May it please almighty God to
bless our souls this morning as we meditate in his holy word.
Let's turn to the first epistle of Peter and the first chapter,
and we'll read the last two verses. That's verses 24 and 25 in the
first chapter of the epistle of Peter, the first epistle of
Peter. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man, as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof foreth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth for ever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. It's wonderful to realise that
the Word of God gives us illustrations, simple illustrations, that you
and I are able to appreciate and also able to understand. And as we have this final statement
in this 25th verse, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever,
And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The illustration given about
that is in the previous verse where we're told all flesh is
as grass. It doesn't say is grass, it's
as grass. That means all people are like
grass. And all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. And then we're told, the grass
withereth and the flower thereof foreth away. So that's the analogy
of you and me as a sinful creature on this earth. We're like that,
we're like this all flesh and we are like the flower grass
and the grass withers and the flower thereof falleth away. And that's really our situation. If we look at our lives surely
we must realise how that occurs to each one of us. We start young
and old, young rather, without any problems normally. And as we get older and older,
then more and more difficulties and problems exist in our life. And we're like this really, the
grass withers. And of course, we've seen that,
haven't we? This year, with the warm sunshine and so much of
the grass has just withered and gone away and the flowers falleth
away also but the great blessing and this is the whole illustration
and the whole reason for the illustration but but and it's
wonderful these buts I've often referred to that but the word
of the Lord God's word the word which he speaks The Word of the
Lord doesn't fade away. It doesn't wither. No, it's the
same. God's Word is the same yesterday
and today and forever. And that should be a wonderful
encouragement to each one of us, a strength to us to know
that God's Word remains strong and powerful and it doesn't change. And you and I can therefore rely
upon it 100%. We can't rely, can we, on the
things in this life? We can't rely on the things that
people say, and yet we can rely upon the Word of God. Because here is a grand and glorious
statement. The word of the Lord endureth
forever. And that means what it says.
God's word will not change. It will not vanish away. It will
remain. And what a blessing and what
a strength that is for you and me. And leading up to these statements,
we're told in verse 22, seeing ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth, through the Spirit, unto a unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart, fervently. That's the direction to the Church
of God, how we should treat one another, how we should deal with
one another, and we should always esteem others better than ourselves. Naturally, we're very fond of
ourselves. very fond of doing that that
we want to but it's good when God gives us that understanding
and that grace therefore to seek after others good and be concerned
about this great statement of purifying our souls saying you
have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Well, the Word of God is so complete. There's nothing lacking in the
Word of God. There's instruction there for
everything in our lives. If you and I ever need direction,
which we do often, it's to go to the Word of God and find our
direction in the Word of God. That's the place to go. We tend
to look at others, we tend to ask others, what do you think
I should do? The great thing is to look to
the Lord because men and women make mistakes. They don't understand.
