In his sermon titled 'The Power of the Word of God,' Trent Moody emphasizes the transformative and enduring nature of God's Word. He draws from 1 Peter 1:22 to 2:3 to illustrate that the Word purifies the soul through obedience to the truth, facilitated by the Holy Spirit. Moody highlights the importance of sincere and fervent love among believers as a manifestation of this purification. He explains that regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, necessitating a lifelong obedience to God's commands. The sermon stresses the enduring nature of God's Word, contrasting it with the transience of human life and glory. Believers are encouraged to lay aside negative traits and to crave the 'pure milk of the Word' to grow spiritually, reflecting God's graciousness in their lives. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deep hunger and thirst for God's Word, recognizing its power to transform lives and endure through generations.

Well, good afternoon everybody. Let's open your Word of God and turn to the book of 1 Peter and chapter 1. We'll be finishing out the first chapter and jumping into the second chapter. And if you would please, let's stand in reverence of the reading of God's Word. 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22.

1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22 we'll read through chapter 2 verse 3. Thus says the word of the Lord, since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Let us pray again. Our Father we thank you for the enduring Word of God, the powerful Word of God that will endure forever. Lord we ask now that you would change us by this word that we would be more like Christ that we would again taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Feed our souls Lord we pray in Jesus name.

Amen. You may be seated. So this afternoon what I want to speak to you about is really something that you know and it is something that you have experienced and I desire that you experience that yet again and grow in your knowledge of it. Peter here picking up really in middle of this chapter and near the ending of this chapter is wanting to encourage yet again these believers in writing this epistle to them who were experiencing these trials and temptations and difficulties and challenges and changes in their life. They were experiencing this change and he wanted to encourage them and so often we fail as Christians because the ways in which we think naturally that we want to encourage someone oftentimes will lead towards some feeling or some emotion or some changing of circumstances.

But what Peter is showing us here is that the way to encourage the people of God is to turn their eyes and their heart and their attention on the Word of God. He wanted to secure their assurance in the power of the Word of God and so that's where we pick up here. And so really the first thing that I want to bring to our attention is found in verse 22 And it is that the Word has the power to purify the soul. The Word of God has the power to purify the soul. Verse 22, since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

One of the greatest works of the Spirit of God is working through the Word of God to purify the believer's soul. This is a work of the Spirit of God. This is a work that comes about through the Word of God. It has happened, I hope it has happened to you this morning, it has happened to me this morning through our brother's preaching and speaking about the broadness of the law of God and how it shows us how deep God's Word is and how powerful God's Word is to purify the soul. But this purification as we know and as Peter mentioned here comes through the working of the Spirit of God.

And Peter tells us that one of the clearest marks of this purification is sincere love of the brethren since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren. So obviously here in obeying the truth he's speaking about the Word of God and the gospel that has been preached. He mentions that in verse the latter part of verse 25. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you and the surest sign that we are disciples of Christ is that we have love one towards another. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, that you have love one towards another.

And in times of persecutions though This loving and this sincere loving of the brethren is something that can often be put to the test. When you're not feeling well, when you're struggling, or when some trials are taking place in your life, it's easy to become self-focused, and it's very difficult to become other-focused, and it's very difficult to sincerely love in an active way other believers. We've not again we've not experienced anything to this level of persecution or this level of difficulties that these believers were facing but I believe that God wants to prepare us for that and what we are facing so that we would continue as he's talking about here to have sincere love of the brethren. This love that Peter is describing here is really something that is doubly expedient for us that we should love each other and this love is describing not a natural love but rather one that is the fruit of the Spirit of God working through the Word of God to transform our lives. And that's what Peter is wanting them to understand is that this obeying the truth through the Spirit.

So what he's showing here really is that he's speaking to believers. He's wanting believers to understand this since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. And ultimately obeying the truth is faith in the gospel, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In obeying that truth you have purified your souls. Not that it was a work that you could do, but it was a work that the Spirit did through you through the power of the Word of God and that power is purifying your soul.

