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Good morning, everyone. You can 
turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter, we've been 
slowly working our way through that book, the times that I've 
been preaching here. So we are continuing. We'll finish 
Chapter 1 today. So in 1 Peter, Chapter 1, he's 
first given the first The first 12 verses are a doctrinal set 
of teachings that he gives us. And then from verse 13 to the 
end of the chapter gives us our response to that. And then as 
we read through, you can see that in verse 13 to verse 21, 
we have our response towards God, that vertical relationship, 
how we respond to God in light of all these truths that he's 
been teaching. And then in verse 22, to the 
end of the chapter, we have the horizontal relationship between 
the brethren. And so we'll read through the 
chapter. You can see that as we work our way through that. 
So 1 Peter 1, beginning at verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, 
to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Asia, and Bithynia, elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the 
Father, in sanctification of the spirit, for obedience and 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace 
be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, 
has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible 
and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven 
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for 
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you 
greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you 
have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness 
of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, 
though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, 
and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, having not 
seen, you love. Though now you do not see him, 
yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of 
glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your 
souls. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched 
carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to 
you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of 
Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand 
the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 
To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us 
they were ministering the things which now have been reported 
to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by 
the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to 
look into. Therefore, gird up the loins 
of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace 
that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 
as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, 
as in your ignorance, but as he who called you as holy, you 
also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy, 
for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, 
who without partiality judges according to each one's work, 
conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in 
fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things 
like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition 
from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as 
of a lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was ordained 
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these 
last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised 
him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and 
hope are in God. Since you have purified your 
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, In sincere love of 
the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 
having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, 
through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Because 
all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower 
of the grass. The grass withers when its flower falls away, but 
the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word 
which, by the gospel, was preached to you thus far. Well, let us 
pray. Our Father in heaven, we do come before you now and Lord, 
we look to you and we ask that you would be pleased to be among 
us, that you would send your spirit in a powerful way to be 
among us this morning as we As we look at this passage of Scripture, 
Lord, that You would enable the preaching of the passage, that 
You would enable us to hear these things, and that You would apply 
them to our hearts, Lord, a very practical instruction for life 
with the brethren. And I pray that You would be 
pleased to edify Your people here, and I pray that if there 
are those among us who have not come to the Savior, who are not 
part of that community of believers in Christ, that they would That 
today would be the day that you shine a light into the hearts 
and that they see the Savior and that they come to Him in 
faith and repentance. So Lord, we pray that you be 
glorified in all that is done here. And we pray this in Christ's 
name. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, this passage that we're going 
to look at today, verses 22 to the end of the chapter, verse 
25, is dealing with our relationships to others in this new community 
that we are part of. The Bible tells us to love all 
men, to love our neighbor as ourselves, regardless of their 
status with God, but yet there's a special application for the 
people of God, specifically for the brethren here. So it's this 
new life that they have, these believers, this new life. And 
it's also, there's its new community. If you flip ahead to chapter 
4, for a minute, you can see the old community that they were 
part of and that old way of life. 1 Peter chapter 4, We can start 
at verse 2 there, that he no longer should live the rest of 
his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will 
of God. For we have spent enough of our 
past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked 
in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, 
and abominable idolatries. So that was their past life and 
their past way of living. Now that they are new creatures 
in Christ, there is a new way and new commands for living in 
this covenant community here. So, you know, we've all been 
redeemed by the blood of Christ. We're all in Christ. Now, how 
do we interact with one another on that level? So the section 
breaks down then what I call the common Christian experience, 
which is the having purified souls in verse 22, verse 22a, 
and then we have the command, the imperative, love one another, 
verse 22b, and then the basis for that, not only for the command, 
but for the love, the source and the basis of that love, having 
been born again, and that's in verse 23 to the end of verse 
25. So the common Christian experience then, having purified 
your souls, or since you have purified your souls here. So 
the word purified here is describing these here whose souls have been 
purified. Well, this implies then, this 
is not a moral purification, not an outward change of actions 
where we purify our outward acts, but it's a purification of the 
inward. It's not sanctification where 
our lives are becoming conformed to the image of Christ, but rather 
it is an inward change, an inward purifying that has happened. 
