The Right Diet - [1 Peter 1:22 - 2:3]

Well, you know, I feel somewhat compelled being a California boy, a

Los Angeles born and raised native up until a few years ago, to really kind of catch myself up on New England and specifically

New England sports lore. So I've done some research and you know what I found out?

Larry Bird never practiced free throw shooting. Did you know that Big Papi, David Ortiz, never takes batting practice?

Did you know that Tom Brady never, ever, not even once, looks at the playbook?

Doesn't need to. You laugh, and those ideas are pretty absurd, aren't they? Larry Bird never practices free throws.

That's why he shot 90 plus percent, right? Big Papi doesn't practice his hitting.

That's why he hits 320 in 40 home runs, 120 RBIs. Brady doesn't read his playbook. Those ideas are crazy.

And yet, when it comes to Christianity, we think somehow, many of us think, that we're going to become, in the same sense that these men developed into great athletes, great players of their various sports, that we're going to become great

Christians, great men and women of the faith, by accident.

Lightning is going to zap us and we are going to be filled with all knowledge. Just as absurd.

I read something here a few weeks ago, a major proponent of the church growth movement recently came to a startling conclusion.

He and his church realized that many people who had been attending for years, week in and week out, were not growing at all.

Church growth yielded no growth. A lot of people, but no growth. Now maybe, possibly,

I might suggest that it was because they were putting on plays and showing movies on Sunday morning instead of preaching the

Bible. In fact, it is the practice of this church to not teach the

Bible on Sunday and the way to get Bible teaching is to come during the week. The idea on Sunday is just to get people in, get them interested, get them used to liking to coming to church.

And the leader of this church admitted there was a problem. Listen to this. Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn't helping people that much.

Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

Who knew? Who knew that the only way to get people to grow spiritually was to give them the

Bible, right? So he's going to change everything and they're going to go and they're going to preach the word each and every

Sunday, right? Well, no, not exactly. The co -author of this confessional that he wrote says this.

Now, this is a quote, our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church.

In other words, we're done with that old model. We're going to change things fundamentally. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions, replace it with new insights, insights that are informed by research and rooted in scripture.

Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he's asking us to transform this planet.

I just don't even know where to start taking that apart. Informed by research. Well, there's problem number one and rooted in scripture.

Well, how about just rooted in scripture? Take out that first part. Our dream is really to discover what

God is doing and how he's asking us to transform this planet. Really.

You want to discover how God wants this church to transform the planet? Don't we know that already?

The word of God, the Bible, the infallible rule of faith and practice for Christians.

And specifically, our passage this morning contains what these men are waiting to discover.

What they would like to be zapped with. What they're out doing all their marketing research to discover.

The simple truth is that Christians grow as they take in the word of God.

The truths of the Bible change lives. They change the lives of the children of God.

The word of God transforms the children of God. Please open your Bibles to first Peter chapter one.

Somebody said, I sent this thing out initially and had first Peter chapter one versus 22 and then all the way to second

Peter chapter two, something or other. And they said, wow, that's a big piece of scripture. And I didn't get it at first until somebody said, well, yeah, you're going to finish first Peter and do half of second

Peter. No. But up to this point of first Peter, we've seen

Peter encouraging his readers who were going to again, they were going to be going through difficult times.

There was going to be persecution and difficulty. And again, I think what is a more practical book for the church today?

I don't need market research to know that people are suffering. I don't need market research to know that the church of Jesus Christ today is under attack.

All I have to do is pick up the newspaper. All I have to do is talk to people. All I have to do is listen to the radio.

I know that Christianity is not popular. And if you dare speak up for the cause of Christ in the workplace, in the school.

Even in public. At the very least, you can expect to be ridiculed. And this book was written to encourage

Christians in the midst of persecution. Far more difficult times than we're going through right now.

And I think what could be more practical? And so what does Peter do? He talks about a lot of doctrine.

A lot of doctrine. Why? Because he wanted them to understand what God had done on their behalf.

How encouraging is it to think about predestination? To know that God chose you from before the foundation of the world.

To be reminded that God himself, by his power, is preserving an inheritance for you in heaven.

