Be Diligent to Supplement Yo..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. And we are going to continue with our study by his grace and by his mercy on the second letter of Peter on precisely on the topic of growing spiritually, growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we have been addressing for the last couple of weeks.

And we are going to continue to do it for the next couple of weeks. And we hope that the Lord might help us, illuminate us and empower us. to see through his word and through the Holy Spirit, his desire for the church that we might grow in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that this series is part of addressing chapter three, verse 18, in which the apostle calls us in the final instruction to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom belong all the glory. And as we are doing so, we're going to be analyzing, or better, studying together.

That is a word that I use with my students, not at church. Studying and meditating together here, chapter one, verse five and six. And this afternoon, beloved brothers and sisters, I want us to study together and meditate together on the topic of self-control. You see that there in verse six in chapter one of second Peter, the apostle says that to knowledge we are to add self control. We are studying together each one of those virtues given to us in that list, starting from verse five, that we are to add to our faith, virtue and to our virtue, knowledge and to our knowledge, self control.

So we have spoken briefly about growing in grace, and we have spoken about faith and virtue and knowledge. And this afternoon, by God's grace, we are going to be speaking about self control, the virtue of mastering your passions. the virtue that is vital for growing in conformity to Christ, in which we assume that we master our desires, that we master the passions of our flesh. That is what we are going to be doing this afternoon by God's grace. And brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ, dear soul, I'm going to invite you by the grace of our savior, Jesus Christ, to read his word.

Chapter one, from verse one to verse 11, Let's get the immediate context of what we're going to be discussing this afternoon, and then we're going to be paying attention to this topic of self-control. So let's read together the first 11 verses of this chapter 1. And may the Lord bless us as we do it. That we might do it by faith, not in the flesh, but we might do it in the Holy Spirit, by grace, in the faith of the Son, Jesus Christ. So this is 2nd Peter, Chapter 1, verse 1 through verse 11.

This is the word to the Lord. Simeon of Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control. And self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours, are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that is the word of the Lord. Amen. May he bless us as we speak.

And as you hear, beloved of Christ, as I said, We continue with this very important series of studies and sermons from this pulpit about growing in conformity to Jesus Christ or spiritual growth. There's no other more important purpose for the life of the Christian, for your soul, beloved of Christ, that to become like the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the purpose of our salvation. We have been saved by grace through faith so that in union with Christ, we will die to self and we will become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Another way to see a spiritual growth is to see it from the point of point of view of death.

growing spiritually, is dying to self, so that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ will be in us, and that he will be enthroned in our hearts, and that the fruits of the life of Jesus Christ will be producing more and more of him in us every day, so that when we die, and we are taken up to glory, or when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, he will fulfill his promise, that he, the one that started a good work in us, will bring it to completion. He will do that. He will complete the work that he has started in you. But he has called us from our perspective to grow spiritually, according to the words of Peter, in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, a very important topic and a very important matter for the heart of the believer. And last week, I was trying to encourage your soul by giving you different reasons why Christians should pursue spiritual growth, why we as a church, why we as believers, as simple saints should pursue spiritual growth or conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I said to you that one of the primary, perhaps the primary reason is to bring glory to the father. There is no genuine believer that by having the spirit of Jesus Christ in him or her will not desire to God to have greater conformity to Jesus Christ, namely to bear fruit. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ says in John chapter 15, that the Father will receive glory by us bearing fruit, the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ in us. But I don't want us only to think about the glory of the Father. I also wanted to point your heart to the necessity and the need of mutual edification.

We have been called not only to love God, but we have also been called to love one another. And one of the ways that we manifest our love for our brothers and sisters is not only being concerned for their spiritual growth, but also growing personally so that we will be instruments in the hands of Jesus Christ for the edification of those who are seated around us. It is for the glory of God, but it's also for the edification of the church. The church is a body that is meant to be united on that is supposed to operate collectively. I church is not going to grow in Christ likeness collectively.

If the individual members are not growing spiritually, we can have a convocation of religious people that come on a Sunday to do a particular thing just to tick a box and to appease their consciences far away from the desire of Jesus Christ for his church. So we are to be very careful, just being seated in a chair, just preaching sermons, just going through motions, and just doing religious things that do not correspond to the will of the one who died upon the cross 2,000 years ago. So it is for the glory of God, and also for the edification of his bride, the one whom he loved. And we are also called to love just as he loved her. But also, beloved of Christ, so many reasons that the scriptures gives us.

And this afternoon, I want to point your attention to this one fact, that the scripture says that without faith, it's impossible to please God. Peter outlines in this first chapter the way that our faith is to operate and the way that our faith is to grow. By growing spiritually in Christ likeness, we please the God of this universe. the one who created all things, the one that is not taken by surprise by anything, the one whose emotions and whose heart are set, the one whose mind knows it all, and the one whose eyes sees it all, is pleased by the faith of a redeemed sinner like you. When you die to self and by the virtue of the Spirit, there is faith in your heart.

The one who created all things according to the scriptures is pleased. We ought to believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Without faith, beloved of Christ, it's impossible to please God. And we ought to desire to please the one who saved us, the one who redeemed us, the one who is our father, the one that is our creator, the one who sustains us. If little children desire to please their parents in little things that they do, how much more we are not going to want to please the one that is not only the creator of heaven and earth, but is also our father.

So, beloved of Jesus Christ, brother, sister, friend, dear soul, that the Spirit of God might give you indeed the desire to die to self and to grow in conformity to Jesus Christ for the glory of the Father, for the edification of the Church, and for the pleasing of the one who loved you and gave his son so that by his spirit you will be eternally united to him because there is joy in the heart of God when the people of God are walking according to his commandments and becoming more like the person of Jesus Christ. And each one of the virtues that we have in this list here in first Peter chapter one contribute to the purpose of policing our Lord. And this afternoon we're going to be dealing with self control. self-control. And as I said to you, this is kind of like a chain, just like our brother just sent us through the group.

