[0:00] You're listening to the sermon podcast of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. To learn more about us, visit our website at gracereformed.org.
[0:11] And now, today's sermon. This morning, to contrast what Peter is dealing with, love and their former passions, which is what we looked at a few weeks ago, so they were dabbling in and involved in unclean activities, defiling themselves and their conscience.
[0:37] And I thought I would give us a little bit more of the history of what Peter is concerned with. Specifically in Rome, this is who he was writing to. In ancient Rome, there was a yearly festival celebrated on February the 15th, which is this week, so I figured this would be a great historical moment to talk about, February 15th.
[1:00] And this celebration in the city, which really has been dated back to what they think is 400 B.C. is the earliest it's documented, it's called Lubercalia. Rome, at this time, was a cesspool of immoral behavior, and this celebration was a good example of their pagan worship of the gods.
[1:21] Lubercalia was a fertility ceremony where the Luperci, or the Luperci, priest would make animal sacrifices to the god Lupercus, so that he would bless the women and they would be able to have children.
[1:39] I will not go into the details of the celebration, but if you are familiar with what happened around the idol of the golden calf in the Exodus, let's just say it was very similar to these activities.
[1:55] But there was one interesting activity I found interesting about this celebration. They mentioned that the women would then write their names, the ladies who were single would write their names on something and put it into a bowl, and the single men would come over and pull the name out of the bowl, and that's who their partner would be for the festival, and if so worked out well for the rest of their life.
[2:21] We should probably be thankful we don't participate in that in our city, ladies. But it was vile. It was horrific. And this is why Peter would write things such as 1 Peter 1.14, as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, to the worship of your former gods.
[2:43] The way Rome saw love and pleasure was nothing like we are learning from Peter and from our father, this new God that they serve. The pleasure of the flesh purely drove love for Rome, and they loved what made them centrally gratified, what pleased their flesh.
[3:03] But in contrast to this practice, Lupercalia, there is another story that I would like to share with you, just 200 years after Peter's letter that he wrote in Italy, in Rome.
[3:16] And in this short period of time, Rome was being ruled by, sorry, there was a short period of time that Rome was being ruled by a man by the name of Claudius II.
[3:30] And in this period of about a year and a half time, he had put in a rule that soldiers could not become married, because they needed to be able to fight with freedom, and not of worry of dying, because they had family at home.
[3:43] And Rome was underneath the immense amount of attack from other nations, and so he wanted an army that was fierce. And if you were married, then you wouldn't have to fight. You weren't allowed to go into war.
[3:56] Well, there was a bishop who was serving in Italy, and as he began to proclaim the gospel, and converts would come to faith and start putting faith in Christ, he would begin to teach them, as Peter had taught, the real meaning of faith in the gospel, and that would also mean it would change how they saw marriage.
[4:19] And that these practices, these sensual activities that they were involved in in the past, they shouldn't be involved in now, but they should be married, and they should be connected to each other only. And so after these converts would come to Christ, he would marry them, and many of them were soldiers.
[4:35] Well, word got out that this bishop was doing this, and he was arrested and put into prison. And while in prison, he befriended the jailer's daughter.
[4:48] And the night before his execution, he sent a letter to her. And after he wrote the letter, appreciative for her friendship, he signed it from your valentine.
[5:03] September 14th, 2000, sorry, 269 AD. Most of this story is speculation. The man is true, or his death is true.
[5:15] Whether the letter said that or not, we don't know. But the story behind the contrast is important. What Peter is writing here in the contrast is the difference between love of the flesh and passions of the flesh, and love that is centered around the purity and the holy and the gloriness of God.
[5:36] A love so important that it's worthy of dying for. Can we say that our culture is any different?
[5:49] We may have rituals like, we may not have rituals like Lupercalia, but our understanding of the world drips with self-gratification and sensuality.
[6:02] Just stop and think for a moment about love songs for the last 25 years, and the majority of them, or even movies and TV shows, and how they describe love to us. What is the main plot line, the driving force behind someone being captivated by love?
[6:20] The song or the story is about the person's outward appearance, how it intoxicates the brain and causes this passionate love.
[6:31] Or, on the other end of it, it's the experience. That they have around this person. How they make them feel. And I love the way that you make me feel.
