Alright, 1 Peter chapter 4. I know you noticed in 1 Thessalonians
all of the things. that are written here. We're
just going to look at two verses tonight. You know, one verse,
one phrase in God's work and take up a whole message or many
messages. But these in particular, verse
7 and 8, 1 Peter 4, he says, The end of all things is at hand.
Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things,
Have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude
of sin. What a verse, what an exhortation,
what a command this is. Peter is ending this letter talking
about the end. The end. It's not a morbid subject. Morbid means, you know, death. But he's not talking about dying. For God's sake, he's talking
about living. We're leaving the land of the dead. Our Lord said
to Adam, the day you eat thine, you shall die. Die a slow death. And that's what we're doing.
And scripture says the day of one's death is better than birth.
And we just don't know. We just don't fully realize that
because our eyes haven't seen, our ears haven't heard, and entered
into our hearts the things that God has prepared. A little bit.
When we get a little glimpse, when we get a little taste, we
get kind of excited. Kelly told me that Brenda had
that procedure, you know, and she said she jump-started her
heart or whatever they do, and she said she immediately felt
better. And I thought, that's what I want to do tonight. for
you. When you leave here, you're going
to feel better. Jumpstart your heart. 2 Peter 3, Peter closes both, go
2 Peter 3, he closes both letters talking about the end. And he
says in 2 Peter 3 11, You see that? We've looked at
this so many times. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? That means taken
up with the things of God. Our minds set on things above,
our affection. Looking for, verse 12, hasty,
waiting. Hasting the coming of the day
of God. Meaning, the more you think about something, the nearer
it is, don't you? You prepare to go on a vacation.
All of us do this. And we spend weeks getting ready. And we just, you know, we just
can feel it. It's coming. And what happens? It's gone as soon as you get
there. But no, this is going to last forever. So if I've got
our minds, our hearts, thinking on these things, it appears nearer. And we're preparing our hearts. Read on. He says, Looking forward,
hastening unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens,
being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
the fervent heat. Sounds fearful, doesn't it? It is fearful. for
unbelievers, but not for God's people. There's not going to
be one moment of fear for God's people. It's going to be instant
joy, unspeakable joy, full of glory. Not going to say, oh,
oh no. No, we're going to say, oh yes,
yes, he's here. I'm going to read on. It says,
Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. See, sin dwelleth
in this sinful place in this valley of the shadow of death
because of sin. So it's not a morbid subject
at all. It's a wonderful subject. We need to think about it all
the time. Peter's been gone for thousands of years. You know what kind of death he
faced, don't you? Crucifixion. A horrible death. Paul did too. But they both said, I'm ready. I want to be too. Or I go to
our text in 1 Peter 4, he says, now the end of all things is
at hand. And these are words of comfort.
We read in 1 Thessalonians 4. Comfort ye, comfort ye one another
with these words. The end, they said, hey, the
end. Didn't Moses say, oh, that they
were wise and would consider their latter end? Didn't he? Teach us to number our days,
and we might apply our hearts to wisdom. You know, the children
of Israel were gathered together in the houses under the blood,
and they were listening to a man tell them, we're leaving. were going out and they were
all both fearful and excited. So that's what I'm doing. And
they were going out to hold a feast, you know that? They were going
out to hold a feast. When they got out of that place,
don't you know, they erupted? Bonding, no more bonding. Well,
the end is at hand. That means something that's at
hand is near. Yvonne is really close here.
I could lay hold of her right now. She's very near, right at
hand. Well, the Scripture says the
Lord is at hand. He's very near. He's even at
the door. When you see all these things,
He's right at the door. See the clouds? That's the dust
of His feet. He's getting up. Getting up. The Lord is at hand. So he says.
Here's these things he exhorts us to do and be. Be ye therefore
sober. Sober. Now the word means exactly
what you think it means. It means not be inebriated or
under the influence, and he's not just talking about alcohol
or drugs, he's talking about anything and everything that
people, men and women and young people, are completely overcome
by. You know, when you're under the
influence of something, like alcohol or drugs or whatever,
you're not in your right mind. You're not thinking clearly.
You act foolishly. You talk foolishly, don't you? You talk proud. You talk like
a blooming idiot. Right? And the people in this
world act like they're going to live forever. And they act
like this is all there is. That's foolish, isn't it? A fool
has said there's no God. And pride, man's pride, oh my
God, hates pride. And they're proud in the presence,
in the hearing of God Almighty who gave them everything they
had. Let us not be that way. Let us not be... All through the epistle, Paul, Peter, James, all of them
exhort bishops, me, pastor, their wives, deacons, that's you men,
their wives to be sober. He exhorts aged men, aged women,
young men, young women, don't be overcome by anything. Don't be overcome so that you're
not thinking clearly. Think on things above. Think
right thoughts. We walk by faith, not by sight.
