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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
October 16, 2022
Fervently Love One Another from the Heart
1 Peter 1:22-25
Introduction
Turn again to 1 Peter 1. This letter is only five chapters, but it is packed full of great theological truths and applications of them, which is why it has taken eight sermons to just get through the first chapter. The purpose of Peter’s letter is to prepare the church in Asia Minor – modern Turkey – for the persecution that was rising after Nero burned Rome and blamed Christians for it. In this first chapter he is seeking to comfort and reassure them in the midst of the distress they were already experiencing from the trials they were facing. (See: Introduction to 1 Peter)
There is only one source that can bring both comfort and reassurance when there is suffering, and that is our sovereign God. I must emphasize that it takes the sovereignty of God to bring both comfort and reassurance. A compassionate god can bring comfort, and God is compassionate, but unless He is sovereign, that comfort can only be an assuaging or alleviating of the pain being experienced. Such a god could not give meaning to it or hope beyond it. Our sovereign God can because He can still accomplish His will in working out all things together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) including the evil that people do to one another and the suffering that occurs from living in a sin cursed world. Our sovereign God gives hope for the future that transcends whatever is being experienced in the present because He will absolutely fulfill His promises. We can trust what He has revealed about Himself and His will in His word.
It is for this reason that Peter makes such as strong emphasis upon God’s sovereignty in salvation calling those to whom he is writing the “elect . . . according to the foreknowledge of God” in verses 1-2; pointing out that it is God that “according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” in verse 3; and that it is “through Him [that you] are believers in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God” in verse 21. (See: To The Chosen & Born Again to Living Hope & The Means of Redemption)
I know that many people do not like the doctrine of election as evidenced by the unusually high number of people that unsubcribed from my sermon notes every time I point it out. However, there could not be any assurance and therefore confident hope for the future without it. Aside from the fact that all humans are born with a sin nature and that no one seeks God on their own (Psalm 14; Romans 3:10f), there is no means by which man can earn salvation, or as Romans 3:20 bluntly states it, “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” In addition, if your professed faith arose from within yourself instead of God’s intervention in your life, then it is subject to change over time to a different belief. Remember that when Peter made his great confession in Matthew 16 that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” that Jesus pointed out to him that “flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Salvation from sin requires a change of nature which is why Peter describes it as being “born again.”
Because God is sovereign, you can be assured that the good work He began in you He will perfect until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6), that absolutely nothing can separate you from His love which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:34-36), and that Jesus will give eternal life to you so that you never perish and no one can take you from His hand (John 10:28). This promised incredible inheritance is guaranteed by God Himself being the protector of it (vs. 4-5). Because God is sovereign, Peter was able to comfort and reassure them that God had a purpose in the current trials that were testing their faith and that He would bring them through them to Himself.
None of this means that people are not responsible to respond to what God is doing, and Peter also makes that clear. God’s work in them resulted in their obedience of faith to Jesus Christ (vs. 2), their living hope (vs. 3), their faith for salvation (vs. 5, 9), their belief in Jesus though they did not see Him now (vs. 8), and their belief that God raised Jesus from the dead (vs. 21). Peter also makes it clear that they were live in a manner that demonstrated the reality of God’s work in the them and their resulting beliefs. This included rejoicing in the midst of their trials bringing praise, glory and honor to Christ (vs. 6-8), loving of Christ (vs 8), girding their minds for action, being sober and fixing their hope on God’s grace (vs. 13), being obedient children who pursued holiness instead of their former worldly lusts (vs. 14-15), and conducting themselves in proper fear of God during this life (vs. 17). This morning we come to an additional manner of life that was to characterize them as explained in verses 22-25.
22 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, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25).
The command given here is that they were to “fervently love one another from the heart.” The basis of that love was their “obedience to the truth in purifying their souls for such a sincere love.” This was a result of them being born again through the living and enduring word of God which had been preached to them. There will be a lot of parallels between this sermon and what Phil Jordan preached a couple of weeks ago from 1 John 3:11-18 about what it means to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will examine each element in this passage that lays the foundation for this and how it is brought about.
