I'd like to read you something
straight from Brother Henry's outline on this passage of scripture,
his opening comments as he wrote the Sunday School outline more
than 25 years ago. More than 25 years ago, this
is what he wrote. There is no subject more important
than the nature and extent of the inward change that takes
place when a man is savingly joined to Christ. Some think
that sanctification is God's work. and the man has nothing
to do with it. They say that God saves us, sanctifies
us, and works his will in us, and we need give no concern to
the matter of holiness. Others think that the work of
sanctification and personal holiness is man's work entirely. Peter
cuts both of these errors out by the roots. If you didn't know he'd written
that 25 years ago, you thought he wrote that yesterday. But
the issues in our day, there's no subject more important than
the nature and extent of the inward change that takes place
when a man is savingly joined to Christ. When a person is born
again, they're given a new nature. They're given a new heart, new
desires. They have a new way of life because
they have a new master. The Holy Spirit dwells in that
man and he is a new creature. And that happens as we've studied
through knowledge and through belief of the truth. There's
no salvation without a knowledge of Christ, without knowing Christ.
There's no salvation without the belief of the truth of the
gospel, without belief of Christ who is the truth. And I know,
and you do too, that salvation is entirely the work of God. It's entirely His work from beginning
to end. And at the same time, the believer
lives an active life of obedience. Look over Philippians chapter
2 before we begin here in 1 Peter. Look at Philippians chapter 2. Philippians 2 verse 13. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's an
active life of obedience to will and to do his good pleasure.
Now, God gives you the will, he gives you the desire, he gives
you the ability, but the believer does live an active life of obedience. And these are some of the things
that Peter talks about here in this chapter. He begins in verse
1 of chapter 2. He says, Wherefore, laying aside
all malice, all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings,
Now, he says, wherefore, this is just a continuation of his
thought from the end of chapter one, where we left off last week.
Wherefore, because you have been born again by the incorruptible
seed, the word of God, because you do love one another with
a pure heart permanently, there are some things that you'll do
as a result of that. There are some things that you'll
lay aside. You'll lay them aside because they're unbecoming to
the believer. You lay these things aside because they hinder the
love and the unity of the people that you love with that pure
heart firmly. And we are, when he's talking
about laying aside, we're to throw these things down like
they've been handled by a person infected with a disease. You
know, if you picked up something and somebody said, you know,
that was with someone who had smallpox, well, you'd throw it
down. You don't want anything to do
with that. That's the way we're to lay these
attitudes down. We're to throw them down like
they're infected with the disease because they are. They're the
result of an infected sin nature is what they are. We're to throw
them away like they're clothes that are out of style. You know,
you don't mourn them, you don't miss them. You can't believe
I ever wore that. You get rid of it and throw it
away. Because these attitudes are out of style for the believer.
Now, unfortunately, We don't just lay these things aside and
then we're done with them forever. Peter says you're laying them
aside. It's a constant battle to be
constantly laying them down. Because these are the characteristics
of Adam's nature that's in us and we can't get rid of it. That's
why we're constantly laying these things down. It's a constant
battle. And the first one Peter mentions is malice. That's ill
will. that makes you not only want
to harm someone, but glad when they get harmed, glad when something
evil befalls them, you're happy. That's malice. Strong's definition
of this word malice is a vicious disposition. Just vicious, just
all the time a disposition that's vicious, that's looking to hurt
somebody, looking to say something bad about somebody, and just
quick to be happy, to talk about when something bad does happen
to somebody. Malice. Lay that aside. The next one
he says is guile. Deceive. Using dishonest means
to get what you want. It's hiding the truth. You know,
they say, well, I didn't lie. Well, but hiding the truth is
the same thing. Hiding the truth to deceive someone
so you can get what you want from them. Or so maybe you hide
the truth so they'll remain an ally of yours. Deceive. Guile. Put that aside. Hypocrisies is
the next one. Pretending to be what you're
not. Pretending to believe something you do not believe. In the dictionary,
in Webster's, the example they use is the false appearance of
virtue or the false appearance of religion. A religious hypocrite. There's nothing worse than a
religious hypocrite. Peter says, put that, lay that
aside. The next one he says, envies,
jealousy. When we're affected with this
envy, you can't be happy for someone else. The Lord blesses
them with something, you just can't be happy for them. Well,
why not me? Why didn't that happen to me?
And I'll tell you where that jealousy comes from. It comes
from self-love, and we can't be happy with what the Lord's
provided for me. That's where envy comes from.
