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. I think I have mentioned before how important it is for us as a congregation that we will understand what it is to grow spiritually, to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. A verse taken from chapter three, verse 18.

My desire is that through these studies I will learn to grow in Christ-likeness, and as I do so, that I will also, by His grace and in the love of the Spirit, I will communicate that to you and share that with you, because also it's my desire that we will grow spiritually as a church, that we will not only be Christian, individual Christians in which we just live our Christianity in the secret place, trying to be holy or trying to be something for the sake of personal individual religion, But brothers and sisters, that we will understand the value of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we will be moved out of this natural pattern of individualism, We live in times in a world in which individualism is the norm, is the nature. We are without headphones and we're in our boxes and in our worlds, and the Christian is not meant to be like that. The Christian is meant to grow spiritually in Christ-likeness, and as we do so, We come together with brothers and sisters who are growing spiritually in the same way so that we are strengthened one with the other. I would just simply say that it's impossible for a Christian to grow spiritually according to the scriptures. If we are not surrounded by Christians that are growing spiritually and that we are, you know, as we usually take those words in our mouth carelessly, iron, sharpening iron, and all of these words that we put in our mouth sometimes very carelessly, just because we have heard the people speak those words and then just in religion they say those words.

But the actual coming together of the saints in growing spiritually, individually, in the context of the church is foundational. Now we are going to learn it through the preaching of the word, that easy way, you know, the way that has been instructed by the Lord, in which He appoints the Church to come together and preach and teach, and then we learn by His grace and through the Word. We're going to learn it that way, or we're going to learn it a different way. And the way, this other way, is not that nice. In the time in which, you know, persecution comes and the saints, they have to come together because of the difficulties and because of the darkness of the world.

The Lord is going to purify your soul, and the Lord is going to purify the Church. And He has appointed His Word, and He has appointed the preaching of the Word to do so. But many times, as we have seen in the example of the Israelites and with the example of the Church, the Lord will test our hearts in such a way that the outcome will be not only tribulation and difficulty, but He will indeed purify us. And to me, that is fearful, not only fearful because of the hand of the Lord, but because I know what it is inside of me. So that is fearful just personally for me that that will take that for me to be tested and to be brought to that point of spiritual growth and love and unity and Christ-likeness.

Not pretending to be, you know, the super Christian or pretending to be religious and just going through religion and doing things as a church every Sunday just because we do it. And then we are consciously and we are aware that we're doing it in the flesh, but it's okay. I just don't know about you, but I really don't want any of that in my life. And I don't want any of that in my wife's life, my family and, of course, in the life of the church. So my the Lord help us to be genuine.

Each one of us know how genuine we are when it comes to our Christianity. As I'm speaking, I know how genuine I am. My conscience testifies to myself of the things that I'm saying, of the way that I'm preaching, the way that I'm speaking to you, my heart as I'm speaking to you. My conscience testifies to me. And your conscience testifies to you the genuineness of your Christianity, the genuineness of your heart, the genuineness of the spiritual power of the Lord inside of us.

Wow, there's no time for pretending, brothers and sisters. No time for pretending. So let's focus on what we're going to be studying tonight. And that topic that we're going to be studying tonight is brotherly affection. In verse 7 in chapter 1, we have been addressing together, beloved of Christ, all of these virtues, all of these characteristics.

Is this sound OK? A little bit noisy? Too much? No? We're good.

OK. So, as I said, we have been addressing all of those virtues, all of those characteristics of the Christian, those characteristics that you are supposed to add to your faith, those characteristics that we're not only supposed to come here to church and just learn from this guy that is speaking from the pulpit. but that we are to apply it to our Christian life, that our faith is supposed to add virtue and good works, that we're supposed to have knowledge, that we're supposed to have self-control and godliness and steadfastness and broadly affection and love, that those things are supposed to be a reality in your life. That is the Christian life. It's not the Christian theory.

It's the Christian life. And the one that we are going to be studying together, because that's how the Christian life starts, is just by knowing God's will and then conforming to God's will, is, as I said, brotherly affection in your In your Bible, you may have perhaps brotherly love, or brotherly kindness, or brotherly affection. That is just a manifestation of love. That is just love that we have for one another. The love that we have for brother and sister, brothers and sisters.

