The Importance Of Mutual Love In End Times Living - Part 2
1 Peter 4:7-11 · Roger Henderson · Aug 9, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261919492907

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we're going to continue on and finish up first Peter 4 7 through 11 today This is the second part of this which I titled mutual law of an end time living actually I think that title came from somebody I'm not sure Anyway, so the outline which I've been using is a one from Macaulay so we're looking at the section on the believers suffering and this section almost is like a maybe an aside or an encouragement section, and it kind of focuses on how should we live in the fact that there's really a shortness of life.

We don't really know what tomorrow holds, and there's a statement that's made in the first part of verse 7 that kind of speaks to that. where the end of all things is near. We're going to talk about that again. And then the last part kind of talks about the spiritual gifts that believers have, and we're going to talk about that today as well. So let's move on here. Okay, so starting in verse... let me actually... here's the verses here. So let me just read them. of the end of all things is near therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins be hospitable to one another without complaint as each one has received a special gift, employ it in the serving of one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God, who serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Okay. I'm hearing a little bit of an echo. Oh, that was, okay, good. All right. It was right here in the auditorium, the basement here. We're in the basement. Hopefully you guys will join us that are close and have a great fellowship meal. Okay, so now let's go on. So we're gonna do a quick review. So let's start off here.

The end of all things is near. And remember this is in this near here, is in the perfect tense. And so you could bring it across and I kind of put it in a paragraph. The end of all things was near in the past and continues to be near up into the present and on into the future. So this denotes a stage of permanence. So I have several observations from that perfect tense that you can make and other observations about this section.

First of all, the end of all things can happen at any moment. It was true in Peter's time, and it's true in our time, the Lord, and we're gonna see what can happen in any moment. In all things, I think Bob asked this question last week, and so I kind of thought about it for a while.

It seems like all things are the way things are right now, because he's saying that's gonna come to an end. The way things are right now is gonna come to an end. And it's not this cosmic picture that you see, worlds collide and people get blown up and destroyed.

Even though there's gonna be some dramatic things that happen, man's an eternal being, either with God or without God. He will eternally exist. And that's something that people should consider, certainly. They wanna eternally be with God. So God has a wonderful plan, and involved in that is a new heaven and a new earth. And this word end kind of gives us some clues as to what's being said here. The end kind of equals termination of time or purpose. Literally, it's the end of a goal or actually in design as in view.

And I got a couple of points here from Merriman. Peter's talking about a game plan. I'm not sure how much football we're going to see this season, probably some, but maybe nobody in the stadiums, which is pretty strange. But they have a game plan, and God's game plan is written in His Word. And there's a goal in sight.

And Peter's saying, keep your eye on the goal, keep your eye on the sight. So this statement is about the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, it can happen at any moment. And that's kind of hard to wrap your head around. You think, well, boy, Peter, all that time back, it happened any time then, now it can happen any time now. But that's the way the Lord asks us to look at it. OK, with that in mind, let's go on. Therefore, based upon the impending return of Christ, two things he's going to bring across here.

He's going to say, first of all, be of sound judgment. The idea is to use moderation, self-discipline, and Macaulay has the idea of a balanced mind. And then the second part is to be sober. And the idea here is over against being drunk. And the idea here is, I like this, Macaulay has this cool, calm, and collected. I'm not sure in these day and ages that we're always cool, calm, and collected.

And the point is here that this is in your prayers, modified, sober here, so in your prayers, The Lord desires that we be cool, calm, and collected because we, just like we know that he's coming, his plan is gonna be executed. So, and it's gonna be his plan, not man's plan, and at his time and not man's time. So, that's why they encourage you to be a sound judgment and sober in your prayers. And then the Lord's desire, this is kind of my thought here, the Lord's desire from this verse is that we be at rest when we are praying, trusting him with the results. And sometimes that's a tough thing, especially when there are family members involved. It's tough to be in this position, but the Lord desires that we be there.

