You can turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1. In the Sunday evenings that Pastor Steve has graciously allowed me to preach, as I introduced last week, I'm going to be focused on a section of 1 Peter 1. It's timely in my own life, I think it's timely for all of our lives, for the life of the church, given the chaos that seems to surround us and is increasing every day. The original recipients of the letter knew something of chaos. They were persecuted, they were oppressed, they were a disfavored group. And in the midst of that hardship, the Apostle Peter gave them words that really formed the backdrop for everything I'm trying to do. In 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning at verse 14, Peter said this, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." That really is driving all of the messages that I'm going to be living. That admonition that we are to be holy as God is holy. convinced that everything that follows in the book of 1 Peter is dealing with that issue, is trying to explain how we live wholly, and there are so many parallels between that culture at that time where Christianity was not viewed favorably, and in our time, where increasingly in our country, Christianity is not viewed favorably. And the apostle Peter knew, despite all his hardships, they could do what God called them to do. Remembering what their salvation wrought in their hearts, He didn't hesitate to tell them and us, be holy as God is holy. And tonight, as we, what will in essence be finishing chapter 1, we'll cover the last verses of chapter 1, that's what we're going to be driving at. But I think our study in dealing with holiness deals with it in a way that we're not necessarily used to. So let me ask you a rhetorical question. This is rhetorical. Just think about the answer in your mind. I can't help when I say that remembering being in a foreign country and a pastor said a question and somebody answered and they repented on the spot. It was a shocking moment, it's not an American way of doing things, but this is not what I'm trying to do. So I'm just asking a rhetorical question. What do you need to do in your life right now, today, to be more holy? Same question, perhaps stated another way, What is unholy in your life right now? If we confessed our sins publicly, which we're not going to do tonight, the answers would be different, our struggles would be different, our weaknesses are different, but I suspect most of us would gravitate towards certain obvious sins of things that we shouldn't do. like lust, or immorality, or anger, or being unkind to our spouse, or having no patience with our children, or gossip, or slander, or something along those lines. And that's not irrational to think that way. All of those are a component of holiness. In fact, we just read tonight, Peter said, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, which would include all of those types of things. So if the Lord brought some of those things to your mind, by all means, repent of them. But I want to encourage you to think a little bit more deeply tonight in a different aspect of holiness. It's not something that we shouldn't be doing, it's something that we should do. It's an area that we don't necessarily always associate with being holy as God is holy, but I can assure you it is foundational, it is critical. Our study of holiness tonight is going to focus on how you live your life towards other believers here at Lakeside. Certainly it would apply to all believers everywhere, but this is where we live and move. So our focus is going to be on your attitude and your actions towards your fellow Christians here at your church. Now, to get to this focus, it's going to take some time. I'm going to have to develop some things because there's a focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ that is so central to everything that it requires some development. I'm going to try and get there. But it all, I hope, will come together to answer the question and to cause you to ask yourself, do you practice love towards other Christians here at Lakeside? Our text tonight is the first in a series of examples. In fact, after Peter says, be holy as God is holy, he starts giving practical examples. Tonight is one of those practical examples. It's an example. It's something that's central to being holy as God is holy. But again, the body of Christ loving one another doesn't necessarily jump out. And yet, if we think a little bit, this positive statement that we're going to get to in a few moments actually does make sense as being foundational to a life of holiness. In Matthew 22, 36-39, Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? And He gave two. Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? Verse 37, and He said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now we know that loving your neighbor is greater than just Christians, but it's not less than us loving one another. It's interesting, the greatest commandments are not don't steal, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't covet. It's love. Jesus said in Gospel of John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So that's going to be our focus tonight. Now again, it's going to take me a while to get there because of how Peter phrases things. But from our study, we're going to see two foundational truths about a life of holiness that may not be what we normally go to when we think of what's unholy in our lives. So follow along as I read 1 Peter 1, verses 22 to 25, which is the text for our study tonight. Peter says this, Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is, through the living and enduring 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 off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word which was preached to you." So my outline tonight is simple. It's two foundational truths for living a life of holiness. And actually, I could have put the points in either order because of the way Peter bookends. He says something at the beginning, at the end, and then a command in the middle. But it's two foundational truths for living a life of holiness, and the first truth is this. A life of holiness must include an act of love for God's children. A life of holiness must include an act of love for God's children. Verse 22 has what leads me to phrase a point that way. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. As I mentioned above, I'm going to spend a little time getting to the point. And when I first studied this text, I could see quickly where the command is, fervently love one another from the heart. And that is where we're going, that is the basis of the point, that's where we're getting there. But Peter didn't just say that. He said, since you have an obedience to the truth, purify your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. That means something. The Holy Spirit inspired that, put it there. And when I first started studying this, it really confused me a bit. I think I understand it now. I'm going to explain it to you the best way I can. But there's a depth of truth there that is critical for us to understand because it's the only reason we can obey the command to fervently love one another. So I want to make sure we understand what Peter is saying. So when he phrases it, since you have, It's obviously looking back to something that has occurred. Something occurred in the past that's continuing to have impact since you have. And then he says, "...in obedience to the truth." Now, I could talk a lot longer on this, but it's clear they obeyed some form of truth. And in the context, particularly as he addresses later in the verse the living and enduring Word of God, when he says the truth, he's talking about God's revelation, the Scriptures. or at least an aspect of that revelation. Jesus said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth in John 17, 17. Peter is using truth, I think, in that type of context. So Peter is saying that in the past, in some way you were obedient to some aspect of the truth of God's revelation, But it's the next clause that I'm going to spend some time on because it can be a bit confusing. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls. We really have to think about that because if you take out the qualifier of in obedience to the truth, you have the phrase, since you have purified your souls. Now here's the challenge. I'm convinced after a lot of study, that this is talking about the moment of our salvation. At the moment we come to faith, I believe that's what Peter is talking about, but the way he phrases it doesn't sound right if we're not careful. Since you have purified your souls. Wait a minute. Doesn't mean that I can purify my own soul, does it? Now let me clarify this because it actually is understandable, but there's an interplay here that I think is worth our study. Peter is in no way saying that we saved ourselves. That's not what he's saying. Certainly none of us are saved because we're capable of obeying enough of God's Word to get a pat on the head. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 It says, "...for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." In fact, it's clear from Scripture that if you try to obey every law of God revealed in His Word, and we don't, but if you did, if you violated even one point, it's all done. James chapter 2 verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. And according to Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, meaning everyone, all of us, have sinned, we've disobeyed, which means we're guilty of all the law. So Peter is not saying that we saved ourselves with his use of that term. So what is he saying? I think it ties in to our responsibility when we hear the gospel and God's work that enables us to fulfill the responsibility we have to respond. Whenever the gospel is preached, there has to be a response to the gospel. Before anything transformative occurs in the life of a sinner who hears the gospel, something has to happen. There has to be a response. For time's sake, I can't include all the Scriptures that I originally looked at, but going back, let me just highlight a few things. When Peter first preached a sermon on the day of Pentecost, just recording in Acts chapter 2, I'll just read a snippet of that. which is in verses 36 to 38. As he's winding down, he says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? They heard the gospel and they knew they were in trouble. Peter said to them, verse 38, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What do we do when we hear that preaching and we recognize we're guilty before a holy God? We repent. Baptism is just a visible expression of the fact that we have repented. It's the public expression that says, I belong to Christ. Peter preached. Many sermons, but in Acts chapter 3, there's another sermon. Again, this is just a little snippet. Verses 18 and 19. But the things which God announced before him by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled, verse 19, therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. There is a call to action. You hear the gospel that you are a sinner, that God is holy. There's a call for a response. It's not passive. Repent. Return. It's the only way your sins will be wiped away. Peter understood. You don't work for salvation. There's only salvation in Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 4 verse 12, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. But when he preached and the apostles preached, they did not hesitate to call for a response. Repent. This wasn't just an affectation. This wasn't just a technique. This was gospel preaching. I'll summarize, but the same thing happened with Paul and Silas preaching in Acts chapter 16. The jailer thought they'd escaped. He thought he was in trouble. Acts 16 verse 29, And he called for lights, and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. So over and over as the gospel is preached, there's a call for response. Repent. Believe. They're all the same ultimate issue. Turn to Christ. So the gospel is preached that says, we before a holy God stand condemned. All have sinned. Every one of us fall short of the glory of God. We have no hope. But Jesus Christ came because of God's love for sinners and gave His life in the place of sinners. We deserve punishment. God, through Jesus Christ, took our place. Repentance is not just an awareness and a feeling bad. It's an embrace of all of that. It's a belief in all of that. It's recognizing that God is God. Not me. God is holy. His Word does contain His standard and His expectation, and we have failed to comply. God's Word is true, not my sinful cravings, my prideful decisions, my determination to do it my way, that by the way is inflamed and fanned and applauded by the fallen world around us. It's the realization that God is the judge and one day I'll stand in front of