The Sanctifying Power of the..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. the first letter of Peter, chapter four, verses seven through eleven. And what we're going to be doing this evening is reading together all chapter four and going until the end of the letter as we are approaching to the end of these letters.

So let's read carefully together chapter four and chapter five so that we get to the context of what the apostle is saying in verses seven through eleven in chapter four. So let's pay attention to the almighty, ever-enduring, perfect, all-sufficient Word of God. To each one of the words, and with reverent hearts, we're going to be reading together. This is the Word of God. I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Chapter 4, verse 1, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, They may live in the Spirit the way God does.

The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

As good stewards of God's varied grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God might be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." Chapter 5, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker, in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He might exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings. And so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. Amen.

And this is the word of God. Beloved brothers and sisters and friends, as I said, we're going to be addressing by God's grace the person of Scripture that the Holy Spirit has given us through the Apostle Peter in verses seven through 11. in which he is going to introduce a very important thought that is contained in the first sentence, and that is that the end of all things is at hand. The end of all things is at hand. And he said, if I was going to give a title to this message, if I was going to summarize the burden that I want to communicate to you and the message for you, brothers and sisters, it's about the sanctifying power of the end times.

It is about this holiness transferring power of the end times or the last days. And when I'm saying the end times, I'm referring to that which is going to take place at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, the end times or the last days are usually referred to as the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or the same apostle Peter calls it the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ or the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what I'm saying to you, my beloved brothers and sisters and friends who are with us this evening, is that the person that we have in front of us speaks to us of the sanctifying power of the last days for the soul of the Christian.

And when I say sanctifying power, I'm speaking about that power that can make us Holy, or in other words, as the Apostle Paul speaks in Romans 8, to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be holy is to be like the one who has called us and is holy, the Lord Jesus Christ. What I'm saying to you, my brothers and sisters and friends, is that Meditating upon the last days has in and of itself a power through the spirit and through the word to sanctify the saint and to make it more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And this topic of the end days or the last days is not only a topic that is introduced by the Apostle Peter in the section that we have here, but actually, my beloved of Christ, It is going to be a topic that is going to be in the mind of the Apostle until the end of the letter. That's why I got you to read the entirety of the remaining section of this letter, because the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ or the last days or those things that are going to take place in the end of the days is something that is motivating the Apostle Peter through the Spirit of God to exhort and to communicate to the churches.

In verse seven, the one that we have, he has introduced it by saying, the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, But he's going to continue meditating upon that reality of revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ or the last day or the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you see in verse 13 of chapter four, when he's going to be addressing suffering, the suffering of the Christian in verse 13, he also says, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when when his glory is revealed when his glory is revealed in chapter one. He has introduced it as the revelation of Jesus Christ, namely the coming of the Lord. Then in chapter five, when he's giving this exhortation to the elders to shepherd the flock in chapter five, verse four, he reads and when the chief shepherd appears, that is when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, You will receive the unfading crown.

of glory. This is the thought that is in the mind of the Apostle Peter. And then in the final exhortation to endurance and humility that he starts in verse six in chapter five, he's going to say something very important. Concluding the letter in verse 10 in chapter five, he says, And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever.

Amen." Brothers and sisters, even though these things took place 30 years after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, and even though these things took place 2000 years ago, The reality of the coming of the Lord was in the hearts, not only of the apostles, but was in the hearts of all the Christians. The people of God were eagerly awaiting the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The saints were eagerly awaiting the coming of the Savior. The apostles and the prophets were eagerly awaiting the appearing of the one who was going to take them to glory.

And this is exactly what we have here in front of us. Brothers and sisters, we should not allow 2000 years of separation to remove from our hearts the powers and the glories that exist when we meditate in the reality that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming. And before we enter into the section that we have here, I just want you to think about the one that is giving us this exhortation because he wrote, the Apostle Peter, he wrote the letter that we have here in 2 Peter just a few years before he was going to be taken up in glory, before he was going to die. He was writing all of these exhortations for the church. And if you think about the man, Peter, the one who received the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, who spent time with the Lord Jesus Christ, yet was very quick to respond upon his emotions.

