Okay, turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1 again. This letter is only five chapters, but it's so packed full of theological truths and applications of them. This is the eighth sermon, just get through the first chapter. There's a lot in here. The purpose of Peter's letter to the church in Asia Minor, modern Turkey, is prepare them for coming persecution. Nero had burned Rome. Persecution was rising in Rome. It was going to get a lot worse. He's anticipating that. He's preparing them. Already they were facing some fiery trials. This first chapter is seeking to comfort them and give them some reassurance in the midst of the distress they were already experiencing because their faith was being tested. Now there's only one source of both comfort and reassurance when they're suffering, and that's in a sovereign God. A compassionate God can comfort, maybe make you feel better, but unless that God is sovereign, that comfort can only be an assaging or alleviating of the pain being experienced. Such a God cannot give a hope beyond that. Such a God cannot give meaning to what is currently going on as well. But our sovereign God is both compassionate, because He's sovereign, He is going to accomplish His will. In fact, according to Romans 8, 28, that He does work indeed all things together for good to those that know Him and are called, and love Him, are called according to His purpose. That's the ability of the God that we serve. So even the evil that people do to one another, the suffering that occurs from that, the suffering that just occurs because we do live in a sin-cursed world, our sovereign God gives meaning to it. He gives us a hope that transcends it. We can be joyful even in the present because we know He will absolutely fulfill all of His promises. We can trust Him. And He's revealed Himself in His Word and His will. And so we even know what that is. That's for this reason that Peter makes such a strong emphasis upon God's sovereignty in salvation in calling those to whom he is writing. Back in verse 1 and 2, he says he's writing to the elect, those who are elected according to the foreknowledge of God. In verse 3 he points out that God is according to God's great mercy that has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Last week we looked at verse 31 in which Peter points out that it's through Him, that is through God, that you are believers in God and raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Now, I know a lot of people do not like the doctrine of election, as evidenced by the number, well, any time I seem to speak on it, the number of people who unsubscribe from my sermon notes, well, it hits a peak. However, there could not be any assurance and therefore any confident hope for the future without that. Aside from the fact that all humans are born in sin, with a nature to continue in sin, and that no one seeks God on their own, as pointed out in the Psalms, Psalm 14, and by Paul in Romans 3, there is no means by which man can earn that salvation, or as Romans 3 20 bluntly states it, by 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 into your life, then it would be subject to change to a different belief. And that's why those that hold to Arminian theology also believe you can lose your salvation. At least they're consistent with that. Remember that when Peter made his great confession in Matthew 16, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus' response to him? He tells Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. You see, salvation from sin requires a change in nature, which is why Peter describes it as being born again. So because God is sovereign, You can be assured that the good work He began in you, He will continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus, as pointed out in Philippians 1-6. And that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ, as Paul points out in Romans 8, 34-36. Jesus Christ gives eternal life so that you will never perish, and no one can take you out of his hand, John 10, 28. You see, the promised incredible inheritance that is mentioned in 1 Peter is guaranteed by God himself. Because he's sovereign, that's an absolute guarantee. He is the protector of it. And so because God is sovereign, he is able to accomplish his purpose in preparing this church for persecution and give them comfort and reassurance here in the first chapter. They were going through current trials and their faith was being tested as if by fire, but God would bring them through it. And there was a purpose in what was happening currently. And none of this means that people are not responsible before God and to respond to what God is doing. We are. Peter also makes that clear. God's work in them resulted in their obedience of faith to Christ. That's verse 2. It gave them a living hope. Verse 3. It was the source of their faith for salvation. Verses 5 and 9. Their belief in Jesus though they did not see him currently. Verse 8. and that their belief that Jesus was raised from the dead by God. Peter also makes it clear that they were to live in a manner that demonstrated the reality of God's work in them and the resulting beliefs because of that. That included rejoicing in the midst of the trials, bringing praise, glory, and honor to Christ in verses 6 through 8, of loving Christ, verse 8, of girding their minds for action and being sober and fixing their hope in God's grace, in verse 13, being obedient children who pursued holiness instead of their former worldly lusts in verses 14 and 15, and then conducting themselves in the proper fear of God during this life in verse 17. So Peter points out both. God is sovereign and you need to respond. You're responsible for your response. This morning we come to an additional manner of life that was to characterize them. He explains it there in verses 22 through 25. Follow along as I read. This is a New American Standard. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you." Now the command given here in this passage is that they were to fervently love one another from the heart. The basis of that love was their obedience to the truth and purifying their souls for a sincere love. This was to result in them being born again through the living, enduring word of God that had been preached to them. Now, there'll be a lot of parallels this morning between what I'm preaching today and what Phil Jordan preached a couple weeks ago on the marks of true love. Today, we're going to be examining each element in this passage that actually lays the foundation for what Phil talked about a couple weeks ago. Now, I want to explain each of these elements, but I don't want to separate them too far from this command. Fervently love one another from the heart. Now, I'm going to be following the order of the Greek phrases in the Greek text. And David of the ESV does a better job in this passage. Yeah. But strictly the Greek in a literal translation would be this. The souls of you having been purified by the obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love. That's that first section. Soul here, psuche is often translated as life. It refers to the essence of what is truly you. That is housed in your current physical body. The essence of who you are is your inner self, your mind, your thoughts, your feelings, your heart, your being. The word Zoe was used for the physical life. So it's talking about what you really are. Peter uses a perfect active participle here 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 in the present time in relationship to this obedience to the truth. Now this purification, hagnidzo, is a reference to moral holiness and it is tied directly to the command back in verse 16. To be holy because God is holy. Both words come from the same root with the same basic meaning. This manner of life is to be set apart to God and away from the world. That's purification. That is holiness. Now purification begins at salvation. A person is born again, they repent from their sin and self, and they place their faith in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is at that point in time they are set apart to God, they are made holy, and they become a new creature in Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. You are something radically different. Having been converted, you have a new mind, you have a new life, which continues into the present and into the future as the individual becomes more conformed into the image of Christ. Romans 8, 29. God is going to do that work. but you also have a part in it. In 2 Peter 1, 3-8, he is very direct about this. To your faith, you are to be diligent to add to it moral excellence, and to that knowledge, and to that self-control, to that perseverance, to that godliness, and then brotherly kindness and love. So we play a part too, but it's in response to what God has done. And that's what Peter is talking about here. They were purified in their souls. It began at salvation, they were continuing the work of it, they were becoming more like Christ. Now Peter ties this purity to the soul. That's more significant than it might appear at first glance. This same word for purification is often used in reference to ceremonial rituals for purification. But the soul is a direct reference to your internal being, not your outward physical life. And that means the purification here is that of the heart. It is that of who you are. It's internal. It's not the outward religious rituals that may not reflect anything of who you really are. The godly man follows God and lives for His glory because that is the actual desire that that person has, not because some behavior is forced upon him. Remember, man may look at the outside appearance. God looks at the heart. That was encouragement to David in 1 Samuel 16, 7. Peter ties this purification of the soul directly to obedience to the truth. And notice there it says the truth, not a truth. The article is there. The context here, this is a reference to the truth, is specifically the living and abiding word of God. That's in the next verse. This is not some esoteric philosophical idea of truth. The fact is the philosophers have always had a hard time with truth, of trying to figure out what it is because they base their determination on the musings of men, instead of what God has said. The creator of the heavens and the earth is the one who determines what is true. That's why in John 18, 37-38 when Jesus told Pilate that he'd come into this world to testify the truth and that everyone who is of the truth will listen to him or to hear his voice, that Pilate said, what is truth? He's affected by all the philosophies of that time. You see, people who try to determine truth based on the reason of men still, to this