Living Out Your Salvation: Action Motivated by Love - 1 Peter 1:22-23

1:20Well, as a result of your salvation, you need to respond to that salvation. And this is what Peter is telling his audience. You are to prepare. Prepare your minds for action. Verse 13, prepare your minds for action. And there is action that comes out of grace, or action that is motivated by grace. Respond to your salvation because of the grace of your salvation. And then there is action in verse 17 that comes out of fear, or an action motivated by fear. That is, you were redeemed with something very costly. Therefore, live, live as one who has been redeemed at a great price. And then in our verses this morning, there is an action that is motivated by love. In response to your salvation, respond to the love of your salvation. And there is action that is motivated by love. And what I want to do these next couple of weeks is to impress upon you the need to love, to love each other and to love the Word. These two things, action, this is how you grow in your salvation. How you respond to your salvation is to heighten your love for each other and to heighten your love for the Word. And if this doesn't happen, then my goal has not been achieved. So as we walk through this passage this morning, I want to take you into a laundromat. I want to take you into a forest. And then I I want to take you into a wildflower field. So be looking for those as we go. So, action motivated by love. The first of these is to love one another. Love one another. Look at verse 22. Fervently love one another from the heart. That is the imperative command that dominates this whole section.

3:26Imperative. You must love one another. And it's from the heart. That is, your internal disposition towards one another is to be love, not just mere outward motion, but an inward, internal disposition that motivates and drives you to express love towards one another. But also note that that love is to be fervently. It is to be a fervent love. And that word means earnest, to the limit, to the full extent. And it implies continually. So the love that is being commanded for you to have towards one another is to come out of the heart, and it is to be to the full limit of your heart. Expressed to one another. In Acts chapter 12, this word is used to describe the prayer as Peter had been incarcerated.

4:31He was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. And if you'll remember, then the angel comes, wakes him up, get your clothes on, put your shoes on, put your cloak around you, come on, follow me. And he walks out of the prison. And then in verse 11, when Peter came to himself, he says, Now I know that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark. So he went to Mark's house, where many were gathered together and were praying. So they were still praying. This fervency of prayer was a continual prayer, an earnest prayer, and they were praying to the full limit of their capabilities to have Peter come back. This is the kind of love that you are to have towards one another, a fervent love. So then the question comes out of this: why should you love one another? Why? Well, there's two reasons that are given, and we'll look at both of those this morning. The first, because your soul has been purified. The first reason he gives, why should you love one another, is because your soul has been purified.

5:561 Peter 22, since you have in obedience. Obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. Now it's an interesting expression here. In the literal Greek, the soul of you, or your soul, having been purified in obedience to the truth. So there's this purification process that has taken place where in the obedience to the truth. And what is being purified? Your soul. The inward spiritual nature is being purified. Look at the word purified. The word purified there speaks of an action that has taken place in the past, but it has continuing results. Continuing. You have, and it's active. You have washed. You have cleansed yourself to be cleansed. So this is where we walk into a laundromat. Okay? The soul being washed, cleansed, dry clean, whatever you want to want to, how you want to express it. How does the soul get cleaned? Well, I've got just the thing: detergent. Okay? This is what happens when you have a bunch of daughters in an art room. And then I think I know I'm having some flashbacks to my youth ministry. Years, but I really want to get you get this impressed upon you. Okay, think about a purifying detergent, something that you can throw the soul in the washing machine and sprinkle this in there, and it purifies the soul. What is that substance? Well, a literal Greek reading of this, a literal reading of this would be, it is obedience to the truth. Look back at the text. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your soul. So your soul has been purified in obedience to the truth, as if it were a detergent. Okay? Now, we're going to be careful that we don't press this too far or press it beyond what Peter is implying here, but that is what he's saying. That in obedience to the truth, your soul has been washed.

8:25And he is not implying here any kind of human work at all as to take away what he has already said, that salvation is by grace. Go back to chapter 1, look at verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God, the foreplan, the forelove of God, by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to obey Jesus Christ. So, what he is talking about here is not setting aside that truth, but complementing that truth, that the work of the Holy Spirit is sanctifying you so that you will walk in obedience.

