Hope Beyond the Culture: How to Shock the Pagan Crowd, Part 1

As followers of Jesus Christ, how do we remain holy in a world that views our Christian values as needless? How do we stay pure in an indulgent culture where moral boundaries are self-defined? Those are relevant questions that we'll tackle today on Insight for Living as Chuck Swindoll continues the series called Hope Again. Whether it's in the workplace, on a college campus, or on vacation, each day we face pressure to abandon our values.

We're looking at 1 Peter chapter 4 for help. Chuck titled his message, Hope Beyond the Culture. If you have ever traveled abroad, you know the feeling of being the foreigner. Anyone who has done that for the first time finds that it makes an incredible impact upon him or upon her. Most people I know can remember quite vividly stepping on foreign soil and being in the midst of a language and a culture, really a whole world that is not their own.

And the unusual accompanying feelings that one feels at that time, they're enormous. My first experience with this happened while I was in the military. We had finished a 17-day voyage in a troop ship going overseas, and we were about to step on Japanese soil.

It was back in, I think, late 1957, early 1958. And the company commander called all of us down below, about five decks below, and he got us all together in this tight place, and he looked at all of us as we were anticipating being on land for the first time in 17 days, and on foreign soil for some of us for the first time in our lives. And he looked deeply into our eyes and he said, I want all of you men to remember that for the first time in your life, you are the foreigner. This is not your culture. This is not your country. This is not your language. These are not your people.

They know nothing of your homeland except what they see in you. It was one of those behavior self pep talks, I guess we could say. And I think what he was saying to us is don't become another example of the ugly American. Live a life that will cause the people in this country, even though they don't know your language and they don't know your culture, and they don't know your roots, and some of them will never see where you have lived all your life.

Live your life here in such a way that you will create an interest in what it must be like to be in America. It occurred to me recently that that's the kind of pep talk we need to give every new convert. Shortly after they're converted, we need to communicate to the new convert that they're now living in a foreign land. And the people they're living around and living with have a culture that is no longer theirs. Many of them speak a language that they no longer speak.

They represent a philosophy of life that is no longer theirs. And if I may coin the word, don't become an ugly Christian. Live a life that will create an interest in the place which you call and will someday literally call home. I love the story of the missionary couple that came home after 30, 40 years of faithful service in Africa. They came home on a ship. It so happened that there was a very important diplomat also on the same ship, who got special treatment and special attention. And when this couple arrived, they stood back and they watched on the deck as the band played and the people had gathered and there was great applause. And he walked down this gang plank and he was whisked off in this lovely limousine to the sounds of music and applause. This dear fellow put his arm around his wife and he walked off with her and got into the streets of New York and he said, honey, it just doesn't seem right after all of these years that we would have this kind of treatment and here this fellow is that just because he happens to have a certain position, he gets that kind of special treatment.

And she put her arms around her husband and said to him, but honey, we're not home yet. You and I live our lives as Christians away from home. We are citizens of another land. Remember the old men's quartet song, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

That's the truth. We live in a pagan culture surrounded by pagan folks who embrace a pagan philosophy, a pagan way of life. And we're left here on purpose. We're left here to demonstrate what it is like to be a member of another country, to have a citizenship in another land so that we might create a thirst and an interest in that land. All of this provides a perfect, perfect introduction to the fourth chapter of 1 Peter. I'd like to have you open your Bible or your New Testament to this great section of scripture. Let me read these six verses as we get going here and then I just want to make some comments along the way as we work our way through this passage.

It isn't all that difficult, but it is insightful and it is a helpful reminder to all of us who live our lives away from home. 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 were dead.

That though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. You'll notice that the chapter begins with a word that always forms the beginning of a summary. It is the word therefore. Every time, I'm honest, every time I read this word I have in my mind a mental arrow that points back up to verses that have preceded it. Because in light of what the writer has written, he says now therefore these things are true.

So you always have to integrate that single word with the context in which it appears. See the chapter begins therefore since Christ. Now what has he said just before that would cause him to come back in summary with this paragraph that follows? Well go up to verse 18 of chapter 3. Christ also died for sins, the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. And with that look at verse 22 that follows. Who is at the right hand of God still referring to Christ having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him? Therefore, you see how it all ties together, since Christ has died, the just for the unjust and since he has been seated at the right hand of God and since all authorities have been subjected to him, therefore, verse 1, since Christ has suffered in the flesh.

