Seven Graces of the Christian Life: Part 1

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Seven Graces of the Christian Life: Part 2

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I'd like to speak to you this morning and minister to your heart. I've titled this,
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Part 1, A Faithful Growth in Faith. But what I'd like to do today is, as we come to this portion and this part of Scripture, I'd like for us to look at the seven graces of a godly life, the seven graces of the
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Christian life. So, in saying that, please turn with me to the epistle of 2
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Peter as we continue our wonderful study in this wonderful epistle.
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2 Peter chapter 1, and today we'll begin in verse 5, and we will be reading to verse 11.
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This will be part 1. There's no way we could put this all into one sermon.
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But we want to pack a good bit in today, and God willing, we'll continue.
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Next Lord's Day, beginning in verse 5 to verse 11, hear the word of the living
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God. But also for this very reason, given all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self -control, to self -control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
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For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short -sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
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Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.
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For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an insurance will be supplied to you abundantly in the everlasting kingdom of our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Stop right there and let's seek our Lord in prayer together.
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And let's pray that God blesses the reading of his word not only to our ears, but to our hearts this morning.
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Let's bow and pray. Our Father and our God, our prayer is open our eyes that we may see
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Jesus. Only you can open our eyes. As the autistic blind young man prayed and sung, open the eyes of our heart,
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Lord. We want to see you. To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory.
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Pour out your power and your love as we sing holy, holy, holy. What a prayer.
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May that prayer be ours. So as the psalmist said in Psalm 119,
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Lord, open our eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law. We pray this in Jesus' name and for your honor and glory.
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Amen and amen. The apostle Peter has already spoken about the glorious majesty of the
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God who has called us by glory and virtue and has given us exceedingly great and precious promises.
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Verse 4 actually says that, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
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That word corruption means escape the depravity, the depravity that is in this world through lust.
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Verses 3 and 4 technically and basically show that God has given us all that is necessary for the divine life because of what
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God has done for us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His person, in His works, in His life, in His death, in His resurrection.
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Therefore we should be and ought to be giving all diligence. And that's what we need to underscore as we look at this text this morning, is to give all diligence.
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That word, those three words basically means to give due diligence is to pay close attention to the matter that is at hand.
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And this is what the Apostle Peter is telling us, is that we pay close attention to what he's about to say.
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That means with earnest application. That means with careful study. That means that we are to apply ourselves diligently, and that's sanctification, that's what we're going to look at, to every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Because God has given, and He's a giving God, isn't He? No one can outgive
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God. His divine power, He's given us divine power to all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, through the knowledge of God who has called us by glory and virtue.
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So we must be diligent in cultivating, and I think that's a key word there, because sanctification is cultivating.
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This time of year, a lot of people begin to cultivate the ground. They break up the ground, the hard ground to plant and to sow.
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And there's not going to be any fruitful garden unless the ground is cultivated. And this is what
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He's saying. We are to cultivate. That means we labor. A garden doesn't happen automatically, does it?
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God will send the rain and the sunshine to make things grow. But we have to get out there with our hands.
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We have to plow. We have to sow. We have to tend to the weeds.
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And this is what basically is being said here because God does the miracle work. That's salvation.
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That's regeneration. But the sanctification is in our side too.
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The theological words here is monogerism. I get my words right.
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Monogerism, that it's all of God. Got tongue twisted. And the other sanctification is synergistic.
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It's basically cooperating with God. Now that's what we believe here.
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That's Scripture. And every time I try to pronounce a theological word, I get tongue twisted.
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So I need to watch myself, don't I? But because God has given us divine power to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by this glory and virtue, we are to be diligent in cultivating.
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And this is what I want us to look at for the next several weeks. And doing this, we will be fruitful.
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And no doubt, fruit will come out of this. As if we go by the word of God.
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Now God does not make us holy against our will. That's a whole sermon there. I'm not going to look into the technical details.
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Let me just put it that way. Our will and God's will and God's spirit in our will, there's a mingling, okay?
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God doesn't work against our will. He does work within our will.
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But it is all of God, right? It's a mystery. It really is. Even the greatest theologians can't figure this out.
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But God does work through it. Not against our will. Even though before salvation, we do not have the capabilities to come to Christ.
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That's why salvation is all of God. But when it comes to sanctification, there is a cooperation.
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There is a cooperation. Not in salvation. No cooperation there. God does it all, right?
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But in sanctification, there is cooperation. So, in manual labor, which is sanctification, and by the way, have you not found out this to be true?
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That manual labor is hard work. Sanctification is hard work.
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Our flesh seems to try to bog us down and slow us up.
