The Church as a Spiritual Ho..

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Would you please open up your Bibles to the first letter of Peter? The first letter of Peter. This evening we have the opportunity, beloved brethren, to address and I thought that we were going to be able to go on to the next section of verse 5 that speaks of the sacrifices that are offered to God and they're acceptable by God because they are offered through Jesus Christ. But as Jeremiah and Isaiah said, there is a burden in me for the last couple of months that I wanted to share with you last time that we spoke. And I hope that the Lord may guide us through that in verse 5.

I want us to address this evening that those words that speak of the building up. Of the spiritual house of God, like we like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. So as we always do, I'm going to require that we read from chapter one from verse 10 all the way through chapter two in verse 12. And please pay special attention to how the apostle Peter is going to start the chapter, chapter two, and what he's going to say, moving into verse five, which is what we're addressing. This is the word of God.

Reading from the English Standard Version, chapter one, verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, Search and inquire carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb with a blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last time for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Chapter two.

So, Put away all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, through the Stanton Scripture. Behold, I am lying in Zion, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobeyed the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Amen. That's the word of God. Before I start, I'm going to ask Pedro to take this because I'm just hearing what is going on in here. Sorry.

Yeah, I'm just hearing what is going on in the room. That's not going to help, definitely. Thank you, Pedro. Sorry. As I said, beloved brethren, we are going to be focusing on verse 5 in that which says that we are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, especially that which says that we are being built up as a spiritual house, the building up of the house of God, which is spiritual and which is conformed by those who have been born again of the Spirit from the Word of God.

And in order to do so, brothers and sisters, it's very important that we remember that which I said last week. That when the Apostle Peter is writing this letter, the audience of this letter are Gentiles who are found in the city of Pontus, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. The Apostle is writing this letter to new covenant people, to Christians who have been born again in this land that is different to the land of Israel. And the main point that I wanted you to have in your mind, it is this comparison or this relationship that the Apostle is establishing between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Apostle is taking truths of the Old Covenant and applying them in realities of the New Covenant with the New Covenant Church.

And something very important that I mentioned last week really wanted you to have not only in your mind, but also in your heart, brothers and sisters, is that these two covenants are simply perspectives of a whole redemptive history that speaks always of God's people. From the moment that sin entered into the world through the disobedience of Adam, and through that disobedience and through that sin, death and death spread to all people because all people sinned, From that moment, God has had for himself a people that is God's people. Now, I'm going to submit to you, brothers and sisters, that if you do not see God's people in that way, the doctrine of the church will not come alive to you. You see, In a sense, the church did not start at Pentecost. The people of God started from the moment that redemption was available for men.

The doctrine of the saints, the doctrine of the congregation of the saved by grace through faith is not going to come alive to your hearts and to your souls if you do not understand that these two covenants speak of a deeper reality that is God saving those whom he chose before the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ in love. So the plan of redemption has been dispensed through covenants, an old covenant and a new covenant, and the new covenant serves us as the fulfillment and the fullness of those things that had been set in the Old Covenant. And that's what the Apostle Peter is doing in this letter. So that's why he says, "...concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, Gentiles."

Gentile people. They were prophesying of things that were going to come, and they were serving not themselves, but they were serving you, people of God. This is very important, brothers and sisters, because that doctrine, which is found in the New Testament, is to be understood not in this connection of what happened in the Old Testament, but rather the doctrine of that which happens in the New Testament is founded upon the doctrine given to us by the prophets in the Old Testament. They were serving not themselves, but they were serving us. So when the apostles, by the Spirit, they come and speaks of these truths of the Old Testament and applies them to the new covenant people, we are to pay attention what they are doing.

