Love Is A Good Investment (1 Peter 1:23-25) Worship Service

Psalm 95 Call to Worship and Opening Announcements

And welcome to Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our service with a call to worship from Psalm 95. O come, let us sing for joy to Yahweh. Let us make a loud shout to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a loud shout to him with songs of praise. For Yahweh is a great God and a great King above all gods. In whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for it was he who made it. And his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh, our maker. This morning, let's begin our worship service by singing the Standing on the Promises medley.

Standing on the promise

We have just a couple of announcements. One repeating what's in the announcements. And one special one. Don't forget that the cessationist movie is here Tuesday night, the 28th, at six o 'clock. There was a sum of money found in the parking lot after the craft fair.

And I will put it to good, no. I believe you speak to Thomas or Kathy after church if you are of the opinion that it was your sum of money. With that, would you turn with me to chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah?

The Majesty of God in Isaiah 40

And we will remain seated for the reading of scripture. Chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice is calling. Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill made low. And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice says, call out. Then he answered, what shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news.

Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him.

Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather his lambs, the lambs, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has directed the spirit of the Lord or his counselor or as his counselor has informed him? With whom did he consult and who gave him understanding and who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, he lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare with him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold and a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the vault of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble.

To whom then will you liken me? That I should be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created the stars, the one who leads forth their hosts by number. He calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord and the just as do me escapes the notice of my God. Do you not know, have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Will you pray with me? Father, it is in the words of scripture that you have revealed your glory and again in the life, death and resurrection of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and again in the giving of your Holy Spirit.

You are mighty and you have your reward in your hand for those who trust you through the gospel. You weigh the mountains as it says in Isaiah, no one can counsel you and nothing can be compared to your triune greatness.

You never weary, you never tire. It is because of that we trust in you, Lord, what the word has said. We gain strength, we mount up when we run, not weary because of your spirit. Let us always rely upon you, your spirit and your word alone for it is there that we find the majesty of God, the sustainment of God and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And for that, we give you great praise and honor and it is in the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Will you please stand? Pastures he makes me lie down He restores my soul and leads me on For his name is great, sure beside and I will dwell

Psalm 46, six through 10. The nations roar, the kingdom shake. He gives his voice and the earth melts. Yahweh of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Come, behold the works of Yahweh who has appointed desolations in the earth.

He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts up the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Cease striving, know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

His hand, Lord, I'll stand Kings and nations tremble at his hand

Exposition of 1 Peter 1:22-25: Love as a Good Investment

Good morning, welcome to Kootenai Church. My choice here today is to be able to see you guys and not really see my notes or to be able to see my notes and not see you guys. I should be prepared enough to not really need to see my notes too much, so I'm gonna look at you guys.

Let's pray together. Father, we sang that song, that is my prayer that we would behold you in your word. This passage has been a blessing and it is a burden to me. I have a great desire that your people would see you in your word and this portion of your word, what you've revealed of yourself here is majestic and it's beyond me.

And so I pray, Lord, that you would, through your word, through the power that is in your word, that your spirit that gave us the word would reveal the word, would illuminate that word to your people today as it's shared.

I pray that it would give them power and encouragement and assurance in their faith. I pray that it would give them that motivation to have the kind of love that you command in this passage. And I pray, Lord, for those here that have yet to put their faith in you.

I pray, Lord, that the gospel would cut them to the quick and crush them and bring them to yourself, Lord. I pray this in Christ's name, amen. So our scripture today is 1 Peter 1, verses 22 through 25.

Chance to turn there. This, I think, will be the last time that I ascend to this pulpit and say, turn to 1 Peter 1. I'll never, probably ever get to say, turn to any other book, but at least we'll move to chapter two.

So today, 1 Peter 1, verses 22 through 25. For the kids, the word of the day is word. So if you're counting, you just got two right there in that one thing I just said. If I do everything I plan to do, which I never do, but if I do what I plan to do, you'll have a lot of them.

So you'll be busy with those tallies today. 1 Peter 1, 22 through 25. Since you have an obedience to the truth, purified your souls for love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart.

For you've been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. That is to the living and enduring 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 off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news. So at first glance of that passage, what do you think it's about? What would you say is its main point? You can think about that. It's about love.