And the reason they don't understand is they don't know what's going
to come. They don't know the end from
the beginning. But God knows the end from the beginning. So
what a good thing it is if you and I are given that spiritual
understanding to seek God's will to come to his word and we can
rely on that a hundred percent. You can't rely on anything else
really but you can rely upon the word of God. So here we have
this encouraging direction. And then it goes on with these
great and important statements, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. How necessary it is that every
one of us is born again. That means we become a new creature
Old things are passed away, behold all things are new. And again,
that's a great question that every one of us needs to answer
before Almighty God. To realise that we are born into
this earth, we all have a natural body, but the vital thing is
to be born again. Not of corruptible seed, which
is our natural seed, but of incorruptible, and then Peter tells us, by the
word of God. And that really means that God's
word is spoken to our hearts. It's not something which is negative,
not something which has no value, but to think that God's word,
God speaks his word. You only have to read the Word
of God, and we've got so many, many examples of God speaking
His Word to His people, directing them naturally, and above all
things, directing them spiritually. And you and I today need that
direction, and we need to know that we are born again. That means that God has given
us a spiritual life, a spiritual knowledge, a realization that
we are undone, poor, weak, sinners of the earth, and that we need
a savior, because each one of us are fast hastening through
time. We don't need much understanding
to appreciate that, do we? We see it all around us, death
and decay. Things die, people die, people
get old, pass away. It's continually with us, isn't
it? And around us. We cannot avoid
it. We cannot turn ourselves away
from it. It's there. And therefore how
necessary it is for us to understand and know by the Spirit of God
that we are born again. Not of corruptible seed, that
means the seed naturally of this earth, naturally, but by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Well, I wonder
if I was to ask every one of you, if I went round the congregation
and to ask each one, well, are you born again? Do you possess
the great blessing of incorruptible seed, incorruptible word from
God, that God has spoken into our hearts? You see, the reality
is that you and I can only speak about ourselves. We can only
speak of what God has spoken to us. We don't know what he's
spoken to other people. We may make some assumptions,
we may listen perhaps to what they say, but you cannot be sure,
but you can be sure about God speaking to your heart and to
my heart and that's why it is so relevant as Peter tells us
here being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible
and then he qualifies it by the Word of God which liveth and
abideth forever God's word. God has spoken a word into your
heart and my heart. It's that which will remain.
It will remain. And it's quite amazing really.
You may have witnessed sometimes when people get old, their memory
fails. And they don't remember very
much. But if you go and see a true
believer and mention to them the things of God, you'll be
surprised how there's that sudden realisation and recognition of
the things of God and the able perhaps to converse a little
on what God has done for them, or to quote perhaps a text, the
Word of God, which he's given to them. It's quite amazing. And it's a very clear evidence
that what has occurred is they have received the incorruptible
Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So how important
that is in each of our lives to be able to remember what God
has spoken to us, what God has done for our souls. Each one
of us has a never-dying soul. We all have a personal life. We all have a life personal to
God. No one else knows what goes on
in your heart. I don't know. People might think
they do, but no one really knows. It's just between us and God. He knows what He's done, what
He's spoken to us. He also knows what we might have
rejected. We might have rejected His Word.
We might have said, I'm not going to have that man to reign over
me. I'm going to please myself. I'm
going to carry on. in this world and do what I want
to do. What a blessing it is when the
Holy Spirit comes and changes that perspective and makes us
willing, willing in the day of his power to do his will and
to listen to his word and to recognise the relevance of it
because the truth is God's Word endures forever. It's wonderful,
isn't it? When you think of you and me
as poor mortal sinners, you know, with a lifespan, but God's Word
remains forever. It doesn't vanish away. And how
good it is, therefore, if you and I possess the wonderful evidence
of God's Word. So how true this statement is,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Then it
comes down again to this analogy, for all flesh is as grass. All of us are just like grass. and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower
thereof falleth away. How true that is in our lives. We can't live forever. There's
lots of medicines about now which are prescribed to enable us to
live a bit longer, but we can't live forever. We're always on
a downward trail. We're always getting older. We're
always are getting nearer to that time when we must leave
this earth. And for us, time will be no more. And how true
we all see it. We see it, don't we? As we get
old, withering, our strength decaying, our abilities failing. And yet the promise is, but the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And Peter tells us, and this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The whole
of the Word of God is there to declare unto us the Gospel. To show unto us the great plan
of salvation. The great plan of salvation which
started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned on that
terrible day in the history of the world. And what did they
do? They disobeyed God. They disobeyed God. What do they do? They listened
to the devil. And we're no better are we today?
