1 Peter chapter 4. If you knew the Lord was about
to appear, would you be serious minded? Would your mind be serious about
these things? that we're about to look into.
Would you be ready? The Apostle Peter, speaking by
the Holy Spirit, says here in 1 Peter 4, verse 7, The end of
all things is at hand. The end of all things is at hand. The end of the world, all things, is very near. We know that so. We know this is the end because
go over to Hebrews 9. This is what the Lord said. Hebrews
9. What the said of the Lord. Hebrews
9 verse 26. It says there, Now, once in the
end of the world, hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. For everyone that Christ represented
on the cross, Christ has finished the transgression. Christ has
made an end of sins. Christ has made reconciliation
for iniquity. Christ has brought in everlasting
Righteousness. And truly the end of all things
is at hand. Every believer here, we've been
brought by the Spirit of God to the end of our ignorance in
darkness. That's what Peter says here in
verse 2. That he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the
will of God. For the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, the
will of the world, of the nations, when we walked in lasciviousness,
lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, abominable idolatries,
wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to
the same excess of right, speaking evil of you. The end of all things
is at hand. He's put an end of our sin. He's
done it in here and the end of the world. He's put an end of
the ignorance that we are by nature in darkness. And the end
of all things is at hand. Peter was writing this with expectation
and delight that the end of all things is at hand. And I'm bringing
this message to you with the same earnest expectation and
delight. The end of all things is at hand. Many will laugh and joke about
that. They'll say, well, Peter said
that. And men have been saying that in every generation. Well,
the end is at hand. The end is at hand. But you know,
that just proves the end is at hand. Look at 2 Peter 3, 3. The fact that men will scoff
about it proves that it is the end. 2 Peter 3 verse 3. Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise
of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and
in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed
with water perished. But the heavens and earth which
are now by the same word are kept in store, they're held in
place, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. But beloved, listen, you who
believe, be not ignorant of this one thing. One day is with the
Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord's not slack concerning His promise. as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering toward usward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The
reason that the Lord's waiting to return right now is the same
reason Peter gave to us in 1 Peter 3, when he said that the Lord
was longsuffering in the days of Noah. He waited. He waited
until all whom He purposed to save We're in the ark. And he's waiting now until everyone
he's purposed to save are in Christ the ark. Everyone. And our Lord is not going to
lose one, but everyone that he reconciled to himself in Christ
Jesus, everyone that Christ purchased with his own blood. There he
is. There he is purchased possession. He owns us. He owns us. And everyone's going to be brought
to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus, through this gospel, through
the Holy Spirit, so that everyone's going to be in the ark. They're
going to be all in Christ. Count, reckon it this way, count
it this way, that the longsuffering of God, His not coming back yet,
is salvation. He's given space for repentance. to you who have not yet turned
from this world and your sin and your lust of your flesh and
cast your care on Christ. He's giving you space to repent
right now. But look here, 2 Peter 3.10 there,
he says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Peter doesn't concern us with
the precise day. He doesn't concern us with the
precise hour. Whether Christ returns this hour
or whether He returns 2,000 years from now, that's not the issue. That's God's business. The precise
time is not the point. Christ is the end by whom our
minds are girded. Christ is the end to whom we
watch for. He's the one we're watching for.
And Christ is the one upon whom we cast all our care in this
world, who cares for us right now in this world. The end of
all things is at hand. The end is at hand. He says there
in 1 Peter 4, 7, and this is what we'll look at tonight. Be ye therefore sober and watch
unto prayer." You know, it's not healthy for believers to
get in the mindset that we're going to be here for a long time. That's not healthy because what
happens is we start to thinking too much and we become carelessly
minded about this world and about the things in this life right
now. Look over at 1 Thessalonians
5. 1 Thessalonians 5. The cares of this world. We do have cares in this world,
don't we? The cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride that life
is. These things choke the Word.
They put a stranglehold on the Word. Look at 1 Thessalonians
5, 5. Ye are all the children of light. Peter's talking to believers
and Paul right here is talking to believers. You are all the
children of light and the children of the day. We're not of the
night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as
do others, but let us watch and be sober. The word is sober-minded. The word is serious-minded about
the things that do matter. having our priorities straight.
