiency means that you don't have anything to make up for lost time in regards to sin. No matter how long you lived apart from Christ, that time in the past is sufficient in regards to sin. You're not lacking in measure to sin any longer. That time of sin is sufficient in the past. It's full, it's done, it's complete. And now Peter unpacks what all of the desires of the Gentiles are. He unpacks what the lusts of men are, the former lusts which were yours and theirs in ignorance. When Peter uses the word Gentiles here in verse 3, he's using it in a way to describe the world, those without Christ, those who live in darkness. He's using it in a way to describe like a tribe, a nation, a people group who are not worshipping the one true God. They are pagans. They are Gentiles. Do you remember how the Apostle Paul described us in Ephesians 2? That Brother Jason read to us this morning already? That 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 of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, we too, all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." So what Peter says in verse 3 is what Paul says in Ephesians 2. That they pursued a course in all of these desires of the Gentiles. To pursue a course means to pursue a lifestyle in this way. It's not just a one-time sin, but an everyday sinfulness, an every week sinfulness, an every month sinfulness, an every year sinfulness. It's a vicious cycle and a course that you are on, and there's no getting off of it. There's no getting off of it. Because deep down, you don't want to get off of it. And you can't get off of it. You don't have the ability to get off of this course of the Gentiles' desires, the wickedness, and this pagan desire. That's why verse 4 of Ephesians 2 is so beautiful. But God, right? The greatest conjunction in all of Scripture? But God? Right? Listen, you are either pursuing a course in God's will away from sin, or you are pursuing a course of sin away from God. Period. And Peter explains to his readers that the course of sin that they are on in the past that they were on is over. It's over. It's sufficient. It's full. It's done. There's nothing lacking in the course of sin that you were on. Be done with this now and forever. So in order to educate and to teach these new Christians about the difference between their old life apart from Christ and now their new life in Christ, he now explains to them what some of these desires of the Gentiles are. Ready for this? He explains what these desires of the Gentiles are. Peter gives six practicing sinful desires of the Gentiles, and the first two are sensuality and lusts. Sensuality means unbridled and unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. It's unbridled. There's no restraining here of my pursuit of pleasure. There's no restraint on their pursuit. They're all in, and there's no holding them back. It is a course of sensuality. It is unbridled and unrestrained desires of the Gentiles, the pagans, and all of the pleasures which are disobedient to God. The word lust would obviously go hand in hand with sensuality and all of these desires and practices because lust is the root desire to pursue all of these sins. To lust after the desire of the Gentiles is to pursue with great indulgence. You put sensuality and lust together, you have people who are completely out of control. in their course of sin. The third desire of the Gentiles in course of sin is drunkenness. Drunkenness. Drunkenness here literally means wine bubbling up. It refers to habitual intoxication. So not only are they pursuing sinful pleasures with unrestrained desires and lustful indulgences, but they also quench, they also quench the fleshly desires with drunkenness, with their wine bubbling over. Obviously Peter's talking about the past right here for these Christians. I just want to ask you this morning, do you get drunk? You get drunk. Is there an excess of drinking and pursuing drink and being on a course of being drunk? You see, most of us here this morning, we know how all other sinful desires are sought and even are pursued after with greater unrestraint when someone is in a course of constant drunkenness. The fourth desire of the Gentiles in course of sin is carousing. Carousing refers to participating in wild parties. In one extra biblical Greek source, the term described a band of drunken people that sang loudly and staggered wildly in the streets, causing major public disturbance. you can see how these desires of the Gentiles are just compounding. Any one of these desires just opens the door for another desire of the flesh, right? The fifth desire of the Gentiles in course of sin is drinking parties. These were parties that were organized just for the sake of becoming drunk. That happens. It happens today, right? The whole party, the whole party was just centered around drinking. And lastly, the sixth desire of the Gentiles in the course of sin that Peter highlights is abominable idolatries. This was obviously false worship, but specifically false gods such as Dionysus and Bacchus. Read about this guy, Bacchus. He was a false god. He was the Greek god of wine. And so their unrestrained pursuit of pleasure and lust under their idol worship would overflow into carousing and drinking parties. It became acts of worship for them. Are you seeing and hearing what God has saved these people out of? Some of you, out of? You can understand real quickly how these are not simply just individual sins, but corporate sins, where these Gentiles would gather corporately and indulge in their desires, unbridled and unrestrained. So when you add more and more sinners congregating together with these pursuits and with these purposes, all it does is compound sins upon sins upon sins. So Peter is teaching them that this course This course of pursuing the desires of the Gentiles by God's grace is in the past. It's over and it's done with. You've maxed out all of this sin to the fullest measure. It's sufficient. So what happens now to these believers who are no longer living for the lust of men but for the will of God. What happens to these believers who are now no longer living for the lust of men but for the will of God? What happens now to these believers who no longer congregate who no longer gather and worship false gods, indulging in sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, and drinking parties. What happens when they forsake their friends and their sin-filled congregations to pursue holiness and righteousness now? What happens to these people? They should be soberly ready. for the hostility that is coming against them. Look at verse four. Peter says, in all this, they are surprised. They are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation. And what do they do? They malign you. Many of us here this morning who were not raised in church or in a Christian home can probably remember what it was like when God saved us and we started turning away from sin in order to pursue Christ. It shocked our friends. Right? It shocked our families. I was told by a loved one when I was saved, gloriously saved, came home, not to a Christian welcome, not to a gospel welcome, testifying that God had saved me. And I was told that they too were like that one time and I'll just get over it. That was 1990. I don't think I've gotten over it yet. Peter says the same thing here in verse 4. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation. The word surprised here literally means surprised. But there's a little bit further definition there. It actually means to think it's strange. To be shocked. You see, the reason why they are surprised is because when Peter's readers turned away from these sins in order to pursue Christ, they not only just simply pursued what is good, but with their absence, with their absence to these other sin-filled congregational gatherings, they are now proclaiming with their lives that what their Gentile friends are doing and what their Gentile families are doing is wrong and sinful and debased. So they are now surprised that they do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation any longer. They are shocked and they think it, what? Strange. So what has happened now? Peter's talking about the past here. Peter's talking about the past. So what's happened here is Peter's readers through this have now become strangers to them. Peter's readers have now become aliens to them. The phrase excesses of dissipation describes floodwaters. pouring in and overtaking everything. Dissipation is the state in which a person's mind is so corrupt that he thinks about nothing but evil and how he might indulge in sinful passions and pleasures. So basically what Peter is describing here, basically what Peter is describing is a tsunami of sinful passions. They are surprised and shocked that they do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation. When you do not run with them, you are no longer of the same mind. Amen? You are no longer of the same purpose and intent. So you are now a stranger to them. You are now an alien to them. And I know some of you have testimonies exactly like this. So what typically happens when the world encounters an alien. What typically happens when the world encounters a stranger that's not like the world, that's not like them? When you think about worldly people today, what do they do? They malign them, don't they? Well, that's a word that we typically don't use. But the word malign literally means to blaspheme, to slander, and to speak evil against them. Is this not what we are witnessing right now in our nation? As you no longer conform to the pursuit of the desire of the Gentiles in this country, you will be maligned. You will be blasphemed, you will be spoken against, and we see that right now, slowly, and in some ways, swiftly. To say it very simply, our lives are really all about conformity. Ever thought about this? Our lives are really all about conformity. Either we are being conformed to Christ and His ways, or we are being conformed to the world and its ways. There is no middle ground here. And when you no longer conform to the world, They will hate you and malign you and say all kinds of evil about you because of Jesus. So what would Peter say at this point? That this is happening, you're being maligned, you're being spoken against, you're being slandered. What would Peter say? Arm yourselves with the same purpose of Christ. Arm yourselves with the same purpose of Christ. But even in all of this maligning and evil against them, Peter reminds them of what Jesus knew while he was being maligned, reviled, suffered against, and threatened. Look at verse 5. Peter reminds them that their maligners will be held accountable. Look at verse 5. But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge. the living and the dead. One commentator writes, such vicious attackers are amassing a debt to God they will spend an eternity paying back. He who is ready to judge will ultimately hold them accountable. The living, those alive when Peter wrote, and the dead, those already dead, will all be judged. so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may be accountable to God." So how does Peter's readers need to respond when their Gentile friends and families malign them? How do they need to respond? They need to follow the example of Jesus. 1 Peter 2.23, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats. But what did he keep doing? He kept entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously. How do Peter's readers need to respond when their Gentile friends and family malign them? They need to keep entrusting themselves to Him who judges righteously. Easier said than done. I know. I know. In those moments of maligning, in those moments of slandering, in those moments of lying against you, you need to pray to God to save them, to redeem them, to forgive them, and preach to yourself to keep entrusting yourself to Him who judges righteously. Since persecution, since persecution, suffering, and reviling is what Jesus endured constantly from the hands of wicked men. Perhaps, perhaps you are never more like Jesus than when you keep entrusting yourself to him who judges righteously while being persecuted and enduring suffering and being reviled against because of Jesus. Pray for your enemy. Love your enemy. Do good to your enemy. Bless your enemy. Lastly, Peter gives them strong encouragement in the gospel, as he should. Look at verse 6. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached, even to those who were dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. because of the judgment that will come. Peter says, this is why the gospel has been preached. David Helms in his commentary reminds us that the early church had many questions about their family members and friends who had died after coming to faith in Christ. What happens to them? Where do they go? Will I see them again? They wondered what happened to the believers after death There was a concern for those who had already undergone the penalty of death. Peter wants to reassure his readers with the news that although believers are judged in the flesh, the way all people are, they need not worry about their future with God. He says they will still live in the Spirit the way God does. died in these scattered churches that Peter is writing to. And they had received the gospel when the gospel was preached to them. We are not told how they died. We don't know if they died because of persecution. We don't know if they died because of the suffering that Peter's been writing about. We don't know if they died just from old age, natural causes. Nevertheless, they have died, and the sin that ultimately causes everyone to die in the flesh as men is a reality even for those who have received the gospel. But how many of you know this morning and believe this morning that the gospel triumphs over death into eternal life? Although some of Peter's readers have had loved ones die in the flesh Peter now reassures them that though they are dead in the flesh, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. Wayne Grudem in his commentary writes, we are assured here that believers who have died are nonetheless living and enjoying blessings in the unseen spiritual and eternal realm which is characterized by the Holy Spirit's activity. I know some saints who have gone. and they live in the Spirit according to the will of God. I like what Thomas Schreiner says in his commentary. He actually pushes us even further into a magnificent understanding here from Peter. Thomas Schreiner writes, Peter reminded his readers that even if they die physically, death is not the last word. The resurrection awaits them. Believers died in the sphere of the flesh, but they will live by the means of the Holy Spirit. So Peter, just like the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians, is reassuring his readers that death is not the end for those who died in Christ. There's a resurrection in the Spirit according to the will of God. And just like Jesus. How many of you want to be just like Jesus? Back in 1 Peter 3.18, Peter wrote that he died for our sins, having been put to death in the flesh, but, there's another great conjunction, but made alive in the Spirit. But those who have died in Christ will also be raised one day in the resurrection to come. Folks, I want you to know this morning that this is what would motivate the persecuted saints to continue on following in the example of Jesus. Jesus, too, was maligned. He, too, was reviled. He, too, suffered. He, too, died in the flesh. But He was made alive in the Spirit. And if Jesus is our high example, then we, too, shall be resurrected as well. We, too, shall one day be made alive in the Spirit when we have died in the flesh. It doesn't just end. It doesn't just stop. Even for those that you have loved, who have gone on. We should long. Listen, we should long for the resurrection to come. And in that righteous, holy, and glorious longing for the resurrection is what strengthens us to arm ourselves with the same purpose of Jesus, 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 past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In all of this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you. But they will give an 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. This is what motivates us, because our eyes are not fixed on what we see, but what we don't see yet. Amen? Therefore, that enables us and empowers us by the Spirit to endure all of these things that even Peter's readers are enduring. Brothers and sisters, I leave you with this. I leave you with the gospel. The gospel that I have preached to you. The gospel that you have received. The gospel in which you stand. The gospel in which you hold fast. The gospel in which you are saved. The gospel is of first importance. What I also received. The gospel is that Christ died according to the scriptures. He was buried and he was raised three days later according to the scriptures. This is the gospel you received. This is the gospel that you stand on. This is the gospel that you have been saved by. This is the gospel that you hold fast to. It is the gospel that has been preached to you, and even to those who have died and who are no longer with us, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. Church, this is the gospel. Arm yourselves with the same purpose of Jesus Christ, 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 lust of men, but for the will of God. The gospel triumphs over death into eternal life and the resurrection to come. That is what motivates us. That is what captivates us. That is what constrains us. That is what controls us to no longer live for ourselves, but to live for Him who loved us and who died for us and rose again on our behalf. Father, we thank you once again for your Word that so rightly and perfectly shepherds us in the ways of Christ. God, we look to you this morning for the strength, for the power by your Spirit to live according to the way that your Word teaches us to live. And Father, as we think about this glorious Gospel that has been preached to us, we know that the power of the Gospel is what turns us away from the desire of the Gentiles. That's all in the past. God, help us to be more than overcomers against the sin and the world against us. God, we also know that the Gospel is what allows us to endure the suffering and the hardships because we know that ultimately the gospel is what triumphs over sin and death and the world and this flesh that we live in. God help us to cling to the gospel when others malign us, they insult us, they persecute us because we no longer run with them in the same excesses of dissipation. Let us then boast and brag and commend the gospel to them that has caused us to go from darkness to light, from death to life in Christ. Father, I pray for those this morning who are in this room and we are not so naive to think that there are not those here in this room this morning that remain in darkness. God, we pray even now by the gospel's power that you will grant them faith and repentance unto Jesus, and that you would remove them and rescue them from the domain of darkness, and that you would transfer them to the kingdom of your beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Rescue them today, Father. Through the blood of Jesus and by the power of your Spirit, grant them faith, help them to see the glorious Christ and His glorious gospel is able to save them. God, we thank you for your word, and we give you all the praise and all the glory, and together this morning, because of the testimony of our lives and Jesus' perfecting faith in us, together we can say hallelujah.