1 Peter chapter 1. I'm going to read starting in verse 23 and reading down to chapter 2 and verse 3. This is our scripture passage for this morning. 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 grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. Therefore, putting aside all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord God, as I stand before your people that you have died to save, that you have called out of darkness and into your light, and as it's my privilege to be able to speak your word to them this morning, Lord God, I pray that you would give me the right heart. I pray that you would give me the right words. that you would use me as a channel, not to bring my own thoughts or my own perspectives, but to be faithful in delivering your thoughts and your perspective, your word unmixed and unadulterated. And Lord, as you sit here in this church this morning, let your ears be pleased with Your Word that is spoken. And Lord, as we all sit and listen, we pray that You would give us a submissive heart to the Holy Scriptures, that You would search us with Your Holy Word, that You would do the work, the work of faith, the work of hope, the work of love, all through the power of Your Holy Word. And we thank You for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as a church, we can either be like this with the Bible. See, I'm lifting up God's Word and I'm standing underneath it. Or, we can be like this with the Bible, where I'm over the Scriptures, I get to decide what it says, I get to decide what parts of it I'm going to listen to, what parts of it I'm going to read, what parts of it are applicable to me, and what parts aren't. And those are the two attitudes that people can take to God's Word in God's household. You know, some people, they just don't have the Bible at all and are not interested. But when you come to God's people, they tend to be interested in the Bible. And so you can either be under Scripture or you can set yourself over Scripture. And of course, the natural tendency of the sinful heart is to place ourselves over Scripture. And we find that we tend to drift from this position to this position very naturally and without knowing that that's happening. Now, while this is something that happens in all churches and among all Christians, it's something that a few churches have actually made official doctrine that the church is over the scriptures and the church is not under the scriptures. I was in the coffee shop here in Firth a couple of years ago, maybe a year and a half ago. And there was a man that was sitting there reading, he had a bunch of books out, he looked like a pastor type. And so I went over and talked with him and I saw he was reading all kinds of interesting stuff and I asked him about it. So we talked for a few minutes while the kids were finishing their ice cream cones and then it was time for us to go and so I just said, nice meeting you, I'll talk to you later if I ever see you again. And he ended up stopping by the church and dropping by some literature, some of the things that he'd been reading about and some of the things he started to tell me about just in the couple minutes that we had to discuss there at the coffee shop. And so this applies very well to our scripture reading this morning and this idea of whether the church is under the scriptures or over the scriptures. And the official position of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is that the church is over the scriptures. In fact, this is what it says. It gave me some Eastern Orthodox literature. Regarding Sola Scriptura, which means that the Bible alone is the authority in the Christian life, this article says, surprising to many Protestant Christians is the fact that the doctrine of Sola Scriptura could be classified as an innovation. However, before the Protestant Reformation, such a notion did not exist. While Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism each have a somewhat different understanding of tradition, Both confessions conceive of the Church as a community of direct apostolic lineage which produced the Holy Scriptures, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as an expression of Her life and teaching. With the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, this relationship between Church and Scriptures tends to be inverted. Many Protestant Christians essentially believe that the Bible gives birth to the Church rather than vice versa. So while we all have this natural tendency to place ourselves as an authority over the Word of God, to decide what I like, what I don't like, what I'm going to pay attention to, what I'm going to emphasize, and what I'm not, Yet, this church has gone so far, and the other church also that has the tradition, to actually place their traditions officially over the scriptures. Now, the article has got some very interesting arguments, and I won't share the whole thing with you. But if you just read the article, and you didn't know your Bible, you'd be pretty convinced that the Eastern Orthodox Church has kept their traditions of the church the best out of any of the churches that are around. And all the different views of Protestantism, all the segmentation, all the different denominations. Amidst all of that confusion, there's one church that has stayed pretty much the same over these last couple thousand years, and that's the Eastern Orthodox Church. However, if you read your Bible, you come to understand that the Scripture speaks directly to this issue of what is the Scripture, what is the authority in the Christian life, And what place does tradition have in determining the doctrines of the church? Come over to Mark chapter 7 in your Bibles. Keep your marker there in 1 Peter, but just come back to Mark chapter 7 to find that this same drift was true in the Old Testament just like it's true in the New Testament. The same types of sins that the people of Israel fell into are the same types of things that we've seen over and over again in the church as well. And in Mark chapter 7, we see that the Pharisees were coming together and gathered around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem at the beginning of the chapter. And it seemed that some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. The Pharisees and the scribes were asking him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? And he said to them, Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. as it is written. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying, you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother. And he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would have helped you is korban, that is, given to God. you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus, invalidating the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that. Do we place ourselves over Scripture? Or do we place ourselves under Scripture? Do we allow our traditions to become more important in our lives and in our practice than the Word of God? And while giving lip service to God's Word, we really just keep the teachings of men. This happens so subtly And so consistently, that over time you end up with something like Judaism, which completely invalidates the scripture, and they've drifted so far, they don't even believe that they are to be under scripture more than they are under the traditions. They hold their traditions higher. And so in the Christian church also, that same drift has led to Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. But, over and over again through the New Testament, what we have is, it is written. If you are going to communicate a message to somebody, the best way to do it is not by word of mouth. You go into a court of law, and you're trying to establish that you have made such and such an agreement with someone, you don't go back and say, well, we shook hands on it. Well, he gave me his word. Well, that is something, but it's just words. It's just you saying what happened. But if you have a contract, if you have it written down and it's been observed that it has not been changed, then you know what has been said and what has been agreed upon. And so, God in His wisdom, did He give His Word, His Gospel to a bunch of men and just say, do your best to hand it down from generation to generation and keep it right? That would have been a pretty poor plan considering the unbelief in men's hearts and their tendency to drift from the truth. Or did God write it down? and say, it is written. You can go back and read it, you can see it hasn't been changed, and you can know for certain what the gospel is. You can know for certain who Jesus Christ is. You can know certain who's going to be saved and who's going to be lost. You can know everything that you need to know for life and godliness because it stands written. I was at pastor's conference again this year, and the Evangelical Free Church of America, as I read their history, their watchword from their earliest days is, where stands it written? Amen. You want us to do something in the church? You have an idea for God's people? You have a ministry that wants to get done? Where stands it written? And if it stands written, let's get behind it with all of our heart and all of our soul. But, if you want to bring in men's ideas, you want to bring in the latest fads and the latest fashions, you want to bring in whatever seems to be working and whatever seems to be effective, well, where stands it written? And if it's not written, we're not doing it. Too often, when Christians want to accomplish something, a good thing, because that's where it starts, good intentions have unintended consequences, You have a good intention. We want to reach our community for Jesus. We as a church are not doing enough to get the gospel out. We don't care enough about the lost. We don't care that they're going to hell. We just keep to ourselves and we're quiet and we're not out there trying to convince people to be saved and to repent. That's a real problem. So what do you do with that? Where do you go to solve that problem? Well, according to most pastors, you don't go here. You don't go here. This isn't going to tell you how to win your community. This isn't going to tell you how to win the lost. Now you've got to go out and you've got to see, where's God working today? What's the Holy Spirit doing? And how do we get on board with that? This is, yeah, it's good, it's helpful, but it's not going to answer all those problems that we have, and all the needs that we have, and it's not going to help us reach our goals. And so we look out there and we say, what's working? What's God's doing? But where stands it written? That's the difference. And that's where it starts. And then, over time, you drift further and further from God's Word. You believe less and less in His power. You believe less and less in His authority. You believe less and less in His sufficiency. Your sermons get smaller. There's less Bible in them. I was listening to one preacher. He was talking about a guy in a church. He says, I preach 20 minute sermons, and if I go any longer than that, people start to leave. The other pastor said, 20-minute sermons? We could allow an introduction at my church. Amen! We're going to have a good 20-minute introduction this morning. But, you see it there. And I'm just trying to make the issue very, very clear for you in how important it is. What is truth? 