For they that sleep, sleep in the night. You know, if a man
has too much sleep, he becomes sluggish, he becomes lethargic. Sleep, he sleeps a night thing. But look here, it says, and they
that be drunken, are drunken in the night. When we become
concerned with the cares of the world, we become like a man that
just sleeps all the time. We slumber. We become very unhealthy
in our minds. We become drunk in the world,
intoxicated with the things of the world. And that causes a
man to be tossed and staggered, just like a drunk man does. These
are things of the night, but let us who are of the day. That's what a believer is. He's
of the day. He's been called by God's grace.
Light's been shined into the heart so that we have light of
the day. Be sober. He's going to tell
us what it is. Sober binding. Putting on the
breastplate of faith and love. It's like armor. faith and love. The breastplate of faith and
love. Put it on. We have to put it on. We can't
put it on unless God puts it on us. We can't have faith and
we can't have the love of God in our hearts unless we're born
of the Spirit of God. But we're commanded by God to
put these things on. Put on faith and love, and for
a helmet, the hope of salvation. That's what it is to be sober-minded,
is to be believing, is to be, to have the love, to seek to
know more of the love of God for us, the love of God that
passes knowledge, that love that would send His only begotten
Son, that love that would send His Son to lay down His life
for sinners. for a helmet. He says, for, here
it is, here it is, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but
to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
him. Believers are children of the
day. These things that are of the night. We're not of the night. Whether we're naturally asleep
in our beds or whether we're awake and going about all our
business of the day, whatever our lot is in this life, wherever
we are in this life, whether we live or whether we die, the
Lord's provided everything for His sheep and He will provide
everything for His sheep in His sovereign election of grace. He provided all. The scripture
says He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus according as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. And by His predestinating us
to the adoption of children, He appointed us not to wrath,
but to salvation. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
coming and laying down His life for us. He gave us life. He's
given us life, and we're going to live together with Him. We do now by His grace, and we're
going to, no matter what the situation. So the end's at hand,
right now, the end of all things at hand. So let us realize, let
us put things in their proper perspective, in their proper
order, and be sober-minded, because the end's right now, it's here. If we could take eternity, and
see eternity, and see what our life is in light of eternity
and see really what the whole space of time is in light of
eternity. You'd see a thousand days is
just like a thousand years is like one day. Look over at Luke 12, Luke chapter
12. Verse 29, Seek not what you shall eat or
what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. See that? Don't live in suspense
and doubt and wonder, how am I going to get by, how am I going
to survive, be sober-minded, be serious-minded. For all these
things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father
knoweth that you have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom
of God. Seek the Kingdom of God. This
is what it is to be sober-minded. Seek the Kingdom of God. Be serious-minded. All these things should be added
unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it's
your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Look over
at Romans 13. It's summertime now, and so we
don't have We don't have to get up for school and have to be
everybody frantically running about in the mornings like we
always do when school's going on. So, children like to sleep
late in the summertime. Enjoy that and sleep late. This is what the Lord says. through
the Spirit of God, through Paul, concerning the believer. Romans
13, 11. He says, knowing the time, that
now is high time to awake out of sleep. Your mother ever come
in and say that to you? Alright, it's time to get up.
It's time to wake up. The sun's been out. It's been
shining now. And you're just sleeping. That's
what my dad used to say. You're just going to sleep your
life away. Get up. Well, that's true for a believer. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. The night is far spent. The night
of darkness, this present world, it's almost over. It's almost
over. The night is far spent. The day
is at hand. That's what Peter's telling us.
The end is at hand. The day. The everlasting day
of eternity. It's at hand. Let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armor of
light. Let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. This, it's time to awake. It's time to be sober minded.
