And we'll read together 1 Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 22. Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up in your salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Heavenly Father, as we come to Your word now, we do pray that You would open our eyes, that You would open our ears. Father, help us to perceive from Your word, Lord, how You grow and how You establish love between Your people. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, church, I wonder, have you seen a, or experienced, a church community? A church community of people that genuinely love one another? Not just where people are friendly and smile, per se, but a church where there is real, genuine, tangible love between brothers and sisters in Christ. Have you experienced that? Have you experienced a church community like that? Perhaps even here. If you have, you, you would know it's, it's incredible, isn't it? People asking how your week has been because they genuinely care how your week has been. And, and you know they care because, well, because they, they listen, and they ask follow-up questions, right? And you know they, they genuinely care because perhaps if you share that your family is going through a hard time, well, then they actually stop and they pray with you. Perhaps they rock up with food at your door the next morning. A community of people that genuinely love and care for each other. It is remarkable. It's wonderful. A church that weeps together and rejoices together. A church that resolves conflict as they forgive one another as, as an offense is raised. It is something, there is something profoundly beautiful and unique about an authentic Christian community that loves one another. And I would dare say, is this not the kind of church community that you would want to be a part of? Is this not the kind of community that you would love to grow and be a part of week in and week out? But perhaps you're thinking to yourself this morning, "Sure, Liam, that although that sounds great, Liam, you really don't know what I've been through. See, I've tried the church community thing, but I've seen more pain and hypocrisy, gossip, and backbiting than this Christian love that you speak of. People are selfish, self-centered, self-seeking. In fact, I don't know if this kind of love is even possible. Is it even real?" And Peter would invite us this morning, you can almost picture him putting your hand on your shoulder, putting, putting his hand on your shoulder, and inviting you and saying, "Friend, would you put aside your past experiences for just a moment?" as he invites us to consider that this genuine Christian love is not only possible, but it's something that God Himself is committed to producing in the lives of His children. Not because Christians are special, not because they try hard enough to achieve it, quite the opposite. See, it's ultimately something supernatural. This love is otherworldly. This love that we're speaking of this morning is, is alien. It, it's not of this world. It's something God Himself creates and sustains and grows within the hearts of His people. And so the question Peter raises for us this morning is how? How does He do it? How does God make His people into the kind of people who don't merely pretend to love one another, but genuinely love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ? How does He do it? Peter says the secret, if you like, is this. It's the word. It is the powerful, incorruptible Word of God. And the main image Peter uses to describe this powerful, love-producing Word of God, funnily enough, it's the image of making and growing babies. Perhaps rather fitting for us on, on Father's Day, but, but it's, it's the image that's unavoidably here in the text before us this morning. Would you look with me at verse 23? Where he says, "Since you have been born again, not of per, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God." There you have it. The dominant image that Peter uses to describe the nature of God's powerful word is somehow tied to that of making and growing babies. Put simply, Peter is, is contrasting two kinds of seed. Firstly, the, the human seed of a father that brings forth children, earthly children into this world. And he's contrasting this with the seed that God uses to bring forth spiritual children unto eternal life. So the dominant image then is of this seed, God's living and everlasting word. Do you appreciate the, appreciate the metaphor with me for a moment? This, this Word of God is like an organic seed carrying in it the very power and essence of God itself. And, and this seed is implanted in the soil of a believer. And as this seed is received by faith, that seed has the power to bring forth everlasting life. So that a person, though, though fleshly and dying, now with life-giving, life-sustaining, power, Word of God lodged within, is brought alive and made eternal. It's remarkable. It's remarkable. And notice the contrast Peter is making regarding these, these seeds. The seed of an earthly father produces offspring, produces children, which although glorious for a time, in, in other words, producing children is a marvelous thing. It's glorious, it's wonderful. But Peter says, even, even that, even bringing children into this world is of perishable seed. For children are born, children that are born into this world will ultimately grow old, they will perish, and they will die. But the seed, by contrast, that God on the other hand uses to bring life, to produce new birth in the life of a believer, is life that endures for into eternal life. Do you see that? The seed of God's Word endures forever. And this idea of imperishability, of incorruptibility is a big deal for Peter. You may remember in verse 3, as we looked at a couple of months ago now, he says in verse, in verse 3, "being born again