Longing for the Word (1 Peter 2:1-3) | Worship Service

Well, good morning, and we welcome you to Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with a call to worship from Psalm 66, and it says in verses 1 to 4, make a loud shout to God all the earth, sing praise for the glory of his name, establish his praise as glorious.

Say to God, how fearsome are your works, because of the abundance of your strength, your enemies will cower before you.

All the earth will worship you, and will sing praises to you, they will sing praises to your name.

Join us together as we sing, Oh, for a thousand tongues. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great

Redeemer's praise, the glories of my

God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

My gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad, the honors of thy name, who's thus the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease.

Tis music in the sinner's ears, tis life and health and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free.

His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me.

He speaks in listening to his voice, new life the dead receive, the mournful broken -hearts rejoice, the humble -born believe.

Glory to God and praise and love we ever, ever give, by saints below and saints above, we church and earth and heaven.

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great

Redeemer's praise, the glories of my

God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

I sought the

Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from every fear.

Those who look upon him are radiant, they'll never be ashamed, they'll never be ashamed.

His poor man cried, and the Lord heard me, and saved me from my enemies.

The Son of God surrounds his saints, he will deliver them, he will deliver them.

Magnify the Lord with me, come exalt his name together.

Glorify the Lord with me, come exalt his name forever.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, oh, blessed is he who hides in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, oh, all you saints, he'll give you everything, he'll give you everything.

Magnify the Lord with me, come exalt his name together.

Glorify the Lord with me, come exalt his name forever.

Let us bless the Lord every day and night, never -ending praise, may our incense rise.

Let us bless the Lord every day and night, never -ending praise, may our incense rise.

Magnify the Lord with me, come exalt his name together.

Glorify the Lord with me, come exalt his name forever.

Magnify the Lord with me, come exalt his name together.

Glorify the Lord with me, come exalt his name forever.

Let's sing together the song we sang last week, Is He Worthy. Do you feel the world is broken?

Do you feel the shadows deepen? But do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through?

Do you wish that you could see it all made new?

Is all creation groaning? Is a new creation coming?

Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst?

Is it good that we remind ourselves of this?

It is. Is anyone worthy?

Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?

The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave.

He is David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave.

Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

Of all blessing and honor and glory? Is he worthy of this here?

Does the Father truly love us? Does the

Spirit move among us? And does

Jesus our Messiah hold forever those he loves?

Does our God intend to dwell again with us?

He does. Is anyone worthy?

Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?

The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave.

He is David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave.

From every people and tribe, every nation and tongue,

He has made us a kingdom and priest to God to reign with the

Son. Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

Of all blessing and honor and glory? Is he worthy?

Is he worthy? Is he worthy of this?

He is. Is he worthy?

Is he worthy? He is.

He is. And all

God's people said, Amen. Good morning.

Along with the other announcements that are in the bulletin, today is the last day to receive the early registration discount for the

Women's Spring Retreat. You can register in the foyer after the service. Next Sunday, March 17th, is the last day to donate to the college and military boxes which are out on the table in the foyer.

And lastly, there's a sign -up sheet for resurrection breakfast on the welcome table. Men who wish to contribute financially or to help serve, please see

Thomas Leo who isn't here today. Is there anybody identifying as Thomas Leo today?

Okay, so Thomas isn't here today, so he'll be here next week and you can sign up with him.

For the scripture reading, would you turn with me to Psalm 119? And we're going to read verses 1 through 40.

And for those of you who want to be ready for the second, there is a reading in 1

Peter 1, verses 22 through chapter 2, verse 3.

But first, Psalm 119, 1 through 40. How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the

Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness.

They walk in His ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes.

Then I shall not be ashamed. When I look upon all your commandments, I shall give thanks to you with uprightness of heart.

When I learned your righteous judgments, I shall keep your statutes. Do not forsake me utterly. How can a young man keep his way pure?

By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments.

Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you. Blessed are you,

O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have told of all of the ordinances of your mouth.

I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways.

I shall delight in your statutes. I shall not forget your word. Deal bountily with your servant that I may live and keep your word.

Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law. I am a stranger in the earth. Do not hide your commandments from me.

My soul is crushed with longing. After your ordinances at all times, you rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from your commandments.

Take away reproach and contempt from me, for I observe your testimonies. Even though princes sit and talk against me, your servant meditates on your statutes.

Your testimonies are also my delight. They are my counselors. Revive me according to your word.

I have told of my ways and you have answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts so I will meditate on your wonders.