The love that we have, that we are supposed to have. in the context of the church, and when I say the context of the church, I'm not speaking about our meeting on Sunday or meeting on Thursday or whenever we come together, but when I say the context of the church is the context of the people that are here and those who are online, that we are a community, if you want, we're alive, a living family, in Christ Jesus, and that we are supposed to love one another, that we are supposed to have brotherly affection, and that is a qualifier of our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, for known as before the foundation of the world, he predestined us to be conformed, God himself, God the Father in Christ, predestined us, chose us to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn among many, brethren. So we have been inserted into a family. We have been rescued by the gospel.

According to Ephesians chapter one, we have been adopted by his blood as sons, sons in the son. We are children of God in union with Jesus Christ. And by virtue of our union with the son of God, then we are brothers and sisters. Wow. How many times do we use that word just so carelessly?

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. If any of you listen to a Bible study that I did about marriage, I said that my relationship to Jasmine is my covenant with her is going to come to an end and we are going to be separated. There's not going to be union in marriage in eternity that is to come. But by virtue of my union in Christ to her, in that sense, I'm going to be united to her for eternity because of union that we have in Jesus Christ. So I'm more brother to her in Christ than what my role of husband is because it's going to come to an end.

Brother and sister in the person of Jesus Christ. I'm speaking too much. Let's just read the scripture. We're going to read chapter 1, the first 11 verses, Beloved of Jesus Christ. As always, let's just pay careful attention to the context here.

And what I want to do is that you pay attention not only to the word brotherly affection there in verse 7, but also there in verse 10 and 11, you will see how the argument of the apostle is that by having all of these virtues, we will enter into the kingdom of God. Or in other words, that by having these virtues, we will not fall away, we will not depart from the faith, in verse 10, but that we will make it until the end, that we will endure until the end, and we will enter into the kingdom of God. So let's read together this first chapter. I'm supposed not to take that long because we don't have much time today, so may the Lord help us and help me just to be concise and clear. So 2 Peter 1, let's just read those first 11 verses.

It says, Simon, Simeon, 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, my 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 by the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." All of that work of salvation. Now, verse 5, 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 and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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, 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, practicing these qualities, for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen. That is the word of the Lord. As I said, beloved of Jesus Christ, my dear brother, My dear sister, I want to share with you just about brotherly affection. And I hope that you can see here the importance in verse 10 and in verse 11 of this quality. This is one of these seven qualities that is supposed to be added to faith.

And it's so important because it says that if we practice these qualities, including brotherly affection, they will never fall. We will never fall. That means that if a Christian does not practice brotherly affection or brotherly kindness or brotherly fall, then that we could say that that Christian will fall. And if we do not practice these qualities, according to verse 11, it says that If we practice them, there will be richly provided for us an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hence, we can say that if we do not practice these qualities, there will be an entrance for us.

No, and we're not to hang on a doctrine of eternal security, we're just to take what the scripture says, that if we do not practice brotherly affection, that if we do not practice brotherly kindness and brotherly love, then we are in danger of falling And if we do not practice these qualities, all of them put together as they come as this change of the Christian life, then there will be no entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord. and Savior Jesus Christ. You can see the vital importance of all of these qualities, but also the importance of brotherly affection. Because when we're speaking about a brotherly affection, a brotherly love, or brotherly kindness, we're speaking about a manifestation of love. We're going to be speaking about love next week.

But it's just simply a manifestation of love, brothers and sisters. And this one Different to the other characteristics that we have studied so far, this one is the one that cannot be disguised. You can put yourself in my bubble and say, I believe, I have faith. I can call my works and my virtue, my good works as good works. I can deceive myself into that.

I can deceive myself into the knowledge that I have of the Lord Jesus Christ and I know Him. Or I can deceive myself into saying, I have self-control from all of these things. Look at the other people, what they do. I can deceive myself into saying I'm a godly person. But when it comes to brotherly affection, I am confronted with a reality of my heart because I either have it or not.