So that obviously implies then that we, prior to this purification, 
there was a time when we were impure. And understanding this 
is foundational to understanding all of the Christian truths in 
reality, but this section here as well. that we are all in sin, 
that we all have sinned, the Bible tells us, and we sin because 
we're sinners, because we're impure. It's not the other way 
around. It's not that our sin makes us sinners, but 
it's the other way around. The fact that we are sinners 
makes us sin. That's what we call the doctrine of depravity, 
where we are spiritually impure by nature. So having that understanding 
in our mind of what the Bible is teaching, what the Bible teaches 
us about unregenerate man, this old fallen nature of man, it's 
going to help us to understand the next passage here so that 
we don't go off in an Arminian sort of direction at all, but 
it keeps us grounded here. So we begin depraved and impure. So then how do we become... become 
pure. How are our souls purified? And it tells us here that you 
purify your souls in obeying the truth. So, it's an obedience 
to the truth that purifies our souls. Now, we need to look at 
some scripture verses to see what exactly is going on here. As I said, a passage like this, 
we need to understand our depravity and we need to understand what's 
going on when we talk about obedience, that we're not left in a in a 
works-based righteousness, a works-based justification here. So we can 
turn to 2 Thessalonians 1. Chapter 1, verse 8. Well, let's back up here again 
a little bit here. Okay, verse 7, And to give you 
who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed 
from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance 
on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 
and from the glory of his power. So, obeying the gospel. What 
is that? If we can flip back to 1 Peter, 
actually, again, if your finger was still there. 1 Peter, now 
this is chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 17. So it's 
obeying the gospel. What is that? Let's turn to Romans 
10 now. We can see very clearly what 
obeying the gospel is. Romans chapter 10, verse 16. but they have not all obeyed 
the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has 
believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing 
and hearing by the word of God. So we can see in this passage 
that we have, it's equating obedience and believing. So obedience to 
the gospel and faith in the gospel, those are synonymous. Those are 
the same things there. But now we need to, we need to 
qualify this and to clarify it here. When we talk of obedience, 
faith as obedience, we're not talking Neonomianism. Neonomianism basically is teaching 
that the new law, neonomian means new law, is faith. And therefore our faith is given 
merit, our faith is given credit. Whereas when we exercise faith, 
that's the value that God places on our justification. That's 
not what we're talking here when we speak of obedience. and faith 
being the same thing here. God's new standard of righteousness 
and new standard for entrance into heaven is not faith, where 
our faith has a value that's worthy of eternal life. The obedience 
that we talk about here is a passive obedience. It's a submission, 
submission to the truths of the gospel and believing the truths 
of the gospel. So you can turn to Acts chapter 
15 for a minute. And we'll see one last passage 
that speaks to this. Acts chapter 15, starting at 
verse 6. Now the apostles and elders came 
together to consider this matter. And when there had been much 
dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, Men and brethren, you 
know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth 
the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them 
the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and made no distinction 
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, 
why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, 
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we 
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
shall be saved in the same manner as they, salvation by faith alone." 
Their hearts are purified by faith here. So it's a purification 
of the heart, meaning referring to the new nature, referring 
to the regeneration that we have here. So it's not an outward 
act, it's not a ritualistic cleansing of any sort, but it's faith Obedience 
to the truth, obedience to the gospel is faith in the gospel. 
And we need to always understand that. You know, justification 
is by faith alone. And our faith is not of value, 
our faith is not meriting anything, but rather our faith is receiving 
something. It's receiving the work of Christ on our behalf, 
that Christ did all of it. That's what justification is. 
by faith is. And again, I think of Luther. 
Luther always says that every week I preach justification by 
faith to my people because every week they forget it. It's not 
because he thought his people were dolts and they were stupid, 
but he understood the importance of this doctrine of justification 
by faith alone, that it is not faith and works, it's not faith 
and something that we did, but rather it is faith alone that 
saves us, faith alone that justifies us. And then, you know, so it 
comes, it's by faith alone based on the work of Christ alone. 
So, and that is the beautiful thing here, is that this passage 
tells us here that, you know, whoever accepts this reality 
and understands this, this faith alone aspect, that is what makes 
us part of the community of believers. Faith alone in Christ alone for 
salvation. That's who makes up this community 
that we are to love and care for. So that's the common Christian 
experience. That's why I called it that, 
is understanding and having our hearts purified by faith alone. Now, one thing I do want to I 
do want to mention is that, you know, I talked about, you know, 
obedience being faith and equating those two, but yet we do need 
to understand it is our duty. It is our responsibility to obey 
the gospel call. The Bible uses that language 
very clearly. So, you know, we believe in the 
doctrines of grace. We believe in a calvinistic soteriology 
that that god, you know, god elects god gives the gifts of 
faith and repentance But yet, you know that does not leave 
us without responsibility. We're we're told very clearly 
in the bible repent and believe. It's our duty, our responsibility 
to obey that. That's why those verses, the 
first verses that I read in 1 Peter 4 and 2 Thessalonians 1, they 
highlight the punishment coming upon those who don't obey. If 
you don't obey, it's punishment. If you obey this, it's eternal 
life. The verb that we find in Peter 
here, it's in It's in the act of voice. You know, we are the 
ones doing the obeying. Now, this sounds Arminian, and 
the Calvinistic hairs on your neck are probably standing up. 
