And welcome to the ministry of First Reformed Church of Aberdeen, South Dakota. Our worship services are at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning. Now we join Pastor Hank Bone as he brings us God's Word. We take our Bibles and we return to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 4, where we continue on in the consideration of verses 7 through 11, keeping in mind that Peter throughout this letter has been talking about our identity in Christ. How are we to appear, how are we to be as those who are in Christ? And so he comes now and he's going to sort of bring that to a conclusion in verse 11, that we are to seek first the glory of God in everything we do. And so he says, but the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." A beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ One of the great truths in our salvation is understanding the dynamic of how God calls us in our sins to repent and believe in Him for eternal life. a life of holiness and righteousness. He holds out a great gift and then he draws us to himself through the working of his Holy Spirit. At the heart of what it is to be a Christian is this action of repentance. which initiates a complete turnaround in our nature. Now, you may be familiar that the word repentance means a changing of the mind. It's to think in a self-centered, worldly kind of way. And then as we come face to face with God, in relation to His Word, we begin to think differently. We see the world differently, as John Calvin described it and others have described it. It's as though the Word of God serves as a set of lenses, so that now we see clearly what before we didn't understand. We see it through God's perspective. At every level, what stands out as the amazing wonder is how the love of God is front and center in God's relation to His people. God's love is the beacon that illumines the nature of God to us. So key is it to our understanding who God is that the Apostle John says in 1 John 4.8, he who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. And then in verse 16, he reaffirms this when he says, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Think about that, God in him. So central is this aspect of divine love to our lives as believers that the Apostle Paul dedicated an entire chapter to the fruit of the Spirit with love being the key grace from which all the other aspects of the Christian life flow. In Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 through 14, we read, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these, and there's kind of that phrase, above all, above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, bond of perfection, bond, the glue, the glue that holds it all together and makes it perfect. Paul understood that it is love that glues all we are to be as a Christian to one another. But I would have you consider that the love we are speaking of in the Bible is divine love. It's not the love of the world, which often is nothing but lust. According to Romans 5.5, the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Our hearts are filled with the love of God. It's poured into us. It's not the nature of our own love. but it's a quality of God's love. And let that sink in for a moment. The driving force in that statement is that if you have the love of God in your heart, then it is God in you. God's in you. The life that you now have in God through Christ is the result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, whereby you are transformed by that presence to emulate the very nature of God, who is love. God is love. God is in you. And so it's the love of God that's in you, because God's in you. That's overwhelming. It's hard to comprehend. And yet, at the same time, it's an occasion for great wonder. As we continue in our study of 1 Peter 4, verses 7-11, we come to consider the role that the love of God in us plays in our being serious and watchful in our prayers. Peter said that we are to be active in the promotion of these things because the end of all things is at hand. We are to live with the understanding that Jesus may return at any time, and then the world will be over. The world as we know it, and a new heaven and a new earth will come in, and a new and final period, the eternal period, will be ushered in. This morning I want us to consider verse 8, 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8. Under the theme, the passion of one's Christian faith mirrors God's love for the body of Christ. Our three points will be first, love's primacy, second, love's passion, and then third is love's provision. So first, love's primacy. In verse 8, it begins with these words, and above all things, have fervent love for one another. In these five verses, 8, 9, 10, and 11, 7 through 11, Peter expresses at the end that the goal is that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. You know, the primary way that God's glory is revealed in the world is not only through the wonder of the creation, but even more in God's desire that he be known as a God of love and mercy. God's plan of salvation was conceived before the foundation of the world. It was revealed to Adam and Eve in the garden. It was expressed in Noah. And it took further steps in the patriarchs with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then we saw it revealed even further that this savior would come as a king under King David, in the line of King David. And so as we think about this unfolding of God's revelation, it is that there is a plan by