Your Souls Having Been Purified – 1 Peter 1:22
While I want to explain each element in this passage, I don’t want to separate them very far from the command to love to which they are tied. I will be following the order of the phrases in Greek text. The ESV does a little better job of this than the NASB in this passage. Peter begins his thought here by pointing out their condition due to their proper response to what God had revealed to them in His word. “The souls of you having been purified by the obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love.”
Soul, yuchv / psuxā, though often translated as “life,” refers to the essence that is truly you that is currently housed in your physical body. The Greek word, zwhv / zōā, is used for physical life. The soul is your “inner self, mind, thoughts, feelings, heart, being” (Louw-Nida).
Peter uses a perfect active participle to explain the condition of their souls as having been purified. They were purified in the past and they are continuing in that same condition at the present time in relationship to their obedience to the truth. This purification, aJgnivzw / hagnizō, is a reference to moral holiness and is tied directly to the command in verse 16 to be holy since God is holy. The word purification in this verse and the word holy in verse 16 share a common root word and meaning. The manner of life is to be set apart to God and away from the world. Purification begins at salvation when a person is born again to repent from sin and self to place their faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is at that point in time they are set apart to God – made holy – and they become a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) being converted to have a new mind and life which continues in the present and into the future as the individual becomes more conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). The individual is actively involved in this purification as 2 Peter 1:3-8 points out. To faith is diligently supplied moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.
That Peter ties this purity to the soul is more significant that it might appear at first glance. The word for purification is often used with reference to ceremonial rituals of purification, but the soul is a direct reference to your internal being and not your outward physical life. This means that the issue of purification is a matter of your heart, mind and will that will express itself in the manner of life instead of outward religious rituals that may not reflect anything of whom you really are in what you think, believe and desire. The godly man follows God and lives for His glory because that is his actual desire and not because certain behaviors are forced upon him. Remember that while man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
Obedience to the Truth – 1 Peter 1:22
Peter ties this purification of the soul directly to obedience to the truth, and note that it is “the truth” and not “a truth.” In the context here, that reference to the truth is specifically to the “living and abiding word of God” in the next verse and not to some esoteric philosophical idea of truth. Philosophers have always had a hard time figuring out truth because their basis for determining it was the musings of men instead of the revealed word of God, the Creator of the heavens and earth. That is why in John 18:37-38 when Jesus told Pilate that He had “come into the world to testify to the truth” and that “everyone who is of the truth hears His voice,” Pilate responded “What is truth?” People who try to determine truth based on the reasoning of men still have a terrible time trying to figure out truth. It is even worse in societies in which George Orwell’s 1984 seems to be a blueprint for government entities. “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Similar current absurdities include men can be women and women can be men, spending is saving and racial discrimination is equality. And just because a majority of people – including scientists – accept something as true does not make it true. Truth is actual reality regardless of what any human thinks. Truth is determined by God the Father who is the God of truth (Psalm 31:5), Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), the Holy Spirit who is the Spirot of truth (John 16:13) and the revelation the triune God has given to man in His word which is truth (John 17:17).
Obedience to truth does not support by any means any form of works-based salvation or holiness, for again, Peter ties purification here to being of the soul and not outward conformity to any religious ritual such as the mikvah water bath cleansing that was so heavily practiced in Jerusalem at that time. Jesus tied obedience to love for God in John 15:15 telling His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments,” and in verse 21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” The ties between love for Jesus Christ, obedience to His word (John 15:23), and purification of the soul are obvious. The soul that loves God will keep His word, and the soul that obeys God’s word will live according to the moral purity God has commanded out of love for God.