[6:43] So it's either by sight or by experience. And to be frank, if I decide not to be John, everyone is drawn to feeling wanted, desired, appreciated.
[6:59] We like to be told we're pretty or handsome. That we're pleasing to be around. We as humans like the idea of being valued. We don't cringe at the thought that someone would want to look at us, or be near us, or are pleased by our experience.
[7:19] This kind of love in the Greek the Bible speaks of, it's not all wrong. But the way the word that's used is eros. It comes from the root word which we understand erotic.
[7:33] But this is not the word Peter uses. There are four different Greek words, we're not going to get into all of those today, that describe how love is different. There are different kinds of love.
[7:44] And the English language is just not helpful here. We use one word to describe many things. We'll say we love ice cream pizza and our wife. That is just strange.
[7:56] But we somehow know how to compute that the love for the ice cream is different than the love for our wife. And if I were to use the same concept for the ice cream as my wife, then I think my wife would feel less loved.
[8:18] Right? Well, Peter here, because of the Greek language, not only does it have different tenses, it uses different words to describe the concept of love. Instead of using the words that Peter uses, we translate them all as love.
[8:33] For instance, when he talks about brotherly love, that's philia, or Philadelphia, you may recognize that word. That's the brotherly, affectionate love. And then the second word he uses right after that is agape.
[8:46] This is a very different kind of love. It's a love that's often associated with how God sees us and loves us. The way to define agape is unconditional and sacrificial.
[9:00] He also uses this word, if you want to write it in your notes, in John 15, 13. John 15, 13, he uses the same one, same word here. He says, Greater love, greater agape, has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friend.
[9:16] So the definition of agape, love, is not self-gratifying, self-pleasing. It's not for our own benefit. But Peter's writing to the churches to help them understand that love within the context of the church should look very different than what we are seeing in the culture.
[9:35] This is why we cannot go back to the passions of our former flesh. The kind of love they used is filthy, built upon lust and greed, driven by gratification and not sacrifice.
[9:49] With this in mind, let's go back and read Peter's words again and see how Peter motivates the church to demonstrate this agape kind of love, this unconditional sacrificial love.
[10:03] Bear with me, we're going to break this apart and so we're going to take a few words at a time. But in verse 22, at the beginning of it, it says, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.
[10:19] Whew, spent a lot of time on that this week. Complicated phrase. And this is a lot of confusion. If you read your Bible, sorry, if you read Peter in small sections without connecting it to what he's already read before.
[10:35] This is why often, if you were reading a portion of your Bible and it's not making sense, back out and read the whole context or the whole book. It might help you. Especially if you can't understand one particular psalm, read the whole thing.
[10:48] I'm just seeing if you're paying attention. Don't do that. But in this point, we should probably look back and say, what else has Peter said? Because it sounds like I purified my heart by my obedience.
[11:01] Is that what he really means? Look back at verse 3. This is how he starts his letter and he's going to point back to it in sense of metaphor. Verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy.
[11:15] He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So it's very clear Peter's view of our cleansing, of our coming to faith, is not a work we've done.
[11:26] It's something he has done. This is a new birth given to us by God. But it is brought to us by faith. And often Peter and Paul will use a terminology or an understanding.
[11:40] It's the obedience of faith or obedience to the gospel. To be clear, it's important we understand the distinction between the law and the gospel. There is nothing inside of the gospel, that message, that has a demand for us to do.
[11:56] Otherwise that would not be a good news. That would be a law. Or you could call it a gospel. It would be the mixture of the two. The gospel itself has nothing for us to do except for after it's been presented to you.
[12:09] What must you do? Believe. Right? You do not receive the benefits of your heart being purified and cleansed. You don't have new birth. You have nothing if you do not believe.
[12:21] This is why, if you want to write down and even turn there with me, Ephesians chapter 2, we read it earlier in our bulletin, our program. Ephesians chapter 2, it's important we understand the flow of Peter and Paul's thought.
[12:33] He says this, Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you have been saved. So that's to receive something you cannot merit. You cannot earn it. For by grace you have been saved through faith.
[12:46] Your salvation is connected to your faith. Faith is the obedience of believing in the gospel. You believed the gospel, therefore you obeyed. You put your faith in it.
[12:57] Listen to what he says next. This is so key. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Your faith is not your own doing. The grace of the gospel and your faith are both gifted to you.