So my intention last week was, brothers and sisters, that many, that you see at least from a small perspective, the relationship of these two covenants, the old covenant given to Moses, to the people of Israel, and now this covenant, the new covenant given to Israel, to the prophet, like unto Moses, Christ, Jesus, the Son of God, the beloved of the Father. This covenant that has been established by the shedding of His blood. The relationship between these two covenants. And I took you to Hebrews 8. And the only thing that I wanted you to have in your mind is that what the Bible says about this old covenant relationship to the new covenant is that the new covenant is a better covenant.

that this old covenant was a faulty covenant, that this old covenant was a covenant that was established on promises that were not as good as the promises that were given under the new covenant. You see, the old covenant said, do these things and leave. The new covenant given to Christ and in the law in Abraham says to thy seed, I will give this land. And in you, Abraham, all the nations of the world will be blessed. This one was given to the people of Israel.

Why? Because when transgression was or when because of the abundance of transgression, the law was added with what? What was the purpose? That the Messiah will be born under the law and that he will come and fulfill that law. The law that was added was not contrary to the promise of the new covenant, but was a servant of it.

So if we are going to see, beloved brothers and sisters, the beauty of the new covenant, as the Psalmist will say in Psalm 149, that The Lord takes pleasure in His people, and He beautifies His people through salvation. And that salvation which beautified God's people, it is established and given to us in the new covenant. And the old covenant serves as a foundation for us to understand spiritually these things that were given to the people of Israel. So! The new covenant being a better covenant established on better promises, make the benefits of the covenant of a higher degree and importance for covenant members.

So the old covenant was through obedience, do these things and you shall live. The new covenant is by grace, through faith. because Christ has fulfilled the Old Covenant and the Old Covenant has passed away. So, the benefits of the New Covenant are for all of those who are members of the New Covenant. So when Peter, in this text, speaks of a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, I wanted you to see that in the Old Covenant there was an election within the election.

that God's presence was not in all Israel, but was in the temple, and not even in the temple, but it was in a selected and chosen place, the Holy of Holies. And the priesthood of God, those who could enter into the presence of God, were not all the chosen people of Israel, but not even the tribe of the Levites, but the family of Aaron, who will be the priest. The benefits of the old covenant were not dispensed to all the members of the covenant in the way that are dispensed under the new covenant. Because under the new covenant, we in fullness, without exception, without distinction, we are all the spiritual house of God. And he dwells in us individually, and he dwells among us corporately.

Not only that, but we are also this holy priesthood that we can offer sacrifices acceptable to them, brothers and sisters. Do not allow your flesh and the carnality of your mind and the indifference of your heart and the coldness of your soul to remove you from the excitement and the joy and the preciousness of this truth. As our brother said, do not have a heart that is filled with pride that does not grasp the word of God with faith, but rather have a heart of humility that grasps these truths because these truths are the ones that prepares us for trial, suffering, tribulation, for the things that are to come. This is the danger when we speak of spiritual things in a materialistic society. This is the danger when we speak of things that are above, when because of our flesh we have our eyes set on things of the earth.

My God, open our eyes to see the depths of the truths that I have just said, beloved brothers and sisters. Because now Peter is saying to us, that this spiritual house is being built up. And I want us to meditate upon the fact, brothers and sisters, we are not going to understand the way that the spiritual house of God is built up if we do not see the foundation of the Old Testament that serves us to understand these truths of the spiritual house in light of the new covenant given to the glorious Christ. established by his blood, spiritual house being built up, brothers and sisters. This spiritual house or the temple of God or the sanctuary of God was promised from before the New Testament, of course.

And what I want you to have in your mind before we go back to the Old Testament, brothers and sisters, is that this new covenant is inviting peoples from all the world. This has to be clear in your mind. Those of you have been walking with the Lord for 10, 20, many years, or if you have been walking with the Lord for only one or two years, or whatever the time that you have been with the Lord, this is what you need to have in your mind, that this new covenant that is established by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is a covenant that now invites people from all tribes and nations and tongues The Old Covenant was reserved for the people of Israel. And this is the glory of it. This is the glory of the salvation that now is made available for the hidden, for the Gentiles, for those who were not the people of God.

