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I Peter 1:22-23
Verse 22, Seeing 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:
I. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.
A. ye (the individual person) have purified (make clean, or sanctify)
your souls (actually the spirit in salvation).
1. This is talking about the salvation of the soul.
2. Some would rebel at the thought of Peter declaring that these people
had saved themselves, but notice what Paul declares in I Cor. 4:15,
"...for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel."
Paul didn't mean that he had saved these people, but his preaching the
truth about salvation was used by the Holy Spirit, and they were saved by
the power of God.
3. The truth of the matter is that it is quite impossible for a person
to be saved unless they yield themselves to the wooing of the Holy Spirit.
4. The farmer would grow no crop if he only trusted God for that crop.
The farmers responsibility is to prepare the ground for the seed, to plant
the seed, and cultivate the plant. He then has the responsibility of
harvesting the crop, and preparing it for market, or his own personal use.
If he sits idly by and believes God will give the increase when he hasn't
even planted the crop, he is a fool of the worse sort.
5. There are Baptists today, 1989, who want to be called
"Sovereign Grace Baptists", and are afraid of "whosoever
will" or of saying that an individual has a part in their salvation.
I do not want to be called a Sovereign Grace Baptist any more than I
desire to be called a Free Will Baptist. I do not want to preach on the
local church all the time, any more than I want to preach against the
universal, (visible, or invisible) church all the time. I do not want to
major on any one doctrine, but rather "...teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you..." like Jesus commanded
in the Great Commission. The desire of some is to "pigeonhole"
the brethren of Christ so they will be able to fellowship only with those
that are of like belief. The purpose of this "pigeonholing" is
supposed to keep the church membership doctrinally pure. I do not believe
this will work. Our people live in a real world and meet doctrine contrary
to the doctrine of Christ every day. They must learn what the truth is and
be able to stand for that truth, and against no person at all. If we as
pastors will teach our people the complete truth of the Word of God, they
will be able to stand for the truth, and make a good showing for
themselves when they come up against false doctrine. Another thing to
consider is those that do not believe the truth. I will use the doctrine
of wine in the Lord's Supper for an example. The brothers that believe in
using wine for the Lord's Supper have made this doctrine a test of
fellowship and will not fellowship with those that believe in using grape
juice as an element in the Lord's Supper. The result of this is that the
people that use grape juice do not understand why we believe what we
believe. They continue fellowshipping together, and with some brethren
that use wine. The result of this fellowship has caused some brethren that
formerly believed in wine to change their position and now they use grape
juice. The major cause of this is that those that believe in wine would
not fellowship with those that believe in grape juice, thus the position
of wine was one of non fellowship. I believe we ought to be
"missionary" in everything, not just about reaching lost souls
in another country. We ought to be missionary about Bible doctrines in our
own neighborhood, and even with those that don't believe exactly like we
do. We should not forsake or compromise Bible doctrines, but we will never
win anybody to the truth if we aren't open to fellowship. If they won't
receive the truth; then, and only then, are we free to forsake them. But
the way that will work is that we won't forsake them, or refuse to have
fellowship with them. The Bible says, they will forsake us, I John
2:18,19.
B. Through the Spirit.
1. Peter adds this thought to assure his readers (and us) that it is
impossible for someone to be saved without an external force (the Holy
Spirit).
2. A person doesn't "decide" to be saved, or "make his
commitment to Christ". (The phrase "make a commitment to
Christ" is really a very sorry substitute for the word
"salvation" as it sounds like salvation is something a person
determines by himself, without God. It makes no mention of "total
depravity" or his complete inability to do anything of himself.
C. Unto unfeigned (undisguised) love of the brethren.
1. Whenever a person is saved, the Holy Spirit directs the believer to
love other believers.
a. I Thess. 4:9, "...ye yourselves are taught of God to love one
another:"
b. I John 3:14-18 - If we don't love the brethren, it is because we
are not saved.
2. This is not something a person must work at, but it comes
immediately upon salvation. Even if they were formerly enemies, now they
are the dearest of friends.
II. see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
A. Even though the Holy Spirit gives us an undisguised love for the
brethren at salvation, it is our responsibility to continue to develop that
love and not let it fall to the ground.
1. John 13:34 - The new commandment Jesus gave is that we love one
another as He loved us.
2. The foundation of love for our brethren is our love for God.
B. Pure heart - Titus 1:15, "Unto the pure all things are pure: but
unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure..."
C. fervently means intently, and with much desire.
Verse 23, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
I. Born again, or receiving salvation.
II. Corruptible seed.
A. The seed is speaking of the source of life between a man and a woman.
B. If the seed was 99.99% pure, it would still be corruptible, and would
produce totally corruptible fruits. After a process of time, as a small amount
of corruption produced a greater amount of corruption, there would be great
corruption indeed, until the whole was corrupted.
III. Incorruptible.
A. I Peter 1:4 states that our inheritance is incorruptible.
1. It is incorruptible because it's maker is incorruptible.
2. I Cor. 15:52 - At the resurrection, we shall receive an
incorruptible body.
B. Word of God. There is a lot of discussion concerning whether this
phrase means the Bible or Jesus. This discussion doesn't make any sense to
me because Jesus is the Word of God, the Bible.
1. This scripture isn't talking about the physical book called the
Bible.
a. John 5:39, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye
have eternal life:..." Some believe they are saved by reading,
studying, declaring, and a physical obedience to the Bible, but this
isn't so.
b. This scripture is not saying that we are saved by the Word of God
(meaning words written down on a page).
2. It is saying that Jesus is the incorruptible seed, and that He is
also the Word of God.
a. John 1:1-5,14 declares that Jesus is God and the written Word.
b. If we truly believe in Jesus to the salvation of our souls, we
will have no trouble believing the Bible is the Word of God.
C. Liveth and abideth for ever. There are two that will live and abide
forever, the Bible and Jesus Christ, but in eternity, we will not experience
them as separate.
1. Liveth means to be alive, or have life.
2. Abideth means to stay (in a given place, state, relation or
expectancy).
3. Our relationship to Jesus Christ.
a. Our relationship to Jesus Christ will remain the same throughout
all eternity.
b. We believe Security of the Believer is a most glorious doctrine,
but when this doctrine follows its logical conclusion into eternity, it
takes on an unfathomed depth of splendor.
c. The great difference between our relationship with Jesus now and
in eternity, is that now we are cumbered with this physical body which
retains the sinful nature. In eternity we will no longer look through a
glass darkly, but shall see Jesus face to face.
4. Our relationship to the Word of God, the Bible.
a. The pages the Bible is written on will be burned up in the fire
that destroys this universe.
b. The Words of the pages will never be destroyed, for Jesus is the
Word of God.
c. We receive much joy in studying the Bible even though we have a
sinful nature, but in eternity, our joy will be so much more enlarged
that our earthly joy will seem as nothing.
d. Our understanding of the scriptures will be much clearer because
our study will not be hindered by our preconceived ideas.
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