Are You Wasting Time You Don't Have?

Time feels endless until it doesn’t. We look at 1 Peter 4:1-11 and confront the reality that life is brief, opportunities close, and the “final buzzer” will eventually sound, which makes one question unavoidable: what are we doing with the rest of our time? In our Hope in a Hostile World series, we trace Peter’s logic from Christ’s suffering to our calling to live with His mindset, even when doing good brings pressure, criticism, or persecution.

We talk about why Christian growth is not passive waiting, and why Scripture urges us to “redeem the time.” From Psalm 39 to James 4:14, the Bible keeps pulling our eyes toward eternity, not to scare us, but to sharpen us. If we really believe Jesus is coming and eternity is real, then our days, choices, and habits should start lining up with what lasts.

From there, we get practical. We unpack a vigilant attitude toward sin, including how easy it is to get accustomed to darkness, and why remembering what sin did to Jesus changes what we tolerate. We also lean into a patient attitude toward unbelievers who think a changed life is strange, and we explain why arguing is rarely the point when people are spiritually blind. We also clarify 1 Peter 4:6 so it is not twisted into the idea of a second chance after death.

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Transcript

Foundations Of Truth Opening

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The Bible Dr. Timothy built your life of the uncharted outdates of God's works. Anchored in the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each week, Dr. Timothy Mann opens the Bible to prosperity, conviction, and encouragement for everyday life. Today on Foundations of Truth, we continue our series, Hope in a Hostile World. Here now is Dr. Timothy Mann.

Suffering For Doing Good

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First Peter, we're in chapter four today, and we're going to deal with the first 11 verses. We have indeed been called to the blessing of suffering as believers in a hostile situation sometimes and fiery trials that come our way and persecutions and difficulties. But it must all be ultimately for the reason of doing good, well-doing, not for doing evil. Verse 17, chapter 3, it said, For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. The example of Christ suffering, verse 18, down through verse 22 of chapter 3. And then chapter 4 continues that thought with a very important word that brings instruction to us now. And that word at the beginning of chapter 4 is what? Therefore, right. Based on the fact that it is God's will to suffer sometimes for well-doing. And because Christ is the prime example of that, the fact that the just died for the unjust, and now, therefore, chapter 4, verse 1, let's read now through verse 11.

Reading 1 Peter 4:1-11

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Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind or the same attitude. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past time, lifetime, in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious or sober minded, be serious and watchful in your prayers, and above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any one speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any one ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

Time Is Not On Your Side

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We're talking this morning about how to make the most of the rest of your time. The famous rock band, The Rolling Stones, had their first top ten hit in the mid-60s with a song entitled Time Is On My Side. Some of you know that and remember that, and you're dating yourself by knowing you heard that for the first time on the radio back then. Which the song is about his confidence that his girl, his love, would eventually come back to him. He just had to wait long enough. His perspective was that time was on his side. Well, the fact is that time is not really on your side. It's just not. Patience is indeed important. But passively waiting, passively waiting is not always the best approach to anything. As a matter of fact, the basketball team that is behind in the game has to make the most of their time. Why? Because eventually the final buzzer is going to sound. Time will run out. The same is true for us in many ways. Windows of opportunity pass. Doors close. Our days run out eventually. The Bible says in Psalm 39, verses 4 through 5, the Psalmist is writing, he says, Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is but a moment to you. At best, each of us is but a breath. James chapter 4, verse 14. James writes and asks this question. He says, For what is your life? It is even a vapor, a mist. It's kind of like a foggy morning that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. And so I know this to be the case when we're young. It seems like we have all the time in the world. That's why the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 16, that we need to make the most of every opportunity. The old King James and some of the other translations says it this way: Redeem the time. Make the most of every opportunity. Now the Apostle Peter had a great deal to say about time. Certainly, the awareness of his own impending martyrdom probably had something to do with this emphasis. Remember, Jesus had told him at the end of John, of the Gospel of John, basically, there's coming a time very soon that you're going to die for me. You're going to die for me. It'll be against your will in the sense of you're going to be led away and you're going to die. And so he's aware of this, and maybe his own impending martyrdom has something to do with this emphasis all through his letter here. But the fact is, if a person really believes in eternity, if you genuinely believe in eternity, then you're going to want to make the best use of your time. You're going to desire that. As believers, if you are indeed a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, if you are convinced that Jesus is coming, then we'll want to live prepared lives. Whether Jesus comes first or death comes first, we want to make the rest of our time count for eternity. And we can.