The one with his eyes saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Mount of Transfiguration, yet he was very quick to deny the same Lord Jesus Christ whom he had seen." This is the glorious workings of the Spirit, in the life of a redeemed sinner, even if that sinner is an apostle in this case. This is the man that is given to us this exhortation, but perhaps the most important teaching that Peter received was when the Lord Jesus Christ asked him, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know that I love you. And the Lord said, feed my land.

Look after my sheep. If you love me, Peter, then feed my people. Give them that which is necessary for them. Give them that which is the nourishment for their souls. Because, brothers and sisters, what we have in front of us is precisely that.

It is the exercise of the Spirit of God in the life of Peter in providing to us the love of Christ by the feeding of our souls. So the Spirit of God, knowing in His providence and in His wisdom that the Word of God is everything that we need, not only the saints of the first century, but also the saints throughout the ages before the Lord Jesus Christ comes, knowing that the Word of God is everything that we need, He has given us this glorious teaching about the end times. So then the Apostle starts in verse 7, saying that the end of all things is at hand. And when we hear, brothers and sisters, that the end of all things is at hand, we are not to think the word end as something that comes to a conclusion. but rather the end of things in the Bible speaks of fulfillment and consummation of something that is going to endure forever, of something that is not going to come to a conclusion and to an end in and of itself, but rather something that is going to be fulfilled.

In other words, we could say the goal or the purpose of all things is at hand. Beloved brothers and sisters, the Apostle is saying that the goal of all things, that the end of all things has power to do something in us. Why do we know that? Because he connects the idea of the end of all things with, therefore, he says, because the end of all things is at hand, it is about to happen. Therefore, he is going to give us a list of things.

This tells us that in the fact that the end or that the goal or that the purpose of things is coming and is approaching very soon, there is power that produces something. This is the meditation, and this is the thought that I pray to the Spirit of God might reside by His power in your heart. Because the Bible is very clear in that in meditating upon the coming and having absolute faith about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is transforming power for the soul of the Christian. This is what I want to point to, not only through the lips of Peter, but also through the words of the Apostle John. If you go to First John, the Apostle John is going to explain very well this which the Apostle Peter is trying to communicate to us.

If you go to First John, chapter three. If you go to 1 John 3, from verses 1 through 3, read it carefully, brothers and sisters, and pay attention to what the Apostle says in the same tone of Peter. He says, 1 John 3, verse 1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone pay attention to verse three. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself.

as He is pure, brothers and sisters. The appearing and the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ is something that is yet to come. This is the consummation of things. Peter has said in chapter one of his letter that we love the Lord Jesus Christ, even though we have not seen him, that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, even though we have not seen him. But the apostle John says here that when he comes, that when he appears, we are going to see him and we are going to become like him.

he is but he adds something very important in verse 4 that everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure that is the power of hope That is the power of believing that the one that saved us and the one who died upon the cross 2000 years ago is yet to come. That is the definition of faith. Go to Hebrews 11 and you will see that that is the pure definition, brothers and sisters, of faith. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says, verse 1, Now faith, Hebrews 11, verse 1, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. My beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters, you see, You cannot separate the saving faith that you had or that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ about the things that took place in the past 2000 years ago, when the Lord Jesus Christ came from the divine places and His divine glory to enter into creation.

to live a perfect life under the law, to give His life for us to die and be powerfully resurrected and then ascended the faith of the things that took place in the past from the hope of the promises that are going to take place in the future. Namely, that He is going to come to conquer and to judge the living and the dead. You see, brothers and sisters, Faith and hope are just two sides of the same coin. With faith we look to the past, but with hope we look to the future and we apprehend by the power of the Spirit the things that the Spirit has given and told us through His Word. Now, brothers, it is so difficult because when you, when your senses, you look back, you have 2000 years in which the Lord has not come.