How encouraging is it to think about the exclusive blessings, the exclusive knowledge that comes with being a child of God?

It's also challenging, though, to think about the responsibility. To live a holy life in light of all the things that God has done for you.

God the Father. God the Son. God the Spirit. So working together in each of your lives.

You have a responsibility then to that God to show him your affection.

To display your desire to be obedient to him. And so we come to verse 22 of chapter 1.

And we're going to be going through chapter 2, verse 3. Again, just as a reminder.

There is nothing that is God -breathed, inspired about the numbers here.

These divisions were done by men. They were done 1 ,000 years ago, not 2 ,000 years ago.

And it's just to help us. They're place markers. And sometimes we can take bigger pieces. Verse 22.

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 enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls off. But the word of the

Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you.

Chapter 2. Therefore, putting 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 have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. This morning, I aim to show you two results of salvation.

Two results of salvation in this text, so that you will view scripture as your necessary food.

Two results of salvation through scripture, that will actually make you want scripture more.

That is, it is, scripture alone is the means by which you were saved, and the means by which you will grow.

And that will be demonstrated by these two truths. Number one, you must love other

Christians. And number two, you must love the word of God. I want every believer here this morning to long to learn about the word.

To learn about the God of the word. And to listen to sermons. To read good books.

To study, not just as one man said in our new members class this morning, I thought this was really good. Not to look at the

Bible as a novel. To pick it up and just go, gee,

I wonder what happens next. And kind of, you know, I wish they'd skip through all these details and get to the good stuff.

The Bible is not like that. Our lives should be so thoroughly saturated with scripture, that our love for others and our love for the

Bible will be obvious to all. First, let's look at, you must love other

Christians. Note first, this is a command for believers only. And it is a command for every single believer.

Verse 22. Since you have an obedience to the truth purified your souls. Now stop right there.

And doesn't it seem to indicate that you've gotten to this point all on your own after all?

It does say that you have an obedience to the truth purified your souls, right?

You did it. Congratulations. Well, let's tear this apart a little bit.

Let's examine it and see if that's what it actually says. First, purified, the verb there, is a perfect participle.

You know, sometimes I mention participles a lot. And you might go, why does he love participles so much?

Not just because it's really a cool word to say. And if you're from South Africa, by the way, you say it's a politicible.

But it's a verbal noun. And the key aspect of that in the Greek is it literally means that it is a part of your

DNA. It is a characteristic of you. So when we see that it's a perfect participle, what that means is perfect.

The perfect tense in the Greek means that something has happened at a point in time. At one specific time.

And then it has ongoing forever results. And so when you see that perfect participle, one time action, you are purified at one point in time, and it has ongoing results.

As I said, it's a participle, so it is an inherent characteristic of who you are. Second, look at the context.

Peter has just made it plain, if we were to read through all of where we are so far in chapter 1, that Peter's written that God has caused us to be born again.

It is by that action, ultimately, that we have been purified. That's how we got purified.

But wait, doesn't it say that it was our obedience that purified us? Well, maybe.

Let's read further. My first answer, and this just came to me, and I thought, well, wait a minute.

What does Hebrews 10 .14 say? You don't have to turn there and let me read it.

Write it down and check it for yourselves later. For by one offering, he, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Perfected, purified for all time. Something that happened at a point in time continues forever.

And again, getting back to the idea of this being a participle, it is representative of a moral cleansing.

That is, the removal of the guiltiness of sin from your souls.

Can any man, woman, or child do that by themselves? Thank you.

The answer is no. I've got my Amen corner right up here in the front. Commentator Hebert says this.

The cleansing took place at the time of the reader's regeneration, and so they were, still, and forever are, in a state of being clean.

But hold on, you say. It does say we did it. Well, yes, it does.

Look again. It also says in, or the Greek preposition there could be by, obedience to the truth, in obedience to the truth, by obedience to the truth.

Well, what is that? What was that, the obedience?

What act of obedience did we perform, whereby we were purified?

Well, it is nothing less than the response, the human required response to the

Gospel. Obedience to the truth. It is our hearts, the believer's heart, responding in faith, because of the goodness of their hearts, right?