Let's don't go any further. That states the provision that we have because of Christ's death. Christ has died for sins, verse 18.

Christ has been seated at the right hand of God, chapter 3 verse 22. Therefore, in light of this, we are to arm ourselves, verse 1, chapter 4, with the same purpose he had when he was on this earth. I find those words, arm yourselves, intriguing. Kenneth Wiest, now dead, taught for many years at Moody Bible Institute in the Greek department.

While there, he put together a series of books that provide real insight into the New Testament text. From one of his works, I have found in this explanation for arm yourselves. He exhorts the saints to arm themselves with the same mind that Christ had regarding unjust punishment. The Greek word translated, arm yourselves, was used of a Greek soldier putting on his armor and taking his weapons.

The noun of the same root was used of a heavy armed foot soldier who carried a pike and a large shield. The Christian needs the heaviest armor he can get to withstand the attacks of the enemy of his soul. In light of what you and I have to face, and in light of what Christ has provided us in his death, we are to take up arms, spiritually speaking. We are to ready ourselves for life lived on foreign soil. By the way, we're not left here to be tourists.

We're not left in this land to be people who vacation, relax, kick back, take it easy, and wait for heaven to unfold. We are engaged in a battle. The battle is at times fierce and it is always relentless. In light of the fierce and relentless battle that we face living on pagan soil, we are to arm ourselves with the strength that Christ gives because our purpose in life is the same as his. He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. I think what it means is ceased from sin's domination, from its power. Just as Christ faced unjust sufferings, so will we.

Never forget that. I had a fellow call me this past week remembering that we are in this letter of 1 Peter and he said, I just want to let you know, Chuck, that Peter is happening in my life. First Peter is happening in my life and I probed a little deeper. He said, let me explain and then he described to me some unjust suffering he's going through. He said, the things you've been talking about recently came back to my mind. He said to me this morning after the call and after prayer for him and after concern over his situation, he said to me this morning, he said, I just want you to know the cloud has lifted.

Between the time the attack came and a few hours or a few days later, he had sensed the beginning of deliverance from this attack that he was going through. I don't know how many people hearing me right now are going through a similar phase in your life. Most Christians I know cannot spend very long, not even a month, without experiencing some kind of unjust suffering. You just don't sort of walk through this casually.

You sort of ricochet from one wall to another, bouncing your way back and forth, making it to the next day and it's very, very difficult. Especially if the attack comes because of your testimony, because of your walk with Christ. Some of you who live in the competitive jungle of the business world face this rather regularly. You may work for a boss who requires of you or asks of you compromise in the realm of ethics and integrity. And you have the tension between pleasing your boss who has the ability to fire you or to certainly demote you or put you on the spot or compromise your commitment to Christ. You live with this tension. That verse, arm yourselves with the same purpose, is applicable for you.

You need the inner equipment to stand firm and to make it through the tension. The vision Christ gives you is sufficient. Now, the transformation is also mentioned, beginning at the end of verse 1 down through verse 3. He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. It doesn't mean you've stopped sinning altogether, it means you've ceased from sin's domination.

Ready for a real shocker? For living in Christ, we who draw our life from him have ceased from sin's control. Before Christ, we had no equipment, we had no power to withstand. When temptation came along, we yielded. When the weakness of the flesh appeared, we fell into the trap.

We had no inner stability. But when Christ took up residence in our lives, he gave us strength so that we could cease serving sin as a master. Romans chapter 6 is a wonderful section on it. We have gotten a release from sin's control because Christ now lives within us. Now, let me point out four things in verses 1b through 3 that will help you. First of all, we no longer serve sin as our master. Verse 2, we no longer spend our days overcome by the desires we once had. Verse 2, 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. We no longer serve sin as our master, that's what the end of verse 1 is teaching. We do not spend our days overcome by desires as we once did, called here the lusts. Third, we now live for the will of God, end of verse 2, but for the will of God.

And verse 3, we have closed the book on godless living. The time has passed. The time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles.

I like the way that reads. You've had plenty of time to sow your wild oats. You did that in your unconverted days.

You have had sufficient time to see the end result of a lifestyle of loose living. And he even describes it here. Having pursued, at one particular time of your life, a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Look at the very strong contrast between verse 2, the will of God, and verse 3, the desire of the Gentiles. Strong contrast between those two lifestyles. You and I are surrounded by lost people, whom I am liberally calling pagans. People who do not know the Lord, whose lives are marked by the desire of the Gentiles. And we who live in this foreign land, away from home, live for the will of God. There is a marked contrast in our lifestyles.