into a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus into an inheritance that is imperishable." And again in verse 18, "You were ransomed from the futile ways of life inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, but with the precious blood of Christ Jesus Himself." And now here is the imperishable, life-giving Word of God as a seed, a seed that when planted in the soil of a believer and received by faith, has the power to create and bring forth everlasting life. And it's this contrast that Peter makes for us. He, he fleshes out further in verse 24. And he illustrates it using the words of the prophet Isaiah. Do you see it there in verse 24? He says, "For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And his point is simply this, that you and I are like the flower of grass, or like the grass that withers and perishes. It's as if we are, is as if we were children yesterday, we are adults today, and tomorrow we die. How short, how fragile, how fleeting are these fleshly lives that you and I live? Just as fast as we sprang up, we will soon wither and perish just like the grass in the field. Our lives are like that of the flower, who for a season sprout up. Perhaps you've seen the, the flowers spring up before you over the past few weeks. And the flower that springs up, it is beautiful. It's strong, and it's glorious. And yet when the springtime is over, as and, and as the seasons change, as the east wind blows, as the, as the frost sets in, or the sun scorches, friend, what happens to the flower's beauty? What happens to its strength? What happens to its glory? The grass withers, the flower falls, and so it is with us. We are flesh. We are bone. We are mortal and prone to death and decay in this life. Church, despite all that we may achieve, all that we may accomplish in these few fleeting years that we have on this earth, the money we make, the experiences we enjoy, the children we have, the contributions we make at the end of the day, friend, you and I, we will wither and die. We will perish. And I dare say nobody will even remember our names. The grass withers, the flower falls, but, but Peter says, the word of the Lord remains forever. And it's as if preempting this, the question that he pictures his readers will be asking, "What is this seed? What is this word of God that, that by contrast of us who are perishing and earthly and fleeting in but a moment, Peter, what is this, this word of the Lord that remains forever?" Peter answers at the end of verse 25. Do you see it there? He says, "And this word is the good news that was preached to you." This imperishable seed is the Gospel. It's the good news that Jesus Christ has made a way through death into eternal life. All flesh is like grass, Peter says, we wither, we fall, we die, and we face judgment, ultimately because we are sinners and have chosen to live our lives in rebellion against God. But the Gospel, this, this good news, is the announcement that Jesus Christ died to bear and bore the judgment that you and I deserved. He took it upon Himself on that cross. And unlike the grass that withers and the flower that fades, Christ defeated death, and He rose to new life. And the promise is that those who repent and believe will experience this new life in Him. This seed, this abiding word is the announcement of what God has done in Christ to rescue people who are destined to wither and perish. Christ died, Christ was raised, and He invites us, He invites those who realize and acknowledge that they are withering and that they are perishing to come to Him, to come to Him for life. And as, as they receive this Gospel of grace, this seed, this good news, they're inwardly renewed and they're implanted with the incorruptible seed that produces life everlasting. Just as Jesus passed through death into resurrection life, those who receive this word and accept it by faith will themselves pass through death into resurrection life. The language Peter uses to describe what, what actually happens to a person in this moment as they receive the Gospel, well it's again, it's, it's tied to this image of making and growing babies. Now if you're sitting here this morning, I would, I would dare say it, it's safe to assume that you were more than likely born into this world by your mother. Nothing profound there. But Peter is saying those who have heard and received the good news of the Lord Jesus and accepted it by faith have undergone a new birth, a second birth. They've been born again. And the point is the origin of this second birth is not like your, is not like that of your, of your father and your mother. It is the supernatural. It comes through the supernatural power of the preached word. It's the supernatural power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This message of grace and forgiveness brings someone to new life and causes them to be born again. Can you see the foundation that Peter is laying here as he speaks to these scattered, persecuted men and women all through the region of northern Turkey, who have heard this gospel, this good news of the Lord Jesus, and he says, "Look, this good news, this glorious news of Jesus, it's come to you. Angels long to look into these things." He said in verse 12, "but it's come to you." The prophets of the Old Testament that, that saw something of this reality in types and shadows, verse 12, this glorious gospel, it's come to you. And here we are in 21st century Australia, and the same good news has come to you and I in the preaching of the Gospel. And it's as this Word of God like an imperishable seed is planted in the dead soil of our mortal, dying flesh, that we too are born again and brought into the family of God. As we hear and understand the message of grace and receive it by faith, we too are brought from perishable into imperishable. We are made alive. Church, we're