Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Peter chapter 1, and we're reading for our text from verse 22 to the end. We are continuing this evening our series in the epistles of Peter, where we're looking at Peter strengthening the brethren as our Lord commanded him to, and feeding the sheep and feeding the lambs. This is our seventh sermon on this chapter, and it is an exultation to brotherly love in the verses that are before us.

So reading from verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 22 to 25. The blessings of sanctification have an end in view, which is the unfeigned love of the brethren is why we read in verse 22, seeing ye have purified or sanctified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That is the end and aim of the Lord's dealings with his people.

But even though that is the aim and that is what God brings about through sanctification, there is nevertheless still a need for us to be exhorted to consciously do so, consciously love the brethren. So we read, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. We mustn't think that when one is born again that automatically every good fruit and every good thing automatically comes forth from them. They need teaching, exhorting, directing, but nevertheless it is a vital prerequisite for any exhortation that there be grace, there be a cleansing and a sanctifying of that person rather than just taking an unregenerate person and one whose heart is not touched or impure and exhorting them to do things which cannot be done, coming forth from such a harm.

Our Lord said that it is out of the heart that there proceeds all of the evil things, But where the Lord works in the heart, then there proceeds that. Out of the abundance of the heart man speaketh. And where God has been working there, it will affect our speech and what we say and do.

And so that is really encompassing in verse 22. But I want to confine our thoughts this evening and to think in three headings. Firstly, a soul made ready to love the brethren. So looking at verse 22, the first part, primarily, a soul made ready to love the brethren. Then we have secondly, again in verse 22, an exhortation to consciously love. And then thirdly, three considerations to help love one another according to the truth of the Word. And those three points are the last three verses, verses 23, 24 and 25. But firstly, a soul made ready to love the brethren.

So we're not just going into the world or just going to one that does not know the Lord, is not born again, has not had the Spirit's work on the heart, and just coming and exhorting them to do this or to do that, to try and get them really to imitate God's children just by willpower, just by doing naturally those things that really are the fruits of the Spirit. Because there is a reason why Peter doesn't just leave off the first part of verse 22 and just exhort, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.

He doesn't, he puts something in between. He puts that which is really vital and he points us to an inward work. There's something that the natural man will bypass and even those of us that are called by grace we would rather just be able to be before men, what men will say or what grace and what good people they are, without having a close walk with the Lord. I believe I prove in myself, if we don't have a close walk with the Lord, we are not conformed to his image, We find the exercise of graces very hard. We find that we're just outwardly doing things without it really coming and flowing from the heart.

And the Lord is a jealous God. He wants to hear from his children, and his children are to hear from him. And whatever there is in their outward conduct or walk or fruits, it must begin first in the closet with the Lord and with the heart sanctified by His presence, by His Spirit. We don't, as it were, want to try to take shortcuts and really end up being a hypocrite, where we do things outwardly to be seen of men, but inwardly, as the Lord said, they were ravening wolves. The Lord will say, no, you are to be cleansed, sanctified inwardly, and then listen to what I have you to do. By a renewed spirit, a renewed heart, one that comes from the sanctuary, And we think how easy it is to have a wrong spirit.

When our Lord was going to Jerusalem and going through Samaria, and because his face was set to go to Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive him. And the disciples that were with him, they said, shall we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elias did? And our Lord said, you know not what spirit ye are of. The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they had to learn what the Lord's spirit was, not their own spirit. They thought they even had a warrant from scripture to do as they wanted to do.

But the more that we are with the Lord, the Lord says, take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, who am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Nearly all the trouble that ever I've got into is when I've been left to my own spirit, when I haven't had the Lord's Spirit. And sometimes it's hard to discern that, hard to know that. And we should remember that the Church of God, God's people, have an adversary that all the time is seeking to divide firstly between the soul and Christ, and then also between the brethren one to another. A whisperer that separateth chief friends, which goes against what Peter is exhorting here which is the love of the brethren.

So when our Lord prayed in John 17, a beautiful intercessory prayer, high priestly prayer of our Lord, he says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And this is where Peter is directing here as well, he's directing to the Word of God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, that is, through the Word, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently. And later on in verse 25, But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of the Lord.

