WWUTT 332 The End of All Things is At Hand?

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

The end of all things is at hand, therefore be self -controlled and sober -minded.

00:07

Self -controlled and sober -minded, what does that mean? It means that we're committed to the truth and we do what it says when we understand the text.

00:25

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

00:32

Find videos and more at our website, www .utt .com. Now here's our host,

00:38

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We are continuing our study of 1 Peter chapter 4 this week.

00:44

The section we'll be looking at verses 7 through 11. The apostle says, The end of all things is at hand, therefore be self -controlled and sober -minded for the sake of your prayers.

00:57

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

01:03

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

01:13

Whoever speaks, as one who speaks the oracles of God. Whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything

01:24

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

01:32

Amen. Sounds like a great way to conclude the letter, but we still have one and a half chapters to go.

01:38

So let's go back to verse 7 here where Peter says, The end of all things is at hand.

01:43

Now this is actually one verse that many cynics and critics have used to say that Peter expected the end times in his lifetime.

01:52

He expected Christ to come back in his life. Yeah, sure. I would say that Peter probably expected that, just like every generation since then has expected that.

02:03

Christ's return is imminent. It's going to happen, and it could happen at any time, and nobody knows the hour or the day.

02:10

But we are just as much in the last days now as we were in the last days 2 ,000 years ago when

02:17

Peter wrote this. From the time that Pentecost happened, when the Holy Spirit came and dwelled in the people of God and the gospel spread throughout all the

02:25

Roman empire, and it's now spread throughout all the world. From that time on, we have been living in the last times.

02:31

Jesus began his ministry saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

02:37

Very similar statement to what Peter is saying here. The end of all things is at hand.

02:43

The apostle John said in 1 John 2 .18, Children, it is the last hour, and you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

02:54

Therefore we know it is the last hour. Even now, it's the last hour.

03:00

We are living in the final age. From Pentecost until the return of Christ, we are living in the last days.

03:07

It doesn't mean that somehow that things went unfulfilled. If Peter expected

03:13

Christ's return and then he didn't, we have all been expecting the return of Christ, as we should.

03:18

Therefore, since the end of all things is at hand, we need to be self -controlled and sober -minded for the sake of your prayers.

03:28

Seems like a complicated statement, but let's unpack it a little bit. Being self -controlled.

03:34

Oftentimes, when we think of that term, self -controlled, we think of abstaining from something.

03:39

We may have some sort of proclivity or desire to do something that we shouldn't do. If we're a self -controlled person, we're able to keep ourselves from engaging in that wrong or sinful act.

03:52

But being self -controlled also means that we do what we're supposed to do.

03:58

So wouldn't you say that a person who is lazy lacks self -control?

04:04

You wouldn't say that a lazy person is overly self -controlled, right? No, you wouldn't say that. Even a lazy person lacks self -control because that self -control would keep him from being lazy and instead doing the work that he is supposed to do.

04:17

So being self -controlled is an activity. It's not abstaining from something. It's being active toward something so that we would stay away from what we're not supposed to do and instead engage to the things that we are supposed to do.

04:31

That is what a self -controlled person does. All right. So when Paul is addressing the

04:36

Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3, he warns against those who are lazy. And he says that if a person will not work, he doesn't get to eat.

04:45

If there's anybody who doesn't obey what we say in this letter, have nothing to do with that person, correcting him as a brother, not treating him as an enemy.

04:55

Okay. These are all instructions toward being self -controlled. And it's theorized that the

05:01

Thessalonians had gotten this idea that Christ is returning soon. And so since he's coming back soon, I don't got to do any work.

05:09

Christ is going to be coming back any day. What do I got to do? Let's just sit back and wait for the light show when he shows up.

05:14

But Paul was writing to the Thessalonians saying, no, no, no. We need to be found working when

05:21

Christ returns. Let us be active, working servants of Christ. Those who do not work do not get to eat.

05:28

They lack self -control. They are not sober minded. And so here, Peter is kind of putting that in that same context.

05:35

The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, we need to be self -controlled. We need to be working.

05:41

We need to be found active as Christ had commanded us to. Part of the great commission was to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the

05:50

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

05:56

And lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age, right?

06:01

Concerning the end times, Jesus talked about being faithful servants. This is

06:06

Matthew 24, beginning in verse 45, who then is the faithful and wise servant?

06:14

You might read that as being self -controlled and sober minded servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time.

06:25

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

06:34

That ties into the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.

06:42

Verse 48, but if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.

07:02

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So when our Lord Christ returns, when the master of the house comes back, may he find faithful and wise servants, not lazy, complacent freeloaders acting like we own the place.

07:19

We need to be active. We need to be doing what God told us to do. We need to be self -controlled and sober minded.

07:27

Now about that term sober minded, we focus more on the self -controlled. We haven't talked about sober minded yet. What does that mean?

07:33

Well, I've heard one teacher say that to be sober minded means that we are, we're just very dedicated to the truth.