And, you know, where's this guy going now that Pastor Butler's 
gone? No. You know, it's important 
that we understand this. This morning hour, actually, 
in the confession study, we looked at the doctrine of saving faith, 
and prior to that, several weeks ago, we looked at the effectual 
call, and that really deals with this here. How does this work? So first, two things we need 
to understand, then. First is that obedience and faith 
is not It's not the instrument that does the justifying. Faith 
is not a force that we wield and we somehow justify ourselves, 
somehow make ourselves pure and right. Faith is passive. God does the justifying. Christ has done the work. Faith 
is the channel that receives that gift from God. It receives the work of Christ 
on our behalf for our purification. We can say that we obeyed, or 
we believe, but that faith which we obeyed with is a passive faith. It's not credited, it does not 
have merit to it at all in our standing with God. In the confession 
in chapter 11, on the justification, it talks about being justified 
by faith, and it says, not by imputing faith itself, the act 
of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness. 
So it's important to understand that, as what I mentioned earlier. 
There's no merit to our faith, it is passive. But secondly, 
and this really explains it better, is the next line here, that it 
says that they've obeyed, obeying the truth through the spirit. 
If you have a King James or a New King James Bible, it says that 
in the Spirit. The NASB, ESV, other versions 
exclude that, a bit of a textual variant there. But either way, 
whether that's the original, whether that was added, either 
way, that is what the rest of the Scripture teaches, and that's 
what we need to understand in order to understand this doctrine 
here, that the Holy Spirit's regenerating power, it was through 
the Holy Spirit that we were enabled to believe. We looked 
at that this morning in detail. So we call men to obey the gospel, 
but we understand that it's the Holy Spirit that regenerates 
the heart and enables them to believe. That's what we read 
this morning, of saving faith, the grace of 
faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving 
of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their 
hearts. So the elect are enabled, so it's an act of the will whereby 
we can say we're obeying, but it was prior work of the Holy 
Spirit in regenerating the heart that enabled man to believe. 
Prior to regeneration, man would not, could not believe the truths 
of the gospel. So we need to understand that 
so we can properly say faith is obedience, but knowing that 
the Holy Spirit work that obedience in the hearts by changing the 
hearts. John 1 verse 12 explains that beautifully here. It says, 
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to 
become children of God. So we have people receiving Him, 
you know, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God. So understanding that spiritual 
regeneration that must precede this. But again, we need to maintain 
that balance. We don't want to emphasize one 
over the other to the exclusion of one. We still call people 
to repent and believe. They are to repent and believe, 
but they realize that when I repented, when I believed, it was because 
the Holy Spirit enabled me to. So we don't wait for the feeling 
of a burning in the bosom, a regeneration of our heart prior to believing. 
No, we come, we believe like we're commanded to. in the Bible, 
but we know what's happening in the heart by the Holy Spirit. So that, again, is such a fundamental 
understanding to have of the Reformed theology. Otherwise, 
we depart into error on either side of the spectrum there. So understanding that, then, 
we move on to the result. What is the result of this? Unto 
a sincere love of the brethren. This is a result of this new 
birth. One of the results, there's many results, but this is the 
one in the passage here. The purification of the soul 
results in a love for the brethren. It's the natural result of this 
one commonality that we now have with these others who have believed. And again, as I mentioned earlier, 
it's not a love your neighbor, love all men, all men everywhere 
as yourself, but rather it's this, he uses a very specific 
word here for this love. Unto a sincere love of the brethren. Love of the brethren is one word 
in the Greek. It's the word Philadelphia. So the word phileo is love, and 
then adelphoi is brothers. we have Philadelphia, we have 
a brotherly love. It's a unique word here used 
for this Christian community. I think to illustrate this, if 
you've ever been somewhere else in the world, I'm not much of 
a world traveler, but you run into somebody, you're somewhere 
else, and you run into someone who's from the same country as 
you, and then suddenly you have this connection there. It's like, 
oh, hey, you're, you know, These are my people type of thing with 
this person. And now, so this is what's going 
on on a spiritual level. Peter has addressed them in the 
beginning as pilgrims. They're strangers in a hostile 
world, a different world. They're not citizens of this 
world. They're citizens of another world. That's Paul's language, 
but it's the same thing. They're in a strange land. And 
so the brethren are your people, and you're united by this common 
faith in the Savior. So, you know, a connection with, 
you know, when you're on vacation, a connection with someone from 
the same country as you, that's quite a superficial connection. 
