Living In Reality of the Lord’s Return

Transcript

GR 1945
03/13/2016
Living in Reality of the Lord’s Return
I Peter 4:7-9
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter in your Bibles, the first letter of the Apostle Peter. We have two of his letters as you are aware in our New Testament of that great Apostle so mightily used of God. The privilege he had of spending the time of Christ’s public earthly ministry, ministering with Christ and then being used of Him in the early days of the church being the spokesman that God used to proclaim the truth on the Day of Pentecost when God began the church and brought into existence, then through that early period in the book of Acts, the Apostle Peter so used of God.

We are in I Peter chapter 4 and he is writing to fellow Jews who have come to faith in Christ as he has. These are difficult times. These are Jews living outside the land of Israel so they are in Gentile areas by and large and they are going through difficult times, suffering for their faith in Christ and Peter wants to encourage them and remind them.

He is going to draw their attention now to a point that he has addressed to them already in the letter and that is a reminder of what God has promised for those who love Him. There is something beyond this life. We anticipate what God has prepared for us in the future. We anticipate the time when we will see Him again and this shapes our life. The Apostle Paul wrote in that great chapter on the resurrection in I Corinthians chapter 15, verse 32: “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” The only thing to do is to live for today because tomorrow you will be gone. There is no future for you.

Leave a marker in I Peter 4 and come back to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. Jesus told a parable to remind His listeners of the seriousness of giving careful consideration and preparation for death and life beyond death. So pick up with verse 15: “Then He said to them, ‘beware and be on your guard against every form of greed for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’ He told them a parable saying, ‘the land of a rich man was very productive and he began reasoning to himself saying, ‘what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul, ‘soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ You have planned for your future. You have a good retirement, plenty of assets but God said to him, “You fool, this very night your soul is required of you and who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” So short sighted. I mean we are bombarded with advertisements and promotions and how important it is to prepare for retirement and we want to be wise. You know there is a balance. The book of Proverbs says that we ought to watch the ant who stores up and makes preparation. We do that on a shorter term basis. You know, you get your pay check and you plan because you will have bills that come toward the end of the month. You have to allow for that and plan for that. There is nothing wrong with planning for the future but there is something gravely wrong for preparing for the future without considering God who holds and controls the future. We live our lives with a totally different focus. We live our lives in light of what God has promised and the assurance that Christ is coming again and we never want to allow ourselves to settle down into that comfortable forgetfulness where we become focused here. Our eyes are dropped down and we are absorbed here and we forget we are to be living with expectation and anticipation.

Come back to Peter, I Peter and stop in chapter 1. Peter is going to pick up this emphasis which he has already brought to their attention in I Peter. I Peter chapter 1, verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again.” It just doesn’t stop there. “Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ form the dead,” because remember His resurrection is a first fruits of the resurrection and guarantees our coming resurrection. “To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserve din heaven for you, who are protected by the power of god through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, you may be distressed by various kinds of trials.” Our joy, our hope, our anticipation is what God has promised to us and all those who love Him.

Down in verse 8, still in chapter 1: “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” And the climatic point of that salvation is yet future when we shall experience our glorification in His presence.

Down in verse 13: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action.” He is going to pick up on this very theme in chapter 4, “Prepare your minds for action, keep sober, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” That is the focal point. Everything is arranged under that. There is nothing that takes precedence over that in my planning. I live my life in light of my number one goal, seeing Jesus Christ face to face. The hope that I have on the grace that will be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ, that grace that will complete the transformation that began when I placed my faith in Christ, when you placed your faith in Christ and we are transformed into conformity with the body of His glory.

Come over to chapter 4, verse 13. We are going to be in the earlier verses but we jump ahead and what Peter is going to say keeps coming back to this emphasis and theme. Verse 13 of chapter 4: “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that at the revelation of His glory, you can rejoice with exultation.” Present suffering, present trials, present difficulties provide an opportunity for us to demonstrate our firm faith in God and what He has done for us in Christ and we have joy. What a privilege it is to be identified with Christ in suffering for Him, suffering ridicule with Him, being faithful to Him in all kinds of trials in anticipation of the time when all trials will be over.

