Continuing where we left off last week…
- [2Pe 1:7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
- Brotherly affection.
- 1 John 3:14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
- 1 Peter 1:22-25. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So, here we see brotherly love as a direct response to believing the Gospel. It is an action. Sola Fide, as RC Sproul is faith alone, but a faith that is not alone. In other words, our works testify of our possession of faith.
- Romans 12:10 equates this concept with “showing honor.” It is definitely something you do.
- 1 John 3:16 says to “lay down our lives for the brothers.” From this, we can see that, according to John MacArthur, that brotherly love is “a mutual sacrifice for one another.
- COMMENT. Our godliness is not true godliness without affection for those who are fellow members of Christ’s body. We are not above our brothers. The only true “firstborn” is Christ, and what did he do? Lord it over us? No, he laid down his life for us. Therefore, we are to also die to ourselves, love our father with a love that makes our love toward everything else look like hatred in comparison, and yet show a special love toward the other members of Christ’s body.
- Love.
- What does love do? It does not work if one has an abstract, words-only concept of love. In the words of the great theologians, DC Talk, “Love is a verb.”
- For the knowing Christian, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 is the first place to go. This list embodies may of the components given here in this list of faith supplements. There are positive ways to perform love, and negative ways to perform love:
- Positively, love is patient, kind, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Negatively, love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Love does not end.
- What are ways that we mutually sacrifice for each other as brethren? ASIDE: I use the word brethren as a gender-neutral word for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
- [2Pe 1:8] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Are yours. King James renders it “in you.” The Greek text actually says “you.” “If these qualities are you…”
- As you supplement your faith with these characteristics…As they become the fabric of who you are…as you continue to grow in these qualities...
- These qualities are not without you. Works can be without. Take our Matthew 7 passage from last week. "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”
- Isaiah 29:13. This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…
- These qualities are borne of our faith in Jesus. They begin in our hearts and minds. Though we can see the outward fruit of their presence, they are nonetheless something that borne from someone who has the mind of Christ.
- The church is sometimes referred to as the “hands and feet of Christ.” Only the church that has the “mind of Christ” can be the church that is “the hands and feet” of Christ. Everything starts with right thinking, right doctrine. Oftentimes, I see people use this statement as a way to distance themselves from doctrine, or right teaching. Our motivations, the basis for everything we do must have our foundations in the Holy Scriptures. As a side note, take our newly devised Mission and Vision Statement which is being rolled out to all ministry teams. It is not an infallible document. It might have interpretative errors and challenges attached to it. However, as the session and staff have prayed and sought wisdom from Holy Writ regarding the focus of our church, we have come up with several statements that are the basis for our actions. They do not necessarily define specific actions. This statement acts as a sort of filter through which we can see if a particular action in our church is something that fits where we are headed.
- Why do I bring this up? It acts as a kind of foundation for everything Saddlerock does, whether it is the kind of ministry teams we have going, our leadership model, etc. How much more should God’s Word become the filter through which we “live and move and have our being.” The further we distance ourselves from it, the easier it will be to stray from it, and the spiritually fatter we make ourselves.
- The entire point of this is, we, as the adopted sons and daughters of God the Father, have responsibilities. As I said last week, we become paying members of the household. Sacrifice is a work, but it is a work borne of our faith in Jesus. It does not determine our salvation but does seem to direct our sanctification, our growth in holiness.
- I once heard a professional sound technician describe the phrase “sacrifice of praise” as “please sacrifice the sound of your voice for the benefit of others.” In other words, those of you who sound good, sing louder. Those of you that do not sound good, sing with your inside voice. That was actually said!
- In truth, as Christians, we should sacrifice our pride and sing whether we want to or not. We are commanded to sing. So, let us sing with glad hearts! I hear louder and much less talented singers at Seattle Sounders games. Why is it that we do not have this mind among us? In fact, maybe we should paint our faces? Hear this excerpt from The Pursuit of the Holy. In it, Simon Ponsonby explains how other cultures, even subcultures in our own country, exercise a “non-divine notion of holiness.” See if this doesn’t hit us right where it hurts.