day, have a terrible time trying to figure out truth. And even worse in societies such as our own, in which George Orwell's 1984 seems to be a blueprint for government entities. Orwell had put in his book the absurdities of war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. We can certainly add a lot more to that in our own time, can't we? Like men can be women and women can be men, or spending is saving, or how about racial discrimination is equality. These are opposite each other. And just because a majority of people, including scientists, accept something as true doesn't make it true. Truth is actual reality, not what you want it to be. It's how things actually are, regardless of what any human thinks. And that is why truth is determined by the God who created everything. God the Father is called the God of truth. Psalm 31 5. Jesus is the truth, the life, and the way. John 14 6. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. John 16 13. And the revelation of this triune God in his word is the truth. John 17 17. Now, obedience to the truth does not support, by any means, any works-based idea of salvation, just to make that clear. Again, Peter is tying purification here to that of the soul, not an outward conformity to any religious ritual. In Peter's time, in Jerusalem, there was a religious ritual that you did before you went into the temple. In fact, you did it before any religious act. It was called a mikveh. It was a place you walked down into a pool of water, you took a ceremonial bath, and now you were clean, so you could go up on the temple mount. It's a religious ritual. If Peter was still following that, he'd be talking about it. He's not. He's talking about purification of the soul. What are you like inside? Now Jesus tied obedience to the love of God. In John 13, or excuse me, John 15, verse 15, he tells his disciples, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. In verse 21, he expands further, 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 too will love him and will disclose myself to him. So obedience is tied to the love of God. But that makes sense, doesn't it? Love for Christ will result in obedience to His Word because you love Him. This purification of the soul arises out of obedience. So love for Christ is going to result in purification. The soul that loves God wants to keep His Word. The soul that obeys God's Word will live according to the moral purity that God has commanded out of a love for God. We were talking about something similar in parenting class this morning. When your kids are little, you teach them to obey. And it's because, well, they don't want the negative consequences, and they want the encouragement. But as they get older, you want that to be switching so that their obedience to you becomes a submission, becomes an honoring of you, because they love you. They respect you. They want that relationship with you. So you're no longer having to force it. It's what they desire to do. Much more should our love for God be moving us to want to obey what He says, to live life in His way. Even from a pragmatic standpoint, it only makes sense. He's the Creator. He designed it. So guess whose way works best? You know, if at first you don't succeed, read the directions. If your life is failing, read the directions, right? But even with passages such as these, there are those that balk at the idea that obedience is a necessary characteristic to determine that a professing Christian's faith is genuine. That's extremely dangerous. Admittedly, some do it because they have a sincere desire. It's severely misguided, but it's a sincere desire. They want to protect the gospel from legalism. That's a good endeavor. But in doing this, they end up changing the gospel. Salvation is from sin unto righteousness. Okay, the reason we don't go to hell is because we've been made righteous before God. Salvation is not just get out of jail free card or something. It's to righteousness that Peter describes in this very chapter. Salvation from hell based on a tenuous profession of faith could be tragic. Why do I say that? Well, what did Jesus say in Matthew 7 23 in a warning to false teachers? They thought they were serving Christ. They were even doing miracles in his name. And yet Jesus says to them, I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness. You don't earn salvation by keeping the law. But if you love God, guess what you're going to do? You're going to keep what God's commandments are, right? Because you love him. And that motive and the order means everything. You can't earn it. But if you have it, you live according to it. Now others balk at the obedience to God's word simply because, well, they want a salvation from hell that doesn't require anything. They want to continue to pursue their own will and their own desires instead of God's will. Does such a person love God? I don't think so. They love themselves. Paul's warning in 2 Corinthians 13, 5 is to be heated, 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. Now Peter states the souls to whom he was writing had been purified. There's a past tense, but it's perfect, so it's past action, past something happened, and it's continuing into the present. And so he's encouraged them to continue in this pursuit of living in holiness by being obedient to the truth. And that's how they're purifying themselves. Your