INTRODUCTION

            Christians are people of the Book. We do not believe that reading the Word of God saves us but we do believe that as we hear, read and study it it brings us closer to the God who made us and His Son who saves us. The Bible is God’s word written and it gives us an insight into the character of the God we worship. The theologians talk about two kinds of way in which God who is invisible reveals himself. General revelation whereby God reveals the fact that he is there through his creation. As we look at the world and the intricate design and complexity of life we say surely where there is such design there must be a designer. God reveals himself to  us generally through what we see in the world.

But we need more than this for we need to know what type of God this is that has made everything and we need to know how we can relate to him and please him – for this we need special revelation and that comes to us in God’s word written. We get to know each other through words. Someone has said that we can only get to know a person a bit by looking at them, what we need to do is to hear them, to listen to them, to hear words. God has chosen to communicate to us by means of a written word that was compiled over many centuries which gives us his acts and his thoughts. We would be lost without the Bible. This is the record of God’s very personal revelation of himself to humankind.

Of course God’s special revelation did not end with the words of scripture, supremely God revealed himself to us through his Son Jesus. Interestingly the gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Word made flesh, the Word took on human form and lived among us. Jesus was the supreme means of communication of God to us. Jesus said when you hear me you hear the Father, when you see me you see the Father for I and the Father are one.

Peter in his letter to the followers of Jesus wants to remind them of the importance of the word of God. It has a unique power and as they feel separated from their homeland and much that was familiar they needed to hold on to the word of God in the scriptures for through that word they would know the presence of God with them.  In these verses from 1:22 -2:3 I want us to see four things that Peter brings to our attention – the Word of God is powerful for it purifies, it is permanent, it impacts as it is preached and it leads to personal growth.

1. Purifies  

The truth of the gospel, of the word, seems to have a purifying aspect to it. Verse 22 says  “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth..”  I am reminded of two other verses in the NT which bring some light here. In John 15:3 Jesus says to his disciples “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” And in Ephesians 5:26 it talks about how Christ loves the church and makes the church holy “cleansing her by the washing with water through the word..”

            In the Bible the word of God, the Spirit of God and the presence of Christ are very much linked together so  that where the word of God is truly presented or preached then Christ is present and His Spirit is active. Whenever we receive the word of God and obey it we find that it has a cleansing and purifying effect upon us as people.

            When we come to the word of God it is like we are a bucket which is not overly clean and we come to a stream of water. As we dip the bucket into the water it has the effect of washing the bucket. Now as we read, study and apply the word of God with open and receptive hearts we find that the word washes us inwardly, it cleanses and purifies us. It is not that the Bible has some magical quality – it is just words on a page – but as we read that word in faith, as we come with submissive hearts to it we find that God does take these words and they start to impact us in the power of the holy Spirit and it begins to make a difference. These are words of truth. Jesus said that he would sanctify us, that is make us holy, by the word of truth.

            How clean is our soul? As we engage with the world we find that the world impacts us, it effects how we think, it shapes what our priorities are. If you like the world can pollute our way of thinking and it has a way of blunting our spiritual sharpness, it has a way of decreasing our desire for God so what we need to do  is to counteract this polluting impact of the world. We can best do this by continuing to read, study, meditate on the word of God. When we struggle with impure thoughts we should use the word of God to purify our minds, as we fill our minds with scripture then it pushes out the negative thoughts. This is one good reason for the Christian to memorise scripture, so that we can counter the evil that infiltrates us so easily. The Psalmist says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Ps.119:11  Ps.19:8-9 says “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure enduring for ever.”

            There is a purifying aspect to the word of God when it is combined with faith and obedience which leads us deeper into real love for each other. When we obey the word it means that we have “sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ”.

2. Permanent

The second thing that Peter highlights for us in this little section on God’s word is that it is a permanent word. We live in a world where everything decays and passes away – grass, flowers, cars, computers, horses, dogs, houses, even people will flourish and then pass away. This world is temporal and temporary. But the word of God says Peter quoting from Isaiah 40 “stands forever”. The word of God is linked closely with God himself and as God is eternal then his words are eternal.

            Now the world has always had this sense of transience, of things not lasting. But I think our culture has this even more for everything changes and moves so quickly in our culture. Fashions, fads, celebrities, buildings even seem to rise and fall so quickly. We live amongst a transient and changing generation and there seem little that is stable, fixed, or secure. The whole of society I feel is crying out for some stability, some security. Change can be good but sometimes people long for a sense of certainty, comfort and security. In these days not even Woolworths or the Presbyterian Mutual is secure any more. The old certainties are no longer certain and dependable. Everything is shifting and people are crying out for something that is reliable and permanent, for some transcendence. And Peter says when all around you is failing and shifting, crumbling and falling go back to the ancient word, go to the ancient paths.

Thus says the Lord, `Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it; and you shall find rest for your souls.' But you said, `We will not walk in it.'" Jeremiah 6:16. The Hebrew word for ancient is "OLAM". Some of the meanings of this Hebrew word are: old, hidden, perpetual, eternal, timeless, from eternity. God and His word are ancient and modern, timeless and eternal

            We are living in confused days where we need certainty and something we can trust that is reliable. When we receive the word of Jesus into our lives we come alive through the imperishable seed of God’s word. Peter says we are born again, we enter a new eternal existence. Our lives take on a new quality.  Outwardly we look the same but inside us a seed has been planted that is life giving. The natural world comes from natural seed and there is something in it which naturally decays and dies. Whether we are poor or rich there is a natural decaying process going on in all of us. When we look in the mirror the ageing process continues no matter how wealthy we are, we cannot stop it. James 1:11 “For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business”.

            All flesh withers and dies because it is rooted in natural seed which is subject to the Fall. But God plants within us supernatural seed in the gospel and that means though outwardly we are wasting away inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Cor.4:16) So we fix our eyes on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.

            The word of God purifies and the word of God provides permanence.

3. Preached

Peter says this is the word that was preached to you. The word preach is unique really to religion and specifically to the Christian religion. The gospel was always meant to be preached, heralded, declared. There is a power in preaching that is unique. In recent years people have said preaching is finished. In our instant TV age where people are used to videos and images they say the spoken word is over. How wrong they are. Barack Obama’s success was partly or even greatly due to his rhetoric, his powerful use of words and oratory. He was not preaching but his words stirred a nation if not a world. But take human words and combine that with the divine word, God’s words, and you have a combination that God still chooses to change hearts and minds. There is nothing that can change the hearts of people like the preached word of God. Today people still flock to hear the word of God and they show that they have a desire for it. Indeed John Stott has said that “the health of every congregation depends more than anything else on the quality of its preaching ministry.”

God is pleased to use weak and frail people who take up the word of God and preach it and through this people are saved. Rom.10:14 “how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them. And how can they preach unless they are sent?” Pray that God will raise up and send out preachers.

God has designed it that people’s lives will be changed as they hear the word preached. Preaching must be people related but God centred. Those two things are needed - but when they are there in the presence of the Spirit then the preached word has a power, a pertinence, a relevance, an ability to change people’s lives like no other medium. The preached word is a purifying word and a permanent word.

4. Personal growth

Finally it is a word that when applied properly by preacher and hearer then it leads to a difference in our lives. In 1 Pet. 2:1 we have another therefore – “therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind.” When we receive the word of God properly it should make a difference to how we live. It enables us to grow spiritually and Peter says this happens because it is our spiritual nourishment. “Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk”.

I have said many times before that truths that apply in the physical world are mirrored in the spiritual world. Just as we need to eat physically so we need to eat spiritually. Just as a lack of good food physically leads to poor health so alack of good spiritual food being taken leads to a poor spiritual condition. Peter likens the intake of spiritual food to the craving of a baby for milk. Milk helps a child to grow and it is the main means of growth. Our spiritual milk is the Bible and having acquired a taste for it through conversion we should find that that appetite for God’s word should grow and grow. If we find that our appetite for God’s word is diminishing then that is a problem.

            People can lose their appetite physically for good food two main reasons – either they are eating bad food which blunts their appetite for the good (snacking on fast food or sweets), or they are unwell. One of the first signs that a person is sick is that they go off their food, they have no appetite.

            Let me ask you if you have an appetite for sermons, bible reading and study, for prayer? If you do not then I would suggest that either you are feeding yourself on stuff that is hindering a proper spiritual appetite or else you are spiritually sick, if not dead.

Notice the word that Peter uses here as he speaks about the desire for pure spiritual milk – it is the word “crave”. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk”. Have you ever heard a baby who is hungry for milk, well that gives you an idea of craving. It speaks of an intense desire. Peter urges his readers to have an intense desire for spiritual milk. The more we take of God’s word the more we will want it, the less we take it the less the desire. This is the way it works. Have we a form of spiritual anorexia where we have lost our appetite for God’s word?

            The word will grow you. Have you a holy discontentment with your current state of holiness and knowledge of God, then crave more spiritual milk that by it you may grow. Are we students of the word, are we bible saturated people? Are we getting into the word?

I finish with a story told by Stuart Briscoe who was a visiting preacher in Kimberley, S. Africa. As he got off the plane the lady greeting him asked if he would like to go and see the hole. He was not sure quite what to say. She continued “Would you like to see where you are staying first or would you like to go and see the hole?” He said “let’s go to this hole” recognizing her enthusiasm. She continued “It’s the biggest man made hole in the world you know, it’s a mile in circumference and hundreds of feet deep. People came from all over the world to dig this hole. It used to be a hill you know.” Well this got Stuart really interested and he asked why people turned a hill into a hole. She said “well it is simple really. Some boys were on the hill and were throwing pebbles at each other when a man who was passing noticed one of the pebbles glinting in the sun. When he looked closer he discovered that in the pebble was a diamond. From that day Kimberley Diamond mine was born.”  What motivated people to turn a hill into the biggest man made hole in the world? Diamonds, treasure, riches.

             You know even diamonds do not last into eternity, but God’s word will. This is treasure worth digging into for it will make you spiritually rich and eternally secure. There is power here to change your life forever. So start digging.

Bookmark this page with: (what is this?)