There's a command to love in the middle of it. That's the main point. The passage is about love. There's a lot in there about God's word, but the thrust of the passage is love. So Peter starts by asserting that his readers have a sincere love or love without hypocrisy, that their growth and sanctification has led them to have a love for one another that he can call sincere, that action and deed are, what's the word I'm looking for?

Consistent. It's sincere, it's without hypocrisy. But then Peter issues the command. You see the command? The command to love better. Fervently love one another from the heart. So what would it mean then to fervently love one another?

Well, if you remember back to August, the word fervent, which you don't, the word fervently means to extend to its limit, to stretch to its limit, or to love one another to the fullest extent, to the greatest of our ability.

And then from the heart, and what would that mean? Well, the heart is all of the immaterial part of the person. All the internal faculties of the person are involved in this love. It's a comprehensive love.

It's decisive. It's a love of the mind and of the emotions. It's resolved, it's determined, it's reasoned, it's unbreakable. It's an entire consistency, a comprehensive consistency. It would be apparent and practical.

And that's where we ended last time I preached with those two points. We have in obedience to the truth, purified our souls for the love of the brothers without hypocrisy, and then there's the command to go further, fervently love one another from the heart.

We made progress in sanctification to the point that our love is sincere. Now we're commanded to continue to increase that love. But it's possible you could ask why. That's a lot to ask. Why should we do that?

Well, first of all, it's a command, and of course that's enough, but Peter doesn't leave us there. He gives us a reason. He gives us a benefit associated with this kind of fervent love for one another.

And today we're gonna see that rationale in verses 23 through 25, with a couple of points that kind of, they would stand on their own as doctrinal truths, but we're gonna put those together and then put them with the application to love so we get the full meaning and significance of the passage.

And the two points are these. Simply put, your spiritual life comes from God's word. Your spiritual life comes from God's word, specifically God's promise in the gospel. And two, the word of God is perfectly reliable.

It endures forever. Those are our two points. So the first point for that rationale to love, and we'll see how those form a rationale to love, but the first point is found in verse 23. For you've been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible.

That is through the living and enduring word of God. And it's given some clarity and specificity in verse 25. This is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news. The second point that enforces the first that's found in verse 23, the word of God, the seed of your eternal life, said to be the seed of your eternal life, is incorruptible, living, and enduring.

And then it's supported by the quotation from Isaiah 40, that's in verses 24 and 25. That quotation ends with, the word of the Lord endures forever. And so we have those two points. One, you've been born again of a seed.

That seed is the word of God which was proclaimed to you as good news. That's the first point. And the second point is that that seed, the word of God, endures forever. Those two, now, I'm gonna give you the whole sermon here in a few sentences.

Those two points together form a rationale for the kind of love that Peter commands in the prior verse.

How?

Think about it. If the source of your eternal life is the promise of God, and if the promise of God, God's word endures forever, that implies you can have absolute assurance that you are also eternal.

You live forever, and so do your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so fervent love for one another here makes sense, doesn't it? The rewards of that, the benefits of that, the relationships that you formed are eternal.

And so that's a rationale for love. In other words, love is a good investment. So that's the end at the beginning. Now we're gonna reason through this more carefully together. So we see in verse 23, again, look at verse 23, the source of our regeneration, the source of our new birth in Christ, is not something that is corruptible, but it's something that is incorruptible, and that incorruptible seed is the living and enduring word of God.

The first word of the verse in the original language of verse 23, that's translated as, I think I read the LSB, it's translated as, for you have been born again. That is ana ganao, ana meaning again, and ganao meaning to either give birth or to be born.

So it refers to regeneration, the second birth, the spiritual birth, being made alive when we were spiritually dead. Now, if you look in your Bibles up a few verses to 1 Peter 1, verses three and four, Peter attributes our rebirth to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse three, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for our salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So God has caused us to be born again. In verse 23, we learn that he did this through the means of a seed. Now, almost everything alive in this world is born from a seed of one kind or of another. If you think of plants and animals, they're born of seeds.

So either a seed is formed in the plant, the seed is planted in the ground, brings forth new life, or the natural course of conception in men and animals, the seed is implanted in the female and new life forms from that union.

In all cases, spiritual life begins with that seed, or excuse me, physical life begins with that seed. Spiritual life in Christ has that in common with physical life. Our spiritual life begins with the seed, a spiritual seed.