And so this love really is something that is impossible for those who have not been purified by the word of God and by the Spirit of God. Their souls were not purified before this, but now because of the gospel, because of the work of the Holy Spirit and the word of God preached to them, their lives and their souls have been purified and they are obeying the truth of the gospel. And this obedience to the truth of the gospel is something that is not a one time obedience but a life long obedience to what God tells us to do in his word. And so lest we think that obedience to the gospel is within our power as a natural man, as if natural man can by mere effort, by mere strength of fortitude of mind and this will to obey, Peter makes it clear this obedience is the work of the Spirit. As I've mentioned a few times already it is through the Spirit that this sincere love of the brethren takes place and look around each other and think of the sincere love that we have seen this morning and serving each other and working with each other and throughout the weeks that we come to prayer meeting together we're concerned for each other.

And these are good things, these are signs, these are proofs that we are the people of God, that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. But the amazing thing here and something that really catches my attention is that this love of the brethren is not perfected in sincerity but Peter calls them to more. But I want to back up just for a moment here and consider that our souls are purified through the Spirit as we obey the truth and we love one another. Philippians 2.12 tells us this, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." That is the working of the Holy Spirit is to will and to do of his good pleasure.

But it's interesting to note that they already had this love but Peter wanted to call them on to something more And he says this, this second use of the word for love here, he says, love one another fervently with a pure heart. He just said you're sincerely loving each other. You've purified your souls and obeying the truth of the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren. And then he says, love one another. He wants to encourage you on from this sincere love which is a fruit of the Spirit to a deeper love, a more fervent love and he uses this word fervently.

It really indicates a decision, a choice that we make. It's the kind of love that can respond to a command and that's what this is. Love one another fervently with a pure heart. So this description here, this fervently, what it means is it means to stretch to the limits. It suggests that of not relaxing in effort.

Matthew Poole describes it this way. He said, the word seems to be a metaphor taken from a bow which the more it is bent, the greater force it sends forth the arrow. So love, the more fervent and strong it is the more abundant it puts forth itself for the benefit of others. And that is something Peter is calling his readers to and he is calling us to that the more fervently we love one another that the more it has this velocity if you will to benefit others to fervently love one another. Don't relax your effort.

Don't think hey man we have a great fellowship we love each other it's a wonderful church. Go further in your love. Go deeper in your love. Don't relax, but continue to stretch to the limits your love one for another. Now this is something that needs to be seriously considered by all believers as they covenant together in a local church specifically because the lack of this fervent love is what has split many churches.

It's the lack of this fervent love that has caused many divisions over trifling things. And I believe that this is something that each of us needs to seriously take to heart and to consider. Looking from the outside in at this body, we would say we have love one for another. But again, God does not look from the outside in but God looks at the heart as we heard about this morning as well. God sees our heart.

He desires to increase our love. I want you to think about that. Think about maybe the relationships you have with individuals within this body. Maybe some of those are strained. Maybe some of those are awkward.

God is calling you to stretch to the limits of your love. And that love that is produced in you is the love of God. It is the love of Christ in your heart that can enable you to go beyond what you think you are able. It is a deep and abiding love. It is the love that God had for us in sending his Son and it is a love that we are called to emulate.

So What does God know about your love for each of the people here in this assembly? Would God's testimony of each of us be that we love one another fervently, that we stretch to the limits our love towards one another with pure hearts, or is our love for one another something less than stretching? Something that is relaxing because of our comfort with one another. When you spend a long time with each other, you know, even with your own family, sometimes it seems like that love can relax itself. Well, after you've been married for a year or two years, you know, you stop getting up to make coffee for the other one, or you stop doing this, and you kind of relax these things and we can do that even within the church.

But God calls us to stretch it further because with the further stretching comes more velocity of love, more strength in that love. You see it is the duty of all Christians sincerely and fervently to love one another. Our affections to love one another must be sincere, it must be real, and it must be fervent, constant, and extensive, Matthew Henry says. As I said before, this is not a natural thing. This is something that is supernatural.

It is a love that is brought into our hearts by the working of the Holy Spirit and it works in a diverse group of people. Look around you this morning. What in the world brought this group together? Jesus, thank you. That is the only thing that would bring this diverse group together.

Praise God. He breaks down all barriers. He breaks down all economic barriers, all ethnicities. He brings us all together and we love one another and we are to do that fervently with pure hearts. This is the power of the Word of God and the Spirit of God working through that Word.

That is what has changed us. And that is what will continue to work in our hearts. Because as I said before, this is not natural, this is supernatural. And it is a glorious thing. And I believe that is what Peter is getting at in this next verse.

He wants us to understand in verse 23, the word has the power of regeneration. First of all, the word has the power to purify and now we see the word has the power of regeneration. Verse 23, he says this, having been born again, really we could just bring that down, regenerate. Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. You see this is interesting because we often think of regeneration as solely being the work of the Holy Spirit.

But it is the work of the Holy Spirit, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. It is the work that God is doing in us to love his word more. It's not natural to love God's word. We had to be born again to love God's word. And that's what he says in verse 23.

Having been born again, you have been born again, you've been radically changed, you've been brought to new life, you are a new creation in Christ. And he's showing us this, that this powerful word regenerates us by the Spirit of God. Romans 10, 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And too often we forget or perhaps even doubt the power of the Word. So many churches across our land and even in our own hearts sometimes we can doubt the power of the Word to regenerate or to change a life.

We think if we have enough wisdom, if we have enough philosophy, we can somehow get people to believe, but no, regeneration is a work of God's spirit through his word. That is why Hope Baptist Church is a word-based church. We preach the word, we read the word, we pray the word, we talk about the word because We understand it is the word of God that changes us and regenerates us and purifies us. And we need not ever forget that. Here Peter tells us that we are born again or regenerated not of corruptible seed.

The word seed here speaks of offspring and we are first born unto corruptible seed. You're looking at a corruptible seed here. I am a corruptible seed, my parents were a corruptible seed, and I've passed that corruption onto my children. They will also be corruptible seed in that sense. All of us are born in sin but Peter here tells us that we are born again of incorruptible seed through the Word of God.

Again Matthew Hinder describes the Holy Spirit as the agent of regeneration and the Word of God as the instrument of regeneration. These two are distinct but not separate. They work together to bring about the regeneration of the soul and he says this regarding this work. The Spirit of God is the great agent in the purification of man's soul. The Spirit convinces the soul of its impurities.

It furnishes those virtues and graces that both adorn and purify such as faith and hope and the fear of God and the love of Jesus Christ, the Spirit excites our endeavors and makes them successful. It is the powerful regenerating Word of the living God. That is what we are here for. We are not here for anything else. We are here to be changed and radically changed by God's Word.

Thirdly, the Word has power to endure. These are very simplistic. He says this in verse 24, because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass the grass withers and its flower falls away but the word of the Lord endures forever." So again Peter uses this contrast if you would between two thoughts. He uses the word flesh and he uses this description here of the word. He uses earlier corruptible seed, incorruptible seed, and he's wanting us to understand and to see this contrast here at how different we are in our natural man as corruptible seed compared to this incorruptible seed how different we are in our flesh as Opposed to the enduring of the Word of God in our flesh.

We are like grass We We wither all the glory of man, all the glory of man. Think of all the glory of man right now in this world. All the glorying and glory of man is as the flower of the grass, the grass withers and its flower falls away. It falls away. It disappears.

But the Word of the Lord endures forever. And that is what Peter is doing. He's bringing their attention back to the centrality of the Word of God. He wanted them to understand that in all of life circumstances, in all of your difficulties, in all of the things that you face, bring your focus back upon the enduring power of the Word of God. It was good for Adam and Eve, it was good for David, and it was good for Solomon, and it was good for all of those who have gone before us and it is good for us.

It is the enduring Word of God and you know what? Men have spent their fortunes and their lives trying to destroy the Word of God. And they are gone and it endures and we're still preaching it today. And when we are gone and we are nothing but like a flower that has faded, the Word of the Lord will endure forever and people and men will still be preaching the Word of God. And it will still be changing lives and it will still be purifying souls and it will still be regenerating people because it is the enduring word of God.

You see he quotes this from Isaiah chapter 40 and this chapter begins with this little title and I like this in the very first verse, comfort, yes comfort my people. Now I find this interesting because the overall message here of what Peter is trying to get across to the reader here is that he's wanting to bring about this comfort to them in intense persecution. You see in Isaiah's time the people had just gone through another persecution and he's saying these words as a comfort. I want you to know this that the Word of God is your comfort. Go to it.

Our brother read I think it was at Psalm 37 you read this morning Ash, that was a comfort to my soul. When your soul is troubled, when the world is at war and all things are crazy, you go to the enduring Word of God and you find comfort for your soul." And this is what Peter was doing. The comfort that he offers to them was the truth concerning the enduring nature of the Word of God. It was not something that was going to fade, it was not a fad, but it was going to stay and remain forever. Men have used all that they have to try to reduce it to ashes and all they are are ashes now.

So the only thing that will enable a man to endure past this grass like life is being born again. And that is what he's talking about. This born again, this regeneration is the work of God's Word in our hearts and it is the truth that will encourage and comfort people of God throughout all generations and throughout every trial that you face. Turn to the word of God for your comfort. And lastly, the word has the power to transform.

And really this comes in the form of a command. And he says this in chapter two, I'm gonna pick up the last part of verse 25 in chapter 1 and then right into chapter 2. He says, now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. He's wanting them to understand this is the gospel. It is the enduring word of God.

What God said in the beginning, God is fulfilling and bringing it about and it will comfort your souls and it will empower you to live holy lives for Him. And then he goes on into verse 1 of chapter 2, therefore laying aside, because of all of these truths about the Word of God. Therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. This is the word that has the power to regenerate the soul. This is the word that lives and abides forever.

This is the word that will not return void but the Word will accomplish all that God has determined for it to accomplish. This is the Word by which the Gospel was preached to you. This is the Word that caused you to live. This is the Word that is the Gospel of God, and it is the power of God unto salvation. Therefore laying aside all malice because of that power you now have power because of the power of God's Word your life will be transformed.

And here's what he focuses on This is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but we are commanded here to lay aside some things. As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the Word, we need to be hungering and thirsting after these things. And he says laying this aside, if you're true believers in Christ, lay these things aside. I'm just going to walk through a few of these. The first one here he mentions is malice.

This is something that must be laid aside. You know, the scripture speaks about putting on or taking off and putting on. You don't just take off but you must put on. And here he's telling you to take off some things and that first thing that he mentions here is laying aside all malice. There's a word that describes malice but he's talking about all kinds of malice which would be a very diverse thing.

It goes into many areas of your life. Specifically, he's speaking of this as all sorts of wickedness. You can look that up in James 1.21 or 1 Corinthians 5.8. But in the more confined sense, malice is anger resting in the bosom of fools. What do we hear about this morning?

It's that anger that's residing in the bosom of fools. A fool lives as if there is no God and there is no judgment. And that's where anger resides. Let us not be foolish. Lay it aside.

It is something that is settled and overgrown anger, retained till it inflames a man to design mischief, to do mischief, or to delight in any mischief that befalls another." That is malice. He goes on from there and he speaks here now about guile or deceit if you will. All deceit. It comprehends flattery, falsehood, and delusion. It's a crafty imposing upon another's ignorance or weakness to his damage.

That's deceit. Trying to use your power of the mind, if you will, to manipulate somebody to accomplish something that you want to even at the point of damaging someone else. That is deceit. And then he speaks of hypocrisy. The word being plural comprehends all sorts of hypocrisies.

In matter of religion hypocrisy is counterfeit piety. Coming into church and putting on the show and dressing up and acting nice, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. Lay it aside. Lay aside all hypocrisies and let us live transparently before one another in love of one another. In civil conversation this hypocrisy is counterfeit friendships which is much practiced by those who give high compliments which they do not believe.

They make promises which they never intend to perform or they pretend friendships when mischief lies in their heart or that deceit. Fourthly, he notes here all envies. That first part of, or last part of verse one. And all, excuse me, envy. Everything that may be called envy, which is a grieving at the good and welfare of another.

At their abilities, their prosperity, their fame, or their successful labors. Lay it aside. Lay it aside. I can command you to do that because God's Word says you have purified your souls through obeying the truth through the Spirit. Lay it aside through the power of God's Word.

And lastly, but not comprehensively, he mentions evil speaking. Which is distraction. Speaking against another or defaming another. It is rendered in some places as backbiting. So rather than being like the former that we just mentioned here, Peter calls us to be something different.

Remember he's speaking here about being born again and now he says in verse 2, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the world. We have some babes here this day. I see a little one right back there right now, that little babe desires milk. Think about how a baby, Mamas, think about how a baby craves the mother's milk when it is hungry. And that is how we are to be as being born-again Christians.

We are to crave the milk of the word. You know one of the tests of being a true believer is your appetite for God's Word. What is your appetite for it? Is it one of those things that you're fine to only eat once a week. Or do you crave it?

Do you long for it? Do you search for it like silver and as gold? Are you willing to dig for it? Are you willing to labor for the Word of God so that you can be fed by the Word of God? And so that is how this picture is as newborn babes desire this pure milk of the Word.

Why? That you may grow thereby. It's one thing that's the fact, if we saw this little child in five years from now and it was the same little child, there was a problem. The purpose of the milk of the word and the purpose of the milk of the mother is so that that child will grow, it will be matured, it will be growing, not only physically, but it will be growing mentally. And that is God's desire for each of you.

Brothers and sisters, listen, you need to be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and that righteousness is found in the word of God. The purpose of that is so that you will grow and be more like Christ. If you do not have that hunger and thirst for God's word, something is wrong. Just like a baby who is not hungry and does not grow, something is physically wrong with that child. And something is spiritually wrong with you if you do not have a hunger and thirsting for God's word.

Now listen, we all go through times of dryness, I understand that, been there, but I'm not satisfied there. Are you satisfied there? We must have that hungering and thirsting. And you know, one of the things that we fail to realize is that when we fail to hunger for God's word, we need to ask God to give us that appetite. God, make me hungry for the word.

Make me hungry and thirsty for righteousness. God loves and delights to answer the prayers that are according to his will and that one is You don't have to wonder about that one It is the will of God that you hunger for his word and then he closes this out by saying If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Rather than being like what we once were, we now have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. Have you tasted and seen this? You see, these former things will be true.

If it is true that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You will hunger like a babe. All those who have been born again certainly have experienced the graciousness of the Lord and in response to that graciousness will strive with all that you are to live holy lives in the fear of God. And that is my desire for each of you is that you will understand the power of the Word of God to transform your life and that you will have a hunger and thirst for God's word so that you will grow thereby and be more like Christ. Let's pray.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, my prayer is that you would make each of us hunger and thirst for your word. It is a powerful word. It is a purifying word. It is a transforming word. It is the word of God that endures forever that we need and we need it more now than ever.

Lord help us not in a neglect the word of God and all of the busyness of our lives it is the most important thing that we can have and Lord I thank you for making it so readily available it is on every phone It is on every shelf in our homes and we have it right in our fingertips all the time. Oh God, help us. So many generations before would long and be so envious of what we have because we have it so at our fingertips. Lord, please give us a hunger for it. Help us to study it, help us to grow.

And Lord, we ask these things in Christ's name, amen.