But yet, you know, it illustrates that affinity that we have with 
them and how we just feel that. So, you know, so then obviously 
how much more of an affinity, of a connection should we have 
for, you know, for those who are connected in regards to the 
spiritual things, the things that truly matter, our salvation, 
this hope of glory that we have together in glory with our Savior. These truths are the things that, 
common truths that we hold dear are the things that connect us 
together as those in Christ. John Brown, he says here, brotherly 
love originates in the possession of a peculiar mode of thinking 
and feeling produced in the mind by the Holy Spirit through the 
knowledge and belief of the Christian truth. So that's what connects 
us. These common beliefs and these non-negotiable Christian 
truths, and I say non-negotiable because there are things we can 
differ on and still be one in Christ. But things like what 
he's emphasizing in the chapter here, justification by faith 
alone. You can't negotiate that. The Trinity, the person of Christ, 
these things are so important. Turn to the book of 2 John for 
a minute, a book that we probably don't read as much as we should. 
2 John. to see this emphasis here on 
this communion of those in the truth. So 2 John, he says, the 
elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, 
and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 
because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. 
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father 
and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth 
and love. I rejoiced greatly that I have 
found some of your children walking in truth as we received commandment 
from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, 
Not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have 
had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is 
love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is 
the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, 
that you should walk in it." It referencing there the truth. 
So we see that this love in the truth, this common bond here, 
fellowship with those in the truth, the rest of the book instructs 
them on on having this fellowship with those who are in the truth 
and no fellowship with those who deny the truth, the truth 
concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this common 
bond here of these things that make us Christian, knowing these 
fundamental truths of the Scripture and having this common faith 
in Christ and regenerated hearts. So this love that we have to 
have. Now Peter quantifies this love. Here he calls it a sincere 
love. In the Greek, if you listen, 
it's unhypocritical. That's the literal definition 
of that. An unhypocritical love for the 
brethren. This morning I was reading in 
in Ezekiel 33, and God is speaking to Ezekiel, and He's saying, 
you know, these people, they love with their mouth only, but 
their heart is for their own glory. And that is a hypocritical 
love. So we're called to love with 
an unhypocritical love, a love that, you know, it does not say 
one thing to the person's face, and then it says other things, 
you know, about them behind their back, you know, what we would 
call two-faced. You know, it doesn't act loving 
and say loving things. to their face and then slander 
them when they're not there because they have different theological 
beliefs or go to a different church. You know, it doesn't 
act one way toward them, you know, and loving and kind, but 
then inwardly judging them because they have different Christian 
liberties than you do. You know, but it's a sincere 
love because of this common bond that we have in Christ. So that brings us then to the 
command. here, that we are to love one 
another fervently. So Peter does something interesting 
here when he says that we've been born into a sincere love 
of the brethren, and we are to love one another fervently, and 
he uses a different word in the original for love, what we have 
translated as love here. Now, a lot of ink has been spilled 
over the different words in the Greek for love. Much has been said about that, 
probably maybe making too much of a distinction there. But there 
definitely is a distinction, and I think we can really see 
that in this passage here. So the phileo, this Philadelphia 
love of the brethren, the phileo part of that is a very emotional 
love. And we can see that, right? When 
we think of a connection that we would have, again, you're 
on vacation in a different country, and someone from your own country, 
there's a, it's a, oh, these are my people, but it's a very 
emotional attachment to them, a very emotional, love for that and it's and it's 
it's it's based on on you know on truth, but there's you know 
again, it's it's it's a there's an emotion to it, but Here he 
uses the word agape. That is the that is a self-sacrificing 
love and that's the and that's a love that takes conscious effort 
to you know to carry out this it takes it takes action and 
And that's the difference here between these two. Naturally, 
we have this emotional love for one another because of our common 
experiences, but now, what do we do with that? He says here, 
you are to love the brethren in a self-sacrificial love, a 
love that takes action. We need to do this, to love here 
with the self, sacrificing love. 1 John 3, 18 
tells us that clearly. Let us not love in word or in 
tongue, but in deed and in truth. There's an action here that we 
must take to love the brethren. It's intentional. It's stirring 
up that love doing doing loving acts of service to others. And, you know, this is, again, 
we all express love in different ways. So, you know, don't feel 
like there's only one way that, you know, if you see so-and-so 
doing this loving thing that that's the only way to do it. 
No, the Bible's clear. We're all gifted in different 
ways, you know. So don't feel that the only way 
you can show love to someone who's sick is to make them a 
meal or something like that. Maybe you're not a good cook 
and the loving thing is to not make them a meal. That would 
be more loving. So don't feel like you're an 
unloving Christian if you can't make a meal for someone who's 
sick. There's different ways in which you can love. Love comes in a multitude of 
ways. that we can love one another. 