No. Because of their free choice, by which they realized that they'd been wrong for a long time, and they wanted to get right with God.

No. It is the heart responding in faith, yes, because of the work of God within it.

Obedience conveys the thought of attentively listening to an authoritative pronouncement, and then submitting to it.

So here's the picture. This word of truth came to us. We heard it, we obeyed it, and we were purified.

We purified ourselves by obedience, by submitting to the

Gospel. God is sovereign in salvation, and man is responsible. True?

Yes. God is sovereign, God alone saves, and man must respond.

And how does he respond? When God enables him. And Peter's teaching both here.

He can't go sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, and then, okay, God's not sovereign.

Here's a little thing for you guys. He's explaining, yes, God is sovereign, and man is responsible.

So, again, is this somehow a human effort? No. Faith is a gift of God, right?

Not a work so that no one may boast. Well, what of the truth?

What exactly is this truth? I've already kind of given that away. What is it that believers became obedient to and thus purified their souls?

The truth, the only truth, the only certainty we have is what?

The Word of the living God. Romans 10 .9, a verse that you should be well familiar with, says,

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. We hear the

Gospel, we respond in faith. Why? Not because we're smarter, but because God has given us the gift that we can respond in faith.

God is sovereign, man is responsible, and it is belief in the

Gospel that saves. You must believe to be saved.

One commentator says this, souls are not, and this is getting back to the idea of the truth, that you must be obedient to the truth.

Souls are not purified when someone submits to false teaching or deceitful doctrines.

In other words, there is only one truth. You can't submit to many different kinds of truths.

There is one truth, and you must submit to that truth. You must submit to you are a sinner, God is holy, you stand condemned before him.

Jesus Christ came into the earth as God and man, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was resurrected on the third day as I read earlier, and now sits at the right hand of the

Father and intercedes on behalf of believers. You must believe that.

You must entirely invest yourself in the truth of the Gospel to be saved. Indeed, this truth, it is

Scripture alone, as I said earlier, that is the rule of life and faith for Christians.

If somebody comes to you and they say they have a survey, they have some other kind of information, that's great, but it's always, what does the

Bible say? It's interesting, too, because how do you hear the truth?

You only hear the truth because somebody told you the truth. In the new members class we were talking, we were sharing our testimonies, and there was absolutely no one who was at home in a quiet room, and an angel descended to them and told them what they needed to do.

Someone in your life either represented, preached Christ to you, lived the truth out to you, in some way brought the truth of Scripture into your life, handed you a tract, they did something, which ought to be a great encouragement.

We know the Bible works. We preach it. And by the grace of God, you heard the truth.

By the grace of God, you believed it. By the grace of God, you responded in God -given faith, and He cleansed you from your sins because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

But the Scripture says that you purified yourself. Yes, you purified yourself by God -given faith.

From the human perspective, you believed, and therefore you purified your soul by responding to the truth, by being obedient to that truth.

Also note that this purification has a resulting expectation. In other words, there's a reason why you were purified from your sins.

Look at verse 22 again, the second half of it. For a sincere love of the brethren, for a sincere love of the brethren, such love is the inevitable result of the effective work of God's Word.

Take a quick tour through 1 John. 1 John 3 .10 Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God.

In other words, if you don't obey God, if the course of your life is not one of righteousness, you are not of God.

And it goes on to say, Nor the one who does not love his brother. 1

John 4 .8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4 .20 If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has seen.

You say that you love this God that you have never seen, and yet here is a man right in front of you that you hate.

John says, you're a liar. To put it simply, if your life is not marked by love for others, you are not a

Christian. What? Well, that's what it says.

If you say you love God and you hate your brother, you're a liar. You're saved for the purpose of the sincere love of the brethren.

This is what happens. The Word of God transforms you so that, you know, think about it this way. Before salvation, did you love

God or hate God? You could say you were neutral, but the Bible says you hated God. Jesus said, the world will not persecute me, and therefore it's going to love you.