Okay, so let's go on to verse 8. Above all, keep fervent in your prayers for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Interesting verse, so we're going to try to add some additional information from last week. So this is at the top of the list. This is at the top of your list. Keep fervent in your love for one another. Fervent is the idea, and this is a really cool definition. Fervent is the idea of stretched out. Continually intense, it's the idea.

And this is from Vine. It's a horse, I would say at full stride. You ever seen a horse at full stride and they take snapshots? So, I mean, slow motion or they do it freeze frame. I mean, his legs are like, they're like really stretched out. Or maybe runners, they're straining to hit the tape, you know, and they stretch out.

So this is a stretched out love. This is giving it your all. And so the question is, how do I give up my all? And so if we try that in our own strength and power, it usually doesn't work out too well. Love here is a fruit of the spirit. Remember, that's what we studied back in Galatians. Love, joy, peace. Remember, it's fruit singular. So we get a package deal. We don't just get love, and then tomorrow we get a little bit of peace. And tomorrow, you get the whole package deal. You get love, joy, peace, and so on. All right. And to allow that to be present in our life, we're to walk by the spirit so that love and the rest of those attributes can be manifest.

And our part here, our part, you know, we have a simple We have a simple game plan. The Christian has a simple game plan in life. His game plan is to exercise faith or trust, whatever you want to call it. Faith and trust are virtually the same word in the original language. Faith and trust, belief, in God's plan, in God's purpose, in God's way of doing things. And that's how he will live his life through us.

And actually, this is talking about One to another, among the believers that Peter was ministering to, was talking to, they have this fervent love. And in the last part of the verse, because love covers a multitude of sins. So this tells us about the importance of our love for one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you know, you look at scripture, and most of the admonitions are relationships between our brothers and sisters in Christ.

You may miss that sometimes, but if you look carefully, it talks about that. So that's a relationship that God desires to be going on, and that's a relationship that He is glorified in. Okay, so love covers, the idea is to Envelop, wrap around, cover up. So, last week I went through this and I thought, you know, I didn't distinguish. And some people might get confused.

You know, there's a tremendous love that we don't want to confuse this with. well so now let's recall how did the christ love cover all sin this is all sins how did he pay for all the sins and these are very familiar verses but i thought on a contrast this with the covering that we're talking about a multitude of sins and contrast those two so this is the one that we talk about christ love paid or covered all sins so really need verses in first john uh... first john two two but he himself is a propitiation, big word, or satisfaction, whenever you see propitiation, think satisfaction, for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for those of the whole world.

So I always like to remind myself, God is taking care of the sin issue. Sins have been paid for. His son died on the cross to accomplish that. Our job is not to try to pay for our sins again by some action we might take, because we can't do it. Christ was the only one that could do that, because he was God. Another wonderful verse in the same line, showing God's love here, 1 John 4, 10. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or satisfaction for our sins. So again, We, you know, some people say, why, I just can't, I can't come to know God because I don't really love him. I know. Well, he says, no, I loved you. And when he loved, you know, he has to love first before we can love him. So that's the focus. And then lastly, 1 John 4, 14.

We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So this is an accomplishment by Christ on the cross, covering all sins, covered it for every man, woman, and child, whether they realize it or not. And our job is to accept that payment, accept that covering of all sins. So now, with that in mind, let's contrast that to what Peter's telling us here. Peter's going to tell us about interpersonal relationships among believers. Christ's love covers a multitude of sins in the believer's life.

So how is that supposed to happen? And what's the purpose of that? And I think before I show it, this is the same verse I showed last week, the wonderful verse in 1 Corinthians 13. But this is the interrelationship where we interact with brothers and sisters, and you know, my brother or sister may sin against me and I may sin against my brother and sister. It's going to happen.

So how do we treat that? Do we get up and say, well, wait a minute, you said you were a fine Christian man and I, whoops, I got, I caught you there. Do we do that way? No, this says our mindset is to be that, that we forgive him and we love him. Uh, and we don't publicize his sin.