It's time to realize In a very short while, everything that
you see now in this world, everything that we think is so very important
in this world, we're going to find out what's really important. We're going to meet God. We're
going to meet Him. The Son of Righteousness has
shined. He's come and He's shined. The
grace has come to this place. It's come here. You know it's
a dangerous thing to hear the gospel preached. It's a dangerous
thing because those that have heard the gospel can't say I
didn't hear it. You've heard it. You've heard
it. Awake now and seek Christ. Seek his righteousness. Lay hold
of him. Seek after him. The day of his
return is right around the corner. I've been talking to Emma and
Will about in the mornings when we get up about starting out
the day and read a passage of scripture and think about that
scripture and really go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to
give us an understanding of what that scripture says. And I find
when I do that, I find that throughout the day, The Lord makes all these
different things that happen throughout the day that we come
in contact with. He will sanctify that happening
together with that word we read and make it applicable in our
heart. Make us to see what the scripture
means. The Lord just has a way of doing
that, of directing us to a word that He's given us and then showing
us throughout the day what that scripture means. And He sanctifies
our trials to us so that we behold what His word means. This is
the point. It doesn't matter if it's early
in the morning or if it's midday, but first, first, the priority
is first, seek Him. and think on him and seek his
face and meditate on him and then throughout the day. not
to lose sight of it. Because what happens is we go
through this life and we get up in the morning and we go through
the whole day and then we encounter all these different difficulties
in the day and we get to thinking about providing for ourselves
and we get to thinking about the bills and feeding ourselves
and clothing ourselves and all these things and it becomes,
we become like drunk men. We become desperate. We become
unstable in the heart. If we're going to have some stability,
this is where it's going to come from. It's going to come from
God speaking. It's going to come from His Word.
It's going to come from the truth. So seek Him first in all things. Seek Him first. Use the means
He's given. Put on the armor of light. Put
on the breastplate of faith and love. Put on, as a helmet, hope. Put on, he said, Christ the Lord. Put him on. And make not provisions
for the flesh. We're going to do either one
or the other. No man can serve two masters.
We're going to do one or the other. We're either going to
be making provisions for the flesh, or we're putting on Christ. one or the other. And he says, Peter says to us,
and do these things and watch unto prayer. You remember the
Lord told Peter when he brought Peter and a few of the others
to the garden of Gethsemane. He said, watch and pray. And
they slept. They didn't watch and pray. And
you know what they missed when they were asleep? They missed
the suffering of Christ. That's what happens when we become,
we're making all these provisions for our flesh, and we become
asleep, and we miss the sufferings of Christ. We miss what this
gospel, we miss the gospel. Awake, God says. Awake! We miss the Gospel. We miss Christ
who came and laid down His life. We miss Christ whose glory it
is to redeem His people. We miss Christ whom God has sent
that all the world may behold Him in righteousness. We miss
Him and we become like wild donkeys just snuffing up the wind and
living for ourselves. making provisions for our flesh,
as if this world is what, is all that God created it for.
You know what else they miss? They miss the angel of God coming
and strengthening Christ. We get so carried away and all
of our, just so, these things are so important, and really
they're nothing more than this, we're not taking a stand for
Christ. And we'll justify it. We'll make excuse for it. We
miss the fact that in all of the trials, if we suffer together
for the sake of Christ, our consolation is by Christ. The consolation
where we're going to be comforted in the midst of all our suffering
is by Christ. And all of the suffering is to
teach us that, but yet in the midst of the suffering. we become
asleep, like sleeping in the nighttime, drunk, like a man
just intoxicated. And we miss the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that's revealed through his suffering and the
strengthening that Christ gives because of his shed blood. He comes and wakes us up. He
comes and makes us to behold Him and wakes us up from our
stupor. He said, could you not stay awake
with me for one hour? Could you not stay awake for
one hour? Just one hour. And you know what else they missed?
Whenever the soldiers came, it was as if Peter was just taken
by complete and total surprise so that he drew his sword and
he tried to save the Lord out of it and cut off the soldier's
ear. You know how this, he could have been prepared and ready?
You know how the Lord was prepared and ready to go into this battle? You know how He was prepared
and ready to walk triumphantly to the cross? Because he went
and poured out his soul unto the Father. He went and cast
all his care upon the Father to strengthen him. And he did
so watching. He knew what was coming. He knew
what was coming. And he said to his apostles,
you watch and you pray with me. but sleeping, slumbering because
of just what this flesh is. That's what we're watching against. One of the things is this flesh
and just the weakness of this flesh. We need to be strengthened
continually by His word of grace. We need to continually be casting
all care upon Him. And then just shortly after drawing
his sword and trying to defend the Lord. That's what we do.
