Published: March 30, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 11 | Scripture: 1 Peter 1:22-25
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we'll be looking again at 1 Peter chapter 1 today our Focus will be on verses 22- 25 so I'm going to read read those
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verses Peter verses Peter writes since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the Brethren fervently
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love one another from the heart for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and abiding word of
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God for all flesh is like grass and all its Glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls off
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but the word of the Lord abides forever and this is the word which was preached to you let us pray father again we do ask that you you
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would teach us by your Holy Spirit you would open our ears to hear you would cause us to meditate on these things and
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to be moved by them as you give us power to think and to understand and father we pray that we would walk in them as
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children of light as children of obedience we ask in Jesus name amen
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friend of mine uh this week told me that he was traveling up to Washington DC to visit some of his wife's relatives and one of the things they're going to do when they're there is to visit the uh
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smithonian Air and Space Museum which is probably uh one of my favorite pieces of acreage on the earth uh not that I'm a
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world traveler but somehow the the missiles the aircraft the spacecraft uh I could spend uh not just hours but days there um and I was thinking about
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the times I've been there and uh how big it is and how when you go into one of the side exhibits um and it takes you down through an era of for example space
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travel that when you come out on the other end you're about a half a mile from where you started and I always appreciate that they have these signs there and not the only only place but
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this is where I remember seeing them because I needed them you are here and it's like I'm here but I need to be way over there but I appreciated the signs
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you are here and I thought okay in Peter it's sometimes hard to tell it's like we've gone half a mile
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and we thought we were here but we're here and I thought I would Orient us to you are here in Peter so I don't want to belabor this but I think it's important
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to sometimes stop and look at the bigger picture because we're only about 2third of the way through the opening of Peter's letter most people say that
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after the greeting and the um explaining to us anyway who the recipients were that they were the chosen
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and that they have been Sanctified by the work of the spirit to obey Jesus Christ being sprinkled with his blood starting in verse three all the
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way to chapter 2: 10 is the opening of Peter's letter and I want to say this up front so I don't forget it that all of
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what we read here is dependent upon not us but God's grace so Peter opens this opening in
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verse 3-2 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ it's for his Blessing and his praise his work of Salvation that we ought to how to read that
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section and then we have and that is all one sentence by the way and then we get to the second sentence in verses 13- 21 one the future
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inheritance and he says as a motivation for Holiness looking at that true and living inheritance the right relationship with God is in focus in 13-
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21 in verse 13 He says set your hope completely on the grace of God and then following that be holy yourselves after
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the character of your heavenly father and now as we get in to the next section 22 through chap 2: 10 it's life
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as the new people of God from a right relationship to God we're now looking at a right relationship to one another to other believers to The Community of
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Faith and so in verse 22 he says love one another one another earnestly and in two two do you want to grow in your maturity and ability to
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operate in operate in the body of Christ in the family of God grow in Christ by craving spiritual milk of the
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of the word and in this section we have this uh back into what we've called the indicative to the imperative and again I don't want to
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belabor the nuts and bolts but simplify what it is is Peter goes from what is to what ought to be it's the ethical principles of the
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Christian Life and again I want to say that it's not tied to us and us working it up it it's not our energy he's going to tie it all to what God has done and
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to the power of the word and we should never ever forget that but in verse 22 we have the what is
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he says since you have an obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the Brethren then he follows that with what ought to be fervently love one another from the
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heart and in verse 23 we have the what is for you have been born again and he follows that over in chapter 2 verse one
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therefore put aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander do you see what is and what ought to be and in in that final section
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of this subsection to chapter 2:3 what is is you have tasted the kindness of the Lord verse two uh chapter 2:3 and what is the imperative it comes
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before long for the pure spiritual milk of the word see Peter is going to tell us what is it's grounded on what God has done and God it's done in our lives and
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for us and then he can say this is what ought to be this is what ought to follow this is what the Christian life looks like in the body of
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Christ and so we have in verse 22 a call to love and it's again it's one of those participles those kind of verbal
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adjectives and and the idea is because your lives are having been set apart having been in obedience to the truth
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you have purified your souls he's speaking of an unhypocritical love of the Brethren he's
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speaking of Love of the Brethren or brotherly
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possible because you have been in obedience to the truth you have obeyed the the the the gospel therefore he says love one another fervently from the
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heart love in verse 23 for you have been born again again another participle having been born again not from perishable seed
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but imperishable seed the living and abiding word of God and in verse 22 he speaks of Love twice a sincere love for
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the Brethren brotherly love the the word uh it's it's phos is that word we get our word Philadelphia love of the brothers from
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brothers from it and in verse 23 or sorry the second part of 22 fervently love one another it's the word that you all probably know is
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agape and I'll just say this as just a note to keep in the back of your head don't make the sharp distinction between the loves that many people make
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many people will say Agape well that's Divine love and yet we we find Deus who his love for the world was agape and so the love of God can
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sometimes be phos all right so don't make a sharp distinction that the Bible does not make but if I see a distinction here in verse 20 uh two it says you have