Yet, even with passages such as these, there are those that balk at the idea that obedience is a necessary characteristic to demonstrate that a professing Christian’s faith is genuine. That is extremely dangerous. Some do this out of a sincere but severely misguided idea that they are protecting the gospel from legalism not realizing they are changing the gospel. Salvation is from sin unto the righteousness of faith that Peter describes in this chapter. Salvation from hell based on a tenuous profession of faith could be tragic. Jesus’ words to the self-deceived in Matthew 7:23 is a warning with wide application – “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Others balk at obedience to God’s word because they want a salvation from hell that allows them to continue to pursue their own will as they desire instead of God’s will. Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 13:5 is to be heeded, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
Sincere and Fervent Love of the Brethren – 1 Peter 1:22
Peter states that the souls to whom he was writing had been purified and they were continuing to pursue living in holiness because they were obedient to the truth of the word of God. The result of this was a sincere love of the brethren. Sincere here, ajnupovkritoV / anupokritos, means to be without pretense, show, deceit and hence something that is genuine, sincere, authentic. Brotherly love here, filadelfiva / philadelphia, is a compound word that joins together the words for the love of a friendship and brother and so describes the close, loving friendship of siblings that deeply care about each other. There is a strong emotional bond in this kind of love. This word is used by both Peter, Paul and the writer of Hebrews to describe the relationship fellow believers are to have with one another with Romans 12:10 stating we are to be devoted to one another with this kind of love. The use of a term of family relationship is appropriate between fellow Christians because we have been adopted into God’s family resulting in us becoming siblings to one another. This sincere brotherly love Peter states here that results from holy living in obedience to the truth is a strong bond of genuine friendship between believers for we are brothers and sisters to each other in Christ.
We have all experienced friendships that in the end were feigned because the relationship was founded on exploitation instead of genuine care and concern for each other. Such a false friendship ends when its usefulness wanes. Selfishness and pride can destroy any kind of friendship because they cut off the humility and forgiveness needed to overcome the normal conflicts that arise in relationships. Tragically, that even happens between actual siblings. Blood may be thicker than water, but it is not thicker than selfishness. I have made it one of my personal goals never to end a friendship myself. Time restraints may keep me from spending the time I would like with a friend, but I want to pick up the friendship right where it was at the last time we met. If a friendship ends, I want it to be due to the other person. I even continue to send Christmas cards to those I have not heard anything from for many years.
The friendships we have within the church family can be as close or even closer than with genetic siblings because of both the foundation of our common bond in Christ and our common pursuit of holiness in obedience to the truth of God as Peter points out here. Family relationships can be strained for all sorts of reasons related ultimately to selfishness which can be encouraged by other family members who repeat gossip or take sides. We only become part of the church, the body of Christ, though the humility of repentance from our sin and faith in the person and work of Jesus. That inclines us to continue to be humble in acknowledging our sins, failures and spiritual immaturity even as we continue to mature by walking in the Spirit according to an increasing understanding of Lord’s will through His word. That is why this pursuit of holiness in obedience to the truth will result in this sincere brotherly love of other Christians, and especially so as they are doing the same. Humility and forgiveness allows us to overcome both the strains and selfishness that are common to any relationship, and our common bond to Jesus Christ gives us a mutual interest that is much stronger than any other kind of interest that can be part of living in this world including family, culture, work, hobbies or politics. The Christian submits each of those to Christ and therefore welcomes correction and change to their ideas about and involvement in them in pursuit of God’s will.
Peter escalates this in the command in the next phrase which is the key to the sentence. “Fervently love one another from the heart.” Fervent here, ejktenhvV / ektenās, refers to an intensity or perseverance in action. Love here, ajgapavw / agapaō, is the love that cognitively sets itself to pursue the best interest of the other person even at its own sacrifice. It may or may not have an emotional element. It is the love God demonstrated in giving His only begotten son to die on the cross so that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8). It is the love that Christians are to have for one another – John 13:34–35, 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” It is even the love we are to have for our enemies – Matthew 5:43–45, 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven . . .”