07:42

We take the truth seriously. When God says do something, we do it. And whenever we're convicted about the things that we read, we spend a long time thinking about it.

07:54

All right. We're not like the person who is described in Ephesians chapter four as being tossed to and fro by every shifting wind of doctrine.

08:01

So if we believe one way, one week, and then as we're studying the scriptures, we're being convicted to think another way the next week.

08:08

We don't have an immediate zealousness for this new way of thinking like we had the week before because then that would be just being tossed to and fro by every shifting wind of doctrine.

08:20

Oh, I am a diehard Baptist this week. I'm a diehard Presbyterian the next week. All right.

08:27

That's a person who isn't really solid in their convictions. They aren't sober minded.

08:33

They're actually very easily tossed to and fro by every new idea and every new concept that comes along.

08:38

Oh, I'm being convicted about this. Well, I need to be very zealous about this. And if somebody else does not have the same sort of zeal for this that I have, then they must be an unbeliever.

08:48

All right. We call that cage stage. That tends to be the way that that gets described and usually pertaining to Calvinism.

08:54

Cage stage Calvinists who need to stay locked in their cage until they calm down. That's where we get that term from.

09:01

But we need to be self -controlled and sober minded. We need to be active and we need to take the truth seriously for the sake of your prayers.

09:11

So here, Peter is tying in something that he had shared back in chapter three, verse seven, where he talked about husbands loving wives so that your prayers may not be hindered.

09:22

If there is strife in your marriage, then your prayers are being hindered. If there is strife in your beliefs, then your prayers are being hindered.

09:30

If there's strife between you and people in the body of Christ, then there's also strife between you and the

09:36

Lord. So that's why Peter is encouraging the believers to being self -controlled and sober minded, being committed to the truth and doing what it is that Christ has commanded.

09:49

And this verse eight ties in with that above all, keep loving one another earnestly.

09:55

So in those moments that we feel certain convictions, we lean one way, but somebody leans another direction.

10:01

We're not trying to whack them over the head with our newfound theology that we're now zealous for. We weren't as zealous for the week before.

10:08

But we love one another earnestly because love covers over a multitude of sins.

10:16

Everyone is weak in their walk, in their own way, but we're not nitpicking one another, trying to find those weaknesses and expose them and saying, see, look how bad a

10:24

Christian you are because you don't believe this way or that way. Paul says to us in Romans chapter 15, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

10:38

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

10:45

For Christ did not please himself. He laid his life down for us.

10:51

So we must do the same for the believers in the body of Christ. Paul had also said in Romans 12 three, for by the grace given to me,

10:57

I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

11:10

So here, Peter goes on with that thought further in verse nine, show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

11:19

You know, it is a it is a blessing to have an opportunity to be able to show kindness and serve somebody else.

11:25

So don't grumble about it. Don't. Oh, here I go. You know, having to do. Why can't they help themselves?

11:30

Why can't they take care of this problem here? If you want to have something done right, you got to do it yourself. Don't be that way when it comes to serving one another in the body of Christ.

11:39

Rejoice that you have a chance to serve someone else, that you have a chance to show them love and kindness and maybe in a certain way, even train them in godliness, in this kindness, in this service that you are providing for somebody else.

11:54

Show hospitality to one another. Open up your home. Open up your heart. Open up your mind, share your time with somebody else and do so with an earnest heart, with a love for the brotherhood, not grumbling, not being in your own, you know, little niche.

12:11

I got to do my thing. I got to get my thing right before I can help you with your thing. No, you've been given a certain gift for a reason that you might serve somebody else.

12:20

As Paul said to the Galatians, all the law can be summed up in this way. You shall love your neighbor as yourselves.

12:28

You already have a tendency and a leaning to want to love yourself. Instead, take that love that you would generally have for yourself and apply it toward somebody else, putting others needs ahead of your own and rejoice in the

12:40

Lord for these opportunities to serve somebody else for in doing so, we are obeying

12:46

God who said that we are to love one another in these ways that we are supposed to grow in love for the body of Christ and in such a way as we mature one another.

12:57

If you help somebody else mature in their thinking, their understanding, guess what? That benefits you too, although the purpose for doing it is not so that you will benefit from it.

13:07

But if the whole body being nourished and knit together, grows itself up in love using terminology that the apostle

13:16

Paul uses in Ephesians chapter four, doesn't the whole body benefit? So if you are growing somebody else in the faith, you are benefiting from that as well.

13:25

The whole body of Christ is maturing and growing, and that includes you as part of that body. So you and serving somebody else are also in a way being a benefit to yourself as part of the body of Christ.

13:37

But once again, that's not the reason why you do it. You don't do it to benefit you. You put somebody else's needs ahead of your own.

13:46

But in serving one another, we are serving the Lord Christ. So love one another earnestly since love covers over a multitude of sins.

13:56

Everybody's got sins. Everybody's got faults. Don't spend your time and your hobbies trying to nitpick where everybody is wrong.