Sometimes it's just being a listening ear. I think often we need a 
listening ear more than we need a pot of soup sometimes. It's 
something that's missing, I think, a lot here. An unhypocritical, 
unhypocritical listening ear, to hear people and to sit with 
them and to listen to their problems. Let's turn to Romans 12 for a 
minute. We can see the difference of 
our gifts and how we can use them to love others. Romans 12, 
starting at verse 3. For I say, through the grace 
given to me and to everyone who is among you, not to think of 
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, 
as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we 
have many members in one body, but all the members do not have 
the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ 
and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing 
according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them 
Let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy 
in proportion to our faith. If or ministry, let us use it 
in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he 
who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he 
who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to 
what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one 
another with brotherly love. In honor, giving preference to 
one another. not lagging in diligence, fervent 
in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in 
tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the 
needs of the saints, giving to hospitality. Bless those who 
persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice 
with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the 
same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high 
things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your 
own opinion. So, we see that in verse 4. First of all, he says, we have 
many members in one body, but all the members do not have the 
same function. So, as I said, we don't all have the same gifts, 
so don't judge ourselves based on others and the gifts that 
God has given to others. But he gives us a very, very 
clear teaching here of these things. So we can look at ourselves. How has God gifted us? How can 
we bless others here? It's the gift of hospitality 
people have, the gift of encouragement, the gift of financial giving. 
That's a gift as well, it says here. So whatever it may be, 
we have to do it with this sacrificial serving, self-sacrificing serving 
And that's what we saw in verses 9 through 13. They're very, very 
serving others, you know, doing it, be kindly affectionate to 
one another. So these acts of kindness, acts 
of service, helping others, giving of your time, your energy, your 
finances, whatever that may be. Those are all ways in which we 
are to love the brethren. And again, specifically towards 
those who are in Christ. There's a special love that we 
have that we are to carry out to them. And again, this is a 
love that we are commanded to love. This takes intentional 
action. It says, let us not love in word 
or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So that's the secret 
to a happy life, if you will. Loving God, loving your neighbor, 
and especially the brethren, as we are commanded to do there. 
That's our purpose on this life, to honor God by doing these things here. So back to 
1 Peter again. And as we look at this love, 
this self-sacrificing love here, we see that it's a reciprocal 
love. So he says, love one another. So we have this back and forth 
here. So we don't always want to be 
the person who just takes, takes, takes. It's like, oh, if you 
need to exercise your love, I'm over here. You can bless me. 
We don't want to be that. that person who's always taking. 
The exhortation here is to love. It's to give of yourself in whatever 
way you can. This also goes the other way. 
We don't always want to be the one who gives, gives, gives, 
and never takes. For your fellow Christian to 
be able to love you, you have to be able to receive gifts from 
them. You have to be willing to receive 
that. And that sometimes can be a problem in our own lives, 
as being the one who will always give and will never... and will 
never take. The interesting thing when we 
bought our house in Armstrong, the guy that I bought it from 
gave me a phone number. He said, this is the phone number 
for somebody who can plow snow on the driveway. And I said, 
oh, is this a neighbor then or something? He's like, no, it's 
somebody I hire. He's like, the neighbor wants to plow my driveway, but 
he won't let me pay him, so then I won't get him to do it. So 
we don't want to be like that. We want to be willing to receive 
from others. If they want to give us a good 
gift, we have to be able to receive it. We don't always have to feel 
like we need to pay them something for that. So that's something 
to think about. It's not a horrible thing, but 
it's that reciprocal In order for this love to be 
reciprocal, we have to be able to be willing to receive from 
others. And again, another thing is to 
not, in terms of this reciprocalness, to not be afraid to open up when 
we're struggling, to find someone, to find a trustworthy brother 
or sister that you can confide in. It doesn't need to be shouted 
from the rooftops, but yet, You don't need to suffer in silence. 