Chapter 5, verse 4: “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” Addressed specifically to elders but a reminder of where we are all going and looking forward to that time.

Verse 6: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” Verse 10: “After you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strength and establish you.” By far the best is yet to come. My hope is not in this life. My confidence is not in the things of this life. We have treasure that cannot be measured. We have a hope that can only be characterized by glory so I see everything through that lens that keeps the sufferings of this life in proper perspective. Think of loved ones who were believers who have passed away. The sufferings of this life are history, never ever to occur again. How small this time will seem when we enter eternity what is a 70, 80, 90 year life span and does it really matter if the Lord determines our life span is 30 or 40 years. In light of eternity whatever it is, it’s just a weightless speck and we have eternal glory before us.

So that is where he is and that is what he is going to use in the section we are going to look at in chapter 4. He will pick up with verse 7 by saying what, “The end of all things is near.” The conclusion of history is eminent. We live as believers looking for the return of Christ in light of the imminent return. It could happen at any time. Here Peter is writing 2,000 years ago. He said It is near. That is how we are to live, ready for the Lord to appear at any time. It’s like as I have used as an example before you have maybe children that live away and now days with cell phones and everything we keep track of everybody minute by minute. Some of you are doing it now, second by second. We have to keep up lest we miss something but you know somebody will say “I will be arriving to see you shortly.” Well when the doorbell rings you don’t say, “Well I am surprised. I have been expecting you.” That is the way it ought to be. If Christ comes back this evening what will it be? “I am expecting You today. I have been living with the anticipation that You might be arriving today.” I mean that is the way we live our days. This could be the day. That is what Peter is saying. He is writing to encourage these believers. He’s not minimizing the seriousness of their suffering. Peter knows and he is ultimately going to give his life as a martyr so this is not talking about that the sufferings aren’t serious but in light of what God has prepared for us they are nothing.

And the worst of sufferings as Peter will suffer where he will suffer a painful death means what? You think he regrets it now, 2,000 years in the presence of the glory of God, and endless time ahead? I should have enjoyed life more. I should have taken more time for myself. I should have done more fun things. I think not. So to speak, vacation is ahead of us. Eternal rest as Hebrews talks about is ahead of us.

So he is writing to encourage these believers and you know under pressure it can strain our relationships and so Peter is going to stress in these verses 7 down through 11 really, we are not going to cover all these verses but our relationships as believers. You know it is important in our relationships with one another we are living and serving together in light of the fact that Christ may come back today.

So the words, one another, one another, will be used three times in these verses. Look at verse 8: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another;” verse 9: “Be hospitable to one another;” verse 10: “As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another.” In our relationships as believers remember this starts out, “The end of all things is near,” verse 7 so we live that way in our relationships with one another. It is not just how we deal with the world out there but how we deal with one another in our relationship as members of God’s family. Obviously when Christ comes back He expects the family of God to be in good order, functioning as it should.

So pick up with verse 7 of I Peter 4: “The end of all things is at near.” Earlier he emphasized this in verse 5: “They (referring to the unbelievers who are adding to the difficulty of believers) will give an account to Him (note this) who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” Note that sense of we are on the verge of it. He is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So now “the end of all things is at hand” putting together the reality of the coming of Christ and all that will take place. We know the Scripture spreads out different aspects of this as we are looking for the return of Christ for His church. Then there are times for tribulation for us as believers. His return to take us into glory is imminent but the unbelievers live on the brink of judgment and judgment can come to him at any time and then ultimately when he stands before the presence of the Lord to be judged. “The end of all things is near.” It is at hand. It is drawn close. With the first coming of Christ everything has taken on a different perspective because with the first coming of Christ and his death now we can anticipate at any time the events associated with the second coming of Christ the first of which will be to call the church into His presence. So there is that recognition.