The devil comes and he puts suggestions in our mind. And you know we
have a conscience and we know whether those suggestions are
right or wrong. And we tend to be like Adam and
Eve. We know what's right. They knew
what was right. but they disobeyed God. It was
a tragic day, wasn't it? Because sin entered into the
world. But what a wonderful God we have. And how wonderful, even on that
situation, He told them of that which would occur, that the seed
of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. And we know,
of course, that that came to pass many years later, when the
Lord Jesus Christ, who was The seed of a woman came into this
world to pay that price required to redeem our souls. You see,
when you and I sin, we've got a debt that has to be paid in
order that we can be free from our sin. And sin can be taken
away. And you and I have no strength
and no ability to do that. But in the great and glorious
providence of God, the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world,
as the Apostle Paul said, to save sinners of whom I am chief. What a wonderful truth that is,
and to think that none other than the Saviour, the Son of
God, was willing to come into this world and to suffer for
those 33 years and then to come to that time of the cross and
to not deny what he was and where he was. and to willingly give
his life so that you and I might be redeemed. And as we read that
great and glorious truth, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes
and speaks his word into our hearts, we will recognise our
need of a saviour. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. And again, let's just ask ourselves
another question. Has the gospel been preached
to us? And I suppose the answer is yes.
The reality is, have we received it? Has it changed? our lives? Or are we just fighting
against God? Or are we submitting ourselves
under the mighty hand of God and recognising His Word speaking
to our hearts and whereas we rebelled and turned her back
upon God and said, we will not have this man, or rather in a
personal way, I will not have this man to reign over me. I'm going to enjoy myself. How
many people have said just that? I'm going to enjoy myself in
this life. Well, they may enjoy themselves
as they think in this life, but let's just understand the reality
of that. because you and I might think
that we're going to enjoy ourselves in this life and in reality of
course that never really occurs because there's always problems
there's always difficulties so what we think will be a lovely
time often doesn't work out as a lovely time and yet you see
we're only on this earth for a very very short time and then
what's before us? what's before every one of us?
Eternity. Where there is no time. It's
good to just ponder these things. We live in time. You and I live
in time. We understand time. But when we pass out of time,
we enter into eternity where there is no time. And it just continues and continues
and continues. There is no end. No end. And you and I, every one of us,
would either be in that glorious place of heaven with the Lord
Jesus Christ and all the Church of God, or we shall be in that
terrible place of hell, in outer darkness and gnashing of teeth
again forever and ever. No escape. No escape. No way out. There won't be an
end. In this life we can perhaps go
through difficult times and we can look ahead and we can perhaps
see a little bit of light and we can see when possibly this
problem and this difficulty will end. Well in hell it will never
end. And yet you see the devil wants
to blind our minds. He wants us to believe that such
truths are not true. Like he took in Adam and Eve
all those years ago. And you know what his ploy was? And it hasn't changed. It's a
very simple ploy. He cast doubt upon the Word of God. And he asked the
question, hath God said? Hath God said? He may say that
to you and me. Hath God said? And we wriggle
then, and we think, well, perhaps he hasn't said, and perhaps I
can not worry about it, and perhaps I can carry on. Well, we must
remember this great statement, and this is the word which the
gospel, by the gospel is preached unto you, the word of God. The
word of God tells you and me very clearly what is right and
what is wrong. And if you read the word of God,
you will know what's right and what is wrong. The devil wants you to ignore
it. He wants you to follow his advice and to disobey. God's Word. It was a terrible
outcome, wasn't it, for Adam and Eve? And it's a terrible
outcome for everybody who disobeys the Word of God. So what a great
blessing it is if God gives you and me that recognition that
God's Word is true. Thy Word is true. That was the glorious Word spoken