And I think that's beautifully demonstrated in first Corinthians 13, And this is the first part of this. I just have it in bullet form, 1 Corinthians 13, four through eight. And I always like to use, this is really Christ's love lived out through us.

Christ's love is patient. Christ's love is kind and is not jealous. Christ's love does not brag and is not arrogant. Christ's love does not act unbecomingly. Christ's love does not seek its own. Christ's love is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.

So right here, if Christ is living out his love through you, your brother or sister may may attempt to provoke you. I'm not saying we do this perfectly. We may not do this perfectly. But this is his desire, not provoked, doesn't take into account our wrongs suffered. Christ's love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. So we don't rejoice when our brother or sister sins against us. We love them, and we help them. And maybe if there's confession needed, we point them in the right direction. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Christ's love never fails.

It's a beautiful section. So I think that's a contrast between God's covering for all of man's sin, paying for his sin, and then the believer's interaction with his brother or sister, and how they interact with the statement, because love covers a multitude of sins.

So hopefully that's a good kind of recap there from last time. And then this one here, I'm not going to spend a lot of time. This is the last verse we covered last week, be hospitable to one another without complaint. And this is really hospitable in its core meaning is the idea of love of strangers. But it's interesting. This is within the body, within believers. So there's maybe strangers to you, a believer that you didn't know. And it comes from brotherly love.

And it talks about this complaint is murmuring or speaking against. And I really like McCauley's little summary of this verse here. In other words, in verse 9, don't extend hospitality and whisper and gripe about it when the company can't hear you. So we've probably all been guilty of this. So, anyway, but the Lord says, you know, be hospitable. That's part of the love for your brothers and sisters.

Okay, so that's, we whizzed through that, and we got about 17 minutes. And so now we're going to go on to the new verses. And you guys can ask questions. We got, you know, we got another half an hour to go here. Hopefully we can, may slow down here a little bit. And we're going to start into the new verses here, starting in verse 10. Okay, so verse 10, as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Okay, each one has received a gift.

That's, I'm sorry, each one, actually I read it totally wrong. What I found here was that there was a word that was kind of left out in the translation that I used, New American Standard, and it's actually, each one, according as, he has received a gift. So let's look at, and that's what the inner linear had, the word by word translation. So let's look at each of the words here. Each one, this is a believer again.

According as is in in whatever quantity it may be a little or a lot in whatever quantity He's gonna talk about gifts and whatever quantity God has blessed you with a gift Receive it he's gonna say receive it or imparted to, so the idea, and it's a fact that each one has received a gift. So this is a fact. This is not something you're asking for. This is a fact. It's an Aristoteles Passpoint fact.

It's a fact that every person has received a gift, a special gift. And gift here is, Okay, charisma, a gift involving God's grace, a special gift given ability or function in the body of Christ, the church. So this is a gift, and it could be more than one, and this is the area we commonly refer to as spiritual gifts.

And so, you know, we're going to be talking about that. We're working through 1 Corinthians. We're in chapter 4 right now. So, we're going to be talking about that in more detail as we go down through the chapters here. So, let's just go to the next slide here for a second. I took a short detour here for a second.

So God has given every believer at least one spiritual gift, and that's found, if you read way ahead in 1 Corinthians 12, 7 and 11, talk about that, every believer has at least one spiritual gift. And the places that kind of the spiritual gifts show up, or in chapters 12 and 14 of 1 Corinthians, Romans, excuse me, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. Those are the three main sections that talk about spiritual gifts. So now I want to show you, so this is Valvard, Walvard, Walvard. I have a tough time with his name. Anyway, he was a contemporary of Chafer. I think they co-authored major Bible themes. I have to look at the inside cover again.

Anyway, so there's, if you look through those, the second bullet, if you look through those chapters, 12 to 14, and Romans 12 and 4, you're going to find a list that's greater than just eight. You're going to find, I think by count, about 15. So there's some gifts that that if you look carefully and you consider how the church started, and we see that in Acts, some of these gifts are no longer in view now in the Christian church. Some people would claim they are, and they say they're practicing those gifts, like the gift of healing.