Phil Jordan preached on this love we are to have for one another and its practical application and display a couple of weeks ago, (See: Marks of True Love) so I am not going to expand on it much this morning except to say this. Both this love and brotherly love arise out of a pursuit of moral purity in obedience to the truth of God’s word. While brotherly love encompasses an emotional element which can include enjoyment of being with the other person, to love in the sense of ajgapavw / agapaō does not require that. This is a love from the heart (kardiva / cardia), a reference to the mind and will, not emotion. You can love someone in this sense even when you find them irritating for various reasons. That is why this pursuit of holiness in obedience to truth is so important to Christian love. The fact is that it can take awhile for a new Christian to shed their selfish worldly behaviors and become spiritual mature so that they are pleasant to be around. Romans 5:8 states that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That being true, it is not too much for Him to ask us to sacrifice in loving the immature while they are growing in Christ.
Born Again Through Imperishable Seed – 1 Peter 1:23
Verse 23 gives us the second basis in this exhortation to love one another. “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” You should love one another because you have been born again.
Verse 22 used a perfect active participle to express their personal involvement in the purification of their souls by their obedience to the truth. Here in verse 23 Peter uses a perfect passive participle in describing their being born again meaning it is something that happened to them in the past and which continues to have an effect in the present. That matches what Peter said back in verse 3 that it was God that had caused them to be born again.
Peter’s contrast between perishable and imperishable matches his earlier contrast in verse 18-19 concerning the cost of redemption between “perishable things such as silver and gold” which was used for redeeming a slave, and the cost of redeeming them from their futile way of life inherited from their forefathers which was “the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot” (ESV). However, the reference here is not to redemption but to the seed by which they were born again. When the physical seed of a plant is put into the ground, the seed itself perishes, i.e. it dies to itself and ceases to be a seed, for germination causes it to grow into a new plant (See John 12:24). Your first birth was by perishable seed to give you a perishable physical body. When you are born again, it is by an imperishable seed which gives you eternal life.
The concept of being born again is a radical one which is why in John 3 that Nicodemus did not understand what was meant by it when Jesus told him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That did not make sense to Nicodemus. “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus then explained to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The concept here is as radical as it sounds which is why it takes the intervention of the Holy Spirit. A man is born physically alive but spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), so it takes a new birth, being born again, to bring about spiritual life and become, as Paul describes it in 2 Cor. 5:17, “a new creation.” What did not exist before has been brought into existence. Jesus pointed out the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing this about. Peter points out here the effect of the living and enduring word of God in bringing about the new birth.
The Living & Enduring Word of God – 1 Peter 1:23
Peter describes the word of God here as both living and enduring. Both of these are a contrast to perishable. What perishes dies and ceases to exist. God’s word is living and continues to abide. Set in contrast to seed, the word of God is imperishable, yet it also brings forth life and causes it to grow.
Peter’s description here of the word of God helps us to understand the connection between it and the Holy Spirit’s work in causing us to be born again, and it keeps us from falling in the trap of bibliolatry in which the physical book becomes an idol that replaces or obscures what it contains. Jesus made this point in John 5:39-40 in rebuking the Jews that were seeking to kill Him, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”
We should have great respect for our Bibles because of what it contains. Much like a love letter from someone you love, you value it and treat it with care because of who wrote it and their message to you. It is the person and their message that is important and not the physical letter itself. We treat our Bibles with respect because it is God’s love letter to us, but it is God Himself and His message to us that is important and not the physical container of it. We worship the God who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. We do not worship the book itself or any other medium by which the word of God is proclaimed.
The sacred Scriptures are called the word of God because they come from God Himself. The prophets continually proclaimed, “Thus says Yahweh” as they recounted His message. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul states, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Inspired here is literally “God breathed.” 2 Peter 1:21 explains that “no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” The book of Hebrews begins, 1 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” John 1:1, 14 states that Jesus is the Word who was with God, was God and became flesh to dwell among us.