That which our Lord accomplished at Calvary in shedding his precious blood was to atone for his people's sins, was to make a way into the holiest of all for them, to take away the barrier between them and their God, and to unite the people of God together. through that precious blood, especially seen around the Lord's table where they all gather and they show forth the Lord's death till he come. But it is what is set forth as the greatest evidence of love is in our Lord's sacrifice at Calvary. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Here, my friends, if you do whatsoever, I command you. And also God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

And so the whole foundation, if we are found any different, if we are found delivered out of the darkness of nature and brought into the light of the Lord. It is all through the love that the Lord first had to us. In John's epistles, he said we love him because he first loved us. We have the beautiful word in Jeremiah, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And every blessing that a child of God has, it flows forth from the love of God to them when they were rebellious, when they said that they did not desire the Lord, depart from us, we desire not, the knowledge of thy ways, when they were strangers, when we alienated from him, when we were sinners. Then the Lord, by his love, drew us, suffered, bled and died for us on Calvary's tree. And it is through the Lord showing this, and he showed this to his disciples, that we are brought to realise something through the preparation of being able to love one another.

We began our reading in 1 John chapter 3. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. There's different manners, as it were, of love, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. And there is immediately a difference between the people of God and the world. And it centers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Often John joins them together. How can a man say that he loved God, whom he had not seen, if he does not love his brother whom he hath seen? That God would have him that loved God love his brother also.

And so there is a preparation in the gospel and in the soul drinking into that which Christ has done for them. We think of verse 16 in 1 John 3, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. It's when we realise the Lord laying down his life for us that then makes us ready. to stop what we're doing and to help the brethren and to be a practical use to them. Laying down our lives, our plans, our schemes, our time and for the brethren. Think of the Lord laying down his throne as it were in heaven, his position with his Father, and coming to this world, being born of the Virgin Mary, growing up in the household, Joseph and Mary, and then in the midst of sinners, as taking in union with his divine person a nature just like theirs, but sin accepted, he lived here below, and then laid down his life, suffered, bled, and died, and then took his life again.

Those things are what is the preparation for a soul that is then to be exalted in the path of love. That is known in the heart before anything is shown outwardly. A soul that has some view of Christ, some perception of Him, some looking upon Him, And what Peter says here, he speaks of it as something already done, which is why he can then exhort. He says, seeing you have purified your souls, not seeing you will do or will have to, because remember he is writing to those early on in the chapter, verse two, elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Now he begins, he's speaking to those that are called, born again, already sanctified. And he's highlighting here, just before he's making the exaltation to love, the need of that preparation.

And I would say in this that if we find it hard, and sometimes we do find it very, very hard, to obey the exhortations, it becomes very, very difficult, especially in trials and trying times, that we should have our attention drawn perhaps to the first part of this verse. to seek that help, that grace from the Lord, to be like our Lord, to be able to walk in the way that He'd have us to go. Now, of course, it is the Lord's work to sanctify, but where we feel that need of grace, need of help, to go back to Him and to seek that He would make our heart right and to think as he would think, and to act as he would act, and to walk in the way that he'd have us to go. So then I want to look secondly, an exhortation to consciously love. So as we said at the beginning, Just because the Lord works in the heart and rightly prepares a soul doesn't mean to say that they don't need exhorting, that they don't need to be taught what they should do or how they should do, but because they are a renewed soul, because they have an ear open to the Lord, because they have His Spirit, then they can rightly be exhorted. There is a basis and there should be a readiness to hear what the Word of God says. So an exhortation to consciously love.

And what I felt with this, if you get a situation Where you find one of the brethren, I find it very hard to love them, the way that they are walking and what they're doing. And you think, but I'm exhorted to here. I should consciously think that I should love my brother, even in the way that he's walking. How can I do that? And so there's a consciousness looking at the case, how can we do it?

Well, I want to look firstly at, in the context here, especially verse 22, there are three qualifications of brotherly love. The first is that it must be unfeigned. We read here, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

That is not pretend, not an insincere love, not just a outward expression of it when really in our hearts we have great reserve, we don't really love them at all. So the exhortation, again, it is not just a superficial, imitating graces, but the Lord saying in his inspired word here, that when I exhort you to love, I want it to be real. I want it to be genuine. I don't want it to say one thing to a man's face and then say another thing as if we hate that man or woman in another situation. That it is not pretend, it really is sincere. So that's the first qualification that's spoken of here of the brotherly love exhorted to. The second, it must be with a pure heart. See that ye love one another with a pure heart.

If something is pure, it is not mixed with something. If we have pure gold, it is just gold. If it is alloyed gold, then mixed with it might be another metal, perhaps to give it more strength, to make it practical, but it's no longer pure. If we have water and it's just water and you sprinkle some dirt in it or anything else in it, it no longer is pure.

There's something else within. So what is exhorted to here is there being love, but not other things mixed with it. Not malice, not that which is maybe a good deed done, but not in a loving way, or something that is done and it appears to be love, but actually there's an ulterior motive that is mixed with it, that is joined with it and moving and underlying that love. So that's the second thing. Is there something else? that is mixed with the love that is being expressed or is shown, but there's something else there.

