Praise the Lord, I want to read a few verses from First Peter
chapter 4. I was going to read the whole
chapter, but I'll refrain from that.
I'd encourage you to read it at home.
First Peter chapter 4. And we're going to read from the
verse 12 to verse 19. Let's hear the Word of God
First. Peter chapter 4, verse 12,
reading of course, from the King James Bible.
The words will come up and scream for all who are online,
and we pray the Lord will bless us as we read and hear the word
of God together. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice in as much as ye are
partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye for the
Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part he is evil spoken of, but in your part he is
glorified. But let none of you suffer as a
murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busy body
in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God
on this behalf, for the time has come.
The judgement must begin at the House of God.
And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them
that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely
deceived, where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear?
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God,
commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as
unto a faithful Creator, Amen. We know that God will stamp with
His own approval and blessing this reading of His own precious
and infallible and errant word. Amen.
Now my text tonight is taken from the latter part of first
Peter chapter 4 verse 17. And it says and if it first
beginneth us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God and have entitled the message tonight?
What shall your end be now in this last Sunday night of 2025?
And a little while the year will be gone, all its precious
moments gone. It's painful memories you have
many of them, and all it's powerful mercies they'll pass
into history. And yet what faces you tonight
is a question of destiny. What shall your envy you see?
This question of destiny comes to you from the Lord.
You've heard throughout the year of the gospel of God.
You've heard the message Jesus Christ come into the world to
see of sinners. Paul said.
Of whom I am chief. You've heard about his birth,
his incarnation, his virgin birth.
You've heard about his sin, this life.
A Saviour that kept the law of God perfectly for us.
A Saviour who did no sin you no sin in him is no sin.
A Saviour who died an atoning death in Calvary's tree.
You've heard the call to repent and believe.
You've heard about the gifts that offer that you can have
peace with God. You can lay your head in the
pillow and know that all your sins are forgiven, a full and
free and forever pardon. You can have knowledge that
you've been adopted into God's family, that God pronounces you
his son or his daughter. God bestows to you the gift even
of everlasting life. He that believeth hath
everlasting life. Life begone now, and and of
course, eternal life is promised in the world to come.
And yet for some of you tonight who have been listening to this
message, that call has not yet been answered.
I wonder tonight, is it because of ignorance, a claim that you
don't fully understand it, Or is it because you put it off and
procrastinate it? Are you guilty of wilful delay?
Are you guilty tonight of open rebellion?
You see, one thing I can say from this pulpit is this, that
2025 has been a year of grace. Every sermon that you have heard
has been an act of God's patience to your soul.
Every sermon has been an expression of God's mercy.
Every stirring of your heart is the work of God's Holy Spirit.
And you see, every year that begins on the 1st of January
must end, and it ends in the 31st of December.
We're not promised another year. We're not promised another
sermon, We're not promised us another Sunday night, even in
the House of God. What we are promised is this
Jesus saith, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
then that cometh I will in no ways cast out.
And here's the apostle Peter in his day and generation, a good
and faithful servant of the Lord.
OA man full of feelings, a man full of faults.
And yet, despite the feelings and the faults, this man loved
the Lord in his heart. Remember he was asked the
question on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.
Lovest thou me more than these, Peter?
And what was his response? Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I
love thee. He didn't use agape, he used the
word for brotherly love. Peter was a sea of man, a man
who did his best to express his love for Christ.
And many of the people that he preached to didn't know Christ.
They didn't want him. They remained ignorant of him.
And yet Peter was called to faithfully serve Christ.
Remember in Matthew 419 follow me, and I make you to become
fishers of man. He got the call to leave his
gnats and to leave his home and to leave his possessions.
And he became a preacher of the gospel.
And he threw out the gospel then, and he exercised a great
ministry of preaching and teaching.
And here he's writing to God's people, and they're in the midst
of suffering. They're scatter abroad, they're
scared in the midst of certain fiery trials.
Listen to verse 12. Beloved thinketh not strange
concerning. The fiery trial was to try you.
So some strange thing happened unto you.
Verse 13 But rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ's
suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be
glad also with exceeding joy. These fiery trials were fierce.
They were frightening for the people of God.
They were suffering great persecution.
Even many face martyrdom at this time.
Could you imagine being tossed into a furnace of fire?
And yet God used the trials and the testing to test his people.
And he said to them, But rejoice in as much as your partakers of
Christ's sufferings. And what he stated then further
on the chapter LED up to this question of destiny.