With brotherly affection, you need to think about the object of that affection, namely your brother and your sister. And even as I'm speaking now, your conscience isn't to be confronted with that. Does your heart have brotherly love? brotherly affection, brotherly kindness. Is your brother and sister, the one that by grace through faith has been inserted into the person of Jesus Christ, the one that is seated in the chairs around us or is online, the one that we know, is that person the object of your love in Christ?

Is that person the object of your kindness, of your affections? Is your heart so moved by your brother and your sister? Now, you have experienced love. You love your husband. You love your wife.

You love your kids. I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my family. I have experienced love.

Do I have something of that towards my brothers and my sisters? Or it is just simply, you know, that we have just a community in which we are just so similar that we don't do things that offend us so much just to separate. But, you know, we fall into the category of we believe similar things, we do similar things, we like similar things. We don't have a communion with each other that is so strong and so united that we don't offend each other that much so that we are okay. Do you think that that is brotherly affection?

Do you think that that is brotherly love? Do you think that a relationship between husband and wife will survive with a shallow relationship that way? Brotherly affection. If we don't have brotherly affection or brotherly love or brotherly kindness, we're in danger of falling. And that is the importance, brothers and sisters, because when we see brotherly affection or brotherly love, perhaps I'm just gonna use one word, brotherly love, right?

Or brotherly affection. through the Scriptures and through the New Testament is so important that this is one of the most clear qualifiers of genuine salvation. Just go to 1st John and in 1st John, you can see that the main qualifier of genuine salvation is loving our brothers or sister. The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verse 22, that since we have been purified in our souls by obedience to the truth through the Spirit of God in the gospel, then we are to love one another with a sincere love. Since, that is, as a result of a genuine purification of your soul by obedience to the gospel, then you are to love one another.

loving brothers and sisters is a qualifier of a genuine salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ says that we are to love as he loved us and that people will know us that we are his disciples. Why? Because we love one another. That is that the love that is to happen in the context of the church is so powerful, that is so clearly different to any manifestation of love of the world, that when the outsider comes who has experienced love in the flesh, they can clearly distinguish the love that takes place in this community of Jesus followers that points them to Christ.

Wow, and my love for you is not even close to the love to my wife, to be honest. And we are expected, and we are expected, brothers and sisters, to love each other in such a way that when the outsider comes, they are, you know, like holy place. Something is going on there. The presence of something that is beyond me is among them. And this is not the love that is just established upon that you have pizza together and let's just speak about the weather.

Let's just do this or that. The hidden, the lost do the same thing. And sometimes they do it in a better way than we do. The love of God is meant to be in us so manifested because we have been purified by the Spirit of God, brothers and sisters. And it's not only that it's important because it's a qualifier of genuine salvation.

Being a qualifier of genuine salvation is what is going to be tested. What is going to be tested genuinely in us is not if our interpretation of Romans 13 is accurate or in alignment with our favorite preacher. What is going to be tested is not how strong we are and that we can stand firm before the government, or this or that, or what is our understanding of the last time, so it's catology, or this or that. What is going to be tested is your heart. Your heart is what is going to be tested.

And in those days, there will be rumors of wars, nation against nation, pestilence and earthquakes, and all of these things, but the end is not yet. This is just the beginning of sorrows, it says. And then you will be delivered up to tribulation and persecution. And when that comes, and when they kill you, and when they hate you, for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, great falling away. And the great falling away is that some will fall, false teachers accumulating unto themselves, false teachers that will speak to them and preach to them things according to their nature, and many of them will betray one another.

will hate one another. And because of the increase of unrighteousness, the love of many will grow cold. Wow. Do you think that is that simple? You know, you think that the test of the Lord is just so simple to have a correct political understanding of the current events?

You think that the Lord will work in that way? It's just the Christian will have access to certain amount of information and then just to come up with a correct understanding of the times? Is your heart the one that is going to be tested? And the manifestation of a genuine heart is not so much in how strong I am just doing that or not doing that, but rather loving one another. And for me, this is fearful.

Because if someone comes through that door and is going to threaten our lives, I'm almost sure that everyone will take their families and just run away. Brothers and sisters, it is a matter of the heart. A heart that is transformed in such a way that then is the love of God in us for those who are unlovable. Love for our families is natural. It is just given to us.