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an obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the Brethren that Brotherly that Brotherly Love A and then he says therefore
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fervently love one another my take is if we look at Brotherly Love sometimes we think of brother is
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universal I love all Christians I love the Christians in Africa in China and even and
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easily and that's relatively easy to say is it but to love one another in the local Body of Christ like here is
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hard and that's why Peter adds this word it's sincere love of the Brethren and fervently love one another two words the first one is unfeigned or
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unhypocritical it it it's Paul uses that word love that is not feigned love that is not
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idea love of self rules we tend to measure our love by the advantage that we have or as one author put it your heart is going to find something to
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love and and this is the danger this is why he says let it be unhypocritical let it be sincere let it let it be
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unfeigned and then he goes on and says okay but the love that you have for one another and again I believe this is the love within the body of Christ he is
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saying let it be fervent fervent is is is a word that means earnestly uh it actually comes from a word that means stretched or
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strained it's used of Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that he prayed fervently there it was painful so if you pick up on the
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language that we sometimes use when when you you hear of somebody in distress somebody's got an issue you we we say things like this you my heart goes out
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to you well only a Christian can say my heart goes out to you if you do say it and it's not painful it's not biblical love because
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it must be stretched and it must be strained and what is the idea here in the context of Peter what we'll see is endurance we'll see constancy permanence and that's the idea
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behind this word to me yes it it it is to be something that that makes you strain and stretch yourself because it's
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not natural but I think in this context it's the constancy it's not turned off and turned on when I feel like it I'll love you if you say something I don't like I'm going
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to stop there's a constancy
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here so Peter unites brotherly love with people in the family of God I mean think about it he's writing to a people that he he calls strangers and and foreigners where they are there
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there there are Christians living in a world that doesn't understand them in fact they may have come from a divided world I think most of these that he's
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writing to are Gentiles but there's probably some Jewish Christians there as well and and think about that there the dividing wall between the Jew and the Gentile before
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Gentile before Christ there's the jealousies and yes the past hatred of one another and now they're all lumped together and he's saying love one
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another Pride and Prejudice did not come into the world when Jane Austin lived it was always here the the Corinthians even though
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when in our Bible sometimes it looks like they they tried to Corner the market on clicks and clubs and and dissension in the body of Christ but they didn't invent it other churches had
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it other churches still have it I mean think of the mix in this church as it ought to be although I've heard of churches in this area they don't allow
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the teenagers to worship with the adults they have their own worship service to me that is dead wrong but think of the mix that that Peter is viewing here young and old rich
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and poor they came from different backgrounds some have titles some are just Farmers some are just workmen some are skilled Craftsmen some just plain old folks and he's
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saying having been purified by your obedience to the truth and I'll just go ahead and say it the truth here is the gospel and he's speaking of conversion you've been
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converted by the truth of the gospel for sincere Brotherly Love Now fervently love one another from the
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heart they're all children of God even though they're all strangers and foreigners Brotherly Love cannot be fed it can't be faked because that's not
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where it comes from one author says love can be demonstrated various acts of of kindness of helping one another of Acts of
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compassion but that's not how love is transmitted it may be demonstrated but how is it
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transmitted Christian love is born just as Christians are born through the truth of the Gospel do you want to grow in mature Holiness among the body of
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Christ it's the gospel you must be born again you must be and I think it's a better phrase than our English begotten
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Again by God he begot you you did not born yourself the word of God his message of grace and mercy and love love Kindles
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our love for one another and so love and Holiness are bound together love is the true Mark of
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Holiness Karen jobes and her commentary writes Earnest love within the Christian Community is the Hallmark of having been converted and what is the Hallmark it my
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understanding it started in the Goldsmith's Halls in in in Great Britain it's a mark That's stamped on the gold or silver or later on the Platinum pieces certifying their standard of
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Purity and a guarantee of their genuiness Martin Luther wrote for what end must we lead a Chase life that we may thereby be saved no but for this
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that we may serve our neighbor see here here here's the Hallmark here is the stamp the stamp of Purity but where do the Purity come from the Purity comes
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from truth Purity and Truth match each other Peter says in obedience to the truth you have purified your souls and Peter is referring to the
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truth of the gospel because they've been converted by their submission to that gospel the word cleanses
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the word purifies the word consecrates Believers and you have been set apart so now you can
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love Peter is probably referencing the Purity laws the washing the purifying of the priests and those who would come to offer sacrifices
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but to purify our souls is is not ceremonial washing and we know from the writer to the Hebrews and other places in scriptures the ceremonial washing
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could not could not cleanse the cleanse the heart it could not renew their lives it could not make them grow up in
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the faith but the truth of the Gospel is that God chose us and caused us to be gotten a gotten a new as the commentator Daniel dorani
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says the gospel is the truth of God that brings the power and glory of God to all who believe and so I think Peter's just
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asking so what is our response and our response is to live in a manner in line with that gospel it is
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the truth truth and Purity match because truth is pure in itself and Truth produces
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Purity Luke reminds us all Purity conflicts with impurity conflicts with the gospel anything impure conflicts with the gospel which