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That's why we are to discipline ourselves. Well, this is exactly what
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Peter is talking about. Manual labor in the power of the Holy Spirit, by the way. We cannot do this labor within our own strength.
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And I don't know about you, but I cry out daily, Lord, give me strength for the day. Give me power. Give me help.
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Give me grace. So I could give more to Him. Because He is the source of all of it.
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And as He comes and blesses us and gives, which He has given, we are to give back to Him.
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That's worship, right? And this is what worship is all about. Let me give you a scripture, and you know this.
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Make an application here. In Spiritual Diligence and Discipline, Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 and 13, very familiar verse says,
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Therefore my beloved Paul, this is the Apostle Paul, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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Now notice what he says. Work out. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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And here's the key. For it is God who works in you. God does the work in you.
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And I got this word circled right here. Both. Both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
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That's the glory of God. That's God's good pleasure. But notice what he says.
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God works in you both to will and to do. Isn't that wonderful?
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That's true sanctification. So sanctification in detail is to be applied.
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There must be, and I like these four words. Remember these four words. I tried to tack this on to my sermon today as an outline, but these four words can be added to everything that's being said here.
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It's not my outline, but let me give you four words I think are very important for sanctification.
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What are they? The first word is diligence. As it says in the scripture.
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Diligence. The second word would be desire. The third word would be determination.
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The fourth word would be discipline. Remember those four words. Diligence, desire, determination, and discipline on our part.
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Not God's part. Our part. God gives us the strength and the power through His grace.
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But remember those four words. Diligence, desire, determination, and discipline.
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There is no way we can have sanctification unless we have those four words that's active within our hearts, in our minds, in our lives.
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So each one of these must be present. They must be present in order to cultivate fruitful growth.
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In order that we are to have fruit, we are to have diligence, desire, determination, and discipline.
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I really believe that you take that out, you don't have sanctification. That is the motive engine.
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I like to look at it kind of like a... That's the train that's basically pushing the weight.
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The diligence, the desire, the determination, the discipline. So in order to cultivate fruitful growth, and those must be present.
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Expanding on this diligence now, this is where He speaks of. Peter gives seven graces, or you can say seven qualities.
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Seven graces, seven qualities, characteristics. It's our character that God wants to build.
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I really believe this is His aim. He wants us to be Christ -like. This is sanctification.
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And He gives us seven. I don't think it's by any mistake that the number seven is here.
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Because seven is the number of perfection, isn't it? There is a perfection in the number seven.
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God created the earth in six days. The seventh day
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He rested. Seven. I love that seven. So you have seven characteristics, seven graces here of the godly life.
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But we must not think of it as seven beads on a string, or seven stages, or seven steps.
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We shouldn't look at it like that, right? Of spiritual development. You'll get a lot of that kind of teaching anywhere.
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What Peter is actually saying, and as he begins at verse 5 to 11, he is basically talking about quality upon quality.
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Notice how he begins in the text, in verse 5. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence.
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Add to your faith. Now he assumes here, he's assuming that the people that are reading this, the persecuted believers, that scattered abroad, the same group of believers that he spoke to in 1
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Peter. He is basically saying these are to the believers, right? He's assuming that they have faith already.
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They are born again of the Spirit of God. So he's moving on to sanctification. Add to your faith.
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Add to it. So faith is really like the foundation. It's the concrete, as we talked about last week.
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And if you're a builder, like Brother Keith here, he knows exactly, you're not going to have a good structure unless you have concrete.
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Brother Keith, you don't mind me picking on you a little bit today, do you? He knows the hardest part is that foundation.
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But it's the most crucial part. The concrete. The concrete.
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It's got to be solid. And this is actually what faith is. The faith must be firm.
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The faith must be solid. Faith is like the cornerstone. It's the bedrock.
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So our faith is anchored in Jesus Christ, of who He is and what
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He's done. So going on. The word here translated add means in the
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Greek, I love this, to supply generously. To supply generously.
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In other words, you can actually say add to your faith. Supply generously to your faith.
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That's what He's saying. So in other words, we develop one stone upon another stone in the building.
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On the foundation. And what He's saying, we're going to add these stones. These are stones building up from the foundation, which is faith.
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So in other words, we develop one quality as we exercise another quality. And these graces relate to each other the very same way that a branch relates to the trunk of a tree, to the twigs,
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I should say, to the branch. Jesus said this, didn't He? In John 15, that whole chapter deals with this.
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John 15, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. John 15, 5, I just picked out one verse here because it's really the most important verse,
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I think all of it's important. But this is bedrock, folks. Jesus says, I am the vine.
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You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.
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See where He's getting at? There's no way we can bear fruit, produce fruit, outside of being connected with Jesus Christ.
