Rev. David Holwick R First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey May 18, 1997 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE? ====================== I. What will you be remembered for? A. Your good looks. B. The pile of money you made. C. Your world-renown fame. Babe Ruth had hit 714 home runs during his baseball career and was playing one of his last major league games. The aging star was playing for the Boston Braves against the Cincinnati Reds. But he was no longer as agile as he had once been. He fumbled the ball and threw badly, and in one inning alone, his errors were responsible for five Cincinnati runs. As the Babe walked off the field after the third out, booing and catcalls cascaded from the stands. Just then a young boy jumped over the railing onto the playing field. With tears streaking his cheeks, he threw his arms around the legs of his hero. Ruth didn't hesitate. He picked up the boy, hugged him, and set him down on his feet with a playful pat on the head. Suddenly the booing stopped. In fact, a hush fell over the entire park. In those brief moments, the crowd saw a different kind of hero. They saw a man who in spite of a dismal day on the field could still care about a little boy. Ruth was no longer being judged by his accomplishments - neither the past successes nor the present failures - but by a completely different standard. #2114 D. Will you be remembered for the sincerity of your faith? II. Focusing on what is really important. A. Christian love is what matters. B. God's Word is what lasts. C. What are you doing about both? -2- III. Love is greatest sign of real faith. A. Purity comes first. 1) Follows from obeying God's commands. 2) Love must be kept in context of moral purity. 3) Must not be a cover for sexual immorality. Eph 5:2-3 a) Hollywood's "prostitute with a heart of gold." b) Love can cover a multitude of sins, but should not be an excuse for them. 1 Pet 4:8 B. We start with our brothers. 1) Fellow Christians in view. a) Is loving our own the greatest example of love? 1> (liberal church takes tens of thousands of lunches to NYC homeless) b) No, but you have to start somewhere. 2) If we cannot show love in churches, we are utter failures. John Paulk will never forget the 1986 Gay Pride Parade in Columbus, Ohio. A well-known female impersonator, he was riding in the back of a red Mustang convertible dressed in a white linen suit and blond wig. "Candi, we love you," a man yelled. Suddenly, John heard chanting and screaming ahead and spotted a small crowd of people waving Bibles over their heads. Some held signs with such messages as "God hates gays" and "Turn or burn." John thought to himself, "Why don't you hateful people leave us alone? We're not hurting you." An eerie sickness gripped his stomach. Then another thought struck him: "Who would want to follow a God like the one they're displaying?" Six months later, a pastor who had befriended John at the print shop where he worked invited himself to John's apartment. Although John suspected the minister was coming to talk about God, he consented. -3- That night, they prayed together as John committed his life to Christ. John soon left his homosexual lifestyle as he became deeply involved in the church. He is preparing for a career in Christian counseling. With the help of God and his Christian community he is well on his way to wholeness. Thousands of other men and women -- all of them previously involved in homosexuality - have experienced similar changes in their lives. And almost all of them say that it was a group of Christians, demonstrating genuine love and concern, who made the difference. #4024 C. Love must be deep. 1) Important, because repeated in 1 Peter 4:8. 2) Literally, "fervent." a) Applied to prayer in Acts 12:5. D. Love must be sincere and from the heart. 1) Non-hypocritical, non-superficial. 2) Love is a sign of genuine faith. Jn 13:34-35 a) Lack of love speaks loudly to world. b) If we don't love, we haven't been born again. 1:23 E. How does our love measure up? 1) Is "fervent" a good word to describe us? 2) Is our love pure and sincere? 3) Make sure you start with the right foundation. IV. People don't last, God's Word does. A. Spiritual birth is meant to last. 1) Real love flows from it. 2) Real faith goes the distance. a) Only a phase? Not genuine. b) God finishes what he starts. Phil 1:6 -4- B. God's Word should energize us. 1) Jesus said: "...The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63 2) How important is it to you? a) Many people go through their lives and never seriously consult this book which can direct them to heaven. b) Even many Christians go through life ignorant of much of its content! Abraham Lincoln said this to a group of African-Americans who had given him a special presentation Bible in 1864: "In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it." #1849 3) "Word" not limited to printed Bible. a) Truth of gospel in view. 1> (Parable of Sower) b) Jesus is living Word. c) Bible is our access to him. C. The Bible is not static, but living and enduring. 1) It has confounded its critics for 3,500 years. a) Emperor Diocletian tried to eradicate it. 1> In 303 A.D. he proclaimed an edict requiring Christians to destroy their Bibles. 2> But within 25 years, the next emperor ordered 50 copies be made and distributed at government expense! b) Atheists have failed to stamp it out. 1> The claims of Voltaire, the French atheist (1778): He boasted that within 100 hundred years of his lifetime, Christianity would be swept from earth. -5- But only fifty years after his death, his own printing press and house were being used by the Geneva Bible Society to produce Bibles! 2> As recently as 1899, atheist Robert Ingersoll said: "In twenty five years the Bible will be a forgotten book." #1632 2) Cuts to our core. Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. D. People are like lawns. 1) Lawns and flowers have a remarkable beauty. a) But they soon wither without attention. (even with it!) b) Eventually all of us will fall, die. 2) Only God's Word lasts forever. 1:25 V. To add you have to subtract. 2:1 A. Get rid of the negative stuff. 1) Get rid is literally "strip." [Smiles II?] 2) What we need to get rid of: a) MALICE - an evil disposition, malignant spirit, a desire to injure another. b) DECEIT - that is, craftiness . c) HYPOCRISY - deceptive and deceitful actions and attitudes d) ENVY - feelings of unhappiness because another has what we desire for ourselves. e) SLANDER - defamatory statements about others. -6- B. Crave spiritual milk. 1) Milk is great for starting out. a) [Buying Sarah the expensive, smelly stuff] b) Elsewhere Bible criticizes those who need it, but only because they should have progressed farther. 2) Grow in your salvation. a) More love. b) Less grunge. c) Depend upon the Word of God! 1> If you never read it, do you really desire God? 3) Know that God is good. a) He wants you to have a full life. VI. Where do you stand? A. How will you tangibly show love for another Christian this week? B. What sins (such as malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, etc.) do you need to rid yourself of starting today? C. What step can you take right away in order to live a more holy life? ============================================================ TEXT 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. ==================== COMMENTARIES Expositors ---------- I. A life of love. A. Because we have been purified, regenerated. 1) Means of purification is obeying the truth. Rom 10:16; 2 Th 1:8 a) Commonly tied to baptism. 2) Focus is on love for Christians. a) Agape - a self-sacrificing desire to meet the needs of others that finds expression in concrete acts. cf. 1 Jn 3:14-18 B. Because we have been born again. 1) Seed = word of baptism, or the word (Luke 8:11) or seed of divine life. Best - message of Jesus. 2) Logos = God's self-revelation. II. Growth in salvation. A. Strip off habits like garments. 1) Strip is related to baptism more than break with paganism. B. Spiritual milk = Word of God. C. Salvation should lead to continued growth. 1) Taste - taste and see that the Lord is good. Ps 34:8 2) We should have an appetite for more spiritual food.