No. The followers of Jesus are going to be despised, but the

Word of God comes into our lives and so transforms us that we no longer despise

Christians, we love them. The Greek word for love of the brethren is, of course,

Philadelphia. You can go there any time. Love of the brethren, right there. But in the

New Testament, this word, Philadelphia, is exclusively used of the love that believers are to have for one another.

So that's what we're called to, to love one another within the body of Christ. Why shouldn't we?

Why wouldn't we? We have the same Father. We are literally brothers and sisters in Christ. He has caused us all to be born again.

He has adopted us into his family. It's a big house, but we're all supposed to get along. We're supposed to love each other. We have the same

Savior. We have the same inheritance. We have, as it were, the same spiritual

DNA. There are bonds that God has caused that simply cannot be equal than any other relationship.

There's a special thing here. You can travel around the world. It doesn't matter where you are. When you step into a church filled with believers, you are loved.

You should be loved. I don't care where it is. I don't care what color your skin is.

I don't care about anything else. If you are in Christ, you are loved. You have brothers and sisters around the world, and it grieves me.

When I look around the world, and I see people who profess Christ, who are burned, who suffer immeasurably.

Why? It's not because I know those people, but because I love Christ. They love

Christ. I was saved the same way they were, and I ache for them. This love, this

Philadelphia love for our brothers and sisters is to be, it says, fervent.

It is really to be unhypocritical. It's a negated, hypocritical word.

So it means unhypocritical. No such word, but that's what it means. Hypocrisy in the

Greek culture was the wearing of masks. You were a hypocrite if you put on a mask and you played a part in a

Greek drama. So the point is that if we're to be unhypocritical, we're to be transparent in our love for one another.

We're not supposed to be fake. We're not supposed to just pretend to really care about people. We need to check and make sure that we genuinely care, that we are genuinely concerned and involved with those of like precious faith.

And this is a great time of the year for that. It's a great time for getting together with people who love

Christ. And I've said this many times, but I'll tell you, there is nothing more special than getting together with believers on Thanksgiving.

We like to have over a lot of folks. And I'll embarrass my wife again. If you don't have any place to go, contact my wife.

We'd love to have you over. It is great. Why? Because believers have a special bond.

We love the same Lord. We're thankful for the same things. We praise the same God. It gives us something.

I don't care if you've never met somebody before. If they are actually in Christ and you are in Christ, when you sit down, you have something to talk about.

So Peter notes that you were saved with the result that you would have a genuine love for others whom

God has saved. He then commands the exercise of that love. Look again, verse 22, fervently love one another from the heart.

This is a command to love one another, even at some cost or risk to you.

Self -sacrificial love. Note that it is to be mutual.

You are to love one another. It's not a contest. I love you more than you love me. We're not to one -up one another.

It is not a one -way street. It is mutual. And I love the

Greek word fervently. It is, let me see if I can say this right, ektenos. And if I wrote it down, if I had a whiteboard here, which

I don't, but if I had one, you would recognize it immediately because it is the root word from which we get extended or extension.

And that's what it means. It means to be stretched. So when we say we're to love one another fervently, it means we are to push our love.

We are to stretch out. We are to reach out. Our willingness to serve one another ought not to have any kind of artificial limits.

We need to put the welfare of one another ahead of our own welfare. And the picture here that Peter's trying to paint is when you think you're about to break, when you feel like you can't go any further, just keep going.

Just keep going. Extend yourself. Stretch yourself. Love fervently. Peter also explains what the nature of the truth is that has changed us.

What the nature of the truth is that has changed us. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable.

This is kind of, he's telling us all about our spiritual DNA here. That is through the living and enduring word of God.

Peter, again, reminds his readers of a central truth of Christianity. Believers are born again by the power and work of God.

For you have been born again is what? It's a participle. It is a perfect passive participle.

Again, perfect. Occurred once in time. You're only born again once. But that one time action has ongoing forever results.

And it is passive, meaning what? You were born again. It means it was done to you.

It's not something that you chose. No baby chooses to be born, and believers don't choose to be born again.

They are born again by the power and work of God. You were born again, regenerated, brought to spiritual life from spiritual death by the work of another, by the work of God.

And this reminds me so much of the parable of the sower. As I said,

I think in the very beginning of this book, a lot of critics don't like Peter. They say he's not very inventive.