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Outside of Him, there's no bearing fruit. So what He's saying, He who abides, and that word abides means continues, perseverance.
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You continue, abide in the vine. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.
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Underscore this. For without me, you can do nothing.
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Now that's key, isn't it? Without Jesus, no fruit. Without Jesus, no walking godly.
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Without Jesus, we're nothing. We could do nothing, we're nothing, we're nothing anyway.
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But when the branch, and Jesus is divine, and with the branches, there's a connection of intimacy.
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That's what He's saying. You're communion, it's a union and communion with Jesus. And there's a continuing with Him.
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And that's what He's saying. Like the fruit of the Spirit, the qualities grow out of life.
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Jesus is the life. He is the life, the truth, the way. He is the source.
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That's what He's saying. He says, I am that source. I am the bread. I am the living water. Outside of Him, there's no growing.
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There's no continuing. So we have to abide in Him by His grace and help. And that part is sanctification.
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So growing out of life and out of a vital living relationship that's intimate with Jesus Christ is absolutely crucial to living godly, isn't it?
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I really believe that's why we're not seeing the power and the purity in the church today.
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Because there's a lack of people being born again of the
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Spirit of God and knowing Jesus Christ, knowing God, and that's what
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He's talking about, the knowledge, just not knowing about Him, but knowing Him intimately. This is crucial.
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Now, let me go on. So as we will see this in verses 5 through 11, spiritual growth includes four things.
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I wrote this down. These things will take place to every born again
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Christian. Again, this is not an outline. This is an introduction. The first thing is increasing in your knowledge, and I'm talking about intimate knowledge, your knowledge and understanding of God's Word.
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That's first and foremost. And out of God's Word is your prayer life, knowing
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Jesus. How do we know Him? We know Him through the Word, and we know Him through prayer, communion.
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Second, decreasing in your frequency and severity of sin. You see that?
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So when we come to increasing the knowledge of understanding who Jesus is, we increase in that, our sinning will decrease.
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Now, we never get to the place that we arrive, not until we step to the portals of glory. We will battle this continuing wage of war of sin within our hearts, but we will decrease in our frequency and severity of sin.
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Third, we will increase in our practice of Christ -like qualities.
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We will increase in our practice in our Christ -like qualities.
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Isn't that our desire? Isn't that your desire today? Is to be more and more like Jesus Christ.
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And then fourth, increasing in your faith and your trust in God.
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Increasing in your faith and your trust in God. Now, that's somewhat of an outline, but it's part of the introduction.
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All these things do not happen automatically. All these things do not happen overnight.
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Have you already seen that? I remember years ago when I was first entering into the
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Bible college and I had such a desire to know the Lord. I wanted to spend more and more time with the
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Lord and become more and more like Him. And somebody told me that and said, look, you're not going to get to, he said, the main thing is to get to the place of prayer and pray and get to know the
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Lord. But as you spend more time with Him, you're not going to get caught up with the time before you know it. 10 minutes will go by, 15 minutes will go by, you won't be looking at your watch.
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You get so caught up in the presence of God, next thing you know a whole hour is gone. But this particular person, a friend of mine said, you just make it to the place of prayer and God will take care of the time.
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Don't you worry about that. You will grow into that. So he's so right. All these things do not happen automatically.
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We're talking about manual here, right? It's kind of like a shifter. Most of us have got automatics, right?
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They do the shifting for us. But in the Christian life, in sanctification, it's manual. It's first, second, third, fourth, and fifth.
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You're making the shifts. So, much cultivation, much time in prayer, much pruning, much pruning, much, much pruning, is to take place for the growth and grace and the fruit to come forth.
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Now, perhaps the best summary of spiritual growth is becoming more and more like Jesus. I really believe that summarizes everything.
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The Apostle Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 11 .1, he says, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.
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That's amazing, isn't it? He said, he had enough confidence in Christ that he was so Christ -like.
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He said, you follow my example as I follow Jesus Christ. Now, we're to follow Christ, not
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Paul. That's not what he's saying. And basically what he's saying, I am an example of what a
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Christian should look like. Can we say that? Can we actually say that? Follow my example as I follow
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Christ? In other words, you see my life, I basically am a living epistle,
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I'm a living testament, I'm a walking bible. Can we honestly say that? Amazing statement.
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So Jesus Christ is the ultimate example for what it truly means to be spiritual. So we follow
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Jesus Christ. We already looked at it, but 1 Peter 2 .21 says this, to this you were called, he said, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
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Follow his steps. So this is what we're going to look. So, in today's message, we're going to look at the seven characteristics, the seven graces.
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These are seven graces that make up a godly life. As we already said, character is what
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God is concerned more about in the building of our character. And Jesus is doing the building, right?