9:00And that there is a cleansing, a soul cleansing that takes place as one responds and obeys the truth. And that because of the grace of God. But it is obedience out of your own volition. Very important that the work of grace does not set aside your volition. And that you are to purify your souls in obedience to the truth. And this implies that the gospel is meant to be obeyed. It's not some abstract words out there that you hear and has no bearing on your life or expects no response. In fact, if you turn back to Mark chapter 1, that initial point where Jesus came into Galilee in verse 14, chapter 1. Now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, that is, the good news of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. He is announcing the good news to them, and implied in that good news is obedience. Be obedient by be repenting, be turning away. And be believing. The first act of obedience to the gospel is to believe the message. And if you fail to believe the message and have faith in that message, you have been disobedient to the gospel and your soul is not cleansed.

10:53So the gospel is meant to be obeyed. The word of truth is meant to be obeyed. And as it is obeyed, there is a cleansing power. And that speaks initially of our entrance into our salvation through justification, the justifying work of Christ upon the cross as we hear, we believe, we turn away from, we turn to him, put our faith, trust in him, and we are justified. But that obedience also has a cleansing effect as we are sanctified, as we continue to obey him. There is a soul cleansing element to continual obedience.

11:41It cleanses us. Walking in the ways and the patterns of this world does not cleanse the soul, it defiles the soul. And so we are to go into the laundromat and we are to be purified. Now, what do you do with a purified soul? Anyway, when you take a suit, you take it to the cleaners, you get it cleaned up, what do you do with it? Well, or if it's a nice set of clothes, whatever, you wear it to a special occasion. You put it on for a special purpose, right? What is that special purpose? Look back at your text.

12:18What do you do with a clean soul? It is cleansed for a sincere love of the brethren. A sincere love of the brethren. You see, you're to love your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what God does. Why does He cleanse us? What does a purified soul do? It loves one another. That's what it does. Specifically, the family of God, your brothers and sisters of Christ. This is where your fervent love is directed. This is where your love from the heart is to be directed. But notice that it is to be a sincere love. And that word speaks of the genuineness of it. Without compulsion. I'm not made to love you. But the sincerity also speaks of without hypocrisy, without the mask. You know? To really, truly love somebody from the heart without a mask on. Saying, How are you doing, brother? Boy, that's the dorkiest set of britches I've ever seen in my life, you know.

13:36Or to a lady's, you know, you can, hi, how are you doing? Very nice. Boy, that's the ugliest dress I've ever seen. You get the picture, right? But a love that does not have a mask, a love that is sincere, genuine, fervent love from one to another with genuine expressions of that love from the heart, fervently. That is the command here. And the reason is because your souls have been purified, and that's what a purified soul does.

14:13And if there is hypocrisy in your love towards one another, you need to question the genuineness or the cleansing that has taken place in your soul. And see, this should this sincere love should guide us as a church in all of our ministry activities. It should guide all of our interactions with one another. So I was thinking maybe we could get a ministry team, right? We could call it the love disposition from the heart at all times ministry teams. And they could go around and they can check up on each ministry team and make sure that they're going through a prescribed order and that they're truly loving everybody from the heart. And when they don't, wow, we need to drop the. Hammer hard, right?

15:04It doesn't work that way, does it? It can't work that way. Because love from the heart must be genuine. It's not something you can put down checkboxes. Oh, I think checkboxes are great and are needed and should be, we should programize our love for one another, but it must be expressed in every team, from every person, in every action, towards every word that comes out. It needs to be an expression of fervent love towards one another.

15:41You see, a purified soul has a different center of existence. See, before you were saved, you had a self-centered existence. And it was characterized by love of self and disobedience to God's Word. That is the characteristic of a self-centered life, of a lost life, of a dirty soul. They don't regard the commandments of God, and they themselves are the ones to be served. But a purified soul has a new center of being: obedience to the truth and sincere love of the brethren. Both take you out. Of yourself. Obedience to God is setting him on the throne. A God-centered life versus a man-centered life with you on the throne. And a sincere love for others also moves you off the throne and puts others in the place where God wants you to serve them. So obedience to the truth and a sincere love of the brethren are the primary expressions of a God-centered life. And the two are not to be separated. Don't think you can have one without the other. Peter certainly doesn't. And as you read John, John certainly doesn't. And as you read Paul, Paul certainly doesn't.

17:15That's because Christ does not see them as something to be separated. So why should you love one another? Well, the first reason is because your soul has been purified. And the second reason, look back at the text, because you have been born again. Because you have been born again. Look at verse 23. For you have been born again, not of a seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring word of God.