I think that's a reason to love Peter. And he is echoing here, the teaching of Jesus, Matthew 13.

I'm going to just read a couple of verses here. Verse 23 of Matthew 13.

And the one on whom the seed was sown on the good soil. This is the man who hears the word and understands it, who bears fruit and brings forth some 100 fold, some 60 and some 30.

In other words, there are some people, the good soil Jesus refers to, who hear the word, they understand it because they are unable to do so.

If we were to look through the whole parable and they bear fruit, there are no Christians who do not bear fruit.

And one of these fruits is the love of the brethren. It happens. This is this is an inevitable result.

And look at verse 13. You want to know what the seed was in the parable. It's the same seed he's talking about here.

Matthew 13, 19 tells us it was the word of the kingdom. In other words, in verse 23, be back in first Peter, the living and enduring word of God.

That is the imperishable seed. It's not unlike other seeds.

I mean, if you have, if you have apple seeds, if you have apple seeds and you build apple trees, does that apple seed remain alive?

No, it dies in the growth of the tree, or at least you can't get multiple trees out of one seed, not just by throwing it on the ground anyway.

I suppose there's some scientific way of doing that. But the point is that unlike every other seed, the word of God does not die.

It cannot change. Kistemacher says this. The word of God gives life and nurtures.

Yet in the process remains unchanged. Unlike perishable seeds.

I mean, if we look back in first Peter, he said, listen, you have an inheritance that awaits for you.

That is what? Imperishable. And that's the same idea here. We have this word that cannot be tainted, cannot rust, cannot be destroyed, cannot be devolved or damaged in any way.

It gives life, it nurtures, it changes people, and it never changes.

To illustrate the permanence of God's word and the transitory nature, that is, the changeable nature of everything else,

Peter quotes a portion of Isaiah. Chapter 40, actually. He quotes it and he says four.

And then you'll notice you have all capitals. That's because he's quoting the Septuagint and he edits it a little bit.

And you know what? It's fine for Peter to do that. Why? Because Peter's inspired by the

Holy Spirit. You can't do that. You can't just pick and choose and cut and paste. Peter has, through the

Holy Spirit, has a purpose that he is using these verses for.

He says, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the

Lord endures forever. He compares all men, all flesh, and all their works, what?

Their glory, to flowers. Grass and flowers.

Just because like grass and flowers, men and their works will not last.

Whenever I come across this passage, I think back, you know, I don't remember much. Let me rephrase that.

I don't really know how much I learned in high school. But I do remember one thing.

I remember this poem by Shelley. And I just remember it because they read this poem, this very somber voice, and in the background, they showed the decay of all these ancient wonders of the world.

This poem goes in part like this. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Nothing beside remains.

That was him speaking. Now it goes on. He says, the poet writes, nothing beside remains.

Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sand stretch far away.

So here's all this wreck and decay. Here was a man who was, now this is fictional, but the idea is he's done these great works.

You know, we would see the Sphinx and the pyramid. And at the time, I'm sure they look grand, like they would stand forever.

But guess what? They all rot, decay, disintegrate.

And in contrast, the scripture is never subject to those things. It is never, as one commentator says, obsolete or irrelevant.

Another says, it is intended for all periods of time, never to be superseded by human philosophy.

The word of God is special. It is transforming. It is timeless, powerful.

It changes the life of every believer. Verse 25b, and this is the word which was preached to you.

This is what transformed you. This is what gave you the ability to love one another. This is what purified you.

This is what gave you the capacity to obey. This is what gave you the capacity to long for holiness.

Now, if it was the preaching of the word, look at that phrase again. And this is the word which was preached to you.

It was proclaimed to you. The Greek word is actually evangelized to you. We preach people the gospel.

We don't share our faith. We preach the word because that is what saves you. And if it was that that saved you, why would you ever want anything less than that?

Because the Bible changes the lives of Christians.

And the first result of that is that you must love other Christians. Secondly, you must love the word of God.

You must love the word of God. Look at verse 1 of chapter 2, therefore. Now, normally, if I was to start in chapter 2, verse 1,

I'd have to go back and explain what the therefore is. Therefore, all those things that we clever things that preachers say all the time.