It's a change of different virtues, that they are connected to each other, and that they belong to each other, and that they bring this growth to our faith. It's very important for me that we may be absolutely clear about certain matters before we proceed and we speak about self control. So be with me, beloved of Christ, before we start with what we're going to be addressing this afternoon. Pay attention to the list of virtues that you have there in verse five through seven. It says that we are to make every effort to supplement our faith.

That is your faith. As a Christian, you have a faith that when you were saved, you were given this faith by God. You were saved by and through this faith. And now the apostle through the spirit speaks of these different virtues, seven of them. Virtue is the first one.

Knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. The apostle calls us to add to our faith all of those virtues progressively in the order that is given in scripture. First thing that you need to remember and be clear about this, these virtues that we have in front of us, in a sense, are qualifiers of a genuine salvation. Once a person is genuinely saved, not by religion, not by Western Christianity, not by just traditions of men, but once a person is genuinely saved by the glorious visitation of the Spirit of Christ, then that person receives a measure of all of these virtues. If not, go and ask John in 1st John, and you will see how he speaks of many of these things as qualifiers of genuine salvation.

So what we are preaching from this pulpit is not that you will have this, but rather that you will grow in these virtues. Because the life of Christ that has been given to you from the moment in which you were generally saved, gave you all of these things, good works. Because James says that without good works, your faith is dead, that there is no faith. Knowledge, you receive knowledge through the gospel. Self-control, you repented of your sins and you turned from ways that you loved to turn to the person of Jesus Christ.

The steadfastness and godliness and brotherly affection and all of these things that we're going to discuss together were given to the genuine saint upon conversion. What we are calling from this pulpit is to grow in them, that we are to continue to grow in virtue and in knowledge and in self-control, because these ones are qualifiers of us. Second thing that I want to mention, and this is in what virtue? Virtue we are to understand as good works. And I know that because of the nature of the gospel that is purely by grace through faith, sometimes we are a little bit, we'll find a little bit of difficulty speaking about good works.

But beloved of Christ, good works for the saints were prepared before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus for the saints. So we are to be diligent, knowing the flesh, but by the spirit for good works, good works for the lost and how much more for those of the household of faith. The apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter five that we are to do good to everyone. Right? Especially to those of the household of faith.

Virtue is good works that reflect, if you want, the glory of God in an earthen vessel for the testimony of the workings of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowledge, beloved of Christ, knowledge. Knowledge, I said to you, is this certainty that abides where? In the heart. Knowledge, I said to you last week, is the certainty that abides in the heart, that is the result of hearing by faith the word of God through the scriptures and that will move you to action.

This knowledge, it is in your heart and it moves you to action. Any understanding of knowledge, biblically speaking, that does not move a Christian to do It's not biblical knowledge, but rather knowledge that pops up. This type of knowledge, beloved of Christ, is the one that defines your conscience. Your conscience defines what you do, and your conscience is defined by your understanding of biblical things. So the more that you grow in understanding of the scriptures, the more that you will know the will of God, and the more that your conscience will act according to what is written.

And that which is unrighteous, according to the scripture, then it will be naturally unrighteous to you because you're becoming more and more like the person of Jesus Christ. I also said that it's important that we respect each other consciences because freedom of what we do gives or it is stated or is contained in the conscience of the person, according to Romans chapter 14. Of course, that doesn't mean that we are going to allow the sin of our brother or our sister just because it is OK with their conscience. We are to be like the Levites when it comes to truth. to take the sword and upon the commandment of the Lord bring the judgment of God even upon those whom we love.

Because there's no other more loving thing to do than to address sin and unrighteousness according to what is written. According to what is written, not according to our perception of what is written, but submitting each other to what is contained in the scriptures. If we know those simple truths, not in the head, but by the Holy Spirit, then we have done well in the grace of the Savior. Now, this afternoon, I'm going to point you to the following of those virtues, and that virtue is the virtue of self-control. It is not only a virtue that is important according to Peter for spiritual growth, but according to the Apostle Paul, is a vital element of the Christian faith.

You remember that in Acts chapter 24, Paul was summoned to preach the gospel to Felix. Remember that? And then Felix wanted to hear the preaching about Christ and the faith of Christ from the mouth of Paul. And Paul, the scripture says, spoke about three things. Righteousness, self-control, and the second coming of the Savior.

Righteousness in the gospel, self-control and the second coming of the Savior. Two of those elements we acknowledge the importance of them. Righteousness as it is in the cross and the second coming of the Savior. But in his preaching, Paul spoke of self-control. And we are told by the scriptures there in Acts chapter 24 that he trembled.

that he was afraid when Paul, by and in and through the power of the Holy Spirit, opened his mouth in Jesus Christ to speak of righteousness, self-control, and the judgment that is to come in the second coming of the Savior. He departed there, Paul, and he left Felix with a heart that was hardened, that even though these depths of wisdom of the gospel had been preached unto him, then because there was no grace upon him, he remained dead in his trespasses. Self control, beloved of Christ, mastering our passions, mastering our desires. This is what we're going to be covering and speaking about this afternoon. Now, as we usually do, we're just going to do it in a very simple way.

So the only two things or a couple of things that I want us to do, beloved of Christ, is to take that concept or that topic of self control and we are going to speak biblically and speak about the definition of self control and then briefly and depending on the time and how we managed to progress through that, we will see the relationship of self control to the previous virtue that we're supposed to act self control onto, which is knowledge, the text says in verse six and knowledge with self control. So that is that we are to supplement our knowledge will self control with self control. So we are going to do only those two things. We're going to speak biblically. about self control.

