The Christian's Duty in a Hostile World, Part 3

So here we are, forgiven yes, transformed yes, with an impulse to obey. And here we have that impulse to obey served by a series of commands in this text. These texts then come to speak to the heart where obedience is the deepest desire. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

You're not going to find a company that has only CEOs or a concert orchestra that has nothing but strings. You need people filling different roles, and that is also true for the church in this hostile world. So what role should you have in the body of Christ? What do you uniquely add, and how can your spiritual gifts help strengthen believers during trials and persecution?

John MacArthur digs into those practical issues as he continues his study called Faith Through the Fire. And now with the lesson, here's John. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4, this is a rich summary of our responsibility as Christians.

We have called it Christian duty in a hostile world. It reminds us of something that is very basic to the Christian faith. It reminds us that faith cannot be removed or detached from the realm of real life.

Let me say that again. Faith cannot be removed or detached from the realm of real life. To put it another way, salvation is not just forgiveness for sins. Salvation is a new order of life. I say that because it seems to me that in the contemporary climate in which the church exists today, salvation is primarily, if not exclusively, conceived of as somewhat far removed from its biblical definition. Salvation today primarily means the forgiveness of sins to most people, and I'm afraid to many preachers. They talk so much about salvation being the point at which your sins are forgiven. You're delivered from sin and death and guilt and hell. But when we understand salvation in a biblical way, we must understand that salvation effects a whole transformation of life. It is not just the forgiveness of sins, it is the transformation of life. The emphasis today tends to be on viewing salvation as receiving the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ.

That, of course, is true. But most salvation preaching seems to center only on that and even to consummate only on that, and so the cross becomes the focal point. The cross is that point at which Christ bears our sins and seems then to be the focal point of salvation because it is there that the sinner finds grace for the forgiveness of his sins. You might be interested to know that as central as the cross is in Christianity, it was not really the central focus of the early church. The early church saw much more in salvation than just the moment at which Christ atoned for sins, the moment in which He died on the cross. The early church saw salvation in much broader terms than that. The early church saw salvation as something that only began with the forgiveness of sins and led to a life transformed into obedience and consummated in the glory with Jesus Christ.

It is interesting that even history sort of reflects this. In his book Civilization, author Kenneth Clark shows that the cross as such was a very late symbol in Christian art and Christian culture. When we think about Christianity, we think immediately about the cross as the symbol of our faith.

You might be interested to know that as far as that book Civilization determined, the first appearance of the cross in Christian art or culture occurred in A.D. 430, all the way into the 5th century on the doors of the church at Santa Sabina and that that cross was a very small little cross inset into some piece of Christian art. The early church did not focus on the cross. The early church focused on what great event? The resurrection. It focused its attention on the resurrection and consequently its preoccupation was not with the point at which sin is forgiven, but the point at which new life begins.

And the resurrection is that point. We, of course, died in Christ spiritually and in that death the penalty of sin was paid, but we also arose in Christ, says Paul, to walk in newness of life. To be saved then to the early church and surely to us as well was not just to have your sin forgiven. It was not just some transaction which dealt with your guilt, but rather to be saved was to be delivered from the power of darkness and to be translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

In other words, it was to enter into an entirely new kind of life, to enter into a new sphere of existence. Salvation is not just atonement. Salvation is not just forgiveness. Salvation is regeneration.

It is transformation. It is the imparting of a new kind of life, the life of God in the soul of man. And because that is true, one who is saved not only has sin dealt with, but has a new desire to live in that new sphere. That desire arises from a new nature, a holy seed. The New Testament talks a lot about the fact that there is planted in the believer the seed of new life, an incorruptible seed. And that seed is a very important concept because a seed is that which produces something. And the very fact that Scripture identifies the Christian as one in whom is planted an incorruptible seed of life indicates that there will be a fruit bearing.

There will be a production out of that seed. That seed of new life that is incorruptible will flourish. And so, when a person is saved, it is not just a matter of dealing with sin. It turns them from the old life and the old ways to a new life and new ways that are the very consequential expression of that new life. To put it simply, works, godly works, spiritual works, good works, become the inevitable result of that transformation. Where you have saving faith, you have works because salvation is not just forgiveness, it is transformation.

It is regeneration. Martin Luther described saving faith as a powerful life-altering force. Listen to the words of Martin Luther. Oh, this faith is a living, busy, active, powerful thing. It is impossible that it should not be ceaselessly doing that which is good. It does not even ask whether good works should be done. But before the question can be asked, it has done them.

And it is constantly engaged in doing them. But he who does not do such works is a man without faith. He gropes and casts about him to find faith and good works, not knowing what either of them is, and yet prattles and idly multiplies words about faith and good works. Further, he says, faith is a living, well-founded confidence in the grace of God, so perfectly certain that it would die a thousand times rather than surrender its conviction. Such confidence and personal knowledge of divine grace makes its possessor joyful, bold, full of warm affection toward God and all created things, all of which the Holy Spirit works in faith. Hence, such a man becomes without constraint willing and eager to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer all manner of ills in order to please and glorify God who has shown toward him such grace."