which we may come to know the glory of God, to know him as a God of love and a God of mercy as he calls his people to himself. At the heart of that is the sending of his son, Jesus Christ, to be the only savior of the world. There is no other savior for the world. Nothing else will save you. He's not the only Savior. He doesn't save the whole world, but he's the only Savior available to the world. There is no other name under heaven whereby you may be saved than the name of Jesus. The truth that every Christian is conscious of this is that Jesus reveals the love of God to us. Every Christian is intimately familiar, or should be, with John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And at the heart of that is that God loved the world. God loved those who would come to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. In your salvation, you are given new life in Christ through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in you. But that regenerating work is the pouring of the love of God into your heart so that God's glory and grace become your chief pursuit. Before that, everything was about self. After that, what's awakened in you is that image of God in righteousness and holiness that desires the things of God. What brings you to church on Sunday morning is not duty. But devotion, at least it should be, think about that. Why are you here? It is a desire for the things of God that was awakened in you when the love of God filled your heart. There's a whole basket of benefits that come with your being a Christian, but the crown jewel is the love of God which binds all of the other elements of God's grace together. You should be overwhelmed with the thought that the love you have for God is the result of God in you. Peter understood that. And so he declared that above all things have fervent love for one another. In terms of love's primacy, meaning love should be the first among many priorities that you seek to nurture in your life. as St. Peter said, above all things. And this marks a change in the direction in this passage, designed to enhance his encouragement to be serious and watchful in your prayers, to shape the tone of your prayers. So as you come to God in prayer, an aspect should be, maybe often, Lord, cause your love to be strong within my heart. Cause your love to be felt within my heart. Cause your love to drive me in my relationship to you. Let it be that which guides and directs in how I function in all my other areas of life. My love for God, which flows over into a love for one another. What follows this command, to be serious and watchful in prayer is a chain of five aspects that are to be predominant in your life as a Christian. And they all involve your relationship to your brothers and sisters in Christ, to your church family. The phrase appears in James 5.12, above all things, that phrase appears in James 5.12, where we are commanded to be careful regarding the use of God's name, particularly in the context of swearing oaths. He says, above all things, be careful how you use the name of God. When you're out and about talking to people in the neighborhood and they begin to, you know, OMG and different kinds of things, you should be very careful at that time. Particularly in those days, they would swear, oh, I swear this by Zeus or whatever. He says, as Christians, we don't do that. Let our yes be yes and our no be no in James. Above all things, in other words, as a priority, let us be sure that we are not using God's name lightly or casually. And again, it is used to emphasize the primacy of seeking God's glory in and through our lives by being watchful and serious about how we live. How we live in terms of how we love, how we live in terms of what we say, how we use God's name. All of them designed to bring glory to God. Everything we do should reflect the love of God in us and the glory of God through us. But of all these elements that Peter will speak to, it is love that is to be the first thing. When asked what is the most important commandment, what did our Lord say? We hear it every other Sunday. It is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. And the second is like to it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love in your life involves several things, but they begin with self-denial or self-love first, which shifts to a love for God first and others second, and self-lust. Peter is focusing on your love for the brethren, which brings us to the second point, love's passion. What is your passion? He goes on in verse eight, he says, and above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. The word fervent speaks to an intensity in your love that is persistent. This love that Peter is speaking of is to be continuous and constant without ceasing. Friends come and go, but family is always family. As they say, nothing's thicker than blood, right? That's not true, though. The spirit is even stronger than blood. The Christian, however, stands in a unique relationship where we have two families. We have the family we are born into and the family we are born again into. The family we have in this life may or may not be of the everlasting family of God. Now we all hope our family members are brought to faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but for some, that's not the case. Particularly as Christian parents, our great desire is that we would see that faith in our children, and then in our children's children, that we would see that promise of God perpetuated from generation to