The Qualities of the Christi..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. This evening, we are going to be addressing the practical exhortation that the apostle is going to give to Christians in this list of different qualities that are found in verses five through seven. There's a list of qualities, as the ESV will call them, or this list of things or this list of characteristics of the life of the Christian.

The one who by grace through faith has been united to Christ. That is, if you are in Christ, then the list of qualities that we are going to read and we are going to study together are supposed to be a reality of your faith. That is what Scripture says. That is how Scripture defines. the life of the believer.

And if you are in Christ, those things are to be a reality in you. Those qualities, as the Apostle describes them in the ESV, or as they are translated in the ESV, your Bible might call them things or characteristics. I'm going to be referring to those as qualities as the ESV calls them. If we are going to analyze and study together by the help of the Spirit of God, verses 5, 6, and 7, then I'm going to require your attention, your careful attention, beloved of Christ, to read the context. And we're going to be reading this together from 2 Peter chapter 1, from verse 1, all the way to chapter 15, from verse 1 to verse 15.

Now, I said to you that we're going to study these qualities. So I want you to carefully pay attention every time that the apostle or the text is going to refer to these qualities because it's going to happen many times throughout the text. Now, those qualities are listed as virtue and knowledge and self-control and steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. There are seven of those qualities. So as we read, beloved of Christ.

Pay attention to the context and to each one of the words that describe or speak of those qualities of the Christian. So this is the perfect, all sufficient life given word of our Lord Jesus Christ. So with reverent hearts, paying much attention to each one of the words, not with distracted minds, but with minds that are in Christ. Let's pay attention to each one of these words. 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.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Pay attention to the section that it says here. 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. These are the qualities. 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. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse 12. Therefore, the apostle says, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me." And I will make every effort, the apostle says, I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time.

to recall these things. Amen. That is the reading of the Word of the Lord. Beloved of Christ, as I said, we're going to be addressing this practical exhortation, this apostolic practical exhortation to the life of the Christian. Speaking of these qualities, of these things that the Christian is supposed to add, to supplement to the existing faith, all my efforts in the last couple of sermons have been to show you that if a Christian is called to do these things, it's because God has already worked in the life of that person.

This message is not for the lost. This message is not for the person who is not in Christ, because the one that is not in Christ is unable to please God. The one who is away from Jesus Christ, the one who has not been united by grace through faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, is utterly unable to do the things that Scripture commands. If that is your case, then the calling is to surrender your life to Christ and to come to Him while there is today. Today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day in which you can come freely to Christ. He says, come to me, come to me and take from me, drink and eat with no price if you are not in Christ. But by God's grace and His instruction and His Spirit, these words are for those who by grace through faith are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the instruction for the one who has been given life, not a life in the flesh, but a life in the Spirit. And this exhortation, beloved of Christ, that the apostle is going to give us here, it is so clear and so structured.

I'm pretty sure that you may remember many list of different things that we are called to do. Remember the fruits of the spirit in Galatians chapter five, where the joy and peace and faith, there's lots of things that we are supposed to have as Christians. Or the same apostle Peter in first Peter will give us list of things that we are not supposed to do. Yet, brothers and sisters, in this list of qualities that we have here, we have something very particular. That we have not only a list of things that is very clear, a list of things that is very clear, we have virtue, and we have knowledge, and self-control, and steadfastness, and godliness, and broadly affection and love, is not only very clear, but it's also given to us in a systematic and very structured way.

You see, the apostle is going to say that to our faith we are to add virtue and that to our virtue we are to add knowledge and to our knowledge we are to add self-control and to that self-control is steadfastness and to the steadfastness, godliness and brotherly affection and love. This list of qualities that we are supposed to have, brothers and sisters, we are supposed to have. These things in our lives are given to us, not only in a very clear way, but also in a very systematic way. You see, when you read the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, you don't know which one comes first. They're just given to you.