Him to give an account and the only thing that can save me from an eternity in hell is to be cleansed by the blood of Christ freely shed for sinners. All of that is wrapped up in the response to the gospel. It's that acknowledgement, the awareness. Again, it's not just feeling bad. A lot of unbelievers feel bad. You see people all the time, they get caught and they start crying and they feel really bad and you feel sad for them. For time's sake, I won't read it, but Matthew 27 has the account that even Judas felt bad. He felt remorse and then he went out and hanged himself. He's not in heaven today. But here's the challenge. No human being can repent. No human being can repent and believe in their humanness on their own. There's a call to respond every time the gospel is preached, but there's a problem. The people hearing the gospel are dead. Ephesians 2.1, and you were dead in your trespasses and sin. A dead person can't move. A dead person can't respond. You must repent and believe the gospel, but a dead person will not repent and believe. How can anyone be saved? We sang about it tonight. God took the initiative. In John 6, verse 44, Jesus said, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. This is where God's sovereignty, that we don't always see, intersects with our will. And it all comes down to a term that I think is implicit in everything Peter is talking about. It's regeneration. The only way you can respond and believe, which is what I believe Peter is talking about when he says, obedience to the truth, I think he's saying, you responded. What must I do to be saved? Repent and believe. And Peter's saying, since you've done that. All of this, when I was saved, I didn't know about. I didn't know about regeneration. I just heard the pastor preaching about God's holiness. and about sin, and I knew I was guilty. And he said, Jesus died for sinners, and I knew I needed that. And he said that if I would place my faith in Jesus Christ, I could be saved, I believe with all my heart. My life turned upside down. I was transformed. I was baptized shortly after that. My life changed forever. What I didn't understand makes sense of that idea, since you have purified your souls. What I didn't realize, in fact, when I first heard somebody say, you had nothing to do with your salvation, it caused me great emotional turmoil, because I thought, what do you mean? They said it was all of God. It was all God's doing. You had nothing to do with it. But I believe. I did. In Titus 3, 5, we see this, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. What I didn't understand, but I think is implicit in what Peter's talking about, is that God worked and the reason our obedience, our proper response to the gospel purified our souls is because of what God did in our hearts. One of the most helpful pictures for me of this whole idea of regeneration is found in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 36. where God promised that one day, He said, moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. So as best as I can summarize what Peter's saying, he's just acknowledging the reality of what goes into salvation. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls," is really just saying, look, you heard the gospel, and when you asked the question, what must I do to be saved, and you heard, repent, believe, you did it. But what we know on the other side of salvation is we couldn't have done it on our own because we were dead. God made us alive. So as best as I can understand, is that the moment that I believed it followed, God having just regenerated my heart, I was born again, I just didn't understand all that. I knew I believed, I didn't realize God had worked to enable my belief. So again, I think Peter is saying something very important because this is the foundation for where we're going But he says, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls, again paraphrasing, since you've repented and believed the gospel and your sins have been wiped away, he says, because of this, there's something new in your life. We're not even to the command yet. Look again at the text. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. When we're cleansed by the blood of Christ, we don't just love God for the first time, we're given a supernatural disposition of love towards other believers. Brethren, of course, all of our other believing brothers and sisters around the world, certainly here in our church, the word love is literally brotherly love, it's that love of a family. We're immediately made a part of the family of God and God gives us that love for His children. And sincere is just saying, this isn't just something you fake. This is real. This is a real affection. That's why you read in places like 1 John 3, 14, we know that we've passed out of death into the life because we love the brethren. Jesus says, that's how you'll know people will know you're my disciples. Now, all of this getting to our command. Because of this, because you've been regenerated, because you've been saved, because you properly responded to the preaching of the gospel that convicted you of your sins, and because God at that moment made you a part of His family and gave you a familial love for His other children. Verse 22, fervently love one another from the heart. This is the command, this is the duty. And this isn't just a warm, fuzzy feeling. This transcends this. This is actually very strenuous. That word fervently is exertion. It's effort. It's stretching yourself to the limit. This is working hard. This is going above and beyond. The word love is just the agape love. It is a comprehensive, intentional act of the will. It's a thinking, rational love, well thought out. You think and you do. And this love for one another, other believers, is supposed to come from the heart. That's why I spent so much time talking about the initial part of the verse, because we don't always like the other believers that are around us. Again, I'm not going to ask you to raise hands, but if you've been a believer very long, you can immediately think of believers that have annoyed you, and have bothered you, who have sinned against you, perhaps they slandered you. But we have to love them from the heart, even those tough, difficult believers. Again, Peter's not commanding something different than what our Savior commanded. A new commandment I give to you, John 13, that you love one another. Even as I've loved you, that