1 John

the crowd we have tonight, but we're going to be covering the last parts of it. But just to full review, let's go back to 2nd Peter chapter one and read the first several verses. It starts in verse one, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. May His grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, and that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and virtue knowledge, and knowledge temperance, and temperance patience, and patience godliness, and godliness brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you now and just thank you for this evening. Lord, I thank you for this time that we're able to gather together to praise your name, this time that we have to get into your word, to continue in this worship as we study more about what you have for us, and that you want us to grow. You want us to be like in this world for you. You want us to be like you, and you help us to do it, and you give us instruction to do it. God, I pray that you would just be with me as I leave this study this afternoon and continue in this message, that you may be glorified and you may be lifted up, most of all in Jesus. Thank you for all that you do. It's your name we pray. Amen. So, because I know it's been a long time since we've really covered this, or at least I've been able to cover with you on Sunday evenings, I'd like to hit some points from way back in verse, or the beginning of the chapter. Of course, how, and this is a question, how are we able to first have faith, or how are we first able to be saved? That's the better way to put it. It's through what? And this is a question for y'all. How do we get saved? How are we saved? How are we saved? Living in Jesus. Through faith in Jesus. Same book, same thing being said, different way of saying it. It's faith in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. It says in verse three, according to us, the bond power hath given us all things pertaining unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue. So, he's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. So, he's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. 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He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. He's given us everything we need to live for him and to be in his presence. Now, temperance is an interesting word. What does temperance mean? Any idea? Do you all remember? Self-control. Okay. Pretty much. Yeah. What's that? Yeah. Pretty much. Temperance is that application of what we've learned that we may be able to stand firm or have self-control in the moment, whatever's going on at the time. Of course, you can see how that directly ties into patience. The more temperate we are, the more we know about the Lord Jesus Christ and his word, the more we're able to apply that, that we may be able to withstand. Now, patience, we all know what patience is, is that ability to endure difficult circumstances. We talked about that this morning in Matthew chapter 4, when Jesus Christ was led into the wilderness to be tested, put to the test by the devil himself, that Jesus did not bend. He did not break. He took everything that we're seeing, virtue, knowledge, temperance, and applied it through patience that he would soothe every temptation the devil threw at him and came out on the other side. The angels came and ministered to his names. We finally get to godliness. What is godliness? Now, this is the one that tricked me and I had to really study at it a little bit. Attitude and conduct definitely fit into what it's pointing at here. Godliness is the same word that's used for piety for this word specifically. It's that idea of devotion and worship to only one, fidelity to God. We are devoted to God. Now, we see how all that lines up. If you are seeking the best of the best, you're learning more about the Lord, you're applying his word so you can figure out how to withstand every moment. Then, when you're put to the test, your devotion really carries out. As you're put to the test, you come out on the other side of that trial, suddenly you see how godliness, your devotion is proven through trials that you are faithful to the Lord and not moving. Adding all these things, we see that Christians, when they are first saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, they may not know everything, they may not be mature, but as they're steadily growing, as they're steadily maturing, they are able to become more firm that they may be able to produce Christ-like fruit and give glory to God in all of it. Finally, we get to where we're at tonight, which is brotherly kindness and charity. First off, just to get into it, brotherly kindness, what is that? What is brotherly kindness? To show kindness to everybody, but this word here, the fact that it puts brotherly, it makes it a little bit more specific and yes, we should be kind to everybody. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, but there's something special in the family of God that separates, that really just makes the love that we have for one another special and the fact that it endures no matter what or should as we are living through the Lord Jesus Christ and brotherly kindness is that kind of love and care and desire for another's well-being to basically show hospitality. In Romans chapter 12, verse 10, Paul writes this, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, showing kind affection one to another with brotherly love. How does this tie into everything else? Because if we are applying all these other things and suddenly we are living godly and we are able to stand firm through brotherly love, we are able to see the needs of the others and help them grow and be fruitful as well, thus producing fruit ourselves in that moment. It's neat how it all turns out. We go on to verse 13 of Romans chapter 12 and it says, distributing to the necessity of the saints, giving to hospitality. Paul makes mention in Thessalonians, we are not going to look over at that tonight, but he makes mention to the Thessalonians that brotherly love, I don't even have to address it with you because you are already doing it to the Macedonians. Now the interesting thing about that scripture or that portion of scripture is that Paul came into those people in Thessalonica and the situation in which he came into them wasn't that good. They came in, he was sharing gospel, there were many that came to the faith, there were Jews and Gentiles and in Acts it talks about how they eventually kind of got a little uproar going on, the Jewish side of the people did, and ran him, tried to run him out of town, tried to kill him. But the Christians there helped him escape by night so he would survive. But the interesting thing as all of this was happening, they had one of the Christians there abducted and beaten, in that is that despite the persecution, despite all of that, they were able to show love to one another, lifting each other up and even ministering to the people in Macedonia. That love that's there lifts up Christ and helps others grow. You look over in 1 John 3, verse 17, and it says, but whoso hath, and I guess I don't have this verse in there, 1 John 3, verse 17, you'll turn over there, but whoso hath this world's good, seeing his brothers have need, and shutting up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? So we see how the brotherly kindness demonstrates the love of God and ministers to the needs of others and also does in turn help ourselves to grow in Christ's likeness that we may bear fruit. Brothers, what are the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of these things are applied, and as we are applying them to our lives, we are more fruitful, which that is the goal that we may not be barren and that we may be able to stand. We continue on to the next part where it talks about not just adding on brotherly kindness. So this is simple. This is the easy thing to do. We have friends. We know how to treat friends and whatnot, and so that's not too much out of the way, too much harder to apply. We get on to charity. Now we hear charity. We've heard charity before in the Scripture where Paul talks to the people at Corinth talking about charity is this and that and so on and so forth. And charity, do you all know the word that is used here for charity? What does charity mean? It's another synonym for charity, love. Now in Scripture, there's three different loves that we commonly see translated. You have the phileo, you have agape, and then xeros, or the more love between married couples. We'll put it that way. I forgot the actual Greek word of it. But anyway, we see here that this word here is agape. Now for those of you all here, who knows what agape means? Agape love, a type of God-like love. One defines it this way. It's a spiritual bond of love between God and man and between man and man into Christ. And I think it's very interesting that the one who defines that, Warren Wiersbe, defines it in Christ because without Christ, it's incredibly difficult to love like God. But with Christ, we can love like God. That God-like love that we see is what we're going to be talking about tonight and this is the type of love that God desires that we apply to our lives that we may be fruitful in everything. Now, the question is, is this that I have for you all tonight, where does love originate? Where does agape love, true love, self-giving love originate? Where does that come from? God. Okay. So it ultimately comes from God. Let's look at 1 John 4, verse 16, and we have known and believed that the love of God hath come to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Now, we see that love ultimately originates from God. That self-giving love, that agape love that gives all and holds nothing back. How is that love expressed from God to man? Because if we're going to be talking about how we apply agape love to ourselves as Christians that we may be fruitful, we've got to know what it is, what it looks like, and then we'll discuss how we apply it. So how does God express that love to man? I would say you're right. 1 John chapter 1 or chapter 3, verse 16, let's turn there, 1 John chapter 3, verse 16, just a page back maybe for some of you all, if not a little less. So 1 John chapter 3, verse 16 says, hereby we perceive, we understand, we can see the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We see the love of God demonstrated through his son, Jesus Christ, who even before the foundations of the world, he did predestinate to die as a sacrifice on our behalf, knowing that he would create us in perfection and that we would fall. This is the type of love that God has demonstrated to us, that we may be children of his and that we may have life and be life eternal. Now we keep on going on, we see this demonstrated ultimately in another verse that we so commonly know in John 3, verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. I'd like to look at another way God demonstrates his love towards us. If you will turn to Psalms chapter 139, Psalms chapter 139, Psalm chapter 139, verse 1. In verse 1 it says this, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. So God has seen our inner being. God has seen our heart and God has seen how sinful it is. He's seen our thoughts that we may think nobody else would ever find out about, but yet God knows it. Thou hast known my down-sitting and my up-rising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. He knows us from every point. And there is not a word in my tongue but lo, O Lord, you know it all together. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. David, as he's writing this Psalm, he's thinking about how God knows him. God knows every part of him. God knows everything he's ever said, anything he's ever said behind somebody's back even. God knows us from our deepest depths that nobody else would ever be able to know. And the fact that God knows that, it baffles David. It baffles me. We look on later on in Psalms 139, verse 13. If you'll look there, it says, for you have possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. God created me. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect. And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake, I am still with thee. So we see David's thoughts towards God, but also because David understands the depth of that love that God has for him, and he doesn't completely understand it, it leaves him baffled. It leads to an expression of a love towards God, as we've seen there in Psalms 39. So we see as God has demonstrated love towards us, being sinners, by sending his Son Jesus Christ to us, it shows us the type of love that he who loves us with, and therefore helps us as believers, children of God, and if you are a child of God, you can understand this and you can express it, that love back to the Lord for what he has done. He has given his life for us. Is it not so short and not so, should we not give our life to him? We continue on, and we see how that love is expressed from God's man, man to God. God saves us, and we see that love that is demonstrated to us, and it's befounding. And then we go on to that love between believers. If you will, turn to 1 John 3, verse 18, 1 John 3, verse 18, 1 John 3, verse 18, says My little children, let us not love in word, neither in song, but in deed and in truth. So what does that mean to love, not just in word and in song, but in deed and in truth? How would you put that in different words? What does it mean to love in deed and in truth? Okay, so to demonstrate them. So how would we put that practically? How would we demonstrate our love, not just say it? How could you do that? Let's leave a little space for you all to give an example, if you'd like. I know this is a little bit different, but I like teaching this way. Okay. Absolutely. So the way you care, the way you help him, you see somebody in need, and you go fill in need. I can't tell you how many people I've seen come up in this parking lot. Brother Eric the other day had somebody come up, and I saw him. I saw him pull up, saw him over there, and just kind of checking on things. And instead of leaving, the person was needing gas. They were heading on down to Dallas, and they were running out of gas. And so instead of leaving the person in need, he went and got them a little bit of gas to help them get down the road. It was a fix for panic. And so we see that love, it should be expressed not just in words, but also in our deed or what we do, and especially among the brethren. We see in Acts when the church has been established, we see it coming together in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit has come, and it's growing. And we see these brothers and sisters in Christ giving freely of what they had, not that they were forced to give it, but they gave it because they wanted to, to meet the needs of others. They saw that this person over here needed something to eat, something to drink. They sold their land, they got the stuff so that they could make sure they had what they needed. We see that through the Scriptures as well as we see brothers and sisters in Christ ministering one to another. We can look around us at fellow churches and within our own body where we've seen a letter being written. The other day I got a text from one of the members here that was incredibly, incredibly encouraging to me about how things were going with the youth there on Wednesday night. It was one of those things that I was wondering, is it going all right? Am I reaching them? Am I truly ministering to them the way that I pray that God would have me to? And it was an encouragement. There's so many different ways, even small ways, to demonstrate that love, not just in word but also in deed, and therefore being fruitful. Let's go to John chapter 13, verse 34, and we see a commandment that Jesus has given the disciples. John chapter 13, verse 34. Of course, as we're turning there, I'd like to keep it in mind that as we're talking about this love, how it's demonstrated, where we see it, where it comes from, we're applying it to that idea of how it helps us grow as believers, but also love in its essence helps us grow other believers in maturity. So John chapter 13, verse 34 says this. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Of course, we remember in one of the scriptures in 1 John, John practically kind of quoted this. Jesus gave his life for us, we ought to give it to one another. Jesus says, I've given you a new commandment, love one another. Now he's talking to who at this point? What group of people is Jesus talking to? His disciples. So he's talking to Christians. Yes, we are to love the world, not the sins, but we are to love the people, the sinners, that we may take the documents to them. But we are to love one another, and especially love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We ought to have that agape love. Because Jesus said that you ought to love one another as I have loved you. How did Jesus love his disciples? Where can we see that demonstrated? One of the examples that I know I've heard many times, y'all have heard many times, is with Peter. When he was on the seashores of Galilee, Jesus Christ had resurrected, and he's coming over there