But this temple, or this spiritual house that now is spoken of here by the Apostle Peter in the New Covenant, was initially given to the people of the All-Covenant. You may remember in 2 Samuel chapter 7 when the Lord is given the covenantal promise to David When he's about to die, he says, your days are about to be fulfilled. You're going to lie down and lay down with your fathers and your days are about to be complete. You are not going to build my house, but rather from your flesh, from your body, I'm going to raise up an offspring. And this son of you is the one that is going to build a temple.

And I'm going to establish my kingdom. I'm going to establish his throne. and his kingdom forever. Brothers and sisters, the building up of the temple or the building up of this spiritual house, or the building up of the sanctuary of God was promised in the Old Testament to David. It was said to him that he was not going to build it, but that his son Solomon was going to be the one that was going to build it.

That when his days will pass and that when he die, it was his son, the one that was going to set his throne and his kingdom forever. That actually happened. David died, and then it's Solomon, the one that actually builds the temple. He's the one that builds the temple of God. And when he builds the temple of God, Solomon knew and acknowledged that he was the fulfillment of that covenantal promise that was given to David.

Brothers and sisters, The building up of the temple in the mind of David was the establishment of the eternality of his kingdom. God said to David, I will establish the kingdom of your son forever, and he will build up for me a house, and I will dwell in that house forever. The son of David was to build up the house, and the presence of God was going to be there forever. When Solomon does that in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, he knows that he is the fulfillment of that promise that it was given to him. So when he's praying before the people, he says, thank you, blessed be the Lord and God of Israel, because today he has fulfilled by his hand the promise that was given from his mouth to my father David.

When he said, since the days that I took the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a place to build up my temple, nor a man who will be over my temple. But today I have chosen Israel as the place where my temple will be. And I have chosen David as the man who was the prince who will be over this temple that I am building." And then Solomon recognized that this was going to be accomplished through the offspring of David, not David himself. So he says, I have been raised as the son of David.

And today God has fulfilled the promise that he gave to my father. And I have built up an exalted house in which the Lord will dwell forever. Solomon was acknowledging that the promise that was given to David was now being fulfilled by the building up of this house of God, the sanctuary of God, the temple of God. So then the people of Israel will come and offer sacrifices in the temple that was just built. And then it will come the divine confirmation that what was happening there was indeed a biblical fulfillment of the promise that was given to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 12 to 14.

Fire will come down from heaven and it will burn down the sacrifices that were being offered there. And then 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 1 says something glorious. that the glory of God filled the temple, and that the priest that Solomon had instituted, that the priest from Israel, from the Levites, from the family of Aaron, that the priest could not enter into the temple because the presence and the glory of God was there. The glory of God was revealed clearly to the people of Israel. Fire came down from heaven, and the divine approbation, if that is a word that you have in English, was there given to His covenant people.

Then the people of Israel will bow down and worship God, because the presence of God was in the temple that Solomon had built up. Brothers and sisters, The presence of God had been among the people of Israel when they left Egypt and they were walking through the wilderness towards the promised land in a tent. Then it was until the times of David that God promised that there was going to be a house that was going to be built up for him. He promised that to David. He said, from your flesh, from your offspring, your son is going to be the one who builds that temple.

I will be a father to him and he will be my son. Solomon is the one that fulfills that promise. But then, Acts chapter 7, verse 42, Stephen, filled with the spirit, filled with wisdom and light that comes from above. He's going to take an Old Testament truth. He's going to take an Old Testament reality, history of the Old Testament.

And again, he's going to give us light under the new covenant. so that today we may understand what is being built up, what is meant by a spiritual house to be built up. He's going to say, Stephen, chapter 7 in the book of Acts, he's going to speak of the presence of God being in the tent that was given to Moses, that Moses built according to the model that was given to him, this heavenly model that was passed on to Joshua. And he's going to narrate the story that happened with David. And he's going to acknowledge that Solomon is the one who ended up building the temple.

But then in verse 48, he's going to say a glorious word, but Or yet, New Testament light is about to be given. In other times, God has spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in this last time, he has spoken to us through the son. And the son has given his testimony through his holy apostles and the prophets. And one of his prophets is going to speak the word and is going to give to us light about the truth, the doctrinal truth of the temple of God. He says, but, The Most High does not dwell in temples built up or made by hands.

The temple of the Old Testament or the tabernacle of the Old Testament had been made with the hands of men. And then Stephen comes filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 7, and he's going to say, but this God does not dwell in temples, or in houses, or in sanctuaries that have been made with hands of men. And this truth that is now being revealed by this Old Testament, or New Testament prophet, is the truth that had been given to Old Testament prophets, but they were serving not themselves, they were serving us, because this is the grace that was going to be ours. Because Isaiah, in chapter 66, verse 1, he says, O Lord God, the heavens are your throne, and the earth is your footstool. Who is going to build a house for you?

Who is going to produce a resting place for you? A rhetorical question, which answer is nobody. Nobody is able to build up a house for the holy of holies, for the creator of heaven. This is what Stephen is saying in chapter seven of the book of Acts, verse 42. Apostle Paul will confirm that in Acts 17, when he says that the Creator of everything, of heavens and earth and everything that is in it, does not dwell in temples that have been made with hands.

And he adds, and he is not served by men. Beloved brothers and sisters, the reality of the spiritual house of God under the New Covenant is that it is not built up by men. It is not built up by the machinations or imaginations or the strategies or the efforts of men. As just as it is a spiritual house, it has a spiritual growth or a spiritual building. Brothers and sisters, I'm going to submit to you that the spiritual house of the new covenant, which is the Church of Jesus Christ, which is comprised by all of those who have been born again by grace through faith, inserted into Christ by baptism of the Spirit into one body, that that temple of God is built up not by the hands of men, He's not built up by this, even the service of men, but he's built up by his spiritual means.

And beyond that, I'm going to submit to you that what Peter is trying to show us here, now pay attention to this, because this is the burden that I have for these last couple of months. Brothers and sisters, that the building up of the spiritual house of God is directly correlated to the spiritual growth of the individual, of the church. And now I'm talking Baptist language. I'm talking local church. I'm talking about the local church.

I'm talking that the building up of the spiritual house of God, not only the universal of all peoples from all tribes and all tongues and all nations, but those who are locally living in a particular place, that the building up of that spiritual house, like our brother said, not the building, but the people, the collective building, the collective spiritual building, it is directly correlated to the spiritual growth of the individuals that conform or comprise this spiritual house. And this goes both sides. The spiritual growth of the individual depends on the spiritual building up of the church. One determines the other, and the principle is applied. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God, the one who works both in you, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.

That means that it is God the one who builds up the spiritual house, and it is God the one who makes or gives growth to the individual, but at the same time, it is the covenant people of God under the new covenant, the ones that empowered by the grace of God and through the spirit of God make the people of God or the building of God to be built up And also it is the son or the daughter of God, the one that is called to grow up into salvation. I'm going to submit, brothers and sisters, that this is the important correlation. Now, how are we to understand this relationship between the spiritual building up of the temple and the growth of the believer? I'm going to present it to you from the lips of the Apostle Paul when he's presenting us the opposite situation, not the situation of the building up of the church and the building up of or the growth of the individual, but rather the destruction of it. Because if we understand the destruction of it or the problems that the building may have, we may be able to drive or to have conclusions about what the church is ought to do in order to build up the church.

So I'm going to take you to First Corinthians chapter three. And I want you to bear with me. I want you to bear with me and to pay much attention to what the apostle is going to be saying here, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Truly, brothers and sisters, pay attention to what the apostle is going to teach us in this chapter. Because I want us to analyze, biblically, from the New Testament, the building up of this temple, which is not built up by human hands.

It is not built up by the efforts, or the intelligence, or the religion, or the morality of men. It is not built up that way. It is built up by God empowering His people. Pay attention to what the apostle is going to say in chapter 3. in verse 16.

I want you to see those verses before we read the chapter so that we are able to address what I want you to see with your heart. He says, 16, Do you not know that you, speaking to the church, are God's temple or a spiritual house, and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys, which is vocabulary that is opposite to building up, If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. If you remember from a reading of 1 Peter, he calls us a holy nation, a chosen people.

