1 Peter Series Part 6
Sub Series: A Demand for Holiness (1:13 – 2:3)
Title: “A holiness expressed in genuine love responding to the gospel”
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
INTRO: WHAT DOES HOLINESS LOOK LIKE?
"Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."
John Brown, Nineteenth-century Scottish theologian, quoted in J. Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 51.
Transition: Previously we looked at:
1. First teaching section (1:3-12). The method and nature of salvation
a. A salvation based on the hope inspired by Christ’s resurrection (1:3-5)
b. A salvation secured through a faith deepened in trial (1:6-9)
c. A salvation reported by the prophets who described its grace and glory (1:10-12)
2. First preaching section (1:13-2:3). A demand for holiness
a. A holiness demanded by God’s own character (1:13-16)
b. A holiness demanded by the costly experience of Christ’s passion (1:17-21)
c. A holiness expressed in genuine love responding to the gospel (1:22-25)
d. A holiness expressed by the new life received from a gracious God (2:1-3)
TEXT: 1 Peter 1:22–25 (ESV)
22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
23since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
24for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
I. The Gospel Brings Loving Purified Heart filled Characteristics.
a. The Good news of a new heart filled with the heart of our Lord.
b. First, the Gospel truth brings in a new purified soul.
i. “Purified” Gk: “Hagnizio”:
1. to wash off, to wash away,’: to cause a state of moral purity—‘to purify, to cause to be pure.’
ii. Soul: in the Greek is “Psyche” [suhey]
1. the essence of life in terms of thinking, willing, and feeling—‘inner self, mind, thoughts, feelings, heart, being
iii. Lam 1:20 my soul is troubled, my heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious
c. 22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
d. Obedience: “Having paid attention to”
i. Paid attention to the truth! Which results from a pure heart.
e. Where do we get a pure heart?
i. First of all, our unconverted, or unregenerated hearts are wicked, evil,
1. The soul of mankind is led so often by wickedness and carnal emotions.
ii. Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked
iii. The heart of mankind needs renovation, restoration to the truth by an obedient purified heart.
iv. God is the only one who can replace a wicked, deceitful heart:
v. Ezekiel 36:25–26 (ESV)
vi. 25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
vii. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
f. Peter continues and mentions brotherly love, loving purified heart can love purely.
i. A love that is sincere – genuine, honest.
ii. Peter distinguished between “Brotherly love” and the next word love.
iii. Brother love is “Philadelphia” and the next love is “Agapeo”
g. With genuine love Peter tells these believers to love one another How? with what?
h. “earnestly” from a “pure heart”
i. Earnestly: Sincerely, intensely,
i. Peter tells us that God is the only One who can change s heart making it pure “agapeo.” The Genuine love of God is true purity of heart!
j. Illustration:
i. After a violent storm one night, a large tree, which over the years had become a stately giant, was found lying across the pathway in a park. Nothing but a splintered stump was left. Closer examination showed that is was rotten at the core because thousands of tiny insects had eaten away at its heart. The weakness of that tree was not brought on by the sudden storm; it began the very moment the first insect nested within its bark. With the Holy Spirit’s help, let’s be very careful to guard our purity. - Our Daily Bread.
k. Application:
l. Is there something or someone eating at your heart? Are you in God’s grace and love obeying the truth and is your heart, pure, and genuine?
m. Christ can make the changes in your life in particular your heart.
II. The Gospel Truth Brings About the True Born-Again Experience.
a. What is mean to be born-again? What is the root cause of a true born from above experience?
b. Peter, in verse 22 writes about the “living and abiding word of God.”
c. The life changing experience id all about seed.
i. Perishable and imperishable seed.
d. How is seed related to the Word of God? The Word of God is seed that never withers or fails it is nonperishable.
i. Isaiah 55:10–11 (ESV)
ii. 10“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
iii. 11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
e. Jesus Himself, spoke of the parable of the Sower and the seed:
i. Matthew 13:18–23 (ESV)
ii. 18“Hear then the parable of the sower:
iii. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
iv. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
v. 21yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
vi. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
vii. 23As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
f. The Gospel, the good news, provided by the Word of truth is what reveals mankind’s total depravity, our sinful state, separated from God and thus a true born-again experience comes from God by hearing His words:
g. Apostle Paul reiterates what Jesus declared as well as Apostle Peter:
1. Romans 10:17 (ESV)
2. 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
h. God’s Word is “living and abiding.”
i. Living Gk: “Zao” – Alive!
1. Who is alive and risen from the grave? Jesus! He is the LIVING God forever!
ii. Abiding – permanent, unshakeable, enduring, existing forever!
i. So, Apostle John also tells us that Jesus in the Word John 1:14:
i. John 1:14 (ESV)
ii. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
j. Back to our text, Apostle Peter uses an illustration in verse 24 regarding the flesh:
i. 24for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,
k. The flesh, the natural bodily state of mankind will return to the earth, it dies.
III. The Gospel, the Word of God is Forever!
a. What does sinful, fleshly mankind need the most in this fallen world?
b. The “Good news” must be preached!
i. 25but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
c. Illustration:
i. While an estimated 74 percent of Americans strongly agree that "there is only one true God, who is holy and perfect, and who created the world and rules it today," an estimated 65 percent either strongly agree or somewhat agree with the assertion that "there is no such thing as absolute truth."
ii. Christianity Today, September 16, 1991, p. 48, from George Barna, The Barna Report: What Americans Believe, 1991.
d. Application:
i. Today is Mother’s Day, Many Mom’s have passed away for many of us. Their fate is locked in to where they are for eternity.
ii. But if your Mother is still alive here on earth, What is the best gift you can give to your Mom?
iii. The Truth of God’s Word, the Word, Jesus, who is the only Eternal Savior