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Except the Lord build the house. Amen, Brother Keith? I know it's been Brother Keith's, on his heart, as he shared this with me throughout the week, but the
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Lord is the builder. He's the builder of the church. Now yes, we're to evangelize and do our part, and do everything
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God's commanded to us to do, but the result is his. I'm not going to worry about numbers.
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I'm going to do exactly what God has told me to. I'm going to abide in him.
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I think, first and foremost, prayer is everything, then obeying his commandments, staying true to his word, and each and every one of us has a calling in this, what
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God has called us to be as the church. But Jesus is the master builder. He's the master builder.
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So, let's see what the Lord has to say to us about spiritual growth in these wonderful verses.
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Look at verse 5. I'm not going to dry up this week. I'm going to keep a cough drop and water in me.
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Verse 5. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue to virtue, knowledge.
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That's verse 5. What's Peter saying? He begins this statement, add to your faith.
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As we've already seen, the Greek word for add means graciously to generously add to it, but it is also the source in the
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English word for chorus. I love this. It means chorus.
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It literally means to gather a chorus. So, in this wonderful chorus that Peter is gathering together by the
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Holy Spirit, the seven graces, if you please, if all the seven graces are followed through, it will result in the harmony of the soul.
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There will be a harmony. It's like an orchestra. Don't you love the orchestras? You get orchestras.
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Some people say band, but I prefer orchestra. Orchestra, you've got the harps, and you've got the saxophones, and the
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French horns, and you've got the pianos, and you have all this coming in harmony to hear this beautiful piece of music.
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And you've got the conductor that's conducting. Isn't it beautiful to hear an amazing piece of music?
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But that's, in a sense, what Peter is kind of doing here. There's a chorus that's coming together that's in harmony.
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Each one of these graces, each one of these seven graces will come into harmony together.
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So, the first, and let me put this down, if you add faith, if you put faith as one of them, you have eight.
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But outside of faith, and we're not going to say faith is, faith is the foundation, okay?
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Because he says, add to your faith. So counting virtue, knowledge, self -control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, you've got seven.
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So we're adding to the faith. If that's seven, that builds to the faith.
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Now, like I said, if you add faith as a number there, you have eight.
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So, but, I believe it's seven that's added to, because that's what he says, add to your faith. Faith is crucial.
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Now, we looked at faith, and let me give you a little bit more on faith. Because it's foundational, isn't it?
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Acts chapter 3, verse 16. Peter says this, in his name, in his name, talking about the name of Jesus, through faith in his name, this is after the healing in Acts, and a miracle took place of a beggar that was blind, and the power of God came through Peter and John.
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This man got up and leaped, and he was miraculously healed. And everybody saw it and glorified
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God. And he said, no, it's through his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
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And then he says again, yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness, this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
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So faith, Romans 3, 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified, declared righteous, by faith, apart from the deeds of the law.
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Romans 1, 17, was Luther's favorite text, because God used this to open up his eyes to the gospel.
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For in it, speaking of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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So faith is foundational. Salvation. Hebrews 11, 6. Don't you love Hebrews 11, 6?
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But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them, of those who diligently seek him.
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So faith, genuine, authentic faith, living faith, faith that works, God grants as a free gift, gives eternal life to spiritually dead people to whom he wills.
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Isn't it amazing? It's a gift. So faith is to be, all these virtues, seven graces, is to be added to the faith.
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So our journey with Jesus Christ begins with faith and ends with faith. He is the author and the finisher of our faith.
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He begins us, he finishes us all. So, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
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Everything else is to be added to faith. So faith, we have to add these qualities.
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So the first quality that we add to faith, he says, is virtue. Virtue. Let's look at virtue.
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This word is introduced first to us in this letter, in chapter 1 verse 3.
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As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue.
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There it is. He introduces the word there. So it basically means excellence.
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Excellence. I love that word. It means goodness. Excellence. Faith which is honored to God is always excellent.
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It's always excellent. The character of goodness, moral excellence, true faith in God is always accompanied by excellent character.
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To the Greek philosophers, this meant the fulfillment of a thing. A fulfillment of a thing.
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In other words, when anything in nature fulfills its purpose, and the reason why it is that it is, in which
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God created it for its function and its purpose, is virtue, moral excellence.
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Now, that's so important because what is it speaking of? Let me give you an example. Like the land.
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The land that produces crops. What does a farmer say when it produces crops?
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Most of the time you'll hear it's excellent. It's excellence. That's the word virtue.
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Because it's fulfilling its purpose. And if you're a builder, like Brother Keith here, and if you've done some building, a tool, a good tool, that works correctly and will be excellent.