Notice the words in verse 17. For the time has come, the
judgement must begin at the House of God, and judgement will
begin at the House of God. And that's a sermon all in
itself. And I'm not going to preach it
tonight. But just to add this, the Bible
says then everyone of us shall give an account of himself to
God. As you lived out 2025, as I
lived it out, you will give an account to God, not for
salvation, but for your life of service, the prayer meetings
you've attended, the prayers offered, the Bible that was
read, the witnessing that was done, the the help for the work
of God. All of that will come under
thee, all seeing searching eye of the Almighty.
And then he adds this for the time has come.
The judgement must begin at the House of God.
And if it first begin at us, that's the people of God, those
who are saved, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God? He's making reference in verse
718 to the ungodly and the Sinner.
He says, for if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and Sinner appear? In other words, where will you
be at the end? We're familiar with maybe
watching a television programme and you see the words coming up
in the screen. They're just two words, the end.
And you see at this year's end, it's the end of time as we know
it. As far as 2025 is there, it's
the end of the journey for this year.
For some, it might even be the end of life as far as we know
it. So I'm going to ask the
question. I'm going to answer it then 20
minutes. What shall your end be?
Think of this, the greatest message that is rejected.
Look at the text. What shall the end be of them
that obey? Not the gospel of God.
Underline the Word, the gospel of God.
Here's the message that they heard in Peter's day.
Here's the message that was proclaimed in their hearing and
proclaimed in your hearing. What is the message?
It's the gospel of God, and that phrase appears at least seven
times in the New Testament. I'm not going to give you all of
the references, but it's first of all revealed there in Romans.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God.
And it's mentioned here in first Peter 4 and 17.
What shall the N be of them that obey?
Not the gospel of God. I want you to think of these
words. The gospel.
The gospel, of course, is from the Greek word eugalion, which
means good news. It's a joyful announcement about
God's saving work in and through the person and work of His Son,
Jesus Christ. The gospel off God.
The word off is very important. You should underline it.
What does off mean? It has to do with the source of
this great message that the source and origin is it's the
gospel of God and primarily that means it's from God.
I have a message from God for you.
It belongs to God. It's produced by God.
It reveals the truth about God, what he has done and what he's
doing. It's an announcement, A joyful
announcement authorised by God. The Gospel of God is good news
that comes from God, that's produced by God, that belongs to
God and reveals what God is doing and what he has done.
It originates with him. It's not man me it it's not
something that has been invented by man.
I want to stress this. It's not connected to the
thoughts of even good man, certainly not connected to the
thoughts of angels. It's certainly not a message
that's been dreamed up and thought of by the church or any
scholar in any university or professor.
It's not even a message connected to Satan in any way.
It's the gospel of God. Let's think about the source of
the gospel. Let's think of the sum of the
gospel. You see, there's only one true
gospel message, the Gospel of God.
Notice the employment of the definite article, the Gospel of
God. Now I emphasise this, there's
not seven different gospels. I have spoke to some Christians
recently who told me that there's seven different gospels
and they rattle them off. The Gospel of the Kingdom and
the Gospel of God. The Gospel of the grace of God,
I want to tell you. The gospel of Christ, I want to
tell you. All of those are one and the
same gospel message, and they're emphasising different aspects.
The gospel of the Kingdom has to do with the reign and rule of
King Jesus in your heart and life.
The gospel of the grace of God. That's the spring of which God
deals with man. It's God's riches at Christ's
expense. The Gospel of God, as I've
emphasised, as from God it belongs to Him.
He authorised, he, he, He produced it.
It reveals the truth about what He is doing and what He has
done. The Gospel of the Kingdom in
Matthew chapter 423 is not different from the Gospel of God
in Romans One and one, or from first Peter 4 and 17, or the
Gospel of the Grace of God in Acts 2024.
It's all one and the same message, just different aspects
of it. It's not connected to the
message of men. It's not connected to the ideas
and philosophies of men. The source of the gospel, the
sum of the gospel. Think of the subject of the
gospel. This is one of my favourite
themes. Of course, in First Corinthians
chapter 15, Paul says in verse 3 For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how the Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was
buried. And he rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures. And that he was seen of ceasef,
then of the 12th. After that He was seen of above
500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained unto
this present. But some are falling asleep.
You see, when you analyse the Gospel, it centres in the
personal work of Christ, Christ's incarnation, Christ's
virgin birth, the fullness of time, Christ's sinless life,
Christ's attoning death and right Calvary.