And once we understand self control deeper and better, we're just going to see the relationship that is supposed to have with knowledge, as we have discussed it briefly. So, beloved of Christ, as I said to you, my desire and my goal is that we will not be doctrinal only, but that we will be as practical as possible. My desire, and I hope the desire of the Spirit, is that we will be encouraged and empowered and strengthened, not only on the Lord's Day, just to agree with statements, doctrinal statements, and with big words, but rather to be empowered in the heart to live our Christian faith. that you may know by the scriptures and by his spirit what how to relate to the Lord tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, when you are tempted, when you're in difficulty, when your brother or sister is not around you, when you are in the secret place, when you are confronted with your passions. That is the goal of the church.

That is the goal of preaching. That is the goal of the coming together. That is the goal of brothers and sisters, so that we may not be wasting our time, that we may not be wasting our time only in speaking and preaching, because I'm preaching to myself also, but also beloved of Christ, that you may take heed how you hear, that you may take heed in your heart how you receive the word. Self-control, our duty this afternoon by the grace of God. How are we going to understand self-control?

In the same way that I tried to give you a simple definition last week about knowledge so that at least we have it in our mind, I'm going to attempt to do the same this afternoon so that we will work with that definition and see how it is in the scripture, and I hope that we will remember not only with our heads but also with our hearts. Beloved of Jesus Christ, self-control is a spiritual gift. It's a gift of the spirit that empowers you to abstain from the passions of your flesh. As simple as that, self-control is not something that you do even of yourself, but self-control is a spiritual gift is given from above. And this gift of the spirit to your soul is with a purpose that you will be empowered to abstain from the passions of your flesh.

And as you can see here, we have these three elements in that definition. The first one is that is a spiritual gift, is that the spirit of God gives that to the saints. And the purpose of that gift to the saints is that you will be empowered to refrain, empowered to not to follow if you want, empowered to refrain from the passions that are within your being. the desires that are within you. And as you can see from that definition, the most important element that will help us to understand those three things of that definition is the passions of your flesh.

the passions of your flesh. We will not understand self-control if we do not know what is that that we have to control. The scriptures implicitly assume that we are to control something, in this case, self. And I've said that that self is the passions of your flesh. So it is mandatory, I think, and I hope, and necessary for us that we will meditate together and understand the passions of the flesh first, so that by understanding the passions of the flesh, we will know how is that we are empowered to abstain from those through the gift that is given from the spirit.

Why? Because self-control is a spiritual gift that empower the Christian or empower the Christian to abstain from the passions of the flesh. Now, what are then the passions of the flesh? Many times the scripture changes that word, the passions of the flesh, from the desires of the flesh. The lust sometimes of the flesh.

And there's perhaps a very good passage that is going to help us to understand, first of all, just the general definition of what the passions of the flesh are. And that is contained in Romans chapter seven. So I'm going to invite you there so that we can see it together in Romans chapter seven. I'm going to be referring you to a few scriptures, I don't know, perhaps 5 or 10, something like this tonight, depending on how the Lord allows us and how I can discern that in your faces. But be with me, beloved, be with me.

Romans chapter seven. I want us just to see together now the definition from the scriptures, what the passions of the flesh are. Chapter seven of Romans here. The apostle is speaking in a very particular way. He's going to speak about a type of experience that understanding that particular experience is not so important to us now, as it is the principle that he is going to give us in verse seven and verse eight.

He says in verse 7 in Romans chapter 7, What then shall we say? That the law is seen? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would have not have none seen. For I would not have known what is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet.

But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment, now pay attention to this, sin produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Here we have not only the very important word that is used through the New Testament to speak of the passions of our flesh, to the desires of our flesh, but here the apostle puts that word in a perspective that is going to help us to understand the nature of your passions. I'm not speaking to the air. I'm not speaking about my passions.

I'm speaking about your soul's passions that, you know, I don't need to prove that you have. The word that the Apostle used there to speak of these desires of the flesh, of this lust of the flesh, or these cravings, if you want, of the flesh is the word that is given there in the end of verse eight, when it says that seem producing me all kinds of covetousness. The sin in which I was born produces in me all types of covetousness. And those covetousness, those desires, those cravings, according to what the apostle says, are contrary to the law of God. And hence they are produced from sin and they produce sin.

Beloved of Jesus Christ, the passions of your flesh are not other than unrighteous cravings, unrighteous desires, unrighteous desires of your heart that are produced by the sin in which you were born. Now, beloved, these are not only abstract passions. When I say passions, when I say feelings, when I say desires, you are to testify to your own conscience that indeed they are passions, that they burn from within, that you can feel them from within, that your heart, your soul, your being is at times drawn and tempted to do things that are contrary to the righteousness of God. And it's not only that you're tempted, but that you feel that you're drawn and that you're moved because it's a desire, it's a passion from the very being of a person that is produced by the scene in which you were born. No human being who has been born under heaven and on earth has escaped or has the power to escape to the passions of the flesh, because we have all been born in union with Adam.

And in this union with Adam, we have received the unrighteousness of Adam and been born in sin, having passions and desires of the flesh that are unrighteous is the norm. The one that is outside of Christ is completely enslaved to the desires of the flesh. The one who is outside of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ has no other option than to obey these cravings, these unrighteous desires that are within his or her soul. But thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ, that when he came, and when he fulfilled the requirements of the law, and he fulfilled the requirements of the Father for his church, and when he died upon that church, upon that cross for the church, Then He did not only make a way to save us, but also, as we have said many times, He rescued us from the penalty of sin. And He has promised us that He's going to remove the presence of sin.