by Jesus to his Father In his high priestly prayer, thy word
is true. And so it is. And so it is. And that, you know, is a great
comfort to the Church of God. It would be a great comfort to
you if God had spoken into your heart a lovely and glorious promise. Perhaps like this, yea, I have
loved thee with everlasting love, and with loving kindness I have
drawn thee. Perhaps we understand what Jeremiah
meant in that truth. To realise that we were a stranger. We never understood the truth
of God, and yet, Amazingly, he drew us to himself. And what did he do? He reveals
to us the glory of the gospel. I realize
that as unworthy sinners, there's hope. There's hope for the worst
of sinners. Well, this morning may we be
blessed indeed to recognize how relevant it is that you and I
are blessed with the Word of God speaking into our hearts,
because that Word doesn't fade away. The things of this earth
fade away, just like the grass fades away, doesn't it? things
of this world fade away and you and I will fade away but the
word of the Lord endureth forever and what a consolation and what
a great strength that is you know these words also really
follow what Isaiah said in his prophecy in the 40th chapter
of Isaiah we can read very similar words which are It's good just
to realize that these weren't thoughts which suddenly appeared,
they were the very Word of God, and the strength of God's Word. And so the Prophet says, he says
this, and the glory of, well it starts off this chapter, you
may know, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. saith your God. And it is a great comfort to
know God's word being spoken to our hearts. And he goes on
to say, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. The boy said, cry. And he said,
what should I cry? All flesh is grass. And all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
belieth upon it. Surely the peep at this grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. That's the great comfort to the
Church of God. to know that his word, and you
think of the Bible, we've got so many words, haven't we, in
there. It won't disappear, it won't fade away. It remains forever. And then he just goes on, just
read one more verse. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. Oh, Jerusalem, bring us good
tidings. Lift up my voice with strength.
Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the citizens
of Judah, behold, your God. Well, it's a blessing if we can
behold the Lord. Behold, the Lord will come with
strong hands And his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward
is with him and his work before him. Well, we could go on, but
we won't. But that's the 40th chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah.
You can go home and read it. And it's very profitable to read
the Word of God and to recognize how it flows together. You see
how Peter would have been familiar with that prophecy and we see
how he's able to come in to his writings in these words here. Well being born again, well it's
a blessing today if you and I have the evidence in our heart that
we are born again in the Spirit. To know that God's Word has entered
into our heart and we have a personal evidence that God has loved us
with everlasting love He hasn't passed us by many people have
passed by and it's tragic if you and I pass by especially
if we sat under the gospel heard the preaching of the gospel and
it's passed us by hasn't entered in to our heart left us cold perhaps
left us rebellious perhaps made us recognise the truth of God
and yet we've concluded we don't want this man to reign over us. And yet how easily we forget
the difference between time and eternity. And if the Holy Spirit
shows us indeed the difference What a blessing it is that we
realise, and it's not only, of course, the prophets which speak
about that, the psalmist also speaks about that, and we can
be thankful for the Book of Psalms, which gives us so much wonderful
truth to bless God for, and the 103rd Psalm tells us And starting for verse 15. As for man, you and me, because
man he includes women. As for man, his days are as grass. As a flower of the field, so
he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it,
and it is gone. And the place thereof shall know
it no more. That's true, isn't it? Every
person is born into this world. We're on the earth for a time
and then we're gone. Then we're gone. I sometimes
think if you walk around London and you see umpteen statutes
of various people, you've got no idea who they were. They're
gone. Sometimes there's a note, who
the person was and what they did, but sometimes there's not.