But the Bible and the Word tells us that we are to live eagerly, awaiting and expecting the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Christian does not apprehend by faith and with biblical hope the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we do not purify ourselves as He is pure." The purpose of the life of the Christian is to be conformed to the image of the One who has saved us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have been saved by grace, inserted into the body, baptized into the body of the church, are to be made like the person of Jesus Christ. And that happens by faith, faith in the things that took place in the past, faith in the things that are taking place in our lives.

Because the life that we live in the flesh, we live by faith of the Son of God, Galatians 2.20. But not only that, but we also know that Jesus Christ is our life and that our life is hid with Christ in God, Galatians chapter 3. So it is by looking to the past, looking to the present and looking towards the future. And the answer in all of those moments is the person of Jesus Christ.

And in all of those moments, the past, the present and the future, there is power to be transformed. Brothers and sisters, Christianity, it is not about an intellectual assessment in which people that agree upon something come to a place just to sing kumbaya and then to leave that place. Christianity, it is about people who by grace through faith have been united into the body of Christ and are becoming like the Lord himself. The seed of God abides in them who, by grace through faith, have been saved, and they become light and salt to the world. They become insulting to the system of the flesh.

They become insulting to the world because they hated him. So they will hate those who are like him. Having said that, then, brothers and sisters, I want to point you through the three outcomes of placing our hope in the fact that the end of all things is at hand. Apostle Peter, in the version of Scripture that we have in hand, is going to give us three things that I want you to, and I pray that by the Spirit of God, you don't only put in your mind, but in your hearts that are the result of apprehending by faith the fact that the end of all things is at hand. Before we get into that, let me just say, brothers and sisters, that the end of all things that the end of all things, it is both collective and it's individual.

You see, there is a sense in which the end of things could be summarized as a personal encounter of the soul of a person with the one who created that person. Namely, that takes place when that person dies and then they enter into seeing God in Judgment Day or collectively when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. It is appointed for men to die and after that it comes the judgment, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27. The psalmist says that we are to be taught to count our days, that we are going to give an account individually, that we are going to see the Lord and give an account for the things that we have done, Romans chapter 2. But also in the same sense, the end of all things is collective, in which there is a promise that just as the Lord Jesus Christ came once to save, He is going to come to judge the living and the dead.

So when we're speaking about the end of all things, yes, we're speaking about the eschatological day that is going to come in the end, but there's also that which is called the end of days for the individual. Namely, that if any one of us dies in the next five seconds, then that person is going to give an account, is going to be presented to God. but to Christ. We are to have that in our minds, brothers and sisters, because you are not the owner of your days. You are not the owner of your life.

Your life is in the hands of God. The one who gave you life is the one who is sovereign enough to take your life and such we are to live in reverence. That's what Peter says in chapter 1 verse 16, that we are to live in reverence, in awe of this God that is the one that governs everything. So, the end of all things is at hand, he says in verse 7. Therefore, as a result, he's going to give to Christians, he's going to give to believers.

The first exhortation, he says, be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self control and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. You see, brothers and sisters, the concept of self-control and being sober-minded is something that the Apostle has already introduced, not only using the similar words in chapter 1 verse 13, but also speaking about the concept of the passions, the human passions that make war within ourselves. He introduced that in chapter two and also in the beginning of chapter four.

As Christians, my beloved of Christ, there are passions within our flesh that are making wars against our soul. This is what he said in chapter two, verse 11 and 12. Yet the apostle calls us to live lives of self-control and have a sober mind. That is in connection to what Paul speaks in Galatians chapter 5 of having the fruit of the Spirit, which is namely self-control. That speaks of having a nature that walks in the Spirit.

that has dominion over the passions, the natural passions of the flesh. But the important thing that the apostle does here is that he connects the body with the mind, that we are to be self-controlled, yet that we are to be sober-minded. And that is for the sake of our prayers, brothers and sisters. The weapon or the instrument number one that Satan uses to diminish the workings not only of the church as a whole, but the workings of the individual Christian. It is to distract you through the passions of your flesh and the weaknesses of your mind.