These are characteristics that the Spirit of God is supposed to produce in us. Same thing when you read in Romans or when you read in 1 Peter. But here, there is a clear and systematic way in which these qualities are given to us. Now, this is going to be very important to our argument because the Bible is, of course, the Word of God and is perfect when everything is given and written for us. You may remember, beloved of Christ, and keep your mind with me, please.

that when we're speaking of the attributes of God or that which God does for us in salvation, we speak sometimes of these glorious workings of God unto our salvation in Romans chapter 8, and we call that this golden chain of salvation. Perhaps you heard that. Well, if you haven't, come with me to Romans chapter 8, and then I will point you to the point that I want to make. Go to Romans chapter 8, and these theologians and pastors usually speak of these things that God does for us as this golden chain of salvation. If you go to Romans chapter 8, in verse 28, or verse 30 best, it says, this is what God does for us in salvation.

He says, and those whom he protesting, he also called and those whom he called, he also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified. Scripture is very careful in giving us these things that God does for us when He saves us in a connected way. You cannot have glory if you don't have justification. You cannot have justification if you don't have calling. And you cannot have calling if you are not predestined by God.

That's why the theologians call it the golden chain. And those are kind of like the rings of that chain, if that's what you call them in English. So you have glory, you have justification and you have calling and then you have the predestination of God. All of them are divinely connected and attached and they depend on each other. So what I'm going to argue and submit to you, beloved of Christ, that just as the Apostle Paul presents to us in Romans chapter 8, this golden chain of salvation that takes us from being predestined in Christ to glory when heaven comes, the Apostle Peter by the inspiration of the Spirit in 2 Peter is going to give us the golden chain of the Christian life.

the golden chain of the Christian life, things that cannot be separated from your faith. You see, beloved of Christ, once we have been united to the person of Jesus Christ, the life that we live, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. But now that faith that you have, if you are in Christ, it is a faith that requires according to Scripture, that produces, that has divinely attached to it, virtues or qualities, and the qualities that we have here given to us. Now, I want you to see how the initial step of this chain is faith, and it ends up in which one is the last one? Love.

The first one is faith that has saved us and united to Christ. And then the outcome of this change is love. And this is exactly the same teaching of the Apostle Paul in Galatians, chapter five, that says that in Jesus Christ, no circumcision or uncircumcision avails for nothing. But what is important in Jesus Christ, it is a faith that works through love. It is a faith that is alive because of love.

It is a faith that produces, that changes, that does things because and through love. It is exactly the same argument, the same divine argument. Of course, it is the Spirit of God. The Spirit is going to give us here more detail. Now, brothers and sisters, I cannot think of something more practical for our Christian life than the thing that we have in front of us.

This list of virtues and this list of qualities, if by the Spirit of God you desire to please the Lord and to glorify the Lord, then you are to give yourself, your heart, your mind to make this text not only a reality that abides in your mind, but that is real in you. Why are you going to be contempt with only calling yourself a Christian? Why are you going to be contempt only by professing to be a Christian when there's much power in being saved? There's much power in belonging to the Lord. There is much life of Christ available by the Spirit and in His Word to those who profess to be Christian.

I hope that might not be the case in our church within us, that we might be simply contempt just with having the label of a Christian, with having just something that calls us or that names us as believers and that you lack substantial reality. Because when the day comes, everything is going to be revealed. Everything is going to be revealed in your heart. And as a church, brothers and sisters, understanding the practical importance of these qualities, these seven qualities that are added to faith, it is vital for the life of the Christian because of the purpose of these qualities. Everything that we are supposed to do in our Christian life, everything that we're supposed to say and think and even do not say or do not think, it is unto the glory of God.

Whether you eat or you drink, everything is for the glory of the only God of this universe who gave His Son to die upon the cross and to save us, to redeem us, everything. But when it comes to the practical life of the Christian, the importance of the presence of these qualities in your life, it is given to us in the text. It says in verse eight. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being what? Ineffective and or unfruitful.