My soul weeps because of grief. Strengthen me according to your word. Remove the false way from me and graciously grant me your law.

I have chosen the faithful way. I have placed your ordinances before me. I cleave to your testimonies.

O Lord, do not put me to shame. I shall run the way of your commandments for you will enlarge my heart.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart.

Make me walk in the path of your commandments for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain.

Turn my eyes away from looking at vanity and revive me in your ways. Establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you.

Turn away my reproach which I dread for your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for your precepts.

Revive me through your righteousness." And in 1 Peter chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 2 verse chapter 1 verse 22.

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren fervently love one another from the heart for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable.

That is through the living and abiding word of God for all flesh is like grass and its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls. The flower falls off but the word of the

Lord abides forever and this is the word which was preached to you. Chapter 2, therefore putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the goodness, the kindness of the

Lord. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful for your word.

It is medicine to our hearts. It is delight to our souls. This morning as we contemplate as Dave brings your word from first Peter, we pray

Lord that we would truly be as newborn babes and desire to seek after it, entertain it as milk, as delight, something that will renew our hearts in worship and in reverence for you.

Might we honor you in all that we do and might Dave bring the word of God in such a way that our hearts will be inclined to you, to bless you, to glorify you, and to glorify your word by our obedience to you.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please stand as we sing

Psalm 23b, The King of Love My Shepherd Is. The King of love my shepherd is whose goodness fills me never

I nothing lack if I am his and he is mine forever where streams of living water flow my

Savior gently leads me and where the verdant pastures grow with food celestial feeds me confused and foolish

I strain but yet in love he sought me and on his shoulder gently laid and home rejoicing brought me in death's dark vale

I fear no ill with you dear

Lord beside me your rod and staff my comfort still your cross before to guide me and so through all the length of days your goodness fills me never good shepherd may

I sing your praise within your house forever good shepherd may

I sing your praise within your house forever in Romans 12 it says in verses 1 and 2 therefore

I exhort you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice living holy and pleasing to God which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may approve what the will of God is that which is good and pleasing and perfect would you join us together as we sing speak

O Lord speak

O Lord as we come to you to receive the food of your holy word take your truth planted deep in us shape and fashion us in your likeness that the light of Christ might be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith speak

O Lord and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory teach us lordful obedience holy reverence true humility test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of your purity cause our faith to rise cause our eyes to see your majestic love and authority words of power that can never fail let their truth prevail over unbelief speak

O Lord and renew our minds help us grasp the heights of your plans for us truth unchanged from the dawn of time that will echo down through eternity and by grace we'll stand on your promises and by faith we'll walk as you walk with us speak

O Lord till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory

You may be seated. Well good morning.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 2 I never thought

I'd be able to say that but finally 1 Peter chapter 2 before we get started let's pray together.

Father it is intimidating and humbling to preach from your word about your word but that's what you've put in front of me today so Lord may

I preach today as you have commanded. May I preach as one who shares the very oracles of God because that's what we're doing and I pray

Lord you'll help me to keep that in my mind these are your words to your people. I pray that you'd be glorified through them and they would leave here with a greater craving to hear from your word

Lord in Christ's name Amen. Jim did it to me again today is spring forward day as many of you are aware.

So I asked him, I called him out on it this time, I said why are you doing this to me all the time? He said look it was sort of like when

Adam was confronted with his sin and he blamed someone else. Jim blamed

John MacArthur for this, for having shepherd's conference during this time well the joke's on him because you guys are more awake than usual.

Okay I'm just trying we're going to work through this together 1

Peter chapter 2 we'll read the first three verses Therefore laying aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you've tasted the kindness of the

Lord. I'm using the LSB today if you have another translation maybe a little bit different I have a few kind of rolling around in my mind so I may go back and forth between them.

I'm basically being LSB. Long for the pure milk of the word long for the pure milk of the word.

What does that mean? What's the meaning of the command here? It's a command we want to understand it.

We'll do a careful exegesis of this but we'll see that it is a command to have a strong desire, a love a craving for the word of God.

So for the Christian this is where knowing God begins and where that knowledge deepens it's where relationship to God is kindled and where it's nourished.

It's where eternal life begins and where we grow in sanctification. So for us to grow in the image of Christ, for us to grow up in our salvation as it says here requires that we have this craving for God's word.

We see this modeled for us encouraged throughout scripture in Job. This is Job 23 12.

Job says this, I have not departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Psalm 19 this is verses 7 -10 from David. David says the law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul.