The more that your flesh and the more that your mind is conformed to the ways of the world, the easier that it is for the system of the world and the system of Satan to deviate your purposes and make you focus on things that are passing away. to take your flesh, to take your eyes, to take the affections of your heart and to focus them on things that are passing away, things that are decaying. When Satan achieves that through the passions of your flesh and through your mind, he has moved you from having your eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ to center them upon yourself or the system of the flesh. The apostles, some of them call this spiritual infancy, or some others call that spiritual drunkenness. And I want to point you to that in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, because in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, we have a very clear illustration and extension of this doctrine, which is very useful for us to know.

Having a sober mind that is focused upon the things that are yet to come. First Thessalonians chapter 5 from verse 1 through verse 11. Chapter 5, verse 1, pay attention to this, brothers and sisters. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

While people are saying, there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, Let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live with Him. Therefore, encourage one another, and build one another up, just as you are doing. Brothers and sisters, I wonder why the contemporary church lives in times in which they are not eagerly awaiting the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why the hope of the coming and the restoration of all things is not something that is constantly in our minds and in our hearts. Would it be that our ways and our thoughts and our hearts have been easily moved to the schemes and to the system of this world? Would it be that the hearts and the souls have been easily distracted to the things that are passing away to the point that we are not living lives of alertness, living lives that eagerly await for the one who saved us and gave his life for us? Not living lives that are eagerly awaiting for him to come and to judge the living and the dead. Brothers and sisters, to have a sober mind and to be self-controlled is not to be moral and ethically strong.

It's not to be morally and ethically powerful. It is to be like Christ. It is to have His mind, it is to have His heart, it is to have His desires. So that just as when the Lord Jesus Christ was going under difficulties, He will go in Gethsemane and kneel down and offer His prayers. because his prayers will be then aligned to the will of the father.

Then he will know that everything that was in his mind and in his heart was naturally and organically directed to the one who was going to come to judge the living and the dead. That is how The soul and the heart of a Christian delights in spending time in communion with prayer, with the one that saved us, with a mind that is focused on him alone and with passions that are under control by the power of the Spirit, by the living power of the Word of God written in the heart of that person, of that saint. That is the first exhortation that the Apostle gives. But if you go back to the text, brothers and sisters, he is going to give us the most important of all. He is going to give us the most important exhortation that comes as a result of having a living hope in the coming and in the approaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In verse eight, he's going to speak about the supremacy of love. He's going to say above all. Keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Now, brothers and sisters and friends, I don't want that the romanticism of using the word love or just the emptiness of human love might rob you and take from your mind and heart that which the Bible speaks of, love. Because the love of God is not the love of humans.

And here the apostle is telling us that because the end of things is at hand, that above all, we are to love one another earnestly. First of all, I want you to see the supremacy of love. that in love, brothers, there is the fulfillment of the law, that the commandments of God cannot be fulfilled apart from a heart that is filled with Christ-like, Spirit-empowered, Scripture-based love. There is nothing that we can do externally that will be pleasing to the Lord if it's absent of love towards God and towards our brothers and sisters. That's why the apostle can say to us that we are to love one another earnestly.

That is not to love one another just in our ability, but rather Eagerly, earnestly, the Apostle has mentioned in chapter 1 in verse 21, 22 and 23, that our souls have been purified by the obedience to the truth, namely obedience to the gospel, so that we may love one another. Love is the fulfillment of the accomplishing of the work of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not going to be able to produce biblical love in our hearts, brothers and sisters. If we do not eagerly await the coming of the Savior, if we do not have real hope, like John says when he's writing Revelation at the end of the book of Revelations, Lord Jesus, come quickly, because His heart desires that the Savior, that the sweetness of the words of Christ might not be written anymore, but might be said and uttered to our ears and to our hearts to see Him. face to face as he is, that we may become like his brothers and sisters.