This is not our home. Sober. Be sober. It also means
serious, doesn't it? It's a sobering thought. I mean,
serious. A person is inebriated and something
terrible happens and all of a sudden they sober up and they're serious
and afraid. Well, we read there in 1 Thessalonians
5, it knows it'd be asleep or sleeping at night and drunk and
dry. We're children of light, children of the day. We have
this word to lead us and guide us. We're not in darknesses of
it. Luke, go to Luke 21. I was going
to read this Sunday. I probably will read it again. But Luke 21. No, I've got it written down
for tonight. I'm way ahead of myself. But anyway, Luke 21.
I go over there where the Lord warns His disciples right before
He's sworn to the cross. You have it, Luke 21. And he,
you know, he's talking about verse 27, the son of man coming
in cloud with power and great glory. When these things come
to pass, look up, lift up your heads. Your redemption draweth
nigh." And then down in verse 34, "...but take heed to yourself,
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting."
I mean, that's the pleasures and things of this world to where
you're just overcome by the world, not thinking clearly, thinking
on things above. "...and drunkenness and cares
of this life, so that that day come upon you unawares. And as
a snare it will come upon all them that dwell on the face of
the horror." Didn't He say, as in the days of Noah? What are
they doing? He didn't drink it. Well, there's
nothing wrong with that. But our Lord said, that's all
the Gentiles think about. Didn't it? He don't be like a
Gentile. He said they're buying and selling. There's nothing
wrong with that. But that's all they think about. Marrying and
giving and marrying. Nothing wrong with that. The
Lord ordained that. But now the time remaineth, Paul
said, that they that be married be as though they had no wife. These relationships end and go.
They do. But our relationship in Christ
doesn't. It lasts forever. So which is more important? And
that's going to bring us to the last point. We love one another.
We've got to spend eternity together. Read on. The Lord said, watch,
verse 36, watch ye therefore and pray always that you might
escape. We're flesh. Pleasures of flesh
are still pleasurable to us, aren't they? We still live here.
I like leeks and onions. Don't you? Cucumbers and melons. Don't you? Love it. Well, I don't
want to leave the Lord and leave Christ and leave you for that. That's foolish, isn't it? Alright,
go back to our text. So he says, be sober. Sober. And I was going to turn to Ephesians
5. You can turn so many places. Paul said there in Ephesians
5, don't be under the influence of anything, but be filled with
the Spirit. And, you know, a brother used
the term drunk. That's not good. No, we're not
drunk with the Spirit. That means you don't know what
you're doing. No, no, no. We know what we're doing. To
be filled with the Spirit is to be in your right mind. Thinking
on things above. Thinking on things of Christ.
Alright. So he says, be sober. Be therefore
sober and watch. Be watchful. Watchful. Now, I am called a watchman.
That's what I'm called. And this is what the Scripture
says to you about me. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourself. Remember, we just read where
it says, warn the unruly. They watch for your souls. They
watch for your soul as they that must give an account. I'm not
trying to please you. I'm not trying to do what pleases
you, what you think is right. I'm trying to do what this book
said, what God said. And people get mad at me and
they leave me. And it hurts. But I'm watching
for souls. I'm trying to build you up on
this most holy faith. I'm trying to get rid of fear
and promote faith. That's all I'm doing. I don't
want you to cry. That's all I'm doing. And that they may do it with
joy and not with grief. Oh, that's improper of you. And so he says right after that
in Hebrews 13, pray for us. We trust we have a good conscience. Okay, go back to the text. Now,
so he says in our text, watch. I'm a watchman. I'm told to watch. I'm to watch over you. And I'm
to tell you to watch. You know how many times the Scriptures
tell us to watch? Huh? Watch. Watch. It means be aware. It means be
awake. You can't watch if you're asleep, can you? Paul said, let us not sleep as do others.