And now He has empowered us to have victory over the power of sin. Because, beloved of Jesus Christ, even though a person has been saved because of the presence of sin and because of the remaining power of sin in us, in you, then you still have passions of the flesh, desires of the flesh, cravings of your being that take you, move you to desire things that are contrary to the will of the Lord. that inside of you there is a battle between the spirit that has indwelled you and also the remaining sin that is in you to the point that you even feel sometimes those desires of your flesh. And I don't know, beloved of Christ, if this is your case, and I hope that it is. Once a Christian desires to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a sense in which there is a frustration from within, in which we are battling and struggling at times with the passions that are so ours and that belong and that are within us.

This is meant to be a holy battle between the work of the Spirit in us and the flesh that still remains. That we have the hope and the promise that by abiding in the person of Jesus Christ, we have not only been given the possibility to overcome the power of those and the strength of those desires or passions, but also that we can indeed overcome them. So it's very important, beloved of Christ, that we understand that. And it's very important that we are aware of the reality of those passions and those desires of the flesh that are within us. What a blind person we would be, what people would be if we think that there is no passions within us, that there is no desires contrary to righteousness, there are no desires contrary to the law of the Lord.

That is what the passions of the flesh are. But there are three very important things that I want to show you from the scriptures so that you will understand deeper and better the passions of your flesh. that you will understand the seriousness of those passions that are within your heart, that you will understand the problem and the difficulty of these emotions and these feelings that are within the soul of the Christian, that you will understand better this moment of temptation, that you will understand better this moment in which we might feel frustrated and in difficulty and powerless when it comes to do that which is right, that we might not have this controversy in our hearts in which we know that which is right, that we don't understand why in us there is this power that is taking us to the thing that is contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is my desire for my soul, not speaking as one who has obtained it, but rather who is very far away from it. I want us to know deeper from the scriptures how what is the power of these passions of yours and these passions of mine so that we will be empowered by the truth of the scripture and by the Holy Spirit to overcome them.

and to grow spiritually. Three things that I want to point you to, and it will be good for your soul if you pay attention to the scriptures that I'm going to be pointing to, and even stretching these things up in your heart so that you will be empowered and armed and you have everything that you need to battle against those passions. Three things that I want to show you. First one, I want to show you the internal power of the passions of your flesh. The passions of your flesh are powerful.

And the power of those passions is, in first instance, internal. That is, that is inside of you. That is in your heart. That is in your soul, in your being. Whatever word you have in your mind to describe the core of who you are, that is where the power of passions abide.

Think about the passage that I'm going to point you to because there is only one passage that speaks about that power in a very clear way. That is found in James chapter one. So go there in your Bible to James chapter one, please. James chapter one. Let's read carefully, brother, sister, dear soul.

Let's read carefully chapter 1 verse 12 through verse 15. I want now to speak about the internal power of the passions of the flesh, the power that is inside of these desires, cravings, emotions. And that's how my English vocabulary goes to describe that. James chapter one, verse 12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast on the trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised or God has promised to those who love him.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. Now, brother, sister, this scripture is going to speak to you about an experience that you experience every day, that I experience every day. temptation to sin. So the scripture says in verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. Why?

For God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. But now we pay attention to verse 14, because here we are going to see the internal power of your desires. We're going to see the internal power of your passions, not your righteous desires like eating or loving, not the righteous things, but the unrighteous cravings of the flesh. Verse 14.

But each person is tempted. When? When he is lured and enticed. By what? By his own desire.

And then he gives us the next step. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, brings forth death. My beloved soul, brother and sister, the Scripture has just outlined for us the process of death. Paul very correctly says in Romans chapter 6, verse 23, that the wages of sin is Death.

But James is taking the process of arriving and approaching to death even deeper into the heart. And that he says that we are tempted, that temptation happens when we are drawn, when we are enticed, when we are lured by our own desire. And then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. So we have something like this, brother, sister, and friend, that in your heart, by virtue of being born in Adam, by virtue of existing, by virtue of just being, my daughter, who is only seven, eight, nine, perhaps more weeks old. I forgot the number of weeks.

She's just a little three months old. Now I remember, three months old. It does not matter that she does not know how to speak. It does not matter that she's just developing the way of thinking and the way that she perceives things. In her soul, just by virtue of having been born in Adam, she has, because of the presence of sin, passions of the flesh.

And according to James, the passions of the flesh are what take us to temptation, because we are tempted when we are drawn away from our own desire. And when this desire has conceived in temptation, produces sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, produces death. Beloved of Jesus Christ. That is the internal power of your passions.

That is the internal power of your desires. That the desires that we have in our heart can move us to not only be tempted, unfolding the temptation, but it produces sin. And that sin produces death. That is the normal workings that happen in the heart. You have not seen when you have been tempted, but rather you've seen when that temptation has been done or accomplished, if you want.

Because when you fall into that temptation, then sin is produced and sin brings death. Of course, the Bible implicitly speaks that we are able to put down, to suppress the passions that are within our heart so that we will not fall into the temptation and that we will not commit the sin that is bringing us to death. But that is what takes place in your heart. Now, I want to point you to something that is actually more important than this statement that I have just made. And that is that I want you to see the personal aspect of these passions.

It says, verse 13, but each person is tempted. when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then when desire has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. Pay attention to that when he says, when he is lured and enticed by what? By his own desire.

Brother, sister, and friend, yes, we all have been born in Adam. Yes, we all are fallen in him. Yes, we are all partakers of the unrighteousness of the fallen humanity. Yes, sin dwells in us. But when it comes to the practical workings of our sin, our sin corresponds to your own desire.

to your own personal affection of your flesh. And even though we all see and might be tempted by similar things, the ways that passions operate in your soul is so individual and so particular to you. That's why you have some saints struggling with one sin and having some saints struggling with another sin. And then sometimes even when you have saints and believers struggling in the same type of sins, you will see that the passions and the desires of the heart of that particular person will be unique to him and to her. How are we going to control something that we do not know what it is?