Some people believe they can You know, I've always said that if they can do that, they ought to be down at the hospital. Anyway, we're going to get into that. You're going to get the blow by blow account. Mike and I are going to get through that in 12 to 14.

But I believe these are the gifts. They're eight numbered. I may re-look at this again. So I think these eight are the right eight here. So let's just go through them. So certain gifts are clearly the possession of the church today. We have the gift of teaching, the gift of helping or ministering, the gift of ministration or ruling, the gift of evangelism, the gift of being a pastor, the gift of exhortation, the gift of giving, and the gift of showing mercy.

So what we're going to find here, and this is interesting, is Peter, so this is from Paul's writings, you know, these Corinthians, Ephesians, that's all Paul's writing. Well, Peter's going to come along and say, you know, you can divide those up. You can put them in two categories, and he's going to put them in two categories. I'm not going to tell you what they are right now, because it's the next verse, but he's going to put them in two categories, which I find very helpful. So it's actually kind of giving me a leg up for 1 Corinthians later on in the year here. So he's going to divide those up and talk about two classes that come out of looking at these gifts.

Okay, that's my little diversion there. So as each one has received a special gift, and special is added for emphasis there, So the second part is employ it in serving one another. So here's the deal, right? Some people look at gifts and they say, oh, goody. In fact, I have a little story here.

In a previous church, a lady came to the leadership and say, well, I have a gift. And she announced, she showed up at the front door, so to speak, and said, I have a gift. Can I exercise my gift from the church? And we were a little bit leery. I wasn't actually in leadership at that time, but it just seemed kind of strange. She said, I have a gift, and I want to exercise it.

So is that really the right way we should look at it? If somebody announces they have a gift, well, if I read scripture, Gifts are, in a sense, recognized, right? So certainly, the way elders are chosen or teachers are chosen, their gift is recognized. So we have to be careful about gifts, that it's to be used for others. Therefore, others should be able to see them. You shouldn't necessarily come and announce that, now I have a gift. Stand back. I'm going to do it. OK? That probably isn't the best way. OK. So, what's the idea?

Interlinear has administer, serving and ministry are kind of used interchangeably, ministering to each other. In fact, one defines the other. Ministering to render any kind of service. So, and I observe, these are among the body of Christ, the gifts among the body of Christ. And then Walvoord said, spiritual gifts are revealed. revealed to be given sovereignly by God, as such, they are not properly the object of men's seeking."

So I think that's important, too. It's like, well, I see this gift, and I want to get that one. It's like going to the shopping mall. I want that gift. Well, the Lord says, no. I know who you are, and I know what gift is appropriate for you. And it seems like our job in the body is to recognize those gifts. And sometimes, you know, the person doesn't necessarily recognize the gift. Others will look and say, well, I think this is your gift. That's how I see it. Okay, so let's go on here.

As good stewards, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Okay. Stewards is the idea of a manager, okonomos, a manager of a household or a state, and it's a combination of two words. One word to arrange, and one word to house, to arrange the house. So God says, we're to do this as good stewards. It's just not like, well, I got this gift, and I can just... I can just go crazy with it, so to speak. No, we're to be good stewards, we're to use it wisely, is what I think is being...

And actually, he had some places and he said, well, I think this word is used here of teachers in 1 Corinthians 4, 1. In fact, Mike's just been teaching that, of elders in the church in 1 Timothy 1, 7, and then of believers in general in the verse we're covering right now. So, and then here's a cool word, manifold, manifold grace of God, the many colored, the many varieties, the expansive enough of God's grace. And I liked what McCauley said, we are to reflect the many faceted grace of God. So God desires that the believer show who God is by his life. And this is one of the aspects by this good stewardship of these gifts.