They're not watching. Be on the lookout. Have your
eyes open. For what? If you read the Psalms, you'll
find that David can hardly go one Psalm without talking about
his enemies. David fought battles from the
time he was 16. We think he was 16 when he fought
Goliath. 16! And he died at 70. And that's when the Lord gave
him peace. What's that? 54 years he fought. He had enemies
all around him. He's such a picture of our Lord,
but he's a picture of every believer. We've got enemies until the day
we die, until we lay this body down and the battle's over. And we're not fighting for our
souls. Our Lord did that. And yet, Well, David said, watch,
watch, watch, watch, watch. David said that too. The enemies,
watch for the snares and the traps. The wolf, wolves dressed
in sheep's clothing. And that means that sheep often
can't tell them apart. It's a job of a shepherd to spot
them. Anyway, he says, watch for pits
and snares and traps. There's a Psalm, or Proverb 1,
I believe it is. Solomon. Oh, the Proverbs are
wonderful, aren't they? My son, he says, if sinners entice
thee, consent thou not. And they say, come with us, don't
do it. Don't do it. They said, we'll fill our houses. Don't do it. Don't cast in your
lot with my son. Don't walk with him. He said
in verse 17, surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of
any bird. Have you ever thought about that? There's a bird, he has wings.
What for? Flight. To flee the enemy. Paul
told young Timothy, flee. Useful loves, didn't it? Didn't
it? Flee. The church has given two wings in Revelation 12. To
help them fly, flee. What's those two wings? The Word
of God. Law and a prophet. Prophets and
apostles. But he said, in vain is a net
spread in the sight of any bird. A bird, you know, here's the
fowler, and right there's a bird, and he throws that net out there.
That bird's not going to get in that net. Look, that's a net. Well, listen to David. David said, and he was in trouble
again. My enemies, my enemies, my enemies.
Psalm 102. He said, I watch, I'm like a
sparrow alone on the housetop. My enemies reproach me all day.
They're mad against me. They're sworn against me. So
he said, I'm like the sparrow on the housetop watching. You
can't get near a barricade. They're watching. He tells us
to watch. Watch. Good counseling. Watch. Watch. David said in Psalm
130, And we often don't quote the verse right before this. You know these verses. But he
says, right before this, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait.
And in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say, more than
they that watch for the morning. There's something serious in
that. Like a sick child or somebody. You don't go to sleep. You stay
awake and you pray. Well, this is serious. Watch. Watch. Thank God, though, because
the flesh is weak. The Lord came to His disciples
and He told them two or three times, didn't He? Watch with
me. Watch with me. Didn't He? He came and found
him asleep, one time for sorrow. We've all fallen asleep for sorrow
and we've cried ourselves to sleep. The Lord knows that. He came, he found him. He said,
couldn't you watch with me one hour? What's their hope? He never did sleep. He went about
three days without sleep before the cross. He was crucified in
weakness, but he wasn't too weak to watch over them. But he that
keepeth Israel never slumbers. Nevertheless, watch. Watch. In vain is the net spread in
the sight of a bird. Remember that. Watch. Unto prayer. Be sober. Watch unto prayers. Almost always together in adjoining.
Watch and pray. Watch and pray. Why? Because
without Him, we are going to be overcome. We are going to
be inebriated and taken up with this world without Him. Without
Him, we cannot watch. Not for an hour. And how many times Scripture
says, watch always. Pray always. In everything, pray. in everything. I remind you what
Brother Bruce said. Somebody called him and said
they were going to get a dog. And they said they were praying
about it. And Bruce hung up and thought, what do you need to
pray about that for? And then he caught himself and he thought,
well, you know, might be a Biden dog. Don't want to have a Biden
dog. That dear man. Everything. Nothing too little. Who had to
despise a damn small thing? Nothing too little. It's the
little things, often, that overcome us. We don't seek the Lord. Little thing. And they explode
into a big thing. Well, be watchful unto prayer. Prayer, prayer. Pray always about
everything, continuously. Now prayer, you know this, that
prayer is not a posture that you get in. Although, when you're
alone, our Lord did. He kneeled and He fell on His
face. If something's serious enough,
you'd be on your face. Right? And don't tell anybody
though. Okay? Don't tell anybody. That's
for him to be seen. But, you know, we're not talking
about posture here. We're talking about an attitude
of the heart and the mind always, always, Lord help me, Lord help
me. Don't you find I saw you all
the time, help me, help me. Give me wisdom, give me wisdom,
give me wisdom. Help me, lead me, guide me, restrain
me. Pray always about everything. Pray, pray, pray for the brethren. When the Lord gave the disciples
prayer, after this manner of prayer, Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us. Lead us not into
temptation. It's not praying for yourself
necessarily. Although, although, we can only
pray, you know, there's a time that the Lord Forgive me. Help me. Save me. But always
remember your brethren, okay? Always. Pray for your brethren.