We don't know. And that's like everybody. We just pass away and they're
known no more. No more. How important we might
think we are on this earth. One day we'll be nothing. We'll
be gone. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting. upon them that fear him, and
his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his
covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. God's covenants and God's commandments
are not optional. They're not things that you and
I can pick up and think, well I like that and I'll do that
and I don't like that and I won't do that. God's commands are for
us to keep. And of course, we can't keep
them. And we fail. And that's why we need to know
that the Lord Jesus Christ, who we know, kept the law. He didn't
fail. He kept everything. He never
sinned. And it's amazing, isn't it, to
think that he never had an evil thought. Although we are told
he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. So he knew what temptation was. And yet, you see, he never sinned. He never gave in. He always did
his father's will. What a wonderful and glorious
example we have. And so now, as we live on the
earth, we have that example before us of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the great battle we have on this earth, as you and I pass through
it, is to do the will of God or to listen to the insinuations
of Satan and to follow his evil and wicked advice. Satan's aim
is to deceive us. Satan's aim is to get us onto
his ground and then to keep us there. so that we never come
into the promised land. We fall into that terrible place
of hell. The devil's always there to hassle
us and to turn us away from the things of God. And you know,
he will never give up. He will never give up. I've quoted,
I know quite often, but I'll quote it again. When I was young,
And just after I was baptized, we had an old lady in the Bethesda
home, as you know, which is around the corner. And she said to me,
I want to tell you something, Stephen. I said, OK. And she
says, sit down. So I sat down. And she said,
I want to tell you this. She said, you must recognize
that when we get older, the devil realizes that his time is short. And therefore he tempts us more. And I said, oh, thank you very
much. That's interesting. Didn't really
think a lot about it, but I never forgot it. But I do know. But what that gracious lady said,
it was from her heart, from her personal experience, and she
was telling it to me, a young believer, to just encourage me
and just to warn me what the pathway would be. Well, I have
proved that what she said was so true. But, let's not forget the great
truth of the scripture which tells us we unworthy believers
are more than conquerors through him through the Lord Jesus Christ
not through what we've done but we can rely upon the Word of
God we can rely upon what it tells us how it speaks to us
about the great and glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
about his accomplished work, his finished work. He never failed. No, he never failed. And again,
sometimes it's good just to try and recognize that there was
a glorious God who was willing to come into this world and to
live all those years in this difficult scenario and yet you
see to never sin. That must have been so difficult
and so hard but he was willing to suffer and then he was willing
to bleed and to die that unworthy sinners might receive the great
and glorious gift of eternal life, as by his grace we receive
this great blessing of incorruptible seed. What a mercy, therefore,
if God has given to you and me that blessed incorruptible seed,
which is through the word of the Lord. Oh, but the word of
the Lord endures forever. You don't have to throw away,
perhaps, a lot of things that at one time you thought were
good and have to realize, well, they weren't really. They never really brought me
any true peace. They never really brought any
true happiness to my soul. And we realize the devil was
trying to turn us away. everything into your life which
might attract you. And you see, we all have a different
pathway to live and to lead. And things which are attractive
to one person may not be attractive to another person. So you must
be careful in judging people like that. The right way is laid down clearly
in the Word of God. And what a blessing therefore
for us today that we recognize that we are traveling through
this world. And as the Apostle Peter said
when he wrote to the Hebrews, for here we have no continuing
city. That's true. Is that sad news? For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. I remember again, a good few
years ago now, I was with somebody and they were talking about birthdays
and the person said, oh, I hate birthdays. And why did she hate
birthdays? Because she realized that her
life was passing away. Well, to the true believer, we
should not hate birthdays. We should recognize that as we come to a birthday,
it's really, we sing a day's march, but really it's a year's
march near a home. And that's a wonderful truth
to realize, that we've no continuing city here, but we seek one to
come. Well, I hope every one of us
here is seeking that celestial city. And it would
be good, therefore, if you and I recognize we're blessed with
this great favor of the knowledge that this Word of God endures
forever and as this Word of God is preached to us we rejoice
in it and it's a comfort to us and it's a rest for us as we travel through this world
to be able to recognise this is not our rest This is not our
home. You know, the believer, when
he dies, goes home. The unbeliever leaves home. And so, what a blessing. If you
and I are amongst those who, when the Lord comes to take us
from this earth, it will be to go home and to be forever with
the Lord. Well says the apostle being born
again not a corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever don't forget that for
all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is a flower
of grass Grass withereth, the flower of falleth away, but,
but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Don't forget the analogy
between the word of God and grass. It's easy to remember, isn't
it? But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is
The Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Oh, what
a mercy it is, if the Word of God has come into our hearts. We have rejoiced in it, and we
do rejoice in it, and it is a true, blessed comfort to us. Amen. closing hymn in worship this
morning. Hymn 535 to the tune Mariah 495. Hymn 535, the heading,