The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of Yahweh are true, they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Jeremiah 15 15, your words were found and I ate them. Your words became for me joy and gladness in my heart for I've been called by your name oh

Yahweh God of hosts. Psalm 119 is full of expressions of devotion to God and to his word.

Cornell read the first 40 verses of that psalm today, you know it's much longer than that. There are many repeated statements of the psalmist's hunger for the word of God.

These are some of the words that capture the esteem that that psalmist holds, the word of God.

The psalmist claims to treasure God's word, to rejoice in it, to muse upon it, to delight in it. He clings to the word, he longs for it, he trusts in it, he seeks it, he loves it.

And we're to have that same craving, that abiding love for the word of God. That's the command. It's also the promised means of our sanctification.

We're to gain our spiritual nourishment from the word as a baby gains nourishment from milk. Long for the pure milk of the word.

Note again, it's a command, look at it there, 1 Peter 2. Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word.

It's imperative and you see the intensity of it? We're to crave the word in the same way that a baby craves milk.

Do we have any babies here today? Raise your hand if you're a baby. Lots of hands back there behind that window.

If you've ever, well let's look at the language Peter uses here and we'll understand the analogy. Because Peter uses some very emphatic language here to communicate that these are little babies, these are newborns.

The noun there translated as babies, it can mean a pre -born child or an infant child.

It's used of pre -born John the Baptist, it's used of Jesus in the manger as a baby. But he adds an adjective there, newborn.

Peter really wants us to clarify this means a brand new just born baby. This word's only found here. And it specifically means just born, it's now born, a newborn baby.

So Peter is specific. It's not a pre -born baby that doesn't yet have a desire for milk, it's not like a six month old baby who may be interested in other foods.

This is a newborn baby with only one interest. So if you've ever been around a just born baby, you know it's characteristic of newborn babies, they want to eat.

That's what they want. And they want milk. Nothing else is going to satisfy them. You could offer them your favorite food.

You could offer them a T -bone steak, you could offer them a crab leg, nothing. You could give them a gold bar, a stack of money, no interest.

I think some of the babies here might be interested in Bitcoin at a very young age. But even that is probably going to pale in comparison to milk.

They want milk. If you want your baby to quiet down, you give them milk. That's what they want. The children of God have to have that same extreme, single -minded longing for the

Word of God. That's what we're commanded here. We're commanded to have that longing. As newborn babies long for physical milk, we are to long for the pure milk of the

Word. Have to have this powerful, all -consuming, intense desire for one thing above all.

Same way a newborn baby longs for this one thing. We're to long for the pure milk of the

Word. Now that phrase, of the Word, it deserves a little bit of attention and clarification. You may have different translations for the

Word. I'm treating...you may have different translations for the Word that is translated of the

Word. And yes, the word for today, kids, is Word. So you should be doing pretty good.

It's translated here as of the Word. You may have spiritual or reasonable, something like that. And I'm treating it as a reference to the

Word of God, the milk of the Word. I'm treating that as a reference to the Word of God, the Bible. If that's an appropriate translation, then that would seem to be the right thing to do.

Did I get it back there? Well, I can shout.

Okay, well, we'll figure that out. I'll go to my one voice. You know, back in the day, every time that I was up to preach,

I would have a sound problem. It's been several years, but here we go again. If you guys get it fixed, let me know, and I'll switch it.

Where was I? What was I talking about? Do you guys remember? I do. Of the Word. There is a word, a

Greek word. It's logikon. It's translated here as of the Word. You may have another translation. It's kind of important that we get to that, because I'm claiming that this milk is a reference to the

Word of God, as pertaining to God's Word. And in context, we do know that.

It is of the Word in the sense of pertaining to God's Word, His communication, His reasoning with the world.

It's His revealing His truth through humanity, God's communication of Himself to us. Holy Spirit to our human spirits.

And we can tell that, without going into the Word itself, we can tell from our immediate context that it is

God's Word that Peter's making an analogy to. Turn back to chapter 1, verses 22 through 25, the preceding context, just before this.

You see that? It's the Word of God which gives us our eternal life. It makes sense here that it's the

Word of God that we ought to long for as the means of sanctifying us, of growing that life. That's the context.

So we gain spiritual nourishment from the same source as that from which we gain spiritual life, the

Word of God. Especially the gospel. You see at the end of chapter 1, the word which was proclaimed to you as good news.

That good news is our word for gospel. So all that's to say that we are safe to continue to interpret the analogy of the milk of the

Word to be a reference to the Word of God. So Peter refers to that Word of God here as pure.

