A Call to Holy Living (Part 3)
Hope As Exiles: 1 Peter Series • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
The last few weeks we have been focusing on the call to live holy lives as strangers in a foreign land...
We can live holy lives by setting our hope on the return of Christ...
We can fear God and live holy lives by knowing we have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus...
Now Peter speaks on the truth that our vertical love for God must also be communicated in the way we love one another and grow in our faith.
FCF: Why do we struggle to love one another? Why do we not long for and desire the word of God?
Key Point: Because we have been purified and born again through the word of God, we can live holy lives that are pleasing to the Lord.
1 Peter 1:22-2:3 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
PRAY
Peter gives two truths that have taken place in the church that are the foundations and reasons for why they should love one another…and these two truths have both been made possible through the word of God
1. The Word of God Purifies (vs 22a)
1. The Word of God Purifies (vs 22a)
Purify comes from the root word for holiness…it means to be free from sin and guilt.
Obedience to the truth refers to trusting in the word of God…the gospel.
Through trusting in the gospel, our hearts are purified.
1 John 3:3 “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
2. The Word of God Brings New Birth (vs 23a)
2. The Word of God Brings New Birth (vs 23a)
“Born again” is passive…this is an act of God through the power of the Holy Spirit…this happens when we hear the word of God and believe in the gospel.
We have been born again through the living and abiding word of God.
James 1:18 “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
3. So…We Can Love One Another (vs 22b)
3. So…We Can Love One Another (vs 22b)
Having purified our souls through believing the word of God…and...
Having been born again through the word of God…WE MUST..
LOVE ONE ANOTHER EARNESTLY FROM A PURE HEART.
It is an expectation of being born again and being purified in heart that we would love one another....we could even say that we are saved and purified FOR THE PURPOSE of loving others with a brotherly love.
“Holiness not only flames in devotion to God but also in love to the brethren”-Edmund Clowney
Brotherly love shows that believers in Christ are siblings in God’s family.
Peter essentially repeats the previous phrase “for a sincere brotherly love” to emphasize the importance for believers to love one another genuinely as the live as exiles in the world. Because they are strangers in a foreign land facing persecution...they must cling to one another and ban together in genuine love and affection for one another....WE NEED ONE ANOTHER!
This love is genuine and without hypocrisy.
EARNESTLY, CONSTANTLY, FERVENTLY
Without ceasing.
To be stressed or strained to the max-same word used to describe the earnestness in Christ’s prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.
REMEMBER…it is the word of God..the gospel…that transforms our hearts to give us the ability to love others. The gospel shows us God’s love for us…and it is by seeing God’s love that we can know how to love one another...
“The love that binds the redeemed flows from the redeemer.”
4. The Word of God is Eternal (vs 23b-25)
4. The Word of God is Eternal (vs 23b-25)
“Since You have been born again…not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”
Continual theme of perishable vs. imperishable
Our inheritance
Our redemption price
The word of God
“If any man longs for true rest and true happiness, he ought to lift his hope off things that are mortal and temporary and fix it on the Word of the Lord so that, clinging to that which endures forever, he may himself together with it endure forever.” -Augustine
Peter contrasts the seed of grass which is perishable with the seed of the word of God which is imperishable.
He quotes from Isaiah 40:6-8.
Flesh refers to human mortality....as great as we think we are…we are just like grass and our glory is like the flower of the grass that will soon fade.
Context of Isaiah 40.
Time of comfort after war.
Messiah is coming and God’s glory will be revealed.
Isaiah contrasts the Babylonian’s strength that will quickly fade with the word of the Lord…specifically the promises he made to his people to redeem them…and that his word and promises…not the Babylonians will remain forever!
What this meant for Peter’s audience...
God will keep his promises to redeem them…not only from sin by being brought to life…but also their final redemption when Jesus returns and will punish those who persecute them.
Unlike their trials and suffering that will soon fade…the word of God and the promises of God remain forever!
WE CAN HOLD FAST TO THESE PROMISES AS WELL.
God’s word is both LIVING and ABIDING
God’s word imparts life…and the life it imparts is permanent and sustained and never dies.
5. The Word of God Provides Spiritual Nourishment and Produces Spiritual Growth (vs 2:1-3)
5. The Word of God Provides Spiritual Nourishment and Produces Spiritual Growth (vs 2:1-3)
BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN PURIFIED AND BORN AGAIN THROUGH GOD’S WORD TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER SINCERELY, AND BECAUSE GOD’S WORD IS IMPERISHABLE AND SURE...
We must rid ourselves of sinful thoughts and actions.
Evil must be first discarded for growth to occur.
We are to put aside or strip off old sinful habits like a set of tattered, worn-out clothes.
All of these vices can be summed up in malice…notice also how all of these sins are against other people…
To be obedient to the command to love one another, we cannot have these vices in our lives....this once more points to the need for the word of God to purify us from all evil.
Malice: mean spirited or vicious attitude.
sums up a jerk.
Deceit: taking advantage of someone by stealth
sums up a manipulator
Hypocrisy: Fake...directly contrasts with loving our brothers and sisters sincerely from a pure heart.
Envy: the fruit of dissatisfaction with God. If God were truly enough for us, we would not feel the need to have what others enjoy.
Slander: destroying someone’s name or character with your words…this is exactly what the church’s persecutors were doing to them....So Peter commands them not to repay their persecutors with obscene talk.
Once we have put away all malice....we must YEARN like newborn babies for the pure spiritual milk of the word of God.
The command to “put away” is directly tied to the command to “yearn” for the pure spiritual milk… “put away” is the negative command and “yearn” is the positive command.
The same truth of God that gave them birth also nourishes them. If the word of God is water to wash us, it is also milk to build better bodies in Christ. Christians must be addicted to the Bible.” -Edmund P. Clowney,
Note that “newborn babies” and “milk” do not refer to Peter’s audience being immature or spiritual infants....refers back to being “born again”
“Long/Yearn” communicates an earnest desire…and it implies need for something.
Provide example of Graysen and Emersyn yearning for milk.
Notice the milk we should crave is “pure” there are no additives…in Peter’s day…sour milk would cause disease and death
refers to false doctrine…pure milk is pure doctrine..
this true milk of the gospel is not “watered down.”
Skim milk vs 2%/Whole milk
Spiritual growth means growth in grace:
“Our sense of sin becomes deeper, our faith is stronger, our hope is brighter, our love is more extensive, our spiritual-mindedness is more focused...” -JC Ryle
The pure milk of God’s word will help us grow up into our salvation…spiritual growth is necessary for our final salvation...
“The evidence that one has been born again through the word is that believers continue to long for that word and become increasingly mature.”
2/3rds of our salvation happens after first coming to faith in Jesus
Shows how much we still need to hear and trust in the gospel as Christians.
“If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”
We will want the spiritual milk of the word more and more when we taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).
Taste communicates “experience”
“Good” is a play on words in the greek...Chrestos and Christos sound very similar...so the initial tasting and savoring of the goodness and sweetness of the grace of God in Jesus is the motivation for the ongoing pursuit of greater nourishment in the knowledge of him through the word of God.
You want to “experience Jesus?” Open his word and let him speak and transform your life!
Response
Response
Lean on the Gospel (depend on/trust in).
EXPLAIN the G.O.S.P.E.L
Love one another sincerely and earnestly.
Long for the word of God.