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I'm sure Brother Keith used that. A good tool, a strong tool that's really good. Excellent! Right? Virtuous.
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Because it is doing what that tool is supposed to do. And a
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Christian is supposed to glorify God because he has God's divine power and God's nature within him.
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Now, I saw Ben Grimm back there about the word tool. He also uses that word tool as somebody, the opposite of excellence.
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That somebody is a troublemaker, but we're not talking about that kind of tool, right? So when he is fulfilling his purpose in life, that's what he's talking about here.
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It has its purpose, right? That is to glorify God and that is the chief end of our existence and our purpose is to glorify
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God in everything that we do. So true virtue in the Christian life is not, and I will make this clear here, it's not just polishing up the human qualities.
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That's not what we're talking about. The externals, no. No matter how fine they may be, what he's talking about is the true virtue is producing divine qualities.
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It's God -given qualities that make the person more and more like Jesus Christ.
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So the first to add to faith is virtue. That's divine excellence.
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Divine excellence. Two, second quality is knowledge.
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Knowledge. And if you notice, what he says, to virtue, knowledge.
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This is very important. Faith helps us develop virtue. Virtue helps us develop knowledge. There in the original language, it means full knowledge.
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Full knowledge. The knowledge that is growing. Practical wisdom.
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Practical discernment. And we see this in Proverbs chapter 2. Now I've read this before, but I want to read it again.
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Go with me to Proverbs chapter 2. Here we see knowledge. And this is the knowledge of God.
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This is the knowledge and the wisdom of God. Let me read this whole chapter.
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My son, if you receive my words, treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, apply your heart to understanding.
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Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the
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Lord. And notice what he says. And find the knowledge of God. That's the treasure right there.
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Find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. Again, our God's a giving
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God, isn't He? He gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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That's from His Word, right? If we want to know what God's thinking, what God desires, let's read
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His Word. Verse 7. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
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He guards the paths of the justice. He preserves the way of the saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path.
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When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you.
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Understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who lead the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness.
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Now he's talking about the opposite, right? Who rejoice in the doing of evil, delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are crooked.
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Plenty of folks like this in the world, right? And once we were. Whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths.
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To deliver you from the immoral woman. Now here's a warning. We need knowledge and discernment, right?
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To help us, to guard us. To deliver you from the immoral woman. From the seductress, who flatters with her words.
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Who forsakes the companion of her youth. And forgets the covenant of her God. You know, that's what you see in adultery, isn't it?
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People just, they forget that they're even in marriage. They can care less. They become adulterous.
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And that's what adultery is. It's those who are married, and they go out, and they continue in their immorality.
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They forsake the companion of her youth. Forgets the covenant of her God. Notice what it says in verse 18.
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For her house leads down to death. Her paths to the dead. None who go to her return.
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Nor do they regain the paths of life. So you may walk in the way of goodness. And keep to the paths of righteousness.
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For the upright will dwell in the land. And the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will he cut off from the earth.
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And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it. So that's God's word on that.
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But we need knowledge, discretion. We need wisdom. But here, the focus is on knowledge.
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The knowledge. And it basically refers to the ability to handle life.
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Practical wisdom basically refers to the ability of handling life and making wise decisions.
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This kind of knowledge does not come automatically. Again, it's manual, it's sanctification. It comes from obedience to the will of God.
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Well, let's go to the next one. Third. He says, back in 2 Peter. Get back to my text here.
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Look at verse 6.
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To knowledge, self -control. Self -control. This is a big one, isn't it?
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This one hits me between the eyes. This stabs me in the heart.
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And I praise God for it. To know is vitally important, right?
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To have knowledge. But knowledge isn't enough. It isn't enough.
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We are to do what we know. And we should do. We are to act in obedience to God what we know.
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It's good to know. But that's not enough. There's a lot of people right now in hell that knew all about the
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Scriptures. Judas is one of them. He heard all of Christ's sermons. That just frightens me.
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And it's such a warning. Because we can have so much. We can have the right knowledge. And split hell wide open.
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But what's the key? Obedience. This is so critical.
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So in that, he's talking about self -control. In many of our lives, there's a great gulf, right?
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Between our knowledge and our conduct. Now this is where the preacher starts to meddle.
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And this is where it convicts my own heart. Because it was to this problem, as we already looked at, the apostle
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James spoke when he wrote James 4, 17. To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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That's such a convicting verse. Because we can know to do it. And not do it.
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That becomes sin. Because it's disobedience. That's actually what happened in the garden.
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Disobedience to God's word. So why is temperance, why is self -control to be added to knowledge?