Now, that's unbecoming to the believer. Lay that aside. The
next one, he says, evil speakings. Gossiping, finding fault with
people, criticizing them. You know, usually it's behind
their back. Evil speakings. That's unbecoming
to the believer. I tell you, that sure does hinder
love and unity. Lay that aside. And again, we
will never lay these things aside until this flesh is laid in the
grave. That's the first time we'll be done with all these
attitudes is when you lay this flesh in the grave. But till
then, Peter says constantly be laying them down, laying them
down, laying them down. In verse two, he goes on, he
says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
that ye may grow thereby. Now, Peter spent a lot of time
with the great physician. He might learn something because
he's acting like a wise physician here. First, he points out the
disease. These are the attitudes that
we just read about that come from a sin nature. Malice. Guile. Hypocrisy. Envy. Evil speakings. These are the symptoms of our
disease. Sin. Sin nature. But then he
gives the cure in the next verse. He gives us the inoculation for
these bad motives and bad attitudes. It's the Word of God. That's
the way that we'll be inoculated from these things. We'll find
the strength to be laying these things down in God's Word. You
find the desire to be laying these things down in God's Word. And he says, be as newborn babes.
Now, we're not to be a newborn babe in wisdom. We're not to
be a baby in understanding or strength. We will at first, won't
we? But we're to grow in grace. We
won't remain a babe in understanding. We won't remain a babe in strength.
Well, we are to remain a baby in attitude. You know, be as
a newborn baby in meekness and humility and love. You know, a newborn baby, when
a baby gets to be a month or two old, they're a baby. They're
an infant. They can't talk. They can't do
anything for themselves. But that baby sees mama come
or daddy come and you see that big smile come across their face
and their eyes light up because of love. Unfamed love. You can't fame that. That be
as a baby in love when you see one another. And love for each
other and love for Christ. Be as a baby who desires God's
Word like a baby desires milk. Now, I remember I had two babies
in my house and I remember how they were about feeding, about
milk. You know, babies, when they're
hungry, They don't care who's watching. You know, especially
if you're breastfeeding, you know, we don't want to preserve
everybody's modesty. That doesn't enter that baby's
mind at all. They don't care who's watching.
They don't care what the circumstances are around them. They need milk
and they're going to let you know. They need it. They don't
care what the schedule of the day is. Well, they don't care
if you're busy doing something else, fixing dinner or doing
something. They don't care what the schedule is. They're hungry. I'm so tied to a schedule. I
mean, just rigidly tied to a schedule. I wish I wasn't that way, but
I am. But when the baby's around that schedule, it goes out the
window. Because it's hungry. It needs milk. They don't care
what time of day or night it is. You know, they start crying
for it to be fed at 2 o'clock in the morning. You think, don't
you know? Anybody who's got any sense is asleep at 2 o'clock
in the morning. No. They don't care. They're
hungry. They need milk. And they don't
care what mom or daddy looks like. You know, at 2 o'clock
in the morning, your hair is all down on your face and you've got gunk
in your eyes and bags under your eyes and you just wouldn't go
out and puzzle like that? That child don't care what you look
like. It needs milk. It needs food. And that's the
way the believers to desire. The sincere milk of the Word
of God. Just like that baby doesn't care. It's not going to let something
get in the way of feeding time. And that's the way we're to desire
the sincere milk of the word. And you know, babies can't talk,
but they can communicate very effectively when it comes time
to let you know they're hungry. Matthew Henry wrote, a baby's
desire for milk is frequent and it's fervent, arising from a
sense of hunger and accompanied with the loudest crying of which
that infant is capable. You know, if you don't hear them
at first, they'll start crying louder and louder and louder.
They're going to let you know. And that's the believer's desire
for the Word of God, the sincere milk of the Word of God. It's
frequent and it's fervent. It arises from a sense of hunger
because the Lord's made us hunger and thirst after righteousness.
We hunger after God's Word. And we'll cry to our Father to
provide for us. We begin the service by asking
the Lord to bless us. We cry unto him to feed us his
word. And a baby desires the sincere
milk of the word. When our daughter Holly was a
baby, she would not take formula. Wouldn't do it. She'd hardly
take a bottle. I mean, eventually we got to
take a bottle with some juice in it. But when it came time
for milk, She wouldn't take anything but mama's milk from mama. I
mean, she just wouldn't do it. And that's the believer's desire
for the sincere milk of the world. It's got to be sincere, not something
that's been mixed with man's ideas. It's the pure word of
God and not watered down, not diluted. I read about in these
third world countries where the People make formula. They ship
that stuff that's gone out of date over these third world countries
and there's nothing wrong with it. It's just gone out of date.
You can't sell it in this country, but they ship it over there.
People buy it. Well, their people are poor.