made new creatures with a new nature, born again by the supernatural power of the Gospel. It's incredible. What alone has the power to cause dead, perishing souls like ours to be, to be made alive? Only the imperishable seed of God's Word. What has the ability to cause someone who has lived in sin their entire life to, to be spiritually reborn, to be made alive, brought into the family of God? What has the power? Only the supernatural grace of God expressed in the Gospel. And Peter would lean in at this point, I would dare say, and he would say, "And what then? What then would you say has the power to produce a community that genuinely love one another?" Only the living and abiding Word of God. And this is exactly where he goes after laying this foundation in Peter's mind. You see, love is the inevitable overflow of being born again. Do you see it there in verse 22? He says, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart." You've been born again. You've been obedient to the truth, he says. You've, you've responded to the Gospel for a sincere brotherly love. John in, in 1 John 5 says the exact same thing. He says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him." See, friend, the immediate and the inevitable overflow of being born again is this, to love your brother and your sister who has also been born again. It's the inevitable overflow. You've had this imperishable seed of the Gospel implanted in your soul. You've received this, this message, this preached word of grace. You've, you've been born again into God's own family. Therefore, love. Love one another earnestly, sincerely, truly, from a pure heart. This is what the living and enduring Word of the Gospel does. In fact, the fruit that someone really has been born again is this, that, that they would be empowered and enabled by the Spirit, by the Word of God to love one another. And not just to love as the world might love, for its own means, for its own ends, but with all sincerity. With all sincerity. Do you see that there in verse 22? Now the word sincerity in, in this passage, it's really interesting. See, during biblical times, theater actors, if you went to the theater, you would see these actors holding up a mask in front of their faces as they would pretend and act out their, their character. Perhaps if you've, if you've been to see The Lion King or something like that, you see these, these actors holding up a mask of an elephant or a giraffe or something like that. And Peter is saying Christian love is not play-acting. Those who have been born again, those who have had this, this Word of God bring new life to their souls are empowered to truly love one another without holding up a mask, so to speak, sincerely. The love that the Gospel produces is never fake. It's never hypocritical. It's never for outward performance only or to keep up appearances. The love that this seed produces is supernatural. It's always genuine. It's always sincere because ultimately, it is a supernatural work of God. It's unlike the love that we see perhaps in our workplaces. It's unlike the love that is contingent on what you, on what you get out of it. No, the love that the Word of God produces in our hearts is sincere. It's sincere. And we see there in verse 22, it's also earnest. Earnest love. A more helpful synonym might be outstretched. If you picture a, a relay athlete with baton in hand, running at full speed, straining every muscle in their body as they sprint and stretch forward with all their might to their fellow athlete, Peter says, "That's the kind of love that this gospel produces." It's earnest. A love that is outstretched, extended forward, not casual, not half-hearted, not a half-in, half-out kind of love, but fully extended, committing itself in love to serve and to be served, to look at the interests of others. Church, does your love look like this for your brothers and sisters in Christ? I mean, what motivates a person to this kind of earnest love for the brethren? What motivates a person to expend the kind of energy and time and cost it takes to love someone like this? Only the Word. Only the everlasting Word of God. Only the imperishable seed. Only the supernatural new birth that transforms a selfish, self-centered, self, self-reliant person into the image and likeness of Christ. And as we experience the supernatural, unconditional love of God toward us in Christ through the Gospel, only then are we actually empowered to become channels of that same earnest, outstretched love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. And in case you're thinking Peter is being a little bit too idealistic here, would you let me encourage you? He really does understand the messiness of Christian community. He really does. And he's, and, and more than that, he's willing to cut right to the heart, and he's willing to call out exactly the kind of behavior that would hinder this kind of genuine Christian love. Would you look at, would you look at it with me there in verse 2 of chapter 2? He says, in fact, he implores them, "Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander." It's as if Peter knows even though we've been born again, we were still prone to fall into these old patterns of thinking and these old patterns of relating to one another, and these patterns that would destroy such genuine Christian love. Malice is, is desiring harm for another. Deceit, using or manipulating someone while hiding your real intentions. Hypocrisy, much like holding up a mask, saying one thing and doing another. Envy, resenting someone because of their success or their relationships or their gifting. And slander, speaking about someone in a way that damages their reputation. And it's as if Peter knows exactly the kind of temptations that Christians face as they seek to commit themselves to one another in this kind of