But in this case, we know already it is the powerful and permanent work of God in the lives of those whom it has taken root.

The seed, this imperishable seed. Has taken root in your life.

It even gives you the ability to love other Christians, even demanding that you do so at your own harm.

Self -sacrificially. And having given us a positive duty that we ought to love one another.

Peter now tells us what we must cease doing. These things are actually hindrances to our spiritual growth.

And can I just tell you that these things will even hinder your desire to grow?

Look at verse 1. Putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

This is quite the opposite of loving the brethren. Putting aside.

The verb there carries the idea of throwing away a badly stained or infected garments.

And I heard that or I saw that word infected and I go, that's perfect. I mean, it just reminds me of, you know, like a biohazard.

I can see people in suits and stuff like that. You know, if you had a piece of clothing that you knew was a biohazard, would you just go home, take it off, hang it back in your closet, put it on next week?

I hope not. And that's the picture that Peter is painting here. He commands his readers to cast off, to put off all malice.

And malice is a catch -all word. It means wickedness in general. Well, what do you mean

I have to put off all wickedness? That sounds really big. Well, yeah, it is big. And I think it gets worse.

It gets harder. He also says that we need to put off deceit.

And it's an interesting word because it literally gives us the idea of fish baits or even a fish hook.

So if that doesn't give you an interesting vision, you know, drawing someone in with the attractiveness of some particular offer, you know, like one of these e -mails where, you know,

I am the widow of someone from Angola or wherever they're from, you know, and I have $20 million in the bank, and I can't get it out unless you send me a check for $1 ,000, and I'll happily split it with you.

People do this. People do it. I mean, the government is actually running ads now on TV to warn people not to do it.

But this is the idea that we see something that is so good, and we just want it so bad, and then we take it, and there's a hook in the middle.

We are not to commit deceit. We are not to deceive people. We are not to promise them something that doesn't exist and to hurt them.

We're not to cause them. This verb would give us the idea or this word of causing grievous pain or loss.

Now, we spoke or I spoke of hypocrisy earlier in the sense of wanting to be unhypocritical, and it just simply means insincerity, acting in a way that is not consistent with what one says or believes.

We all know what a hypocrite is, right? We see one every morning in the mirror. And I say that, listen, and I've said this before, the more you know, the more informed you are, the less likely it is that you're going to live perfectly up to that knowledge, and therefore you will be in some sense a hypocrite.

People say, I don't want to go to church because it's filled with hypocrites. Well, there's always room for one more. Listen, this is why

I'm not going for my doctorate. I just don't want to get, you just don't want to go any further down that road.

Listen, it is something that we all need to wrestle with. We profess something, and then we don't live it out perfectly.

Hypocrisy is, I think, one of the most difficult sins to put off. We need to constantly be checking ourselves.

Envy, you think I'm not envious. Well, let me define it, and then we'll see how you think about it.

It's not reacting joyfully to the blessings others receive. In other words, it's not like, oh,

I'm so jealous of that person. It's just even looking at the things that other people have and go,

I'm not so sure I'm happy they have that. Why not? Why not?

Because ultimately, our sin is not against that person. It's not against the person who has the things that we're envious of.

It's against the God who provided that person with that thing. It is dissatisfaction with what

God has provided you. Peter says, don't do that. Don't be envious of the goodness of God in the lives of others.

Here's another difficult one, all slander. Do you ever speak ill of someone?

I remember one sports announcer would just say he would cover up, I'm sure, all manner of slander by saying he was just telling it like it is.

Some of you older folks remember him too.

Do you spread gossip? Say something that hurts the reputation of someone else?

Well, you're just telling the truth. Lenski says, defamations are the first outward evidence of sin, of slander.

And where this is absent, base deeds or other sin will not follow.

What's he saying? James put it this way in James 3, 2, for we all stumble in many ways.

If anyone does not stumble in what he says, not what he does, in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.

Jesus said that it's what comes out of your mouth that defiles you, not what goes in.

Why? Because it reveals what's inside of you. It reveals what your motivations are.