you also love one another. And don't lose sight of the fact, this is all a part of being holy as God is holy. The degree of your love And your active love for the other believers here at Lakeside is an expression of your current level of holiness. How do you know that you're loving other Christians fervently from the heart? There's countless examples in Scripture. I'm not going to read the Scriptures, I'll reference a few verses, but certainly, It's very clear in Scripture that we should meet one another's physical needs if we have the ability to do so. You can find that in 1 John chapter 3 verses 14 to 18, James chapter 2 verses 15 to 16. That's why we have a benevolent fund at the church, that's why we take an offering every month, because one of the tangible ways you fervently love one another is to make sure that a believer doesn't go hungry or that they don't lack anything. There's countless ways you can do this. We set up meals all the time for people. What is that? It's fervent love. We want to come alongside in need. We have a weekly prayer guide. Why? Because praying for other believers is evidence of fervent love. We have a missionary prayer guide. You can pray for them for fervent love. over and over in the body of Christ, we have opportunities to tangibly and intentionally inconvenience ourselves to bless other people to help meet their needs. It could be families with small children. It could be people caring for the elderly. The possibilities are endless. The issue is do we recognize that that's a part of being holy as God is holy. For many during the pandemic this is a particular challenge. Let me encourage you that the difficulties of the pandemic are not an exception to this. Even if you're isolated at home because you've got serious health issues and there are many people with legitimate reasons, you can still fervently love. You can love on the phone. Call people. Ask how they're doing. You can use Zoom, FaceTime. There's countless ways. You can still contribute to the needs of the saints when you hear of needs. The point is this, Peter was writing to believers whose lives were hard, and he didn't hesitate to say, regardless of all of the hardships they faced, fervently love one another. Look at what kind of salvation you have that gave you a love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, actively participate. Again, I won't read it all for time's sake, but Jesus gives an account at the judgment in Matthew 25. I've got more than this in my notes, but I'll just read at verse 35. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. Fervent love. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Fervent love. I was a stranger and you invited me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And add to it thousands of other ways that we can care for the least of these. Of course, none of this is because if I love you, you love me back. It's because Christ loved me, I want to pour my life into you. And we have to be careful. We live in a very emotive society. Everything is driven by how I feel. The command to fervently love one another transcends whether you feel like it today. You do it anyway. Now, even as I give a strong exhortation, I commend Lakeside. I've been blessed to be a part of the family at Lakeside since 2007, and in my time here, I don't know of a single time when a genuine need was made known to the church, a Sunday school class, the body at large, where the need wasn't met. We are a loving church. But as the Apostle Paul would say, excel still more. And as you think through your own personal holiness and the desire to be holy as God is holy, don't neglect to look at how you interact with other believers. Are you fervently loving other members of Lakeside? If we think back through our Christians' lives, most of us can remember those beautiful saints that everyone gravitated to. They were always friendly. They were always asking, how are you? They were always praying. They were always doing those things. What we were seeing that we were so drawn to was the fact that they fervently loved us. And since we love us, we could be drawn to somebody that would love us. But the challenge is for us to be those people. Even if we haven't been, become those that fervently love one another. There's a second foundational truth that I'm going to cover quickly because I spent so much time dealing with the other, with regeneration and salvation, and it all ties together. Two foundational truths for living a life of holiness. One, a life of holiness must include an act of love for God's children. Number two, love for God's children is made possible by the gospel. If I was going to say it in a different way that doesn't look so nice in the outline, we have no excuse. We have no excuse. Verse 23 to 25 says, For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring 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 off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. Again, I'm going to go through this a little bit quicker because so much of what's here I've already explained. As I mentioned, I could have put the points in either way because what Peter said at the beginning is explained even more at the end. For you have been born again. That means our salvation. We have been born again. but we weren't born again because of anything perishable but imperishable." And he references not of seed which is perishable. Now he's making a contrast and he's just making it clear that we're not saved by anything earthly or fleshly. It's a contrast between the material world which is where we live and before Christ, where we navigated, and the spiritual life we have in Christ once we're saved. Plants and animals, by and large, they come from seed. For animal life, it's the male seed with the female egg. For plant life, it's various forms. I was never somebody that studied all of that, but it's the basic truth that natural life comes from seed. Seed, though, that is natural, is perishable." What's the one thing that all life, that is natural life has in common? It will die. But our seed was different. He refers to it as the living and enduring Word of God. It's living. The Bible, for all of the bad knocks it takes, is not some archaic book that belongs on a shelf. It's alive. The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is still doing what God wants it to do. And it's enduring. It's not perishable. It's not outdated. It will not go away. It's