That is, that if these qualities are in yours and are increasing, then you are a Christian who is fruitful and effective. If you don't have them, then you are unfruitful and ineffective. So the importance of these qualities in our life, it is not only for the glory of God, which we should do everything unto the glory of God. But when it comes to the life of the Christian, fruitfulness and effectiveness, spiritually speaking, it depends on the existence of these qualities, of these attributes in your life. Not in the life of the person that is seated next to you.

Not in the life of your husband or in the life of your wife or in the life of the person that you admire. In your life. Because when it comes a time in which you're going to be taken up to glory or the Lord will come, you're going to have to give an account for your life. Not the life of your husband, not the life of your wife, not the life of the one that preaches or the one that does this or that. It is your life.

Not only that, it's not only important because the presence of these qualities makes us fruitful and effective, which I hope, by God's grace, we will preach on that in the future. But also, brothers and sisters, because verse nine says or tells us what happens when those things lack. It says, 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.

Because if practice or existence of these qualities are in your life, then you will never fall. And if that was not enough, then the apostle adds, for in this way, what is that way? In practicing those qualities that exist in the life of the Christian. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord. So if you live in these things, if you practice these things, then the kingdom of God will be open to you and you will be entering into that kingdom.

one can soundly and in the authority of the scripture say the opposite. That if these things are not a reality, that if these things are not existing in a person that professes to be a Christian, then that reality is proof of a deeper spiritual condition. And therefore, the shuts or the doors of the kingdom of God will be closed and shut to that person. And perhaps that person is going to be one of those that hurts from the mouth of the Lord You workers of inequity. Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these things?

Didn't we preach? Didn't we share the gospel? Didn't we do good works and cast out demons? Didn't we do all of those things? I went to church on Sunday.

I prepared a sermon. I evangelized and I did this and I did that. I helped the poor. Depart from me, ye workers of inequity. Now, brothers and sisters, I don't know if you see, but this is very serious.

It goes beyond religion. It goes beyond having a nice new building and having chairs and this and that. It goes beyond, beyond that. It goes in the reality of your soul, the reality of your spirit. Religion of men kills and kills eternally.

The religion of men kills and sends people to hell. Brothers and sisters, times approach and come in which the church has to be established in the truth of God. Not only in the written truth that is understood with the mind and then forgotten, but then better the truth that is lived. Christ living in us, the Word of God living in us. So when life is going to be taken, take my life and let it be consecrated all to thee.

Take it because it is Christ living in us. So the exhortation, beloved of Christ, that we have here with these qualities, it is basically an apostolic exhortation to endurance until the end. The apostle is just giving us the characteristics of those Christians who will be in the present fruitful and effective, spiritually speaking, and because of their fruitfulness and effectiveness in the present, will make it to the end. In other words, the doors of the kingdom will be open to them and an entrance into that kingdom will be richly provided. You see this condition of the now and the yet or the already not yet, the now and then the something that is still to happen, to come, that the Christian is to be fruitful and effective now as He awaits for the moment of glory, as He waits for the moment in which the Lord is going to say to him or her, coming to my eternal rest, coming to my eternal abode.

Brothers and sisters, do not depart in your minds from these words, are not mine, from Scripture. I'm telling you, do not depart in your mind, in your hearts from the things that I'm saying here. Now, brothers and sisters, the apostle is calling us to endure, and endurance until the end is not easy. Enduring until the end, when we see the Lord, when we are taken up to glory, is not something that is promised in Scripture that is going to be simple and easy, but rather it's going to be difficult. There's going to be battles within us, battles against the world and battles against Satan, who wants to see Christians lacking all of these qualities.

who wants to see professing believers just saying that they believe, but their faith has no virtue, no knowledge, none of the qualities that I have in front of me. Your faith... whoever you are within the sound of my voice, individually, independently, you, your life depends on a faith that has the qualities that the apostle gives to us here in this portion of scripture. That means that your faith has to move through these qualities onto love. That it is that biblical love, God given, spirit empowered, scripture based love It's a love that depends on the existence of faith and virtue and knowledge and self-control and steadfastness and godliness and brotherly affection.