Many theologians have tried to make us believe that Luther didn't believe in such a faith, but he did as witnessed by his own words. His view of salvation was right, and ours must be as well. We must see salvation as a transformation of life, listen to it now, that makes meaningful and desirable all the commandments of the Word of God.

That's why in the Great Commission it says, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. There is inherent in that new life the impulse to obey. So here we are, forgiven yes, transformed yes, with an impulse to obey, and here we have that impulse to obey served by a series of commands in this text. These texts then come, like many others in the New Testament, to speak to the heart where obedience is the deepest desire. Peter then is instructing us on the principles of Christian living. We do not fight it, we desire it. We do not resist it, we long for it.

We do not debate it, we obey it. That is the mark of transformation. In verse 7, you remember he gave us first of all the incentive when he said, the end of all things is at hand, and was talking about the consummation or the return of Jesus Christ. He said, keep in mind that Christ could come at any moment.

We live in constant expectancy of His return. The fact that the end of all things is near should keep us accountable, for when He comes, we will stand before His judgment seat, and our works will be evaluated, whether they're gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble, and we will be rewarded eternally on the basis of our faithfulness. So we live in the light of the return of Christ, and we looked at that quite carefully. Then from the incentive came immediately in verse 7 the instructions. And here are the commands that I believe come to an eager, transformed heart. The commands in verses 7 and following down through the middle of verse 11 basically fall into three categories. Category number 1, holiness, has to do with your relationship to God. Category number 2, love, has to do with your relationship to others.

And now we come to category number 3, service, service. In verse 7, Peter was talking about having sound judgment and a sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. In other words, having a holy life which enhances your communion with the living God. That is basic to Christian living.

And then in verses 8 and 9, he spoke about love, fervent love, the love that covers the sins of others, the love that is hospitable to strangers and never begrudges it. But now as we come to verses 10 and 11, we're going to talk about service. We are, one, to maintain a holy relationship with God. Two, to maintain loving relationship with others.

Three, to live a life of service. Simply that. How then is that service to be rendered? Let's simplify it as much as we possibly can. Look at verse 10 and 11. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another.

Now that's where we start. Peter says you're to be busy serving one another. You start with a right vertical relationship. You follow up with a right horizontal relationship and that engages you into a life of effective service. Inward holiness leads to outward love which produces spiritual service. And spiritual service without inward holiness and spiritual service without outward love is hypocrisy, legalism, sham. Now let's look then at these two verses that tell us about spiritual service. Verse 10 says we are to be serving. We are to be serving.

But how is the question? How am I to serve? The word serve is a very, very mundane word, I might remind you. Very mundane word. It means literally to wait on people. That's what it means.

To wait on people, it is the word diakoneo which is used of a table waiter, worse than that, a busboy. Very menial task. We are to give our lives to serve one another. Now the question is how are we to do that and we're gonna see it one element at a time. Verse 10 again. As each one has received a special gift. Hmm.

Here is the tool for service. We are to serve one another through the means of a special gift. A special gift. Now what do we mean by a gift? What is this gift that he's talking about?

Well, we're gonna see that in just a few moments. Before we look at that, let's go back in the text and take one piece at a time that deals with this special gift. First of all, I wanna talk about the extent of these special gifts. Verse 10. As each one has received a special gift.

There's the extent. Each Christian has a special gift. Everyone does. You do, I do, every Christian does. Peter says as each one has received and therein does he describe for us the extent of special gifts or as we call them, spiritual gifts.

Everybody has one. Turn with me for the moment to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And I wanna reinforce this point by showing you explicitly what the Spirit of God says. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about the same subject. It's talking about spiritual gifts. Verse 1 says, now concerning spiritual gifts. Verse 4 says, there are varieties of gifts. But verse 7 says, to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

In other words, every believer has a Spirit-given spiritual gift. Verse 11. But one and the same Spirit, Holy Spirit, works all these things, listen now, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills. Notice verse 12. For even as the body, the body of Christ, like a physical body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. The point is as you have a body and every member has a certain function, so in the body of Christ, every member has a certain function. And the body, says verse 14, is not one member but many. And the idea there is so is the church.

Now verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 12 says that the Spirit is distributing, distributing to each one. That is universality. But He is distributing to each one individually, that is individuality. So you have universality and individuality. What do you mean by that?

I simply mean this. He gives gifts to every single Christian, but while we are universally gifted, we are individually gifted as well, which means that each of our gifts is unique to us. He distributes to each one, that's universality, individually, that's individuality. And by the way, the word individuality is idious, from which we get idiot. What does an idiot mean? That is a Greek word that means peculiar. It means there's nobody like Him. And it came to be used of people who are mentally incompetent because they are so odd, they are so peculiar, there's nobody like them. The point is this.

I believe that every Christian is a spiritual snowflake. Just like you are literally the only one of your kind, even if you're a twin, you're different than your twin. Your fingerprints are different, your teeth are different, and other parts of you are different. Every one of us is stamped with absolute uniqueness.

We are all creative idiots, in that sense. We are peculiar. We are unique.

There's no one like us. We are spiritual snowflakes. And I believe that when the Spirit of God gives to every believer gifts, He gives them individually to each believer absolutely peculiar to that believer.