It emphasises his person who he is saying he's not just a good
man and a great man and a gracious man.
He's the God man. Many people miss that greatest.
The mystery of God in his God was manifest in the flesh.
You were thinking about Emmanuel, which being
interpreted as what God with us. Think of his work Hebrews 10 and
12. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God on the ground of blood atonement.
Blood has been shed. Then there's a message of full
and free and forever pardon. Think tonight of the strength of
the gospel. Paul says this, for I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1st and
also to the Greek. For therein that's in the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as
it is written, the just shall live by faith.
The reference in verse 16 to the word power is the word dunamis,
from which we get the English word dynamite, the explosive
energy. And you see the Gospels, the
power of God unto salvation. And what does Ulster need?
The Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
It needs the gospel of God. This is a delivered message,
delivered once unto the seals. And as this message is
proclaimed in the Gospel, there's the call in the gospel.
There's power to cleanse the Sinner because the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all said.
There's power to change and transform a life.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
All things are passed away and all things become new and all
things are of God. It is power to comfort a soul.
You're in deep grief and pangs like some of these ones that
we've mentioned who have suffered tragedy and news about
the death of loved ones, especially the young.
It is power to counsel, because the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
what is it? It's the power of God, a power
that originates with God, a power that belongs to God, a
power that changes and transforms lives.
I remember 18 years of age kneeling down at a Roman
Catholic lodging house and Coleraine on a Sunday evening,
crying out to God and asking God to save me, a guilty hail
deserving Sinner. Up to that point I had no
thought and fear of God. Up to that point I had no
interest in spiritual things. I was only interested in wine
and women and so on. And then I was invited to a
gospel meeting. And in that gospel meeting I
heard the Gospel. John 10 and 10.
I'm come that you might have life and you might have it more
abundantly. I come under conviction.
That was on a Friday night and then on that Sunday evening
kneeling down at a Roman Catholic lodging house, can't
remember the time, probably near midnight and cried out God be
merciful to me. The Sinner didn't use those
exact words for didn't know them at the time and and that night I
passed from death unto life. That night I was born again of
God's spirit. That night I became a new
creature in Christ. We were singing in the hymn.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
You've heard this message, but the question is not have you
heard it? The question is, have you hated
it? Have you received this message?
Christ and crucified. See, the preacher's job is not
to preach about self. It's not even to preach about
the ceremonies and rites of the church.
Good as the church is as an institution, it's not the church
that saves. It's Christ.
Do you know anything of Christ's love, Christ's life?
Do you know anything of Christ's grace and mercy?
Do you know anything of Christ's justice and holiness?
Is is, is God not just in the justifier of him that believeth
in Jesus? Isn't it wonderful to know that
God imputes our sin to Christ and then Christ God imputes
Christ's righteousness to our account for he that is God hath
made him, that is Christ to be sin for us who you know, sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the strength of the gospel.
That's the greatest message that is rejected.
Notice very quickly the greatest mistake that is revealed.
If you go back to our text, it says, what shall the envy of
them that obey? Not the gospel of God.
Notice these words that obey not.
The greatest mistake that is revealed is they obey not.
What do they not obey? They obey not the call of the
gospel. You see, the gospel calls men
and women to do 2 things. Mark 1 and 15.
There's a call to repent. Repentance is sorry enough to
stop or to quit your sin. It's not a suggestion, It's not
something that's optional. It's the command of the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. It's not just a change in one's
thinking, it's a change in direction.
It's a change in lifestyle. It's a change in behaviour.
It's a change of heart. And part of that call is also to
believe for over there in Mark chapter 1 and verse 15, we read
these words and saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent thee and believe the
gospel. The word believe means to trust
and adhere to and rely on. And you've heard this message
loads of times. You've heard this call and yet
you've put it off. You've turned your back on it
and you've thought to yourself, well, I'm I'm too young now and
and you're not of course, because Jesus said suffer the
little children to come unto me and forbid them not for if such
is the Kingdom of heaven, maybe you are too busy.
But if you're too busy for God, then you are too busy.
If you proclaim that you're too sinful, I can tell you, you're
not for the vilest offender who truly believes that known from
Jesus a part it receives, you see, And it's not too late
because you're still in the day of grace and this was only the
last Sunday evening of 2025, and your life is in the hands of
God. And remember the dying thief as
he died. What news did he hear?
Today shall thy be with me in paradise?
Of course there was only one dying thief got converted.