2 Samuel 7.28, it is written, Now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. I was having a conversation with somebody online, and they were talking about this question of what is truth. And he said, I just challenge you out there to give me a definition for truth. Because everyone's got their own idea of what truth is. So I told him. God knows everything. He doesn't have any bias. Whatever God says is truth. He said, that's not a good definition. He said, well, you asked for a definition. I didn't expect you to believe it. But that is a good definition. God's word is truth. He knows everything. In the Scriptures, He has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Do we have what we need in the Scriptures in order to reach our community for Christ? Yes. If we're having a problem doing that, is it a problem with the Scriptures, or is it a problem with me? It's a problem with me. I don't mean to be critical of other churches and their desire to reach their community. In fact, some pastors have a better desire to reach their community than I do, and I want to learn from them in that. They believe the doctrine of hell. They believe that people are lost. And they want to do something about it. And that's what I want. But you have to go to God's Word to find out how do you do it. Because our best intentions will lead to unintended consequences. We'll fix one problem, we'll create three others, if we're not doing it according to truth. When you turn aside from God's Word, the inevitable result is idolatry. Write down Deuteronomy 28, verse 14. Deuteronomy 28, 14 says this, do not turn aside from any, do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today. To the right, you guys is right, or the left. Don't go to the right, don't go to the left, there's always one truth and two errors. If you do go to the right or to the left, Deuteronomy 28.14 says to go after other gods to serve them. If you get off the path, you're going to end up serving other gods. If you stray from God's Word, you're going to end up in idolatry. It is 100% certain. The only way to worship God, the Living God, the Creator, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is to do it according to His Word. Jesus Christ prayed, sanctify them in the truth. Thy Word is truth. The only way is God's Word. You can't just love Jesus. Now, Protestants, who all disagree with each other on doctrine, which is one of the good criticisms that that article had of Protestantism, they just say, well, why can't we all just love Jesus? And we've got this nondescript Jesus, and everyone gets to fill in the blank on what Jesus is like and what Jesus does. And we can all just agree that we like the word Jesus. Well, You can't just judge somebody by their name. You have to know Jesus according to the Word of God, the truth of God. That's why here in 1 Peter, the emphasis on the Christian life is that everything flows from God's Word. You have some awesome commands here in 1 Peter. Last week we were talking about the love of the brethren. We are purified for a sincere love of the brethren in 1 Peter 1.22. Therefore, fervently love one another from the heart. And we can love one another from the heart, which is the most important commandment, Because we have been born again. And we've been born again through the living and enduring Word of God. You see, we need God's Word for everything. We need God's Word in order to obey. 1 Peter 1.3 says that we are called to obey Jesus Christ. In order to obey someone, you have to know what they want you to do. In order to know what they want you to do, they have to tell you. In order to know what God is telling us, we have to have His Word. We can't obey Him if we don't have His Word. Obedience necessitates Scripture. Faith requires God's Word. 1 Peter 1.5 says that we are protected by the power of God through faith. So the fact that God protects us through faith, well, faith is only in God's Word. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. In verse 8, it says, though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, we have to have His Word in order to believe. His Word is what we have of Him. He's not here, we don't see Him, but we can believe in Him because we have His Word. It is written. 1 Peter 1.13 talks about hope. You can't have hope in God's promises if you don't know what God's promises are. And so the only way to hope is with God's Word. And you also can't fear God without His Word. In verse 17, the command was to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. And back in Deuteronomy it says, if you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored name and awesome name, the Lord your God. To fear Him is to carefully observe all of the words of this book. Faith, hope, love, they all come from God's Word. Alright, let's look at verses 23-25 in 1 Peter. That was the introduction. 1 Peter 1 23-25 You have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God, for all flesh is grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word which was preached to you. You see, in these verses, the emphasis is on the power of the Word of God to cause you to be born again. Amen. That is so awesome. I love being born again because there's a part of me, and there's a part of you if you're born again, that is immortal. That cannot die. Jesus Christ said, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? There's a part of you that is generated regenerated by God Himself. And the seed that God used to create that new, indestructible, internable life inside of you, that incorruptible part of you, is the Word of God. Just as Jesus was telling His parables and talked about the sower went out to sow, the seed was the Word of God. Your life doesn't save anybody. Your good works don't save anybody. The Word of God saves people. It goes down into their heart and it creates new life by a miracle of God's power. It's so awesome that you get to be a sower of that kind of seed and that that seed is alive in your heart. Seeds are awesome. I don't know if you've ever really studied seeds. Some of you guys in school do a paper or something on seeds. You can just have a lot of fun studying them. A seed is a small embryonic plant. Inside the seed, like when you're eating a nut, when you're eating a sunflower seed, you're eating a small embryonic plant. And that embryonic plant that's in there, it's got all the genetic information that it needs in order to grow up into whatever plant it's going to be. Apple tree, coconut tree, whatever. It's all in there. It's just really tiny and really small. And surrounding that embryonic plant is a bunch of food. And that's why we like to eat them, because there's food there and it's good. And that plant, when it gets into the right conditions, when it's planted, it has little sensors that tells it that