1 Pedro 4:3

DISCOURSE: 2405
A WORLDLY LIFE TO BE RELINQUISHED

1 Pedro 4:3. The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.

THE end of all God’s dispensations towards his people is to promote their advancement in righteousness and true holiness. The Lord Jesus Christ himself “was made perfect through sufferings;” and the afflictions which his people suffer, from whatsoever quarter they arise, are intended “for their profit, to make them partakers of God’s holiness.” The Lord’s people are “ordained to suffer,” in conformity to their Divine Master: and their great concern should be, not so much to get rid of their trials, as to make a due improvement of them, by “ceasing from sin,” and living more entirely to God, and for God. To this purpose the Apostle speaks in the verses before my text; and then adds, that the time past might well suffice to have lived after the manner of the Gentile world, whose ways it became them henceforth determinately to renounce,
From the words before us I shall take occasion to shew,

I. In what respects we also have wrought the will of the Gentiles—

The unconverted man, whether Jew or Gentile, is cast into the same mould, and, in the main, walks in the same paths. The nominal Christian also has the same views, the same desires, the same pursuits. In some external matters he may differ from the heathen: but in the most essential parts of his conduct he accords with them. He resembles them,

1. In an utter disregard of God—

[The heathen, of course, cannot regard God, because they know him not, nor are at all acquainted with his will. The nominal Christian has in some little degree the knowledge of his will; but he regards it no more than if he were utterly unacquainted with it. “He professes to know God; but in works he denies him.”
On this subject let me appeal to yourselves. It is, I confess, a heavy charge, to say that you have hitherto “lived like heathens.” But I would put it to your own consciences, and ask, What regard have you shewn for God’s authority? and, What desire have you manifested to obtain his favour? You have had in your very hands the means of knowing his will: you profess to believe that the Scriptures have been given you by him, on purpose to instruct you in the knowledge of him. Have you been thankful for this revelation of his will? Have you studied it with care, for the express purpose of learning how you might please and serve him acceptably? Have you turned away from every thing which his word forbids? Have you followed after every thing which his word enjoins? Have you embraced the whole of it as an infallible record, believing all that it reveals, and expecting with hope and fear the accomplishment of all his promises and all his threats? Have you, in short, “trembled at his word,” as it became you to do? I must further ask, Have you humbled yourselves before him for all your past transgressions? Have you fled for refuge to the hope set before you? Have you washed your souls daily in the blood of the Lamb, even in that fountain which was opened for sin and for uncleanness? Have you cried mightily to God for the gift of his Holy Spirit to sanctify you, and to transform you into the Divine image? Have you surrendered up your souls to God as living sacrifices, and accounted an entire dedication of yourselves to him your reasonable service? If you have not done this, wherein have you differed from the heathen; except indeed, that you have sinned against greater light and knowledge than they, and therefore involved yourselves in deeper guilt and heavier condemnation?]

2. In a determined prosecution of your own will—

[The character given of the Gentiles is, that “they lived to the lusts of men, and not to the will of God [Note: ver. 2.].” And what have you done? By what standard have you regulated your conduct? and whose will have you consulted? A decent heathen regulates himself according to the standard which the society in which he lives has established. Whatever they approve, he follows: and whatever would degrade him in their estimation, he avoids. And has it not been thus with you also? In whatever line of life you move, have you not conformed to the habits of your associates, accounting every thing innocent which they deemed innocent; and satisfied with yourselves, if you only satisfied them? Amongst the particular habits of the Gentiles, the Apostle enumerates “lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:” and do not these characterize the Christian world also? If we are free from open idolatry, we are guilty of it in our hearts as much as the heathen themselves: for whilst some “make a god of their belly,” and others are addicted to “covetousness, which is idolatry,” we all, in one way or other, “love and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is over all, blessed for ever.” As to all the other evils, it will be well if we have not been guilty even in the outward act: for “lasciviousness and excess of wine” are not such uncommon evils amongst us; but, granting that we have been free as it respects the act, have we abhorred the very thought of such evils, as we ought? Have we not, on the contrary, found pleasure in “revellings and banquetings,” and “such like,” without ever thinking that “they who do such things cannot inherit the kingdom of God [Note: Compare the words following the text with Gálatas 5:19.]?” Is it not a notorious fact, that this season of the year, which ought to be in a more especial manner consecrated to holy duties, is devoted to “revelling and banqueting;” precisely as if the Lord Jesus Christ had come unto the world, not to deliver us from sin, but to give us a licence to sin [Note: It would be well if those who speak of a merry Christmas, would inquire what is meant by “revellings, and such like.”]? But, whether we have indulged in these things or not, still the same charge must be reiterated against us; namely, that we have lived to ourselves, and not to God; and have made our own inclinations the rule of our conduct, instead of adhering to his commands. This is “the course of this world;” this is the line of conduct which characterizes without exception “the children of disobedience,” and the vassals of the wicked one [Note: Efésios 2:2.].

Say now, brethren, whether ye have not “wrought the will of the Gentiles;” or, in other words, whether ye have not lived like “atheists” and heathens [Note: ἄθεοι ἐν κόσμῳ, Efésios 2:12.]?]

Let me then proceed to shew you,

II.