You cannot have love, biblical love, God-given, God-empowered love, which is the fulfillment of the law. if you lack any of the items of this golden chain of the Christian life. Just as the believer cannot see glory if he has not been justified and called and predestined, because these are the rings of this golden chain, then the practical life of the Christian, in enduring until the end, will not see Christ when we are taken up to glory, if there is no love that is based on all of these qualities. And now, brothers and sisters, this is fearful and terrifying because the world does everything, the system of the world does everything for us to actually lack these qualities. Come with me to Proverbs chapter eight, not to Proverbs, to Ecclesiastes chapter eight.

This is a terrifying verse that I learned this verse. Of course, you know, you read many times many things, but you learn the Lord teaches you something like perhaps seven years ago when I was first converted. Proverbs chapter 8, Ecclesiastes. Chapter 8. See how fearful it is, the condition of the world and the condition of mankind.

And we're going to compare this with Matthew 24. So go there to Ecclesiastes chapter 8, and then we're going to compare that with Matthew 24. It says, beloved of Christ, it says Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11. 11. Because the sentence against an evil deed, in other words, judgment, right?

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of men is fully set to do evil. That is, because of the delay of judgment, Because of the delay of God given to the sinner that which he or she deserves, because of the day of the Lord being delayed or not happening, then the heart of men is given and set to do evil. The system of this world, it will continue to increase in setting themselves to do evil and wickedness abound. But the terrifying thing is that as that wickedness abounds, as unrighteousness abounds, then the Christian is going to be affected. Go to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24. I said to you that for biblical love to exist, brothers and sisters, for biblical love, real God-given love to exist in the life of a Christian, all of these other qualities that are rooted in faith should be present. If it's said in a scripture of a Christian that he lacks love, then that means that all of these other qualities are missing or they are corrupted. Matthew 24, verse 12, And because lawlessness will be increased, that it is the judgment of God is delayed and it's not coming and people and men are setting their hearts to do evil. And it says, "...

and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." Independently what your eschatological view is and where your interpretation of the passage. There is a principle here, and the context will speak of Christians that fall away. Read it from verse nine. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations.

For my name's sake, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples. And then many of you, and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets, which is the burden of second Peter, and many false prophets will arise and lead many, many Christians astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. The love that is meant to be rooted in faith, and in virtue, and in knowledge, and in steadfastness, and godliness, and brotherly affection.

That love that should be the result of each one of the qualities that Peter describes in 2nd Peter. That love will grow cold. Verse 13, "...but the one who endures to the end will be saved." These are not my words.

These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. the one that endures until the end, the one whose love will not grow cold when wickedness and unrighteousness increase in this world, when the system of this world is prevailing over the things that we see, when the love of that Christian remains hot, remains in the Spirit, remains rooted in faith and in virtue and in knowledge and steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, the top of the mountain, love of Christ, then that is the one that will endure until the end. Do you see the importance of this, brothers and sisters? This is not about just, you know, having church and singing kumbaya and doing these things and those things. This is about our souls.

This is about our eternal destiny. Just because a person is seated in a church does not mean that that person is going to make it into heaven, as if church attending will save a person. It is real operation of the Spirit in the heart of a person that produces a faith, that adds unto it all of these glorious attributes of the golden chain of the Christian life. That's how the apostle presents to us the passage that we have in front of us. Say, Peter, he is going to give us now this exhortation, beloved.

He's going to say to the believer, supplement your faith, supplement your faith in verse five. Now, each one of you, Each one of you who are in Christ, supplement your faith. Supplement your faith. The existence of saving faith is required for what it comes to be true. I've said that already.