And he says here that God's temple is holy, and that you are that temple. So whatever Paul has said before, is taking him to come to a conclusion that something can destroy God's temple. If we are able to understand what is that thing that destroys God's temple, the opposite is going to build up God's temple or spiritual house. So let's pay attention to what he says from chapter 1, from chapter 3 verse 1. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? Rhetorical question.

Now, what then is Apollos? Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to pay attention here because now, Paul is going to speak of the role of servants. In chapter 4, in verse 1, he calls servants of Christ or the stewards of the mysteries of God. He's going to speak now about the role of the servants of God, being Paul and Apollos, being the ones that are building up the temple of God. What is the people?

Pay attention to how the argument progresses. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? He answers there. Servants through whom you, the people of the church, believed as the Lord assigned to each.

I, Paul, planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither He who plants, speaking of Himself, nor He who waters, speaking of Apollos, is anything but only God who gives the growth. He who plants, speaking an analogy of himself, and he who waters, in analogy of Apollos, are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor, the labor of Apollos, in analogy, or the labor of Paul, in analogy. For we are God's fellow workers. the servants of Christ, or the stewards of the mysteries, as he calls it in chapter 4 verse 1.

For we are God's fellow workers, and he's going to distinguish, but you are God's field. What? God's building. Pay attention to each one of the words that come here, beloved brethren. According to the grace of God given to me, Paul, the one who planted, Like a skilled master builder, I, Paul, laid a foundation, and someone else, speaking of Apollos, is building upon it.

Apollos was the one that watered. Let each one take care how he builds upon it." Speaking of the servants, speaking of Apollos, and speaking of Paul. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Chapter 2 says, When I came to you, I came not with wisdom of men, but I came with fear and trembling.

and that the preaching of the gospel may be with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit, so that your faith may not rest upon the wisdom of men, but that your faith may rest upon the Spirit. That's the work that Paul had established at this church at Corinth. Then now, verse 12. Now, if anyone builds, speaking of those who are like Paul or Apollos, on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Speaking of the building up of God's people, that the work of some may be of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, God's people as a building.

Now, verse 14, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he said, I was the one that built upon the foundation, it was Jesus Christ. Speaking of his work, Paul's, verse 14, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward, the reward of those who are the servants of Christ, those who are the stewards of the mysteries of God, that he will then explain in chapter four, verse 15. If anyone's work is burnt up, and this should make us tremble as a church, if anyone's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know now? Do you not know?

that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroy God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Now pay attention to how he concludes this argument in verse 18. Let no one deceive himself. Remember how he started, that there were divisions among the church.

Some people were saying, we are of Paul. Some other people were saying, we are of Apollos. Now He, in this chapter 3, He has explained that both Paul and Apollos are servants of God. That they lay the foundation, that they planted, that they watered. But God is the one that gives the growth to the people of God.

Now let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is fully with God, for it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men.

That was the problem that the church had. They were boasting in Paul, and they were boasting in Apollos. So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, are all yours, and you are Christ, and Christ is God's. If you are not convinced of the argument, then see chapter 4. This is how one should regard us, Paul and Apollos, as servants of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God.

And then you can continue the reading in chapter 4 and then you will see that he's speaking about Paul and Apollos. What am I going to try to say, brothers and sisters? Two important aspects that destroy or prevent the building up of the spiritual house. Now, pay attention to this. Two things that we see in this chapter, beloved.

Two things that we see in this chapter that prevent the building up of the spiritual house of God and on the contrary put it in risk of destruction First, happens at the individual level as I said to you before I started reading the chapter and second, happens, it manifests itself at the corporate level That which happens in the individual level, Paul addresses it as spiritual infancy or spiritual immaturity Spiritual infancy or spiritual immaturity When people were choosing men within the church, they were showing up, they were manifesting, they were showing their carnality and their preference, their lack of love and their preference for one man. They were choosing the wisdom of men. And a spiritual infancy of a spiritual immaturity is manifested in the church in lack of unity. Lack of unity is a manifestation of his spiritual immaturity, of his spiritual infancy. Go back to Peter, please.