The other died as he lived, which is sad, but there was one
who got saved on his deathbed so that we would not despair.
But don't pursue me upon a deathbed repentance because
there's very few real deathbed repentance.
Maybe you're saying, but I'm too old now, God wouldn't want me.
Doesn't matter what age you are, even a 70 or 80 year old or a 90
year old can come to faith in Christ.
The call of the gospel is to repent and believe.
And the greatest mistake that's revealed in this text is that
those who have not obeyed the call of gospel.
See, the wonderful message is that Christ can grant you a full
and free and forever pardon. All known sin, past, present,
and future can be forgiven under the blood.
You can have peace with God. You can have the peace of God in
the midst of trials and troubles.
To whom can you go in the midst of trial and trouble?
God can adopt you and His family, allow you to use the
family name. You can address God as Father,
no, Christ as Saviour, no, you're indwelt by the Spirit of
God. You can be an heir of God, a
joint heir with Christ. You can find in Christ a friend
indeed a shepherd in the Tain of trouble, many other wonderful
gifts, and it's all connected to John 3 and 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in them should not perish, but have
everlasting life. Have you tasted the power of
Christ? Have you tasted anything of his
love and truth, anything of his grace and mercy?
Have you, have you felt the power of the blood that's
applied? Obey not the call of the gospel.
That's a great mistake that's revealed.
Obey not the condition of the gospel.
What's the condition of the gospel?
Here it is, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me.
Him that cometh I will in no way he's cast out.
Didn't the Lord Jesus say? And here's one of my favourite
verses, Come unto me, all ye that labour under heavy laden,
and I will give you a rest. Come as you are.
You see, it's Christ that issues the call to repent and believe.
It's Christ that sets the condition.
What's the condition? Come as you are.
Come now. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Now is the day of salvation, not
tomorrow. We're not granted tomorrow.
Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for no man knoweth what a day
may bring forth. Let me ask you the question, why
not obey the call? Why not fulfil the condition?
Is there an answer? Well, in John chapter 3 and in
verse 19 we've got the words. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil.
See, some people love sin more than the Saviour.
They love sin more than their soul.
They love sin more than salvation.
And therefore they refuse to come to this person.
They they they refuse to come even on the basis of a promise.
They refuse to come and taste of His power, all because of a love
for sin. They would rather listen to the
voice of man than the Master. They'd rather listen to the
voice of self then the Saviour, rather listen to the voice even
of their own conscience rather than the voice of Christ.
And yet he stands and says, Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, I will give you a rest.
The greatest mistake that's revealed, obey not the gospel of
God. I want to finish with the guilty
mystery that is recognised. You know there's a solemn
disclosure here in this text. What shall the end be of them?
This is a question about the ungodly and the Sinner in
contrast. And if the righteous scarcely be
saved, what shall? Where shall the ungodly and the
Sinner appear now? The ungodly, as a person has
just deliberately left God out of their life.
They live without God. They've no love for God.
They've no real thought or regard for him.
In actual fact, they're also branded an enemy of God because
in the book of Romans, in Romans chapter 8 and verse 7, we read
this particular statement because the carnal mind is
anybody against God, for it is not subject to the law of God.
Neither indeed can be the reference here to the word
Sinner. You should underline it.
A Sinner is someone who falls short of the mark for all of
sinned. Romans 3 and 23 that that's the
past tense for all of sinned. When did all sin we sinned?
And Adam? Romans 5 and 12 wherever as by
one man sin entered into the world of death by sin, and so
death passed upon all men for that all of sinned, and we're
not worry of all sinned. But here's the rest of the text
in Romans 3 and 23 for all have sinned and have come short of
the glory of God. That's present continuous tense.
We've all missed the mark. You see, we're all born guilty
sinners. We've all fallen into a state of
sin and misery and Adam a bad record and a polluted heart
guilty and yet a heart with a bias towards sin, and we're all
constantly coming short. Can you imagine having a darts
match or a, let's say, a, an archery competition and we're
aiming for the bullseye and the bullseye is the one where you
get the special prize. And everyone of us who aims for
the bullseye are, are wide off. We don't even come close.
We're not even heading the archery board.
And how many of course, talk to God, talk to the preacher and
say, but I'm an honest person, I pay my taxes, I'm caned as a
neighbour, I give to charity, I'm loyal, I attend my church, I
have got my church. And all of that's true.
And they're sincere in what they're expressing.
But what they have is a high view of self.
They've never saw themselves as a Sinner.