All three persons of the Triune godhead are involved in bringing to us the word of God. Jesus was direct in John 7:16; 8:26; 12:49; 14:10; and 15:15 that He came at the Father’s initiative and that all that He taught and said came from the Father. Jesus was explicit in John 14:26 that it would be the Holy Spirit that would teach the disciples “all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (See 1 John 2:20, 27). 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 explains that it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us about God for without Him the natural man cannot understand the things of God because they are foolishness to him. That is why without the Holy Spirit great scholars cannot understand the message of the Scriptures yet with the Holy Spirit even the illiterate and uneducated can (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
Perishable vs Imperishable – 1 Peter 1:24-25
Because the word of God comes from the triune God it is living and will continue to endure unto eternity. Peter contrasts that with the brevity of life in verse 24. 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.” This is a quote from Isaiah 40:6-8. As we enter the Autumn season here, the reality of this is seen whenever we walk outside. The reference here, covrtoV / chortos, is to any of the small green plants found in a field or pasture for grazing which is primarily grass. The Spring and Summer flowers faded long ago and the soon to come frost will kill the remaining leaves. Life on this earth is short because it is perishable.
In contrast to the brevity of physical life, the word of the Lord endures, remains, abides always, eternally, forever because it is imperishable. Jesus even said concerning the Law of Moses in Matthew 5:18, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” But even after that happens, Jesus said in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Psalm 119:89 states, “Forever, O Yahweh, Your word is settled in heaven.”
Because God is eternal, so is His word. Because God is immutable, what He has decreed will not change. Because God is sovereign, all that God had decreed will be fulfilled. That means that all that God has revealed in His word can be trusted. This makes Peter’s final sentence in this section a source of great comfort and assurance. “And this is the word which was preached to you.”
What was announced to them through those who preached the gospel by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven (vs. 12) can be trusted. The various trials they were going through were causing them distress and testing their faith severely (vs. 6-7), but God still had His own purpose for them and He would remain the source of their living hope and guarantor of the incredible inheritance promised to them. His steadfast and loving hand upon them would enable them to respond with faith, love and joy in the midst of their circumstances. What was true then is still true today regardless of any situation you are currently facing or will face in the future.
Conclusion
The word of the Lord endures forever. That is the word that has been preached to you. That is the word that is contained in your Bible.
If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then be diligent to be a good student of the word so that you will know God as He has revealed Himself and His precious and magnificent promises which bring such comfort and assurance. If you do not know them, you short change yourself in being able to rest in them and be at peace in the midst of the storms of life and live in godliness. As Isaiah 26:3–4 states it, 3 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” (ESV)
If you are not yet assured that you will spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord forgiven of your sin as part of God’s family or in Hell separated from Him and being punished for your transgressions against Him, then resolve today that you will with all diligence seek the truth and get answers for any doubts you still have. Talk with myself or any of our church leaders and we would be glad to direct you on how to find the truth, know the Lord and be freed from the devil’s lies which war against your soul. Today is the day of salvation for you do not know if you will have tomorrow.
Sermon Notes – October 9, 2022
Fervently Love One Another from the Heart – 1 Peter 1:22-25
Introduction
The purpose of 1 Peter is to prepare the church for ____________. Chapter 1 gives comfort and assurance
Only a sovereign God can bring both comfort and _____________in the midst of suffering
Peter makes a strong emphasis on God’s _______________in salvation – verses 1-2, 3, 21
If salvation arose from your own faith apart from God’s intervention, it would be subject to __________& loss
God’s sovereignty assures you of your past, present and future according to His ____________
People are still ___________to respond to God’s call and commands
The __________is to “fervently love one another from the heart” – the rest of the passage supports the command
Your Souls Having Been Purified – 1 Peter 1:22
Soul, yuchv / psuxā, refers to your ______________that is truly you that is currently housed in your physical body
The perfect active participle indicates they were purified in the _______& are continuing in that condition
Purification (holiness) begins at salvation, but the individual is also to be diligent to __________it (2 Peter 1:3-8)
Purification of the soul means this is an issue of the _____, mind and will and not ceremonial ritual (1 Sam. 16:7)
