I Peter 1:13 -- 2:3
1 Peter 1:13 through 1 Peter 2:3
13Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for
the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lusts in your ignorance: 15But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye
holy in all manner of conversation; 16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I
am holy. 17And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons
judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here
in fear: 18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition
from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who
by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him
glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22Seeing 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: 23Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.
24For 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: 25But the word of
the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.
1 Peter 2
1Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and
envies, and all evil speakings, 2As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious.
Once again we stand at the beginning of a new year, waiting expectantly to see
what unfolds. We make plans, we look over the achievements and failures of last
year, and we do our best to make the new year truly new. Over the course of the
next few weeks we will be looking at a series of messages that I am calling New
Life for the New Year. As we start a new year, the last of the years in this
century, let us encourage each other to begin a new life with our Lord.
We all get excited when we receive something new. If we get a new dress, or a
new suit, or a new car, the first thing we want to do is show it off. It's the
same way with a new life in Christ. The new birth promised by Christ is an
exciting prospect, something we will desire to share with others immediately.
Let's talk about growing a life with Christ.
If a farmer doesn't plant seeds, he will never harvest a crop. It doesn't
matter how weed-free his ground is; he must also plant and cultivate good
seed.
In the same way, we can only reap a harvest of purity and integrity by
planting the good seed of God's Word into our lives. I'm not talking about
merely reading the Bible. I'm talking about allowing the Holy Spirit to plant
the truths of Scripture deep into our hearts and minds through consistent
Bible reading and memorization, meditation and prayer. To be effective, and to
remain pure, truth must be planted in our hearts daily.
Gary Oliver, clinical director of Southwest Counseling Associates in Denver.
Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 1.
Suppose your task was to grow a grove of orange trees. You have a plan, you know
what you want to do with the fruit, all you have to do is plant the trees. So,
off you go to the nursery and you find out that apple seeds are on sale. Well,
looking to save some money in the beginning you purchase the apple seeds in bulk
and plant them in your field. Are you surprised to find out later that your
orange trees turned up as apple trees? Of course not, everyone knows that if you
plant apple seeds you get apple trees. It is quite the same way in growing a
Christ-like life. You get the result of the seeds you plant. Human life begins
with the seed necessary for physical birth and growth, and divine life starts
with a seed as well which brings about spiritual birth and growth. Peter speaks
to us in today's text of being "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." (1:23)
That incorruptible seed is the Word of God. If we are to see our spiritual walk
meet God's expectations, we must understand and recognize the proper seed to
begin the growth. Today we are going to examine the seed, the Word of God.
The Word of God is Distinctive
For many many years the Holy Bible has topped the best seller charts. It can be
found in almost any bookstore, and in most public libraries. It can even be
found on the bookshelves of most public schools. People have Bibles in their
homes, and at their offices. The courts use a Bible to administer oaths. Many
folks will treat the Bible just like any other book. Many non-believers will
assert that the Bible is a good piece of literature. They will tell you that it
is full of many fables, and great fairy tales. On the other hand, I would tell
you this morning that God's word is much more than just a book. It is more than
just a collection of nice stories. God's Word is distinctive from any other book
in several different ways. I would like to share four ways with you in which
God's Word is distinctive.
First, the Word of God is inerrant. The Bible reflects the nature and character
of God. We must accept the fact that the Bible is the divine truth without any
mixture of error. This is a crucial point, because it is by the study of God's
written word that we are able to discern His will for our lives. If we are
unable to steadfastly say that His Word is true, we will begin to question our
faith. It is an either/or proposition. Either we believe God's word is His word,
or we believe it isn't. We cannot have it both ways.
Second, the Word of God holds authority. When the scripture speaks to us, it is
speaking with the same authority as if God Himself were appearing before us
giving us our orders. In today's society we often question what is right and
what is wrong. We seem to gauge everything upon what seems right at the moment.
The overriding thought in discerning right and wrong today seems to be "if it
feels good, do it." The only way in which we can have some absolutes in our life
is to be listening to the divine authority of God, and the Bible is the place
where we will find that authority. If we believe that the Bible is inerrant,
then we must recognize its authority in our life.
It is also the Word of eternity. Our text this morning says that the word of God
will abide for ever and ever.
24For 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: 25But the word of
the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you.
Jesus said to us in Mark 13:31 that "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away." Man's word is fleeting, and more often than not in
today's society we find it difficult to take a man at his word. Let me tell you
this morning, that today, tomorrow, and forever we can depend upon God's Word.
It will stand for eternity.
Finally, the Word of God has a vitality to it that no other literature does. It
is as if the Word is a living document. Applicable to us today in 1999 just as
it was in 1899 and 1799 and 0099. The word of God can and will transform the
hearts and minds of mankind.
The seed of the new life is the distinctive Word of God. There is something
unique about this book we call the Holy Bible.
The Bible is Dynamic
Dynamic often times means changing, and this causes confusion when referring to
the Bible. God's Word is timeless and will never change, but it is dynamic. By
dynamic I mean that it has the capability to affect our lives in such a way as
to bring about change.