- Think about a game of soccer. There is no mention of a God, but it clearly exhibits all the signs of liturgy and sacrament for those who attend a holy event. The people gather together at their cathedral (the stadium) and, wearing their Sunday best (team colors, scarves and shirts), already feel involved in something bigger than the sum of its parts. They sit together and sing their worship (soccer chants). Then comes the moment of awe as the religious drama begins: The priests (players) gather on the Holy of Holies (field), and the liturgy of sacrifice begins at the referee’s whistle. The offering (ball) is maneuvered to the altar (net) with the anticipation of a sacrifice (goal), at which the religious ecstasy of the crowd explodes in cheers. And the opposing team and their fans would presumably be the profane. Clearly, for many who attend, the match follows a very religious structure between sacred and profane, and for those involved, it has the sense of being a holy time without any sense of the divine!
- What are believers to make of this? Rather than agree that a soccer game is a sense of the holy without a need for the divine, I would suggest we are looking here at a search for the divine and the holy that has gone astray and been misplaced in the secular. While a view of a soccer game as a spiritual event may be a helpful insight into how societies structure themselves in what may be seen as religious acts, this view really doesn’t get to the heart of biblical holiness. Holiness is more likely to generate unease or even fear in people.
- Do people in our church, both believer and unbelievers, sense this “greater than me” concept? While we are to exhibit self-control, does that mean we are on the one hand, dull, boring, uninteresting, or on the other hand full of ecstasy, cheering and dramatic? I don’t know. But, I do know that many do not experience the awe and wonder of worshiping and living for the risen Christ. And yet, Paul states that practicing these stated qualities keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful. Where do we go from here?
- Again, as we make every effort to supplement our faith with these qualities do they keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful.
- I think of, well, myself! Not what you’re thinking. How many times have I started some sort of workout routine only to give up because of all the mental fortitude it takes to carry it out to completion. In order for me to experience its true benefits, I must regularly and consistently exercise.
- [2Pe 1:9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
- Lacks. Galatians 5:23, James 2:14-26.
- Gal. 5:23. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
- The converse of self-giving love, a love that is only concerned with giving might be this verse. It is expecting something in return. Aren’t many children to be trained out of this concept of using people merely as toys? “Since you are useful to me, I will be your friend. Once you cease to be useful, I will no longer be kind to you.”
- There may be other points of application, but Paul specifically contrasts using Christ’s freedom as an opportunity for the flesh with serving one another through love.
- James 2:14-16.
- What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
- Again, Christian love is proven through our actions. If we know we have been loved by Christ and accepted by God (not vice versa), we will prove it with what we do. Here, Paul’s example is a member of Christ’s family in need of clothes and food and sending them away with an empty prayer of blessing without supporting them. I don’t think we are guilty of this, but let us be ever mindful to be caring for our brothers and sisters.
- Blind. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 1 John 2:9-11,
Revelation 3:14-22 - 2 Cor. 4:3-4. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- We, by our own desires, have allowed the god of this world to blind our minds. He doesn’t forcibly prevent us from seeing and worshiping Christ. By continually rejecting the terms of Jesus, we, in a sense, take the hands of Satan and hold them over “the eyes of our hearts.”
- 1 John 2:9-11.
- Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- A clear outplaying of being blind and “in the dark.” We hate our brothers. Is there any lukewarmness here? No, he called the church of Laodicea lukewarm and wished to spit them out.
- Cleansed. Romans 6:1-4
- Rom. 6:1-4. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
- John MacArthur explains: “This does not refer to water baptism. All Christians have, by placing saving faith in him, been spiritually immersed into the person of Christ, that is, united and identified with him.”
- If saving faith were of works, a clear reading of Scripture would condemn us all. We are so blessed to have Christ cleanse us from our sins! Let us do all we can to show our thanks to our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!!!
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