souls have been purified by your obedience to the truth, the word of God. Now the result of this, he states, was a sincere love of the brethren. Sincere here, apocrytos, means to be without pretense, without show or deceit, and hence it's something that is genuine, something that is sincere, something that is authentic. Brotherly love here, Philadelphia, is a compound word that joins together words for love of friendship and brother, describing this close, loving friendship that is supposed to exist between siblings and does exist between siblings that actually deeply care about each other. Now this word is used by Peter and Paul and the writer of Hebrews to describe the relationship that fellow believers sort of have with each other. It's actually a really good word for them to use. Why? Well, Romans 10, 12, 10 states we're to be devoted with each other with this kind of love. And what is the basis of it? We are adopted into God's family. And that's why it's common within the Christian community. You call other believers brother or sister. We are siblings. Remember when I baptized the boys, I was part of it. They were young and yet it's, well now I'm your brother, not just your dad. Because we're brothers in Christ. Our father is God. He's adopted us into his family. Now this sincere then brotherly love that Peter states here, the results from holy living and obedience to truth, then becomes a very strong bond of genuine friendship between believers because we actually are. brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a family. Now we've all experienced friendships that in the end were famed because relationship was not founded on something like this. It was founded on an exploitation instead of genuine care and concern for the other person. Such a false friendship ends when its usefulness wanes. Salvageness and pride destroys friendships, any kind of friendship because they cut off the humility and the forgiveness needed to overcome the normal conflicts that are part of any relationship. If you have a relationship where there's never been a conflict, someone's not living. Okay, it's just going to be part of it. That's why we need to be humble with each other. We need to be forgiving each other to get past those things and actually deepen the relationship. It's even more tragic when this happens among siblings. But it's not uncommon for me to end up talking to people who have not talked to their brother or sister for years, sometimes decades. And that's sad. You see, blood may be thicker than water, but selfishness is thicker than blood. And people are selfish. They're proud. They want what they want. I personally made it a personal goal to never end a friendship myself. Time restraints often keeps me from spending the time I'd like to spend with people. But I always want to be in a position that when I am able to spend time with that person, that friendship picks up right where it left off. We had lunch with a man and his wife that I was best man in his wedding. It's been 31 years since we lived there, but it's always a joy for me to see Dave and Linda. And as soon as we able to see each other, it picks up right where we left off. That's what you would want. My wife gets on me sometimes because I continue to send Christmas cards to people that I haven't heard from in many years, usually only give up when I get a notice back in the mail that they've moved and I don't have a forwarding address. Now I'm stuck. So that's just a commitment. I want to make sure the friendship on my part is going to continue even if it does on theirs. But I think that's part of what we should be as Christians, isn't it? You see, the friendships we have within the church family can be as close or sometimes maybe even often closer than you have with a genetic sibling. Why? It's because of the foundation for it. Our foundation as brothers and sisters is this common bond we have in Christ and this common pursuit of holiness in obedience to the truth of God as Peter points out here in this passage. Now family relationships can be strained for all sorts of reasons related ultimately to selfishness. And then that ends up can be encouraged by the rest of the family who wants to jump in and the gossip gets going and the backbiting gets going and next thing you know you got division. Shouldn't be but it happens. But you only become a part of the church the body of Christ through the humility of repentance from our sin and faith in the person the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That inclines us to continue to be humble in acknowledging our own sins, our own failures, our own spiritual immaturity, even as we continue to mature by walking in the Spirit according to our increasing understanding of the Lord's will through His Word. And that is why this pursuit of holiness, obedience to truth is going to result here, as Peter says, in a sincere brotherly love of other Christians, and especially so when they're doing the same thing. Why? Because humility and forgiveness allows us to overcome those strains, the selfishness that has come to relationships because of this common bond in Jesus Christ and this mutual interest that is much stronger than any other kind of interest that can exist in living in this world. It is stronger than family or culture, work, hobbies, or politics. The Christian submits each of those