generation, which was the promise going all the way back to Abraham, and repeated again in the New Testament to the Philippian jailer. Jesus made it clear that for many Christians, they would be cut off from their family in this life because of their faith. But they would not be left without family. They would be given that family that is a forever family. But it's also clear in Scripture that the Christian is not brought into some kind of an organization or club, but into a family relation in and through the church. Beloved, if you want to join Kiwanis and eat breakfast, go join Kiwanis, but that's not the church. When you take vows and become a member of the church, you are embracing the body of Christ, and it is a continuous and persistent commitment that you give yourself to. And you hear that every time we take the Lord's Supper, because it's one of the examination questions. Do you promise to God that you will continue on in this profession that you make? and how you handle that vow reveals the love of God in your heart. It reveals God in you. While we are members of the body of Christ, that is in a sense not a membership. The Bible describes us as brethren or brothers and sisters united to one another in the Lord. What a wondrous thing. What a wonderful thing that we are a family. And that's the point here. It is a fervent love for one another. And that little word for is a marker of cause or reason. In other words, understanding that in Christ we are so united to one another as brothers and sisters in the family of God that that becomes the reason for each of us to love one another fervently. Because we're bound together. We're glued together in the Lord. Our relation to each other is the result of a vertical and a horizontal relationship. By vertical, I mean that as God calls us through adoption to be his children, we are united to the Godhead in the kingdom of heaven. We all have God as our heavenly Father, and that binds us together vertically. By horizontal, I mean that God has brought us together in this church as brothers and sisters to share this great gift of salvation through Jesus Christ together with one another, encouraging one another. God in His providence has brought each of you here and has brought you into relationship with every other person who's here. And you shouldn't minimize that. God calls you for purpose, to be blessed by others and to be a blessing to others. But it's even more than just being members of First Reformed Church. It is that God put us together in this congregation through a spiritual connection as disciples of the Lord for the good of each other. Now, I'm going to give you three verses, three sections of Scripture, not just verses. You might want to grab your Bibles. The first is found in John chapter 13. In John chapter 13, beginning at verse 34 and reading 35, Jesus says, and he's coming towards the end, he's giving what you might say final instructions, and he says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. If you want to demonstrate that you're not a disciple of Christ, then just don't show any love for the rest of the people in the church. Don't have any care or concern for them. In John chapter 15, verse 12 and going through verse 17, again, Jesus says, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. There's that mirror aspect. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends." That is, those who I'm in a loving relationship with. For all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. Again, even in the Lord's instruction, that's concept of loving each other, of being together as a band of disciples. becomes the driving force in our identity. And then finally, 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, beginning at verse 7, going through verse 11. We read, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then this. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. When you think about being called to a passionate love for God and those who are in the church, it is a self-sacrificing love that has others as the object of that benefit. God calls you to a life driven by a divine love working in you that provides benefit to those who are around you. That's the point. Well, thirdly, we note love's provision. In verse 80, he ends, for love will cover a multitude of sins. When you consider what love provides for you, the first thing that comes to mind is the love of God through which I am saved from my sins. Think about 1 John 4.10, which we just read, where it says, in this is love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is, the satisfaction of God's wrath in the payment of our sins, payment of the penalty. He's the propitiation. He cleanses us of our sins. Jesus also directed us to think in terms of a willingness to lay down our lives for the brethren following his example. Now, that doesn't mean dying on a cross is a propitiation because only Christ could be our substitute. But what it does mean is that we dedicate our lives for the benefit of those around us. I, as John the Baptist says, I must decrease, Christ must increase. So in the Christian's life, being concerned about doing what I want to do becomes back burner, and doing those things that are necessary to help my brothers and sisters becomes priority. Jesus wasn't concerned about His own welfare so much as He was about our welfare, and we are to follow that example. In the following sermons, we will spend more time on some of those ways we do that, like hospitality and using our gifts for the