14:03

Instead, show hospitality to one another without grumbling, being thankful for every opportunity to serve one another as each has received a gift.

14:13

Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

14:20

To be a steward means that you are handling something rightly that has been given to you but does not belong to you.

14:27

So the very gift that you have is not yours. It's God's. But he's given it to you to work with.

14:33

He's entrusted it with you. So do it to the glory of God. The very time that you have is not yours.

14:40

You didn't invent this time, the time in which you exist and the opportunities that you have.

14:46

This opportunity is not yours. It has been given to you by God. So make the most of every opportunity, which is also an instruction that Paul gives to the

14:55

Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 5. As each of you has received a gift, it's given to you.

15:02

Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

15:08

Varied grace means that every person has been graced with a different gift.

15:14

So do the gift that God has given you to use and let somebody else use the gift that God has given them to use.

15:23

Don't try to infringe on their calling or their ministry and think to yourself, I want that calling or I can do that ministry better than that person can do it.

15:33

It's not yours to do. It's not your opportunity. It may not be your time yet. But even if this is something that you think that God has called you to, you let that person serve in that capacity for the time that they have and the opportunities that they have been given.

15:48

And you be faithful with the ministry and the opportunities that you have been given. We are told in Ephesians 5 21, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

15:58

So it is a godly thing to submit to another person, their gift and their opportunity.

16:03

Not trying to do it yourself because you think you could do it better or it's the gift and the opportunity that you want to have.

16:10

But once again, putting another's needs ahead of your own. So we submit to one another and each one's respective calling out of reverence for Christ.

16:19

Exactly what that verse means. And so then beginning in verse 11, Peter explains what this very grace would look like.

16:27

And he doesn't give a whole list of spiritual gifts like Paul does in, uh, in, you know, first Corinthians 12 or in Romans chapter 12, but, but rather he just mentions two.

16:39

He really just mentions two gifts that have been given and both of them are kind of the, the highest priority in the church.

16:45

You have a gift of service and a gift of teaching. You really have described the deacon and the elder respectively here.

16:52

The deacon meets the physical needs of the church. The elder meets the spiritual needs of the church.

16:59

All of us should aspire to attain to one of these two gifts. However, God has called us to serve in these capacities, but those who are deacons show the highest maturity in serving the physical needs of the church and those who are elders show the highest maturity and caring for the spiritual needs of the church.

17:16

All of us should aspire to attain to these things, whatever calling we might have of God. But those who are called to deacon and elder become models for their church examples for the rest of the church to follow verse 11, whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God.

17:32

So this is the teacher teaching rightly according to the word of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, that's describing the deacon.

17:45

But then there are going to be others in the church that can serve in a lesser teaching capacity than an elder serves in or a lesser serving capacity than a deacon serves in, but they aspire to do those things well, looking to elders and deacons as their models of service and teaching within the church.

18:03

And then after the hyphen, if you got a hyphen in your Bible, Peter says in order that in everything,

18:09

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. All of this is being done to the glory of God, not to the glory of you and not even to the glory of another person.

18:18

We serve somebody else to the glory of God, first and foremost, though we put others needs ahead of our own, it's ultimately to God's glory for Christ, put the glory of God ahead of his own right as, as having equality with God, as, as Paul talks about in Philippians chapter two, he did all things to the glory of God, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever amen.

18:48

And that would be a great place to end the letter. But we have another chapter and a half to go tomorrow.

18:54

We'll finish up chapter four and then and then next week finishing up the year by finishing the letter, this letter from first Peter, this letter from Peter, his first letter, first Peter.

19:07

That's what it is. I'm trying to say chapter five. We're going to cover all of chapter five in the last week of twenty sixteen.

19:14

Let's pray our great God, I pray that we would be convicted by these words that we have read and I pray that we would indeed put others needs ahead of our own to the glory of God, that we would serve in ministry, that we would serve the churches in which we have been placed, serving, serving those who are around us, those that we have committed to grow with and serve in the body of Christ.

19:39

We must be committed faithfully to the church where we are planted for how can we be a good servant to those

19:44

Christians who are around us if we are not committed to that church? And so give us a good, solid gospel teaching church.

19:51

And if there are ways that we can find faults in the churches that we're a part of, maybe even in the teaching and the pastor and the elders that are responsible for administering that teaching in our church, may we still love one another earnestly since love covers over a multitude of sins.

20:08

And may we pray for the Holy Spirit of God to move in our churches in such a way that our elders and teachers become all the more committed to the word of Christ, to teach it in reverence to the glory of God soundly according to historical orthodoxy and not just flying off the top of our heads with whatever thing comes to mind.

20:29

In such a case, we would lack self -control and not be sober minded if we're just being tossed to and fro by every shifting wind of doctrine.

20:38

Keep us grounded in your word. Let it be that lamp to our feet and light to our path as we look to the light,

20:47

Jesus Christ, who came to all men that we remember here in this season at Christmas time.

20:53

We pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

20:59

For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

21:06

.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.