This is not for the one that is not a Christian, but it doesn't mean that because you have saving faith, then it follows that you will naturally have all of these attributes. Why? Otherwise, the apostle will not call you to supplement your faith. If all of these virtues were an inherent reality to your faith, then the Bible will not call you to supplement your faith. So this is for the one that is a Christian, not for the unbeliever, but the Christian is meant to supplement their faith.

And the glorious thing about supplementing, as I said last week in the online service, beloved of Christ, is that this word means take from what you have already and provide and give what is needed. That is what it says in verse 3, that His divine power has granted to you all things that pertain to life and godliness. It is God the one that has empowered the Christian already to supplement his or her faith, but we are to do it. We are to do it. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

It is God the one that works in us both to will and to do, but we are to do it. Salvation is of God completely and entirely, and salvation is of the Lord entirely. Man cannot be saved by works. But once that man has been saved, then this man is to operate and do in light of the life that he or she has been given by the Lord. supplement your faith.

As I read this to myself and as even as I'm just thinking what I'm going to say next, I think to myself, brothers and sisters, am I supplementing my faith with what it comes? My soul trembles just to continue in the verse, not to find myself to be a hypocrite speaking from the pulpit with boldness of something that is not a reality in my heart, which preachers are very good at doing. Brothers and sisters, supplement your faith. This faith is now yours. And the first thing that faith has to be supplemented with or by, or whatever you say it in English.

The first thing that you are supposed to provide to your faith is virtue. Seven years ago, I was living with Pedro and I realized it was the three of us. And I remember the Lord first saved me, getting into my room and studying this passage and not understanding anything what Peter was saying. If the Spirit of God is illuminating your mind now, this is the golden chain of your practical life. Beloved of Christ, pay attention to the words that I'm saying.

Your existing faith is to be supplemented with virtue. Some of your Bibles will change that and will speak of excellence or will speak of moral excellence. And that word virtue or moral excellence is exactly the same word that the apostle has used to speak of the glory and excellence of the Lord Jesus Christ that was the one who called us. What is virtue? What is moral excellence?

What is that thing that needs to be added to our faith? What is that first thing that should be supplemented onto our faith? Okay, brothers and sisters, the apostle is going to present to us this list. in a very particular structure. He's going to come from the inside of the person to the external deeds.

He's going to move from virtue to love, and he's going to do it from the inside to the outside of the believer, the things that we do. And this word virtue is defined by scripture. I don't have to do it in Philippians chapter four. So turn to Philippians chapter four and we will understand the first thing that needs to be added to our faith. Philippians chapter four.

These first two qualities. Now, brothers and sisters, bear with me. I will try not to go very long. Bear with me. These first two qualities, this virtue and the one we're going to speak about, knowledge, are qualities that abide in the mind of the person, in the mind of the Christian, that they're related to that which we use to think and to process information, the mind.

Then he's going to move to the soul or the heart of the Christian. And then he's going to move to the external deeds. So now we're dealing with mine. And the apostle in Philippians chapter four is going to describe this concept of virtue or moral excellence. And this is just simply going to be all things that will make a person honorable.

Go in verse eight. And this is the concept very well described there by the apostle Paul. Virtue or moral excellence, beloved of Christ. Finally, brothers and sisters, of course, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Think about these things, these things that are supposed to be excellent or that are supposed to have virtue in them.

You are supposed to constantly think on them or other translation will say to abide in them. Virtue, brothers and sisters, is everything that makes a person honorable or praise worthy. Everything that makes a Christian honorable, worthy of receiving praise, worthy of receiving honor, is this moral excellence of virtue. Now, the world and in the flesh, everything that we want to do so that others will give us their praises and their honor is that we want to be good husbands, we want to be good workers, we want to be an example. We don't want people to see the shortcomings of our families in public because we don't want that to happen.

