The End of All Things
A brief talk about 1st Pet 4:7–11
Note: I formatted these notes for easy reading for myself with assistive technology called a screen reader, so it won’t look great. Feel free to listen to the YouTube audio below instead.
1st Peter chapter 4
I’m going to read through the verses, for your convenience,
and then we’ll go over things piece by piece.
Verses 7 through 11 says…
“But 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 sins.
Use hospitality one to another
without grudging.
As every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another,
as good stewards of
the manifold grace of God.
If any man speak,
let him speak as the oracles of God;
if any man minister,
let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:
that God in all things may be glorified
through Jesus Christ,
to whom be praise and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
exposition
“But the end of all things is at hand: “
Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Jesus said in Matt 24:12
Psalm 1 is where we need to be, to bear fruit.
Jesus said in the gospel of John 15 that if we would abide in him we would not be unfruitful.
“be ye therefore sober, and”
Consider your ways, and the way things are.
“watch unto prayer.”
Peter remembered his lesson from the Garden of Gathsemane.
“and above all things”
Obviously drawing attention to something important…
“have fervent charity among yourselves:”
Peter is teaching the same thing Paul, and the other apostles taught.
The ‘Royal Law’ James 2:8
Jesus condensed the whole law into two commandments, and
Said that his followers would keep them.
Good question: Are his follower’s known for it?
Lawsuits example of 1st Corinthians.
“for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
Jesus said you get what you give in Luke 6:36.
Lord’s prayer even says, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Some people can’t pray that seriously, because they love holding a grudge.
Are you that way? You’d be better off not carrying that burden.
God won’t forgive you.
1st John 4:20 says,
“If a man say,
I love God, and
hateth his brother,
he is a liar:
for he that loveth not
his brother
whom he hath seen,
how can he love God
whom he hath not seen?”
Do you hate anyone? Who do you hate?
The people who disagree with you?
Are you so prideful that everyone has to think the same way you do?
Do you hate any other ethnic groups?
Do you hate sinners? Does God hate sinners?
“God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but
That the world might through him might be saved.”
Is apathy a type of hate? Good question.
God’s saying you’re a liar if you say you love him, but hate your neighbor.
Let’s get back to our passage now though.
One thing we can be sure about is
If you do love you’ll do some things.
“Use hospitality one to another”
People talk of southern hospitality. That’s about the only time they say anything good about us.
All the other times we’re called backwards, dumb, and racist.
That’s a stereotype too. Anyway…
Hospitality is the same thing God does.
It’s being gracious, without expecting reward.
“He maketh the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”
Why?
“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4
God has grace and mercy for sinners, because if he didn’t we’d have no hope.
Likewise, we should have grace and mercy for others, as well.
Back to our text… We should hav hospitality…
“without grudging.”
Not only are we to love, and be hospitable, we need to do it with the right heart.
“As every man hath received the gift,”
“Freely ye have received, freely give.” Jesus told his disciples.
“even so minister the same one to another,”
“as good stewards of”
“the manifold grace of God.”
It’s good stewardship. We’ve been richly blessed. Holding back those blessings from others is a sin, the same way miserliness is.
It’s a sin because it’s worshiping you when you hold back. It’s all about you, isn’t it?
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” is the first commandment.
An open hand is a hand of blessing, and
“It’s better to give than receive”
Do we believe that? Practice it, then.
A closed hand is lack of faith.
It’s an attempt to depend on self.
It’s closed off. It can’t receive either.
“If any man speak,”
We’re gonna talk and we talk too much.
But here’s how we ought to talk:
“let him speak as the oracles of God; “
Use scripture. Recite firmly established truths of the Bible.
Reference what God has to say on topics.
“if any man minister, “
“let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: “
Rely on God’s guidance to accomplish his will.
We think we know a lot, and what to do all the time but we don’t.
“that God in all things may be glorified”
“through Jesus Christ, “
Point people’s direction towards The Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s the most important thing.
“to whom be praise and”
“dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
You know, God allows sufferin to occur in this world for a short time, and
That’s not for us to understand, really.
People complain about evil when it happens to them but they don’t complain when it’s them doing the evil.
The whole of creation exists for the glory of God, and
For his pleasure,
For his sake.
The main point o this life very well might be that we learn it’s not about us.
It’s about him.
If what you do with your life isn’t about him it doesn’t count for much in the grand scheme of things.
Next lessons I’ll do, whenever will be on these topics.
God bless, and remember to believe on The Lord Jesus Christ.