Do you see that? Pure. Crave the pure milk of the Word. What does that mean here?

Why would he put it here? The word is adolos. Adolos is used only here in your Bible. There are other words that are translated pure in your

Bible. If you look for the English word pure, you'll see it other places, but it's not this word. Those other words mean things like clean or genuine or holy.

This word pure means without deceit, without adulteration of any kind. It was used almost entirely of agricultural products like milk, and it meant unadulterated or unmixed.

So in the context of physical milk, you can think of it as pure being not skim milk. Nothing added to it or subtracted to it.

It's just milk. Pure milk as close to its original form as possible. Some of you may think of it as raw milk.

It's not changed. It's not added to or subtracted from. So we're to long for pure, unadulterated, genuine

Word of God. What would that mean? Well, I don't have time to go through all that, right?

You see, that's an entire sermon on its own. What does that mean for the

Word to be pure? We're to crave, we're to long for what we are to consume in our spirits is the

Word of God unadulterated, the Word of God straight, unmixed. We're to consume God's Word in a condition as near to its pure original form as possible.

So I hope you can see, without going into this much detail, it has a lot to say about a lot of things.

It has a lot to say about the translations that you use. It has a lot to say about the books that you read, the sermons that we preach, the teaching that we consume, videos and podcasts and all that stuff.

We're to consume God's Word unadulterated and unmixed, that's what we're to crave. Not from musings of man that have a few

Bible verses sprinkled in. We're to ingest no perversions, in other words, as newborn babies crave physical milk, so we as children of God are to long for the pure, unadulterated, unmixed milk of the

Word. That's a command, that's the command, long for God's Word, crave it, desire it strongly, powerfully.

We're commanded to want to consume the Word of God as if we would starve to death without it. That's the command.

Now, I know some of you, you can't say that you have that craving. You can't say you have that kind of longing for God's Word like a baby craves milk.

Others may be further along in this regard, but those who are spiritually mature, they understand their shortcomings even better.

Nobody can say that they have this all -consuming, always -on desire, irresistible longing for God's Word Peter describes here.

None of us can be satisfied with the degree or the consistency of our commitment to our love for God's Word. Aren't we all occasionally at least distracted in our reading?

Aren't we? Aren't we sometimes deficient in our commitment to being regular in the Word and to doing what's necessary to carefully comprehend it?

We all get tired, especially today. We all let our sinful flesh get the better of us at times, don't we?

We let sin keep us away from the Word for a time, or less careful with it.

We can let sin diminish our desire for the Word. There are times when it just doesn't fit into our busy lives.

We have a lot to do today. It's not a priority today. We can find all sorts of reasons to give it a cursory glance, a dutiful glance, if anything at all.

I don't care who you are. I don't care what you think of yourself. None of us has this nailed.

None of us crave the Word of God as a baby craves milk.

We don't have that intensity and consistency always, okay? We have a command here to long for God's Word.

We can take it to heart. We can admit we don't have the longing to the degree or consistency that Peter commands here.

The Holy Spirit commands, and we can use that as a reality check. Say, okay, let's now do what's necessary to grow in our love for God's Word.

I'm not going to stop there. That would leave you in nothing but despair. But the Word helps us with this longing.

The Word itself helps us. Peter doesn't leave us with just the command. Look, he gives us a motivation to help us crave God's Word. Look, if you long for it, you'll be sanctified by it.

Look at verse 2 again. Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

That's the promise. There's a motivation there. Long for the pure milk of the Word. If you do that, you'll grow in respect to your salvation.

Now, that's a strong focus of the book of 1 Peter. The sanctification of God's people. Rising above the world.

1 Peter explains in the book that our life on this earth is for the purpose of sanctification. That is 1

Peter in a nutshell. You can read that in chapter 1. You can listen to one of the prior 18 messages on 1

Peter. If you really long for the pure milk of the Word, you can listen to all 18 of them.

We'll see. I don't think I could do that. You get the idea.

In 1 Peter, it's all about sanctification. That is the point of the book. It's helping you to understand that the trials that are in this life, trials that are necessary and temporary, are working in us to demonstrate the genuineness of an invincible,

God -given faith that will result in an inheritance that's already waiting for us. You see it.

I don't have all of chapter 1 in front of me. A salvation that's ready to be revealed. That's promised as we go through even chapter 1.

Now here in chapter 2, verse 2, Peter tells us one of the means by which God sanctifies us. It's through His Word.