So we want to be honorable and we want them to see the good things in us so that we are worthy of honor. When it comes to Christ, when it comes to the things of the Spirit, beloved of Christ, that which makes a man or woman virtuous or with moral excellence is that this person constantly abides in the law. That is that the mind of Christ is in that person, as the Apostle Paul will say in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. That the excellence of that person is derived from opening our eyes and seeing the excellence of God and wanting to be like Him. Because He is the one that is honorable and He is the one that is worthy of praise.

So the praises to the soul of the one that has faith are derived from being and having the mind of Christ, which we already have because of faith. Moral excellence. Who is going to have moral excellence but God? And the more that our standard of morality is aligned to Him, the more that we are going to be worthy of receiving praises from others and from God Himself. Our faith, beloved of Christ, is one that needs to be added with virtue.

But that virtue comes with another thing, and that is knowledge. Knowledge. The Apostle Peter has already spoken about this knowledge in 1 Peter 3, when he was exhorting the husbands to live with their wives in an understanding way. And that is according to knowledge. Same expression is used here.

This means, brothers and sisters, that when we come to Christ in faith, to add to our faith virtue that comes from Him, we are to come according to knowledge. That is, according to the standard that God has given to us in His Word. But it's not only understanding words and meanings and concepts, but rather, brothers and sisters, pay attention to me here, please. It is with illumination of those things unto our soul. that it is knowledge given to us, not only that abides in the mind, not only that we understand this thing or that thing, but rather that the Spirit of God speaks to us into our hearts through His Word, so that my faith has come to Jesus Christ, seeking all excellences that come from His morality and who He is, this virtuous Christ, but not only that I come to Him, but rather that also my eyes are opened, illuminated by the Spirit, according to His knowledge, according to His word, according to His sayings, according to His commandments, that the word of God and Christ dwells in us richly, so that what comes out of our mouth, it is not my perception of virtue and morality and my preferences in the flesh, but rather is the knowledge of Christ speaking and being within me.

It is the mind of Christ in the mind of the believer. I don't know if you see the importance of the Word of God. Just from starters, if a Christian does not desire the Word of God, you think that that person is going to be a person of moral excellence and virtue? You think that that person is going to be a person that does that according to knowledge? That to that faith, then virtue is added and also knowledge?

No. No, even if you want to please with nice words and not bring discomfort to people, no. If you don't have a genuine desire for the Word of God, independently who you are and your last name, you will not have this as a reality in your heart. This is the authority of the Word of God. This is the authority of the Word of God.

How are we going to know Him if our heart is detached from His Word? How are we going to be like Him if our emotions are more connected to the things of the world than the things of Christ? That is fake Christianity. That is the only concept that can be given to that type of attitude, brothers and sisters. Our hearts must be rooted, established upon the sayings of the Savior, the sweet voice of the one who died upon the cross, the sweet sayings of the one who gave his life upon the cross for us.

His words are sweet. We hear his words because we are his sheep. If we are not his sheep, then his words are burdensome. And then our hearts are not connected to those words. The mind of the Christian has to be worked on first.

Faith and then virtue, this moral excellence and this knowledge is then given by the words of God. Then it comes, the apostle says that this is going to produce in us something that is going to go, brothers and sisters, beyond the mind. And now he's going to speak of the soul and the heart of the person. Bear with me here. The next one that he's going to speak of is self-control.

In the mind, once the eyes of a person have been opened, illuminated by the Spirit to the goodness and kindness of Jesus Christ, of the Christian, once the faith of a genuine Christian has been made virtuous of moral excellence by coming to Christ and understanding with the light of the Spirit the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then that person is empowered with self-control. Self-control, control of self. As the Apostle will say in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 11, as sojourners and exiles, he says to Christians, refrain or abstain from the passions of the flesh that make war within you. That is control self. Because even though you have been saved by grace through faith and you have been given a new life, there is still sin that abides in us.