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is the truth of God truth is honest Liars honest Liars pretend truth is from the heart lies wear
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masks to conceal reality and and that's the word that Peter uses unhypocritical comes from the stage they would wear a mask they were pretending to be someone
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else truth hypoc hypocrite Hypocrites are pretenders they're actors they're not real but truth brings
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life because the gospel is truth and it's the truth of God and God brings life and he says that word of Truth
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isn't imperishable seed he he uses the word spora it's again I there are some who who want to go to the parable of the seers and the and the ground but but
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here the focus is on the sewing the sewing of an imperishable seed again it says permanence it says something that that does not die it's it's endurance
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Incorruptible and God uses the sewing of the seed of the word of God to beget us new so the question is how does being reborn from the imperishable seed imply
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the command to love one another the perishable seed produces a quality of life that is at best
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and temporary Paul might use the word earthy but the imper perishable seed produces a quality of life that is
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living and living and enduring love for one another is enabled by that new life generated by the word it manifests the new bird birth to
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others our rebirth as children of God acting like our father acts like our elder brother acts and it's for eternity
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and Peter validates what he has just said by citing Isaiah 40 and its function here and I'll just go ahead and say the bottom line the function I think of Isaiah 40 as Peter uses it here is
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that the gospel message lasts forever it endures as that imperishable seed is it Incorruptible it it is living
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and active he says Peter uses the marvelous past of what happened when God spoke to the people in Babylonian exile and points
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us to an even more glorious future remember verses 10- 12 in 1 Peter that we read as to this salvation he
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says the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquire they're trying to understand what is Isaiah is saying this but what is it all
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about what will it be like in the future who is he speaking to is it just these people and here's what they wondered
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about the glory of men is Isaiah 40 that we read and as Peter quotes here all flesh is like glass grass and all of its
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Glory like the flower of the grass the grass withers and the fow flower falls off the glory of men
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fails but the glory of the Lord will be revealed Isaiah 40 says the the context of Isaiah 40 it's it's a sense of urgency again let me read from verse one
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again God it's almost as if you can hear that in his voice Comfort oh Comfort my people says your God speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her
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Warfare has ended that her iniquity has been removed there's an urgency there to tell them the promises of God are sure God is now telling them my promises
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will stand I I promised Abraham that you would be a mighty nation that that that that you would PE be a people of my own possession that I would be your God and
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you would be my people and he's saying call out clear the way these things are coming the glory of the Lord's going to be revealed don't forget that my promises are sure there's an urgency
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there guess what there's an urgency I think in Peter's voice here by using Isaiah 40 and having us go back and hear that Echo what is he trying to do these
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are people verse 7 of chapter 1 the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perable perishable even though tested by fire these people
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are being tried and tested they're the resident aliens they're they're among a people who don't understand who they are who is this Christ and why do you follow him why do you do the things that you
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do and there's a sense of urgency because Peter has come to comfort those people
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natural man's glory is pretty glorious wisdom strength riches learning honor Beauty art virtue these are the glory of man but they're fleeting he says people are like grass
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and and the grass is going to wither it's going to it's going to reach its end of life it's going to die or the flower is going to fall off it's going to be on the stalk one day and the next
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day it's on the ground it has fallen away suddenly and the language here is that God is not forgetting his people he's
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got the Exiles in Babylon and he's telling them my promises are sure I'm coming in fact there's one verse and it says it very cleanly here is your god go
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out and cry the good news and I think Peter is crying the good news here
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the gospel is for the mouth of the Lord has spoken they were to Bear The Good News Isaiah says and the good news of the presence here is your god and the
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Assurance down further Like a Shepherd he will tend his flock this is the context in which Peter says love one another be the body of
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Christ be what you are live what you know to be the truth of the
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Gospel the word of the Lord abides forever so Peter can now be a bearer of that good that good news and he says this is the word which was preached to
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you all of these things I believe were summed up in that set of verses that that Chuck read the other night at the end of our study and
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I want to repeat them here because I think it encapsulates all of what Christ has done in this context from Ephesians 5 Christ also
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loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word that he might present to
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himself the church in all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and
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blameless let us pray our heavenly father we just rejoice in these things
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that we've been washed that we've been purified that we've been cleansed by the power of the word that you have caused us to be born again that you have caused us to hear the gospel and respond in
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faith and father even as we celebrate this young life who has been born again by your gospel I pray that that we would
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also rejoice and thank you for what You' have done in our hearts but especially that you have brought us together as a body that you have brought us together as a church from all different walks of
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life and life and places to be a body to give you glory and honor honor and to walk blameless and holy before you thank you for these
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things in Christ's name amen you please rise for the benediction this is
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from the
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40 somewhat lengthy but I think it applies do you not know have you not heard the Everlasting God the Lord the creator of the ends of the Earth does not become weary or tired his
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understanding is inscrutable he gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might he increas his power though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly yet those who
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wait on the Lord will gain new strength they will Mount up with wings like eagles they will run and not get tired they will walk and not be weary