The Bible reveals Christ to us. If we did not have the Bible, we would have no
gospel. Without a gospel to share there would be no message for a sin sick
world. Through the bible is revealed the only hope for mankind, and that is
Jesus Christ. Abraham Lincoln said:
This great book is the best gift God has given to man. But for it, we could
not know right from wrong.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Christian Reader, Vol. 33, no. 5.
The Bible has a redeeming power for us. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" Our sinful
nature leads us into sin. The scriptures tell us that ALL have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The Bible shares with us how Christ made possible our
salvation from Sin. Through the Word of God, we are given the opportunity to see
Christ redeem our lives from a life of sin.
In the 1993 hit film In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood played Secret Service
agent Frank Horrigan. Horrigan had protected the life of the President for
more than three decades, but he was haunted by the memory of what had happened
thirty years before.
Horrigan was a young agent assigned to President Kennedy on that fateful day
in Dallas in 1963. When the assassin fired, Horrigan froze in shock. For
thirty years afterward, he wrestled with the ultimate question for a Secret
Service agent: Can I take a bullet for the President?
In the climax of the movie, Horrigan does what he had been unable to do
earlier: he throws himself into the path of an assassin's bullet to save the
chief executive. Secret Service agents are willing to do such a thing because
they believe the President is so valuable to our country and the world that he
is worth dying for. Obviously they would not take a bullet for just anyone. At
Calvary the situation was reversed. The President of the Universe actually
took a bullet for each of us. At the Cross we see how valuable we are to God.
Douglas G. Pratt, Allison Park, Pennsylvania. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2.
The word of God shows us about that cross and shows us how to obtain the gift
that God has given to us. There is redeeming power in God's Word
The Bible renews us. Everytime God's word is preached or taught God can use that
word to change a life. It brings about in us a renewing of our spirit and a new
birth. The seed of the Word falls into the human heart and spiritual growth
begins.
Nature has surprising powers of recovery from disaster. One of the most
striking examples of this is offered by the Island of Krakatao in the Straits
of Sunda. In 1883, an apparently inactive volcano erupted, splitting mountains
from top to bottom, and scattering ground and greenery over a wide area.
Nothing was left of the island but lifeless mass, a pile, one hundred feet
deep, of burned out ashes. Scientists of that day declared positively that no
animal or vegetable life could possibly have survived this most gigantic
eruption of history. Nevertheless, in the next three years flowers and ferns
began to peep out of the soil. Their seeds had been carried there by birds,
and by the wind and sea. By 1897, many portions of the ground were covered
with vegetation. Ten years more and the island was completely covered with
trees and palms. After forty years the island was not only covered with plant
growth, but also had its natural share of birds, animals, and insects.
This is exactly how god rejuvenates, or renews, that vast wasteland that sin has
turned our lives into. The seeds of His Word begin to grow and eventually take
over, changing the entire landscape of our life.
The Word of God is Directive
The word of God gives us direction. It charts the course for our life and tells
us what God's will is for us. The Bible demands obedience from us. Not grudging
obedience, not partial obedience, but full compliance.
The Bible demands the obedience of faith. We are not to put our faith in men, or
works, or in institutions, but faith belongs to God and to God alone. We must
not depend upon ourselves, but instead depend upon the graces of God.
The Bible demands the Obedience of hope. Outside of God, we are truly hopeless
If we do not have God, our life is bleak, and the light at the end of the tunnel
is so dim it is barely there. When we turn to the Gospel of Christ however, we
find hope renewed. The Son of God died to give us hope, rose again to seal that
hope, and lives within us so that we might experience this hope.
The Bible demands the obedience of love. We are commanded over and over again in
scripture to love one another. Our world doesn't know a whole lot about love.
Oh, we know a lot about lust, and gratification, but love seems to allude many
of us. The secret of true love comes from God and is revealed in His holy word.
We must be obedient to the dictates of true Biblical love. A whole chapter of
the Bible is dedicated to love. (I Cor. 13) Indeed it could be argued that the
whole Bible is about love…about God's love for His creation.
When I led a Young Life group, I did my best to round up kids who really
needed to hear the gospel when we went to summer camp. Mark was one of those
kids.
Bob Mitchell, the main speaker that week, called most of the shots--including
when meals would be served. So "Mitch" was always talking with the cook.
The cook loved her work, but it was exhausting. She always looked tired.
Whenever she talked to Mitch, he got up and gave her his chair--and a moment's
rest--while they discussed meal plans.
Nobody noticed Mitch doing this ... except Mark.
Mark hadn't come to hear about Jesus. But when he saw Jesus' love lived out in
that simple act of kindness by the camp speaker, he began to listen to his
talks. Later that week, Mark asked Jesus to be his Savior.
It wasn't because of the messages, Mark said, but because of the love he saw
in Mitch.
"If that's what it means to be a Christian," Mark said, "I want to be one."
John Trent, co-author of The Hidden Value of a Man. Men of Integrity, Vol.
1,
God's love will transform us into creations that even we would not recognize.
We have seen that the new life for the New Year begins with a seed, and that
seed is the Word of God. It is distinctive, dynamic, and directing. The Word of
God has a message for us, and it is up to us to make a decision on how to treat
that message. Will we "take care" of the seed and nurture it, or will we allow
it to be sown in infertile ground? Are we prepared to accept the gospel or to
reject the gospel?