Pray for our children. When our Lord was going to the
cross, we're going to see this real soon, the women were weeping
for Him. And it was sad. It's horrible. And they loved Him. And they
were just distraught. And he said, in full control
of his practice, you know, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for
your children. And I'm not talking about just,
he's not talking about your children. He's talking about our children.
Right. Our children. Pray for their
salvation. Pray that the Lord restrain them. You know, my mother, I remember
her saying this, that, you know, when I left home, prodigal son,
they were praying for my salvation, but And then I left, and she
said, then I began to just pray, Lord, restrain him. Just restrain him. Amen. Pray for our children. Pray for the brethren. Pray for
our children. Pray for the preacher. The gospel is the power of God
and salvation. It really is. Is that what saves
your soul? A preacher? The gospel? Not the
man, but the message that this is what God uses, isn't it? If
your children, if your spouse, if your parents, or whoever it
is, are going to be saved, you're going to be saved through the
preaching of God's Word, the gospel. Yes, he is. And I'm sorry,
I'm all you've got right now. I really am. I really am. But I am the man. Pray for me. Pray for me. You don't have any
ties, I want to quit. Pray for the preacher. Pray for
his kingdom. Thy kingdom come. That means the gospel. Lord,
reign and rule. Thy kingdom come. Lord, set up
your reign and your rule in our hearts, in the hearts of our
children, Lord. Put the yoke on them. Kingdom
come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Pray for
our country. Pray for our leaders. Pray, pray, pray. Just when you think it can't
get any worse, it gets worse, doesn't it? Our children, our grandchildren,
it's awful, isn't it? Pray, Lord. If anything, pray. If you don't save our leaders,
restrain them. Right? Pray, pray, pray, pray. It's
me as Daniel. Daniel said in Daniel 9, he said,
I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication
with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed unto the
Lord God and made my confession, and he prayed and confessed the
sins of his people, and he prayed for his people. Be like Daniel. Set my face to prayer. Pray,
pray, prayerful. Now look at the next thing in
our text. He says, 1st Peter, he says, I've lost my place. 1st Peter, where is it? Oh, there
it is. He says, now, watch unto prayer
and above all things have fervent charity. You know, the Scriptures
use the word charity. And these men that the Lord used
to translate scriptures from the Hebrew and the Greek into
English language, they stayed with the word charity. Why? We
don't use that very often. They did back then. It means
love. But what is the greatest show
of love? How do you prove your love? By
giving. And here's the greatest proof
of love is giving yourself. Isn't that what Christ said?
Husband, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for her. That's proof. That's proof. You know, my granddaughters,
if they only knew how much I love them. My daughter, I know a little
bit, but if they only knew. You know, we'd sell everything
we got right now if they needed it. I wouldn't stop and take
five minutes to take it. And our Lord, He loves His people. And He gave Himself, He gave
all. He that was rich, remember? Yet for our sakes became poor,
that we through His poverty might be made rich. Who for the joy
set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame. Gave Himself. Gave. Charity. Charity. Have fervent
love. Fervent means active. James said,
listen, I was loving Word only. Fervent means passionate, real heartfelt love. Not lip
service, but heart love. You know, the scripture says,
by love serve one another. John 13. Let me close with a
few verses. I'm going to turn to Proverbs
and then I'll close. But look at John 13. Again, our
Lord is leaving His disciples. John 13. Go there. He's leaving. Go to the cross. And then going
back to glory, and these are the last things he said to them. He said, John 13, verse 31, this
is after Judas left. Right after Judas went out. He said, now is the Son of Man
glorified and God glorified in him. And he went on down to say,
verse 33, little children, yet a little while I'm with you.
