1 Peter 4

1 Peter 4:7-5

XXI SANE ON THE SECOND ADVENT AND OTHER THINGS1 Peter 4:7-5:14 This section commences with 1 Peter 4:7 : “But the end of all things is at hand.” It is an important thing to notice how every apostolic writer dwells upon the second advent, the end of the world, and the Judgment as contemporaneous. Some people place the advent a long ways this side of the end of the world and of the general judgment. But it is not so placed in the Bible. Certain things come together – Christ’s advent, the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the general judgment, the winding up of earthly affairs.

Peter, like all others, makes an argument upon the end of all things as at hand, so that our next thought is: What does he mean by saying “at hand”? To teach that there is but a little period of time from his utterance of this saying until Christ comes again? We can’t find that to be his meaning, because in his second letter, where he discusses this subject elaborately, he shows that it will be quite a long time, so long that men will begin to say: “Where is the promise of his coming?” What he means, then, by “at hand,” and by “a little time,” is not in our sight, but in God’s sight. As he explains it in his second letter, a thousand years are with the Lord as one day and one day is as a thousand years.

Having established his meaning of “at hand,” we see how that form of expression is used elsewhere in the New Testament. Paul says in precisely the same way in Philippians 4:5 : “The time is at hand,” and James 5:8 says: “It draweth nigh.” And we have already seen in Hebrews 10:37 it says: “Yet a little while and he that cometh shall come and will not tarry.” When we get a little further on, we will see that 1 John 2:8 says: “It is the last hour.” And yet in his book of Revelation he shows a long series of events that must precede the advent, the end of the world, and the judgment.

But on the second advent Peter says, “Therefore, be ye of sound mind.” If any theme on earth calls for sanity of mind, it is the theme of the second advent. That is the very theme upon which people become unsound of mind. Take for example the church at Thessalonica. Paul preached there and spoke of the coming of Christ, and of that coming drawing near and how they should watch, whereupon they went wild, and were so sure that it was only a few days until Christ’s coming that it was not worth while to attend to the ordinary affairs of life, so they quit work and went around discussing the second advent. He had to rebuke them in his second letter, and tell them they misunderstood. We know that in the Reformation days the Mad Men of Munster became of unsound mind in regard to the doctrine of the second advent.

They went to such extremes that the government of Central Europe called out their forces and almost destroyed them in what is known as the Peasant War. A similar case of affairs arose in the days of Oliver Cromwell and the English revolution. They were called Fifth Monarchy Men. Going back to Daniel’s prophecy about the four monarchies, and then the monarchy of God following it, they took up the idea that the time was at hand for establishing the Fifth Monarchy here upon earth. They were great enthusiasts and fanatics, and did a vast deal of harm.

In the United States there have been several periods of that unsoundness of mind upon the subject of the second advent – the Millerites, for example. Eggleston wrote a great romance, The End of the World. He vividly portrays this great excitement. They set the day when the world was coming to an end, and made all their preparations for it. Many gave away their property, some beggared themselves, wives and children, deeding away everything they had, and according to an old saying, “Got their ascension robes ready.” Nothing to do but put on their white robes and glide up to heaven. When the predicted day came, a crowd of them assembled to go up together, but Christ did not come, and they went down just as fast as they had come up, and of course a wave of infidelity followed. They said, “You can’t believe anything that is said in the Bible upon the subject.” And so from fanaticism in one direction they turned to infidelity in another.

Peter says, “Be ye, therefore, of sound mind.” In every community there are excitable people whose thoughts lead them to despise the common everyday things of life and seek out novelties; they bite at things of this kind. The Seventh Day Adventist drops his hook among them and catches some; the Mormon comes along and catches others. About the second advent of our Lord, the important things are its certainty and purposes, not its time. We are sure it will come, but it cannot come until all the antecedent things shall take place, and our attitude toward it should be to be sure in our hearts of the fact that it will come, and not that the power of the advent consists in its suddenness.