So we have to have a craving for the Word. We have to have a longing for the Word so that we grow in sanctification through it.

Again, it makes sense in context. The Word that gave us life in the end of chapter 1, that is the same

Word that gives us growth in that life. It's our source of nourishment just as a source of life.

Now this calls for a degree of discontent. If you remember the last few weeks, we've been learning a lot about contentment from Hebrews, being content with what you have.

And the rationale for that contentment is what? Do you remember from last week? I know.

It's not a Sunday School lesson. It's hard to know. You do, I'm sure, a lot of you remember. The continual companionship that we have with Christ.

That's the source of our contentment. But Jim reminded us a few weeks ago that we also have to have a discontent.

We have to have a discontent with our level of spiritual maturity. And that's what's called for here as well.

We have to want to grow in sanctification. As a means to that end, we long for the Word of God.

It is the primary means of our sanctification. If chapter 1 tells us that the trials of this life or the purpose of all of that is for our sanctification, those trials are for our sanctification, well how is the

Word also for our sanctification? Look, it doesn't do you any good to go through trials if you don't know how you are to respond to them.

If you don't know the God in whose image you are supposed to be growing, it doesn't do you any good.

It is the Word of God that teaches us how to respond properly. We have to know how we're to respond from the

Word of God. We have to learn Him if we're going to grow to be like Him. And we can only do that through the

Bible. That is the only means. That's the only revelation of God to man. So that's our motivation.

The long for the pure milk of the Word. We want to please God. We want to become more mature.

We want to be able to better handle a hand mic. That's not in the

Bible. I made that part up to try to... But we want to be complete in our faith.

And the only way to do that, the only way to accomplish growth, the only promise of growth comes to us through the

Word. So let's back up to verse 1. And I know it starts with a conjunction.

I know it starts with therefore in most translations. I'm going to pass over that right now. We'll come back to it when we get to verse 3.

There's a reason for that. The verb in verse 1 is a participle. It's translated here as laying aside.

You may have another translation. This has laying aside. So it's an action that's assumed to have been done in the past.

It's a prerequisite for the kind of longing that we're commanded to have. Do you see that?

It takes the full force of a command for that reason. So even though it's not an imperative verb, it is a command because you have to have done this in order to fulfill the terms of the command.

So we first must lay aside these five vices that are listed in verse 1. That's the only way we can then long for the pure milk of the

Word. You see the vices. All malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

I'm going to go through these quickly. The verb translated laying aside, then we'll see what all these vices mean.

To lay aside means to lay aside. Very simple translation. It means to set aside.

Some of you may have cast off, to place away from you. It's used in the New Testament nine times.

Seven of them, very similar to this one. We'll look at those seven. But the other two are kind of instructive to help you understand what the verb means.

It's used once of John the Baptist being cast into prison. He was laid aside into the prison.

The other time was at the stoning of Stephen when the people laid their cloaks aside.

They laid them aside at the feet of a man named Saul. So you get the idea. It's laying aside.

Here are the six similar uses. We'll go through these quickly. They're all somewhat similar. In Romans, Paul says to lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Similar to this. In Ephesians, we're told to lay aside the old man which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.

We're told to lay aside falsehood. In Colossians, we're commanded to lay them all aside, wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

You remember Hebrews 12 .1, laying aside every weight and sin which so easily entangles us. And then

James 1 .21, very similar to this one in 1 Peter. Therefore laying aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness and gentleness receive the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

So in all of those verses, we're told to lay aside, I've read you all the usages of lay aside in the

New Testament. Other than John the Baptist, other than the cloaks, we're told to lay aside what? In every instance, sin.

We're told repeatedly to lay aside sin. In all of these passages, some of these passages, there are specific sins listed, but all of them are sufficiently general to tell us to lay aside sin.

It's not like, oh, lay aside these and we'll prioritize them and we'll indulge these for a while while we work on these.

There's none of that. It's a comprehensive casting off of sin. That's the idea.

The idea is casting off of filthy garments. Get them off of you. So what are we to lay aside?

Here are the five vices. First is all malice. In some of your Bibles, it will be all evil or all wickedness.

In English, malice is an intent or desire to do evil toward another person. But the

Greek word is actually broader than that. It includes all sorts of evil intent, whether that's directed at a person or not.

And it's more than just intent. It's also action. So that's why it's often translated just as wickedness or evil.

It's a general term for evil or wickedness. Peter then gets more specific with the second vice listed.

It's translated here as deceit. It's sometimes translated as guile or trickery. Now it's dalas.