love. Perhaps as you chat with a brother over church, over church lunch, and you begin to hear about their, their business success and the health of their marriage, maybe even the amount of sleep that they were able to get that week. And instead of rejoicing with, with them in your heart, instead if you're honest with yourself, perhaps you begin to feel sprouts of envy, sprouts of jealousy and resentment towards them. Your sister in Christ does something that hurts you. And instead of seeking reconciliation with her, you allow anger, anger and malice to creep in and a desire for revenge begins to grow. Someone you considered a friend disappoints you or goes back on their word. So you feel the temptation to, to tell another brother or sister what they did, not because they need to know, but because you want their name and their reputation to be smeared. And Peter says, "Put it away." Don't excuse it. Don't entertain it. Don't even try to justify it. Just put it away. Remember who you are. You've been born again. You've been brought into the family of God. These are your brothers and your sisters in Christ. You're now part of the same family. Put it away. Not in your own strength, that would be disastrous. But put it away as you draw upon the supernatural power of this Word that has brought you into the family of God. So allow the Word of God to empower, to guide, to spur you on in your love for one another. It's exactly what he says in verse 2. He says, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation." That word spiritual there is, is the word wordy. The word is logikos. Logos is word. He's saying, "It's the wordy milk. Crave this pure, wordy milk that you might grow up into your salvation. Long for more of the very thing that caused you to be born again in the first place, that you might grow up in your salvation." Some friends of ours just had their first baby, and while Kayce and I were visiting them, as you might expect, this newborn, I don't know what was wrong, it just began to howl. And it was weeping, and it was crying out for life-sustaining milk. And Peter is saying, just as the newborn infant cries out for life-sustaining milk, you too, having been born again as an infant into this family are to yearn and are to crave and hunger after the milk of God's Word, that by it you might grow up in your salvation. And the idea is this, as we drink down and as we consume the milk of God's Word, we will be taught, we will be instructed and corrected and grown in our ability to love one another as Christ has called us to. As you drink down the wordy milk of Ephesians 4, as an example, you'll see and be encouraged to love your brothers and sisters with all humility and all gentleness and patience. You'll learn the importance of bearing with one another in love, maintaining the, the, the, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Perhaps even as you drink down the milk of Philippians 2, you might even be rebuked as you consider what it looks like to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count other, count others as more significant than yourself. As you drink down the milk of John 17, you'll grow and be challenged, I promise you will, by, by the seriousness of, of, of the seriousness that Jesus speaks of His desire to grow, that you might grow in your love for one another. This high priestly prayer, Jesus praying that, that you and I, that we as God's people would be one, would be united just as He and the Father is one. As you drink down the milk of Acts 20, you'll see examples of this supernatural love expressed as the Ephesian elders weep and cry and hug and embrace Paul as they send him off on his missionary journey. Hearts that have been knit together by the Gospel. And Peter's point is this, as we read and study and speak God's word to one another, we will grow. We will see examples. We will be empowered to love one another with all sincerity. So let me ask you this this morning, do you, do you long after God's word like this? Do you crave it? Do you crave it like a baby craves milk from his mother? Church, this is how we grow in our love for one another. This is how God supernaturally creates and marks out for Himself a community that is able to genuinely love one another from a pure heart. Only as people are born again by the imperishable seed of God's Word, and as they continue to feed and are nourished by the very same Word that gave them new birth in the first place. So church, if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, if you've spent any time at all reading God's word, you, you know this to be true in your own heart. It's my prayer for us this morning that we might long ever more for this pure, spiritual milk of God's Word, and that by it we as a community here at Camden Valley and beyond, that we might grow up in our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And we might grow to be His people, and that we would treat each other as we, as we ought to treat each other in the family of God. Amen. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we, we are a needy people. And Lord, we praise You and we thank You for this seed of Your word that is the Gospel, that You by Your Spirit plant in our hearts and bring forth everlasting life. And Father, we long to be a people that express that we are truly transformed and have experienced this new birth by the way that we love one another. So Father, create in us this kind of supernatural love that only comes as we are brought into Your family by the power of the Gospel. Father, help us to long after Your word that by it we may grow up in this salvation. Father, help us to spur one another on as we read and feast on Your word. Lord, may it be a life to us and by it, Lord, may, may the world know that we are Your disciples. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.