Let us look in our Bibles tonight,
once again, to 1 Peter, and this evening, chapter two. 1 Peter, chapter two, first three
verses. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Last time we looked at the last
verses in chapter one, And I pointed out three things that are true
of every one of God's children. Every child of God, these three
things are true. Each and every one is redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. You look back into chapter one,
verses 18 and 19. Each is redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but, and I'll add these words, you were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. That's true of every child of
God, each and every one of us here tonight. We've been redeemed. and redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. No other agent could have redeemed
us from our iniquity, from our sin, but the precious blood. What a great price. What a great
price for our redemption, the blood of God's dear son. The
second thing that is true of every child of God here tonight
in verse 23 is each one is born again of incorruptible seed. Notice that, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Each person, each child
of God, somewhere from the cradle to the grave, is going to experience
a new birth. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And being born of God, we are
enabled to see and believe things that those who are not born again
cannot see, cannot perceive, cannot understand, and believe. Believe in Jesus Christ. And
third, every child of God is a sojourner. Notice that in verse
17. And if you call on the Father
who without respect of person judgeth according to every man's
work, Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. That's what each
and every one of us tonight who are his children are doing. We
are sojourning in this world. Our citizenship, our conversation,
the Apostle Paul said, is in heaven from whence we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight, In these first few verses
of chapter two, we're looking at Peter's exhortation to those
who are sojourners. Those of us who are sojourning
in this world, we have this exhortation. And first of all, I want us to
think about some truths that are immediately on the surface,
just reading these three verses. Now there are more truths, I
understand that, but there are four that seem to me to just
stand out, truths, as we read these first three verses. The
first truth is the fact that the sins of God's people are
all forgiven. They are, they are all forgiven. But that doesn't mean that we
are sinless in this world. Our sins are all forgiven. Every child of God, there's not
one sin against you in God's record book. They've all been
blotted out by the blood of Christ. And yet that doesn't mean that
in this world we are sinless. If being born again meant being
sinless, then Peter's exhortation here would have no meaning, because
he tells us, lay aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and
evil speaking. That would be superfluous. You know what that word means,
superfluous? It is in the translation that
we use, isn't it? It would mean it would be unnecessary,
superfluous. If we were sinless, we would
not need to be exhorted to lay aside malice and these other
things that are a result of malice. The apostle John wrote, if we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. There are those, you know, who
profess to be Christians and claim that they have reached
the plateau Some say they've moved out of Romans chapter 7
into Romans chapter 8, and now they live above sin, that they
have no sin. The truth is not in them, clearly,
as the Apostle John tells us. A second thing that seems apparent
to me, the fact that Peter speaks of growing is applicable to all
of God's people. He's not writing this to a specific
group or number of God's people, but this is good for all of God's
people. We might think, as we read this,
we might think that this exhortation is primarily or basically for
those who have just been recently saved because of the words in
the text which speak of a newborn babe desires the sincere milk
of its mother. I thought about the Apostle Paul. You know, we know, if you look
in 2 Peter, we know that Peter was somewhat familiar with the
scriptures that Paul wrote, that God used the Apostle Paul to
write. We know that because here in
2 Peter chapter three, The apostle says, verse 15, an account that
the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved
brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him,
hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood. So Peter, at least heard of,
read copies of some of the Word of God that God used the Apostle
Paul to write. But I thought to myself, now
here Peter is exhorting believers as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Would that apply
to Paul? Would that text apply to the
Apostle Paul? Can you imagine him in prison
in Rome, waiting execution, and someone brings him a copy of
this official, I'm not saying that happened, but if it did,
would that apply to Paul? That even he, close to the very
end of his life, that this exhortation would apply to him, who had advanced
so greatly in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to write these
things that Peter said are sometimes difficult to understand. Absolutely,
absolutely, this exhortation would have been just as relevant
and pertinent to Paul near the end of his life as it is to you
and I tonight. No believer in this world ever
gets to the point ever grows to the point that we do not need
to continue to grow, that there's not more. When we think about
it, here we have a finite understanding and we are studying about He
who is infinite. All of eternity will not be sufficient
to learn all about God. So yes, No matter where we are,
no matter what our experience has been in our Christian journey,
Paul wrote these words, not as though I had already attained. Even he said that. Not as though
I had already attained. He never reached a point, a place
in his life that he could say, well, I've attained. I don't
need to study the word of God anymore. I've grown beyond that. No. These words, growing, is
applicable to all of God's people, to you especially and to me,
that we may grow. Number three, we must desire
the sincere milk of the word of God. Some preachers, they call themselves
preachers, I guess they are, But they serve up skim milk.