And those are the passions of the flesh. And brothers and sisters, the Bible calls us to abstain from the passions of the flesh. That it is that self, which is the fleshly self, has to be under control. That the Christian, once he has come by faith and seen the virtuous glory of Christ, and then to that virtuous glory knowledge of and through a scripture has been given, then that person is empowered to master self, to control self, to not only make war against the passions of our flesh, but to be victorious over those passions. Just as Paul will say to his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 1, flee, flee from unrighteousness or flee from these passions.

Move, run away from the passions of the flesh that are making war against you. Just as a wild beast is coming to devour you, you are to flee. But for a person to know that he or she is supposed to flee, that person needs to know the danger of those passions. And if you have not been illuminated by the knowledge of Christ, then you are not going to be fleeing from that which destroys you, but you will be running into because you love it. because you're a lover of the world, and because you're a lover of the things of the world.

But once the eyes of a person have been enlightened with the reality of Christ, then that which Christ hates, the Christian hates. And that which Christ knows that it is of destroying power to the life of the Christian, then the Christian knows. And then the Christian flees from that. Abstains from the passions of the flesh. Removes himself from situations and thoughts and things that will be or have destroying power.

Self-control. Control of the flesh. Master the flesh. Master the desires and the sinful passions that are within your heart and your soul. There could be no worse thing for a person to believe that they are good enough, that they have been sanctified enough, that they have sufficient communion with God, that their fellowship with God is enough, that there is no need of more.

As I was just saying to you yesterday, some of you. There should always be an urgent necessity, this holy frustration in which you want more of Christ. You want more of His love. You want more of His holiness. You want more of His Word.

You want to know Him more. There is this holy frustration that you're at peace because you know that He's working in you, but also that you want more of Him, that you want to control self and the flesh. And just as Paul says to Timothy in 1st Timothy chapter 6, verse 1, he does not only says, flee from these passions, so flee from these things of the flesh, but he also says, and pursue righteousness. You see, fleeing from that which is unrighteous and that which is wicked, it is not only in the negative, but has to be with a direction that it is fleeing or moving on to righteousness. which is the next concept that the Apostle speaks here, steadfastness, or stay under difficulty with continuity, that is to endure and persevere until the end in the midst of oppression, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of trials, steadfastness or perseverance, your Bible might say.

that once you have self-control to flee from the passions of your flesh, beloved of Christ, then you have a direction and that direction is the Lord Jesus Christ. And persevere, endure, continue under the passions of the flesh that make war against you. The deceitfulness of Satan that wants to see you unfruitful and ineffective. The distractions of this world that sometimes take your mind and make you believe that there is value and worth in giving yourself to studies and work and all of these things. which I'm not saying that they are bad, but your life should be rooted in Christ and unto Christ.

Flee, have self-control of your passions and who you are, but also with perseverance and steadfastness move to righteousness under the pressure of all of these things. He adds, and I don't want to go much longer, he adds, now he moves not only from the mind, brothers and sisters and the soul, but now he's going to move on to external things. He adds godliness, godliness, brotherly affection and brotherly affection, love, godliness. This is the mystery of godliness. The Apostle Paul calls it in 1st Timothy chapter 3.

Godliness, being like God, that the piety, as the Puritans would say, that the piety of Christ may be in your heart, that it is that your life may be a life of reverential worship. that it is not only, beloved of Christ, that with the faith that you have, you come to behold Jesus Christ and all His moral excellence, that you're illuminated into who He is, and that you are like Him, and that by the power of the illumination of who Christ is unto your life, you have the power to abstain from the passions of your flesh, to have self-control and pursue righteousness with a steadfastness and perseverance, but that as you move towards Him, You live a life of reverential worship and godliness. It is not that you're fleeing from that which is sinful, but now that you're actively and positively living lives that bring glory to the name of God and of Jesus Christ. not a passive life that is a religious life that lives in a box, removed from the immoralities of men and the system of the world, but a life that abounds in God-likeness, Christ-likeness. And that godliness in the life of the person is necessarily going to be manifested in that which fulfills the law.