Go back to Peter chapter 2, because this is the whole argument that the Apostle Peter is doing here. In chapter 2, he's connecting, beloved brothers and sisters, the individual reality of the person who has been born again with the spiritual reality of the church. He's connecting the individual reality of the believer with that of the church. The person that has been born again In this life, beloved brothers and sisters, we have only two ways of living our lives. It is according to God's ways, but it's according to man's way.

And man's way is according to our flesh, according to our carnality. God's way is always righteous and it's perfect. We're always put, every day of our lives, we're put before those two options. We live our lives according to God's way, or we live our lives according to men's way, which is inserted in my flesh, in my, in the concupiscences, we have an old word in Spanish that go in my heart, or the inner desires of my heart. We have those two options.

The grace of God and the power of the Spirit have taken us to a position in which we have the power within us through the Spirit to choose God's way. But we do that by being empowered by the Spirit and following the Word of God. So that's the importance of these things that I'm saying to you with the limitation of my words. Because this is what Peter is doing in chapter 2. After he has spoken of the new birth of people, he says in chapter 2, So put away all malice, and all deceit, and all hypocrisy, and all envy, and all slander, like newborn infants desire the purest spiritual milk, speaking of the word of God, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

So then he will start As you come to Him, the Living Stone, you yourselves, now corporately speaking, are being built up as a spiritual house. Put away the old man. Put on the new man like Christ. Desire the spiritual milk of the Word of God, because this is what God has given you the power to, if you have tasted that the Lord is good. And as you come to Him, you are being built up as spiritual house brothers and sisters.

The church is now built up by the hands of men. a church, if a person is going to contribute in the expansion of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, that is not going to happen through Facebook or through our website or through recording our sermons or through having a nice building or through wearing these shirts or by having a type of Bible. So by having tracks is going to happen by the power of the spirit. And I said to you, brothers and sisters, that the building up of God's Temple is related to the spiritual growth of the individual. Put away all malice, deceit, envy, hypocrisy, and slander, and decide the spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you might grow up into salvation.

The Apostle defines that as coming to Christ. Coming to Christ, brothers and sisters, is the means by which the individual matures in the faith. His spiritual infancy, his spiritual immaturity is going to produce lack of unity within the church. Christ-likeness, his spiritual maturity, his spiritual growth is going to be manifested in union and love within the church. Those feelings, those emotions, those sentiments, those things that I have in my heart towards you people speak of the level of spiritual maturity that I have within my heart.

So ask yourself the question. That which you have in your heart towards the people that are sitting around you, that which the people around you produce in your heart, It speaks of the level of maturity, spiritual maturity that you have in your heart. Because when a person grows up in the Lord, into salvation, that is going to be manifested in coming to Christ. and in the coming together of the church in Christ. When we come to Christ, then the church is united and built upon.

Now, brothers and sisters going back, please bear with my words and please keep your attention with me just for not long, not very long. The apostle said something very interesting of Paul and Apollos, that they were the ones that planted and the ones that water. Now, The spiritual growth of the individual and the spiritual building up of the church happens by coming to Christ and through the preaching of His Word. That's why they are going to be held accountable for the service that they have given to God's people. And He speaks of a reward to them.

But it is through the preaching of the Word both individually and corporately, that people are going to grow and they are going to come to Jesus Christ. Put away all malice. Put away all of these unloving things. And like newborn infants, desire this pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. If you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to him corporately, you're going to be built up as a spiritual house.

coming to Christ, being built up upon the foundation of truth. Go to Ephesians please. I want to show you this. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 18.

Let's just see this. It's very important. Brothers and sisters, this is very important for your soul. The Apostle Paul in chapter two in all efficiency has spoken about the depths of the wisdom of salvation that is available to us in Jesus Christ. And he has said the salvation is by grace through faith.