You know, they are a piece of our flesh. We love them just because they exist and because they are. Love to those who are not of our fleshly family in Christ Jesus is that what requires a manifestation of the power of the Spirit of God in us. And that is what is going to be tested. That is how we are going to have an entrance richly provided into the kingdom, in the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the heart is tested to see if we love the Lord and if we love one another, because as we have said now many times, And that day, many will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these mighty things in your name?

Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we prophesy and all of these things in your name? And Lord, we were 100% sure that we were doing it in your name. It's not that we knew that we were not doing it in your name.

We were 100% sure as we were doing all of these mighty things in your name, we were 100% sure that we were doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. Depart from me, you workers of inequity, or workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. You thought that you would have known that you knew me. You thought, you were even certain that you were doing things for me.

But I never knew you. You were doing this for yourself. You were doing this, taken captive by love to self. Your heart testified every time that you did not love the brethren, that you did not love the church, that you did not love God, but you love self. And as you were doing all of those things, you put the label off.

I love my brother. I love my sister. I love the church. I am a Christian. Look how much I do.

But you loved yourself all the way. is not those who do their will, those who enter into the kingdom of God, but those who do the will of the Father. And the will of the Father is a will that is established upon love, because there's no other explanation for our salvation, rather that He loved us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. That is no other explanation, that in Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ being the object of the Father's love, we were found in union with Him, and by virtue of that eternal union, He loved us. And that love was superior to all of our sins.

That love was greater than all of our infirmities. That love was greater than all of the things that we would do and the unrighteousness that we will have. And because of that, he sent his son so that he would die upon that cross and that the consummation of that love will be seen in the salvation of the unlovable and the coming together of the church and in the consummation of that love. That is the only explanation. You think that that love will not be manifested externally?

And brothers and sisters, we, as I'm speaking, I don't know how many of you are paying attention, but as I'm speaking, each one of us can test our hearts. That is how powerful love is. That as I'm speaking, as I'm just mentioning these things, I am testing and checking myself and we can do all of us, we can do all of that. Test our heart to see what our brotherly affection looks like, what our brotherly kindness looks like. Because, you know, when Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters came to him and, you know, they wanted just to go and see him, He said, Lord, your brother, your mother, your sister are here.

They want to come and see you, and they want to speak to you. And then he says, look. Look, my disciples. These are my brothers. These are my sisters.

They are my mother. Those who do the will of the Father pierce into me. Jasmine comes now that she's home, and I just go and run. These are my brothers. Can we say that, brothers and sisters?

We are supposed to have the spirit of Christ, the heart of Christ, to be united in such a way in the love of Jesus Christ, that we can say, look, this is my wife. These are my kids. These are my mother and my father. These people who by grace through faith have been saved. These are the ones that I love.

These are the ones that I'm willing to give my arm How are we going to do that? We can't do it. And, you know, this is good and terrifying at the same time, but the good part is that because we can't do it, we just have to trust, right? And just give up, just give up. And then he's the one that works in us.

Because when we just take a little bit of 1% of I can do it, then, you know, Israel, once again, version two. It is just trust in the Lord entirely and just give up and understand that in us, truly, generally, there's nothing good. There's absolutely nothing good in us and we are just to, wow, please die. Please die and Lord Jesus, just come and just do your work in me and in us so that we will do that which we are supposed to be living and doing. What is brotherly affection?

Brothers and sisters, what is brotherly affection? What is brotherly kindness? Let me just perhaps give you this definition because I don't think that I will go through everything that I wanted to share with you. But just what is brotherly affection? According to the scriptures, what is brotherly kindness or brotherly love or brotherly affection?

I'm just going to give you two components. of this definition, and I'm just going to show them to you from the Scriptures. And then I want to speak a little bit about those two components, and then just see that the Lord speaks to our hearts. Brother, dear brother, dear sister, brotherly affection is an honest, spirit-given love. It's an honest or sincere, Peter says, honest or sincere, spirit-given love for the brethren that is manifested in my fervent desire for their good.