Skim milk. No, Peter says we are to desire
the sincere milk of the word. One of the old writers that I
like to read is named William Mason. He's got a devotional,
daily devotional, and he was not a pastor. He was an attorney,
I believe. God blessed him and his knowledge
and his writing skills and such a blessing to read his devotional,
but he said this, the spirit of wisdom hath given us a caution
to try the milk, to see that it be sincere milk, not any milk,
but the pure and unmixed milk of God's word and truth. And
this is what's so important. Jesus is the very essence and
substance of it. The sincere milk of the word. Jesus is the very essence and
substance of it. If the nourishing doctrines of
God's everlasting love and election in Christ, pardoned by his blood,
clothing by his righteousness and final salvation of all his
dear people through him. If that is omitted by ministers,
they administer skim milk, which has lost its strengthening and
nourishing qualities. There's a whole lot of skim milk
being given out in our day. Desire the sincere milk of the
word of God. Number four, all of God's people
know the graciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way verse
three is worded, the way it's translated, I should say, if
so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. That word that's
translated here, if so be, is translated in one text, seen. There's nothing doubtful here.
There's nothing doubtful in what Peter is writing here to these
people. In other words, he writes them
as believers. There's nothing doubtful about
they have tasted that the Lord is gracious. A person could not be saved who
has not tasted that the Lord is gracious. For by grace are
you saved. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. All of God's people, all, every
one, we all know the graciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
think of the verse in 2 Corinthians where Paul said, for you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich. We've tasted of his graciousness,
his incarnation, God the eternal son, leaving the portals of glory,
the worship of all the angels and coming into this world, born
into this world as a babe, as a man. That's grace, isn't it? That's
grace. We've tasted of his graciousness. Now, let's look just briefly
at the exhortation. John Brown divided the exhortation
into two parts. Dissuasive and persuasive. I usually like to refer to this
as negative and positive. Negative and positive. But let's
first look at the dissuasive. Lay aside all malice and all
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. Now, I see that exhortation,
that verse, very much like the two passages of the Apostle Paul
when he speaks about laying aside or are uncovering or laying off,
putting off rather. Let's look at these two places.
In Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three, verse number eight. But now you also put off all
these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another,
seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and
here comes the positive, and have put on the new man, which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Put off That's what Peter is
saying, isn't it, when he says, lay aside, wherefore laying aside
all malice, put off. Also in Ephesians, the apostle
here also says much the same in Ephesians chapter four, in verse 22, that you put off concerning the
former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lust. And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind and that you put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. When a person
is born of the spirit of God, he receives a new nature, doesn't
he? And that new nature is created
in righteousness and true holiness. So we're to put off that old
man and the deeds of that old man and put on the new man. Back in our text here tonight,
the word which is translated malice in other places in the
scripture is translated evil, wickedness, and maliciousness. And it seems here to be the root
These other things that he mentions and we'll look at, the root of
these other things seems to be malice, malice, evil. Malice leads to guile, deceit,
hypocrisy, pretending to be what we are not, envies. Uneasiness at the happiness of
others. And evil speaking, backbiting,
whisperings, slander. John Brown said the mouth, and
this is a good picture here, the mouth is as it were the vent. Just think of a furnace, you
know, you've got that fire going in there and it's vented out. The mouth, he says, like a vent,
as it were the vent through which the smoke and flames of the infernal
fire of malice and envy, which rages in the furnace within,
escape, polluting and withering all around. And some of you,
I'm sure, will remember this Spurgeon's morning and evening
devotional recently. He spoke about the tailbearer,
that we are admonished not to be guilty of tailbearing, T-A-L-A,
tailbearing. And Spurgeon said that tailbearing
emits a threefold poison. First of all, it injures the
teller. If I tell a tale, it injures
me, first of all. Number two, it injures the person
who hears the tale. And number three, it injures
the person about whom the tale is told. So put this off, Peter
says, put off all malice which leads to these things, deceit
and pretending to be what we're not. and not being able to rejoice,
having an uneasiness when you see others prosper and the Lord
bless them or things are well with them and you get kind of
envious in your heart, confess that, put that off and ask the
Lord to forgive. And evil speaking, let no evil
communication proceed out of your mouth. The exhortation is to lay it
aside. It's not to, the filthy rags
are to be put off. They're not to be amended or
anything like that, but they are to be put off. Be put off and cast away. And that's a lifelong thing,
isn't it? That's a lifelong work, putting off the old man and putting
on the new man. Now that's the second thing.
Persuasive, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. In the physical realm, a baby
desires the milk of its mother. We watched a program this past
week and we saw a bison giving birth to a calf. That was amazing,
wasn't it? When that calf, it wasn't long
before it was able to stand up and it immediately started looking
for its mother's milk. And it wasn't any time before
it was drinking that milk. That, in the physical realm,
a baby desires the milk. It's just natural. And the mother,
the parent, is anxious to give the baby the milk. That's her
desire. Well, we should feel the same
way. That is, newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
of God. We, as God's children, should
desire that milk, and we should recognize that our parent, our
heavenly father, is desirous of giving us the milk of the
word. It's so beautiful to see. And
we have, as you know, several small babies in our family right
now. great-grandchildren and to see
them develop, to see when they're born just span long and then
they begin to add weight and before long they're crawling
and just recently pulling up and walking and that's such a
blessing to see. It's so natural, the way God
has created us and we need to bring that same thing over into
the spiritual world. That baby wouldn't put on any
weight, the baby would never crawl or pull up or walk or anything
like that without strength. And that strength comes from
the food, and the first food is the mother's milk. And that's
so easy to see, and yet it's so important that we realize
these things. And so such a blessing, as I've
said, in the physical world to see a baby grow. This is personal, but you'll
forgive me. But our granddaughter, I should say, sends us videos
quite often of the children. And it's just such a blessing
to see how they're coming along, right? But if they were not being
fed, they wouldn't come along. movement and increase in size
and growth. And the same thing is true of
us spiritually. Desire the sins that you may
grow thereby, Peter says. Now, what is spiritual growth?
Well, spiritual growth is to increase in the knowledge of
God, to increase in the knowledge of the only true God and His
Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which is eternal life. Spiritual growth is to increase
in the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus, to be more cemented
in the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, to grow in faith. And
you hear these things. Look back to Ephesians 4 for
just a minute. Ephesians 4. Some of us have been saved a
few years now, and we've seen and heard a lot of trash. What better word? It's come down,
come down, right? Through religion. I mean, one
thing after the other to try to capture the attention of people
a lot of things, and you know, when you're a young Christian,
these things kind of upset you. They kind of bother you. You
wonder if that's true, you know? They seem so convincing, some
of these men who propagate things like that. But as you grow in
faith and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you realize when
you hear these things, They're just like the wind, they'll blow
through and they'll be gone in six months or so, and something
else will come along. No, grow in the knowledge of
God and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Grow in knowledge of God, the
Holy Spirit. Grow in faith, faith in the truth. But here in Ephesians 4, Paul
said, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of man, cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive,
but speaking the truth in love may grow up. This is what it
means to grow, that you may desire the sincere milk of the word
of God, that you may grow thereby, that you may grow up into him
in all things. which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. And that's another thing we grow
in knowledge, we grow in faith, we grow in love. We grow in love, love of God,
and love of Christ, and love of our brothers and sisters in
Christ, and of all men, of all men. And the last thing I think
I would add that we grow in, that we may grow thereby, includes
growth in the need for God's grace and mercy. God's grace
and mercy. Debtor, every day I become, and
I'm sure this is your experience as well, we become more in debt
to the free grace of the Father and the finished work of His
Son, Jesus Christ. Spiritual growth also includes
our heartfelt conviction of our unworthiness and our helplessness. We have nothing to boast in except
the cross of Jesus Christ. And the older, and the more we
grow, I shouldn't say older because sometimes a young person is very,
very well grown in the truth. And sometimes an older in age
who hasn't really applied themselves and sought the word of God has
remained very immature in the faith. Like Paul wrote in Ephesians,
the time is you should be teachers and you have need that someone
teach you. You can't endure the strong meat
of the word of God. He was talking to some people,
right? I'm not saying that about you folks. I'm just saying that
they're, they're babes, they're young men and they're fathers
in the faith and we want to grow, right? And there'll never be
a time. when this exhortation is not for you and for me. Desire
the sincere milk of the word of God that you may grow thereby. May the Lord bless His word.