and he's talking with them just before going back to be with the Father. And Peter comes up, they sit down, they have a meal together, and Jesus looks at Peter and says, Peter, do you love me? Now this Peter, the same Peter is the one that said, I will never forsake you, and all these other disciples may leave you hanging, but I will not leave you. This same Peter is the one that not so shortly after, when Jesus Christ was taken captive, denied the Lord three times. Up to finally when the third one came up and said, hey don't you know this guy, don't you know this disciple? He said some not so friendly words to that person, and said there's no way out of this disciple. He denied Jesus that third time. And what did he do? After denying him, he wasn't even there for the crucifixion, he left and went back to Galilee and started fishing. He had pretty much abandoned everything he had done with Jesus Christ the last three or so years that he was with him. He had abandoned his Lord and Savior, but yet Jesus did not abandon him. Jesus did not abandon him. So we see that Jesus comes to Peter and says, do you love me? Peter says, you know I love you, but not in the way that Jesus said. Jesus said, Peter, do you love me with the God they love, with the love that I love you? And Peter responded to him there in that passage. Jesus, I love you like a brother. I love you with the way I love. And even with that love, Jesus says, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. You still have the opportunity to serve me. You still have the opportunity to grow. You are not completely down. You messed up a little bit. I'm forgiving you. You can still grow. You can still get better. Jesus says again, Peter, do you love me? Peter responds, you know, I love you like a brother, pretty much. Finally, the third time, Jesus asks Peter, Peter, do you love me? And it says in the Scripture that it hurt in his heart that Jesus had asked him the third time. And does it explain why it hurt in his heart that Jesus had asked him the third time? I kind of figure it's because Peter denied Jesus three times. And Peter says, Lord, you know my heart. And Jesus, knowing Peter's heart, he'll love him. It says feed my sheep. You see the love that Jesus has demonstrated to us, and the love that he desires that we demonstrate to one another. Do you see what I'm getting at here? Are y'all tracking on? This is the love and affection we should have amongst believers. Because in verse 35 of John chapter 13, it describes the point of that. The point of that love. By this love shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one to another. This is the love that God has demonstrated to us and the desire that we demonstrate to one another. As we apply this to all of these different things, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, and that was the last of those lists. If we apply all of those on top of that, it allows us to be fruitful, lacking nothing in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the interesting thing is as those two things are applied on top of that whole other list, it removes that growth and fruitfulness to not only on ourselves, but the fact of us loving. Love is expressed outwardly, and love is what helps the other brethren in Christ grow and be fruitful as well. When you see somebody else stumbling through love, you go to them and show, hey, this isn't the way to go, and you can help bring them up. Paul talks constantly in the scriptures about picking that person or following that person that is going after Jesus Christ and lifting each other up, and that exhortation is done ultimately through love and the love of Jesus Christ that he has given us and has shown towards us. And last but not least, this love that God has given us and shown us gives us boldness. If you will, turn to 1 John 4, verse 17. 1 John 4, verse 17. Where it says, Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because we will all stand one day before the Lord and give an account. Why do we deserve to be with Him? Why do we deserve to have eternal life? We can't do it on our own merit. We can't live good enough. Let Jesus pay the way. When we are saved, we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment, and He that fears is not made in perfect love. And so, if we can, we have our musicians come forward for the invitation. We'll go ahead and do only trust Him again, if that's fine. As we apply these different things, as we apply virtue, as we apply knowledge, temperance, patience, Godliness, and finally get to love, brotherly love, and that agape love, that love of God. That's what truly helps us to grow and to be fruitful. It goes on in the latter part, or after those verses there, in 2 Peter. If you will, turn back to 2 Peter with me and look back. Turn back to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, and we read down in verse 8. It says, It says, But the fact of it is, He that likes these things is blind, and cannot see, or can have this blindness, that he is perished from the Father. Now, that's a sad thing. Having neglected the salvation of Jesus Christ, and let it go on for the glory of God. He who has neglected the Lord, has no mercy. In their form, has been forgotten. And I know, it's been a little different way of doing the service. But if you have that burden, or maybe you need to get some things right with the Lord, or maybe you need salvation, maybe you're doing well, but you say, I can do better. The Lord doesn't call us to just go at it, anything at a time. He calls us to go at it diligently. To put effort into it. And I know that me, speaking personally, I've had, over the last several months, I've had to deal with the fact that I have not been going at it diligently. God will.