When we looked at pure a minute ago, it was adalas. The only difference being that prefix alpha, which is the negation.

So this is the antonym, the opposite of that word translated pure. It means any deceitful means to hide the truth, especially to harm somebody else.

But it most literally referred to the bait on a fish hook. That gives you an idea of what deceit is, right?

It's that alluring thing that really means harm. It was used in the manner in which the

Lord was arrested, the kiss of a friend, or to lay aside all evil, including all deceit, and also the third vice listed, hypocrisy.

We saw this in context. It's opposite in context. In 1 Peter 1 .22,

Cornell read a sincere love of the brothers. I think that's how it reads in ASB, a sincere love of the brothers.

In the LSB, it's the love of the brothers without hypocrisy. So that word sincere translated here without hypocrisy.

It's again the antonym of this word here, hypocrisy. So it means to present yourself in a way that hides who you really are, who you are in secret.

So as Christians, we know, don't we? We know we are always before God. Remember that Latin phrase, quorum

Deo, before God, the face of God. We are always before the face of God.

We know that. He's our judge. He's our master. He's our king. We can't hide anything from him, and he's the only one that matters.

So hypocrisy is stupid, and it's pointless. It accomplishes nothing.

It's difficult, it's frustrating, it's hard to remember how you're supposed to present yourself in one place versus how you are in another.

It can cause you mental illness, it can cause you physical illness, but more importantly, hypocrisy dishonors

God. It's a vice that we are commanded here to lay aside. I have to note the noun hypocrisy is plural in the original language, hypocrisies.

We're to lay aside all hypocrisies. The Spirit knows we're very capable of having more than one hypocrisy, right?

We could show up with one mask here, we can have another with our families, we can have another at work, we can have another with a group of friends, we can have another when we're anonymous somewhere in a city, some other place, and then we can have another when we're alone in secret.

We're to throw away all of those. Stop hiding all of that evil activity and evil intent. Stop being deceitful.

Now this has meant a lot lately as we've had different counseling situations. Stop hiding.

Stop hiding evil activity. Stop pretending you're something you're not. You will be found out.

Whether any human being ever finds you out, you will be found out. Stop. Let's deal with this thing now.

We're never going to have the kind of love for one another that Peter described in chapter 1 if we aren't open and authentic and honest with one another about who we are.

We can work together to overcome sin in your life, but we have to know that it exists.

We're also told to lay aside envy. It's another vice that's listed often in the New Testament list of vices.

Again, plural here, envies or jealousies. That carries the idea of being energized by bitterness toward other people, having ill will.

You want to bring someone else down to your level rather than raising yourself up to theirs. That's the idea.

It's the opposite of being happy for somebody else's blessing. 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter, that summarizes love.

I think if you just chose one of those phrases in 1 Corinthians 13, love doesn't seek its own.

Remember that? That's the essence of Christian love. For us to love that way, we have to lay aside envy.

Lay aside all envies, all malicious jealousies. The last vice listed is slander or evil speaking.

It's also plural, evil speakings or slanders. It just means to prattle on in a negative way, to speak somebody down.

It's evil speaking or evil babbling. All of these have to be cast aside, laid aside.

If you put all of them together, you put those five vices there in that verse together, you see a connection of thought from Peter's thought before.

He's exhorting Christians to love one another fervently and from the heart. You see these sins would prevent that kind of love from flourishing in anybody.

All of these vices exalt the self. They're the opposite of the self -effacing, self -sacrificial love, that agape love that Peter commanded a few verses ago.

Okay, I want to move down to verse 3 now. But before we do that,

I want to keep track of Peter's flow of thought because I've jumped back and forth a bit. Peter says, let's be in the process of laying aside these vices so we can then have a growing craving to get to know

God from His Word so by that we can grow in sanctification as God intends for us.

This is the purpose of our life. This is why we were decreed, why we were conceived.

This is why we're in the circumstances we're in, whatever they are. He wants us to grow spiritually.

In order to do that, we have to crave His Word, and in order to do that, we have to lay aside our sin.

So if you are a Christian here today, you want that same thing. You want that. As believers in Christ, we want to be like Him.

We want to grow in our spiritual maturity. In order to do that, you see there's some things you must do. You have to lay aside sin.

You have to long for God's Word, but how? Now here's the big question. How? It's good to have commands and know what's expected of us, but how?

How do we lay aside our sin? How do we crave the milk of the Word? What could change our very nature so that we could be at war with our sin?