You see, church and Christianity, as I said many times, not coming every Sunday to a place just to tick certain boxes so that your conscience might be at peace and that you can continue calling yourself to be a Christian. Church, the Church of Christ, is to become like Him. And what He did is that He laid down His life for those who are unlovable. So those unlovable might be able to love one another just as Christ loved them and gave His life for them. And brothers and sisters, the effects of these glorious Spirit-given, descending from heaven love is what comes next.

That this love covers a multitude of sins. that sins, and not few of them, but a multitude of sins, are covered by love." The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Brothers and sisters, The love of God was demonstrating toward us that while we were sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. You see, the difference between God's love and the love of humans is that the love of God covers a multitude of sins, not by sweeping sin under the carpet.

not by covering things as if something did not happen, but rather the love of God is demonstrated in that He sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. The love of God is manifested towards His people in that He is just, perfect, and holy, and just and in the same way as God dealt with sin in a manifestation of His love. Brothers and sisters are to manifest their love one to the other in dealing with sin. You see, when the Bible and Peter is calling us and telling us that love covers a multitude of sin, He's not calling us just to simply, when there is sin, for us just to forget the sin or just to leave that behind or just to sweep that sin under the carpet. But rather, He's calling us to act and to deal with sin in the same way that God deals with sin.

Namely, that when it is in Christ that God-given repentance, if God-given repentance is given, then God-given forgiveness is given, and then sin is dealt with. Or if there's lack of repentance and if there is absence of repentance, there's no repentance in the heart of a person, then God giving exhortation towards that brother and sister happens with the purpose to bring the attention of that brother and sister to that sin that has been committed. And if that brother or sister is not repenting upon the existence of that sin, then Matthew 18 calls us and also 1 Corinthians 5 calls us to remove the sin from the midst of the people of God, so that sin will not beget more sin. And that is loving, just as he was loving for the sinner of 1 Corinthians 5, who then it is reestablished, brought back to fellowship in 2 Corinthians. Dealing with sin in love and in grace is that which comes from above.

Brothers and sisters, God is not pleased in not dealing with sin. God is pleased in repenting of our sin and in forgiving of our sin. And then from that point in moving in love and in grace and in unity, when repentance and forgiveness happens, then the church can be united. in love. I want to point to do something very important in First Corinthians chapter 13, because in First Corinthians chapter 13, there is the definition of love.

And there the Apostle Paul is going to use a very important word that speaks to us of how we are to deal with sin. First Corinthians chapter 13. The Apostle speaks of the preeminence of love, of the importance of love, not human love, but Christ-inspired and Spirit-given love. And he's going to give a beautiful introduction to it. Let's read it together in verse one.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains that have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Verse 4, love is patience. patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable. And then pay attention to that word that the ESV uses, or resentful.

Verse 6, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And the word that I want to point to is to that word in verse 5, that it is in the ESV, or resentful. Because brothers and sisters, Peter says to us, beloved of Christ, that love covers a multitude of sin. Sin is going to be present in our lives individually, but sin is also going to be present in the midst of the church.

There's going to be times in which we are not only going to offend one another, but we are going to sin against one another. It is not that because we have become Christians and because we have entered into the church, now we are perfect and we are not going to offend one another. If that happens, it's because we are perfect, which the Bible says that that will not take place until the Lord comes. Or if that doesn't happen, it's because our fellowship in our community is like the world. It's like we are not loving one another to the standard of what the Bible says, to the point that we are creating walls around ourselves so that others will not enter into my life.

And then I deal with them to the standards of social activities in the streets, on the streets, or in the world. But when real biblical relationships took place according to what is written, because of the fleshness and the sinfulness of our souls and the fleshness of who we are, we are going to sin against one another. Sin is dealt either by removing sin from among the church when there is no true repentance and when there is no true forgiveness. But the preferred way of Christ is to deal with sin through God-given repentance and forgiveness. When there is true repentance and forgiveness, then the next step is to love that brother as if she or did have not done anything against us.