Four Attitudes For The Rest

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The Apostle Peter here, through the Holy Spirit, describes four attitudes for us that the follower of Jesus can cultivate in his or her lifetime, the rest of your time. If we desire to make our life all that God wants it to be. That's the purpose of our lives. That's why we're here. So what does this mean? Have the same mind as Jesus? Well, he tells us. The very first thing that's so important that the Apostle Peter mentions here, the right attitude is this.

Arm Yourself Against Sin

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We need to have a vigilant attitude, a vigilant attitude towards sin. A vigilant attitude towards sin. It says that in verses one through three. The picture here in verse one, he says, arm yourselves also with the same mind. That's a picture of a soldier who puts on his equipment and arms himself for battle. Our attitudes are weapons. They really are. And a weak or wrong attitude leads us to defeat. Outlook determines outcome. And even as a believer, a believer must have the right attitude if you're going to live the right life. If you're going to live life rightly, we have to have the right attitude. Sometimes when you go into a restaurant that has very dim lighting, you ever done that? Go into a restaurant that has very dim lighting. It feels like you need a miner's helmet to find your table sometimes, you know, if it's a dark place. But have you ever noticed that soon after you're seated for several minutes and you start looking at the menu, it's surprising how easily you can read it by that point. Why is that? Well, see, it really doesn't take us very long to get accustomed to the darkness.

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There's a sermon in that sentence.

Ministry Support And Sponsors

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If you've been fed spiritually through the teaching ministry of Dr. Timothy Mann, and these messages have helped challenge your thinking, strengthen your faith, or reminded you of God's faithfulness, would you help provide that same biblical nourishment for someone else? Please prayerfully consider becoming a financial partner today. You can give securely at foundationsoftruth.net. We're thankful for AMN Plumbing, a local ministry partner serving the Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Fort Orange, New Smyrna Beach, and surrounding areas with Dependable Plumbing Service. Their support helps make Foundations of Truth available to more listeners each week. Now let's return to today's message. Here's Dr. Timothy Mann.