[13:12] And because you believed, Peter is saying, your heart is pure. Do you understand how the sequence works? It's important that we understand this. Let's go back and read it again.
[13:25] Well, even if you look at verse 3, before we go, so 1 Peter 1, 3, according to his great mercy, he has caused you to be born again to a living hope. So this is very much similar to Ephesians chapter 2.
[13:38] It's a gift. He causes this. So the obedience of our faith is true. We have obeyed, but we obeyed because the Father gave us the obedience to do so.
[13:50] Now, with that understanding, read verse 122. 1 Peter 1, 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.
[14:01] So he's saying, there's a confidence. You actually performed faith, which then purified your soul. Just never think that you're the one who did the work.
[14:13] Does that make sense? Second phrase, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. So Peter uses two words to describe our love, this agape love.
[14:24] This is not brotherly love. That's the word before. Now he's talking about sacrificial love, unconditional love, agape. And he uses two words, kind of like adjectives describing this concept.
[14:35] First, he uses earnestly. This is what real sincerity, fervently showing love to someone.
[14:47] This would contrast the half-hearted, out-of-obligation experience all of us are familiar with. We as parents know what this is.
[14:58] When you tell your children to show love to your brother, you will love them and you will go and hug them.
[15:09] And then they hug them like they're a cactus. That's half-hearted. Obligation. Not sincere or fervent, is it? But our conscience feels better as a parent.
[15:21] They did the right thing. Peter helps us here. He points to an important part of the root of love, the source of our love. He says, from a pure heart.
[15:35] We know what kind of love that looks like. The kind of love when there is no expectation in return. The kind of love that comes to you when you need it most and the one giving it has a smile on their face for the pure joy of giving it to you knowing it cost them.
[15:59] And they rejoice in the cost. They rejoice in the cost. Why? Because it's the joy of love. Paul gives us a perfect picture of this kind of love if you're turning to me to Romans chapter five.
[16:12] We say we love something that brings us value or joy or happiness or gratification. The object itself. We're responding to something really out of eros or out of a kind of love that gratifies us.
[16:30] This is not what God is speaking of. Not a pure heart. Not a pure love. Romans 5.8. But God chose his agape for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us.
[16:46] So his love was demonstrated by means of sacrifice. It cost him. It cost him to give the love.
[16:57] So in our worst rebellious state when God didn't tell us he loved us because of what we're worth but what we are against him in his words he demonstrated his love with action.
[17:12] Replacing our punishment upon his only son. Peter wanted the church to clearly understand the kind of love they could give because there is no longer they're no longer living as they once did for the gratification of themselves using and abusing each other but they're living for something else something greater.
[17:37] True freedom allows us with sincerity to experience the joy of sacrificial love unconditional love. But notice how Peter motivates us to this kind of love.
[17:53] I think all of us would want to love that way right? We have all experienced sacrificial love giving it at one point that's hard to describe how it makes you feel like wow that's the kind of joy that he talks about.
[18:10] But he says that it's of a pure heart. I think again as parents or those of us who have parents will understand your parents' idea.
[18:22] He doesn't say as a parent would act like you love your brother or else you are grounded for a month.
[18:39] Be nice. Instead the fountain that keeps filling our cup of love comes from the gospel.
[18:50] to better understand Peter's meaning of a pure heart pure intentions you will notice the sentence doesn't end but keeps going where Peter explains what he means in verse 23.
[19:04] Look at verse 23. Since you have been born again not of perishable seed not of what you've done not by yourself not by your body but imperishable by Christ.
[19:17] first to understand what he means here we can love we should love we want to love in a way that reflects our new birth our new family our adoption the way that our father loves he says since you love with a sincere and pure heart because you are a new person you're in a new relationship with God we don't come into this new birth by our own means and our own bodies that will perish but by the blood of the lamb the eternal God our Messiah this is why so many songs and readings this morning were about grace because without grace we're damned we're doomed we're without hope it becomes the anthem of the Bible you understand we title it the story of redemption but not how we redeemed ourselves but how he redeemed us he ransomed us by what means by grace
[20:20] I love this verse in 1st John 4 19 if you want to write it down most of you know it if you are feeling guilt and shame for loving God just write this down and put it somewhere to remind yourself we love because he first loved us does that sound like anger and fear and strife and warnings of judgment we respond in love to him not out of fear and obligation we respond out of love to him because of the overwhelming love he shows us so you can't look at God's love as human love love is based upon gratification satisfaction looks desires pleasure God's love is unlike any because it's not human that's what makes it so complicated but so powerful turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 there's a couple of verses before 8 and 9 that we need to read because it describes
[21:35] God's love I love that our Bible has so much about his love because it's so complicated to understand he overwhelms us with stories and words and theology Ephesians 2 verse 4 it says but God being rich in mercy man it is good to know that we love and serve a God that isn't sometimes merciful we know what this is like we have what's called love banks with our spouses and our children and friends we know when that bank is getting a little low we know if we go ask a little bit too much of it what's going to come our way meaning that the love bank isn't what we call rich at the moment it's on the low end near the red line Paul says the mercy that you live in comes from a rich source a rich source it cannot be depleted what a picture but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us you can guess what word is there even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved there was nothing about us to be loved there was nothing we could offer and out of his own sacrifice and out of an unconditional promise he loved us but he says it a little a little bit more overwhelming in Romans 5 write this down
[23:22] Romans 5 10 says we were dead in our trespasses and sin but in Romans 5 he says for if while we were enemies enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son by love now that's a love we don't understand and many of us in this room have enemies some of them are running for office shame on us we we don't understand how we could go die for someone who is our enemy that is a love that's really hard for us to comprehend so there was no condition that you could have met because you were in the worst condition you could possibly be in you cannot get any in any worse position to be the enemy of the God of gods the God of the universe you cannot be in any worse position that is what is pure and sincere love he points us to the gospel so God requires nothing of us to be the recipient of his love his joy comes from loving us not of what we do his love remains because of our status as the object of his love in a very small and broken way
[24:36] Peter is saying we take this powerful image of the gospel of God's love for us and then we use it to motivate us to love each other in the same way Peter writes your life is to introduce to each other the same love that you have received from your father could you imagine for a moment what a relationship would feel like if both parties had that kind of love could you envision what our church would look like the experience that we would have the morning anticipation of thinking oh it's Sunday do you know what I get today pure love sincere now we've all been in relationships where we pretend to love our family members that you know are related to it's so good to see you
[25:41] I'll send you a card next Christmas but then we walk in here and that embrace that look in the eye that affection that you know is real and not pretend oh man life giving when your heart broken when you're feeling exhausted when your sin crushes you it is refreshing to be around someone who loves like that what that kind of love creates we don't care who you are the world might we don't your gender your age nationality marital status parental status does not matter in our family here for our love with you is from a pure heart and it's sincere because we love you for who you are you are a brother and sister we love you as our father has loved us unconditionally and sacrificially what do you need dear brother or sister for me
[26:47] I get excited about this thinking man Sunday can't come fast enough Wednesday can't come fast enough lunch with one of you can't come fast enough especially if it's at Tito's we don't experience that kind of love anywhere else if you think about it not even in our own marriages we struggle to love each other this way for those of you who are thinking about dating and pursuing marriage your person that you're talking to if they don't understand this you are doomed for heartache you know you can experience some of the most atrocious things in life as long as the two people understand who God is and what his love can do but if you have two selfish people who only want to gratify themselves you understand why we have such a high divorce rate because you cannot satisfy the flesh I don't think we hear enough of God's love for us so that we can motivate ourselves to love each other
[27:53] Peter to end this first chapter kind of doubles down on our motivation for loving others keep reading with me in verse 23 you have been born again not of a 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 quoting Isaiah and this is the good news that was preached to you he is connecting this to your new birth it's right after that verse the new birth comes from the living word of God look to take Peter's words literally which I think we should the words themselves he's saying have life within them the words like the words the scribbles of images on a page Peter describes them as
[28:54] God's power now we're okay with that concept in like Disney television shows where there's incantations and spells but this is what he is saying the written word passed down to us by himself through the apostles when preached to the heart of human has the power to give them life if you just sat there and tried to contemplate that for the rest of your week you would probably go crazy trying to wrap your mind around the concept we just don't live in a world where that reality is real we see we touch we taste we feel that's real but the concept of a God writing words down that his power contains in scribbles that is so hard
[29:55] I've tried to explain this in the past I'm still trying to wrap my head around it I have some podcasts that I want to record for us to kind of add to my thoughts here in the sermon but for the modern rational mind to fully appreciate Peter's point as he ends this first section is complex yet it's simple the words have life that's not a hard concept to explain it's just hard to believe right it's hard to believe love comes from a new life this new birth and this birth came to us by hearing these words and when we heard these words it brought us to life and Peter is saying do not forsake the concept of where your salvation came from God in his wisdom and his power uses words so how did we have our eyes spiritual eyes open to see the invisible
[31:01] God and believe in him and obey him by faith he says all this word is good news and it was preached to you they heard it preached to them they sat under the living word as it washed over their minds with living power and he says the reason you're altering your life just go back to Rome for a moment many of them are about to die most of them are already suffering they've altered their life based upon words words that the apostle says come from God he says now listen Nero and everything that you see and all the words of men they will burn they will fall away like a dead flower but the words you are basing your life on your hope on the purity of your love will never fade because they're alive you see right now if you're not suffering this means nothing to you but the moment when you say where are you
[32:09] God Peter says he remains forever keep focused on his promises his view of love his gospel do not listen to the enemy who is trying to get you to focus on the gratification of the world now so the spirit that lives within us takes this living never ending word with power we will never understand and he changes us and he says stay focused on this truth in the next chapter he makes this phrase which is going to build on this idea that we have now he says we all know this famous phrase desire the pure milk of the word that's it's a great word picture so you'll have to come back next week to hear me explain that you like how I do that it's advertisement Sunday before we conclude though this morning I pray that verse 13 if you'll go back to 1 Peter 1 13 which is a pivotal point in Peter's introduction will help us understand the serious attacks against this living word that we face the truth of the gospel you see no gospel clarity no motivation for love we wander we go back to our former passions we become joyless people who end up hurting and devouring do you know why most churches are not fun to be in because there's no gospel and no gospel means no hope and no hope means we're going to bite and devour each other this is literally what James says why are you biting and devouring each other is it not that your passions are at war with one another how do you remove the passions of our flesh by a sincere and pure heart how does that come to us by the preaching the teaching of the love of God and the gospel so in the beginning of
[34:02] Peter's letter he's already given his gospel warnings and now he goes back to gospel again I want to go back to the warning in verse 13 he says therefore this hope I've just given you the glory of what you have been given therefore prepare your minds for action and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ if we miss verse 13 it will be nearly impossible to obey the last part of the chapter on love for each other Peter is telling us to prepare our minds be looking out for what we have received to be altered to be damaged that's why he says prepare your mind for action this love of God so merciful so gracious unconditional never ending is the motivation that we love each other seeking to do so from a pure pure heart turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 this is another way of saying it from Paul's own words why does
[35:21] Peter write this mid introduction because we don't really believe our minds are under attack the New Testament writers emphasize the greatest dangers we face and here he says your mind is the greatest place that you're under attack so going along with this concept of word have power listen to how Paul writes it into the church of Corinth who also had a lot of pagan deities in their city 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 so he says for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds what are our weapons we destroy arguments of every lofty opinion raised against us raised against the knowledge of God taking every thought captive to obey
[36:21] Christ it's truth the weapons of our warfare are truth therefore when he says prepare your mind for actions Paul words it this way no thought is allowed to roam free in your mind thoughts that do not come from God's truth do not get free rent in your mind you capture it and if it's not working for Christ guess what you do with it it's good you get rid of it so guess who wants to implant free living thoughts in your brain it's free by the way because we if it doesn't cost us anything we'll let it stay there it's like well it's not costing me anything go for it the enemy the enemy that we still have a hard time believing when we read this passage I'm blown away at the idea Paul is presenting to the church they actually fight with power against power words that have power against words that have power because he says the weapons of our warfare are not something you touch but the weapons of our warfare come by means of words that go into your mind think of it this way when we speak these words to each other and those around us we are shooting down the strongholds of the enemy whatever is in there roaming free the truth comes in and it reveals the light of it and we can remove the putridness of the lie of our world that moment we start to allow thoughts of loving someone for the sake of our own gratification we need the reminder of the gospel the weapons of our warfare which is the truth of God to destruct what has once enslaved us this is why he calls them strongholds so they're not just words church they have God's power attached to them they move the soul they open our eyes and they transform our hearts the enemy's words also become weapons against us but they do not come to us by a book entitled all the bad things Satan wants to do to you oh well sure
[38:42] I don't think I want that to happen no he poisons us in the things that we're used to our food and our water or our media people culture we assume everything we consume is safe that's because it's laced he's good at what he does and Peter says you cannot do that do that while you are here you have to prepare your mind to be alert because if not you'll become intoxicated and if you become intoxicated the love that you show will be of the world and not of God this is why it's like you've been born again you've been set free from this I've given you a pure heart I've given you the illustration of the gospel this is powerful it's living let it live in your mind and you will experience love like God has loved you so I'm not an angry fiery preacher who's up here and say how dare you listen and watch that stuff what is it doing for you more importantly what is it doing to you sure it makes you feel good but it also causes you to take advantage of people what does
[39:56] God's love do to you gives you power the world cannot understand a power to love in a way that changes you and people next time you're in a fight with someone you say that you love ask yourself what has captured my mind recently the truth of God's word the gospel of Jesus Christ or your passions your own desires for gratification one is from God and as scary as this sounds the other one is from the greatest rebeller in history his name is Satan if you are selfishly loving someone that is not of God it's overwhelming when you think of it that way church we're surrounded by a world that's filled with two kingdoms we live in the physical one but there's two other ones and they're at war the kingdom of the rebellion wants to destroy any picture of God's love that we would ever possibly think is good and Paul and Peter say the weapons that we walk around with is words of our
[41:08] God they transform our hearts and as we love others they transform their hearts too sometimes we wonder why God does it this way we don't have all the answers for that but I'll end with this last passage if you're turning me to 2nd Peter chapter 3 we'll get into this in a few months but I'm going to go ahead and reference it now 2nd Peter chapter 3 again he's writing to a church that is now in the midst they were about to go into persecution they are in it now people have died and he has not brought relief he has not come back he has not renewed the world and they're wondering Peter what happened what happened so he writes to them 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness you think that he's not caring he doesn't care about you he's got something else to do he's distracted the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness but he's patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance see we keep washing ourselves with the word living in a world that wants to kill us that eventually will kill us that is falling apart and all we're going to experience is cancer pain suffering most likely brutal death this week my stepdad almost died from a heart attack
[42:52] I haven't grieved like that he didn't thank God quadruple bypass and somehow is walking but I mourned his death the doctors told us he's going to die say goodbye so I FaceTime and said goodbye that kind of grief reminds you that why am I still here Peter says because he's still saving people he's still saving people but because it's horrible it's horrible what Satan does it's horrible what we do to each other look at verse 10 but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and works that are done in it will be exposed his day is coming his day is coming but the reason why it hasn't come yet and the reason why he still has the freedom to reign to do what he is going to do because he too will be judged
[43:54] Satan and his army will be judged for what they do we will also be judged but we sit underneath the blood of Christ and we want others to sit under the blood of Christ and how is it that Peter says this happens he says it's through God's love it's through God's love this is why we must dive deeper week in and week out looking at the gospel of Jesus Christ and God in transforming our hearts uses our love to transform others I'll just say this last phrase and we'll be done Jesus says the world will know that you followed my teaching that you are a disciple of me because you have agape for one another you love each other in a way the world cannot understand selfless sacrificial unconditional love and if you're sitting here this morning going I don't know how to do that John keep looking at the gospel as you feel the love of
[45:05] God in the gospel tell yourself what would it feel like for another human to hear that kind of love we get to do this to our children this week parents we get to do this to our spouses this week we get to do this to our co-workers and our neighbors it's as simple as being kind with sincerity that's how it starts let's pray our father we are humbled that as your enemy those who are in rebellion who are following the passions of our flesh you didn't just say you loved us you gave us the greatest demonstration by putting your son in our place of judgment you ransomed us back from the slave master of Satan that we were under we now sit under your love safely abiding in your living word may that be our motivation this week you're not a tyrant an angry father who demands love you give us love so that we would love each other
[46:16] Lord we believe help our unbelief in Christ's name amen thanks for listening to the sermon podcast of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill Tennessee where everyone is in equal need of grace to plan a visit or to learn more about us visit our website at gracereformed.org