Sunday April 13, 2008

The Living and Enduring Word of God
1 Peter 1:23-25

I. Introduction

Two men had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case.
He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said,
"That's right, that's right."

On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, "Wait a second, judge, you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." So the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, "That's right, that's right."

When the clerk of court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge, they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and said, "That's right, that's right."

Roger von Oech, Ph.D., A Whack on the Side of the Head, Warner Books, 1983, p. 23.

Like the judge in our story today, we live in a culture that considers everything to be relative.

Many people believe in a philosophy of “moral relativism.” In fact, 68% of all Christians do not believe in absolute truth.
The number is even higher among Christian teens – 91% (George Barna).

How many times have we heard statements like these: “What's right for you may not be right for me.” “If it feels good do it.” “Nothing is right or wrong – there are just different opinions.” “Who are you to judge?!”

All of this is the result of the feeling that there is no absolute truth. You are entitled to your truth and I am entitled to mine!

Relativism is the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved.

In other words, relativism exalts the individual and each one’s ability to decide what is right or wrong for him or herself.

Now most people are not absolute relativists. They believe that gravity is absolute (what goes up, must come down). They also believe that there is an absolute difference between H20 (water) and H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) even though there is only a “relatively” small difference in the molecular structure between the two.

The issue facing the church and our greater society today is that of moral relativism. What is right and what is wrong? And perhaps even more critical – who or what determines that?

In the “battle” to determine who (or what) defines right and wrong, a huge percentage of people (as noted above) have opted for moral relativity. No one or no thing is right or wrong.

One of the great icons of our day is Oprah Winfrey. Now I realize that there may be some of you here who watch
Oprah whenever you can. My point is not to put down Oprah, but to show the prevailing influence of relative thinking in
our culture today.

Oprah Winfrey, who grew up in the Baptist church and still claims to be a Christian, says that there are many ways to God. While she says she believes that Jesus is the right way for her, she believes there are as many ways to God as there are people on the planet.

Oprah has a huge influence on millions of people, including multitudes of Christians.

How do we as Christians reconcile this sentiment to the Scriptures?

Especially to passages that state the following as the words of Jesus: “I am the way the truth and the life and no one
comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Is it not these kinds of absolute statements that have led to numerous acts of atrocity and war?

Before I continue, let me clarify something. The problem that can arise for those who do believe in absolutes (that
some things are true no matter what) is when we deceive ourselves into believing that we have the absolute understanding
of absolute truth.

I am not advocating that MY way is the right way and that all who disagree with me are wrong. I will declare that the Jesus way is the absolute way and that my goal is to align myself with His way as closely as I can.

This still leaves room for lots of variety and expression within what we call Christianity, but it does draw the line with Jesus.

When the absolute truth of Jesus as a Person is turned into the absolute truth of a religion, then you will have war, discrimination, and oppression.

But the truly Jesus way loves our neighbor as ourselves, and while we proclaim that Jesus is the way and encourage as many as possible to follow the Jesus way, we remind ourselves that it is the peacemakers who are called the children of God and it is the meek who will inherit the earth (see Matthew 5:3-12)

In light of the many problems that have resulted from certain forms of absolute authoritarian religions, relativism (on the surface) looks like a great option. With relativism everyone will get to heaven (if they believe there is a heaven).

With relativism we will not have war, because if all ideologies are OK, then why do I need to force my ideology or religion upon others?

Relativism should lead us into blissful utopianism where we all get along because we respect the beliefs and ideas o
f everyone else.

Sounds great, right?

But what do we do with those who believe it is within their individual right to sell their children to sexual slave traders?
Or the person who decides that people over the age of 60 no longer have the right to live? Or that a child who is born with some kind of birth defect is not fit to live? How far do we go with moral relativism?

Would you fly with an airline that advertised that they believe the principles that allow a plane to lift off the ground were relative and that each plane was going to be built differently – some in the shape of a tuba, others like a pie pan and others like a ball point pen?

I could go on and on, but the problem with relativity is that it leaves us adrift in a sea of uncertainty. There is no
anchor – nothing to count on. How am I supposed to live my life? How do I define whether I have value or have accomplished anything of value?

Moral relativism in the words of James is like “a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”
(James 1:6, NLT)

There is no anchor. All of this brings me to our passage for today.

II. The Living and Enduring Word of God

“You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ That word is the good news that was announced to you.”
(1 Peter 1:23-25, NRSV)

Let’s take a moment and look at this passage.

“You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring
word of God.”

The idea here is one of a new birth. Your first birth resulted when the seed of your father joined with the egg of your mother.

The problem with this seed is that it is perishable. Besides the fact that most of the seed die before ever reaching the egg, even when one does, the result is the birth of a person whose body is going to decay.

You may not like it, but your body is perishing.

The good news is that you have been (or have the opportunity to be) born again!

Not from a perishable seed, but from a seed that never perishes. What is this imperishable seed?

It is “the living and enduring word of God.”

And what is the Word of God? It is “the good news that was announced to you.”

And what is the Good News?

That although “The wages of sin is death…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 6:23)

That God has demonstrated His own love for us, in that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!”
(Romans 5:8)

Not only did Jesus die for you, but He was raised again from the dead as the Scriptures had predicted He would.
(1 Corinthians 15:4)

That “whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Romans 10:13)

And “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the
dead, you shall be saved…” (Romans 10:9)

Where do you learn more about the Good News? From the Bible!

It is the imperishable seed – the living and enduring word.

And just in case you did not get it the first time around, Peter utilizes a simile from the Old Testament to bring emphasis
to what he is saying: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the
flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

You see, even the prevailing philosophy of relativism will pass away – all the schemes of humanity, all of our vain attempts to hide from the eternal word of God, every argument that we put forth – they will all pass away.

“…but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

III. Application

Are you adrift in a sea of moral relativity?

Has the promised freedom of being able to do whatever you want actually brought you into bondage to destructive
activities and patterns in your life?

Has the freedom to create a god in your image – one that you are comfortable with – left you unfulfilled and uncertain as
to what is important or without any sense of purpose or direction?

In Hebrews 6 the writer has spoken of the unchanging character of God and the absolute certainty we can have in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Following these thoughts the writer says: “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope
that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered…”
(Hebrews 6:19-20, NRSV)

When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe and other novels, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now infirm and unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old
man's door, and ask, "Well, what's the good news?" The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say, "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C! " The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one "still point
in a turning world."

Maxi Dunnam, Jesus' Claims-Our Promises.

Perhaps you do not feel the need for some kind of certainty in life. I find that difficult to believe, but perhaps it is true.

I know for myself that I have needed that anchor in my life – that one thing that I can always depend on. I have found that one thing to be the good news of Jesus Christ as it has been proclaimed and expressed through the enduring, eternal and living Word of God.