Let me take a few minutes with each of these words in verse 3. Having pursued a course of, first, sensuality. The word means actions that excite and shock public decency. Actions that excite and shock public decency.

That excite disgust, I should say, and shock public decency. Sensuality. Lust is the next word, and it's not limited to sexual promiscuity. It would have to do with any passionate desire that is in the realm of sin. Could be a lust for revenge. Could be a lust for money. The whole problem of greed. Could be a lust for the opposite or the same sex. Lust has to do with any evil desire. That's the part of the lifestyle of the Gentiles. And look at this next group, drunkenness, carousals, and drinking parties.

You don't even need to know what the Greek means in that to understand what that's all about. You thought that was 20th century living. My friend, that's every century living. That's the life of the lost person.

They live their lives driven by the desire for someone else's wife or someone else's husband. Or carousals. Or from one drinking party to the next. It is the word orgy that we could use to describe all of it. Wild crowd, drinking bouts, the wild frenzy of a lifestyle of unrestrained alcoholic consumption and drug abuse.

It's the whole scene right there in verse 3. And if you don't partake of that lifestyle, you are weird. I'm representing the pagans when I say that. You are weird. They notice it.

But that's the way it is without Christ. I don't judge them. I get along marvelously with people like that. They're my kind of folks.

No, I don't mean that to sound the wrong way. I understand their whole lifestyle is spent in a realm of lustful drives and carousals and one drinking party after another. I understand that.

I deal with people like that a lot. But what an emptiness there is when the party is over. And everybody goes home. You're left with the horrors of the sunrise and a hangover. And usually guilt and even some shame as you crawl out of somebody else's bed wondering what disease you got this time. It's a horrible lifestyle. I don't care how beautiful the commercials look.

It stinks. But if you have any power to overcome it, the only thing you have to look forward to is the next party. And if they play the music loud enough and if there's enough booze, you can kind of drink your troubles away. What a lie. Troubles are never drunk away.

Now you get the picture. Verse 3, the time already passed is sufficient for you to have had your fill of Gentile lifestyle. You've had enough of that. You've tasted of it. You've entered into it. You've experienced it having pursued your own course of things that excite the disgust of the public. It's amazing when Christ fills the void how he takes away a lot of that garbage and removes a lot of that drive. It's amazing.

It's miraculous, really. Remember, if you think you can get away with another kind of lifestyle than the one described in verse 3 without being noticed, you are kidding yourself. You stand out like a sore thumb in a neighborhood. You stand out like a sore thumb in a dormitory and at the office party, at the New Year's Eve party, and on and on and on. You stand out even without saying a word.

You're noticed. Some straight talk coming from 1 Peter chapter 4. You're listening to Insight for Living. Today, Chuck Swindoll is presenting a study called Hope Beyond the Culture.

To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. We've saved the final minutes of today's program to hear a closing comment from Chuck. But first, if you're feeling a lot of pressure from a pagan world, well, you're not alone. God knows what you're going through, even when you're tempted to retreat.

We know this is true because we often hear from people who tell us their stories. I'm thinking of this comment we received from a listener in Indiana who said, For more than 25 years I ran from God until one night I called my mother and asked if there was any way for me to still be forgiven. We prayed together that night and I was refreshed. And then I bought my first XM radio because I travel a lot for my work and I found Insight for Living.

Chuck, since then we've ridden together for many miles. It brings comfort to have a word that I feel like God has for me each and every time I listen. Well, God's word is powerful. And when you partner with Insight for Living, you're playing a significant role in touching lives like this one. In fact, your donation, no matter the size, allows us to beam Chuck's teaching into the far reaches of the world. We're often surprised by the demand for clear Bible teaching coming from all points on the globe.

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Bill? If you have access to the Insight for Living website, just follow the instructions for giving a donation online when you visit insight.org. Or if you'd like to speak to someone on the phone, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. Again, if you're listening in the U.S., call 800-772-8888. Or you can give online at insight.org. Ever feel snubbed by critics of your Christian faith? I'm Bill Meyer. Be sure to join us next time when Chuck Swindoll provides biblical counsel on Insight for Living. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.