1 Peter 1:22-25 - The Work of the Word

We’re closing out 1 Peter chapter 1 by considering the enduring power and work of the Word of God. In a world where life is fragile and temporary, Peter points us to something that is true, imperishable, and eternal. The Word of God not only reveals the Gospel that saves us, but it also shapes how we live, how we love one another, and how we build our lives, families, and church.

Together we’ll examine what it means to move beyond simply confessing a high view of Scripture and instead live as people who truly believe it. If the Word is eternal and life is a mist, then how should we live? Join me as we consider the work of the Word and the love it produces in the life of the believer. Let’s dig in and look to Jesus, our true hope!

Transcript

10  - 1 Peter 1:22-25 - The Work of the Word

Intro

• Please take your Bibles and open with me to 1 Peter 1 and find verse 22.
• Today we close out this chapter as we are reminded by Peter about the importance of the Word of God and the perishable state of life.  
  • It is a sobering thing as we approach this topic and consider not only the importance of the Word but also how fragile life is.  
  • Church, we know by experience that life is temporary, and we know how quickly things can shift.
• More than that the Bible testifies to this fact…
  • James makes this very plain in James 4:14, he asks…
    • James 4:14b - “...What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
      • He gives to us this word picture that is meant to describe life, he calls it a mist.
    • This word could also be translated as “steam”.
  • It is as through he is telling us to picture a pot of boiling water…
    • The steam rises and then vanishes in the air, this, James writes, is like our lives.
    • Here for a moment and then no more.
  • It is a sobering thought, but an accurate one.
    • Again, we know this not only because of the scripture but we know this by our existence.
• Peter though does not only address this but he also turns his attention to something that is eternal, the Word of God.
  • He points to scripture and the work of the Word and testifies to the importance of it in light of our temporary state.
  • So from the start let me remind you what we believe about this book that lay open before us.
    • We believe it to be the Word of God, that it is complete, sufficient, without error, and it is all we need for life and Godliness.
      • 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
    • This is what we believe, we have a high view of the Word of God.
      • What I will ask you to do though is to not consider what you believe but please consider how you live.
      • Life is fragile, it is temporary, we know this is true but we do not always live that way.
    • Likewise, just because we have a correct confession of the Word does not mean we live it out perfectly.
  • Today our text will challenge us as we consider if we are living out what we claim to believe about this book. 
• Let’s read our text and open in prayer…

1 Peter 1:22-25

• As we consider these final verses of 1 Peter 1, I want to begin by drawing your attention to who Peter is writing to…
  • He makes it very clear once more in these verses that he is writing to church, to the Christian, to the follower of Christ.
    • To the one who has been redeemed from their sins and been born again.
    • I know I keep bringing this up week after week but it is Peter’s fault, when you mention something three different times it is a relevant thing.
  • We see this in verse 22, 23, and at the end of 25.
    • He writes to those who have…
      • Vs. 22 - “...purified [their] souls by [their] obedience to the truth…”
    • To those who have…
      • Vs. 23 - “...been born again…”
    • To those who have heard…
      • Vs. 25 - “...the good news that was preached…”
  • I point this out to remind you that as we walk through these verses they were written for our benefit.
    • As we gather today, as we consider these verses they are written to the church.
    • For the good of the Christian and for the good of the church.
• So let us approach these verses with the mindset to examine ourselves, to examine our lives, and to examine our chruch…
  • To be sure that we are progressing in obedience to the Word of God.
  • To be sure that we are living out what we confess.  
• Would you consider with me today the…