He shows in what respect this soundness of mind should be manifest: “Be sober unto prayer.” “Drunk” is opposite to “sober.” One can be drunk unto prayer as well as he can be sober unto prayer. I remember once that an old lady came to me during a meeting I was holding, and said, “You will never get a feeling in you in this meeting, until you appoint a sunrise prayer meeting.” I said, “It is certainly a good thing to have prayer at sunrise or sunset, but you don’t mean to say that it is essential to the outpouring of the power of God that we should lay special stress upon any particular hour?” She said, “Yes, I do. You appoint a prayer meeting at midnight, another at sunrise, and you will see that the blessings will come.” That is superstition. God is ready to hear his children at any time.

I have seen the same fanaticism manifested with reference to prayer in a preacher insisting that one could not be converted, that his prayers would not be answered, and that God would not answer the prayers of his people for him, if he did not come up to the “mourner’s bench.” Whenever people make a fetish out of anything they ar½e sure to go to the extreme. I believe very heartily that it does good in a meeting to call for expressions from the people, to take some step of some kind, and I have seen cases of those who came up to be prayed for and be instructed and were benefited by coming together, coming out of the congregation and taking a front seat (they may call it a mourner’s bench if they want to; it makes no difference), but whenever one takes the position that salvation is limited to a special spot, or to certain conditions, then he is getting fanatical. I would say to the man who limits God’s mercy to arbitrary conditions prescribed by himself that he had better surrender those conditions, and every other condition. One can go to an extreme in that way. “Be of sound mind, even in prayers, and above all things, be fervent in your love among yourselves.”

Christian sanity is manifested in brotherly love as well as upon any other point. A man who goes off half-cocked, at a tangent, upon some particular subject, and yet shows that he has no love for the brethren, has already advertised that he is a crank. The modest, most humble, and sweetest everyday Christians are the best. This applies to Christians as stewards of the manifold grace of God. One man has the gift of speaking with tongues. If he gets mentally unbalanced, he will want to be all the time speaking with tongues without any reference to the propriety of the case.

Paul gives an account of that kind of people in 1 Corinthians 14:26, where they turned the assembly into a bedlam. He says, “What is this, brethren? Everyone of you hath a tongue, a psalm, hath an interpretation,” which was well enough if exercised to edification. But all commence at once, here one speaking in Aramaic, another in German, another in Latin, and another in Greek, one singing a psalm, one offering a prayer, and the whole becomes a jumble of confusion. But “God is not the author of confusion.” Nothing that promotes discord is from God. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracle of God. You show your sanity as a Christian.

When you speak, let what you say in the name of God harmonize with the teaching of God’s Book.” There are many people who want to be “new lights.” They have gotten an entirely new theory about a great many things, and they are very anxious to put off these particular things upon an audience. “Remember,” says Peter, “to be of sound mind, and if you speak, speak as the oracle of God.” Let what we say be not noted for its novelty, but for its conformity to the general rule of the Scriptures, interpreting one scripture by another scripture.

In a previous chapter I have already discussed 1 Peter 4:12-19 in connection with sufferings, but call attention to 1 Peter 4:18 : “If the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” It has oftentimes been the theme of sermons. The old Dr. T. C. Teasdale, a great revivalist in his day, made that one of his favorite texts, that the righteous man is barely saved – just saved, not a thing over. Peter’s thought here is that Christians are judged in this world and sinners in the world to come, and that on Christians in this life, in this world, God visits the judgment for sins, and the judgment is so heavy at times, that even life itself passes away under the afflictions of the judgment.

It is a good deal like our Saviour said, that if these things be done in a green tree, what shall be in a dry one? If the fire is so hot it will make a green tree blaze, how quickly will it kindle a dead tree? Judgment, he says, must commence at the house of God; it commences there, but it does not end there. The preceding verse says, “And if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?” The thing is this, that our salvation comes through our Lord, so that we ourselves are full of faults, infirmities; we commit sin, we have to be chastised for it, and this judgment comes on us in this world. This is precisely Peter’s thought.