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It

Enjoy The Will Of God

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doesn't take us very long to get accustomed to the darkness. It's easy, unfortunately, for believers even, to get accustomed to sin. And instead of having a vigilant attitude, which guards against it, we gradually get used to sin, sometimes without even realizing it. And the one thing that will absolutely hijack the rest of your time. Now, the Apostle Peter, in just these first three verses, presents several arguments, really several reasons why we should have this kind of attitude to guard against sin in our lives. The very first thing he does in verse 1, he says, we need to think of what sin did to Jesus. Think of what sin did to Jesus. He suffered in the flesh. He had to suffer because of sin. How in the world can we enjoy that which made Jesus suffer and die on the cross? How can we do that? I mean, if a if a violent, if a vicious criminal stabbed your child to death, would you preserve that knife in a glass case on your mantle? Of course not. That doesn't make sense. I doubt you'd want to do that at all. You'd never want to see that knife again. That's the last thing you'd want to remember. Our Lord. Our Lord Jesus came to earth to deal with sin and to conquer it forever. He dealt with the ignorance of sin by teaching the truth and by living it before men's eyes. He dealt with the consequences of sin by healing and forgiving. And on the cross, he dealt the final death blow to sin itself. He was armed, as it were, like it says in this passage, he was armed with a vigilant, even militant attitude towards sin, even though he had great compassion on sinners. And so our goal in life ought to be, as it says in verse 1, he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Our goal in life, as believers, ought to be to, to quote the Apostle Peter, to cease from sin. Now, we'll not reach that goal until we die or are present when the Lord Jesus returns, but that shouldn't keep us from striving toward that. It ought to be our goal, it ought to be our desire to cease from sin. Now, the apostle Peter here does not say that suffering of itself would cause a person to stop sinning. There's all kinds of good case studies in God's Word that shows that's not the case. I think of Pharaoh. Pharaoh in Egypt, he went through great suffering, didn't he? Through the plagues, and yet he sinned even more. But what the Apostle Peter is showing us here through the Holy Spirit is that suffering, that's the context of this, suffering plus Christ in our lives, can help us have victory over sin. That seems to be the central idea here that's being taught, like the very same one that's taught in Romans chapter 6. We are identity, we, if you're a believer, follower of Jesus Christ, we are identified with Christ in his suffering and his death, and therefore, because of that identification, we can have victory over sin. And what does that mean? That means as we yield ourselves to God and have that same attitude, same mind towards sin that Jesus had, we can manifest the new life and overcome the old life. We can manifest that. And so think how do I have this kind of vigilant attitude towards sin? Just think of what sin did to Jesus. That helps. Secondly, we need to enjoy the will of God. Verse 2 He should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God. You see the contrast here, right? The contrast is between the desires of men and the will of God. Now, the world and our flesh and Satan wants us to return to the same desires we used to enjoy. That's what they want. But the Holy Spirit says here the will of God is better. The will of God is better. And if we do the will of God, then we will invest the rest of our time in that which is lasting and that which is satisfying. But if we give in to the world around us, what's going to happen is we will waste the rest of our time and ultimately regret it when we stand before Jesus. The will of God is not some heavy burden that the Father places on us. It's just not. Rather, the will of God is the divine enjoyment and the divine enablement that makes all other burdens light. The will of God is what does that. The will of God comes from the heart of God. It's not just some kind of arbitrary, disconnected plan or purpose. No, the will of God comes from the heart of God, and therefore it is always, every single time, an expression of the love of God. And his other attributes as well. But in your life as a believer, the will of God is always an expression of the love of God. For a believer. We may not always understand what he is doing, sometimes more than others, we don't. But what we do know is this. What he's doing is what's best for us. We can know that in our lives. See, here's something that we forget as Christians, I think, and it's this we do not live on explanations, we live on promises. We want to live on explanations. God's not obligated to explain anything to you. He's not obligated to explain anything to me. What he gives us is his promises. And that's enough. That's more than sufficient. And so we live on promises, not on explanations. And so enjoy the will of God. That helps us maintain a vigilant attitude towards sin. I don't have to enjoy the lust of the flesh, I can enjoy the will of God. What else? What else helps me? Well, verse 3 says this you need to remember what you were before you met Christ. Remember what you were. Now I want to tell you there are times when looking back at your past life can be wrong. Why? Because Satan can use those memories to discourage you. However, God, in the Old Testament, he urged Israel to remember that they had once been slaves in Egypt. The Apostle Paul remembered all the time that he had been a persecutor of believers. And that encouraged him to do even more for Christ. And sometimes what happens with us, I think, sometimes the longer we live for the Lord, the longer we're saved, the longer we follow Jesus, sometimes we forget the bondage of sin and remember only kind of the passing pleasures of sin when we think back about those, you know, wild days or uh those days we lived a life before Jesus Christ. And uh I know some of us maybe didn't do that, and I'll touch base on it in a moment, but uh when you see this phrase, by the way, don't get tripped up on this, where it says in verse 3, in doing the will of enough time, uh doing the will of the Gentiles, or it might say pagans in another translation there. It literally just means the will of the world. Because what happens, and you know this to be the case, unbelievers imitate each other as they conform to the molds of this world. They imitate each other. That word lewdness and lust actually describes all kinds of fleshly appetites, not just sexual sins, revelings and drinking parties. That actually, in this particular context, it can mean a number of things to you just reading that, but in this particular context, it actually referred to pagan sexual situations where strong wine flowed freely. And of course, all of this would be a part of pagan worship since religious prostitution was an accepted thing. And it's interesting, even though those practices were forbidden by law, which that word abominable means that, that means illegal. They were often practiced anyway, and in secret. Now we look at this list and you might say, Well, I don't really, you know, that's not me. I never went down that road. Those were not things that I really engaged in ever to speak of. I've not been guilty of these same kind of gross sins in my pre-conversion days. Well, let me tell you something, it doesn't matter. It does not matter. That doesn't make you any better, that doesn't make me any better, that doesn't make us any more deserving of forgiveness or salvation. You're we're still sinners, we were still transgressors of God's law, and our sins help to crucify Christ, and it's foolish to want to go back. It's foolish. Just because you didn't experience that stuff, don't get all pious and self-righteous. You're a you're a rebel at heart. God has to change your heart. You just hid your stuff. It was all internal. It's true. It's true. So we need to maintain a vigilant attitude. If we're gonna make the most of the rest of our time, have to maintain a vigilant attitude toward sin.