So brotherly affection is this first part is an honest spirit given love that I have for your soul is honest, is sincere. And it's a spirit given is he gives me this love for your soul that is manifested not in what I say for your soul or know what I do even though my role is about saying things to you. but it's manifested in my life for how much I seek your good, fervently desire your good. So come with me to 1 Peter, because that is the first part. And I thought that if I just don't speak too much, but I just let Peter and the scriptures as you read them.

If you go to 1 Peter 1, then in verse 22, now, just let this word, please, speak to you. Having purified, I think I quoted just before, but let that speak to your soul. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. If you have another Bible, as they're through the spirit. So having purify your souls by your obedience to the truth through the Spirit, for I sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from my pure heart.

Brother, sister, honest Spirit given love, honest. The Lord knows everything, all the secrets of my heart, all the secrets of your heart. He's the one that is going to bring light. The books are going to be open and reality is going to be exposed. The world has been trying to cover things up and darkness and even in our lives.

Sincere, honest, the spirit given love for the brethren from my pure heart. Not in the flesh, not that I want to be good, you know, I'm just going to do this list of different things that I have to do so that I put myself and show myself off as a good person to my brethren, but sincere, honest, from my pure heart. That is that I love my brothers and my sisters, and I cannot do anything about it. It is just a reality of my heart. My heart is just taken by love, and I love my brothers and my sisters.

And this is a manifestation of the fact that I have been purified by the Holy Spirit, that I have obeyed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of that union with Christ, now my heart genuinely seeks to grow in brotherly affection. And the manifestations of brotherly affection in my heart are genuine and sincere, and they are Spirit-given. Now come with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, verse 9.

It says, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another. If you have a different translation, we'll say something like love fervently or love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor. Wow, you know, like so many times that I've read these things, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. And the flesh naturally wants to be heard, to be observed, to be followed, to be accepted, to be approved, to be the first one, not to be the last, but to be the first one. genuine manifestation of the love of God in the heart of a person, love for the brethren. It is a honest, it is a sincere to spirit given love for the brethren that is manifested in seeking their good.

It's not that I'm seeking my good, but rather that I want to show honor to my brother, to my sister. In other words, genuine brotherly affection requires humility. requires humility, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there is any fellowship of the spirit that Paul says in Philippians chapter two, if there is any comfort in him of love, any affection, be and fulfill my job by being of one mind, of one accord, being united, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, look for the benefit of the other. Let nothing, you know, like we have these categorical words, nothing and something, let nothing, not some things, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. Brotherly affection requires lowliness of mind, humility, destroying Babel Tower in which we are just conquering and just screaming like King Kong.

Destroying these things that we have built unto ourselves. Humble. We are going to learn this by looking to Christ, because that's what Apostle Paul says there in Philippians chapter two, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Or the hand of the Lord is going to come upon us and it's going to break us in such a way that now he's going to make us humble. Because love for the brethren, love for the brother, love for the sister requires humility.

And humility is that I'm not seeking my own good. Is that I'm not seeking my own interest, but I'm looking for the interest of others. And even in considering others is better than it myself. Brothers and sisters, those words are against our nature. If I say this to someone outside of Christianity, they say, well, where have you been in the last five or 10 years?

Everything is about me, me, me, me, me, me. You are the one that is able to have the life that you want and you desire. And brothers and sisters, by us being distracted by many things of the world, and even just by witnessing these things, you think that we are not affected by it? All products, all services, all TV shows, all things is just like exaltation of self. removing God, exaltation of self, the pleasure of self, doing things for you, for you to eat, for you to play, for you to go, so that you are at peace and comfort.

And then when something of that is removed, we are like, no, my human rights have been violated. Because we have built into ourselves a box, and especially in the Western world, in which everything is about ourselves. Yet the hand of the Lord is about us being humble, being broken, being, Lord, I want to be spent by you, Lord, that pains and toils and difficulties to my back and to whatever comes is because I'm being spent by you. I'm spent by, you know, like the proclamation of the gospel, the edification of the church, that I'm seeing people that are being saved and people that are being defied, that people who, when the fire comes, that they remain Christ Jesus is Lord. that we are being spent, not considering our life as something of value.