Importance of the Word

• The Word of God is mentioned or referenced four times across these four verses…
  • What Peter does is elevate the importance and impact of the Word on the life of the believer.
    • He writes and tells us four important truths about the Word of God, let us consider them now…
  • As we go through each word or phrase I would encourage you to underline it so that it stands out next time you read through 1 Peter.  
• He tells us first that the Word of God is…
  • Truth, we see this in verse 22, look again with me.
    • Vs. 22a - “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth…”
      • What Peter is referring to here is the Gospel they believed and obeyed as well as the Word of God that testifies of the Gospel.
      • So as much as he is referring to the Gospel he is also referring to the scriptures.
        • For in them we learn of the truth of the Gospel.
    • Consider with me, what is truth?
      • Is it something we can know, is it something that is constant or relative?
        • We will hear things like, “truth is relative”, or “what is true for you may not be true for me”.
        • Or, one of my favorites, “this is my truth”.
      • All of those are self defeating statements by the way because the nature of something being true means that everything that is opposed to that truth is false.
        • For example, if I say 2+2=4, we can agree that it is true, which means that 2+2=8 is false.
      • Two things cannot be opposed to one another and both be true at the same time.
        • One can be true and the other false or they can both be false but they both cannot be true.
        • What I am referring to is the Law of Noncontradiction, it is a Law of logic that much of our world is built upon.
      • So any of the before mentioned statements are nonsensical and though they may sound good and maybe even feel good to the current culture they are fundamentally false. 
        • They are all just not true.
        • They are not grounded in reality or in a factual existence.
    • Let us not consider what our culture thinks is true though, let us turn our attention to the Word of God and see what it has to say about truth.  
      • The word we see used here translated as truth is used throughout the Bible to testify to the scriptures.
        • Like in Psalm 119:160, the Psalmist writes…
          • Psalm 119:160 - “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
            • I do want to point out, though this was written in Hebrew the Greek translation uses the same word we see in 1 Peter 1:22.
              • He writes though the “sum of your word is truth.”
            • In other words he says that the Word of God is true.
            • Which means that anything that opposes the Word is false. 
        • I also think about the prayer of Christ that was recorded by John in John 17.
          • Jesus prayed…
          • John 17:17 - “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
        • He testified that the Word of God is truth…
          • The standard by which everything is to be measured, and that we are to be sanctified, made holy, by it. 
      • This is the same thing that Peter is claiming, that we are made pure by our obedience to the truth.  
    • The Word of God is true, which means…
      • We should live in obedience to it…
      • We should test our lives against it…
      • We should operate our church by living for it…
      • It is to be the standard by which we base our decisions and operate our lives.
    • That is not all though, the Word of God is…
  • Imperishable, a word that means uncorrupted, we see Peter reference this in verse 23.
    • Let’s read it again and underline it…
      • Vs. 23 - “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”
        • It is worth mentioning that Peter has already used this word in 1 Peter.
          • Glance up to verse 4 and read it with me, Peter is writing about our inheritance.
        • Vs. 4
          • We talked about how the inheritance we will receive is without corruption.
          • Which is a good thing, we long for that, right?
        • Peter uses the same word to point to the scriptures. 
      • This imperishable seed points us to the Word of God.
        • It is like the Bible is a little taste of heaven on earth. 
    • A work that is uncorrupted…
      • In a world that is nothing but corrupt it is good that we have something that God has established, protected, and preserved.
        • He has not left us alone but has kept for us something that is without corruption.  
      • He has given it to us not only as truth but as the standard for which we are able to learn about God, man, and salvation. 
    • It is uncorrupted, unstained by man, and in it we find the hope of man.
    • The Word is truth, it is imperishable, it is…
  • Eternal.
    • Peter draws from Isaiah 40 to make this point, where we not only learn about our temporary existence but we learn about the eternality of the scriptures.
      • Vs. 25a - “but the word of the Lord remains forever…”
    • In other words, it is eternal…
      • This building will fade…
      • What you have built with your hands will not endure…
      • Every nation and the greatest of emperors will not last…
      • This earth will burn…
    • However, this Word, it will last into eternity.
      • It will not fade, it will continue to endure.
    • Then we are told that this Word that is true, imperishable, and eternal, also is where we learn of the… 
  • Good News.
    • We know the Gospel, not only because it was passed from one generation to the next but because it was preserved in the Word.
      • If one generation fails to pass it along accurately then we have a standard by which we can turn to and be reminded of this Good News.
    • Look again at verse 25, let’s finish it out…
      • Vs. 25b - “...And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
    • One of the greatest truths about this book that lay open in front of us is that it provides all that is necessary for salvation.
      • We have the nature of God, the fall of man, the story of the cross, we have the response of the people, we have what it means to be saved.
    • Without it, we are completely lost and subject to our own imaginations.  
  • So as we consider that the Word of God, the Bible, the Scriptures that lay before us…
    • Is true, imperishable, eternal, and reveals to us the Gospel, let me ask you to consider…
  • How should we treat it, how should we interact with the Word of God?
    • This moves beyond what we believe about this book, it moves us to how we respond to this book…
• Let us consider this question in three spheres…
  • First, let’s consider it as individuals across this room…
    • What would it look like for us to individually treat the Bible as the eternal truth of God?
      • Certainly we would read it, right?
        • That would be a given… 
        • It would not stop there though…
      • We would want to align our lives to it…
        • To live in such a way as to cause our existence to reflect the truth of scripture.
    • Furthermore, we would share it with those around us.
      • With our children, with our friends, with those God has placed in our lives.
      • There would be an excitement regarding this work of God before us.
      • We would want to talk about it, to dwell upon it, and for our lives to reflect it.  
    • Now considering this first sphere, let me ask…
      • Is this how you treat the Word of God?
  • Now, the second sphere is within marriage or within the family…
    • If we believed the Bible to be that which would purify our souls, and would be that which offers us salvation…
      • Then it would be present within our homes.
    • I do not mean as a decorative item on the book shelf, or even as a scripture hanging on the wall…
      • Though there is nothing wrong with either of those things…
    • What I mean is it will be a part of our conversations…
      • With your spouse and with your children.
        • I have to say on a personal note…
          • That one of the greatest blessings that God has given me is a wife who wants to talk about scriptures.
          • It is not just because I bring it up, often she is the one who kicks off the conversation.
        • It is funny, we will go out on a date and our conversation will typically center around two things…
          • We will talk about our children and we will talk about our God.
      • If this book is truth, if it is the Good News in which we find salvation then it has to be present in our homes.
    • So I ask you to consider your home, consider your conversations, consider your interactions with your children…
      • Is it present in your home?
  • Then, the third sphere to consider is the position of the Word of God in our church.
    • It sounds ridiculous to even consider this point but we must take note of the utter sinfulness of man.
      • We have a tendency to cast aside that which God has entrusted to us and replace it with our own ideas.
      • Let us not foolishly think that our church is immune to this sinful behavior.
    • The fact is we can look throughout this country and see people gathering together today, doing it in the name of Christ but doing it in name only.
      • For many who gather also do so while casting aside the Word of God.
      • Let us understand that we can be guilty of the same.
    • So again let us ask, what would it look like if a church is centered upon the Word of God?
      • It would be present in every gathering, in every classroom.
        • Our teachers, our pastors, would be filling their lives with it and then as we gathered there would be an overflow as they instructed us in it.
        • We would look to our leaders and recognize that they had spent time in the Word in the previous week.  
      • Our services would be infused by the Word and then as we make decisions it would be based upon the Word of God. 
    • So, I ask us again on this point to consider the position of the Word of God in our church…
      • Is it present, is it central, does it look like we hold this book to be the eternal Word of God?
    • These are crucial questions because the temptation is for us to build our lives and families and our churches on something other than what God has desired.  
  • Here is the major problem with that, it is that nothing else offers us what the Word produces. 
    • Where else can you turn and learn the truth of God, man, Creation?
    • Where else can you look and find the truth about Jesus and His first coming, His death, burial, and resurrection?
    • Where else can you turn and learn the truth of the Gospel?
      • There is nowhere else…
  • If we build our lives, our families, our church upon something else…
    • We are building it upon sinking sand, we are building it upon something that is corruptable, something that may be false, something that will not endure.  
    • Let me remind you at this point what man needs most…
      • It is not encouragement…
      • It is not positive thinking…
      • It is not self help materials…
      • It is not a better moral compass…
    • What man needs most is to be born-again to a living hope by faith in Christ alone…
      • Brothers and sisters, that is only made possible by the Gospel of God that is testified by the Word of God.  
      • Which means that if we build our lives, our children, our churches on anything else then we are undercutting what man needs most.
    • We must center our lives upon the entire Word, from Genesis to Revelation.
  • As we do certain things will be true for us…
• Peter addresses one of those things that we will turn our attention to now…

The Resulting Love

• Peter tells us to “love one another”, this love flows from a proper placement of the Word in our lives and in our church.  
  • Read it once more with me…
  • Vs.22
• Here Peter calls the church to love one another, the reason is not because we are lovely…
  • The reason that we are to love one another is because we have been born again.
    • I do not know if you know this or not, I am not always a lovely person…
      • There are times where I am quite the opposite…
    • I do not know if you realize it or not but the same is true for you.
      • If you are wondering who I am talking to right now, I want to be clear, it is all of you…
    • We can recognize together today that we are not always lovely people…
  • However, we are called, commanded to love one another nonetheless.
• Consider the chapter of love with me for a moment…
  • A chapter that is often read at weddings, or when considering a romantic love, but let us realize that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to address love within the church.
    • The chapter that precedes the chapter of love is about unity and how the church is to be a body working as one unit.
    • He follows it up with a chapter on love, addressing how we are to act one toward another.
      • With patience, kindness, and rejoicing in the truth.
        • Consider that we have already discussed where truth is found!
        • Rejoicing in the Word of God.
      • We show love by not being boastful or envious, without being rude or insisting in our own way…
        • We show love by bearing with one another in hope as we endure to the end.
    • Peter writes and tells us to act in this way toward each other…
  • Here is the point that is worthy of our consideration, the greater the impact the Word of God has on us the more we will show this kind of love.
• It is really a beautiful picture because as the Word increases and as love increases, then also the world takes notice and realizes that the Gospel is indeed true.
  • I cannot help but think about the words and prayer of Christ in John 17…
    • John 17:23 - “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
    • As we grow in obedience of the Word, as we grow in love toward one another, then we as a unit testifies to the validity of the Gospel.  
  • So we can again ask as we have already done so, do we love one another?
    • Are we growing in that love?
      • If not then we do not have a love problem we have an obedience to the Word problem.
      • It must be elevated in our lives, in our families, and in our church.
    • To the Glory of God and for the Good of man.

Closing

• Let me bring us back to where we started…
  • Life is fragile and temporary, it will not endure. 
    • It is like grass.
    • Here for a moment and then gone.
  • You do not know how long you have, so I ask you…
    • What are you living for?