We could have this strong desire to get into God's Word. Am I just up here preaching a helpless moralism where you can just all walk out feeling bad about yourselves?

Are we being commanded to do something impossible? How can we do it? What could change us? What could it be?

Look at verse 3. If you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. We can't obey these commands, not by ourselves or our own power.

Of course we can't. Apart from the regenerating work of the Gospel, apart from Christ, we can't do anything good.

We know that. But because we've tasted the kindness of the Lord, because we've learned the Gospel, because we've been converted, regenerated by the

Holy Spirit through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin. We've been made alive in union with Christ.

We are different. Because of the Gospel we can lay aside sin and we can go after God. We can long to find

Him in His Word. So verse 3 is the answer. It answers the question of how. It shows us the power.

It shows us the change in us that enables us to obey these commands. Peter's saying, if you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord, if you've learned of the kindness of God to you in the Gospel, if you've been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as he says in chapter 1, that's the if.

That's the important if. If you've never tasted the kindness of the Lord, none of this works.

But like Peter, I'm assuming in my preaching today that the condition is true. I'm assuming that. I'm assuming that you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. Other translations reflect Peter's confidence in that by translating if as since or because of or now that you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. I'm speaking to you as if you are a Christian. I am as Peter did, assuming you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord in the Gospel. But that may not be true. I know for some of you that's not true.

Well, if it isn't true for you, then none of the rest pertains to you. We'll get to you in verse 7 and 8 later on.

Not today. You'll have your time. But as an unregenerate person, you can't lay aside sin.

You can't possibly long for the Word of God in the way that Peter means. You can't grow up into a salvation you've never known.

So in order to participate in this upward path that he's talking about here, laying aside sin, craving the

Word, growing in sanctification, you have to first taste the kindness of the

Lord. You need to repent of your sins. You need to put your faith in Christ. You need to do that now.

Right now. There is never ever going to be a better time than right this minute.

And I'm not going to call you up. You can do it in your chair. Don't listen to the rest of this. Get right with God, and then this will pertain to you.

But Peter's assuming his readers are Christians. That's what I'm going to do. It's easy to see that's true.

It's easy to see he's writing to believers. We see that throughout the book. You could look back to chapter 1, or you could just look ahead here in chapter 2, verse 7.

Look at verse 7 of chapter 2. It makes it very clear. This precious value, then, is for you who believe.

He's writing to people who believe. Or look at verses 9 and 10. But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

There's no question. Peter's writing to people he considers to be Christians, to people who have tasted the kindness of the

Lord, and so are now willing and able to lay aside sin to long for God's Word and to grow by it. That's you.

Now, I've smuggled in an interpretation here, what it means to taste the kindness of the

Lord. Some of you may have caught that. I'm completely confident that this is a reference to conversion, to learning of the kindness of the

Lord toward us in the reputation of His perfect life and in His atoning work on the cross. That is the kindness that Peter has in mind.

While there's much kindness in God, much for which we could praise

His goodness toward us, even unbelievers could, the pinnacle of His good acts toward us is in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

His kindness is in the gospel. It's in the good news of Christ, in the life and death and resurrection of Christ.

He is the kindness of goodness of God to us. The gospel is His great act of kindness. It's in the gospel that we learn of His kindness, and we appreciate all of His other kindnesses toward us.

In context, I think it's very apparent that's what Peter has in mind. Look what follows immediately in chapter 2, verse 4.

He refers to us as coming to Christ, the choice and precious living stone upon which the house of God is built.

So it follows, Peter here thinking of our conversion in verse 3, moves on to thinking about our coming to Christ, our growing in Him, this beautiful symbol of a building, and then he refers to us as a priesthood, as a family, as a nation.

It's also apparent from the therefore, and I skipped that, I passed over that earlier. Let's take a look at the therefore for a minute, back at the beginning of verse 1.

Therefore, it's just a conjunction, but you know that it links up what's about to be said with what has recently been said, some point that was recently made.

And I'm going to show you that that therefore makes exactly the same assertion as verse 3. It's exactly the same.

Therefore, it connects the laying aside of these sins, the craving for the pure milk of the Word, the subsequent growth in sanctification to something that Peter had just declared.

And what was that? Go back, look at verse 22, chapter 1. Peter's just commended his readers for sincere love for one another.

He then commands them to fervently love one another from the heart. Then he gives them a rationale for that love.

He gives them the reason why that love is a good investment. He directs them to the fact that their source of eternal life is held in common by all of them.

The source of eternal life is God. It comes from God. We have that life in common with Him and with one another.