So? They can't afford to buy a lot
of it, so they take that formula and they water it down. And the
baby ends up being malnourished because it's not getting everything
it needs. Well, the believer's not going to take a watered down
gospel. It's got to be the sincere, pure milk of the Word of God. And that baby needs that milk
to grow. And for the first months of its
life, that's all it needs is milk. Just milk. And it'll grow
and be healthy and be just fine. For months, it doesn't need anything
but milk. But even after that baby's grown, it grows to a toddler,
an adolescent, a teenager, an adult, and an old person. No
matter what stage of life, we need milk. Milk. It meets your
need no matter what age you are. Gotta have milk. And God's Word
is called milk because first of all, it's easy to digest. When that baby's born, it can't
digest cereal or meat, certainly. But it can digest milk because
it's easy to digest. And that milk meets the need
for both young and old. It meets the need of that baby
so that baby can grow and be healthy. And at the very same
time, Milk is what will keep an old person healthy, keep your
bones strong, keep you from getting osteoporosis or something. That's
the sincere milk of God's Word. It'll feed the baby in Christ
so that baby can grow and be strong and grow in knowledge
and faith. At the exact same time, it'll meet the need of
the old man in Christ. Let him feed deeply on the Word
of God, the sincere milk of the Word of God. And the only way
we'll grow as believers is a steady diet of God's Word. And you'll desire it just like
a baby desires its mother's milk if you've ever tasted it. All
it takes is a taste. Look at verse 3. If so be you've
tasted that the Lord is gracious. If you ever taste the pure Word
of God, you'll not have anything else. If you've ever tasted The
grace of God. You'll come back for more. If
you've ever tasted it, you'll come back for more and nothing
will stop you from getting it. All it takes is a taste. Look
at Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse 8. David says, Oh, taste. and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. That man will trust in
him if he ever tastes that the Lord is good. Look over Psalm
119. Psalm 119, verse 103. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Once you've ever
tasted God's Word, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard. And
you can't go back. You can't have anything else.
It's sweet. And nothing is sweeter to the
believer than the gospel of substitution. You never get tired of it. Nothing
is sweeter to the believer than the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, He's
sweet to the taste. Now, there was a time it was
just the opposite. There was a time, hearing of
Christ, having the gospel preached, having the word opened and read,
there was a time that was the most grievous thing in this world
to you. You couldn't stay awake when
it was being read. You couldn't concentrate on it.
It was just, you're totally uninterested. And now it's sweet. Now you taste
it. Before it was just, there was
no taste to it at all. Now it tastes sweet. Well, what
happened? I'll tell you what happened.
It's the new birth. When you were born of God, not
only did you receive a new nature and a new heart and a new desire,
you received new taste buds too. God gave you a taste for this. He gave you the taste buds that
His Word is sweet. And we love it. And you know,
in this life, all we've had is a taste. Just a taste. That's all we've had. But it's
wonderful. I mean, we love meeting together
to worship God, to hear His Word read, to sing His praises, to
hear the Gospel preached. Oh, we love it. I enjoy it so
much. I'm so thankful when I wake up. It's Sunday morning. We meet
together and worship the Lord. Well, it's just a taste. Think how wonderful one day it's
going to be to have the fullness of it. You can't even imagine. If a
taste is this wonderful, Think what the fullness of it's going
to be. My goodness sakes. Just a taste. Well, verse 4,
he says, to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed
of men, but chosen of God and precious. To whom coming, Peter
says. Coming to Christ is not an isolated
act. It's not one day walking the
aisle, shaking the preacher's hand, being baptized, and that's
it. You come to Christ. Coming to Christ is a state of
being. It's not just a one-time act.
It's a state of being. Coming to Christ is a continuous
believing on Christ. It's continually living on Christ. It's a life of faith in Christ. It's looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Daily looking to Him. Every minute,
every second, looking to Him. It's not a one-time look. It's
a looking. And we come to a person. Now, we don't come to a doctrine.
We don't come to a denomination. We come to a person. You notice
that laying aside and coming to Christ are both continual
acts. We're constantly laying aside
the flesh and constantly coming to Christ. It's laying aside
all malice and coming to the love of Christ. It's laying aside
guile and coming to Christ the truth. It's laying aside all
hypocrisies and coming to Christ as we are, as a sinner coming
to the only Savior. It's laying aside envies, jealousies,
and coming to Christ who gives us all things. He gives us all
things. Now, it doesn't leave you wanting.
Those who are in Christ have nothing to be jealous about.
You're coming to Christ. It's laying aside all evil speaking
and coming to Christ to hear the gracious words that proceed
out of His mouth. It's coming. It's constantly
coming to Him. Coming to Him again today. And
we're coming to Christ the living stone. We're coming to Him for
life. We find life in him. Now, men
by nature don't do this. He's disallowed of the natural
man's way, Peter puts it. And that word disallowed means
to deny the force, to deny the truth, or to deny the validity
of someone. And that's man's religion. That's
what men do by nature. They deny the force, the power
of Christ, the power of His sacrifice, the power, the force of His righteousness. They deny the truth of who He
is, that He's God's Son manifest in the flesh. They deny the validity
of Him. That's what the world does. He
is despised and rejected of men. But God chose Him to be the only
Savior of His people. God chose Him to be the surety.