So that love is not resentful, as the Bible says here. Now, brothers and sisters, that word is very important because that is exactly the same word that the Bible uses when the Spirit of God is speaking about the faith of Abraham. That Abraham believed and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Or when Paul is speaking in Romans chapter 4, that faith accounts righteousness or reckons righteousness. A heart that is resentful, the heart of the Christian that is towards bitterness and is resentful is a heart that is still holding to a previous debt and therefore there's no real forgiveness.

A heart that is still holding to the debt that happened in the past is a heart that is still accounting the sin that was committed as something that is still present. And therefore, there's no real forgiveness. And therefore, there's no real love. Brothers and sisters, bitterness, resentment, harboring those things in your heart is the worst enemy for biblical love, not only in your life, but in the life of the community of the church. And let me tell you something.

You are utterly unable to forgive your brother and sister in the way that the Bible calls us to forgive. This only happens in union, communion and in light with the one who forgave us and gave his life for us. Because just as he forgave us, we are to forgive our brothers and sisters so we can say biblically and not illegally, that love covers a multitude of sins, not taking sins under the carpet, but rather dealing with the sins biblically. And once we have dealt with the same biblically, our heart is moved toward the heart of Christ. And we can say, brother, sister, I love you.

because Christ loved you and because I'm called to love you and I have forgiven you. My heart is free from bitterness. My heart is free from evil thoughts against you. I love you and I pray for you that you may become like the person of Jesus Christ. And I think that's why the apostle moves into the concept of hospitality, if you go back to 1 Peter, after the Apostle has exhorted us about this love covering a multitude of sin, he's then going to move into saying, show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

You see, the first thing that the Apostle has called us to as the effect of knowing that the end of all things is at hand is to be self-controlled. sober minded for the sake of her prayers. The first thing. The second thing that the apostle has called us to from the assurance of the coming of the Lord and the assurance of the last thing is to love one another earnestly because this love covers a multitude of sin. And then he's going to connect to that love.

Something very interesting. He appoints or he attaches to that hospitality to one another without rambling. And I don't want you to pass over the fact that he mentions one another, one another, one another many times through the text. Brothers and sisters, In hospitality, and I think that every time that the New Testament is speaking of hospitality, I think there is an allusion to the things of the Old Testament, as we study in the book of Exodus, when we were called, or the people of the Old Covenant were called to be kind or good to be loving to the stranger. Because, brothers and sisters, the pure definition of hospitality is to be loving towards the stranger.

It is to receive in your secret place, to receive in your abode, to receive in the place where your preferences rule, to receive the one that is a stranger to that place, to receive the one that is far away from the way that you think. and to receive Him in such a way that you don't complain about it. To receive in love brothers and sisters in that secret place where you live. Brothers, that is a manifestation of love, and especially in times in which individualism and to live in our lives and building walls, not only around our hearts, but building walls around our families is so easy. The Bible calls us to open the doors, not only of our hearts and our souls, but of our houses, our abode, our secret habitation, if you understand what I mean.

to those who are strangers, to the ways that we do things, and to manifest love towards them, and to do it without complaining and without grumbling, accepting them, not their sins, but accepting our brothers and sisters in that very secret place. The Apostle is then going to move to a very important theme that I want to bring your attention to so that we conclude this passage, brothers and sisters. It is not only that he has spoken about the power of this hope and the things that are going to come in the end of times has given us a sober mind, a self-control, and then not only that, given us also this ability to love one another earnestly, and a manifestation of that is hospitality. But I want you to pay attention carefully to what the Apostle says in verse 10, because I've called that service unto edification. The previous one was love unto unity.

What the Apostle is going to tell us in verse 10 is service unto edification of the church, brothers and sisters. Do not let these words pass over your head as something that is just spoken so romantically from my pulpit or something just that it is just said from time to time, but rather grasp and hold these words with faith as they are coming from Holy Scripture and the Spirit of God. Because in verse 10, the apostle and the Holy Spirit is going to give us truths about the church that are foundational for us to become individually and covenantally in communion as the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to start in verse 10 by saying, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's right grace. Now, brothers, think about this.