They've never saw themselves as falling constantly short.
See, God has a divine standard, and not only have they got a
high view of self, but they've got a low view of God because
they know nothing of the holiness and justice of God.
And God's law is perfect and precise for life.
God's law is plain and powerful for life, and it reveals the
glory of God. You can't argue with it because
the law of God reveals what God requires of man.
What duty? Duty towards God.
The 1st 4 You're duty to your fellow man in the six that
follow. But how far short we fall, not
only because we don't really fulfil with a perfect
sinlessness what's required, but we also then fall far short
because we eagerly run and brace what is forbidden.
None of us have kept the law of God perfectly, but Jesus Christ
did. Only one man did, the second
Adam, and he did for all who would trust him as Lord and
Saviour. And to reject him is the height
of folly. On that day there'll be a
serious disclosure, the guilty misery that is recognised.
A serious disclosure. You've rejected the one who
could fulfil the meat, the standard of God and also a
solemn destiny. You see these words relate to
time as well as eternity. Over there in Second
Thessalonians, it talks there about the day of the Lord.
I read the passage as we conclude tonight, Paul says,
writing to the church at Thessalonica for the second
time. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with this mighty Angel. This is to do with the second
coming. And whenever he comes the second
time, he's not coming as Saviour, he's coming as judge.
Listen to these words first. See it in flaming fire, taking
vengeance in them that know not God and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's linked up to these words.
God in Christ is coming to take vengeance and all them that know
not God and haven't obeyed the gospel.
Remember the Lord Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew Chapter 7, He said, not everyone that saith to me, Lord
Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, this is the day of his coming,
the day of his return. Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, That's the preacher, and in thy name of
cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works.
Listen to this, and then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you depart from me ye that work inequity.
See, it's easy to profess his name.
But there's a difference between a professor and a possessor,
because a possessor has a hatred for sin and a love for
righteousness. Oh, not perfectly, but
passionately. Many profess to be his.
They make a claim, but they have a greater love for sin than the
Saviour. They have a greater love for
self than the Saviour. And you see, this is a
deliberate choice. This is not done out of
ignorance. Remember what Paul says in
Romans 1 and verse 28. And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God give them over to a
reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
They had a knowledge of God, but they didn't like to retain it.
They castaway the truth. They set the truth to the one
side, a deliberate action. They made many excuses.
A day of serious destiny being revealed.
Let me finish tonight over there in the Gospel of Matthew in
chapter 25. Whenever the Lord Jesus comes
back, he's going to separate individuals into two camps.
Listen to these words. Matthew 2531 When the Son of Man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.
And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep
from the goats, and he shall set the sheep in his right hand, but
the goats in his left. Then shall the king say unto
them, in his right hand Come, you blessed of my Father,
inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. Are you one of the Lord's sheep?
Can you say the Lord is my shepherd?
On which hand will you be the right hand of the left hand?
If you're one of his sheep, you'll be in the right hand.
But listen to this, what he said in the verse 41.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left, Depart from me, you
curse it in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. And they protested.
And he said, For I wasn't hungered.
And you gave me no meat, I was thirsty, and you gave me no
drink. I was a stranger.
And you took me not in naked, and you clothed me not sick and
in prison, and you visited me not.
Listen to verse 44. Then shall they also answer him,
saying, Lord, when we saw thee in hungered, or a thirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
unto thee? Then shall he answer them,
saying, Verily I say unto you, In as much as she did it not the
one of the least of these, He did it not to me.
Now let me make this clear. The Bible says He that believeth
hath everlasting life, and I believe that.
But the Bible also says do good to all men, especially they who
are the household of faith. And these actions and these
activities of visiting the sick and going into the prison and
feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, it's not the ground
of salvation. You're not doing it in order to
be saved. You're doing it as evidence that
you're born of God and you've got a new life in Christ.
And and just as God as a love for the lost, so do you.
The time for judgement had come, and how many want to block it
out? How many want to forget about
it? A day of reckoning and coming.
Where will the ungodly and Sinner be if judgement really
begins At the House of God? Do you plan to live and die and
sin? Do you plan to go to a loss
Christ less eternity? Do you really plan to be lost
for all eternity in this awful place called hell?
Do you want to be in Christ's left hand, branded a goat by the
Lord of mercy? Let's hear this great message.
Let's not make this great mistake.
Let's not fall into this guilty misery and recognise it for what
it is. Our time is gone, Thank you for
coming. Pray the Lord will bless His
word to our heart.