Remember in Acts chapter 1 as Christ prepared for the ascension. He had spent 40 days with His disciples following the resurrection instructing and teaching them and their question was “Lord, at this time will You restore the kingdom to Israel because now we understand You had to come and suffer and die but now we can have the events associated with what would be Your second coming.” There is more to be unveiled and revealed, this the theme.

Come back to a couple of verses. Come back to Romans chapter 13, Romans 13. Look at verse 11 for the context. “Do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep for salvation is now nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone. The day is near; therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, don’t be involved in sin. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh.” I mean you realize every day that we have lived we have moved a day closer to the coming of the Lord. We are 2,000 years closer than when Paul wrote this and he was living expecting it. It’s near. It’s not, “well since it’s been this long, it probably won’t happen in my lifetime either.” You develop that perspective and pretty soon you will be caught off guard. You won’t be expecting. That will change the way you live. I don’t expect the Lord to come in my lifetime; therefore I live a little differently. I plan differently. “The night is almost gone. The day is near.”

Come over to Philippians chapter 4, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians. After you leave Romans and go through Corinthians you come to Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, chapter 4. I am doing this to remind us this is a pervading emphasis for us as believers. Chapter 4, verse 5 of Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing.” Put it in the context. We are rejoicing, always. We are not anxious for anything. The Lord is near. What do I have to be concerned about? My Lord may be coming tonight. If He doesn’t I awake in the morning, I awake with the idea this may be the day and if I go to bed tomorrow night and He hasn’t come maybe it will be tonight and that sense of expectancy.

Come over to Hebrews, getting back toward Peter now, the largest book before we get to those little books in the back between Hebrews and Revelation. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25 and he is in the context, verse 23 for the sentence: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” Our hope and hope that you already have is not hope. So it is what has been promised to us. “For He who promised is faithful. Let us consider one another to love and good deeds.” This is what Peter is talking about in our relationship to one another. “Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.” They saw the day drawing near. What about us? How much closer are we to the return of the Lord?

Come back after Hebrews to James, chapter 5. Look at verse 8: “You too, be patient.” He said that in verse 7: “Be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord,” verse 7. Like the farmer who waits for the crop that he has planted. Verse 8: “You be patient like the farmer. Strength your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain brethren against one another,” which Peter is going to talk about. “So that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold the Judge is standing right at the door.” You see this relentless emphasis. You live in light of the return of Christ as it says here, “don’t complain against one another.” I mean when I complain I am really acting as a judge and what is going to happen if the Judge opens the door and says “What are you doing taking my job?” We don’t want to be caught unexpecting. “I didn’t expect You.” Well now I am doubly guilty. I did what was wrong and I wasn’t expecting Him when He told me to be expecting Him. “I will be coming at any time.”

Come over to Revelation chapter 1, verse 3: “Blessed is he who reads, those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.” And we will conclude with the last chapter of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 20: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’” Christ promised. “Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” The last thing He has to say to the churches. I am coming quickly. The time is drawing near.

Come back to Peter. You know in his second letter he will talk about unbelievers. He will say “Oh, where is the promise of His coming, we have been hearing this forever and He hasn’t come.” We don’t want to get lulled into that. We don’t want to settle down and lose our expectation. It takes the edge off of our service. It takes the excitement out of it. I am plodding along serving the Lord and who knows how long this will go on. Peter doesn’t want that for believers he is writing to.

So “the end of all things is near,” verse 7. The next word is ‘therefore.’ Again we are back to how do you live in light of the fact the “end of all things is near,” at hand? Therefore and he gives two firm commands. Some of you have taken Greek. They are aorist commands; sharpest way to give a command in Greek. Here are two things you must do. “Therefore you must be of sound judgment. Secondly you must be sober for the purpose of prayer.” And these two commands are very closely connected. To be of sound judgment means to think clearly. You know, keep your head. Don’t lose your head over this. You want to keep thinking clearly. It is used of a person who is reasonable, sensible, prudent, one who kept a clear mind. The second mind, “must be sober” would be the opposite of being drunk, intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. He needs to be alert, mentally focused. So you can see he gives two sharp commands here and they basically are almost synonymous. We have to keep clear headed. We have to be alert. This is what we must do. “The end of all things is near.” I mean let’s face it. If you know, the hand of God came and wrote on the screen as it did in the days of Daniel and it said, “I will be back at 3:00 A.M. this evening. Well, all of a sudden we would look at everything differently. That is the way we are told we have to be looking, mentally clear. My thoughts aren’t cluttered. We are soldiers of Christ. No one soldering clutters his life with the things of this world. You see a soldier and they have things but all the things that he has with him and are involved with him are what, the things involved in soldering. So no soldier entangles himself with the things of this life. We are to be unentangled. We have to live in this world but we are not to be entangled with it.

So we must have clear minds, clear heads for the purpose of prayer. That enables us to pray more intelligently, more effectively. We keep that clear head. The Lord is coming. I have things I need to be praying about, people I need to be praying for. I mean all of a sudden I have time for prayer. You know I have a clear head. “Lord, You could be coming at any time. I want to live as a testimony for You in this trial.” Some of these people may give their lives but the Lord may come before the final act that takes their life and if He doesn’t they are transported to glory. Keep a clear head. That is the way our prayers are. You know it’s not just praying “Lord in the future, down the road, I pray that everything will go well for us.” I am praying in light of the return of the Lord.

Back up to Ephesians. We could go back to the Gospel of Luke but we will pick up with Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6 where Paul has instructed the believers in verse 10 “To be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” Then they are instructed to “put on the full armor of God” because we are in a spiritual battle and he goes through that armor. Then when you come down to verse 18 “And with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” They were praying for one another. They were occupied with prayer. We are in a spiritual battle. We need to pray for one another. We ought to have perseverance in our prayer. We have petitions that we bring before the Lord that we are praying about. We are praying for one another. That is why I encourage you often to take the newsletter. There are people to be prayed for in there. There is ministry to be prayed for. Do we pray for one another? Well, there are so many other things on my mind I don’t have time. Well wait a minute, if the Lord is coming at any time what is more important than to be about His work?

Let’s face it. If I am living expecting the Lord tonight there aren’t many things more important. That doesn’t mean I don’t plan, I don’t go to work tomorrow, those kinds of things, obviously but that doesn’t draw my attention away as the Lord may be coming today. It is good to remind ourselves when we get up in the morning, when we go to bed at night the Lord may be coming before the night is over. The Lord may be coming before the day concludes. I want to live today with the expectation of His coming and if He does come I can say, “I’ve been expecting You.” And my life demonstrates that, for the purpose of prayer, praying for one another.

Colossians 4, verse 2 gives the same emphasis but come back to Peter. Verse 7: “The end of all things is near; therefore you must be of sound judgment. You must be sober for the purpose of prayer.” Those two commands govern everything now down through verse 11. There is a series of participles that we often have ‘i-n-g’ on the end but the two basic commands governing down through verse 11 are those dealing with being of sound judgment, sober minded, sober in spirit, thinking clearly with the right focus.

So “Above all,” above all. Here what I want to give you is something of primary importance. “Keep fervent in your love for one another.” Keep fervent in your love for one another because if you are fervent in your love for one another the other things will fall into place because true Biblical love is not selfish. It is “other-centered” and so the other things he will talk about are put into perspective. If we are fervent in our love, fervent, something that is intense. Picture something that is stretched out and earnest and with that there is an element of consistency. Sometimes it could be used of a horse racing and there is that consistent, stretched out picture of him, he used this word. As they came down the stretch you could see the neck muscles straining and they maintain that as they are going down, reaching the goal. That is the picture here. You keep that consistent, fervent intensity in your love for one another.