Love. Love, brotherly love. You know how Paul defines love in Romans chapter 12? He defines brotherly love as devoting one to another. You see, love is not simply saying that I love you, that you love me.

But Paul defines love as devoting one to another, which by the way, devotion is a very important concept of holiness. devoting one to another. That is, giving myself who I am, what the Lord has given me, whatever gift He has given unto us, to and for brothers and sisters. That is the manifestation of brotherly love. And this finds its final climax in practical love.

Add to that brotherly affection, love. Brothers and sisters, men speak a lot about love. And love is a commandment that we are to love one another. That it is that God has empowered us to love one another and to love God. And love, it is aligning your will to the will of God.

Everything that God decides and everything that God wants, it is loving because He is love. So the more that your will and your desires are aligned to the desires and the will of God, then you are going to be in the love of God. Why? Because if you love Him, you keep His commandments. If you are in Him and you love Him, then you want to keep those things that He has set for you.

I don't want to go any deeper on this, brothers and sisters. But the only thing that I want you to see and ask yourself and question yourself is, is this the qualities that represent your life? We say quickly that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have faith in Him. Is this whatever your name is, whatever your mind is thinking about even right now, is this what describes your faith? Can you connect faith with that which you put in your mouth, love, with all of these things, with virtue, with knowledge?

Self-control, steadfastness, brotherly affection. Can you connect the outcome of your faith, loving outcome, love towards your brothers and sisters and love, the love that fulfills the law. Can you in honest conscience answer to this? Brothers and sisters, we should not be frustrated with the answer to that, but we should be always striving to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is power indeed in the name of Christ to save and to conform us to His image.

There is power in Him not only to give us eternal life, but to make us like the disciples of the first century as we are studying in the book of Acts, that they were willing to give their lives to love one another. They count themselves worthy of the suffering for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, the contemporary church is happy to be married to prosperity and to pleasures and to things. There's going to come a time in which the genuineness of the faith, as Peter says in 1 Peter, is going to be tested. There's going to be a time in which the genuineness of our faith is going to be tested.

And if our faith is found to be lacking, Virtue? Lacking knowledge? Lacking self-control? Lacking steadfastness? Lacking godliness?

Lacking brotherly affection? Lacking charity or love? Then we're going to be unfruitful. Then we're going to be ineffective. Then we're going to fall away and there will not be an entrance provided to us richly into the kingdom of God.

This is fearful. That is fearful, brothers and sisters. Enough I said about the workings of God in the life of the Christian, but our souls are always to take the Word of God in balance and to see what the Word of God says about what God does in us, and also to do that which the Bible calls us to do. Brothers and sisters, apart from the presence of Christ in our lives, we are hopeless. Nobody can add to their faith virtue.

Nobody can add to their virtue knowledge and all of these things apart from Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one who gave His life so that we will have it abundantly. The one who gave His life so that we will not only be justified but made holy for that is the will of God. Our sanctification that we will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ apart From the beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, we will continue to live our lives just as professing to have faith. And when we search inside, we'll find our hearts are lacking in virtue and knowledge, in self-control and steadfastness, in brotherly affection, in love.

All of these things you know, and you're a witness to the situation of your own heart. But now, just as the Lamb of God says to the sinner who is lost, come to Me and drink and eat freely that there is salvation in My name, the same Lord Jesus Christ says to the Christian, come to Me because you are unfruitful apart from My presence. You cannot do anything apart from communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. You will lack these things if you are away from Me, brothers and sisters. My prayer for you, not only here, but when I pray for you, is that you may indeed have a genuine desire Not for theology and books and videos and things and that, but you may have a genuine desire for Christ.

Because if you have a genuine desire for Christ, then your life and your future does not depend on the church, the building, the system, but your life depends on Christ. And there's no better place for your soul to be than in the hands of the Savior. Amen.