Obedience to the Truth – 1 Peter 1:22
“_______ truth” refers to the “living and abiding word of God” and not an esoteric philosophical idea
Those who try to determine truth based on the reasoning of _______will have a terrible time trying to find it
_________exists in and proceeds from God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit and God’s word
Obedience to truth does not support by any means any form of ________based salvation or ceremonial holiness
Jesus tied obedience to __________for God – John 15
Obedience to truth is a ____________characteristic that demonstrates a professing Christian’s faith is genuine
Sincere and Fervent Love of the Brethren – 1 Peter 1:22
Sincere, ajnupovkritoV / anupokritos, is to be _______________, show, deceit & hence genuine, sincere, authentic
Brotherly love, filadelfiva / philadelphia, describes the loving _____________of siblings that deeply care
This love applies to Christians because we are all _________in to God’s family & therefore siblings of each other
Feigned friendship ends when its usefulness wains. ___________& pride can destroy any kind of friendship
Christian __________are based on our common bond in Christ & the pursuit of holiness in obedience to the truth
Love, ajgapavw / agapaō, pursues the best interest of the other person even at its own __________
This is the love of ______for us (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8) & the love we are to have for one another (John 13:34-35)
It is a love that extends to the unlovely, the __________ and even enemies (Matthew 5:43-45)
Born Again Through Imperishable Seed – 1 Peter 1:23
The perfect ________participle describes being born again by God in the past & its continued effect in the present
The contrast between perishable & imperishable matches vs. 18-19, but this uses an ________________analogy
The concept of being born again is ___________- Nicodemus did not understand it – John 3
You are born physically alive but spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), so you must be born again to have ___________life
The Living & Enduring Word of God – 1 Peter 1:23
Living and enduring is a ___________to perishable
John 5:39-40 – we worship God Himself, not the ____________by which He has revealed Himself
The word of God ___________what Yahweh said, is inspired by God & comes by the Holy Spirit & the Son
John 1:1, 14 – Jesus is the ___________who was with God, was God and became flesh to dwell among us
Perishable vs Imperishable – 1 Peter 1:24-25
Verse 24-25 is a quote from Isaiah _____________
Life on this earth is short because it is ______________
The brevity of physical life is contrasted with the __________word of the Lord which endures forever (Mt. 24:35
Because God is eternal, immutable & sovereign, His word is too and will be fulfilled. It can be _________
The word preached to them – and us – brings comfort & _____________because it can be trusted
Conclusion
Be a diligent student of God’s word that you may know Him & His promises – which gives ______in all situations
KIDS KORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help.
Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Write down all the verses mentioned in the sermon and look them up later. 2) Count how many times the word “love” is mentioned. Talk with your parents about the meaning brotherly love and the love God has for us & what you can do to show both kinds to others.
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. What is the purpose of 1 Peter? Why must God be sovereign if He is to be able to be the source of both comfort and assurance? How would the assurance of salvation be affected if God were not sovereign? What is the responsibility of people in salvation and in doing God’s will? What does soul, yuchv / psuxā, refer to and how is it purified? What is the importance of Peter saying this is a purification of the soul? What is truth and what is “the truth” in this passage? Why do philosophers have such a terrible time in figuring out truth? What is the source of truth? Why is obedience a necessary characteristic in demonstrating that a professing Christian’s faith is genuine? What is brotherly love and why is this term used for relationships between Christians? What are some reasons that friendships end? Why do Christians have a better foundation for friendships with brotherly love? What is ajgapavw / agapaō love? How does it differ from brotherly love? Why is this love for other Christians to be fervent and from the heart? How can this love be demonstrated to an immature and irritating believer? What is the importance that “born again” in verse 23 is a perfect passive participle? What does it mean to be born again? What is the relationship between being born again and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God? What are the contrasts and similarities between seed and the word of God? What is bibliolatry and why are Christians to avoid it? What it the origin of the word of God? What it the involvement of each member of the triune Godhead in the word of God? Why is the word of God imperishable? How does the word of the Lord bring comfort and assurance to those distressed by various trials and having their faith tested? How does the word of God comfort and assure you personally? Why is it important to know the Scriptures in order to have God’s peace in life? If you do not sure if you will be going to heaven, what needs to change?
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