17:50The word having been born again is a perfect, passive verb, and again indicates. Meaning something that has taken place in the past, that has continual action or continual results today. You have been born again in the past, and that the effects of that remain today. And it's from two words: anna and gana'o. The first anna means to redo something. I used to call Baptist Anabaptist, right? You're re-baptizers. That's what you are. You're re-baptizers. And Gana'o means to be born or to come into being. So if you put them together, it's a re-coming into being, a rebirth, a regeneration, a new existence coming into play.

18:54Rebirth. And it's not a spiritual, I mean, it's not a physical birth that's in view here, is it? I mean, Nicodemus is like, what? What is this? How can a man be born again? It's talking about a spiritual truth. You must be born again. Very interesting and profound. New Testament truth is that truth is like a seed, a seed, a seed. Now I want to take you into a forest. A physical seed is an incredible thing. In fact, around my house, we have a bunch of these towering oak trees. And they get very large. And in this last drought, a lot of them died. And piling them up takes a lot of work. It takes big equipment because they're big, they're massive, and they're heavy. But you know what they start out like? You know what? Can you see this? I hold up a little, what is this? An acorn, or as my kids call it, a nut with a hat on it. But it's really a seed. It's a seed, right? And this is an incredible little creation, if you will, because this can take this little thing doesn't weigh anything, you know, put it in the soil.

20:29It has everything it needs to start becoming a great and majestic, beautiful oak tree. It has all the information. It knows how to take the matter, even dead matter, dead and decaying matter, out of the soil, being energized by the sun, transported by water, and this thing is literally able to take dust and turn it into a towering. Magnificent tree. That is what the seed does. It goes into the soil and it apprehends that soil. And it starts its metabolic pathways and it starts taking in nutrients and it starts putting them to work and it has a goal in mind. There's a set of instructions. There is an end result that is already in the cup of the acorn. And it's not just one tree, it's a mighty forest. I hold right here in my hand everything needed for a mighty forest. It's profound. And that's the way the New Testament refers to truth. It's like a seed.

21:47Remember, in the parable of the soils, Mark chapter 4, verse 13, he says to them, he just told this parable about all these different soils, three bad soils, three good soils. And he says, Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? In other words, he's saying to his disciples, if you don't get this, you're not going to understand New Testament truth. This is so basic to New Testament truth that if you don't understand this, you're not going to understand any of the parables.

22:20He says, let me explain it to you. And he goes through three different types of soil. There's the hard soil where the seed doesn't get in and the birds come and eat it up. Then there's a Another soil that is hard, but it's hard under the surface, kind of on a hard pan layer of stone. Soil is only shallow, and so it can't penetrate more than a couple of inches, and then when it gets hot, it dies away. And then there's a third soil that looks pretty good on the surface, but underneath the soil is a whole mass of thriving and living, thorny rootstock. And as soon as the rain comes, that stuff shoots up and it just overpowers the soil. And in all three cases, the seed is lost. It perishes. It's gone. Not the reason why a sower plants seed. And then there's three soils, three soils that receive the word and it goes in, takes root, it grows. Some of them produce 30-fold, some of them produce a crop of 60-fold, and some of them 100. But this is what truth does: it goes into the soil. And the implication and the exhortation to us is: be good soil. What does good soil do? Receives the word, believes the word.

23:57So believe the word, take it into your heart. And pray that you will not fall prey to these other pitfalls that would cause the fruit or cause the seed to die. Truth is given to you to produce a harvest. And how does that seed grow? It's interesting that just a few verses later in chapter 4 of Mark, Mark gives, under the no doubt, direction of Peter, a parable that only shows up in Mark's gospel. It doesn't show up anywhere else. And it's the parable of the growing seed. And he says, and he was saying, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil and he goes to bed at night and he gets up by day and the seed sprouts and it grows. How? He himself does not know. The soil produces the crops by itself. First the blade, then the head, then the chure grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts forth the sickle because the harvest is come. And you get this sense, I don't really know how this works, but it works. That's what truth does. You don't have to explain how it works to know that it does work, and that that is what truth does. When it is believed in the heart and taken in, it produces a harvest of righteousness.

25:26But notice, there are two kinds of seeds in view. Look at verse 23. There is the perishable, and then there is the imperishable, right? The perishable is subject to corruption. It's subject to decay, death, and extinction. And this speaks, includes every kind of physical seed, everything around us. And the physical world is perishable. It will not endure forever. But it doesn't go, it doesn't just stay within the physical. There's also the spiritual. That is, Adam's seed, the offspring of Adam, are not imperishable, but perishable.

26:13Spiritual error will also grow, but it is perishable. Lies and error will take root and grow in the heart, but they are not imperishable. They are perishable and they are passing away. The mere opinions of men are passing away. And then there is those imperishable seed, that imperishable seed that is impervious to corruption, impervious to decay, impervious to death. It's something that is permanent. And this is what you've been born again, born by, reborn by, if you are in Christ. So, what is that imperishable seed that causes a person? To be born again. What is that imperishable seed? Look back at verse 23.

27:05That is, through the living and enduring Word of God. You have been born again. Not a seed which is perishable but imperishable, but that through the living and enduring Word of God. It is the Word of God that is the truth. Notice how it's the living word. You see, when the Word of God is believed, a living principle comes into the soul, which can never perish. A living principle, because the Word of God is living. Truth is alive.

27:42It's not inert. It's not inactive. It doesn't just sit there and do nothing. Truth is alive. And when truth comes in, it germinates in the heart. It takes root. That's what it does. It takes root in the innermost being of man. It grips the soul. And then it sends out shoots throughout the whole body, throughout the whole spirit, the whole being of man. And it touches every aspect of his being. Truth transforms. Truth has a set of instructions and it molds. It has an outcome. It has a goal in mind.

28:27It motivates. It animates. It's not dormant. That's why the New Testament sees the Word as something living and active. It's not dormant. And just as an acorn can take a bunch of dead and decaying matter and transform it into a beautiful and majestic and glorious living tree, so the Word of God can transform a dead and decaying spirit into a beautiful and magnificent creature of God. And if we were today to see the end result of what God is doing in some of your lives, if we could see you glorified, we would be tempted to fall down and worship you.

29:13Because that is the magnificent work that the truth is doing in the hearts of God's people. It's incredible. But notice that the word is not only the living word, it is the abiding word. Look back in there. Verse 23 is described as the abiding word. Abiding means it remains, it endures, it continues. And he goes on in verse 24 and 25 to describe that. It's kind of like Peter is taking on a walk through a wildflower field. It's Texas, right? It's that time of the year. That's seeing. You guys are very familiar with that. It's one of the prettiest times in Texas. Texas, the fields, what apparently look just like grass all of a sudden bloom. They're glorious.

30:09It's like Peter's taking us through this wildflower scene, and then he reads to us, quotes a passage from Isaiah. Look at verse 24. For all flesh is like grass, and all of its glory like the flower of the 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. The grass is you. It's like Peter is saying, Look, the grass, this is you. And not only you, it's everybody else. Everyone else in the whole realm of mankind, this is you. All flesh, like grass. Flower. What's the flower? Well, that's the beauty of the grass, right? That's its high point in the sun. It's high point when all the it's young, it's beautiful, it's growing, everything comes together, and wow, that sparkle. Well, that's the highest point in your life, and everyone else's. Whether it's physical appearance, physical ability, whether it's your accumulation of great possessions, whether it's your political power or influence or whatever, whatever, it's that moment at your best. This is the flower. And not only of you, but the whole existence. The realm of mankind is like a flower, its greatest achievements, its highest pinnacle. But look what happens: the grass withers, the flower falls off. That's what happens to you. Your glory will be like a flower that falls off, and then there'll be some grass left, but then that even withers and it's gone.

31:56But look back at verse 25. The word of the Lord remains forever, into the ages. It's abiding, it's not temporary. The word of the Lord abides forever, and those who are born of the word of God abide forever. Good reason to love one another, right? Because everything else is passing away. That's what Peter's saying: love one another fervently from the heart. I don't even know if you know what you're sitting next to. The imperishable is to love the imperishable. There's nothing that the imperishable, nothing that is perishable that really impresses the imperishable, right? Because it's leaving. But the imperishable endures forever. It's a good reason for you and I to love one another because all of mankind, all of this realm, everything is going to be, we're even going to see a new heavens and a new earth, and the only thing that's going to be. Remain are those who were born of the seed of truth.

33:08It's interesting what he does here. Let me show you this: what he does here. Notice that you have not been born again in verse 23 of perishable, but the imperishable, but you have been born through the living and enduring word of God. You have been born through the logos of the theos. Okay? Now look at what he does in verse 25. But the word, the rhema of the Kyrios, our Lord. You see, a switch has been made. The logos of God is the words of Christ.

33:53The logos of Yahweh the Father is the words and teaching of Yahweh the Son. And this, look back at the end of 25, is the word that was preached to you. And the word for preached is evangelized. This is what has been proclaimed. This is the good news that has come to you. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, It's interesting that Peter did not send them out on a quest to find the word, did he? He said, You have the word. It's not something that you have to go look for. It's something that's in your possession. It's something that has been declared to you and announced to you. Remember in Romans 10, Paul in verse 6 says, But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: Do not say in your heart, who is going to ascend into heaven? We don't have to ascend to heaven to go find the word.