Now, in the case of natural life, biological life, the seed is corruptible, perishable. The word translated corruptible means subject to destruction or decomposition, something that doesn't last, as all plants and animals do, they all die.

Everything that lives physically dies physically. It decomposes, it ceases to be what it was,.

It disintegrates.

And that's especially true of the seed. If you think about when you plant a seed in a pot or in your garden, what do you do to it? You bury it, you drown it, you're hoping for it to rot, right, so that new life can spring forth from it.

All seeds are perishable, all physical seeds are perishable. They're all corruptible, they all decompose. And they pass on that character to the life that they form. The life formed from a perishable seed is perishable, okay?

But that's not the case for the source of our eternal life. It says it's incorruptible, or you might have imperishable. It's never dying, never decomposing, never deteriorating, never fading, never diminishing, ever alive, always enduring.

The seed, the source of our eternal life, is said to be here, the enduring, the living and enduring Word of God. It's the Word of God. I think it's reasonable to ask here, what does Peter mean by the Word of God?

Is it a reference to Christ? Is it a reference to the Bible or to some portion of the scriptures? We know that Christ is Himself called the Word in John's writings. He's the Logos. He bears the name, the Word of God in Revelation.

So if Peter's referring to Christ here, it would be correct to say that our eternal life certainly comes from Him, right? From His righteousness, from His death on the cross, especially from His resurrection.

We just saw that in 1 Peter 1 .3. It reminds us our eternal life has its source in the resurrection of Christ. We saw that. But most often in scripture and as far as I can tell, always in Peter's speech and in his writing, the Word of God refers to God's self-revelation, that which God speaks or writes or inspires.

And this is the meaning here. We see evidence of that in verse 25. If you look at verse 25, this is the Word which was proclaimed to you as good news. The living and enduring Word of God, that seed, that is what the readers had heard proclaimed to them, specifically that portion of God's Word which was proclaimed to them as good news.

So what would that be? What part of God's Word would be the good news? Well, the gospel, right? This is a reminder then of the fact that we are regenerated through the biblical gospel. Whether you read it, someone read it to you, someone explained it to you, ultimately the saving power of God is transmitted through the proclamation of His Word and especially the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

So while we've jumped to verse 25, you see it ends with, and this is the Word which was proclaimed to you as good news, was proclaimed to you as good news. There it translates a form of the word euangelizo.

And you may have heard that word. It sounds like evangelism or the evangel. It means good news, to proclaim good news. It's the only verb in that particular sentence. So if you were being very literal, instead of this is the Word which was proclaimed to you as good news, you'd get this now is the Word having been gospeled to you.

That's the only verb in the sentence, right? So it tells us something. Verse 23 tells us we've been regenerated through the living and enduring Word of God, the scriptures and specifically the gospel contained therein.

Now, let's think about some of the implications of that. Think about implications for your evangelism. Implications for your evangelism. If it is the Word of God that has caused us to be born again, that's the means God has used.

If that's what the Spirit uses to regenerate, then it is the gospel shared biblically that has the power to regenerate. What about other things? What about apologetics, classical evidential apologetics?

And by that I mean logical arguments that don't depend on the truth of the Word of God necessarily. So you might say, well, observe the creation. That implies there's a creator. That's a logical argument, it's a good argument.

You might say, look at the behavior of the disciples after Christ's death and resurrection. That demonstrates that the resurrection was a real thing. It's a logical argument, it makes sense. Those are logical arguments.

They don't necessarily depend on the truth of scripture and they don't have the power to save. They don't have the power to convert. The power to convert is in the biblical gospel shared biblically, law, gospel.

What about the implications for how we do church, how we conduct ourselves in the household of God? How could the fact that the power to convert and to sanctify resides in God's Word impact our philosophy of ministry?

Well, we wouldn't call ourselves a seeker-friendly church for a lot of reasons. One is there's no such thing as a seeker in that sense, Romans 3 .11. Another is that the power for salvation and sanctification doesn't reside within us.

It's not in our persuasiveness, our attractiveness. It's not in how fun we are, how cool we are. Oh, the world will think we're cool and then they'll think Jesus is cool. That's not how it works. The power to save resides in this incorruptible seed, the source of spiritual life and godliness.