Come back to Romans chapter 13 and see why this love encompasses everything. In Romans chapter 13, verse 8 Paul writes: “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law and what the law says, ‘You shall not commit adultery, not murder, steal, covet, any other commandment, it is summed up, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.” It is not selfish, it is other focused. We are talking about what we do for one another. Keep fervent in that other focus; your love for them, what would be best for them, what would be most helpful for them kind of attitude.

Come back to I John. That is after Peter, Peter’s letters. You come to I John, chapter 4. You see these reoccurring themes, again and again in Scripture and God doesn’t repeat Himself just because He ran out of material. He repeats Himself because He wants to be sure we get the point of the message and take it to heart and live by it. Pick up in verse 7 of I John 4: “Beloved (writing to fellow believers that he loves) let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” because this is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” not the world’s conception of it but that total selflessness comes from God. I see people now with a new perspective. It is God working in me. “The one who does not love does not know God for God is love.” This is His very character. This is not all God is and you can’t reverse this. You can’t say, “Love is God,” as you know you get sometimes floating around. “By this the love of God was manifested in us that He has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him and this is love. Not that we loved God but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the satisfaction) for our sins.” See He is talking about action for others. How do I know that God loves me? He sent His Son to pay my penalty. He did what had to be done for me at great cost to Himself. “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.”

Jump down to verse 19: “We love because He first loved us. If someone says “I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.” I am talking about relationships between fellow believers. You can’t have an ongoing animosity in the family, something is wrong. We may have a situation. I have to say if I can’t get over it maybe I am not a believer. If you hate your brother and say you love God that cannot be so because God does something in our hearts that is supernatural and enables us to love our fellow believers even when there are times we don’t find them too lovable. “The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This commandment we have from Him that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” And that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy everybody’s company equally. Obviously we have diversity, diversity of interest, personality and there are people we enjoy being with but there is no room for not loving another believer. We love one another and we would sacrifice what was necessary for the good of that believer because they are fellow believers. This is the love that we have. It is an unending love. There is a song that goes that way.

I Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.” Love never fails. Well I used to love them. Well love never fails. They are fellow believers. I love them. Maybe certain things in our relationship have changed but I still love them as a believer. I don’t hold animosity toward them. I don’t hold hard feelings toward them. That has to be dealt with if I have Biblical love and it comes from God’s grace and His Spirit working in us. That is why it is the fruit of the Spirit. This is not something I manufacture but it is something I am responsible to do. There are times when we just don’t want God’s grace because I don’t want to love them.

Come back to Peter. He is going to pick this up. “Above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sin.” I don’t love you and you don’t love me because I never do anything wrong, because “we all stumble in many ways,” James writes and the most often way to stumble is with our tongues but love covers a multitude of sins. That is not an excuse for sin. I will say something about that in a moment but love covers a multitude of sins.

Come back to Proverbs chapter 10. I was going to quote this but I will take you to another verse while we are here. Proverbs chapter 10. Look at verse 12: “Hatred stirs up strife. Love covers all transgressions.” That is where Peter draws this from.

Stop and think. How do churches constantly have divisions, fractures, conflicts, enmities? Well hatred stirs up strife. Love covers all transgressions. Something is wrong in the family, right? This has to be resolved. Love covers all transgressions in the sense since your focus for them the fact that some things been done that hurt you. I am not focused on me. I overlook it. You know we say this about maybe young people in love not that old people aren’t in love but we will sometimes as older people say, “Well, their eyes will be open.” My advice, keep them closed. Continue to think like you do. You know you try to warn your kids. They are dating. They are going to get married. You know, are you sure you have looked at this with your eyes open. You know they haven’t. You know they’re open with the first shock. They will be lying in bed looking at the ceiling and thinking, “What have I done? My life is over.” What happened? All of a sudden I am seeing things I didn’t see before. I didn’t want to see them. All I saw was what I loved in this person and I overlooked the other things. Well, they weren’t as nice as they could be. They weren’t as thoughtful as they could be. They didn’t … Love is blind. You know that is Biblical because it says, “Love believes all things,” in I Corinthians 13. I think love is blind. I mean when you love someone you trust them. You view it the best and when they do things you overlook it because, you know, I know that is not what they meant. I know that it wasn’t with the purpose of hurting me and I love them.