So any questions at this point? I'm going to go on to the next verse. Hey, Roger. OK. Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say, with uh... with the word variegated you know there's very good yarn and it's one piece of yarn but it's got all these different colors in it uh... in pcr here just this time so i'm still we still have a uh... say one more time okay i say i was just saying with the word variegated uh... with yarn you can get variegated yarn and it's one one piece of yarn but it's got all different colors and it changes from one color to another okay i i hope you're saying All right, thank you. Yeah, we're still kinda struggling here with our sound, so we'll keep working. This Zoom adventure is an in-progress adventure. Bonnie looks confused. Okay, good, thank you. All right, that's great. It's okay, Bonnie. Okay, so now, verse 11.

So now we're gonna talk about, he's gonna tell us some things about using these gifts. How would he use these gifts? Okay, whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. So as I kind of got ahead of myself, Paul will tell us about using the gifts that he has provided for us.

So first is whoever speaks. And actually, if you look in the original, it's actually an if statement, but it's assumed to be true. So you can translate it as a fact. It's assumed to be true. Whoever speaks. And speak here is the idea. It really has the idea of teaching, preaching, that kind of idea. Speaking the word of God from scripture. So let's just look at the other part of this. I lost my bull there. He's to do so, and if you notice, it's in italics that the verb is supplied here. He is to do so, actually, as one who is speaking the utterances of God. And utterances here is the idea of a word, a narrative, a statement. And actually, it has the idea of a divine, because it's the utterances of God, it's a divine statement.

In a sense, this is God's mind. And so we see this word used in Hebrews 5 or 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and these utterances, this is God's mind. We have his word, we have God's mind on a page that we can read. We can read what the mind of God is thinking or has thought and has planned and is planning to do. We have the very mind of God written on a piece of paper, his holy word.

So when we speak, one of the gifts is whoever is speaking is to do so, and this is where caution is required. The expression is used for an utterance of deity and serves to confine man's message to the word of God. How important, you know, how important that is, because many people feel once they have attained a certain amount of education or whatever, stamps of approval from institutions, they can kind of wing it. Well, God said this, and I'm going to give you, this is kind of my thought on that. Well, you can give your thought on that, but your thought should be based upon what God's Word says. how important to be careful when we speak God's word.

So that's one of the gifts. So if you go through that list, and you'll see there's quite a few speaking gifts in there, right? There's pastors in there, teachers in there, evangelists in there. And then there's some that are kind of administrative. And you think, well, And that kind of makes a little of both maybe. And then there's some that are clearly seem to be more in the area of service. So here's a division that we're seeing speaking in service to the two divisions. So the service ones are certainly praying. You're praying for the body. I think that fits in that area. Then maybe, let's see, what else did I? I have to get the list back. Yeah, praying and helps and mercy, those kind of ones, those are kind of in the service area. Okay, we'll see that in a second.

Okay, so then the second part, whoever serves, once again, it's assumed to be true, service here is to be a servant or minister, advises ministries of believers to one another. Once again, we're talking about within the body of Christ. And then I've already got ahead of myself here. What are some of the ministries? I think basically prayer helps, mercies, or at least... And then some are probably both, a combination.

So Paul's already told us about the speaking gifts. Now he will address the gifts of service. So how are we to effectuate the gifts of service? So basically, we're to do so as one who serves by the strength which God supplies. So it's ek, or by, ek is out of, out of the strength of God as a source.

So this is back to, okay, that sounds really good. Great, Roger. How do I tap into that strength, right? Well, it's the same way you tap into any aspect of God. You believe what he says, and you act upon what he's told you. That's how you tap into that strength. You can't go down to the filling stations. I'll fill up with God's strength here.

Anyway, strength is, you know, it's might, power, so on, which God supplies. And here's where, you know, and we have this study, I think Mike's done it most of the time, this study of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. You know, this is kind of talking about the ministries of the Holy Spirit in terms of spiritual gifts, the eight I put on the previous chart there. But there's a whole wonderful additional ministries of the Holy Spirit. in the life of the believer. And that's God supplying, the strength he's supplying, if you think about it, he supplied himself and the person of the Holy Spirit to be our strength. And as Macaulay says, in light of the Lord's return, there is to be empowered service. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to... Actually, we have time for many questions here, guys. Okay.