35:00Or who will descend into the abyss? Well, it's not there either. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. Peter assumes that his hearers have the word. It's already been spoken. It's already been implanted. So we have the word. It's important to note that the emphasis of this text is not just upon the word of God, but the God of the Word. God is the one who caused them to be born or reborn.

35:45And we can see this and conclude this: that divine truth is the instrument that God uses to awaken the soul to spiritual life. Do you believe that? How does God, who is a spirit? How does he awaken to spiritual life? How does he awaken us into his realm? Through truth. Through the word of truth. It's like a seed. It's divine seed. We who are of Adam's seed perish. But we who are born of God's seed, when taken into the heart, live forever. He is causing divine truth, it is the instrument which God uses. James 1:18 says it like this: in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures. And this is why, by the way, that the word of God is always at the center of theological debate and always at the center of our understanding of God, is because it is the word of truth that is opposed.

37:06Because that is what gives life. If we can mess it up, shade it, confuse, trip up, add to, take away, it's not the truth anymore. That's why it's always at the center of spiritual warfare, because it is at the center of spiritual life. It'll be that way in all generations. You can see that from the very beginning, and it will be that way to the end. You see, believers are to love each other to the fullest extent possible, because this is how God loves us. Your soul has been purified to love, and you have been born again to love. 1 John 5:1 says this: Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the Father loves the child born of him. By this, we know we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. You know what He does here? What John does, He takes the love of the Father, makes it equivalent with love of the children of the Father, and makes that equivalent with obedience to the truth. All that comes as a package deal. You love God? Do you love that which is born of God? Do you fervently love God? Then fervently love those born of God. And what does fervent love look like? Obedience to the truth. You see, it comes as a package deal.

38:44So, why do you love? Because your soul has been purified. Why do you love? Because you have been born again. That is why you are to fervently love one another. I'm going to take your mind back to that one episode, 1 Peter 1:22, where he says, fervently love one another. Want to reiterate that that is from the heart, that is not mere outward motion, not with a mask, fervently to the fullest extent. And we have an example in Jesus Christ.

39:17Luke 22:41, just before Jesus is going to go to the cross, and he is in the garden of Gethsemane, agonizing. He withdrew from his disciples about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done. And being in agony, he was praying very, and here's the word, fervently, and his sweat became drops of blood falling upon the ground. You want a picture of fervent love towards one another? Here it is.

39:56Do you believe that God loves you to this degree? That he would love you so fervently as to agonize over your sin to the point of spilling his own blood for your sin? Do you believe this truth? Some of you are outside the realm of truth right now, and yet you have been brought near by the preaching of the word, and it has been announced to you that you have a creator that loves you to this degree. Rest. Receive that truth into your heart, and it will change you like nothing else imaginable. That's what the word of truth does. But you must believe it.

40:44Take it in. It has a goal for you. It has a new life for you. But you must take it in. Believe it. Receive it as a good soil receives a good seed. But can you imagine what a church would be like if we would all love this way? If we could all fervently love one another to this degree, could these walls contain it? Would Bryan College Station not forever be changed? Because there is a community of truth that proclaimed truth, that brought truth into the inner recesses of their being, and were obedient to that truth, and that a truth expressed itself in fervent love towards another and to the community around us?

41:47Well, I want us to be a church that loves like that, even though it's kind of scary to even suggest it. But we'll rely upon him to accomplish that. Meanwhile, let's just be obedient to the truth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your word, Father, and we thank you that you have put it in our hearts. And Father, I just pray that it will do its work. God, that we would be a people that would love your people more, that we will love this community around us more, and that we would love your truth more.

42:28Father, whatever we need to repent of, I pray that you, by your Spirit, would bring that to mind. Father, whatever we need to lay aside, I pray that you would bring that to mind. And Father, I pray for your creative work to take hold in our hearts that we might truly love and be able to respond to one another in that spontaneity of love and that expressions of love that can only come from you and only in certain moments. Father, and that our whole lives would be characterized by this love, that we call upon you to create this kind of love among us, knowing that there's no way we're going to create it on our own. And so, Father, we ask you to do that and to have your way among us this morning and in the rest of the existence of Emmanuel Baptist Church. In Jesus' name, amen.