things to Christ and therefore welcomes the correction and change to their ideas, to their behavior, to what they're doing, to their involvements in the pursuit of God's will. And so we actually want to help each other. And so I'm never afraid that you're going to correct me on something. If you correct me on something, praise God. I want to know when I'm wrong. Now you may have to prove it. I may disagree with you that I'm wrong, but I want to know, right? Shouldn't that be our desiring goal with each other? That removes the salvageness and the pride that destroys relationships. Because our mutual goal is, let's glorify our Lord. Let's glorify our Father who's in heaven. Let's do it together. Peter escalates this command In the next phrase, he's just talking about brotherly love and now it's, he's going to elevate it a lot. And that's the key to this whole sentence. It's this command, fervently love one another from the heart. Fervent here, at tenace, refers to an intensity or perseverance in action. Love here is agapao. That's the love that cognitively sets itself to do what is in best interest for the other person at its own sacrifice. That is the love that God has for us demonstrated when Jesus Christ took upon himself our sins on the cross. That's why it's expressed in John 3 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But this is also the love that Christians should have for one another. John 13, 34 and 35, Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Jesus escalated that more for us in Matthew 5 43 and 45. It's a love where even to have her enemies. You've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so you can be sons of your father who is in heaven. That does escalate because the only way you can hate your enemies is if God is loving them through you. You can't generate that on your own because that's a reflection of God. Now, Phil Jordan preached on this love, this agapao, that we're to have for one another in its practical application display a couple weeks ago. So, I'm not going to expand much on that this morning, except to say this. Both this love, this agapao, and the brotherly love, the sincere brotherly love, they arise out of this pursuit of moral purity in obedience to the truth of God's Word. Brotherly love can encompass an emotional element, which includes the enjoyment of being with the other person. To love in the sense here of Agapao doesn't require that. This is a love, he states here, that is from the heart. In English, we use the heart as a reference to emotions, but that's not in Greek. In Greek, it is a reference to the mind, the will. Not emotion. You can love someone in this sense even when you find them very irritating. So this is a very important truth for us as Christians. The fact is that while it can take a while for a new Christian to shed their salvage worldly behaviors become spiritually mature. While that's happening they may not be very pleasant to be around. It could be very irritating. But Romans 5, 8 states that God demonstrates his own love toward us, and while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. That being true, is it really too much for him to ask us to sacrifice in loving the immature while they're growing in Christ? See, that's why he puts these together. And that's why Christians are to be different than the world. You may be obnoxious and irritating, extremely immature, but I can still love you. And as I do and you mature, you know what? You're going to change and I'm going to end up with, I like being around you. Because God is molding us into the image of Christ. And who doesn't want to be around Christ? Right? That's our goal. I appreciate all those who for decades put up with me as I was maturing. and love me aren't you grateful for those who love you verse 23 gives us a second basis in this exhortation to love one another he says for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring word of God so the second basis you should love each other because you're born again Now verse 22 uses a perfect active participle to express the personal involvement of purification of their souls by their obedience to truth. Here, 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, which continues to have an effect in the present. That matches what Peter said back in verse three, that it was God that caused them to be born again. Now Peter's contrast between perishable and imperishable here matches his earlier contrast in verses 18 and 19 concerning the cost of redemption. The cost of being freed as a slave was perishable things such as silver and gold. Here, the contrast there was an imperishable redemption which was the blood of Christ as of a lamb slain without blemish or spot, and that redeemed them from their futile way of life inherited from their forefathers. But the reference here is not to redemption, it's to the seed by which they were born again. Now if you're familiar with gardening of any type, whether it's flowers or vegetables, you know you put a seed into the ground and the seed itself is going to perish. It is going to die to itself and cease to exist because when it germinates it becomes what? A new plant. No longer a seed, it's a new plant. Your first birth was by perishable seed to give you a perishable physical body. When you are born again, it is an imperishable seed which gives you eternal life. That's different. Now, this concept of being born again is radical. Nicodemus was a teacher of law. In John 3, he comes to Jesus to ask questions, and he doesn't understand what Jesus is talking about. He is very confused. Because Jesus tells him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean? And so Nicodemus' response to Jesus was, well, how can a man be born when he's old? He can't enter a second time to his mother's womb and be born again, can he? And so Jesus has to explain it 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. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So 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. Ephesians 2 explains that. And so it takes a new birth, being born again, to bring about a spiritual life and become, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 5.17, a new creation. Something completely different. What did not exist before has been brought into existence. Jesus points out the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing this about and Peter points out here the effect of the living and enduring Word of God in this process in bringing about the new birth. Now Peter describes the Word of God here as both living and enduring. Both of those are a contrast to the idea of perishable. What perishes dies and ceases to exist. God's Word is living. It continues to abide. It's set in contrast to seed. The Word of God is imperishable, yet it also brings forth life and causes it to grow. Now, Peter's description here of the Word of God helps us understand this connection between the Holy Spirit and God's Word in bringing about the new birth. And it will keep us from falling into the trap of bibliology in which the physical book, okay, the physical book, the Bible, becomes an idol that replaces the one who wrote it, the author of it, the one to whom it testifies. Jesus actually makes this point in John 5, 39 and 40 in rebuking the Jews. He says they were, and these were Jews that were seeking to kill him. He says 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 you may have life. They missed the message. Now we should have great respects for our physical Bibles. Why? Because of what it contains. Right? It's much like a love letter from someone you love. You value it. You treat it with care because of who wrote it and the message within it. But it is the person and the message that is important, not the physical letter itself. If that person showed up and was standing in front of you, would you hug the letter or the person? If you hug the letter, the other person should run away from you, okay? Right? We are to 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, not the physical container of it. We worship the God who's revealed himself in the scriptures. We do not worship the book itself or any medium by which God has proclaimed himself. Okay? So what Peter is saying here actually helps us not fall into that trap which some have fallen into. Now the sacred scriptures are called the Word of God because they come from God Himself. The prophets continually proclaimed, thus saith the Lord, or more properly, thus says Yahweh. and they would recount his message to the people. In 2 Timothy 3.16 Paul states all scripture is inspired by God. Inspiration there means literally it's 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. So though there are human authors, they were completely directed and guided by God himself to put down everything he wanted. The particular word, the particular tense, all of it, it comes from God. The book of Hebrew begins this way, God after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions in many ways in these last days has spoken to us by his son through whom also he has made the world. John 1 and 14 states that Jesus is the Word that was with God and was God and that became flesh and dwelt among us. So all three persons the triune Godhead are involved in bringing to us the Word of God. Jesus is very direct. Throughout John, he makes statements. John 17, 16, 8, 26, 12, 49, 14, 10, and 15, 15. He came at the Father's initiative, and that all that he taught, all that he said, came from the Father. Jesus was also explicit in John 14, 26, that it would be the Holy Spirit that would teach disciples, quote, all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Same thing applies to us, 1 John 2. 1 Corinthians 2, 10-16 explains that it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us, in the current time, about God, because without Him, the natural man cannot understand the things of God. They are foolishness to him. That's why without the Holy Spirit, great scholars, men and women of extreme intellect, can't understand the message. They can parse all the Greek and they can understand the Aramaic and the Hebrew. They can do all that stuff and they don't understand the message. And yet some person who's illiterate and uneducated with the Holy Spirit understands the message perfectly. The Word of God comes from God. And the Holy Spirit is the one that enables us to understand the message and then empowers us to live according to it. Now because the Word of God comes from the triune God, it is living and it will continue to endure unto eternity. Now Peter contrasts that with the brevity of life in verse 24. There he, it's actually a quote from Isaiah 40 verses 6 through 8, For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. As