I will give an incident originally quoted by a great author in his book on infidelity. An old man, a very pious, true Christian, was deeply concerned because his two boys were infidels, and all through his life he had tried to illustrate the truth and power of the Christian religion before those boys, and it seemed to have no effect on them. They would not heed his precepts, nor follow his example. Finally, he got the idea in his head that he ought to pray God to make his death powerful in leading these boys to Christ, so when the time came for him to die, to his surprise, instead of everything being bright and he as happy as an angel and singing like a lark, he was in the most awful distress of mind. It was all dark to him. Promises, which, when he was well, seemed as bright as stars, were now darkness, and instead of being able to show his children the triumphant glory of a dying saint, he was showing his children that he was groping as he came to pass away, and so he died.

The boys observed it very carefully. They had expected the old man to die a very happy death. They thought he was entitled to it. But when they saw a man that lived as righteously as he had, who when he came to pass away, had to go through deep water, one said to the other, “Tom, if our father had such a time as that, what kind of a time do you reckon we are going to have?” And it influenced their conversion. They had the thought of Peter: “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?” If he had died very happy, they would have taken it as a matter of course, and would not have been disturbed in mind at all, but when they saw him go through such an ordeal as that, it began to shake them as to what would become of them.

He gives directions about how to shepherd the flock (1 Peter 5:1-4). His exhortations are to those who have charge of the church. Let us look at every point, commencing with 1 Peter 5:2 : “Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint.” The first thought is to give attention to the flock. “If you are the pastor of the church, no one else is under such an obligation. Take care of that flock.” The shepherd that does not take care of his sheep, will find them scattering. I don’t care what the cause is, if he is so continually away from them and his mind upon other matters that he does not thoughtfully consider the needs of his congregation, then he has failed to attend to the flock. In Ezekiel 33 what is meant by tending the flock is fully explained.

If any have wandered away, they should be brought back; if any are weak, they should be protected from the strong; if any are wounded, they should be healed; if any are sick, they should be ministered unto. That is attention.

I sometimes read over again a book that is a romance, and which is worth anybody’s reading. I regard it as one of the greatest books ever written – Lorna Doone. In that book there is an account of the greatest cold spell that had come within the knowledge of men up to the year 1640. The frost was terrific. Every night from the middle of December, or near the end of December, to the first of March, was a hard freeze. It froze until the trees would burst open with a sound like thunder.

Millions of cattle died, and birds and deer. Deer would come right up to the house and eat out of the hand. In showing how to take care of the flock in such weather as that, we have a very felicitous account. John Ridd gets up and finds the whole world snowed under, and he goes out and can’t even find his flock of sheep at all. He goes to where they were placed and begins to dig down into the snow. He has his sheepdog looking for his lost sheep, and as be gets away down under the snow, he hears a sheep, “baa I” and he digs until he uncovers the whole flock, and he carries one under each arm, sixty-six times, carrying two at a time, through that deep snow to a place of safety.

Now, that is tending the flock. That kind of concern must be in the heart of the pastor. If one has charge of a church and there come dangers to the congregation when they are likely to be swept away, then he ought to be there at the time, moving among his people, ministering unto them. As our Lord said to Peter, “Lovest thou me? Then, if you do, shepherd my sheep; take care of my sheep.” So Peter hands down the advice. He says, “The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, tend the flock.”

His next thought is: “exercising the oversight.” From that word, “oversight,” we get bishop, overseer, episcopos, bishopric; exercising the bishopric, or the oversight, not by constraint. When I was in Paris, Texas, holding a meeting, a Methodist preacher said to me, “You seem to be a good man, and just because I am a Methodist preacher, you won’t refuse to advise me?” I asked him what the trouble was. “Well, it is this: I am forced on this congregation. I know I ought not to stay any longer, and they don’t want me any longer, and they won’t pay me any longer, and my family is actually suffering. Now, what would you do under those circumstances?” I said, “Well, beloved, I wouldn’t be under those circumstances. You are put over these people by constraint. You don’t want to stay and they don’t want you to stay, and the Bishop is mad, and in order to show them that they nor you have a voice in things of this kind, he has sent the same man back over the double protest to show his authority.” I went among the Methodists and took up a collection for that preacher. I told him that if I had the power to correct his position, I would.