Why? Because we have the confidence that there is something eternal, that there is something that our life is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, whatever years we have remaining on this earth. Humility, brothers and sisters, requires of us, if we want to have brotherly affection, to love one another as he has loved us. And the only way that this is going to start is just by a realization of the love of God. Let me just show you just this exemplified in Acts.

I have to do this before I move into that. Go to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 2. So brothers, we're going to read from verse 42. Brothers and sisters, we're speaking about a new religion here, you know, Acts chapter 2.

Something that it was not popular, completely brand new. You know, to be a Christian these days is something that has been around for 2000 years. Here we're speaking about people who left everything behind for something that was considered to be of the devil. Right? Something that was considered to be against the system that has been working for the last few thousand years.

Here we have people that were so meek, so feeble, despised by society and many of them, and then they decided just to take this message and to hear this message and to be and live their lives into not only this message of this man who died and was resurrected, but also to each other. Verse 42, it says, and they devoted themselves. to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together, and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together, day by day, And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in the homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. This can be taken the very wrong way in which we can, let's say, just come together by a piece of land and put ourselves into a box. But brothers and sisters, the power, the genuine power of the Holy Spirit is to be manifested in similar ways to this.

It's not about all of us coming together and selling our belongings and putting them in a box and now they just leave, you know, like in that way. It's not so much that, it's the heart. It's just the heart of these people. It is what the Spirit of God did in such a way that they will just renounce and give up their possessions and who they were and everything, because now it's not only that the world is persecuting us, but the love of God is being manifested in the faces of these people. Where am I going to find security and rest and peace?

Where am I going to find love and all of this community there? Yes, but it was established upon the power of the gospel and the love of God being manifested through each one of them. What are my possessions? What are the things that I have built? What are the things that I have worked for?

What are my personal desires? And what are my personal goals? Nothing. Because now my life has been taken for this kingdom that is not of this world. You know, but we find always the right balance is saying, you know, this does not mean that we don't have to study, we don't have to work.

Yeah, it does not mean that, but you have to have the heart. But we ought to have the heart of brotherly affection for a brother, for a sister in this particular way. And as you continue going chapter four, as they continue to preach the gospel in this way with the Spirit of God with them, It says in verse 32 of chapter 4, 32, now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Now these are not romantic words. You know, like this is just not, you know, Luke that we just was trying just to be nice that he was writing these things.

This is just inspiration of this period. This is genuine. So he was one heart and one soul. And no one said that any of their things belong to him. That was his son, but they had everything in common.

And with great power, the apostles were given their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them. For as many as there were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the Apostle Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the Apostle's feet.

And then we continue with the opposite of that heart in chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira. The Spirit of God working in the life of these believers, giving up everything for the sake of following this Lord Jesus Christ and following the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not only following individually, you know, following him individually in my personal religion with my headphones in my garage and just in front of my computer. But it was brothers and sisters. It was I'm united to him to be united to his people.

I'm not united to His people in a shallow way, but to be truly united to the people of God so that when fire comes, as the apostle would say in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 or 5, when fire comes, the work of the Lord will be tested and it will not be built up in hay or all of these other things, but it will be built upon gold and precious stones. Because when fire comes, my Colombian accent and my trying to convince you to particular things will do nothing. Zero. Will do absolutely nothing for your soul. The only thing that will do something for your soul is if the Spirit of God has worked in your heart.

And if the Spirit of God has worked in our congregation and has united us in ways that go beyond religion and ways that go beyond just simple, just community, ways that go beyond just simply coming together and just being okay with one another and then just having shallow relationships and being okay with that. Because when that fire actually comes, we are to stand upon the rock Jesus Christ, and then we are to desire, beloved of Christ, the good of our brother and our sister. How does it work? How can I love you more? How can we love each other more?

This is the question that I've been asking myself in the last couple of months. Because this is a genuine characteristic of my spiritual state. I cannot say that I'm just walking in the light when I don't love my brother. You know that, right? You know that from 1 John.

Go there, please, 1 John. I don't want you to just hear from me. 1 John. Read chapter 2, verse 9. Just let the simple words speak.