Patience With Unbelievers Who Mock

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But not only that, the word of God goes on to teach us in verses four through six. We have to maintain a patient attitude toward unbelievers. A patient attitude toward unbelievers. He says, in regard to these, they think it's strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking of evil of you, but they'll give an account to him who is ready to judge the living in the dead. For this reason, the gospel was also preached to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. Now, here's the facts, and we we kind of forget this sometimes, and it's this unbelievers do not understand the radical change that takes that that their friends experience when they trust Christ and become children of God. They just don't get that. See, they don't think it's strange when people wreck their bodies. They don't think it's strange when people destroy relationships. They don't think it's strange when people ruin their lives by running from one sin to the other. But here's what happens: you let a drunk get sober, you let an immoral person change or any other number of things, and then what happens is the family and friends think they've lost their mind. You're getting fanatical, right? You become a religious zealot. He got religion. You know what? No, no, what happens? Jesus got him. Jesus got her, Jesus saved them. Festus told Paul, when when Paul was talking to Festus in Acts, he said, You're out of your mind. All this learning's made you crazy. You're nuts. Even people thought the very same thing of our Lord. Said he was mad. But we have to be patient toward unbelievers, even though, even though we do not agree with their view of life, or certainly we don't endorse their sins. Why? Because here's a spiritual, here's a theological truth, a doctrinal truth we all forget. And it's this unbelievers are blind to spiritual truth. They're blind to it. And not only are they blind to spiritual truth, they are dead to spiritual enjoyment because they have no spiritual life. That comes from the Holy Spirit, the regenerating work of God in their life. And in fact, here's the truth of the matter: our contact, our contact with unbelievers is important to them since we are supposed to be the bearers of truth to them that they need, that God will use as a means to awaken them and save them. And so, this ought to help us just a little bit. When unsaved friends or coworkers or family members attack us and criticize us, that's actually an opportunity. That's your opportunity. That's my opportunity to demonstrate patience and witness to them in love. That's our opportunity. To do that. And that unbeliever may indeed judge us, but one day the Bible says God will judge them. He will judge them. So what does that help me with? That helps me in this way. Instead of arguing with them, what I need to do is simply pray for God's mercy on them, knowing that the final judgment is God's. This was the attitude that Jesus took. Also the Apostle Paul. I have to be patient with unbelievers. That's the right attitude. Now, by the way, I need to tell you this just so you don't get fouled up, just in case you saw it and thought, what's that about? And in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 6, we must not interpret that passage apart from the context of suffering. Otherwise, we'll get the idea that there's some second chance for salvation after death. It says, for this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. It's all in the context of suffering. What does that mean? That means Peter here is reminding his readers of the Christians who already had been martyred for their death. They had been falsely judged by men, but now in the presence of God they're receiving their true judgment. And so where he says, them that are dead, that means them that are now dead. Them that are now dead right now, at the time that Peter was writing. So the gospel was preached already to those that are now dead, but the gospel is preached only to the living, and there is no opportunity for salvation after death. Settle that issue. Shouldn't even be a thought. And so you may have friends that are unbelievers, family, co-workers, whoever. They may speak evil of you, they may even oppose you, but the final judge is God. That's what the scriptures teach. The final judge is God. We may even someday have to sacrifice our lives in the midst of persecution, but God will honor us and reward us. He will. We must fear God and not men. While we're in these human bodies in the flesh, unfortunately, we're judged by human standards. That's just the nature of living here on planet Earth. While we're here in these human bodies, we're going to be judged by human standards. But one day we shall be with the Lord in spirit and receive the true and final judgment. That's what this verse says. So if I'm going to make the most of the rest of my days, however many days I have left, because time is not on my side, that final buzzer is going to sound one day. I need to have the same mind as Jesus Christ. A vigilant attitude toward sin. Patient attitude toward unbelievers.

Closing And Website Invitation

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Thank you for joining us today for Foundations of Truth. If you'd like to hear this message again or get more biblical resources or help support our ministry financially, join us online at foundationsoftruth.net. That's foundationsoftruth.net. Foundations of Truth with Dr. Timothy Mann is supported in part by Cat Care Clinic, located in Ormond Beach, and serving families with thoughtful and compassionate veterinary care for cats. We're grateful for their partnership in helping carry biblical truth farther. Foundations of Truth with Dr. Timothy Mann is supported in part by Luther Rice College and Seminary, equipping men and women for ministry through biblically faithful theological education. As a leader in online learning, we are grateful for their partnership in helping carry biblical truth farther. We're thankful for AMN Plumbing, a local ministry partner serving the Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Fort Orange, New Smyrna Beach, and surrounding areas with Dependable Plumbing Service. Their support helps make foundations of truth available to more listeners each week.