In other words, when we take charge of a flock, we should not go by constraint; never go except willingly. That is a thing above all others in the world, that calls for voluntary action. I had a Baptist preacher once, to bring this trouble to me. He says, “I feel impressed of God to do so and so, but I am just simply impelled to go home.” I said, “Who is compelling you?” “Well,” he says, “the people.” I said, “Who is the greater, the people or God?” and I quoted this very scripture to him and said, “Don’t take the oversight anywhere by constraint. If you go, go with your will, because you are willing to go there, only see to it that your will coincides with God’s will, and not the people’s will. Not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”

We have the same thought presented from another point of view. First, it is an external constraint; now it is an internal constraint: “I don’t want to go to that place, but I have a very large family and they are at an expensive stage just now, and that church pays twice as much as this other place.” I said to him, “Which place now do you feel the easiest in when you get up to preach? In which place does your mind act more readily?” He answered, “That place, yonder.” “Well,” I said, “don’t go to the other place for filthy lucre’s sake.” I don’t say that one can’t have a ready mind in going to the church that pays him what he ought to have, but I do say that whenever two places are before him, and on the one side the argument is the amount of salary, and on the other side is the readiness of his mind, he might as well be constrained by a Methodist bishop as by the almighty dollar.

“Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.” When we take the oversight, we don’t take it as a lord, as we are not boss and master. That is opposed to the principle of Christian logic. Some preachers are imperious in disposition, impatient at suggestions from anybody else, wanting to run things with a high hand, and revolting against any mind but their own mind, in the way a thing is to be done. Peter says, “Don’t do it that way. God made you the leader; no other man can be the leader but the pastor. You are the leader, but don’t you lead like an overseer of slaves. Be sure to lead by a good example.”

Now comes the reward of the pastor: “And when the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” The Chief Shepherd is the Lord himself: “I am the Good Shepherd.” He has gone up to heaven, and he is coming back. When he shall appear, we will receive our reward. We won’t get it until then, but we will get it then.

In 1 Peter 5:5-7 is the exhortation to humility. Here the question is asked: What is the difference between “ensamples” and “examples”? None, materially. Those words are used interchangeably. Let us read over at least what he says about humility: “All of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another.” That carries us back to the foot-washing lesson. “For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.” It is not very difficult to become humble before God. Sometimes I am proud, but I get down off that ladder mighty quick.

But here is a hard thing for me to do: “Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.” The thing that eats a man up is anxiety. It seems to me to be the hardest precept in the Bible: “Be anxious for nothing; be not anxious for the morrow; be not anxious what ye shall eat or what ye shall wear, in everything he careth for you.” That is a very hard thing to do. Some people can do it beautifully.

I have already called attention to 1 Peter 5:8 : “Be sober, be watchful; your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom withstand steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world.” Now, Peter, after that sifting process, never doubts about a personal devil. There are some people who think there is no such thing as a personal devil, and just as long as the devil can make one think that, he has him just where he wants him. He has his goods, keeping them in peace, but it is when one begins to get out from under his influence that he stirs himself and lets him know he is there.

The most beautiful thing in the letter Isaiah 1 Peter 5:10, which I have discussed under the question of suffering.

1. On 1 Peter 4:7, what the meaning of “the end of all things is at hand,” comparing with other New Testament passages?

2. Cite historical examples of “unsound mind” on Christ’s final advent and the end of the world.

3. Cite examples of the necessity of being “ sober unto prayer.”

4. What the meaning and application of: “ If the righteous scarcely be saved….” ? Illustrate

5. State Peter’ s several points of exhortation on shepherding the flock, Explain and illustrate each.

6. When, and from whom, does the faithful under-shepherd receive his reward?

7. What Peter’ s lesson on humility? Illustrate.

8. What Peter’s experience with the devil and what his lesson here?