The Word Of The Lord Which Endureth Forever

Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1 again. 1 Peter 1, and I'm going to start in verse 22 and go to the end of the chapter. 1 Peter 1, 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, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. I'm not going to go back through everything else that I already talked about in 1 Peter, but I do want to point out two verses that I really did not go into in my last message. Those verses were the last two verses of my text last week, which are verses 21 and 22. There's no doubt this is all about Jesus Christ. We talked about the precious blood of Christ.

This is the foundation for everything and it is loved by his people once they are revealed this. But let's read verses 20 and 21 real quick. who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. This Jesus Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. What exactly was foreordained?

That Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That his blood, being that of a lamb without spot and without blemish, is precious to God. What does it say next? Who by him, him who? Jesus Christ. Who by him, this one ordained by God, do believe in God. God raised him from the dead and gave him glory because of this.

Our faith and hope is in this one Jesus Christ who was manifest to us. He did not come into existence, but he was just manifested to us in time. This was all foreordained before the foundation of the world, but to us he was manifested in these last times, is what it says.

Can anyone see where we have any power here? Where we have any right here to say or do anything? I'm even talking about my preaching. Where here does it say it has anything to do with my preaching that caused any of this to be? This is all about context as to what this is saying to us, so it is important to know the context.

You do not believe because of my preaching. You certainly must hear the preaching of the gospel to believe, but it is not the cause. You believe because of faith, if you have faith at all. Because faith looks to his faith, his faith is proclaimed in the gospel. Remember, from faith to faith.

What are we told by the Apostle Paul? Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. And I just want to read verses 4 through 7. 1 Corinthians 3 verses 4 through 7. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 4. For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?

But ministers by whom ye believe, and remember that, by whom ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. It says here are ministers by whom ye believed.

Does that mean my preaching is the cause? No, it just means I was the one preaching when God gave the increase. I have no power or right to give life. That was not given to me. But he does, and he will look, and we'll look at that more. But what is it saying?

What it's saying is if someone believes God's gospel, they do this when a man is preaching, else they have nothing to believe. Because God says it pleased him through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God has ordained the preaching of the gospel by sinners, servants of Jesus Christ, and sinners saved by His grace. But it is by Him that we believe in God, Him who has the right and the might. We believe because we have been given faith. We are given faith by God. All men have not faith.

If you do not believe, then you have not been given faith, Hebrews 4.2. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. You must have faith to believe when the faith of the gospel is proclaimed. So I want to talk about today unfamed love, being born again, and the word proclaimed by the gospel. So we see here what believing the gospel does. For us to believe the gospel, God must send us someone to preach the gospel.

What does Roman teach us? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? The answer is, you won't. The gospel is vital. A child of God must believe, but he or she cannot believe without hearing the gospel. I hope you're getting what I'm trying to say here this morning. Are you a believer before you believe? No, you must believe that I am here or you will die in your sins, Christ says. But a child of God, when he is given life and faith, will believe when they hear the gospel. It's been said here before, a seeing man can see nothing in a dark room, but when the light is turned on, he can see. God will send someone to you with the gospel and thereby turning on the light, so to speak.

This cannot be done in the flesh. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. What are the things of the Spirit of God?

One, in the context of 1 Corinthians 2 there, it is the gospel. But we also have in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.

The natural man cannot receive these things, but if God creates you anew, you will. That new man who was created in righteousness and true holiness, the channel on which you believe, is the Spirit of God. This says, in obeying the truth, not your truth, but the truth indeed, I-N-D-E-E-D, the real and only truth, in other words. It is a fixed point to where the Spirit guides you, and that point is believing the record God gave of His Son, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

1 Corinthians 3, 9 says we are laborers together with God. We are in close unity with God, laboring to put forth the gospel. God says go, and we go, preach the gospel. If you remember, 1 Corinthians 3 also says ministers by whom you believed. I've already talked about it. The word by in 1 Corinthians 3 is the same word used here in 1 Peter 1, 22, where it says through the spirit. But this through here in 1 Peter 1 is not us. We are not the channel the Spirit of God comes through to go into a person, if you will. We do what we are sent to do and preach his truth, the gospel. We are the channel on which the truth of God is proclaimed.

The Spirit of God takes that truth and seals it to that person's heart, to the believer's heart. We plant in water, God gives the increased if he is pleased. It is purifying and cleansing to know and believe what Christ has done for me. I need it daily because I get dirty, so to speak, every day. But knowing what Christ has done for me causes me to love my brethren truly, and it's real. This says it is sincere.

Why? We are not lovable. But because he is lovely and has cleansed me, the effect of that is I love others that he has cleansed, others that have believed his gospel. We know we do not love the brethren as we ought. So does God. That's why he tells us, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. We are to show much love and do it intensely. That's what it's saying there. Love is not an emotion but a choice. God chose to love us and we chose to love the brethren by his grace and power. This love is not fake love or an unfeigned love. It's real. This is not love. Bless your heart. We do not need our heart blessed. What we need is a new heart. Creating me, O God, a clean heart, so that I may love you and love the family of God. He must create in us a new heart.

I want us to keep in mind here, we must remember what is said in chapter 1, verse 2, 1 Peter 1, 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace. Be multiplied. That all goes together. Sanctification of the Spirit, what is this? God setting apart this flesh unto obedience? No. God creating a new man, and that new man created is set apart for the believing, the obeying of the gospel, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, the gospel. How is it said this is done here, the things we've just read?

1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again. So next, being born again. It says here in verse 23, being born again, or you can say it this way, having been born again. not getting born, but having been born. So in order for me to believe the truth and to love the brethren and love God for that matter, I must be born of God, born from above. I am born by a seed, not a corruptible one. There's no way you can corrupt this seed. This seed is Jesus Christ the Lord.