That the time past may well suffice for such a course as that—

Let me put it to yourselves:

1. What benefit have you derived from this course hitherto?

[Have you found that the gratifications you have enjoyed have afforded you any solid satisfaction? You “have sown vanity; and what but vanity has been your recompence [Note: Jó 15:31.]?” St. Paul puts the question to us; “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed [Note: Romanos 6:21.]?” Has not the creature proved, what God forewarned you it would prove, “a broken cistern, that could hold no water?” You are come, I will suppose, to a season of great trouble, or perhaps of sickness and approaching dissolution. Now what consolation have you from all that ever you enjoyed? Can the remembrance of it comfort you? Can it assuage your pains, or administer support under them? Can it pacify a guilty conscience, or take away the sting of death? Can it gild your last scenes, and brighten your prospects in the eternal world? Alas! alas! have you not “spent your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not [Note: Isaías 55:2.]?” I will even suppose that you have possessed all that Solomon himself possessed, and revelled like him in every species of indulgence: what do you now find it all to be, but “vanity and vexation of spirit?” Is it not “high time, then, that you awake” from your delusions [Note: Romanos 13:11.]? After having so long “fed upon ashes, and been turned aside by a deceived heart,” is it not high time that you at last see, that “you have had nothing but a lie in your right hand [Note: Isaías 44:20.]?”]

2. What benefit do you expect to derive from it hereafter?

[If you follow your sinful course ever so long, do you expect that it will be productive of any more happiness than it has already been? Will the creature change? or the condition of man change? Or will God so change the whole course of nature, that you shall find in earthly things what is to be found in him alone? But, if such changes are not to be expected, what will be the issue of such a course at the tribunal of your God? Had you been Gentiles, it might be expected, if I may so speak, that you had lived like Gentiles; or at all events, you would then “be judged by such a law as you yourselves had lived under [Note: Romanos 2:14.].” But you were Christians; and had the law of God in your hands; yea, and the Gospel of Christ too: and therefore you shall be judged by the law, and by the Gospel, which you have so neglected and despised. I would that Christians would place themselves as at the bar of judgment; and bethink themselves, what will be their view of their present courses then? Will a life of carnal ease and indulgence, together with a neglect of God and of our eternal interests, be found so venial then? To have professed ourselves Christians, and have lived like heathens, will this appear so light a matter, as it is judged now to be? No verily: things will then be seen in their true colours; and the care of the soul will then appear to be, what it really is, “the one thing needful.”]

Application—

[If now you are not convinced that the time past is sufficient for such a course, I beg leave to ask, what time you will think sufficient? I presume you will not say, that the whole life is to be spent in such a way: I conceive that no one is so blind, but that he will acknowledge that God ought to be served at some time or other; and that, at some time or other, the concerns of the soul ought to occupy the mind. Even those who die by the hands of the public executioner confess, that some preparation is desirable for them, before they enter into the presence of their God. What time then will you agree to be sufficient to work the will of the Gentiles; and when will you account it reasonable to begin to fulfil the will of God? Will you say, twenty years hence; or, forty years hence? Such a period as that may surely be acknowledged latitude enough, even for the youngest amongst us. But, if you will go to those who have served the world and their own lusts for twenty or forty years, you will not find them at all more ready to turn to God, than they were the first moment that they entered on that course. On the contrary, the longer they have lived in sin, the more rooted are their lusts, and the more inveterate their habits: their consciences, too, are the more seared and hardened; and the more averse are they to be instructed in the way of righteousness. Besides, are we sure that so many years shall be added to our lives; or that, if they be, we shall be at all more disposed to serve God then, than we are at present? Are we sure that the Spirit of God, to whom we “do despite,” will not at last depart from us, and give us up to final impenitence?

Beloved brethren, be persuaded,—whatever be your age, be persuaded, I say,—that the time past is abundantly sufficient for the course which you have followed. And now, without any further delay, begin to “work the works of God.” Do you ask, “What is the work of God?” I answer, as our blessed Lord did, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent [Note: João 6:28.].” This is indeed the one great concern to which we should all attend. We are sinners, obnoxious to God’s wrath and eternal condemnation. But Jesus Christ is a Saviour: he is sent into the world on purpose to seek and to save that which was lost. Do ye then go to him; believe in him; implore mercy through him; cast yourselves upon him; and “cleave to him with full purpose of heart.” Let the time which you have spent in the neglect of him be redeemed; and your efforts be the more urgent, in proportion to the time which you have lost. As for the baptized heathens with whom you have associated, “come out from among them [Note: 1 Coríntios 6:17.],” and “no longer conform yourselves to their evil ways [Note: Romanos 12:2.].” They will, as the Apostle tells you, “think it strange that you continue not to run with them to the same excess of riot as you formerly did; and will speak evil of you on account of it [Note: ver. 4.]:” but be it so: if this be an occasion of grief to you, it should not be on your own account, but on theirs; for “they shall surely give an account to Him that is ready to judge both the quick and dead [Note: ver. 5.];” and “their hard ungodly speeches, which they have spoken against you” for his sake, will be visited upon them to their everlasting confusion [Note: Jude, ver. 14, 15.]. Mind you yourselves: seek the salvation of your own souls, whether others will attend to their souls or not. Do not ye perish in Sodom, because your relatives mock at your fear of God’s judgments [Note: Gênesis 19:14.]: neither linger in the plain, lest the storms of God’s vengeance overtake you: but be in earnest: and “whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might [Note: Eclesiastes 9:10.].”]