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother, that is, that there's no love, hate, his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Now, we could say, you know, this is speaking about non-genuine believers and so on, we could say that. But let's just simply take the clause that is very clear and that does not require exegesis or explanation, the one that says, Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him, the one that abides and loves his brother, there is no cause for stumbling. That is a clear statement.

That is that a person walking in the light is a person who loves his brother, a person who loves his sister. For a person to claim that they are walking in the light, namely that they are in fellowship with God, that they're walking in the power of the Spirit, that they are walking in communion with the Lord, while they do not have genuine love in their hearts for their brethren, That person is either ignorant in many cases, or just that person is a liar, or that person does not have genuine love. Just come to verse 7 of chapter 1, which is in verse 6, the apostle makes that clear. If we say, In verse 6 of chapter 1, if we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He's in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

On the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sins. If we walk in the light, As He is in the light, how is He in the light? He is unmovably, if that is a word, in the light, unchangeably in the light, abiding in the light. That is, not that I'm in the light, I'm not in the light. If I abide in the light, as He is in the light, then I have fellowship with one another.

That is, that loving one another and being in the light and walking in the light, having fellowship with God, they go together. They go together. You cannot have, I'm walking in the light, I'm super spiritual, and then just having your heart dull and indifferent to the brethren. Brothers and sisters, if we don't see these, truly, we can have Cornerstone Reform Baptist Church, a website, a podcast, and whatever, and everything that you want, and the substance of what truly should be happening here could be just simply not here. We could have a confession of faith and we could have the right theology and the correct words and a sermon that is preached according to the standards of our favorite YouTube preachers, right?

We could have all of that according to confessions and according to theology and on whatever, whatever. If we do not have that, then we are not walking in the light. That is what I say to myself every day. If I do not have manifestations in my heart of love, I cannot say that I'm walking in the light. And if I'm not walking in the light, then there's a big problem.

If I'm not walking in the light, then there's a big, big problem, because it's not about walking in the light and middle ground, like gray area. You're walking in the light or you're walking in darkness. This is the importance, brothers and sisters, of all of these virtues that I have spoken before of faith and virtue, all of these things, all of them, we can just put them in a, redefine them, and then say, I have certain measures of all of it. A genuine manifestation of love for the brethren in our hearts is either there, or it's not there, or it's just lukewarm, or it is, you know, like up and down, or I don't know, you know, different conditions of the heart. How are we going to develop this love?

How are we going to develop this love? The puzzle, John gives us the answer if you go there to John chapter four, 1 John chapter four. Let me just give you the theological answer, the theological answer to how we are to love one another, which is something that we have said so many times that you perhaps you know already what I'm going to say. So the theological answer to it. And then I'm going to give you a practical, a practical thing that I think will help us.

So in chapter four, in verse seven, it says, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. He speaks in a way, and he writes in a way that is, you know, people say that it's simple. But wow, he's very profound.

He says, let us love one another, for love is from God. It's coming from God. And whoever loves has been born of God. So those who have not been born again, they cannot love, right? Because we are in God.

But not only that, he says, born of God and knows God. Pay attention to those two words, beloved. It says whoever loves has been born of God that is generally saved. But the person that loves knows God. That is that for me to be able to love, I do not only need to be born of God, but I need to know God.

Why? Because my love to your soul is my experience of his love for me in Christ through the gospel. It is just through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the person of Jesus that I know the love of God, not in general, but for my soul. And when I not only know but experience the love of God for my soul in Christ, through the forgiveness of my sins, and when I have the loving hand of God upon me, testifying of who I am and what I deserve, yet His mercy and His love been manifested in my salvation. How am I not going to see your countenance?

How am I not going to think about you and have other things than love? He says in verse nine, In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this, His love..." Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The power of the gospel, you know, how people use that, the power of the gospel.

This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16. That is the power of the gospel, from faith to faith, that He died upon the cross, that He loved you, forgave you, that He gave His life in propitiation for your sins, and that when you come to the truly understanding of that, and then when you come to the realization of who you are, and that He forgave you, and loved you, and gave Himself upon that cross, then the Spirit of God is supposed to take over your heart. The love of God is shed upon your heart, it says Paul in Romans 5, right? The love of God is shed into your heart through the Holy Spirit that was given to you for when we were still without strength. In due time, Christ Jesus died for us.