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That's a good question, isn't it? Why? Well because as I gain knowledge, and knowledge of the truth
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I speak of, and if I'm not very, very careful, I will begin to say, well, now that I have this knowledge, and I know that I have the knowledge of the truth, on this and that,
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I can handle it. Now notice what I just said. I can handle it.
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That's the pride. That's what happens. Pride is so subtle. And like I said,
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I'm preaching to myself here on this, because there's something about this self -exalting of me knowing, oh,
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I know the truth. But if I don't obey in humility, I'm in trouble.
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I'm in serious trouble. We can so easily get lifted up in pride, folks. And you know this.
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We can so easily fall. It's easy to point the finger and say, that person's in pride, what about my own heart?
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Search me, oh God. When pride comes, you know what the scripture says, and comes a fall, then destruction.
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We're setting ourselves up for a fall when we say, oh, I can handle it.
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I got the truth. That's dangerous. Very dangerous. Peter warns us that we are to add knowledge, but we must be sure we don't get caught up in a pharisaical, pseudo, kind of intellectualism that makes us feel like we are head and shoulders above everybody else.
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What did Paul say? Not to think of yourselves higher than this other person.
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You are to think lowly. You're not to think that, it doesn't matter how many degrees, and if I was
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Dr. So and So, and I was theologian this and that, that doesn't matter to God. God is the
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God of the humble. Period. Temperance, self -control, is the quality here that he speaks of, of the fruit of the
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Spirit, in Galatians 5 .23, and here's a few scriptures. Proverbs 16 .32 says, here's about the man, the self -control.
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He that is slow to anger, slow to anger, is better than the mighty.
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He that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh the city. Self -control.
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Power under control. Meekness is not weakness, it's strength.
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Proverbs 25 .28, he that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down without walls.
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That's the word of God. That is so convicting, because I confess to you, there's many times in my
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Christian life, that I've just, I've lost it. Many times on the road. Many times on the road, people just coming in front of me.
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Last week I was coming out of here, and I had to really, God helped me, but I had to really hold back.
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This young kid came flying down this hill, almost hit me in my back. And not because of me,
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I had my two grandchildren in the back of my truck, and I almost said, I had to hold back,
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Lord help me. Because of safety, a person could have easily killed.
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And then he did, out of all things, he almost hit me, and then he tried to pass, and almost hit someone else. Give me self -control,
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Lord. That's my battle, is on the road, especially with a milk truck. But, God can help us in these matters.
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Discipline. Self -control. As believers, we must exercise this. Discipline. And, it's like a race.
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If we're to win that race, we must have this self -control. Paul said this, and this is the
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Apostle Paul. If the Apostle Paul can say this, and he applies himself here, as a minister, and a preacher, an
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Apostle. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 -27. Do you not know that those who run in a race, all run, but one receives the prize?
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Run, in such a way, that you may obtain it, receive it, in other words. And everyone who competes for the prize, is temperate.
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There it is. He's temperate. He's disciplined. He's self -controlled, in all things.
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Now, that really hits, doesn't it? In all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, speaking of the people who run in these races, but he says, but we as believers, an imperishable crown, a crown that does not fade away.
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And he says, therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one beats the air, but, here's the key,
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I discipline my body, my body, and bring it into subjection.
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Another word is submission. I bring it into submission. Isn't this a battle for us? This is a tough one.
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But it's convicting. I need to hear this. Least when I have preached to others, listen to this, this is the apostle
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Paul. This is one of the greatest Christians that ever lived. He says,
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I myself, I, least I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
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In other words, a castaway, shipwrecked. We must discipline ourselves.
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Let me give you an example of discipline. I read this, and I thought this is perfect. We all know about Audubon.
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You know Audubon? The great naturalist that took pictures of birds? He made it his passion, his whole life, to take pictures of birds.
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Listen to this. This man was disciplined in doing this. He was willing to undergo prolonged discomforts to learn more of the world of birds.
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And I'm quoting from an old preacher, Robert G. Lee. He was a great preacher back in the day. About Audubon's temperance, his self -control.
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And this is what he said about him. He counted his physical comforts as nothing compared with success in his work.
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He would literally crouch motionless for hours in the dark and fog, feeling himself well rewarded, if after weeks of waiting, weeks of waiting, he secured one additional fact about a single bird.
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He would have to stand almost to his neck at times in a nearly stagnated water, scarcely breathing, while countless poisonous mosquitoes and snakes swam past his face, his face, and great alligators passed and repassed his silent watch.
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And Robert G. Lee says, and this is what Audubon says, it was not pleasant.
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It was not, I bet, it was not pleasant, he said. And his face glowed with enthusiasm because of that passion of taking pictures of birds.
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And, but what of that? He says, and what of that? I have the picture of the bird.