That's what makes love a good investment. So, Peter refers to our common source of life as a seed.

You see that in verse 23. He says that seed is God's Word. He points out the eternal nature of that Word in verses 23 through 25.

He says it's living and enduring. He says it lives forever. And then he makes it a little more specific, that which was proclaimed to you as good news, emphasizing the gospel as that Word of God which gives life and sustains life.

Okay, so that's the context we come out of. There were no chapter divisions, remember. We go right out of that into therefore.

So, because you are born again through this living and abiding Word of God, because you are that, lay aside these sins.

Now long for that Word of God. Long for the pure milk of the Word, and so grow in respect to salvation.

Same exact thing in verse 3. Since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord in the gospel, lay aside these sins.

Long for the pure milk of the Word, and so grow in respect to salvation. Okay. Do you see in this?

This is what you have to see in this. Do you see the transforming power of the gospel?

We have here a command to lay aside sin, apart from the gospel.

Is that an easy thing to do? It's an impossible thing to do.

Right? Apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit through the gospel. We were dead in our sins, not a little sick.

We were dead in our sins. We were slaves to sin, not followers. We were slaves to sin, totally depraved, totally unable.

We have a command to long for God's Word. If you think laying aside sin is hard, this is a command to change your affections.

This is a command to love something you don't. Apart from regeneration, the

Word of God is meaningless. It's boring. It's nothing. If we don't believe it is

God's Word, it's worth nothing. And yet, we're told to love it.

We're told to love something. We're told to stop loving something we love, and to start loving something we don't.

How could any of us obey commands like that? Lay aside my sin. I loved my sin.

I was powerless against it. And it wasn't because I hated it. It's because I adored it.

I loved it. Long for God's Word. Why?

How can I long for that? How can I desire something I don't care about? How can

God command a person to have a desire they don't have, to stop loving something they love, to start loving something they don't?

It's impossible. It's impossible. That would be like telling a lame man to walk.

It would be like telling a blind man to see or a deaf man to hear. Telling a dead man to rise. That's exactly what it's like.

Telling a storming wind to stop. Telling a universe to just be.

God does these things, and God who did all of these things is able to create a new creature out of you. He's able to cause that new person then to grow into His image.

He is able to change your affections. He is able to remove your irresistible love for sin and to give you a love you never had before.

A love for Him and for His Word. We love because He first loved us.

We love Him. We love one another. And we love His Word because He first loved us.

His love has changed us. And so our love has changed. By that same transforming power of that same gospel, you will continue to transform.

This is from a sermon of an 18th century Scottish preacher named Ralph Erskine. A rigid matter was the law, demanding brick, denying straw.

But when with gospel tongue it sings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. You have heard and loved that empowering gospel.

You're no longer commanded without the power to obey. You now have received the wings to fly, the power to obey.

God's not telling you now to obey these commands out of your own ability, to gin up some sort of love for the

Word of God. But instead He says to use the means available. Trust Him to change you through the sanctifying and regenerating work of the

Spirit. Trust Him to do that in and through the Scriptures. But then, yes, in your trusting, yes, now strive.

Make every effort, work, to live in obedience to every command that pertains to us.

So you see, it's the same power, the same eternal seed of the gospel that was able to convert you, to make you alive spiritually, that will continue to perfect you in sanctification.

You can do this. 1 Thessalonians 4 .3 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

You want to know what God's will is? It's your sanctification. And God doesn't try to do

His will. He isn't trying to sanctify you. He's just doing it.

If you're a Christian, He is doing it. So by the power of God made yours through His gospel, lay aside your sin, long for the

Word of God, so that by it you may grow in your salvation. Let's pray together. Father, we are grateful always eternally and first in our minds for the great gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that saved us, that converted us, that changed us.

We think of our justification in that gospel, and we are ever grateful. But Lord, also we're grateful for the gift of Your Word, and by it that we might be sanctified, we might learn of You and grow to be more and more like You.

We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Would you please stand as we close our service this morning and sing together

All I Have is Christ. All I have is

Christ. All I have is Christ. All I have is

Christ. All I have is Christ. All I have is Christ. All I have is

Christ. You've gone my helpless snake, and led me to the cross.

Had I beheld a foe displayed, You suffered in my place.

You bore the rack, reserved for me. Now all

I know is grace.

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

I would be yours alone and live so all might see

The strength to follow your commands could never come from me

Oh, Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose

And let my song forever be my only boast is you

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, all I have is

Christ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

Hallelujah, Jesus is my life

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the