We just read in Romans there that we are to weep with those 
who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. Well, how 
can we weep with you when you're weeping and how can we rejoice 
with you when you're rejoicing if we don't know anything about 
you? So that's part of it as well, that we open up to one 
another and share our burdens. We bear each other's burdens 
and we lift each other up that way and so fulfill the love of 
Christ, Paul says. So, you know, and again, this 
is, you know, we always have to qualify things, I feel, but, 
you know, we don't want to... This doesn't mean that every 
time you stub your toe that you email the pastor to start a prayer 
chain. You know, that's not what I'm saying here. But again, like 
I said, we don't want to suffer in silence. We have a body of 
believers that is there that we've been exhorted to come alongside 
you and to love you in this particular way. So don't be afraid to open 
up. And hopefully for all of us, 
that we're understanding this unhypocritical love that we're 
supposed to have so that we're not two-faced about it. Someone 
doesn't tell us our problems and then we go and spout them 
off or whatever it may be with that. We need to be like that 
so that we can all be someone that others are comfortable to 
come to and to share our burdens with one another that way. So the second qualifier then 
that he gives you, first it's this reciprocal love, and then 
we also have a fervent love here, that we're to love one another 
fervently. So this word here, we find it means, it's a constancy, 
that in Acts 12, verse 5, we find Peter was kept in prison 
there, but constant, same word, constant prayer was offered to 
God for him. So we see that constancy. And 
again, that comes from this intentional love for the brethren. They're 
being intentional about it, being constant about it. And then there's 
also this earnestness, this fervency about it. In Luke 22, verse 44, 
it says, Jesus prayed more earnestly. So same word again this earnestness 
fervency. So so the the the Greek lexicon 
Defines this word as as persevering so with implication that one 
does not waver in one's display of interest or devotion So so 
so let's let our love be like that not not not wavering in 
our interest for one another, you know So so caring for them 
weeping with those who weep rejoice with those who rejoice working 
for the good of each other, and also devotion, devoted to one 
another, devoted to their best interests, the best interests 
of the brethren. And then this love here, it comes 
from a pure heart, he said, or a purified heart. In the King 
James, the other translations don't have purified in there, 
but either way, it's from the heart. It's a genuine, from the 
heart love here. So it's something that is natural, 
to believers, this love. It's something that comes from 
a regenerated, from a purified heart. Yes, it needs to be encouraged. Yes, we need to intentionally 
act upon that. We always need to remember that 
we are to be disciplined, excuse me, in our actions as well. We are dependent on God, but 
we're disciplined. So we need to act upon this love intentionally. 
But it is something that does come naturally to the believer. We find that in the book of 1 
John. If you like, 1 John 3, verses 10 to 15. 1 John 3, verse 
10. In this, the children of God 
and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not 
practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not 
love his brother. For this is the message that 
you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 
not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother, 
And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and 
his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if 
the world hates you. We know that we have passed from 
death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not 
love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is 
a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life 
abiding in him." So we see very clearly then this is one of the 
the fruits of a regenerated heart. In 1 John, it's one of those 
tests of, am I walking with the Lord? Am I saved? Do I have this 
love for the brethren? It's an evidence of being saved. 
So again, you don't need to be gushing all over every other 
believer, but do we have that affinity? Do we feel this affinity 
of this connection to, oh, these are my people. I'm in Christ 
with them. It's that genuine feeling from 
the heart of these are my people. And then again, this genuine 
desire as well to serve them. So these are the things that 
come from a regenerated You know, it's the it's the fruits of that 
and that's what Peter goes to next here then in in verse in 
verse 23 You're having been born again. That's the that's the 
that's the source of all this or the you know That's where 
it all comes from. So so this this whole responsibility that 
we have of of of brotherly love is is is it's all it Peter grounds 
at all here in our regeneration that this this this true love 
this true affinity that we have comes from a regenerated heart. 
So he says here, you're born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but incorruptible. So it's not a natural birth. Your connection to them, it's 
not natural. Again, remember the example of traveling and 
meeting someone from your own country. You have this connection, 
but that's because you were born in the same country, naturally 
born. Same thing might be with family members. Generally speaking, 
we have this connection. with our family members, a certain 
connection we have there. But again, this connection is 
based on something perishable, something that is, it's only 
part of this temporal lower world here. And Peter has been emphasizing 
through this whole book, or through this whole chapter so far, the 
difference there between things of this lower world and things 
of the heavenly places, this eternal hope of glory that we 
have and understanding where our emphasis is and our focus 
ought to be. So when it comes to relationships, It's no different 
there, that we have this connection we have with family members, 
with whatever, that's based on natural birth, natural circumstances. But the unity that we have as 
brethren is founded on something so much more. It's founded on 
something imperishable, incorruptible, that he says here, something 
eternal, and that is our spiritual birth. So by spiritual regeneration, 
as we saw earlier, that we enter into this union with Christ. And that is, as Peter says here, 
that comes through the word of God. And he's speaking here of 
the gospel proclamation. He uses a word in the Greek that's 
for the word, which normally is logos. Here he uses a different 
word meaning proclamation, which is the gospel, the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus, the gospel that Paul says in Romans 1 is the 
power of God unto salvation. So this living word of God brings 
life, brings eternal life to all who believe in this message, 
in the message of Christ and Him crucified. And then Peter 
quotes Isaiah 40 here, verses 6 through 8. He says, All flesh 
is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. 