God chose him to be the one sacrifice for sin, the one mediator between
God and men. God chose him. And Christ is
precious to the Father. He's the only Son. He's the only
begotten of the Father. He's the Son of God's love. He's precious to the Father,
so the Father has given Him a name which is above every name, that
at His name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that He's Lord. He's precious to the Father.
The sacrifice of His Son is precious to the Father. That sacrifice
is a sweet-smelling savor to the Father. He's precious. And
I know the natural man rejects Him. That's what we all do by
nature. But the elect, they're always coming to Him. They're
always coming to Him because they're cemented to Him. They're
cemented to one another and they're cemented to Him by love. They're one flesh and one building. And that's God's work, too. Look
at verse 5. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now, you also,
he says, are living stones. Christ is the living stone, but
you also are living stones. Well, how'd that happen? It didn't
happen by nature, I can tell you that. God's elect are from
the same rock quarry that every other son of Adam is from. We're
all from the same quarry, Adam. And we're all just like Adam.
When God finds us, we're cold, dead, lifeless, God-hating stones. That's where he finds every one
of us. We're all in the same condition. But in electing grace,
God digs some of those stones out. He digs them out of that
quarry, and they're cold and dead and lifeless, and God gives
them life. He separates them to Himself
and He gives them life in His Son. Christ is the living stone. And all the other stones get
their life in Christ from being joined to Him. And if the Father
takes those stones, He gives them life and He builds up a
spiritual house. He builds up His church. And
they're cemented together. They're cemented together by
the love of Christ, which is the bond of perfectness. They're
cemented to Christ, who's the foundation. cemented to him. And God builds that house that
he dwells in. Makes the temple of God. Well, who lives in the
temple of God? Who works in the temple of God?
Well, the priests do. So the fathers made us priests.
And we serve in a temple that's a whole lot better than Solomon's
temple. This is the temple of God. The spiritual temple of
God. And priests offer sacrifices,
but we're not like Aaron. All Aaron could ever offer was
a blood sacrifice, animal blood. But God's made his people a holy
priesthood. It's not like Aaron's priesthood
that's going to fade away and die. This is a holy priesthood,
and we offer holy sacrifices. Sacrifices of faith, love, praise,
and thanksgiving. And those sacrifices, God accepts
them. in Christ Jesus. Through his
Son and in his Son, our prayer, Jason, led us in prayer. God
heard that prayer in his Son, in Christ. Now he says in verse
6, he says, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. And
he says in Scripture, I'm getting ready to do something amazing,
something worth noting. Behold, God's laid a foundation. He's laid the chief cornerstone
and He laid it in Zion. He laid it in His church. And
that foundation, that chief cornerstone is God's Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the foundation and the whole
church is built on Him. He holds the whole building up. See, we are coming to Christ. He's the foundation of everything
we have. He's the foundation of everything we hope for. He's
the foundation. Our children love to sing the
song, the foolish man, the wise man. The foolish man built his
house on the sand. The wise man built his house
on the rock. And I know they don't know exactly what they're
singing in there yet. But at the end, every time they
sing that song, Janet asks them, who is that rock? And they know. They'll scream it out. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Now they know it up here. One
day, maybe the Lord will let them know it down here. He's
that rock that the wise man builds on. And everyone who comes to
Christ, everyone who believes on Christ, everyone who builds
on Christ, they will never be ashamed. Never be confounded,
never be confused because the building collapsed. It'll never
collapse. Because it's not a false refuge
that's built by man's works. This is the work of God. It's
the eternal refuge built by Christ's work on the foundation of Christ.
That building will never collapse. They'll never be like those engineers
that built those levees in New Orleans. I've been in New Orleans.
I've seen those levees. When you're there in New Orleans,
you see the ocean up here above the city. Wow, that looked too
safe. Then you watch on TV and that
hurricane came through and the levees broke and the water just
gushing through, destroying everything in sight. And I just imagine
those engineers felt horrible. Those levees they built were
people's livelihoods gone, people killed because what they built
didn't stand up to the storm. Build on Christ. You'll never
be confounded. It'll never fail. You'll never
have to retreat in haste because the enemies overrun the defense.
Never happen. Because that building is built
on Christ. The chief cornerstone laid by
God. Now, Henry's outline runs through
verse eight, but I'm going to quit right here. And next week
we're going to look at these next two verses, verses seven
and eight, because I want to spend a little bit of time on
he, is precious. We'll look at that Lord willing
next week.