How are we going to know what takes us into a temptation that is fully consummated, that makes us sin and sin brings death? When we understand passions in a general sense, when we understand the desires and the cravings, unrighteous cravings of our soul in a simple general sense, or many times where we just simply do not want to pay attention to these cravings and to these desires of our heart, but rather just continue moving through our life. If we are going to control that which needs to be controlled, then the person needs to know their own passions. Not that we are going to be consumed by searching our hearts and going crazy with the emotions of our heart, but we ought to know that which we are to defeat, because the passions of your heart are yours. Now, one would ask the question, then, why do I have these passions in my heart?

Why do I struggle with these things that my brothers and my sisters seem not to struggle with? Why am I having so much of a difficult time struggling with this scene, with this thought, perhaps not even a scene that is utterly committed or that is utterly seen by others? But why would I? Why would I struggle with this particular passion of my heart? And even as I speak, perhaps some of you can even point to one of those passions of your heart.

Well, we could say that it's just because the type of life that we have lived, that is because of, you know, the country in which I was born and the type of family that I had and the type of scenes that my parents allowed me just to fall into and the things that I did when I was a teenager. And because the Lord did not save me when I was five or 10 or 15, and the Lord allowed me just to be 26 years. as a lost person, and then all of those things that I lived and I experienced are now the many things, the very, very things that many times will jump into my mind. and then just tempt me. The many things that I did and that I saw and that I experienced, that I touched, that I taste, are the many things that at times, even in the holy presence of the Lord, will come into my mind, will break into my heart, to deviate me from the presence of the Savior.

One could say all of those things, and in saying all of those things, beloved of Christ, one could easily get frustrated. Oh, Jesus, why didn't you save me when I was five? Why? My parents were not Christians. Why was not saved in a country where the gospel, the genuine gospel was available?

Or even as becoming a Christian, Lord, why did you allow me to be in that church or in that place, on that place? Why did you allow me to fall into those sins? Why did you allow me to backslide in that particular way? And if we were just going to reduce down the situation to that beloved, then we will be fleshly frustrated. Let me tell you something.

And the Bible says that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Those who are called according to his purpose, even the things that the Lord allowed in the life of the saint before they were saved. Our Christian is in the hands of the Savior from the very moment that he is conceived, united to Christ before the foundation of the world and the holy and perfect providence of God, allowed in a sense, a very ultimate sense, that we will be born in the family, that we will be born, that we experience the things that we experience, that we struggle with the things that we struggle, that we seem even in a particular way So that at a particular point in which he desired and decided to save us, he saved us. Nothing was outside the purpose and the sovereign control of God, even the life, your life before you became a Christian. But the question remains, so then why do I have?

Why did the Lord allow me to have these particular passions? Why? I can see brothers and sisters and people in the church that have just overcome those things so easily, and I'm still battling 15, 20, 25, 30 years as a Christian, and I'm still tempted by these things. And not only tempted, but I don't even have victory sometimes of those things. Let me just point you to a practical example, and then we will give the answer to that.

Go with me to 1 Thessalonians, please. First Thessalonians. Why would the Lord allow these things to happen to the life of a saint? First Thessalonians chapter one. Before we read the text, if I was going to ask you, you don't have to answer it, you can answer it if you want.

But if I was going to ask you, what is the sin that characterized the people and the church in Thessalonica? I don't know. You may know it. You may not know it. But I'm just asking this.

What is the scene? What is the type of life that characterized the people in Thessalonica that then became Christians? We find the answer to that in verse 9 of chapter number 1. It says, 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, speaking of the good report that the people in Thessalonica had. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you.

And how? Pay attention to that. You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. The people in the church in Thessalonica had been rescued from what? From idolatry.

They were idolaters. Now, idolatry is not like the contemporary perception that we have of idolatry of Catholics going to a Catholic church and worshiping Mary, which is wicked and is horrible. But idolatry in the first century, even if you simply remember when we went through the book of Acts, it was a horrible practice that will bring with it not only the worship of idols and the giving of self to idols and to gods that were not gods, but sexual immorality. Horrible practice, one with another. Temples, and with entering to that temple, you will feel the thickness of darkness and the thickness of the unrighteousness that was committed in that place.

The church in Thessalonica, a church that was established very fast and very quickly by the grace of God, was a church of people that were rescued from the depths of idolatry. Perhaps people who had committed things that perhaps not even us know of the existence of those things. People who had been in the depths of sexual immorality, idolatry, and all type of wickedness. Yet the Scripture says that these people turned from idols to God. That is, that when the grace of the Spirit of Jesus Christ visited them, gave them not only life, but gave them the power to be self-controlled, to abstain from the type of passions that were in them and that providentially the Lord had allowed and that they were given unto.

The Lord had allowed that the church in Thessalonica would spend perhaps some of their time and time and years giving themselves to idolatry and all type of wicked practices. But then the grace of the Lord came and saved them, and they turned to the living God. And then we have something glorious that is said of this church. If we start reading from verse two of the same chapter, let's read it together, beloved. We give thanks to God always for all of you.

You're there, right? Verse two. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you. We know your election, he says.

Because our gospel came to you, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us. and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit." Pay attention to verse 7. In other words, you were saved.