we enter the autumn season here, the reality is seen every time we walk outside, isn't it? We understand this. The reference here, Cortás is to any small green plant found in the field or pasture for grazing. The majority of that would be grass, but they have other plants as well. The spring and summer flowers went bye-bye a long time ago. They've all withered up and dried. And in the soon-to-come frost, the rest of the leaves are going to die as well. Life on this earth is short because it's perishable. We understand that. And certainly living in the north, it reminds us of that every year. It all dies out there. In contrast to the brevity of physical life, Peter points out here that the word of the Lord endures, it remains, it 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. Now that's just dealing with the law of Moses. Even the little ticks, little jots on a letter won't pass away. But even after that happens, Jesus said in Matthew 24-35, heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will not pass away. So even when all this stuff is destroyed that we currently see around us, his words still not gonna pass away. Psalm 119.89 states it this way, forever, O Yahweh, your word is settled in heaven. That's how sure it is. A complete contrast to the things of our physical lives. Because God is eternal, so is his word. Because God is living, so is his word. Because God is immutable, what he has decreed is not going to change. Because God is sovereign, then all that he has decreed is going to be fulfilled. And that means that all that God has revealed in his word can be trusted. And that makes Peter's final sentence here in this section a source of great comfort and assurance to those who are facing various trials and their faith was being tested. And this is the word which was preached to you. I'm not telling you anything new. This is what you've already known and heard. Those, verse 12, who have been sent to preach the gospel by the Holy Spirit, they can be trusted. The various trials they were going through and causing them distress as their faith was severely tested, verses six and seven, he can still be trusted. God still had a purpose for them that, and he would remain that source so that we have a living hope. And he was a guarantor of this incredible inheritance promise to them. And that's why they were able to respond with faith and love and joy in the midst of those circumstances. And you know what was true then? It's still true today. It's still true today. Regardless of any situation you're currently facing or you will face in the future, these things are still true. 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. So that if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then your response needs to be one of, be a diligent student of His Word. That is how you're going to know God. That is how you're going to know His will, what He desires for you, how you should live your life. That is how you're going to know what his precious and magnificent promises are, which bring the kind of comfort and reassurance that Peter's been talking about in this passage. If you do not know them, if you do not know the Word of God, then you are shortchanging yourself. You're not going to be able to rest in God and be at peace in the midst of the storms of life and then live in godliness. Isaiah 26, 3, and 4 stated it this way, Thou will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Yeah, I remember. Memorize that in the King James, and I just can't get it out of any other way. Why? He then concludes, Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. If you're not yet assured that you will spend eternity in heaven with the Lord, forgiven of your sin, as part of God's family, or whether it's going to be in hell, being punished for your sin, your transgressions against Him, then you need to resolve today to do everything you can to pursue the truth. Pursue it, wherever it will lead you. I can say that with absolute confidence, because I know if you pursue the truth, I know where you're going to go, because Jesus is the truth. You can talk with myself, any of our church leaders, deal with whatever doubts that you have. Know the truth, we'll be glad to help direct you toward that. When you know the Lord, you will be freed from the devil's lies, which are warring against your soul. Today is a day of salvation, because you do not know if you have tomorrow. Father, thank you for the truth of your word and that it is living and enduring. That is something that is an absolute we can stand firm on. Your precious and magnificent promises guiding us, directing us, giving a hope that transcends everything in this life. Father, enable us by your Holy Spirit in fulfilling his very purpose and being sent to live according to it, that we will be conformed to the image of your Son. And Father, sooner rather than later. And Father, that this love that arises out of it would just become stronger and stronger within your people. Father, manifesting itself in this church, and then all the churches around us, throughout the world. Father, because your people are to love each other, because we are siblings, we're brothers and sisters, because we're common inheritance, given by you when you adopted us into your family. Glorify yourself, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.