So, the wrap-up of this in verse 11 is, So that, in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So, so that, or with a purpose that, in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. to whom belongs, or who is, in whom there is, glory and dominion forever and ever. So the gospel says God is glorified in the ministry of Christian believers to one another, and that's certainly true.

So in my desire to really get through all these charts, I was able to, and with only minimal questions, we've kind of gotten through this, quicker than I had anticipated, and that's always the, you know, you talk about the fear of public speaking, the fear of not having enough information to finish the time you're allotted. Well, anyway, you guys have some questions? I'll try to hear them, it's tough, but ask your questions, please. This is an interesting section, so any questions or thoughts? Andrew? Can you hear me, Roger? Not real well. Oh, you can't, really? Yeah, turn your speaker louder. Yeah, it's up. Let me see. Go ahead. Can you hear that?

Okay, it's interesting that the purpose there in verse 11 at the end is to, so that God may be glorified, right? Yes. The purpose. Yeah. And I'll try and get my microphone better. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. I'm going to start talking. It's going to feedback. Okay.

Yeah, it is interesting. It is interesting that he's glorified the, here we have the interaction to just leave it alone. That's fine. We have the interaction between, um, um, glorified in the interaction between believers. That's pretty, pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff. Other thoughts?

Remember when Hal went through biblical faith, one of the things he taught us was that God's purpose is to reveal Christ and in the process to receive glory for eternity. That's his main purpose, is to reveal his own glory, not just to us, but to everyone Yeah, I think one of the things that we overlook is that God's purpose is to reveal himself. And part of that revelation is the magnitude of his glory. And sometimes when we think of things that he's gifted us with, it's for our benefit. But our benefit is that he reveals himself and his essence and the magnitude of who he is. What a comfort. What a joy. would he enjoy with him in his own glory being revealed. Isn't that neat? Yeah, it is. That's great. Hey, Roger. Yeah. Can you hear me now? Yeah. OK.

Today's none but the hungry heart just kind of really fits in there. I'm not going to read it, but those that have that hungry heart, or maybe haven't read it yet, but that really fits right into this whole thing. Well, Wayne, why don't you read it? We have five minutes.

Well, as hard as it is for the believer to finally come to rest concerning his spiritual birth, it seems to be even more difficult for him to simply rest in the Lord Jesus for his life and service. So, you know, it's explained that that service comes from him.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, he provides interesting, he provides everything, right? He provides a gift and he provides the strength to do it. Yeah. And he says, truly, the rest in God is to yield oneself to the highest activity. We work because he worketh in us both to do and to will and to do, as Paul himself I labor striving according to his working, who worketh in me with might. So that kind of, that's enough probably there, but that's what the whole thing is about. Oh, that's a good way. That's great. This is Andrew.

It's interesting, too, how these verses speak of love, right? Fervent love and things. And then you went through all the bullet points of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 there. It's interesting that in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul really isn't on the subject of love. He's on the subject of spiritual gifts. And this Peter section is talking about spiritual gifts of love. It's kind of interesting how the two go together. Absolutely. Yeah, it's neat. Actually, I found I hadn't realized that Peter had so much to say about spiritual gifts until I started studying this. So it's pretty neat.

So we're actually next week, we're going to start into a new section. We're gonna talk about more on suffering, the believer's suffering. And Peter's much about that, much about discussing that issue and how the believer is to function. He's really been on that subject a long, a lot of time, hasn't he? He has, he has, absolutely. Suffering is to reveal his glory also.

Yeah, that's good, Roy. That's good. So Roy, if I'm right, you're up next week? Well, that's the plan. Okay. Okay, I'm sure I'm sure we'll be good. Okay. Well, maybe we should go ahead and we're gonna have to work on the downstairs set up here. I think it's better for the other Sunday school class, but we just don't have it quite figured out down here. It's challenging if you guys have been here and seeing the setup we have, it's challenging. But I'm thankful we can do it. This is great. So let's just close in prayer then. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have. Christ's name, amen.