You say, well, now wait a minute, John. If I read in 1 Corinthians 12, I read that there are just a few gifts listed there. I mean, a few specific ones. It talks about, for example, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, various kinds of tongues, interpretation. And then if you look at Romans chapter 12, you have another list of gifts, and you look there, and there are just a few suggested there. For example, in Romans 12, you have prophecy, service, exhortation, giving, leading, showing mercy. You say, well, you know, there's only about a dozen of them listed here. How are you gonna divide a dozen gifts up among millions of Christians and make them all different?

Let me tell you how. I believe you have a list of gifts in Romans 12, a list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. The fact that they are different shows how much latitude there is in their definition. Paul lists some in the Roman passage.

He lists some in the Corinthian passage, and there's some duplication and some non-duplication. And it's almost as if he's just suggesting broad categories. The best way to understand it would be that they're like colors on a palette. And each gift would be a color, and as God takes His brush and paints you, He dips into different color categories and paints you a unique color. You're not the same as someone else. Even if you had 15 people or 20 or 5,000 who all had a gift of teaching, you could have them all teach and they would all teach differently, uniquely.

Why? Well, because the category of gift is just that. It's a category into which God dips, as it were, and then again maybe dipping into those other categories to make you unique.

And then there's more than that. Ephesians 4, 7 says, the measure of Christ's gift, uses that phrase, the measure of Christ's gift. He measures out that gift in different ways. You might have a gift of teaching, a gift of showing mercy, a gift of service, a gift of faith or whatever, but the measure with which you are given that gift might vary.

We have many people in this church with a gift of teaching, but it's different in each case. So you have the measure of the gift. Not only that, in Romans 12, 3, Paul says when God gives the gift, He also gives the measure of faith to operate that gift. So you have your gift measured out and then you have the right amount of faith to operate that gift measured out. A measure of grace, a measure of faith is linked with the measured gift for effective use. So while all of us have gifts, the Lord is making us very unique.

That passage in 1 Corinthians 12 emphasizes this same point from another vantage point. He says there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries in which those gifts are used but the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects that result from those gifts being used. So you have varieties of gifts, varieties of ministries in which the gifts operate, varieties of effects because you have varieties of grace, if you will, measured out, varieties of faith measured out.

Every one of us comes out as a spiritual snowflake. That's John MacArthur. Besides being the Bible teacher here on Grace to You, John also serves as Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He has titled our current series Faith Through the Fire. John, in today's lesson, you zeroed in on a fundamental truth of Christian living that when Christ saves us, when the Holy Spirit gives us new birth, he doesn't simply modify our behavior. He transforms our heart. And I know you would say that a changed heart, a renewed heart, has new affections and new desires including a desire to feed on biblical truth. So talk a bit about that passion and how we as believers can transform that desire for biblical truth into knowledge and understanding. Just to undergird what you said, it is not possible to understand the doctrine of regeneration and then deny a transformation.

We've battled that all through the years. There are people who taught that you could be a Christian and have no change in your life. That defies the whole reality of being born again. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things pass away.

Behold, all things are new. So a transformation is a real regeneration, a new birth. You go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive, spiritually ignorant to being spiritually knowledgeable, spiritually foolish to spiritually wise.

So it is a total transformation. And one of the elements of that new life is a longing for spiritual food. And I think that's part and parcel of what it means to be a believer. If I see someone who claims to be a Christian and has no interest in feeding on the word of God, then I have every right to question the validity of their claim. Because if you're a believer, you hunger and thirst after the revelation of God because you hunger and thirst after God and after his righteousness.

So the best thing to think about when you ask yourself, how should I feed that desire, is to make sure that every day of your life you spend time feeding your soul. And one of the best ways you can do that is with our devotional book called Drawing Near. Millions of people have used this through the years. It's a devotional for every day of the year. It's the first devotional book I wrote, and it's probably the favorite of people across the world. A passage of scripture, some insight into that scripture for every day. Not superficial, not sentimental, but really grappling with what the Bible says. It breaks down scripture and it makes application. So it's a great way to take a dose of God's words every day of the year.

Affordably priced is always and available today from Grace to You and free shipping on U.S. orders. That's right, and no habit is more important or more life-changing than the daily intake of God's truth. This book will help you develop that habit with 365 readings and suggestions for prayer. So get in touch and order a copy of Drawing Near. To order, call toll-free anytime, 855-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. This devotional gives a substantial one-page lesson for each day of the year, and it covers themes like God's attributes, handling trials, overcoming sin, Drawing Near costs $15.50 and shipping is free.

Again, to order, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org to order. Also, while you're online, download the Grace to You app. It gives you access wherever you take your phone to all of John's sermons, 3,500 total. Our website also has a regularly updated blog featuring articles from John and the staff in which they discuss issues vital to the church today. All of that free teaching and much more is available at gty.org. And if you've benefited from John's current radio series, perhaps let a friend know about it and encourage him or her to tune in to Grace to You on this station. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television this Sunday, check your local listings for Channel and Times, and then be here next week when John continues Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.