It's the living and enduring Word of God. So we as a church are not interested in or supportive of teaching or outreach ministries or activities of the local church that are intended for those purposes and that don't recognize this fact.

If they're not Bible-centered, we don't support them. Now, it doesn't mean we can't just gather together to have fun, that's for a different purpose, right? But if we're seeking to save or seeking to sanctify, then we must rely on the Word of God.

God's Word is said to be living in verse 23. So in this context, it's an emphasis on the power of the Word of God to transmit life, that seed of eternal life. It's ever-living and yet able to transmit life, unlike the physical seed.

This seed can transmit life after life after life after life, and it never diminishes. It never dies. It's always the source of eternal life. Said to be enduring or abiding. We see that in verses 23 and 25.

That means to remain, to stay, to be unmoved. The Word of God endures, it stands. We sang a song that may have been new to a lot of you today. The Bible Stands. It may have been very old to others of you.

I asked Josh, do we sing The Bible Stands? And he said, no. And then Mel said, no, we have sung The Bible Stands. So he knew it. I thought, this is a good song for us today. The Bible Stands. That's what it means to endure or abide, depending on what translation you have.

It means to stand, to stay. The Bible Stands. The Word of God endures forever. Now, Peter doesn't quote The Bible Stands for a few reasons. He quotes Isaiah 40, verses six through eight. That's the Old Testament quotation.

All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of Lord endures forever. Cornell read Isaiah 40 today. He read that whole chapter, and I thought that was very important.

We need to understand the context of this Old Testament quotation. This is amazing, beautiful. You heard as it was read. This glorifies the Lord. This is one of those self-revelation where God says, behold your God.

It just, it extols the glory of God, the power of God, His permanence. I'm just gonna go through it quickly, a few quotes. You don't need to follow along here. You can try if you want. In Isaiah 40, Isaiah contrasts the majesty of God with other things that people might think are powerful.

He ridicules idol worship. Here's what he says about nations and rulers. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are counted as a speck of dust on the scales. All the nations are as nothing before Him.

They're counted by Him as nonexistent and utterly formless. From His perspective, the inhabitants of the earth are like grasshoppers. He reduces rulers to nothing. God asked some devastating questions through Isaiah.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and encompassed the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has encompassed the spirit of Yahweh? Or as His counselor informed Him, with whom did He take counsel and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and made Him know the way of understanding?

God asked twice in the chapter, to whom then will you liken me that I would be His equal? Sarcastic and biting. To whom would you liken me? He says, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars.

The one who leads forth, they're host by number. He calls them all by name because of the greatness of His vigor and the strength of His power. Not one of them is missing. He does not become weary or tired, but He says He gives that power to those who trust Him.

Though youths grow weary and tired, and choice men stumble badly, yet those who hope in Yahweh will gain new power and will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary.

He's willing to share His life and His vigor. You see the connection to the passage. Isaiah 40 is a behold your God passage. We get that command multiple times. And if you don't do anything else this morning, behold your God.

This is the God who regenerates you by His living and enduring word. This is the all-powerful God to whom nothing can compare. It's absolute blasphemy to compare Him to anything unless He makes that comparison Himself.

In Isaiah 40 alone, we see this. He is glorious, He is true, eternal, strong, just, caring, gentle, immense, incomprehensible, wise, all-knowing, never learning, needing nothing, without image or form, creator of everything, comprehensively sovereign, without equal, incomparable, loving, vigorous, never tiring, never wary, and willing to share His strength and life with those who love Him.

Behold your God. Behold your God. Behold the power and glory of the God of mercy and grace. This is the God who cares for you as a shepherd with his sheep. He's willing to share His life and power and vigor with those who hope in Him.

Behold.

That's the self-revelation, that's the context where we get this quote that Peter uses. We've been born again by an incorruptible seed. It's the very word of God, the communication of God to you. And listen, it is that word on which you depend.

That's Peter's point. Remember, Peter has written, 1 Peter has written to people who are struggling and suffering under persecution. This is the word on which you can depend. You can trust His word to the fullest extent of His own trustworthiness.

Can His word be trusted? Could He ever fail to keep His word? Listen, think about it. All flesh is like grass. All is glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off. Could it be that the word of God is like mere flesh?

Could it be like the power, that flower of grass? Could it wither and die? Could it come to nothing? Could the seed that gave us our spiritual life be like that seed of the field? It just dries up and blows away, brief and temporary.