That is the way we are in our family. When you hate someone you are looking for things that you can criticize in them. You are looking for ways to tear them down and tear them apart but when you love someone you are defensive of them like your kids. Someone criticizes your kids, “why are they criticizing my kids? They are good kids.” I know, maybe they think they should have done that but I don’t think that is important. That is the way we are with those we love. That is the way it should be.

Some people will say, “is your spouse your best critic?” Oh heaven deliver me. Why would I marry one of my critics? Spare me from such a life. I want to marry my best encourager. Marilyn is a fool. She acts like I don’t have any faults. Don’t tell her. Isn’t that the way you want to live in a relationship? Husbands and wives get to a point, bicker, bicker, bicker, criticize, criticize, criticize, fault, fault, fault. Oh man, I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to live with the person I love like that. I don’t want to be pointing out their faults. I don’t want them pointing out my faults. Let’s live in our make believe world just like we did when we were going together. It’s wonderful. Love covers all transgressions, a multitude of sins. It’s not an excuse for me to sin. We have accountability for that.

While you are here I brought you back here. Look at Proverbs 17, verse 9: “He who conceals a transgression seeks love. He who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.” I Corinthians 13:5 says, “Love does not take into account a wrong suffered.” There is no record kept of wrongs.

One of my kids was in school and said I got an assignment. He called me on the phone. I won’t tell you which of my kids it was. He said, “My teacher said I should make a list of the ten things I don’t like about my wife. What do you think of that?” I think you ought to go tell your teacher your father said, “That is the worst idea I ever heard.” You want to sit down and think of ten things you don’t like about your spouse? Rather sit down and write the ten things you love about your spouse and everyday make that list again and again and again. As soon as you start to have things come up, that is the way we are in the church family. Think about this. This is a big family. I mean our family is large. There are going to be people that rub you the wrong way that do inconsiderate things, that do things that are even more than inconsiderate and hurt and they shouldn’t have been done and on it goes but we are family. And you know it is great to hear about a person. You know those people just don’t take offense. That is what we are talking about.

Here is what one commentator wrote: “Only when Christians become mean and ugly do they favor the devil by dragging each other’s failings out into the public and smiting each other in the face.”

I have had people who have come to me when they are having marriage difficulty. After listening to them both I stop and I will say to them, “You know, there must have been something you liked about each other. You got married. There were things you found attractive and appealing in the other person. Can you stop and tell me about those?” You know they almost get lost and you know when you start focusing on something you don’t like you know how that begins to just absorb your attention and pretty soon it is on my mind all the time and that is what happens. But if you think about the things you love about a person that begins to fill your mind and they are so wonderful and I appreciate them so much. But now that doesn’t mean there aren’t sins to be dealt with.

Come to Matthew 18 and we are not going to go into detail on this but just to remind you of the context. In Matthew 18, Christ says there are certain things among believers that have to be dealt with, ongoing sin has to be dealt with. So verse 15-20 that we come to often to point out where a fellow believer persists in their sin. We don’t say, “Well love covers a multitude of sin so we just overlook it.” That persistent practice of sin has to be dealt with but then Christ goes on in response to Peter to remind him you have to be a forgiver because the Heavenly Father has forgiven you and you have the same kind of emphasis if you hate your brother you can’t love God. If you don’t forgive your brother you won’t be forgiven by God because those are characteristics of unbelievers. An unloving Christian is an oxymoron. I John says there aren’t any because if you say you love God and hate your brother you are a liar because you don’t really love God. Christ says if you say you have been forgiven but you don’t forgive your brother no matter what he does or how many times you are not forgiven. That means you are lost; so these things. There is a perspective but there is discipline in the family like there is in our physical family for ongoing sin.