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Oh, beloved, let me, that's the end quote. Let me say this. This, beloved, was a man that had a passion for taking pictures of birds.
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He disciplined himself for that. And here we are, children of the living God, has given,
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God has given us so much more and we have the Holy Spirit of God within us that we may be helped and disciplined for ourselves.
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Oh, because of the examples of others, beloved, crying, the crying urgent need of the hour in this perishing world is the personal peril of wrecking our testimony.
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We should discipline ourselves so that Jesus Christ will be glorified and give him the best of our life.
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I was so convicted when I read that about Audubon. This man had a passion for taking pictures.
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We have a passion for Jesus. The greatest man, the greatest Savior, God in the flesh, who ever lived.
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Well, let's go to the fourth one. The fourth, self -control, perseverance, or patience.
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For this is the ability to endure when circumstances are very hard and difficult. Self -control has to do with handling the pressures,
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I'm sorry, the pleasures of life while patience relates primarily to the pressures and the problems of life.
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I want you to think about that. Often the person who gives in to the pleasures is not disciplined enough to handle the pressures either.
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He gives in, but he also gives up. You see that?
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We need to be constantly reminded that the Christian life is a battle and it's a challenge for endurance.
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And that's what encourages us, does it not? I need to hear messages.
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Give me the truth and the whole truth. But I need to hear messages. How can I endure?
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How can I continue? And it's Jesus Christ. But I'm telling you, discipline, as I mentioned at the first of the message, remember what
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I was saying? Diligence, desire, determination, and discipline must be present.
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Again, this is not automatic. We must work at it. Go with me to James chapter 1.
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We'll see this. We've gone through James, haven't we? Wonderful book. Look at James 1.
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Look at 2 through 8. Here's endurance.
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My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
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Endurance. Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
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And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
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God's a giving God. He wants to see us through. But let him ask in faith, there is the faith, with no doubting.
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For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. And let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the
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Lord. He's a double -minded man, unstable in all of his ways. But let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation.
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Because as the flower of the field will pass away, for no sooner has the sun risen with burning heat than it withers with the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes, so the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.
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Now he's talking about patience, isn't he? Patience. Gives the upright, the upright will endure.
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We must expect trials to come, basically because trials, we can never learn patience.
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And by faith, we let our trials work for us, alright? That God is at work in us and through us for His glory.
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Jesus said, He that endures to the end shall be saved. Christian life is not a short sprint.
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It's a marathon. It's a marathon. And we must persevere.
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The fifth quality is godliness. Godliness. It says from godliness to perseverance.
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I'm sorry, to perseverance, godliness. So the Greek word godliness means godly, pious, devout.
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I think of the Puritans, don't you? I think of those Puritans. Look at how devout they were. Look at how pious they were.
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Piety. They had true piety. Ravenhill says now we got pie and tea. Not true piety.
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It's the truth. Godliness. The word means to worship well.
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To worship well. It basically describes the man who has right relationship with God and with his fellow man.
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Perhaps the words reverence and piety come closer than any other word. Very serious.
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Amen. It is the great quality of character that makes a person distinctive and different.
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Otherworldly and holy. He stands out. He's pure.
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He's righteous. He lives above the petty things of life. He's the passions and the pressures of the world that control the lives of so many others.
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He seeks to do the will of God above all things and he seeks the welfare of others. Our lives should be like God in every way.
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And God -like. And that means the way of practical and personal holiness.
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Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Actually there should be such a supernatural quality in our conduct, in our walk, in our lives that others will recognize it immediately.
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That we are children of the Heavenly Father. And we have family resemblance. We have family likeness.
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Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, 8 -10, For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.
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Don't you love that? That goes on forever. It's for here and there.
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Bodily exercise is just for here, temporary. That's why he says it has a part. It's a little.
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But godliness is profitable for all things. Listen to what he says.
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Having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
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To this end, we are both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living
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God who is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe. Let's go to the next quality before my time leaves me.
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Number six, brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness. I think of Romans here.
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Don't you? I had it marked here and I hope I didn't lose my mark, my place here.
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But it's in Romans, I believe, 12. And Peter is speaking, but Paul spoke of the same thing.
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Notice what Paul says in Romans chapter 12. Notice in verse 9.
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Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.
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That's phileo. That's where we get the word Philadelphia. And that's the same word that Peter is saying here.
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Brotherly kindness, brotherly love, and honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the
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Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, giving to hospitality.
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That's what Peter is talking about here. Brotherly kindness, very closely related to godliness, must have been a virtue that Peter acquired a hard way,
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I would think. Why? Because for the disciples of the
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Lord, often debated and argued and disagreed among each other, the Lord was always correcting them in a loving way as a parent, their children, and as a shepherd, their sheep.