everything's right. The right amount of moisture, the right temperature, it's underground, now it's time to grow. And a seed can lie dormant for thousands of years. and then still produce life. In fact, the oldest one that's officially on record is a seed that was a Judean date palm from about 2,000 years ago. It was taken from excavations at Herod's Palace in Masada. And they took this seed from 2,000 years ago and they planted it and it grew in 2005. So, this is a great picture that God has put into the natural world of the living and abiding Word of God. For 2,000 years, the same seed can produce fruit. You can set a Bible in a corner for 2,000 years, somebody comes along later, opens it up and reads it, and they get saved. New life going down into their heart and planted. And there's also food in the Word of God to make that new life grow. You are born again. We are the children of God. We're not just adopted, although we are adopted into God's family, but we're also regenerated by the seed of God so that we become partakers of the divine nature, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1.4. Everything in the world is perishable. Even those seeds that will last for 2,000 years, they won't last forever. There is a limit. Even the sun that can burn for millions of years, it can't go forever. Everything in the universe is perishable. The Word of God says that everything is waxing old like a garment. Everything is wearing out, everything is running down. Scientists will tell you that eventually, if God let it go on long enough, although they don't tell you God let it go on long enough, they'll say eventually, everything will become so scattered, everything will go from a state of order to disorder, that they'll just be Nothing, but just a bunch of scattered particles throughout the universe. Everything is going towards that state. Everything is perishable. You're perishable. Jesus taught that that which is born of the flesh is flesh. You are born of a seed. Your dad's seed, your mom's egg, made you. Your mom and dad are perishable. Everything that comes from them is perishable. Everything in the universe is dying. People sometimes wonder, when does somebody start dying? Everything's always dying. There's no time where you're not dying. You're dying! Your whole body is. But there is something in you. There is something in the universe that's not dying. There's one thing in the universe that's not dying, and it's the Word of God and the life that it produces in the new birth. Amen. Glory to God. So, Jesus said, My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. You're a brother of Jesus Christ. You're a sister of Jesus Christ. Because you hear the word of God and do it. His seed has created you to be a child of God and therefore a brother of Jesus Christ. James 1.18. Let's turn over a couple pages to James 1.18. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth. Bringing us forth, that's talking about being born again. Just like we are brought forth when we're born the first time. So, God the Father brought us forth by the Word of Truth. It is written. so that we could be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. You know, God's creating a new heaven and a new earth. I was sharing this with my daughter Elise yesterday. I was trying to explain to her what the new heaven and the new earth are like and how God's creating it. Well, part of the new heaven and the new earth is here right now, and I'm looking at you. In your heart is the seed that's incorruptible. And that heart goes on to be a part of that incorruptible, immortal universe that God has created. A universe that will not grow old. A universe that will have no decay. A universe that will have no dissolution. A universe where righteousness and glory dwells forever. That's where your heart is made to be. That's your home. That's where you're on pilgrimage to, as Peter talks about. That's what it means to be born again by the immortal Word of God. It creates our destiny, which is also imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Now, this power to be born again, therefore, gives us the power for faith, hope, and love. We talk about this all the time. It's all about faith, hope, and love. If you want a godly ambition for your life, and we all need more godly ambition. Ambition is not necessarily a bad thing. Selfish ambition is bad. Worldly ambition is bad. Godly ambition is good. And a godly ambition is more faith, more hope, and more love. What do you want to get accomplished before you die? More faith, more hope, and more love is what you really want if you're born again. And if you want more faith, more hope, and more love, what you really want is more of this, and more of being under this, and not over this. And if you have more of being under this, you're gonna have more faith, you're gonna have more hope, and you're gonna have more love. Let's look at it here in the context. We already talked about verses 22 and 23. You see that the goal in purifying our souls in obedience to the truth is to create a family. I'm so glad that you guys are my family. I love listening to you sing. I love watching the joy in your face. I love talking with you about the things of God. It's great to have family. I would be so lonely in this world if I was the only believer. But I'm not. And so, this is God's purpose, to create a whole family. And therefore, we should fervently love one another with the agape love from our hearts. And notice the reason for this in verse 23. Having been born again. So the power to be born again provides us the power to love. This is something that confused me for a while, because sometimes it seems like people in the world can love. It seems like the dad can love his child. The mom can love her baby. The soldier can love his country. He can love his comrades in the trenches with him. It seems like people in the world can love, and yet the scripture says, in 1 John 4, 7, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. So, if everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, then it seems like either everyone is born of God, or people only seem like they love, and they don't really love. The love that is in people's hearts is a perishable love. A man's love for his wife without the Spirit of God is a perishable love. It perishes all the time. That's why we have so many divorces. A man's love for his children is a perishable love. That's why so many fathers leave home and abandon their kids. The love of a soldier for his country, it's a perishable love. You can become disillusioned and lose that. Every love that we have, apart from the seed of the Word of God creating new life in our hearts, is a perishable love. The only ones who can love with a love that is imperishable are those who have been born again. Come back with me in the Bible to Matthew's Gospel. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 12. Jesus is talking about the tribulation. There's going to be famines, there's going to be earthquakes, there's going to be wars. And these are just the beginnings of the troubles, as He says in verses 7 and 8. Then there's going to be intense persecution against those who believe in Jesus Christ. Many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. False prophets are going to arise. Because, it's in verse 12, because lawlessness is increased, Most people's love will grow cold. You put people into the right circumstance, and the love can grow cold. Love can die. But there is a love that can go through this kind of tribulation, that can go through the end of all things as we know it. and not die, not falter, but in fact grow stronger in the middle of that. And that is only produced by the Word of God. The power to love is the power of God's Word working through faith. We can get along quite well until there's one piece of food and two of us. And if you watch the Hunger Games, you can see that somebody can look like they're pretty good, until you put them into a certain situation, and then they can be a murderer, just like anyone else. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Now, also on the subject of love back in 1 Peter, In order to let that new life, that seed of God's Word really grow and flourish and become what it's meant to be in your life, you're going to need food, which is the Word of God. And you're going to need a healthy appetite for that food. And there's certain things that are going to destroy your appetite for God's Word, and therefore stunt your growth in love. And they are there in chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, you have to put these things off. And this word for putting off, it just means to take off some clothes that are dirty, that are ruined, that are defiled. You take them off. You put them over in the corner. God says, this is what you have to do with evil, with envy, with hypocrisy. All of these things have to go. Take them off. It seems like a rather simplistic solution to a rather complicated human condition. But this isn't given in a vacuum. It's given in the context of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, the ever enduring, living Word of God. And people think, well, doesn't it take hours of counseling and years of intense work to get rid of these things? And the answer is yes, it does take hours of counseling, but I'm not talking about going to the human counselor who uses man's ideas and man's motivations to get you to change. I'm talking about going to the divine counselor. I'm talking about going to the Word of God and spending hours meditating, thinking, letting it transform the way that you think. And then you'll have the power to put these things off. The power is there. This is a simple solution. But it's not simplistic. The Word of God is complex. The Word of God is beautiful. I spent 20 years studying the Word of God, and I'm constantly learning. And I'm also still learning how to put these things off. It's a simple solution. It's not a simplistic solution. But it's a real solution, and it's the only real solution. Putting aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, these are the things of unlove. This is anti-love. When these things exist, then marriages go bad, kids rebel, churches split, fellowship ends. These are the things that destroy human relationships and love. The world is full of them. And people will look at Christians and say, well, you're all just a bunch of hypocrites. No, Christians are the only ones who have the answer for hypocrisy. Christians are the only ones who have the power to get rid of hypocrisy, to be genuine and real and true. And when I fellowship with real Christians, they are the only ones in the world who I find to be holy, who I find to be unhypocritical, who I find to be the ones that I can trust and that I want to be with. Church is not full of a bunch of hypocrites if you're in a church that is loving and longing for and feasting on the Word of God. Now, there's much more to be said on this passage, so we'll have part two next week on the Word of God, the sufficiency of the Word of God, the power of the Word of God, as we continue to bring our lives under the authority of this book. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord God, Your Word is unlike any other in the world, and giving You advice is like trying to tell Shakespeare how to write, except infinitely more stupid. Lord, we confess our stupidity, we confess our foolishness, we confess our smallness of faith that so often we stand in judgment over Your Word so that we will not stand under judgment. Forgive us for fooling ourselves into thinking that this was possible, that we could get away with it, or that we would even want to. Lord, we want Your Word. We want it in its rebuking. We want it in its reproving. We want it in its encouragement. We want it in its gospelizing. We want every part of it, because we know, Lord God, that You are good. From You comes all that is good. We worship and adore You, and that's why we love Your Word so much, because it is from You, and it's Your power for salvation. May You be glorified and honored in the Church now and forever, according to Your Word. Amen.