never out of tune. It's the folly of trying to temper the Word of God or modify the Word of God. That's foolishness. It's enduring. What it said 2,000 years ago, it says today, and it will say if the Lord doesn't return in another 1,000 years, the same thing. The meaning doesn't change. It's enduring. And what Peter is making clear, it was the enduring Word of God that ultimately is what saved us. He's going to say that at the very end. But the picture he's painting is just, again, that contrast between what is natural and what is spiritual. The difference between what is of this earth and what is of Christ. He uses the perishable illustration. He just says, all flesh, all life is like grass, and its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off. This is really just an imagery of the cycle of life of a plant. And what Peter is saying is that that really is human life. It's really no different. You can take the great accomplishments and really you're nothing more than a flower that blooms for a while and then it dies. I lived in California for a lot of years, you would see that. It was a much drier climate than Florida where if we're not in a drought, it's green all the time. There you'd have hillsides that were brown. Then the rains would come and all of a sudden the flowers would bloom. It was very pretty and it lasted a very short time and boom, it's brown again. That's the type of imagery he has here and he's saying that's what flesh is. That's what humanity is apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter all your accomplishments, no matter how much glory you can heap upon yourself, at the end of the day, it's gone. But the Word of the Lord endures forever. It's not temporary. The power that saved you endures forever. Because look at that last clause, and this is the word which was preached to you. Peter changes an expression and the word translated word is clearly talking about the gospel. the specific set of teaching. All of God's Word is truth. All of God's Word is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, for training in righteousness. But there's an aspect of God's Word that saves sinners. That ties in our regeneration. Our regeneration doesn't happen in a vacuum. God does that work in our hearts through His Spirit, but He always does it in response to His Word. Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. So here's the ultimate point of that. When it comes back to the fact that we're to be holy as God is holy, and one mark of our holiness is that we're fervently loving one another, we don't have any excuse because what transformed us, what gave us a love for other brethren, is the living and enduring gospel message that we heard and that we believed with all of our hearts and by which we have been saved. Our presence as part of the church of God, as part of the family of God, is not a transient, temporary thing. We've been saved by the living and enduring Word of God to a permanent, eternal relationship with the Lord and with one another. So look around at the other believers at Lakeside. And in an honest moment, when they're not looking at you, look at all the ones that really annoy you and bother you. and that make you frustrated. And thank the Lord that in obedience to the truth, they responded to the gospel. Thank the Lord that He loved them enough to make them a part of His family. And thank the Lord that He brought Him to be a part of your family here at Lakeside. And then, pray diligently from the heart, Lord, how can I fervently love this saint? I'm going to close tonight with a scripture that better than anything I can articulate sums up what's going on. You can be the busiest servant at Lakeside. You can be the most diligent to root out every residual sin. You can be meticulous at taking stock of everything and you sign up and you give and you do all of those things. But if you don't do it with love, you're not holy. If you don't love, it's pointless. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, a familiar passage, beginning at verse 1. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Think about all about I'm going to say now in the context of other believers at Lakeside. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own. It's not provoked. does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Please join me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we glance for a moment at Scripture, and we're reminded how far we still have to go in our sanctification. Lord, I pray tonight that each one of us, me included, will think anew about the centrality of love for other believers to a life of holiness. Lord, it's so easy even in the quest for holiness to focus just on ourselves of what we're not doing and lose sight of the fact that even being holy as God is holy, is done in the context of the family of God. I pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts, show us the ways that we can fervently love one another. Lord, help us to honestly look in the mirror and see our faults in this area of our lives and help us, Lord, to fervently love one another. I know many of the people hearing my voice that may listen to this are doing that. Lord, I pray that you would give them the endurance to excel still more and encourage them as they continue to fervently love. And Lord, I have spoken at length tonight about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's very possible that some that heard my teaching about the response to the gospel of repent and believe aren't genuinely saved. Lord, I pray that they would see You for who You are, a holy, all-powerful, sovereign God to whom they will one day give an account. And I pray, Lord, that even now You would take away the scales of their eyes and they wouldn't hide behind a comparative holiness where I'm not as bad as that person. Lord, I pray that they would see themselves before You, a holy God. And I pray that they would understand that You sent Jesus to live the life that they never lived, and to take the punishment that they deserve. And I pray, Lord, that hearing the truth, the gospel message, you would enable them tonight to respond, to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that they will be saved. Lord, we love you. We pray that you will continue to work in our hearts so that we can be holy as you are holy and be a testimony to a lost and dying world of your glory. We ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen.