If you would, the 1st Peter chapter
2, we're going to continue our study. This will be number 11
in our 1st Peter study and we're going to start chapter 2 today. But I'd also like us to read
in context. So we're going to start back
in First Peter, chapter one, verse 22, and then we're going
to read to verse three of chapter two, because our text today begins
with the word wherefore. So let us read the context of
our of our text. First Peter, chapter one, verses
22. To first Peter, chapter two,
verse three, the name of the message is tasting that the Lord
is gracious. Seeing ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unframed love
of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Wherefore, so in light of all
those things, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies
and envies and evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that she may grow thereby. If so be that she
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So we see here the
tie in from our scriptures from last week with the word wherefore.
And we saw last week that Peter is bringing forth that we're
to love one another. Remember that we're to love one
another with a sincere brotherly love because. were born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. And we looked at last week that
that is one of the evidences of being born again, is that
we love the brethren, that we love the brethren. And I told
you guys that I went through multiple commentaries and they
all said the same thing, that it's an evidence of regeneration,
is love for the brethren. And I was reading 1 John yesterday
and boy, if you read that book, it's packed full of that too.
It's wonderful, it's wonderful. So we're born again, not by a
corruptible seed, which is our first birth, but we who are redeemed,
we who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God are born again
by the Holy Spirit, by the word of God, which endures forever. And the scripture here says it's
preached unto you. And we see the first three chapters
or verses in this chapter are still continuing the exhortation
that Peter had begun in chapter one. And these are things for
believers to guard against. These are things for believers
to guard against, beloved, to guard against. Because we are
born again, because we are new creatures in Christ, because
we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, we're to lay aside
all malice, all guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings. And
as newborn babes, we're to desire the sincere mouth of the word.
Why? That we may grow thereby. That
we may grow thereby. Not to grow to boast in what
we know. But I like what one commentator
said, to grow that we might glorify God even more over what he's
done for us. As we grow in the knowledge and
the truth of what he's done for us. And in the last verse, if
so, that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, the only
ones who can desire the sincere milk of the word are those who
are born again, because we've tasted that the Lord is gracious.
We've tasted it. And we'll look at that further
on, too. So as we grow in the knowledge and belief of the truth
of Scripture and bow our knee to Scripture, And to Christ we
grow in grace as the Holy Spirit has us grow. And Peter is here
bringing forth to us some things that we should lay aside as believers.
Again, because we are born again and because we are new creatures
in Christ. I'll turn, if you would, to Ephesians
chapter 4. Paul writes a similar exhortation
to the Ephesians, very similar to the Ephesians. over in Ephesians chapter 4,
verses 17 to 32. It's a rather long portion, but
I think it's important for us to read it to tie in with this
lesson here. And we see that the similar exhortation
by Paul is very similar to Peter's. Look at Ephesians 4, 17 to 32. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of the heart, who being
past feelings have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to walk
all in cleanness and with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ,
ye have not so learned Christ. If so, be that ye have heard
him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Christ. that
ye put off concerning the former conversation of the old man,
which is corrupted according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and
sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give
place to the devil, let him that stole steal no more, but rather
let him labor, working with his hands the things which is good
that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is
good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto
the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind to one
another. tenderhearted, forgiven one another.
Why even is God, for Christ's sake, have forgiven you? Have forgiven you. So we're always
to remember, and you probably heard me say it many times, we're
to remember how much we've been forgiven. And we'll be quick
to forgive others. So the same kind of exhortation
is given by Paul there. So let's go back to our text
and The Apostle Peter, we will see, is exhorting those who had
by the Spirit been born again to get rid of with all possible
speed of all characteristics of the unregenerate state and
to seek with eagerness the characteristics of the new state. And we saw
that with Paul. So with that in mind, let us
consider the first verse of this chapter. Wherefore, laying aside
all malice and all guile, hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings,
and all evil speakants. Now, since the persons the apostle
writes to were born again, they therefore ought to love one another.
We found that in the last chapter. And here he exhorts them to lay
aside vices which are disagreeable as characteristics of an unregenerate
man. They're contrary to brotherly
love. They're contrary to brotherly love. So remember, that's what
Peter had been exhorting them to, right? In the first chapter,
he'd been exhorting them to brotherly love. And we'll see that these
things that he mentions here are contrary to brotherly love.
They're contrary to that. And he advises the brethren to
lay aside like weights or burdens, because these can become weights
or burdens to us. And he's he's telling them to lay him aside
like they could take a weight off. Lay it aside. Lay it aside. Just put it away. Put it away. And remember, we
saw Paul do that. He told the Ephesian believers
to do the same thing, to put off certain things. So Paul brings
them back to the fact that since they're born again, they're to
lay aside all, or Peter, Peter I mean, brings them back to the
fact that since they're born again, they're to lay aside all
malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envies, and all evil speakings.
And Peter exhorts us to lay aside, which means to be done with these
things that are disagreeable and contrary to spiritual life
since we're born again. Now unfortunately, this is not
a once for all thing. It's not. Let's just be honest.
It's not. If it was, we'd all be rejoicing.
We would be. But it's not. It's not a once
for all accomplishment. It's a continual effort of laying
aside things. Of laying aside things. Now,
Peter first mentions malice. Now, to live in malice is a mark
of an unregenerate man and very unbecoming of we who are born
again. It's not consistent with the relation of brethren as we
are to love one another. Malice is ill will and ill feeling
toward others. Malice is born of self-love.
It's born of self-love. Guile or deceit. The word is
used for all dishonest ways of gaining our goals. So we must
be men and women who speak the truth and who deal honestly with
all men. Hypocrisy, both to man and to
God. This is the opposite of sincerity. Hypocrisy is the opposite
of sincerity. It's pretending to be what we
aren't and speaking with our lips what's not in our hearts. Envy. Envy is a natural effect
of malice. It reveals the absence of love.
It reveals the absence of love. Envy is the uneasiness a person
feels in the happiness, prosperity, or success of another. Or other
words, being jealous of what someone has or someone, what
they do. That's what that is. And then,
evil speaking. Now when we think of evil speaking,
we usually think of blasphemy or certain words, but I like
what Brother Henry Mahan brought out, but perhaps the worst and
most damaging form of evil speaking is gossip, slander, and criticism
of others. So we're to lay aside these things. He also went on to say, whispering
and fault finding do not reveal a work of grace in the heart.
So the Apostle Peter, by inspiration, and remember, this is by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. We're just reading what the text
says. The Apostle Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us
to lay aside these things, to take them off like weights off
us and just lay them aside because they hinder us. They hinder us. They do. They hinder us in our
walk. And notice, the apostle doesn't
sugarcoat things, does he? Neither did Paul. They don't
sugarcoat things. They don't talk like these slick-minded
preachers that say, well, y'all are just supposed to love one
another and all get along and do that. No, he's dealing with
some real issues here, isn't he? He's dealing with some real
things. And again, this is by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. Now, false preachers They use
slick words and try to tell you everything's okay. But here,
Peter is exhorting them. Lay these things aside, brethren. Lay them aside. It's wonderful. It speaks to my heart. It speaks
to my heart. John Brown brings something out.
And also in the fact, Peter brings this up in the fact that they're
new creatures in Christ. Now John Brown brings something
out that I thought would be profitable for us all. He says this, and
you will observe too the order in which the prohibition stands. In the world's morality, they
set about pruning the branches while the root is undisturbed.
So the world will try to take care of these things, right?
Brother Matt, we were talking about taking the ax to the root
of things. Brown's bringing this out. He
says the world will try to fix things by, oh, I'm going to do
this, I'm going to stop doing that, I'm going to stop doing
that, instead of taking the axe to the root. The Word of God,
the Word of God, brethren, takes the axe to the root. That's what it does here. It
takes the axe to the root. It's incredible. And he says,
in the world's morality, they said about pruning the branches,
well, the root is undisturbed. And the evil tree is often rather
strengthened and weakened by the process. But here, the axe
is laid to the root of the tree. Lay aside malice. If that's laid
aside, if malice, Brown says, if malice is laid aside, deceit
and hypocrisy will soon disappear. Will soon disappear. And never
reappear. Destroy the root. and the leaves
and the stem will soon wither and die. Lay aside envies, and
there be no more evil speakings." That's profitable for us, isn't
it? See, he's saying Peter's taking the axe to the root. Because
if you lay aside these things, other things won't occur. It's
wonderful, beloved. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Wonderful. Now, with that in
mind, let us consider the next verse. as the newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that she may grow thereby." So
this exhortation here refers both to an end and to the means
by which this end is to be accomplished. We are to desire the sincere
milk of the word, which will have us grow in Christ, will
have us flee to Christ, and is all about Christ. It's all about
Him. So what does it do then? When
we desire the sincere mouth of the Word, it sets our eyes upon
Christ. It sets our eyes upon Christ.
It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
the end Peter brings forth here, before the believers that he's
writing to, is the attainment of spiritual growth. And he also
brings forth before them the means of spiritual growth. In
taking in a spiritual nourishment, As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word. Why? That she may grow thereby. So this exhortation naturally
divides itself into two parts. You seek spiritual growth, and
that's the end, and desire the sincere milk of the word, and
that's the means. That's the means. For by it,
for it is by the right use of the appropriate nourishment that
spiritual growth is obtained. That's how we grow. That's how
we grow. And we'll never see growth in
ourselves, beloved. But others will see it. Others
will see it. It's incredible. I mean, Henry
Mann said that, and I heard him say that years ago in a sermon,
and that stuck with me because it's true. We never see it in
ourselves. What do we see in ourselves?
Lord, I'm getting worse. Oh, but that means you're growing
in grace because if you see yourself more sinful, remember Paul at
the end of his ministry, I'm the chief of sinners. My goodness,
he was. So tell a man, and think of this
too, what is dead cannot grow, right? What's dead cannot grow. So someone who's dead spiritually
can't grow spiritually. Natural man can't grow in spiritual
things. But we're alive. We're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. We grow in the grace and knowledge
and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is perfect does not need
to grow. But here in our text is a newborn babe that grows,
that grows. And again, till a man is born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, see the
tie in with the last chapter about being born again and necessity,
and this absolute necessity. You must be born again, like
our master said. You must be, you must be. Until the Word of God is preached
to us, man is destitute of spiritual life, and therefore he's incapable
of spiritual life, incapable of spiritual growth. Again, that's
why our Lord said you must be born again. And we're born again,
not of corruptible seed, not of our natural seed, but of incorruptible
by the Word of God, by the Word of God. And this is what Paul,
Peter is telling us we should desire. We should desire. Peter's addressing here those
who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. They were once
spiritually dead, and now they're made alive. They're incapable
of spiritual growth on their own, but they grow by feasting
on the Word of God, by feasting on the Word of God. Just as a
baby desires the breast, we should have the same hunger and thirst
for the Word of God, that we might grow in grace, beloved,
and in love, and in knowledge, and in patience, and in humility,
and in faith towards our Savior. Now let us consider the sincere
milk. It says sincere milk, and all
that means is the pure, unmixed Word of God. the pure unmixed
word of God. Note that it's singular. Desire
the sincere milk of the word. It's singular. This is our only
real food spiritually. Not the traditions of men, which
Peter addressed earlier in the first chapter. Not man's ideas
and thoughts about the word of God. But the word of God itself. The word of God itself. Spiritual
truth is here compared to milk. One commentator brings out to
imitate its simplicity, its pleasantness to the new spiritual palate and
its ability to produce spiritual growth as the Holy Spirit applies
it to us. Sincere in the Greek there means
guileless in things, unmixed, unadulterated, pure, pure. And the Word of God is pure truth,
without the slightest mixture of error. Pure truth, beloved.
And it does what it professes to do. It does what it professes
to do. It really converts the soul and
nourishes the soul of the believer. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
19, verse 7, and James 1, verse 21. Psalm 19, 7, and James 1,
verse 21. We tie these two verses in with
that text there. That is, newborn babes were to
desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.
James 1, verse 21, and Psalm 19, 7. We'll go to Psalm 19,
7 first. And this is speaking of the word
of God. The law of the Lord is perfect. It's perfect. Psalm 19, seven, the law of the
Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. Converting
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple, making wise the simple. Now turn
over to James chapter one, verse 21. And remember, we're born again,
what? Not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed. We know
that's the Word of God. Look at what it says in James
1, verse 21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity, of naughtiness
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able
to save your souls. So over in Psalm 19, we saw that
the word of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. And here
we see in the New Testament, which is able to save your souls.
Let's go back to our text then in 1 Peter. And it says, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word that she may grow
thereby. To those who are born again,
This incorruptible word by the power of the Holy Spirit of God
is able to build us up. It's able to correct us. It refreshes our souls. It exhorts
us. My, and we have in the next verse
the reason why we as believers should desire God's word. Why
we should desire God's word. Why we should desire to hear
it preached. Why we who are born again desire
to read it. Why? Because we have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. We have, haven't we? We who are
born again have tasted this, beloved. If so be, so he's the
exhortation Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile,
and hypocrisies, and all envies, and evil speakings, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that she may grow
thereby? If so, be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If
you tasted that the Lord is gracious, this is an exhortation for us.
It's wonderful. And the reference here is over
to Psalm 34, verse 8, if you want to turn there. Psalm 34,
verse 8. cross reference to this verse
here. And then you can put your finger
in Psalm 119 as well, 103, Psalm 34, eight in Psalm 119, 103. So God's people, those who are
born again by the Holy Spirit of God have tasted that the Lord
is gracious. Psalm 3480, taste and see that
the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusted
in him. And then turn, if you would,
to Psalm 119, 103. God's words and God's truth are
like honey for the believer. And have we who are born again
not tasted? that the Lord is gracious. We have, haven't we? We have.
Look at Psalm 119, 103. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste. Oh, is the preaching of the gospel
sweet to you? Is the proclamation of Christ
and who he is sweet to you? When you read the word of God,
is it sweet to you? When we come and we're having
a horrible day and we're either down or something's going on
and we get in the word and we read the word, is it not sweet
to you? Oh my. Sometimes when we get
cold and indifferent and we go back to the word, is it not sweet
to you? It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful, isn't it? It's sweet. The word of God is
sweet. Sweet. How sweet are thy words
to my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. So because
we're born again, again we should lay aside all those things Peter
mentioned, and desire the sincere milk of the word that we may
grow, because we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. If you've tasted it, if you've
seen that the Lord is gracious, if you see how lovely He is in
His person, how lovely He is in this person, how He's full
of grace, how He's full of mercy, how He's full of truth, how He's
displayed His grace in saving your soul. If you tasted that,
oh, we should desire the sincere mouth of the Word, shouldn't
we? If we're new creatures in Christ. And this is written not
just to new believers. Don't think that text when it
says newborn babes means just baby believers. That's not what
that means. That's all believers. Because
think of this. We're all babes until we get home. Because we're
growing and learning, aren't we? That's what several commentators
brought out. I thought that was marvelous.
We've not obtained perfection. No. So we need to desire the
milk of the Word. We need to desire the things
of the... And again, the milk of the Word is just the pure,
unadulterated Word of God. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So seeing that all we see is
fullness, and His grace, and His mercy, and it's being displayed
in our lives in the saving of our soul, we're to lay aside
these things that are spoken of in verse 1. and we're to desire
the sincere milk of the word. Psalm 63, verses 3 to 5, the
scriptures declare this. Because thy lovingkindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless
thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips. That sounds like someone who's
tasted that the Lord is gracious, isn't it? It's true, and we feel
that way as believers. So think of how we have tasted
that the Lord is gracious, how he alone was our surety and our
redeemer. How he alone. How the word of
God, the second person of the Trinity, assumed our nature and
did what we could never do. He did what we could never do.
He obeyed His own law perfectly as our substitute. And then He goes to the cross
of Calvary and He dies before His own justice and before His
own law, sinless for us. Is the Lord not gracious to us?
Have we not tasted that the Lord is gracious? Because we were
the ones who'd broken his law and justice. Not just once, hey, but billions
of times in a lifetime. Yet the sinless one, the perfect
one, dies upon the cross in our place. It's amazing. God himself. God incarnate in
the flesh. Is he not gracious in doing this?
We who are born again cry, yes, yes, yes. He is so gracious to
us, so merciful to us. And we've tasted this, haven't
we? We've tasted this, beloved. And now we have a taste for God's
word, don't we? Wish we didn't have before because
we were dead before, remember? And that which is alive, or that
which is dead, can never grow. So we had no desire at one time.
Now we have a desire for the Word of God. And that's what
we grow by, because we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
And we have a taste for it. We hunger and thirst after righteousness.
We desire to study the Word of God. We desire to hear the Word
of God preached to us. But the unregenerate man doesn't
desire this. The unregenerate man doesn't
desire this at all. He has no spiritual taste. His taste is impaired by sin. By sin. And he has no desire
for the word of God, no hunger for righteousness, and sin is
sweet to him. And I was there. Now I still
struggle with sin. We're all sinners still, aren't
we? Even we who are saved, we're still sinners. We're still sinners,
but now we have a new life in us. We desire things we never
desired before. We were talking about that, remember?
We have things that all of a sudden... I love to hear the Word of God
preached. I love to hear about Christ. We can't work that in ourselves,
can we? That's a work of God. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. Oh, my. We savor and relish and
enjoy the things of the Spirit of God, the Word of God. And
we rejoice now in the things of Christ. We rejoice in things
that we never rejoiced in before. It's wonderful. And again, the
believer hates and loathes sin in ourselves more than anyone
else. We see it exceedingly sinful. We see sin for what it is. And
we see Christ absolutely precious. We see Him precious to us now.
And God's words and ordinances are sweet. We're gonna have the
Lord's Supper today. It's sweet because we're remembering what
the Lord has done for us. We're remembering what the Lord's
done for us. And the believer has for God,
God's word, a desire. And it's not a superficial desire
as a hypocrite may have, but the believer has tasted that
the word, that the Lord is gracious. We've tasted it, beloved. We've,
think of this, you who are redeemed are receiver of his mercy and
his grace. We're receivers of the mercy
and grace of God. Right? Faith's a gift, isn't
it? We're receivers of the mercy.
We never sought it, but we're receivers of it. And so Christ
is so precious to us now. The believer has a saving knowledge
of Christ. Christ has been revealed to us.
And we rejoice in Him. We rejoice in the fullness that
is in Him. We rejoice in the completeness of salvation that
is in Him. in Him alone, because we've been born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. And we see Christ set forth in
the glory of His person, in the riches of His grace through His
Word. And we've tasted, we've tasted that the Lord is gracious.
And we desire more. We desire more, don't we? As
we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and taste more of His
goodness, the believer desires to hear more about Christ. Tell
me more. Just tell me the old, old story.
Tell me the old, old story in the purity of it and in the sincerity
of it. My goodness. And note also it's
the Lord who's gracious. If we have tasted and know by
our own experience that the Lord is good and gracious to us in
Christ, we will lay aside these fleshy deeds that are so dishonoring
to him and uncharacteristic of his children, and we will feed
on his word, which is our bread and our meat. Which is our bread
and our meat. The new man lives on spiritual
food. One commentator said the ear is the mouth of the mind. And as we take communion later
this day, let us remember we who are born again. Let us remember
that we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this time. And thank you for this wonderful
book, which we can study and learn and glean from. Oh, Lord,
we see how the word just points us right to you, Lord Jesus,
right to you. And we who are born again, well,
we tasted that your gracious Lord, you're so full of mercy
and so full of grace. And we are receivers of that
mercy and grace in you. We praise you and we thank you
that you loved us before we loved you. Oh, Lord, we never would
have come to you unless you'd drawn us in with love and cords.
It drew us to you. We give you all the glory and
honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen.