The lesson this morning is from
1 Peter 2. Our subject is newborn babes. We have, for the past several
studies, been looking at Peter's teaching concerning the new birth
and the giving of faith and the means whereby this faith is wrought
in the minds and hearts of God's elect. The new birth, Peter says,
is brought to pass by the preaching of the gospel and the power of
the Holy Ghost. And this gospel is by the Word
of God, through the Word of God. This is the seed. The gospel
is the message of the Word. The Word is inspired by God. It's God's Word. That's the holy
seed, but the message is the message of the word of God. And
so Peter tells us that by the gospel, this word is preached
unto you. So both the means and the effect
of faith, the faith of God's elect is brought into experience. by the way of gospel revelation
and spiritual understanding. This is what it means to be born
of God. It's to know God. It's to know Christ. It's to
have the revelation of God, the revelation of Christ, an understanding
of it. This is the experience of it.
And men look for experience because the Scripture talks about experience,
and so they look to experience. Men take their own experience
and try to make that the experience of this new birth. And so they
talk about visions, and they talk about dreams, and they talk
about feelings, and they talk about all sorts of things. But
this experience of grace is no different than the gospel itself.
It's declared and taught in the Word of God. If you want to know
what that experience is, you just need to read the Word of
God. It'll tell you what it is. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace,
now listen, to reveal His Son in me. That's what it is. That's
the experience of grace. It's to reveal Christ in you.
And the ministry of the Holy Ghost to the church is described
in the Scripture as revealing, teaching, convincing, convicting. To bring this to pass, it pleased
God to use certain means. And these means He calls in 1
Corinthians 2.14, the things of the Spirit of God. What are
these things? The things of the Spirit of God.
What are these things? Well, the Word of God. The Word
of God, that's one of the things. The Holy Spirit inspired the
writing of the Holy Scriptures. Men didn't just sit down and
say, well, we, I guess what I need to do is just sit down and write
about my experience and write these things. No, they were moved,
the holy men of God were moved by the Spirit of God to write
these things. And all Scripture is inspired
by God. It tells us first in 2 Peter
1, verse 21, that all the ancient prophecies of the Scripture were
written by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And Paul tells us in 2 Timothy
2, verse 16, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and everything contained in the Scripture is inspired of the
Holy Spirit. And then secondly, These ancient
mysteries are revealed to us by them who have preached the
gospel unto us with the Holy Ghost. Peter tells that in chapter
1. He tells us this, that the Spirit
of Christ that moved in those ancient prophets and they searched
what people and what time that the Spirit of Christ that was
in them did testify of. What was it talking about? When
was this age to come? Who was this written to? unto
whom it was revealed that not unto themselves they wrote those
things, but unto us. And he said, which things are
reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto
you with the Holy Ghost. That's how these things are understood. And those who reject and deny
and refuse to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are described
in the Scriptures as those who receive not the things of the
Spirit of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Now, I can tell you this for
sure. The Holy Spirit of God is effectual
where He moves in power. He is effectual in the hearts
of natural men. when he comes in to do his work.
But the things of the Spirit of God, the natural man rejects. He rejects. And this is what
it says. This is in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14 that I'm talking to you about right now. Here's the result. He said, the natural man receiving
not the things of the Spirit of God. Here's the result. They're
foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, for
they are spiritually discerned. The revelation of Christ doesn't
come in your closet. It comes through the preaching
of the gospel. I couldn't tell you how many people over the
years that I've heard who said they were lying in their bed
and these things just suddenly come to them. I can't even count
them. Over a 30-year period, how many
people have told me that? Some who sit in grace churches,
some who don't. This revelation through God's
ordained means is the seed of regeneration. A regenerated man is an enlightened
man. A regenerated man is a man in
whom Christ has been revealed. Now, in chapter 2, Peter moves
on a little. And He's not going to talk to
us anymore about the means of grace, but He's going to talk
to us about the nature and experience of this new birth. 1 Peter 2,
let's read the first two verses. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speech,
As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may
grow thereby. What takes place in the process
of the hearing of faith and the new birth, Peter calls a purifying
of our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren being born again. That's 1 Peter 1, 22. That's how he describes this
experience. Our souls are purified as we
learn the truth concerning our fall in Adam, concerning our
depravity of mind and heart, and concerning our reconciliation
in Christ. And all five of the evil principles
that he mentions there in verse one of our prior life are to
be laid aside by virtue of our understanding of the truth. You're not going to lay aside
all hypocrisies unless you know the truth. Lots of people who
are guilty of hypocrisies are deceived. They don't know that
they're hypocrites. They don't know. They're totally
ignorant of it. They'll get upset if you tell them they're hypocrites. They'll get upset. But all five of these evil principles
that Paul mentions here, that we're to lay aside those things
which are part of our prior life, they're to be laid aside by virtue
of our understanding of the truth and the glory of our great Redeemer.
Malice. What is that? That's ill design. That's mean intention. That's
bite. That's what that is. Malice.
Lay it aside. Lay it aside. Got no place in
the faith of God's elect. Guile. That's deceit. That's
fraud. That's craftiness. Lay it aside. Hypocrisies. Things pretending
to be something other than what they really are. Envies, wanting
something that you can't have. Wanting something that you have
not been given. Envies and evil speakings. What is it that he's talking
about here when he says evil speakings? Well, evil speakings
are speaking to cause injury or speaking to an evil end. In other words, I could stand
up here and I could do these things in a natural sense in
an outwardly evil way intending to cause harm, intending to defraud,
intending to fool you. And that's what these so-called
merchandisers of men's souls that some of these TV evangelists
that are in this thing just for money. It's for money. They're
merchandisers of men's souls. When they stand up to talk to
you, it's with the intent to defraud. It's with the intent
to steal. That's evil speaking. But there's
another evil speaking, and that's speaking to the end of a false
profession, and that man might be deceived. He might not understand
that he is deceived, but he's speaking a lie, and to the end,
to an evil end. You know, our Lord said this.
He said to the Jews, He said, You come from sea and land to
make one proselyte like unto yourselves, and when you've made
him, you've made him twofold more the child of hell than you
are. That's an evil end, isn't it? And that's what he's talking
about here, evil speakings. As newborn babes, Peter says,
being born again, those born of the Spirit, born of the Word,
born of the Gospel of Christ, he said, you desire the sincere
milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Now, if the Word
is the seed of regeneration, it ought to be that which we
hunger for. Is it not? I don't know any believers
who do not hunger for an understanding of the mysteries in God's Word. I don't know one. Not a single
one. They're all hungry to hear. Unbelievers, unregenerate men
and women, They'll eat anything you put on their plate, but not
a believer. The believer hungers for the
sincere milk of the Word, which is Christ and the gospel. Believers will eat the fruit
of free will. They'll eat it and be satisfied.
The meat of work salvation. The more you preach works to
them, the better they like it. They eat of man's righteousness
and good intentions and all these sort of things, but not believers.
To them, it'd be like a dog returning to his vomit. It's distasteful. You know, I've
had several occasions to go to some of these churches and just
go with a relative and, you know, thought before time, well, maybe
I could go with him and just point out some ills and things.
I can't stomach listening to it. That makes me sick. I don't know what it does for
you. It makes me sick. A believer's appetite is for
the sincere milk of the Word. It's not the milk being the Word
so much as it is the milk of the Word, Peter says. And the
milk of the word is Christ. And spiritual babes need food. And the food that they need is
the gospel of Christ. You know the scripture over in
Romans chapter 10, I don't want to say too much about this, but
over in Romans chapter 10 where he goes through all the confessions
of faith, what faith confesses, it confesses the Lord Jesus and
believes in the heart that God raised him from the dead. It
has a full understanding of this man. It understands why he came,
what he did, and where he's at. Those basic things. It understands
that. It perceives that. And He said,
the Scripture said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, which that's that name manifested in Christ, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved. But
how are you going to call on Him in whom you have not believed? You don't know anything about
Him. The natural man doesn't. He has to be told. He has to
hear. And how shall he hear without
a preacher? And then he goes down a few more verses, right
there in Romans 10, still on the same subject, and he says,
so then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
That's that sincere milk. And this passage interprets itself
over here in 1 Peter in the very next verse, verse 3. He said,
if so be you have tasted, that the Lord is gracious. If you tasted this, if this is
your experience, what he talked about back in chapter 1, if this
is your experience, being born of God and as newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the Word, if, he said, so be you
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Why do believers crave to hear
the gospel while the rest of the world despises it. Why do
they, where does this appetite come from? Why do they crave
to hear the gospel and the rest of the world despises it? My boss asked me one time, he
said, you're taking some days off. I said, yes sir. and Kathy
going out of town?" I said, no, we have a Bible conference, and
I wanted to be able to attend. He said, well, what goes on in
a Bible conference? I said, we have people come and
preach the gospel. They preach the gospel? I said,
yes, sir. I said, we have a couple of them speak in the morning
and a couple in the evening. Four times? He said, you listen
to it? I said, yeah, for three days. It was just beyond his Comprehension,
why anybody would sit and listen to that message over and over
and over. Why do believers crave to hear
the gospel? Why the rest of the world despises
it? Because they've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. They taste it. You know, I've
seen things in glasses. You know, you go to people's
houses, and I don't know why it is, but ladies generally,
when you have company, they want to try something new. That ain't
the time to try something new. But they always do. And I've
seen things that people have served me in a glass that I just
didn't want to drink. I didn't like how it looked.
I didn't, you know, you look at it and the texture is kind
of funny. But you know you might taste
that thing, find out you liked it. Peter said, if so be you've
tasted. Every man who despises the gospel,
are you listening, has never tasted it. That's the truth. They've never tasted it. Taste,
he said, and see. The gospel, unlike any other
subject, requires a new birth in order to benefit from it.
I can preach this gospel to you people that are gathered in here,
and almost always there's somebody here that just goes right in
one ear and right out the other. But there's others who hear,
and they listen, and they rejoice. Unlike any other subject, you
can talk about science, you can talk about math, you can talk
about history, you can talk about almost none of those things requires
an experience. But this does. This does. And experience is the new birth.
And I can teach you the doctrine of Christ. I can state it in
a way that you can perceive it. I can illustrate it using the
types given to me in the Bible. I can preach it to you and show
it to you in the symbols of the ceremonial law. I can give it
to you as it's pictured in the parables. I can set the truth
of it before any man who's willing to listen, but until he's enabled
of God to taste of his graciousness in Christ, he'll have no desire
to hear any more about it. When Christ appeared in the earth,
Men saw nothing special about Him. They were not in awe of
Him. And Isaiah wrote, long before
the Lord appeared, when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that
we should desire Him. That's Isaiah 53, verse 2. And
so it is until God enlightens the sinner to see His glory and
taste of the grace of God in Christ, Nothing happens. There's no appetite. There's
no excitement. There's no worship. There's no,
you can sing the song and it's just another song. You know,
we sang that a hundred times and after a while you can memorize
the words and you just, but it's not doing anything in your heart. It's only as chosen sinners are
stripped of their own righteousness. and exposed in the depravity
of their natures that Christ becomes precious to the soul. Teaching that the Lord is gracious
is an experience reserved for thirsty sinners. Listen to what the psalmist said. He said, I will pour water upon
him that is thirsty. and floods upon the dry ground,
and I'll pour My Spirit upon thy seed." Now, that's how it
comes. That's how it comes. In the last day, John said, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood in the midst and cried.
Here they all were. offering the sacrifices, they
were practicing the holy days, they were keeping the holy days
and they were practicing those things which were given to them
and offering sacrifices. And they were doing all these
things and they were going about and just like the average church
service that you go into, everybody's practicing, you know, what they
believe and so on. And right in the middle of all
these activities, our Lord stood in the last day, and He cried,
and He said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. Tasting is an experience reserved
for thirsty sinners. Our Lord said to the Samaritan
woman, He said, if you knew who I was, if you knew who I was,
You'd ask of Me, and I'd give you water that would be in you
a well of water, and you'd never thirst again. All who taste grace, find it
in the Lord. That's where you're going to
find grace. You're not going to find grace in a book. You're
going to find grace in the Lord. Now, you might read a book, and
the book will point you to Christ. And then you'll go to Him. But
you're not going to find that grace in a book. You're going
to find it in a person. That's where it's at. Grace and
truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell
you something. There's no grace outside of Christ.
There's no grace outside of Christ. Outside of Christ, God is a consuming
fire. And those who find Christ find
grace. They find mercy. They find truth
of all His attributes. Peter uses the grace of God to
describe the sincere milk. You know, there's all sorts of
attributes, the attributes of God revealed in the gospel. His
justice is revealed in it. His righteousness, therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. There's
all kinds of attributes. God's kindness is revealed. His
love is revealed. All kinds of things. All of God's
attributes are revealed in the preaching of the gospel. But
the one thing that all the writers zero in on, including Paul and
Peter and John and every last one of them, is the grace of
God. It's the grace of God. God is love. But his love is
a gracious love, isn't it? Unmerited, undeserved. God's
merciful. But his mercy is a gracious mercy. And God's just. He's just. God's kind. But all of these
things, if you have any understanding whatsoever of the justice of
God, you have it by the grace of God. Listen to how Paul describes
the coming of the faith of God's elect in Ephesians 2, verse 7. He said that in the ages to come,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Our acceptance according to Ephesians
1, 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Our redemption,
verse 7, according to the riches of His grace. Our election, Romans
11, is an election of grace. You cannot drink of the sincere
milk of the Word and be ignorant of the grace of God. This is
a great point of the Gospel. It's the principle. Among all
the principles that's established in the hearing of the gospel
and this experience of grace and this new birth, it's the
grace of God. You know, when he says that sin,
he said, in this one man, he said, sin reigned under death. What reigns under righteousness?
The grace of God. Huh? Isn't that what it says
over in Romans 5? Even so, might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And you cannot drink
of the sincere milk of the Word and be ignorant of the grace
of God. And this is the thing about preaching works and preaching
self-righteousness and preaching decisionism and all those things.
There's no grace in it. There's no grace in it. And you
cannot taste of grace and not find it where it is. It's in
the Gospel of Christ, 1 Peter 2, verse 4. To whom? Now notice this don't
say to what. There's some what's involved,
but it doesn't say that. It doesn't even say to where, but it says, To whom coming is
unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious. How do chosen sinners come to
Christ? It says to whom coming. This
describes this experience of grace. This describes that man
born of God. He's coming. Didn't say he came. He doesn't talk about way back
yonder when he came. It's a coming. It's a continual
thing, coming. Well, how does this chosen sinner,
how does he come to Christ? Well, according to John 6, verse
44, it says, no man can come to Christ except the Father which
sent Christ into the world should draw him. He comes to Christ
being drawn of the Father. This drawing speaks of the sinner's
election in Christ, God's blessings in Christ for him, and all the
means ordained of the Father before the world began. Those gifts and means are unchangeable,
he tells us in James 1, verse 17, and cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. All of these things come down from the Father. And
in this respect, the Father draws sinners. How does He draw them? He draws them through His Son.
He draws them through the preaching of the Gospel. He draws them
through His Word. They're drawn by the Father. Like the inward workings of a
great clock, everything in time and eternity is worked together
for our good to them who are the call according to God's purpose. And no man can come to Christ
except he be drawn to Christ by God the Father. Secondly,
John chapter 6, verse 45, it's written in the prophets, they
shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, Christ
it. Though their hearing and believing
is the work of God's Spirit and the preaching of the gospel,
yet in Colossians 1, verse 12, it's ascribed to the Father who
made them meet to be partakers with the enlightened saints,
to enter into that inheritance purposed for them by God the
Father. And so it's right to say that God taught Is it not? God the Father is the author.
He's the ordinator of the means. And Paul gives thanks to the
Father who hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth and called
us by His gospel. No sinner, now I want you to
hear me because you're surrounded with this. You're going to be
bombarded, you young kid. You're going to get bombarded
with this at school. Sinners do not randomly come
to Christ. They don't come to Christ out
of chance and circumstance. They're drawn of God and they're
taught of God. And as they hear through blessed
ears and understand in newly given hearts, They come to Christ. That's how a man comes to Christ.
He tells us in John 6 step by step everything involved in his
coming to Christ. And let me give you this now
quick. To whom coming? It doesn't say to whom having
come, but rather to whom coming. This coming is a continual activity
of the new birth. This is a new creature in Christ
Jesus. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. He does things now that he never
did before. And one of those things is coming
to Christ. It's a continual activity. His
life is not described as a standing, but as a walk. You ever notice
that? It's described as a walk. Christ
didn't make proselytes. He made disciples, and that word
is followers, is it not? 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses
9 and 10. Listen to this, and I'll wind
this up. He said, we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. God gave us that. He made us
to see that. that we should not trust in ourselves. That's why he did it. That's
why he reveals those things. That's why he showed them to
us. That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which
raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death. Now
watch this. And doth deliver. But he don't
stop there. In whom we trust, that he shall
yet This coming is an active principle of a newborn baby,
and he comes, and he never quits coming. He always comes to Christ.