The third, it must be fervently. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. That is, not coldly or indifferently, But really with a warmth and a fervor is those that really mean and really feel that love that they have for that person.

It is a very, very high standard that is set forth here. I think it's one of the, of course, it is what our Lord refers to as the new commandment I give unto you. that you love one another. It is the one mark of being the people of God. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And if that's going to be a mark, then it will be a high standard.

But when we look at this, and if you're like me to look at this, you'll feel how far short you come. I felt this. this evening to have this subject and to look at these verses is to be a very, very difficult one. One that I would have shied away from. One that I would find hard and do find hard to put into practice. But God's grace, God's word, God's work is a high standard. And we do feel to come short, we do feel We need to humble ourselves before the Lord and feel that we have come very short. But the standard is set here. May we be reminded, just as we pass on though, that we are saved purely by faith in Christ alone.

It is Christ's work alone, not our works, not our fruits. There will be fruits accompanying the work of grace. But the Lord doesn't choose a soul from eternity and then die for them on Calvary, and then quicken them by grace, then sanctify them, and then say to them, if your fruits are not up to it, then you'll be damned. If your fruits are not right, then you're not saved. No, that is adding works unto salvation. There will be fruit, but that fruit will never be perfect here below. And we are to be comforted and strengthened that our hope is in Christ alone, his blood alone.

If we were all the time thinking we had perfection, I think of when I was in work as an engineer, If I was to think, if I made one mistake, then I'd lose my job. I would be afraid of doing anything. I would be frightened to make any decision or to do anything, thinking that whatever I did is going to have these profound consequences. But when you realise that people do make mistakes and you can rectify them and to put them right again, and you're given that leeway, then it takes away the fear, the bondage, the dread. And so with God's people, in serving Him and obeying Him and walking His ways, they're not to have that dread and that thought, if I get things wrong, I'm going to be cast out. I won't be one of God's children.

No. The Lord will lovingly chasten, correct where we err and go wrong. that before ever he lays on the rod, he'll use the ministry, he'll direct us to his word, he'll show us the way that he'd have us to go. And each time he does that, what a comfort, what a reassurance that Lord is actually using his word and ministry to shape us and to fashion us and to help us. And we feel the need of it and thank the Lord. for supplying that need.

I want to then look at some practical directions that are in the word. I'm not going to be exhaustive here in this. But I feel it is a help to have some practical directions. So the first one is in Ephesians chapter 4. and verse 15. This is in the context of those being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

But it says this, but speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things which is the head even There are those times that we need to speak the truth. We do in ministry, but one to another as well. Someone may have offended, someone may be doing something wrong, and we do speak the truth to them. But we're to speak it in love. And may that be a help in a practical way in an expression of love is not saying, well, I meant to love that person, so I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to let it go, what they're doing, what they're saying. But no, if we know the truth, we'll speak the truth.

But we'll use that occasion to give an expression of that love that we're exhorted to. We have then, if we go back into the chapter of Ephesians 4 verse 2, that we are called to walk with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

And we have a picture. of one another rubbing each other up the wrong way, doing things that, great, we're not happy with. And we all have different temperaments and different ways of doing things. But in this way, the expression of that love is forbearing. one another in love. There's some things that cannot be changed. It is our nature, a person's nature, and not a sinful thing. I make that point clear. But there is a need then for bearing one another in love. And the whole aim is endeavoring or trying hard to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

We have a similar word when Paul writes to the Colossians chapter 3 and verse 13. If we read from verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Of course, how Christ forgives any is through repentance, through sorrow for sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have another word in Luke chapter 17. In chapter 17 verse 3, We have a warning, take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against him, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.

And we find the exhortation that is in love with a brother, if he sins, is to rebuke him. Paul, when he writes to Timothy, he gives another angle on this regarding elders. In 1 Timothy 5, he exhorts in rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the young men as brethren.

And love has then a practical aspect to it, how that we actually walk one to another. We read 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and of course this is a well-known chapter on love, charity, Translated as charity in our Bibles, a practical love, a deep love, and that's evidenced in this chapter as outliving faith and hope.

Charity or love will endure eternally. And the practical aspect in this chapter is from verse 4 to verse 7. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

And it is spoken of in a very practical way. As we walk one to another, as we walk through this world, these things are really needed. are tried, it is a path of tribulation. We are sinners and Satan is very active trying to stir one up against another and even achieving it with the apostles, with the fallout between the apostle Paul and Barnabas over whether they took John Mark with them or not. So one went one way and one went the other. The Lord used it for the spread of the Gospel, but it must have been very painful at the time. May we be helped to have the Word of God then as our guide and help in a practical way in fulfilling the exhortation.