You received the word of God with this power, verse 7, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. The word of the Lord worked in you so mightily. I'm not reading, I'm speaking only. The word of the Lord operated and worked in you so mightily. rescuing you from your idolatry, from your wicked and crooked ways, that when the grace of the Lord came upon you to empower you to abstain from that which was natural to you, so that in your turning you will not only be saved, but the glory of God and the grace of God that was poured into your soul will be so that The saints will see you and see an example of the workings of Christ and of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because his spiritual growth is not only for the glory of God, but it's also for the edification of the saints. so that even when it comes to be self-controlled and to put our passions to death, we are to have the benefit of the body in mind, so that by dying to our sins and being able to abstain from the passions of our flesh, we will be examples unto our brothers and sisters. that just as the Israelites had in the Passover a token, a testimony that would be to pass through generations in which they will say, this is your Lord, my son, the one who rescued us out of Egypt. In the same ways, when we die to sin and we are given the power to abstain from the passions of our flesh, there will be a token in us, not of the ability that I have to die to self, but rather of the exceeding glory and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when the testimony will be added from the mouth, I was sexually immoral since I was five years old. There was not one day since I was five years old in which I did not commit the depths of sexual immorality nobody knew.

But when the grace of the Lord arrived to my soul, I was rescued from that, and since I was 26, since the moment that the Lord saved me, not even once I have fallen in the sin in which I was slaved. Is that my ability? Of course not! It's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is to be a testimony, not of the outworkings of men, and not of the abilities of men or a woman of the church, but rather of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That that's not only saved in the beginning, but empower us so that all of these promises will be real and true in our hearts. How are we going to understand if we don't believe? How are we going to understand, beloved of Christ, if we take Christianity as a religion, as something that we do on Sundays and Wednesdays? How are we going to receive the power of the grace of God in becoming more like the Savior, Jesus Christ? The Lord has allowed us to live providentially a particular type of life in which many times we don't understand why.

And we have fallen in such a way that sometimes it's even difficult for us to comprehend the love and the care of God. But He has allowed those particular things so that when the glory and grace of God is manifested in us, there will be no room for us to say that it was us. but rather that it was God. And in that, with Christ-given humility to point others. Say, brother, sister, in this sin that you're struggling with, let me tell you about my Lord.

Let me tell you the things that he is able to do. It is written in the scripture. But let me tell you about my Lord. Let me tell you the things that he accomplished and he does by his grace. Why?

Not with the fear of I don't want my people and my church to know of my shortcomings so that my reputation will be diminished. Reputation is not hold by the flesh. Your reputation is holding the hands of the Lord. It is that the brother and sister will be edified. That is the purpose of your difficulties, of your shortcomings, of the afflictions that you may have when you struggle with passions in your heart, when you struggle with desires in your heart that are against nature.

Defeat them by the grace of Christ so that in that the Lord Jesus will be exalted. Second thing that I wanted to point, that is the internal power. I didn't expect to speak that much, but that is the internal power, the internal power of the passions of your flesh. Now, let me point you now to the external power of the passions of the flesh, and I'm going to invite you to come and turn to 1 John 2. So go to 1 John 2.

First John chapter two. Let us read together very carefully and paying much attention and with faith in these words that the Apostle gives us. I hope that by the grace of God and He extends our days and He has not taken us or taken me, we will experience or we will study better these words and these verses in the future as a church. But let me just point a couple of things here. So pay attention to this, brother and sister.

1 John 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Now pay attention to verse 16. He's going to tell us the contents of the world.

He is for all that is in the world. Now, remember, be with me here, brother or sister. I want to speak to you about the external power. Right. I spoke to you about the internal power that your desire moves you to temptation, temptation to sin and sin to death internally from James.

We spoke about the inside. Now I'm speaking about the outside. And the outside here we know by the word world is not speaking about creation is not speaking about humanity, but speaking about the system of this world, which is outside of you. Right. We know that the world is outside of us.

Now, it says in verse 16, for all that is in the world, which is this external environment. And then he says and he lists those things. the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those are the contents of the external world. It's not from the Father, but it's from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Let me be short in this because there's something more important that I want to address in the end. So pay attention with this. For this, please, beloved, I want you to see the incredible connection that the apostle gives us of the contents of an external environment, mainly the world, by using things that abide in the life of the person.

It says that the things that are in the world are the desires of the flesh that are the desires of the eyes and that are the pride of life. That is that everything that is in the system of the world is defined by the individual passions of humans who have been born in Adam and have fallen. from the righteousness of God. I don't have to prove and I don't have to elaborate much of that. But beloved of Christ, because of the passions of our hearts, the system of this world is contained and its substance is the same type of passions and desires and pride that abides in the heart of men.

So that is that when I go and live my life in the world, what I'm going to find is the same type of substance and passions that abide in the heart of human beings. And the way that I'm to relate to that particular world, to that particular external environment, according to the apostle here in 1 John, is with love. Not that I'm to love the world, but rather that I'm to love the Father so much that I can still be in the world. Because the apostle is not calling us to just go and build a box and to put ourselves into that box so that we will not be in the world. But rather the apostle addresses what is the heart and your relationship to that world.

You love the world. And you can see that loving the world is very natural to us, because the substance of the world is the same passions that we have in our hearts, the pride that we struggle with, the sinful and righteous desires that we have inside, and different degrees, different manifestations. Remember, they're individual and particular to each one of us. But those desires of the heart of man is that which is the substance of the world. So it is easier for my flesh to find agreement and to find correspondence and to find alignment with the world that it is what is the love of God.

That's why the apostle warns us not to love the world, because if you love the world, then the love of the father is not in you. Again, not that we are going to remove ourselves from the world, but rather that our heart is not to be yoked. with the things of the world, that is not to be taken captive, united with the things of the world, with those things that are normal and natural to the passions of our hearts, that those things may not take us captive. that we might not be unequally yoked, if you want. Because what does lie have to do with darkness, or Jesus Christ with Belial, or righteousness with unrighteousness?