And in verse 34, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love
one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
How? Has he loved us? How could he love us? How could he have anything to
do with us, let alone love us? What is man
that is mindful of us? And to visit us? Job said, Why
would you even think on such a despicable creature? Scripture says, Confess your
faults one or another. We've got plenty of them. Oh my, why would the Lord love
us? Well, He did. He set His love
on us. And His love provokes us to love. We love Him because He first
loved us. Scripture tells us to provoke
one another to love. Make somebody love you. We're
not very lovable. None of us. There are many things
we all offend. We've got so many faults, yet
the Lord loves us. Why would we have a problem loving
one another? Pride. She or he, she or she offended
me. Oh, really? Go back to the Psalms, start
reading how the children of Israel offended the Lord, provoked Him
all the time. And in that wonderful verse,
that wonderful word, nevertheless, He saved them. away from. I give it up on you, bud. You're
not worth saving, but I love you. Oh, that needs to be, let
this mind be in us, huh? Love. Because love covereth the
multitude of sin. True love covereth. Look at,
let me, we need to look at this. First, Proverbs 10. Go to Proverbs
10. Proverbs 10, 11, 17. We've got
to look at this. This thought is all through,
especially the Proverbs. Proverbs 10. Do you have it? Proverbs 10, verse 12. And you remember when we talked
about the mouth and verse 11, the mouth of the righteous is
a well of life. Verse 12, hatred stirreth up
stripes, but love covereth. What sin? All sin. All sin. The Lord covered us in His own
blood. Now greater love hath no man
than this. He laid down His life for His friends. Our Lord laid
down His life for His enemies. Proverbs 11, look at this, verse
13. A tail mirror revealeth secrets,
that he that is of a faithful spirit, like our Lord, concealeth
the matter. Would you want something being
told about your wife or your children or something, something
horrible, something slanderous happened, something terrible
happened that they did and you're ashamed of and you're ashamed
for them? Would you want that to be known? Would you want somebody
talking about that? No. Not if you love that person. You want silence, you want to
cover it. No, let's just cover this. Let's
just forget this. That's love. It's Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17. And this is why he said, be watchful
for those that are guilty of this. Let us not be guilty of
this. Watch out. It's satanic. It's satanic. Satan's behind
gossip and slander. Yes, he is. The Spirit of God
and Christ covers. Satan exposes. The Spirit of
God and Christ unites and holds together and bonds together. And the evil spirit separates,
divides. The evil spirit wants you divided
from your brethren. And he'll use you and use this
to do it. Proverbs 17, verse 9. He that covereth a transgression
seeketh love. Did you hear what Brother So-and-so
did? No, I haven't, and I don't want to. Let me give you some good advice
here. If somebody wants you to listen
to a sermon by somebody, because there's something in it they
don't like, don't listen to it. Okay? I won't do it. I've had
many. Listen to this. See what you
think about it. I ain't going to do it. That's what the Pharisees do. Try to
catch somebody at their word. Let's find the good in it. Right? Don't listen to it. Don't listen
to anything anybody says about your brother. Don't do it. I'm
not going to do it. I'm not going to be bosom buddies
with somebody that doesn't love you. I ain't going to do it. Look at verse 9. He that repeateth
a matter separateth very friends. Thank God there's a friend that's
sticking close to them. And our Lord, you know, we're
getting to the point where He's going to the cross. He's going
to stand before His accusers and He's not going to open His
mouth. Why? He's become me. But he's going to die with my
secrets. You heard somebody say, your
secret's going to die with me. No. No. Somebody better love you. Like
Christ. Well, love covereth the multitude. What kind of love? What kind
of love covers our Lord? Love. For his people. He covered
us in his own blood. And that's why he said through
Paul, he said, now love suffereth long. The long suffering of our
Lord is salvation. Oh, love envieth not. Love wants the one you love to
prosper more than yourself. Sophie started playing the violin,
brother John. John and I started playing the
violin. We're old men. It's hard, isn't it? Well, Sophie's
been playing about two months. She's surpassed me so far. I
ain't jealous. Love vaulteth not itself. Then what? Talk about itself.
Promote itself. Promote the one. Love not puffed
up. Love does not behave itself unseamless. Seeketh not her own. This is
love. Not easily provoked. Our Lord
is never provoked, really, to the point of saying, I've done
with you. You ever thought about that?
We provoke him a lot. Thinketh no evil. She didn't
mean that. Yes, she did, too. Well, then
we'll just cover it. Rejoiceth not iniquity, meaning
the failures and the falls. You know, how could a brother
hope for the fall of another brother? How? Failure. How could anybody want this church
to fail, this pastor to fail? How? Love rejoices in the truth. What
is truth? God knows truth. God knows truth. And he's a faithful, our Lord
was a faithful witness. And his wife, David, said, Lord,
help, Lord, the godly man ceases and the faithful fail from among
the children of men. Is anybody faithful like our
Lord? I sure want to be. Beareth all things. Believeth
all thing. Hopeth all thing. Endureth all
thing. Love never. Above all things, have fervent
love among each other. Is this needful? Be sober, hands
in hand. Be watchful, prayerful, and above
all things, love one another. It'll cover. It'll cover. You're
going to need covering, and they need covering. Let's just cover
one another. Okay, stand with me.