benefit of each other, engaging in conversations designed to encourage and build up, as well as other things. But the focus here in 1 Peter 4.8 is one of promoting a genuine love for each other. And what is it that hinders you from loving those in the pews around you in the way that Christ calls you to? What hinders you from that? Well, the answer often is sin. In fact, it's probably always sin. Sometimes sins or perceived offenses which you feel have been committed against you, and other times it may be more subtly the sin of selfishness and pride, an unwillingness just to get to know somebody. The statement, for love will cover a multitude of sins, comes from Proverbs 10, 12. which says, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. In other words, love causes us to be peacemakers, not warmongers. When you love people fervently, then you are willing to forgive them their faults, and you are also willing to seek to overcome your faults toward them. those ways in which you act toward them that are inappropriate, you seek to overcome those. The need to work at a mutual love within the congregation is essential to the health of the church. If we're going to be a loving and welcoming church to people coming in, we have to first be a loving and welcoming church to each other. Let that sink in. I say it all the time, but let it sink in again. It is a continuous need for you to not limit who you are friendly with after church. And here's the application which you have heard before. Go to someone you have not spoken to before or in some time and ask them how they are doing. And that opens the door to the kind of mutual love that is at the heart of God's love for you. Now I want you to think about this for a second. Take this further, don't just let that go in one ear and out the other and say, yeah, there goes Pastor Ian saying I need to go shake somebody on the other side's hand. They're not in my quadrant, but I'll go up to that quadrant and say hi to the people up there today. I want you to stop and think, it's more than that. Consider this. What if God did sit back and wait for you to come to Him? What if God's sitting up here, but you're hanging out with the guys back there. You don't have time to come up here. And God doesn't come back there to see you. He just stays up here and waits for you to come. How would that work? Where would you be in your relationship and love for God if it was up to you? But God didn't do that. He first loved you and reached out in the same way that He did to Adam and Eve in the garden. Adam and Eve went and hung out in their back pews, hiding from God in the trees. And God said, where are you? God pursued them. And He pursues you. Now, we're to mirror God's love. Here's the point. In your salvation, It is the love of God in you that should cause you to reach out to others. In that God is willing to forgive not only your sins, but the sins of your brothers and sisters, you should embrace the forgiveness of your sins and your neighbors provided in the love of God who is in you and who's in them. God loves you and God has called you, but he's also called them and he loves them, and you've all received the same gift. And so there needs to be a drawing of each other together because of that. There's a oneness, a united front. We're brought into the same dugout. We don't like those guys in that other dugout, but we like the guys in our dugout, right? They're our buds. Well, this is the dugout, guys. We're all in the dugout here. So what are you called to do? You are to have a passionate love for the body of Christ as a manifestation of your faith that seeks to mirror the love of God. When you do that, not only will your love grow, but think about this, when you do that, you will be an instrument of God's grace to others. And that's something to go home and to get alone and say, God, am I being an instrument of your grace to others? Do others see the grace of God not only in me but through me? How am I doing? What am I doing? How am I doing in terms of my relationship of love to my brothers and sisters to help them become stronger in their own faith, encouraged in their own faith? And talking to Jacob, and I know Jacob's listening, so I'll talk about Jacob. I said, you know, sometimes in terms of the use of our love, the expressions of our love, God puts us in positions where we need help. And, you know, we have this tendency to say, oh, I don't want to be a bother to anybody. No, God puts you in a position of needing help to give others the opportunity of expressing their love and serving you. We need to see ourselves that way. Not only are we to serve others, but we are to allow others to serve us when we have need. And that's a humbling thing, but that's how we begin by denying ourselves that Christ's body may grow stronger. Amen? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts because it is the very love of God for us. For you so loved us that you sent your Son into the world to die for us, that through him we might have life forevermore. And so Father, help us to not be fearful, to not be dull-headed in terms of just going through things unconsciously. But Father, let us with very conscious love approach one another and live with one another in a way that strengthens us as a body of Christ to be a visible witness of light here in this world. Bless us now as we depart from the hearing of your word to meditate upon these things that we have heard. that Father, in all of these things, we may rejoice in Christ our Savior. Amen.