How many people in the church have received a gift? It says as each has received a gift, it says not the one that preaches, not the one that does a particular thing, but as each has received a gift, that person is to use that gift to serve the church. No, it says to serve one another as God is stewards of God's right grace or the multi-form grace of God or other translation will say. Brothers, think about the depths and the beauty of what Apostle is saying here. God dispenses and administers his grace through the church and for the church.

through each one of the members of the church. And when I say member, I'm not talking about the Western system of someone signing a document, but those who belong to the body of Christ, those who belong to the local church. God has decided that the ways that he administered the grace to the local church is by the exercising of the gifts that he has given to each one of the members of the church. That means that each one of those who, by grace through faith, have been inserted into the person of Christ, have been gifted with a grace that comes from above and is necessary for the edification of the body. Brothers, Your gift is as necessary to the church as the gift of the one who speaks.

For that reason, it says that the one that speaks as he who was speaking the oracles of the words of God and the one who serves as the one that is serving through the strength and through the might of God. Brothers and sisters, The church of Jesus Christ is a body, and that body is comprised by members. And each one of those members has been gifted by something that comes from above, namely a gift. And that gift is the means by which the grace of God is given to the church as a whole. Come to me to Ephesians chapter three, please, because I want to push that point through the lips and through the words of the apostle Paul.

Ephesians chapter three. If you read carefully the Word of God, brothers and sisters, with much attention and much faith in the words that God gives us. Sorry, in chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4, in verse 11, pay attention to what he says. There's a... introduction to this idea, but we're going to read it just from verse 11.

It says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed and thrown by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitfulness schemes." And you can continue reading that. But brothers and sisters, If the church as a body is not growing in maturity, not individually, but if the church is not growing in maturity as a congregation, you can conclude biblically that their members or her members and her people are going to be carried by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitfulness and schemes of this world. Brothers and sisters, there is no such a thing as a mature Christian through YouTube. There is no such a thing as a mature Christian through books and paper theology.

There is no such a thing as a mature Christian through systems provided in the world. The Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ has established a way by which and through which a Christian is to grow in conformity to Christ individually and corporately. And that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that church not only having faith on the things that the Lord accomplished 2000 years ago, but also that church having faith in the mighty workings of the Spirit of God in the present age. Because the same apostle says in Ephesians chapter 3 that he has pleased God to reveal the wisdom that it was hidden through the church.

And not only that, my beloved of Christ, but also that together we are to apprehend the promises that the Lord has given us of His second coming, that He's not going to make you individually like Christ, but that He's going to marry He's bright and he's bright is comprised by people, by brothers and sisters. That's why it is important for the church, brothers and sisters, to place the eyes of faith on the things that are yet to come, to study the things that are yet to come and the things that are going to take place in the future. So that when difficult times come and when people are just paying attention and they're itching ears, they want to hear the things that canning men teach, we will be able to discern as a congregation, as a church, that which is correct and that which is incorrect, so that you will be able to discern that when a person is speaking from the pulpit, that that which he says corresponds to that which is written, or that which he says does not correspond to that which is written, so that we will all be made accountable before the Lord. It is not the men of God. It is the people of God.

So, brothers and sisters, that we might be filled with gladness and joy that I see each one of you walking after the ways of Christ. That each one of you may rejoice to see your wife, your spouse, your son, your children being saved and being brought to conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. That you might be filled with sorrow when your brother is in sin, not to accuse them, but to point them to Christ, God-given repentance, God-given forgiveness, so that we may love one another. In order that," the apostle Peter says. Go to the chapter, in order that.

Go to the passage. He says, in order that in everything. God might be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, glory and dominion and authority does not belong to you, does not belong to me, belongs to Christ.

And insofar as we place the honor that is due to him, we're going to walk in his ways. And you know what? There is no other thing that is more joyful than being in Christ and resting upon the power of His Spirit, independently of what the world says and independently of what the schemes of the world says, that we are resting firm, as the Apostle says in the end of the book, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that the Lamb who died for us and gave His life for us, might be the source of our joy and the rest and our peace so that we can give our lives for His. Amen.