For it is carelessly for a righteous person what would die, yet perhaps for a good person what would have been did to die. But God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. The glorious demonstration of the love of God upon the cross. A demonstration that is our duty not only to know intellectually brothers and sisters, but also to experience. It is one thing just to have in your mind that He died for you and that He was to experience the love of God.

Why? Because when we experience the love of God, joy takes over. You know, like this crazy joy that the world is all of, you know, in darkness and all of that. And you're just, I'm in the hands of Christ. That, you know, like the tribulation arrives and then you're genuinely affected by it, but in the hands of Christ.

He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. How powerful are you, oh, dear Prime Minister? Not powerful at all. Christ Jesus is King.

And he is not only my King, but he's also my Savior, my Redeemer, my Lord, the one that triumphs, the one that is victorious. Glorious power of the gospel in the life of a believer. That's why Jude says, and I said to you that I was going to give you a practical one. So if you go to Jude, Something that I've said in the past. Jude 1.

20. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life. Beloved, build yourself up in your most holy faith that is mature. Please grow up spiritually.

Build yourself up in your most holy faith. Praying in the Holy Spirit, praying in the Holy Spirit. It says, keep yourself in the love of God. Remember that I said the experience of love? Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

That is our position in the love of God. But our experience of the love of God, as it is daily manifested to ourselves, pray in the Holy Spirit and keep yourself in the love of God as you wait for the coming and the revelation, the blessed hope of the Savior pray telling you Pray, but I'm telling you in a serious way, brother, sister, do you want to grow in love for one another? Pray, but not only pray, pray in the Holy Spirit. Don't pray through the motions. Don't pray because you have to do it.

Pray. And when you pray, pray for your brothers and for your sisters. Intercede and tarry and be diligent in interceding. Not in a general sense for Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Take 40 names.

What is that? Nothing. Each name. Pray for each one of the saints. You know them, you know the difficulties, you know what they want, you know what they desire, you know what they're lacking, pray for each one of them.

So that the next time that you say, I love you, brother, I love you, sister, it's genuine, that is being manifested in the secret place. Not that I put your name in a bag of general prayers, so I cover every human being on the world. But that I thought about your soul, that I thought about your heart, that I thought about your circumstances, that I thought about your, seeking the good of the brother and the sister. Pray, you will see the fruits of praying individually for each name, for each person, for each family, for each marriage, for each child, for each one of them. Pray, give yourself to prayer and the flesh will oppose you.

But then when the Spirit of God gives you the grace that is needed, then tears from your eyes for your brother and your sister. They don't even know. But this is this love of Jesus Christ being manifested, brothers, and this is what we need together. Those prayers coming like incense to the heavenly places and what the Lord does with those mighty prayers. We don't know what he's working.

We don't know anything about what he's doing. The prayers of the church coming, interceding, the early church interceding for Peter, remember? The early church interceding for those that were persecuted, given themselves to persecution. Paul going from city to city, being stoned, almost dead. Now let's go next day.

Let's go through the churches. What to encourage your brothers so that they will make it into the kingdom through much tribulation. It is necessary to enter into the kingdom of God through much tribulation. So let's go and encourage them that they will persevere, that they will persevere. I'm tired.

You know, I have been stoned and weak. No, let's encourage them that they will continue walking in the faith, you know, that they will see that concern of Paul. He was not concerned for this theology. Correct. He was concerned that they will endure until the end, because he's just that the grace of God is removed from the heart.

And that's no matter how many books you have in your book show. Once the grace of God is removed from your heart, then that's it. That is the end. So Lord Jesus, that my brother, that my sister will endure, that will persevere until the end, that they will be edified, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that they will grow in their marriage, in sanctity and unity, that their life will be an example to the church. Lord, please help me to love them.

Help me just to manifest my love to whatever thing you have called me to do. Genuinely, brother and sister, if we start genuinely praying for one another, You will see the testimony of God when I tell you when the Lord just has called us to love one another, and we will see the hand of the Lord upon us. Brotherly affection, that is. Amen.