I feel what I wanted to convey at this point was it's not just saying, well, we've got to love whatever. And that just, though we are told love covers a multitude of sins, it doesn't mean that we don't have to rebuke sometimes. It doesn't mean to say that we have to tell the truth sometimes. It doesn't mean to say that we really have to forbear one another and bear with one another. It's not just superficial mask and saying, well, we just love. Because the whole thing here was it aiming to be sincere. So it needs to be sincere with the knowledge of the truth, with the scriptures acting according to the scriptures.

And remember with the expression of love towards his children, he chastens them, he corrects them, he guides them. You think of a family, a father, a mother, a child left to itself bringeth its mother to shame. It's not an expression of love just to let things go. And so with one another as well, love has a practical element of kindness in it as well.

I want to then look lastly at three considerations that Peter, through the inspired word here, sets before us that we just to keep in mind, keep in view, as we seek to obey this exhortation. Firstly, that we are each born again by the word of God. Verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So here is the word of God exhorting to love and showing how to love, but here is a consideration. When I look at my brother in faith, sister in faith, I look at them as one that is born again of God. one for whom Christ has died, one for whom he has wrought in their hearts and sanctified them too, as we trust he's done for me.

And it's good to remember that. Sometimes we can lose sight of it. And remember, this is speaking to brotherly love. So we can lose sight because of perhaps what a sister or brother is doing. We can forget that person has been born again. They've been regenerated. They are loved by Christ. He died for them. They are part of the living family of God. And Peter brings this in immediately after this exhortation as something to really consider and to think of.

Then we have, secondly, that man and the glory of man withers and falls away. Verse 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. We are to look at each other in this way as well, that we are poor creatures of a day. Soon we shall all go to the grave.

We are weak, we have no strength, in ourselves at all, it is seeing man as to what he really is. Sometimes we can appear very strong before others. We can appear that we could stand and never bow. And we may have even a proud appearance and an authoritative appearance and putting others under. But in looking at that person, you think, here is a poor creature of the day that one day, They, like me, will go to the grave. We will be buried. We will be died. We will be forgotten, just like the grass and flower of the field. These considerations put things into perspective, to be looking past that which is straight before our eyes, issues before our eyes, and to really realize the bigger picture as to where we are all heading. where we are all going to.

And then lastly, in verse 25, it is the word that endureth forever. That is what is preached and preached to us. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. If you and I are helped and strengthened to walk in the Lord's ways, it will be through the Word of God. It will be through the preached Word of God.

Peter here, obeying the Lord, he would strengthen his brethren. He would feed his brethren. He would be with the brethren. You think how many times when the disciples were with the Lord they had contests, who is the greatest? And when the mother of James and John wanted one sit on one side of Christ in his glory and one the other, then how angry the other brethren were against them. They were but men.

And when you go from Those that are born again, they're born again by the Word of God. How is it we know how to live? By the Word of God. Poor man, he's failing, but the Word of God remains and endures. And what we had in 1 Corinthians 13 was that faith, that is something, love, that is something which endures. Faith, when we die, that will be changed to sighing. We don't need to hope when we're beyond the grave. We realize what we've hoped for.

But that love is an eternal love. And here, Peter, he says the word of the Lord, that is eternal, that endures. The Lord said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And so this is the gospel, the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord.

We think of in the sanctification in Ephesians, it is by the washing of water by the word. As the word of God washes over us, as we're helped in the ministry to bring the word of God and to wash over the congregation, Bring that word we trust in a faithful way that has a sanctifying effect, different standard to the world, different than our old nature who said, oh, we're not going to get subject to that. We're not going to obey that. But it is the word of the Lord. And that endures, that abides.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, Blessed thing, when the Word of God has an effect upon us, it stops us doing things we would do. It enables us to do things that we couldn't do. It makes us to see what we did not see and could not see before. Open thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy Word. How precious it is to have the Word of God, to shine upon our lives, to shine upon all that we do, and we see in the light of that Word.

May this be a help to us each tonight in a practical way. May we have those tokens that the Lord has given us, a heart that is sanctified, that is ready to hear the word of God and listen to the exhortations and desire those helps that are given through the word of God. Peter, he seeks to strengthen the brethren, and in the text tonight, strengthen the brethren in love one to another. Strengthen that bond, strengthen that grace of brotherly love one to another. May the Lord bless the Word and grant us that, and grant us that hope, that eternal hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.