The word here is different than the words used in verse 25. But let me say that this word as well is also used in some places where it's talking about preaching the gospel as well. So the word itself does not tell us that this is Jesus Christ specifically. We get this in the context. The word can mean the divine expression. That word word can mean that. This does not come from my preaching of the gospel.

God Almighty Jesus Christ is the creator. He ever liveth and was ordained before the foundation of the world. He has not relinquished his power and right. He has not turned that over to the preacher. It says in Genesis 1, God said, and it was so. It only takes his divine expression to cause something to be. I don't have any divine expressions other than expressing His name, which is divine. But it is His utterance that is divine and life-giving. God created Adam and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He did this then and He does this now, when and if He is pleased.

You know the account in John 3, the word means born from above. Not below, but above. Let's look at who this word is, though, and turn with me to John 1. John 1. Very familiar to you, but just want to read it. Look at the words. John 1, and I want to read the first five verses. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Jesus Christ is the living word. He is the word that that incorruptible word which liveth. He has ascended to the right hand of the father accepted and remains there preparing us a place and he shall remain king forever. This word Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 8, these truths. I'm not going to turn to it, but our Lord explaining the parable of the seed and the sower tells us what he says.

The word must be sown. For if the word is not sown, there will be no belief that happens. I'm talking about the truth, the gospel, when I'm talking about the seed being sown. But there will be no belief if the word is not sown. No plant, no root, no fruit. This word, this gospel, when it is preached, has to have a certain kind of ground to fall on. Otherwise, there will be no plant, no root, no fruit. It takes both. Some call this pervenient grace. God does not. He says it is a good and honest heart.

If it does not fall on this type of ground, this kind of heart, then the gospel will have no lasting effect on that ground. Some may look like it's doing something, but time and trials will prove that kind of heart out. You will begin to see that there is no love toward the brethren, for one thing, because they do not love the gospel of Christ. I can tell you from authority of scripture, the preaching of the gospel does not impart to an individual life. I did not say it does not give life. I said it does not impart life to an individual. Before I turn there to show that, let me say this.

What did Christ tell Peter in John 21, 17? He said unto him the third time, and you remember this is after Peter had denied him three times, and then he met Christ on the shore, and then he says unto him this right here the third time. What kind of thoughts come into Peter's mind there? He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he had said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Why didn't he tell Peter to go preach life into his sheep? because that is not what Jesus Christ wants us to do, because we do not have the right or the might. He just tells us to feed his sheep, which we do by preaching the gospel. We eat his body and drink his blood when we hear the gospel, and it fills our hungry souls. So just as food is to our body, the gospel is to a hungry born-again soul. It is our sustenance.

What does Christ tell us specifically about this, though, in John 17, 1 and 2? These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Jesus Christ has all the power, and that is in anything.

We have no power whatsoever. But that says specifically power over all flesh, and that is what we all are by nature is flesh, dead in trespasses and in sin. He is seated at the right hand of God, so he is above. I am not. So it is he that gives life and not the preacher. So now I said the preaching of the gospel does not give life, and I said that not by my authority, but by the authority of the word, the word in scripture. So turn with me to Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel 37. You all know this too. Ezekiel 37. And that's just after lamentations if that helps. So Ezekiel 37, I'm gonna read verses one through 14.

The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry.

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy unto these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. and I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord.

So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army.

Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our bones are dried, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And as Walter said before, it's going to say this twice. So we need to pay attention to it.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live. I shall place you in your own land, then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord.

The preaching of the gospel does not impart life. It does not bring someone out of their graves. God does that. He may do this before you hear the gospel, during or while you are hearing the gospel, or after you hear the gospel. because the wind bloweth where it listeth.

You might can tell or hear, as it says in John three, that something's going on, but you don't know who it came from or who it's going to next. I don't know when someone is given life. I don't even know when I was given life. I may think someone who has been born from above, but they may be that ground that received the word quickly and with joy. But in times of trouble, they fall away. I may feel that someone is just not receiving that word. But it may be that the word is taking deep root in the soul and troubling someone so that they do not know which way to turn yet.

But it will be made manifest one day that they love God because they believe him and they love the brethren. Time will tell as the saying goes. But here is also the truth. I don't need to figure out who is one of God's and who is not. because the Lord knows them that are his, because he adds to the church daily such as should be added.

There is no flesh that will ever be anything other than flesh. It will be here one day and not the next. Verse 24 of our text. Verse 24 of our text. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. Any flower you might have in this world will fall away, because this flesh will wither. Ah, but that one born from incorruptible seed that liveth and abideth forever, that created one will live with Christ forever. That brings me to the last point, the word proclaimed by the gospel.

First Peter 1.25, but the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

This is talking about two things. This is talking about those words that Christ has spoken through his written word, and those words are spirit and they are life. When we preach the gospel, it is the Logos that is preached unto us. If someone is preaching Jesus Christ and the record God has given in the scripture, then the spirit will take that truth and seal it to our new heart created by God. We will begin to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. This Bible, the one I have right here, will corrupt and go back to dust, or burn up and go to dust. But the words which Christ has spoken, him being the seed singular, those words being spirit and life will always remain.

But it is this word which was in the beginning and foreordained to shed his blood for a people that is brought to us by the gospel. He is brought to us by the gospel. We speak that word in the gospel. With these things being said, notice how either before or after it says for us to do this or to do that. Here in 1 Peter 1, it always either preceding the thought or after the thought speaks of what God does to us and for us.

The Word Of The Lord Which Endureth Forever

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The Word Of The Lord Which Endureth Forever

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