And because it is by grace through faith, the salvation is available both to old covenant people and to new covenant people. And that Christ has destroyed the wall of hostility between the Jews and between the Gentiles. And from the two men, he has made one who are God's people. And now he's going to speak of this access that both men have to Jesus Christ. In verse 18, he says, chapter 2, verse 18, for through him that is Jesus Christ, the one who died upon the cross, the perfect beloved son of God, the righteous spotless lamb of the father that was slain upon the cross, receiving the wrath that we deserved.

For through him we both, Jews and Gentiles, have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, or in Peter's language, The spiritual house that is being made by the living stones. Verse 20. That house, that spiritual house is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The truth that has been given to us through the oracles of the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the church.

The church is the foundation and the pillar of truth that is the abiding place of the living God in which the mystery of godliness has been revealed. Then it says, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. In whom? In whom? The whole structure being joined together, not apart, not separate, not one people here and one people here or a group of people there, but together grows into a holy temple.

Peter's language, a spiritual house in the Lord. In Him, that is, in Christ or in Peter's language, as you come to Him, in Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Now, Paul was concerned about the growth and the maturity of the church. So he is going to bring this point again. Go to chapter four.

In chapter four, now he's going to speak about these offices that are given to the church so that the church may grow as a spiritual house. Chapter four, verse 11. And he gave, chapter four, verse 11, and he gave the apostles the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers. What for? To equip the saints for the work of ministry.

What for? For building up the body of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. Toast to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by Adamic cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we people are to grow up in every way into Him. who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

and the apostle not being happy, just addressing the importance of the togetherness, of the unity of the members of the church as an equivalent to the building up of the church as a whole. Then in chapter four, verse 29, he's going to continue. You've seen how many people quote the verse, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, do not grieve the Spirit. So this is the context of grieving the Spirit. Verse 29, let not corrupting talk come out of your mouths."

Peter puts it another way, let all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and all envy and all slander, put them away, desire the word of God. He says here, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that he may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice, brothers and sisters. This is foundational for your soul. If you want to grow up spiritually into your salvation, you require and you need the spiritual house, which is the church.

And if the spiritual house, which is the church, is going to grow and is going to be built up, it requires the spiritual growth of the individual members of the church, brothers and sisters. Spiritual maturity is not equivalent to physical maturity, in which time, physical maturity, is the main factor that determines growth. So when you have a child, physically speaking, humanly speaking, this child is going to grow up, is going to mature as time progresses. In the spiritual growth, time is not the only factor that determines spiritual growth. Why do you think that in Revelation chapter 2, John is going to exhort to go back to your first love?

Why? Because the first love that they had was now lost. Because the good deeds and the good works that they had were now lost. Because spiritual maturity in the spiritual world does not only depend on time, but it depends on coming to Christ, brothers and sisters. That's why you find in this world people who have been walking with the Lord for 40, 30, 20, many, many, many years, and their hearts have grown cold and indifferent towards the Lord.

And the exhortation that is given in Revelation chapter 2 goes with them, go back to your first love. Because spiritual maturity and the spiritual work does not only depend on time, but it depends on really and truly coming to Christ and enduring by faith in the presence of Christ. And then when spiritual maturity and spiritual growth is given to the individual, then corporately speaking, the church is going to be blessed with a spiritual growth. Brothers, The only way that we are going to extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ as a community, it is not by human efforts, because this kingdom is not extended by the plans and the power and the understanding of men. It only happens by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's why James in chapter 4, he's speaking or he's asking the question, Where all these quarrels and where all these fights come from among you, speaking to the church? And he says that it comes from the passions that are within us, that are making war within us. He is going to give the solution for that problem in chapter four, verse eight. And he says, draw nigh or close to God, and he will draw close to you. Coming to Christ is the way by which we grow, beloved brothers and sisters.

We are not going to grow by the religion of men or by the traditions of men. I don't know about you, I don't know about you, but I want to see my life in a few years. And the only thing that I want to see when I go backwards is that I am conformed more like Jesus Christ. And then when my eyes are put towards my church, I want to see that our people are more like Jesus Christ, because the purpose of the individual is exactly the same like the purpose of the church. The temple of God is not built up with the power of men.

May God give us grace. Amen.