We're not watching. We're not being sober minded.
We're not, we're carried and cumbered about with all things
of the world. And when trouble comes, we draw out that sword
and we're gonna save by the sword of our strength. And it wasn't
very long after that, that little damsel said something. And Peter
said, I don't know who He is, and fled. This is why the Lord
teaches us to be sober minded, to seek His face constantly,
through the preaching of the Gospel, through the reading of
His Word, through prayer, to be ever watchful. Look at what
Peter says here in 1 Peter 4. I told you to place it there
in Luke. Are you still in Luke? We're
going to come back there. But look back over here at 1
Peter 5. Verse 7, Casting all your care
upon Him for He cares for you, be sober, be vigilant. That's
what it means. Because your adversary the devil
has a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. And
the only way we're going to resist him is steadfast in the faith. steadfast in the faith. That
means casting all our care on Christ, who's going to be all
our strength and provide for us. You know, Peter talks about
these things here. He talks about what he connects
here in 1 Peter 4. Right after this, we saw this
last time and went into a little more detail on it, but he tells
us here after verse 7, be sober, watch unto prayer. He speaks
about having fervent love among yourselves. He speaks of using
hospitality one to another without gut-grudging. He goes right into
talking about ministering the gift God's given us to one another.
He speaks about speaking the oracles of God, the gospel. Look
at Hebrews, and look here, make this connection, Hebrews 10.
I pointed this out to you before, but I want you to see this now
as we're looking at the days at hand. The end of all things
is at hand. Watch this. Verse 22, Hebrews
10, 22. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. This
is that coming to Him, watching unto prayer. Let us hold fast
the profession of our faith without wavering, for He's faithful that
promise. Now watch this. Let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And look how
this is connected. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.
You see all these blessings Peter's talking about comes to us through
this gospel that declares our strength. This is our food. This
is our strength. It comes to us as we assemble
together. I have a need. I have a desperate
need. I need for you to assemble together
with me to hear the gospel preached. I need it because I need Christ
to assemble together with me. And He said in Hebrews 2, I will
sing unto the congregation. In the midst of the congregation,
I'll sing praises unto thee. I need Him to assemble with me
and I need my brethren to assemble with me because it strengthens
me. It encourages me to faith and
love and good works. Now, how says anybody that they
have the love of God in them if they see the need of somebody
and shut up their vows of compassion for them? You see, these things go together.
Brethren come together and we minister to one another and we
exhort one another and we encourage one another. And this gospel
is the banner under which it all happens in which we're fed
and nourished together. Look at Luke 12. Luke 12. Watch under prayer, he said.
Luke 12. Brother Eric just read, but I
want you to see this again. Luke 12. Verse 35. Let your loins be girded about
and your lights burning. You remember in Exodus, whenever
the Passover came, He said, be dressed, be ready to go. With
your staff in your hand, ready to leave here. You're leaving
here tonight, He said. And he says here, having your
lights burning. Remember the foolish virgins
and the wise virgins? They had their lamps burning.
Have our loins girded with truth, be robed in the righteousness
of Christ alone. Have our lights burning by the
oil of the Holy Spirit alone. Grace, all grace. Verse 36, and
ye yourselves liken to men that wait for their Lord. when He
will return from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto Him immediately. Christ has gone to prepare a
place for us. And He said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I'll come again, that you may be with Me where
I am. And He's coming back. He's like
a man who's gone to a wedding, and while He's gone, His servants
are watching for Him. Watching for when He comes back.
Look at verse 37. Verse 36, when he will return
from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may
open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto
you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to
meet, and will come forth and serve them. Can you imagine a
Lord of this earth, somebody who's got a bunch of servants
in this earth, can you imagine Him coming in and His servants
being ready and opening the door to Him, and Him coming in, and
Him going in and putting on the apron and making them a meal,
and sitting them down at His table, and Him coming sitting
down at the table with them, and Him saying, now you just
sit down, I'm serving you now. Oh, the benevolence of men. I've
yet to see one do that. But this is our Lord we're talking
about. He's come and done this for His
people. And He said, this is going to be the case in glory.