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They were constantly saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom? Or Peter was always outspoken and saying things he shouldn't.
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And here they disagreed with one another often. And we think of the love of our
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Lord Jesus Christ must also be loving toward one another. This is our Lord's command, is it not?
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To the followers. 1 John 4 .20 says this, if someone says
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I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. A liar.
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Straight to the point. We are to practice unfeigned sincere love to the brethren.
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1 Peter 1 .22 And not just pretend that we love them, but actually love them in deed and in truth, just not in word.
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Hebrews 13 .1 Let brotherly love continue. Romans 12 .10
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Be kindly, affectionate one to another with brotherly love, as I just quoted. So the truth is that we love our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
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That gives us evidence that we have been born of God. And why we know that. 1
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John 5 .1 -3 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves him, who begot also loves him who is begotten of him.
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By this we know, notice that, we know that we love the children of God when we love
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God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.
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In other words, when you say it's just not a duty, it's a delight. To obey is better than sacrifice.
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The final one is the greatest. For Paul says this in 1
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Corinthians 13 and 13. And now about faith, hope, and love.
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These three. But the greatest of these is love. The greatest is love.
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And Peter says brotherly kindness and love. First, where we get
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Phileo, Philadelphia. Brotherly kindness. Then he moves on to God's love.
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Agape. Agape love. You know, this is really the core of a
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Christian. This is the essence of a Christian. Only the Holy Spirit can produce this, right?
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The love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Sacrificial love.
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The kind of love that the Lord Jesus displayed and demonstrated when he went to the cross of Calvary and gave up his self, and gave himself up for our sins.
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That's agape love. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
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John 15, 13, 14. Greater love, Jesus said, has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
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And you are my friends if you do, if you do whatever I command you. Any wonder that Peter thought of this?
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By the Holy Spirit? Because in rashness at times, with confidence in his flesh, he even offered to lay down his life for Jesus.
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Jesus rebuked him in love and says, Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.
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Jesus knew his heart. Peter was just having confidence in his flesh.
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But in actuality, he was not ready to die for Jesus, was he? He was not even ready to live for him.
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Yet the supreme example of love is the humility of Jesus. And what did Jesus do in John 13, 15?
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For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. And what was that? Jesus washed their feet.
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He served them. That is so convicting because this is the son, the perfect son of God. And John the
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Baptist says, I'm not even worthy to stoop down to unlatch his sandals. And Jesus stoops down to wash their feet.
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Incredible. Amazing love. John 15, 14.
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Three words of action to prove this love for Jesus. If you do. If you do.
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What is that? Jesus is our model for love. So intimacy with him is the motive for loving as he loves.
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Friendship with Jesus. Unlike sonship is not once and for all a gift. It develops and grows in the result of obeying
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Jesus. It's everything. Obeying his commandments. Obeying his commandments.
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Christ also loved the church and he gave. God so loved, he gave. We are to give.
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We are to give and sacrificially give. We can show our love to one another by giving. Our time, our talents, our treasures, our most importance of our lives for others.
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So let me conclude with a true story. And you're well familiar with this story. That you know very familiar.
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T .E. McCulley was the father of Ed McCulley. Ed McCulley was one of the men that was speared to death as one of the five young missionaries slain by the spear of the
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Akia Indians in Ecuador. One night as they were on their knees and they had a prayer meeting together, the father of Ed McCulley, T .E.
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McCulley, prayed this prayer. Lord let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys.
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That I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my
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Christ. Beloved, I'm telling you, that is unfeigned Christian love.
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Only by the Spirit of God can someone pray such a prayer. And when you and I can pray like that for the guilty murderers of even one that took his own son, that's the love of God.
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That's being godly. That's being Christ -like. Seven graces of the
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Christian life make a full orbit of Christian character. It's the fullness.
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And Peter says this in verse 8, and we'll continue this, Lord willing, next week. For if these things are yours and abound in you, you will be neither barren, that means useless, you will not be useless, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. You will not be useless. You will be fruitful, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So Spurgeon, let me close with a Spurgeon quote. Spurgeon says this on these graces.
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As we have seen a mason take up first one stone and then another, then gradually build a house, so are we,
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Christians, to take first one virtue, then another, piling up these stones of grace upon one another until we have built a palace for the indwelling of the
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Holy Spirit. Amen and amen. Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you, Lord Jesus. This message is so convicting to my own heart, but Lord, we know by your power and your spirit you can help us in your grace.
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These are virtues and graces, seven graces of what godliness looks like.
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This is the way a godly Christian looks like. Help us by your power and your spirit to have its full purpose of what you've called us to do.
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For your glory, that Jesus Christ may be exalted and praised in all things.