Could God's word one day be revised? Could it be corrected? Could it be superseded? Could the worldly wise one day find an actual contradiction?

Could it fail?

Could God's promise, could His promise of eternal life in the gospel, could it turn out to be untrue? Could it be expired, forgotten, mistaken, outdated, irrelevant, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Remember the context from Isaiah 40. Remember the God who gave you this word, behold Him. Can that word fail? Could God's promise fail? Only if God Himself could fail, and He can't. Let's think about that for a minute.

I had a long section here about this, about how God can't fail, and it was basically borrowed out of God Doesn't Try, the book that we're working on. So I can't do as full of a look at this question as is done in the book, so you're probably all getting a free copy of it anyway.

Jim's autograph I think is $50, but the book itself I think will be free to all of you guys. So I hope you all read it. Well, especially Jim's kids, I think he's kind of a little bit hurt about the fact that they haven't all read all of his books.

Is that still true?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I'm gonna try to do a little summary of the arguments there. Why can God not fail? The name of that book is God Doesn't Try. God Doesn't Try because try implies failure. God's not capable of failure.

How could He fail? Let's think about it. How could God fail? Could He fail because something's too hard for Him because He lacks ability? You say, no, God is omnipotent. His absolute power prohibits failure because He has no lack of ability.

He has no lack of power. Psalm 115 says, but our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 135, whatever Yahweh pleases, He does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps. Ezekiel 12 .25, for I, Yahweh, will speak, and whatever word I speak will be done.

God's absolutely able. There's nothing that's too hard for Him. He can't fail because of a lack of power. Could He fail because He makes a mistake? Could He fail because of a lack of knowledge? Maybe He doesn't know some crucial detail that He overlooks, and so He goes down a path of action that He later regrets.

So could He fail to keep a promise because He lacks knowledge?

No.

You say, no, God is omniscient. God knows everything. He has perfect knowledge of Himself, all things outside of Himself, all things actual and potential. He knows all of that in one eternal and simple acme.

He doesn't learn, He doesn't have to count the grains of sand on the seashore. He just knows how many there are. 1 John 3 .20, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. John 21 .17, Peter confessed to the Lord, Lord, You know all things.

So then how could He fail to keep His promise? If it's not because of an inability, of a lack of power, it's not because of a mistake, a lack of knowledge, it's impossible for Him to fail to keep any promise He intends to keep.

So the only possibility is that He might fail to keep a promise He didn't intend to keep. In other words, that He lies. His promise could fail, His word could fail if God could lie, but He can't lie. It's outside of the realm of possibility.

God is always true. Titus 1, Paul, a slave of God. And this is very, the point of this little passage, this verse I'm gonna read you is very close to what were our passage in 1 Peter. So listen to this.

Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, with the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, here it is, in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity, but at the proper time manifested His word in preaching with which I was entrusted, according to the command of God our Savior.

God cannot fail, He cannot lie, and so we can rest with complete confidence in His promise. His gospel, that word which was proclaimed to you as good news, that which is the source of your eternal life, it began an unstoppable process that has led to your repentance, it has led to your conversion, it gives you your faith, it is working through your sanctification, and one day will accomplish your glorification.

This is the gospel, this is the word of God that endures forever, and it endures forever because the one who gave it endures forever. Behold again your God. The gospel is as good as God, it is as powerful as God, as trustworthy as God, as wise as God, and so your faith is certain, your hope is secure.

The promise of the gospel, your hope of eternal salvation is made by Him who can never fail to keep that promise. All flesh is like grass, it withers and falls off, all flesh is like that, it's temperable, corruptible, decaying, really anything in which you might place your hope other than the hope of eternal life is a vain hope, it is a dying hope, it's a decomposing hope, it is a hope that will disappoint, it will fail.

The only hope that will not fail is the promise made by a God who cannot fail. He never makes a mistake, he never learns, he never fails, he never changes. Now you know about all of them, there's many, many modern and ancient attempts to deny the authority, the reliability of God's word.

There's so many it would be pointless to try to list them halfway through a sermon, about halfway through a sermon. So let me just kind of characterize them. We've seen foolish nitwits of all sorts who want to cut off stripes, want to deny parts of scripture, want to put parts of scripture under the authority of their limited intellectual ramblings.