And it says, verse 38, And if he shall come in the second watch,
or come in the third watch, whenever it is he comes, and find them
so, blessed are those servants. They're going to be happy. And
this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour
the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered
his house to be broken through. But be ye therefore ready also
for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not."
I want to send you home with this question. If our Lord returns
tonight, will it be joy to you? Or will you be terrified of judgment? A Hebrew writer said there in
Hebrews 10, if we sin willfully, after that we've received the
knowledge of the truth. You've heard the truth. It's
come to you. If we sin willfully after that
we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin. If we reject Christ, go on willfully treading underfoot the blood
of Christ, Not coming to him, not casting our care on him,
not assembling together with his sayings, not loving one another,
not exhorting one another, not being sober minded and watching
in all prayer for his return, looking, hastening to the day
that he come. But we have our mindset on this
world. Go on just rejecting Christ and
rejecting what God says. This is what God says. It's not
what I say, it's what God says. If we go on sinning willfully,
there remains nothing for us but a fearful looking for our
judgment. It doesn't matter if your conscience
is so hardened or my conscience becomes so hardened that I say,
I'm not afraid to die. The fact is, we're going to face
God in judgment, outside of Christ. This is His promise, and this
is what all the prophets give witness to, that through His
name, whosoever believeth on Him, whosoever casts all the
concern of your soul into His hands. Don't trust anything that
you've done. Don't trust any experience you've
had. If you have to look back to a
time and defend a time, and you'll know you have when you come to
hear the truth and you don't say, yes, that's truth. But you
say, no, it's not true because that's not my experience. Then
we're holding on to an experience. If we have to try to make God's
Word line up with our experience, we're holding on to an experience. No doubt about it. God tells
us clearly how He saves in His Word. But if we come to Him and
cast everything on Him, whosoever believes on Him shall receive
remission of sin. They're gone, He said. They're
gone. But for those that sit in here
who believe on Him, who trust Christ, this is the great reason
to rejoice. The end's at hand. The day's
coming where we're going to see Christ, our Redeemer, face-to-face. Can you... Sharon, think about
that. We're going to see Him face-to-face. With these eyes, we're going
to see Him face-to-face. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. He's gonna gird
himself and make them sit down to meet, and he's gonna serve
us. When I was younger, on Friday
afternoons, my Uncle Brad, my mother's brother, I just looked
up to him and he was just, and I thought Uncle Brad was everything. And Uncle Brad would tell me
he was coming to get me on Friday afternoons. He wouldn't tell
me the time. And truthfully, Uncle Brad don't fly by time.
Whatever he shows up, that's when he shows up. You don't ever
know when it's going to be. But he would tell me, I'm coming
to get you. He wouldn't tell me when he was coming. He never
did give me a precise time. But I was eager to see him pull
in my driveway. And he was going to take me with
him. We would go down to his camp,
down to the river. And I always wanted to go with
him. And so I was dressed and ready to go. As soon as I got
home from school, I'd get dressed and ready to go. I'd have my
backpack ready to go. My mother would say, you know
your Uncle Brad won't be here for another three or four hours.
Why are you getting ready? I'm because I want to be ready
when he gets here. That's why. And I would sit there,
and I would be looking out that front window. We had a long driveway,
and I'd look out that front window to see Uncle Brad pulling the
driveway. And I'd be sitting there the
whole time saying, oh, come quickly, come, as I was ready to go. Peter says, in 1 Peter 1.13,
look there with me. He says, wherefore gird up the
loins of your mind, Be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 22, 20 it says,
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. And the bride says, Even so,
come, Lord Jesus, come. We're dressed in His righteousness.
We got our bags packed. We're ready to go. And we're
watching for the day that he'll come. And we're praying as we
watch, saying, Lord, thy kingdom come. Come quickly. The end of all things is at hand.
Be sober, therefore, and watch under prayer. Amen.