The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the 
Lord endures forever. So what's he doing here in the 
context of this brotherly love? So he's grounding our love in 
our regeneration, which comes through the preaching of the 
word, and of course, the power of the spirit that he's mentioned 
here. So he's contrasting, again, the 
temporal with the eternal here. So he quotes Isaiah, because 
that's exactly what Isaiah is doing in there. So in this context 
here, This is the foundation for our relationships with the 
believers here. It's, you know, temporal relationships, 
you know, they do matter. We see that here, you know, he 
says that the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. So, you know, flowers are beautiful. Temporal relationships are beautiful, 
things that we can enjoy for sure, but, you know, And just 
like a horticulturist, we have to understand, you know, a horticulturist 
enjoys the flowers, he cares for them, he delights in them, 
but he knows that they're passing, they're going to die, they're 
not lasting. And that's with our temporal 
relationships are the same thing, they're beautiful things we're 
to love. But we understand that they are temporal. We don't have 
that spiritual, eternal aspect to those things. But our relationships 
to the brethren are founded on the gospel of Christ. And they are eternal, they are 
lasting. When we understand that, we understand 
that this relationship is founded on the gospel of Christ, then 
we realize, like Paul said to the Galatians, he says, There's 
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's 
neither male or female, but you are all one in Christ. And that's 
our true family. That's why we call one another 
brother and sister, or the brethren, collectively. It's our true family. The grass withers, the flower 
falls away. Temporal relationships, they 
won't last into eternity. They can be beautiful while they 
last, but they eventually will end. But there's something different 
about this relationship to our fellow believers. And that's 
what Peter wants us to understand in here, that these are founded 
on the Word of God, which endures forever. And through this Word, 
we are one in Christ. We have that unity and that community 
as the blood-bought people of Christ. And that is why we have 
this special love for one another. It's a different love that we 
enjoy, the brotherly love. So now, just a few words then 
in closing here, in application, things to think about in light 
of this, is one, the need to foster and to maintain fellowship. The Christian life is not a journey 
that we are to go alone. I think Pastor Butler said it 
last week, we're not to be maverick Christians. We are part of a 
community, and we need to exercise that. Place yourselves in that community, 
you know, so and of course the easiest way is come to church 
You know, that is the that's that's where we can and come 
to church and fellowship as well Don't you know? We get get to 
know people know how to how to love them learn about their their 
their their struggles the things that they're Struggling with 
the things that are rejoicing over, you know get to know them 
and then you know, so that's the The positive aspect of it 
also, as I mentioned earlier, don't suffer in silence. We are 
a body that is there for one another, so you don't need to 
suffer in silence. Part of this reciprocal love 
is receiving love from the brethren, so share your burdens with one 
another. We are here to love you, to lift 
you up, to bless you in whatever way we can. And then another 
one I want to bring out, and I think this one can hit home 
maybe a little bit, is our brotherly love goes beyond church denomination. We have a tendency to do that, 
especially in Reformed denominations, for whatever reason that may 
be. And I don't mean Reformed denominations out there. I mean, 
you know, Reformed Baptists have the same thing as well. Just 
a couple of weeks ago, I saw again a tweet, someone saying, 
why are Reformed Baptists so arrogant and unapproachable or 
something like that? And I just thought, oh, that pains me to 
see that because our identity is not Reformed. It's not Reformed 
Baptists. is not Calvinistic. There's Facebook 
groups out there, the Calvinists, and these things are good. These 
things can be beneficial for sure, but that is not our identity. Our identity is not Reformed 
Baptist. It's not Calvinistic. Our identity 
is in Christ, and that is what we need to understand, and we 
need to really realize and to not ever make our identity and 
our group of what we would call brethren, those of the same church 
or the same denomination or same theological persuasions, whatever 
that may be. Being in Christ, that is what connects us to, 
it's that common bond that we have to all those who are born 
again, all those who have been born again through the living 
and enduring word of God are those who are in Christ and they 
are our people. John Brown, Again, he says here, 
there's something inexpressibly awful to a believer's mind in 
the idea that his Christian affections should be confined within narrower 
limits than the love of Jesus. So, our Christian affections 
confined within narrower limits than the love of Jesus. Pitiably 
dreary must be the mind of that man who can look around on the 
wide world and count his dozen or his score, score meaning 20, 
count his dozen or score whom alone he can salute as brethren 
or expect to accompany to heaven. Far from me and far from you, 
my Christian friends, be such self-sufficient bigotry which 
freezes the fountain of love and keeps the heart cold." So 
let us remember that, brothers and sisters. We are in Christ, 
and all those who are in Christ through the regenerating work 
of the Holy Spirit, faith in Christ, You know, those are our 
people. You know, we have a tendency 
to look down on others. You know, maybe their system 
of doctrine, you know, has some missing parts and, you know, 
whatever it may be. And I'll grant it to you, the 
Reformed Baptist hermeneutic and doctrinal system is glorious. It's amazing. It's great. And 
I think that's why we love it so much. But, you know, I think 
sometimes those who... people that we have a tendency 
to look down on because they don't have quite the same well-structured 
and organized system, those people can often be better examples 
of this unhypocritical love for one another than sometimes we 
might have a tendency to be. So let us remember that there. And the same thing goes for Christian 
liberty as well, not just our doctrinal standards, but our 
Christian liberties. whatever it may be. If you're 
convinced that you need to homeschool your children, but those who 
send their kids to public school, are they a little bit different? 