Alright, come back to Peter, verse 9. That is as far as we are going. “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” Be a love of strangers, hospitable, open to fellow believers. I mean this is going on and you are aware in the Biblical world there was much more of this. People traveled. You see Paul. He comes into a town, a city. He has to look for hospitality. You know you go sit in the city square. You look for someone you might know, a reference somebody might have given you, the name of a believer because you just didn’t go stay in a hotel, motel, that kind of place in those days not as easily and often they weren’t the kind of places that you would want to be.

III John, the 3rd Epistle of John talks about this. You open your homes to travelling people, travelling believers coming to share the Gospel. You don’t open your house to those who are travelling spreading error and heresy but you do open your home to fellow believers.

Hebrews 13:2 encouraged hospitality and gave the example in the Old Testament that some entertained angels with that. Some of the believers in the New Testament the church met in homes. People opened their homes for believers to meet. Many of you do that with home Bible studies and you know, it is work. It is an effort to do that, provide a setting where we can come together in smaller groups as a church family. Others of you have people over. You take effort to meet new people, strangers. You build those kinds of relationships. We want to be open to help one another, hospitable to one another, be involved in one another’s lives in whatever way would be helpful and we do it without complaint.

We don’t have time to look at the passages but you know the Bible reminds us that whatever God tells us to do He wants us to do without complaining. I mean that’s the way. You tell your children to do something. You don’t expect them to mumble and grumble and complain about it the whole time they are doing it. That is not acceptable. When God tells us to do something and then we complain about it, we grumble about it. Why do I have to do this? Why am I the one doing this? I don’t think they are doing their fair share. I can’t control what somebody else does. I can only control what I do. There are certain things I have to leave with the Lord. Don’t judge one another in that sense. I do it because the Lord has called me to do it. If He has called me to do it, why am I grumbling about what you are doing or not doing? That doesn’t have anything to do with what I am responsible to do, right? And maybe He didn’t move you to do it because He intended for me to do it so I would learn to do it without grumbling. It all comes back to simple keeping our perspectives.

So we are to live in light of the return of the Lord and I don’t want to be grumbling about something and have the Lord open the door and here He is. I want to be living, expecting the return of the Lord, keeping my head clear, not cluttered with the things of this world, the thinking of this world and the thinking like this world. My perspective is clear and sharp every day. This may be the day the Lord is coming. My actions, my activities ought to reflect that expectation and we are His family.

We want to be living with one another in love. We wouldn’t want Him to come back and I have been harboring animosity toward the family, toward another believer. It doesn’t mean we don’t have differences. It doesn’t mean we don’t have disagreements. May it never be the kind that I cannot say I genuinely love them, I would sacrifice for them, I pray for them. That helps us when we begin to pray for one another. Pray for the Lord’s grace to be at work in the ones we love and to sustain them and to use them for His glory and we will overlook the faults, the failures, the shortcomings because we are growing together. We are a family. In that sense we look out for one another and for one another’s good and we extend that to fellow believers whenever we meet them, wherever we find them.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your love for us. You called us to Yourself but Lord You called us to be part of Your family. We, each one, individually, personally, have a relationship with You through Your Son, Jesus Christ but by Your grace we each one who have a relationship with You have a relationship with one another. Our fellowship was with you and with one another as Your children. How blessed we are that You have provided a family for us to be a part of. Lord, may we reflect that in our relationship with one another. May we never lose sight of the fact we expect the One who loved us and died for us to call for us at any moment. We want to live everyday with that expectation. Lord, may it be as sharp in our thinking, as clear in our minds as the day we were first saved and may it shape and control all of our actions, our conduct and our words in all that we do and say that You might be honored we pray in Christ’s name, amen.