Right Conduct: Judgement Is Coming Series

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NORTH PINE BAPTIST CHURCH

Sunday 31st August 2025

1 Peter 4:7-19

“Right Conduct: Judgement Is Coming”

I have attended many funerals, and I have also been the celebrant at many funerals.

An interesting dynamic that happens at funerals is that the people attending the funeral usually want to be told the person who has died has gone to heaven. They want this to be the case even when the ones who have died were real ratbags and mongrels when they were alive.

At one funeral the widow had picked 2 Corinthians 12:7 as the verse for the message. 2 Corinthians 12:7 is not a verse that commonly gets requested at funerals so I will put the text up on the screen.

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

The man being buried had been in church for decades, he had been an elder, and there was a testimony that he was a follower of Jesus.

But he was also not a very nice person.

Which explains how we end up with a widow asking the preacher to focus on 2 Corinthians 12:7.

Which the preach did.

The preacher also reminded everyone attending the funeral the words that Jesus spoke to Paul only 2 verses later.

9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

(2 Corinthians 12:7)

It was the grace of Jesus that made it possible to have the hope that, even this man

… who his widow thought was a thorn in the flesh, and a messenger of Satan, and a tormenter.

… even for this man Jesus was a Saviour full of grace.

The significance of this hope reveals itself in all manner of situations.

Today, as we continue working our way through Peter’s letter, we are going to consider the significance of this hope as it relates to the eternal destiny of those who do not know Jesus.

We read these verses last week.

3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

1 Peter 4:3-5

There is a judgement. There is a reckoning. We will have to give an account before God.

This life is not the be all … and then end all.

This life as we know it will end … but there is more to come in the after-life.

A few verses later Peter leaves us with no doubts about this reality that everyone faces.

1 Peter 4:7

7 The end of all things is near.

The end will come. The accounting … the judgement … will take place. As a result of the judgement every person will be experiencing one of two outcomes. One of those after-life outcomes is described in Revelation 20:11-15

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

It is common to describe the place where unredeemed people go after they die as hell.

Hell is a destination, but it is not the final destination.

The precise description of the ultimate destination is the lake of fire.

15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

They are thrown into the Lake of Fire along with death and Hades.

Hades is what we would call “hell”.

Hades is the place where Satan is the highest authority.

After the judgement Hades also gets through into the lake of fire – along with death.

The lake of fire is the final destination for the unredeemed. It is a real place that comes with real consequences which are to be feared.