If God has given us a promise that he's going to dwell among us, that he's going to be yoked with us, so then we are to be separated from the world. We are not to be yoked with the things of unrighteousness. And because we have this promise, then we are to cleanse ourselves from all wickedness of the flesh and of the spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 through chapter 7 verse 1. We are not to be yoked by the world.

We cannot have self-control. Brother, sister, dear soul, if things of this world, whose substance is the same passions and the same unrighteous desires of our heart, have captivated or taken captive our souls, if we are yoked, connected to those things. Because passions and desires do not only have an internal power, but they also have an external presence, and hence, an external power. Third thing that I want to show you from the scriptures about the passions of your flesh, it is found in 1 Peter 2, verse 11 and 12. So turn there to 1 Peter 2, verse 11 and 12.

Brother, sister, and friend, The passions of your flesh do not only have internal power to move you, to lure you, to draw you into temptation and temptation to sin and sin unto death. The passions of your heart do not only have the power outside of you to tempt you even with things that are outside of you, with things that you see, with things that you observe that are so in agreement with the passions of your heart. But the passions of your heart are not passive. They're never passive. but rather the passions of your flesh are in constant war against your soul.

How is a person going to overcome an enemy if that person is not aware of the threat of the enemy that is constantly and ongoingly ready to devour? Because the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, I said, chapter 2, Chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. Pay attention to this, beloved. It says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. You have an enemy that is not only Satan that according to the same apostle is seeking someone to devour, but you have war and that war is inside of you.

It says that which wage warred against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles, honorables, as when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. That is that your external behavior is the result of the passions that are within your soul. And how much do they master you or you master them? Brother, sister, you know the passions of your heart.

You know the desires of your soul, whatever they are. You know the unrighteous affections that are within you that many times tempt you and that many times move you to sin. Those ones are not passive, and those ones are not your friend, and those ones are not just only part of you as your finger is or as your beer is. These ones are at war with you and they want to destroy you. And the sooner that we are aware of those things, the sooner that we will be able to turn our eyes to Jesus Christ and to ask him to rescue us, not only when he first saved us, but from the same abiding passions of our hearts.

Because apart from him, beloved, we are losers in that battle every time. But brother and sister, how are you going to be motivated to fight against the passions of your soul if you're careless about the things that I'm saying? How are we going to have victory over this particular enemy if the words that the preacher preaches are just going through the ears and just going outside? If we do not have the faith to see the things that are written, nor the love for the Savior, to indeed consider the things that are given to us in scripture, your passions are at work. And you know what they want to do?

They want to do two things, many things, but I just want to point you to two things. The passions that are inside of you want to divide and dry. Divide and dry. You know, when something's wet and you have something that is dry, you have the passions that are at war within your heart, within your soul, constantly they want to divide and they want to dry. Why do they want to divide?

Come with me to James chapter four, please. James chapter four. The passions that are inside of us, brother, sister, they want to remove you from the context and the body of the church. I hope that you understand how the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in his church is so essential and vital for your spiritual life. You will never grow spiritually according to the scriptures and according to the desire of Jesus Christ.

You will never, never, if we do not belong, not to a local church in a religious way, but if we are united in the way that the scripture says. This is the only option that we have to grow spiritually, being united in the spirit of Christ by the power of his word and the passions that are within us. And the intentions of Satan will always try to divide and separate the body. Because when there's separation and there's conflict in the body, then the saints individually will not grow. Chapter four, verse one.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you, church? Is it not this, that your passions, that your passions or the affections, the very deep desires, the things that you want are at war within you? not only were, but are having victory. You desire and do not have, so you murder. In the heart, murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. the egotistical accomplishments of the passions of the flesh once a person has been given over to them, seeking their own benefit as if your own benefit was the best for your soul. Your passions want to deceive you into thinking that obtaining the thing which you desire is the best for your soul, and in the pursuit of that, You are okay to murder in your heart.

You are okay to store up bitterness against your brother or sister while you smile at them. You are okay to ask for something with a real purpose of just obtaining benefit out of it. Why? Because the egotistical goals and objectives of the passions of your flesh have accomplished what they were wanting to do. just to make you believe that in self-satisfaction is the best place.

And then the church does not play a role there because then in the context of the church, we're called to sacrifice for one another. We are to be in the context of that. So brother, sister, be very careful. Myself, I should be very careful that the passions and the desires of my, whatever they are, reputation, education, money, put the name, nothing else comes to my mind, whatever that is, reputation, work, ministry, money, project, this or that, the future, the past, whatever. If those desires and those affections are contrary, we can decide all of those things righteously.

But if there is unrighteousness in those desires, there is a world out there that is offering precisely that. Precisely, absolutely that. And just being in agreement with that can take us to a point in which we are affecting our own souls. Not only our own souls, but also the church. Second thing, I said divide and also set.

dry. And that is that the passions of your flesh will dry your spiritual life. Namely, they will dry your prayers. When the passions of your flesh are finding victory within you and you're being given over to the passions that are inside of you, then they are going to dry your soul when it comes to prayer. Come with me first to First Peter very quickly, and then I will speak shortly on that.

Come please quickly to First Peter. A very short and simple verse. And bear with me as we just go through these scriptures. I make one more comment and then we finish there. But just bear with me because this is very important to point to yourself.

First Peter chapter four. A simple, isolated verse. connected to things that's just very difficult to understand what the puzzle is trying to say. I don't even remember what I preach about that. You can just go and I should go and check what I preach about it.

But very important verse there. Chapter four in verse seven. Just pay attention to this. I said that your passions When they are overcoming you and you're not able to control them, that is that you are not able to self-control, you don't control your prayers are going to not only divide the church and remove you from the church, they're going to drive your prayers for seven. The end of all things is at hand.

Therefore, be self-control and sober minded. Why? For the sake of your prayers. What a weird connection. But it's in the scriptures that we are to be self-controlled.

That is the passions of our flesh, of which I have been speaking now extensively, are to be mastered and controlled. Why? For the purpose of our prayers. That is that we are not supposed to be let go our passions and that they will dominate our soul. Because if that happens, then our prayers are going to be affected.

Come to chapter 3 very quickly. In chapter 3, verse 7, the apostle gives us an implicit example of that, in which husbands are given to their own passions, and now they deal with their wives, not in a self-controlled way, but rather they deal according to their own passions, like unrighteous passions. That is the implicit situation of chapter three, verse seven, it says. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life. That is, live with them in a way in which you control yourself, your passions, so that you treat your wife as a weaker vessel according to knowledge.

And then why? So that your prayers might not be hindered. Why? Because the normal passions of a husband or the passions through which a husband will be tempted will be to be angered, to be easily moved from patience. And then he says, for the sake of your prayers, once beloved brothers, you are given yourself to the passions of your heart.

And then you deal with your wife according to the passions that are inside of you, not in a self-control way. Let me just tell you that your prayers are not going beyond the roof or ceiling, whatever you call it. Just going there. Self-controlled for the sake of your prayers. Same thing he says there in verse 12 of chapter three, and I finished with that for the eyes of the Lord.

Once he has spoken with the self-controlled and the one that is not self-controlled. First of all, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, those who are taken captive by their own passions and do not master them. But they are moved to unrighteousness because of them. The passions, beloved of Jesus Christ, of your soul, are a great danger for our spiritual growth in the presence of Christ.

They are internally powerful in the sense that they can tempt us and move us to sin and death. But they are also externally powerful in that the world is made of the same substance of the passions of our heart. And every time that we open our eyes to this world, we're going to find things that will be in natural agreement with the passions of our heart so that we are to be careful with the way that we relate to the world, loving God above all things so that we will not be yoked by the things of this world. These passions have also a power in us. They are a continuous, continuous war.

They want to divide the church, separate your soul from the fellowship of the saints and the love and the grace that is poured into the context of the local church. And they want to dry your prayers. so that you will be powerless when you come before the presence of the Lord, that you will not have the power of communing with the Lord because now your passions are so self-centered and taken in flesh that you are just doing that through the emotions. You see why self-control is a spiritual gift, as I said in the beginning? I said, Self control is an spiritual gift that empowers you to abstain from the passions of the flesh of which I have spoken extensively because it is impossible for us, beloved of Jesus Christ, to master those passions in the flesh.

We require the empowerment and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the one that is sovereign over all passions and emotions, the one who was so sovereign that He heartened the heart of Pharaoh, and He gave favor to the saints in the Old Testament in the eyes of who He wanted. He is sovereign over the mind and over the heart and over the souls of all creatures. He is the one that is able to empower us by His Spirit to abstain from the passions of our flesh. Not to come and fight them directly and to interact with them, but rather to abstain from the passions of our flesh. Because the method in which we have self-control is from abstaining from the passions of our flesh.

That word can also be understood as going away or stepping away or fleeing from the passions, abstaining from the passions of our flesh. And just as sometimes little kids, the only way that you can get them to abstain from something that they're doing and doing and doing and doing and doing and doing and doing is to take their attention to something that will, by necessity, make them abstain from that. You can discipline them and you can say whatever you want, but sometimes a kid is just doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it. So that for that kid, he will or she will, she will turn from the things that she's just doing and doing and doing and doing to something the same way. The believer will only be able to self-control him or herself and to abstain from these passions that are here when you have understanding of greater and more glorious passions.

Once you have seen the passions and the love and the tender kindness of the one who loved you, once you are satisfied more with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than with the accomplishment of your sin and your temptation. When you sin and when you're given over to the passion of your heart, there is satisfaction in your soul. When you do that thing, when you have that thought, when you accomplish that particular thing, there is a satisfaction in you, wicked and unrighteous, and it's horrible, but there is a satisfaction in you. What would happen if our eyes will completely turn to the person of Jesus Christ? So captivated by the thing that he did for me, that he saved me, that he rescued me, that he died for me.

That is not that I'm removing myself from this wicked thing just because I have to do it. That is what moralistic people do. We should do remove and flee. But it's more successful fleeing and it's more successful departing from unrighteousness and passions when we go to the city of refuge, Jesus Christ. When the beauty and the passions of Christ and the love of Christ and what my soul receives in the presence of Christ is so powerful and so drawing and so enticing to my heart that everything else is lost from my perspective.

That the things that I knew and that I enjoyed and that gave me all of this satisfaction are of not satisfaction anymore because, beloved of Jesus Christ, that is salvation. That you will turn from your sin that you loved so that now you hate, not by virtue of your morality, but by virtue of the love that you have to Jesus Christ, the one whom you hated before you were saved. And your Christian life is nothing else that growing in love for the Lord Jesus Christ that we need to know more and more and more and more and more and more and more so that those passions which are natural to you and at times will be until the end, they can be there. But they cannot have the power to tempt you, to bring you to sin and to kill your soul, because now your heart and your soul is satisfied in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died upon the cross to pay for all of these things and to rescue you from the power of those passions of your flesh. In the end, when you are in His presence, you are not even aware of your righteousness and being leaving behind all of those things, but rather just of His presence.

And then you can be an example to the brethren, not pointing to yourself, but pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that works in us. Faith, that is to be added virtue. Virtue, that is to be added knowledge. And knowledge, that is to be added self-control. Amen.