You're not quite as willing to exercise the same love for them 
as you would for another homeschooling family, for example. Drinking 
alcohol is another prime example. Do we look down on those people 
or do they not quite fall in the same group of people that 
we would consider brethren Is there something different about 
that? No, we need this unhypocritical 
love for those who are in Christ there. So, is our love 
unhypocritical? Is it from the heart? Do we act 
loving towards someone, but we're looking down on them a little 
bit? We're doing it because we feel we need to, but we look 
down on them because they're their doctrinal system is a little 
different, or their Christian liberties are a little different, 
you know, whatever it may be. In 1 Corinthians 8, verse 12, 
the context there being Christian liberties, he says, when you 
thus sin against the brethren, this is by looking down on others 
with different liberties, when you thus sin against the brethren, 
you sin against Christ. So let us remember that. So can 
this be said of you that Jesus said, by this all will know that 
you are my disciples if you have love for one another, John 13, 
34. And then just in closing, I want 
to look at the last sentence that I never read here. Now this 
is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. So preached 
by the gospel, one word in the Greek, evangelized, is sort of 
a word, gospelized. So this word, this is the word 
that was given to you, For one, this is an encouragement. We 
have this living, enduring Word of God, the truths contained 
in there. That's the very Word by which we were saved. It's 
the foundation for our faith in Christ and our hope in Him. Our salvation is secure because 
of the glorious truths contained in this Word that was gospelized 
to us. But it also comes as a warning, 
and actually quite a very serious warning. You know, this Word 
was preached to you. What did you do with that Word? 
Were you obedient to that Word? Did you submit to the truth of 
it? Submit in obedience to Christ as Lord, to faith in Him as your 
Savior? You know, one of the most frightening 
verses in all of the Bible is Jesus speaking to Chorazin and 
Bethsaida. And He says to them, He says 
to them, it's going to be more tolerable in the day of judgment 
for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you, Chorazin and Bethsaida. 
Why? It was because they had the mighty 
works of God done among them. Here we have the mighty word 
of God preached among us. What did you do with that? If 
you reject that, it is going to be more tolerable for Sodom 
and Gomorrah. We saw what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. We see 
it in the Bible, what happened to them in an outward sense with 
the city. how wicked they were, they were 
all destroyed in such a fiery manner. But that was only temporal. What about the spiritual aspect 
of them and their sin? You know, but it's going to be 
more tolerable for them than for those who have heard the 
word of the Lord preached and still reject that, still disobey 
it, still turn from it. So believe then. That's what, 
you know, come to Christ, trust in him for your salvation. Not 
that you, so that your salvation, we looked at that this morning, 
what is faith? It's either my works gain entrance into heaven, 
or it's Christ's works for me that gain entrance into heaven. 
If you trust that Christ's work for you, that is faith, that 
is to believe in him. And then you enter into that 
blessed union with Christ, and that blessed fellowship with 
the brethren. So let us close in prayer. Lord, we thank you again for 
your word. We thank you for this passage 
of scripture, and Lord, these things that we all need encouragement 
in our lives, to love the brethren. And Lord, I just thank you for 
these exhortations. I pray that we would take these 
things to heart, that we would seek to live lives of love for 
one another, and building each other up, and helping each other, 
weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice. 
So Lord, I pray that you help us with these things. We know 
that our Lord Jesus says, apart from you, we can do nothing. 
So Lord, we look to you for that, and we pray for that. And Lord, 
I do pray, again, that if there are any here who have not come 
to Christ and entered that union with Christ and that fellowship 
of the believers that we have together, being together in Christ, 
Lord, that they would come, that they would trust in the Lord 
Jesus as the The hymn writer says, nothing in my hand I bring 
simply to that cross I cling. Lord, that's all we need is the 
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. So I pray that 
you would be pleased to bless us now. I pray that you go with 
us in the remainder of this day. Bring us back together this evening, 
Lord, if it's in your will to celebrate the Lord's death together 
and to look at what that means for us as your people. Lord, 
I pray that you'd be honored and glorified in all that we 
do. And we pray this in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. 
Amen. Well, you can turn to the doxology 568, I believe it is. Thanks. 568, and stand and sing 
in closing, please. ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We still love you 
♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ We still love you ♪ ♪ We know ♪ Now may the God of peace himself 
sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, 
and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Amen. Well, you can be seated 
for a time of meditation. Thank you.