It reveals your heart. Slander shows the hatred in your heart, not the love that you have for the brethren, but the hatred.

And those things, those five sins will actually quench your desire for the word of God.

And Peter tells us after telling us what we have to do to stop or what we must stop in order to continue to mature spiritually.

He gives us the command that is the heart of this passage. Verse two, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word.

Now, what this does not mean is, hey, you guys are just like little kids. And in the sense that you're just little babies, little toddlers, you need to long for some real little problem kind of stuff.

It's not what it means. It doesn't mean it has nothing to do with the Christians being immature. This is a command for every single believer.

Every single person who's had their desires, longings and affections changed by the eternal and effective word of God should long for the word.

Yearn for it, desire it fervently. Someone might say, well, when

I come to church, I really try to pay attention and I read the daily bread.

Good for you. That's not the picture here. That is not how you slake a never ending thirst for that which is life giving and life building.

Imagine if you work. Imagine telling your boss, well, you know,

I try to come in, pay attention when I come in on Monday. I usually limit my lunch break to, you know, the standard hour and a half, two hours.

And, you know, a couple of times a week, I actually put in a little effort. You get fired.

And somehow I think because we we tend to think because God won't fire us.

We think that we can just kind of go through the motions with regard to his word, with regard to sanctification, which is ultimately what this is about.

And I know that we have plenty of folks here who listen to sermons, who download them.

Who listen to them in their cars, their trucks as they drive around, who spend nights reading.

I know that we have folks who faithfully read and study the word of God daily. But let me ask you this.

How many of you like chocolate? I would dare say it's probably most of us. Imagine this.

Imagine that you had an endless supply of chocolate that you would never tire of eating it.

And it would put you in peak physical condition if you ate it five times a day.

Would you eat it once a week? Would you?

Twice a week? Would you pay attention to it when it was convenient?

How much more of the word of God? Peter tells us that the word we should long for is pure.

It is literally the same word as deceit without the alpha privative attached.

In other words, it's the negation of that or the non -negation of that. It basically just means it is without deceit.

It is without deceit. It is pure. It is without deceit. And what would constitute impure milk of the word?

In other words, deceitful work of milk of the word. Untruths, false doctrines, anything presented in the place of truth, plays, skits, dialogues.

Basically, I've just described the most popular programs in the evangelical church today. If you've looked around, you know how difficult it is to find a church that just wants to give you the

Bible. That says, the Bible is enough for us. The Bible is all we have. We want you to grow in respect to salvation.

And we know that that comes about by the word of God. And it is so important that we long for it.

That we try to find ways to listen to it, to read it, to study it.

To know God better. There is no other means of salvation.

And there is no other means of sanctification, which is what Peter has in mind here. Spiritual growth is not something you can simply decide to do.

You can't close your eyes and make a wish and make it happen. God has given us the way, the means on how we grow.

And it is by putting ourselves under the word of God. Sanctification is not optional.

Paul wrote that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And I just wonder sometimes if we understand the vanity of expecting to become a prized work.

A prized statue, as it were, of the master artist. When we have taken the hammer and chisel from his hands.

God uses his word to refine us. And we say, hey, I'm not going to submit myself to the word.

I'm not going to study it. I'm not going to learn. I'm not going to do any of those things. And, you know, I hope that God can just work on me anyway.

Now, let me get a real up close and personal here. Do you long for the word like a newborn baby longs for his mother's milk?

Is it a reflex? If not, why not? Is there some sin that you need to move out of your life to make way for the word of God?

Is there something that you have allowed to take the place of it? Some may say, I have no time.

And I've learned the hard way in my own life that there's no such thing as no such time, as I have no time.

What you really want in life, you will make time for. And when we think rightly of God's goodness and mercy to us, do we not long for the word all the more?

Look at verse three. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And again, as I said last week, this is not if, possibly, if you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. This is a since, or it could even be translated this way. Now that you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. In other words, look, you will long for it now that you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. Now that you are saved, you will long for the word of God.

So if you don't love the word. If you don't long to hear it. If you don't yearn for it.

The implication Peter gives us is that you have not tasted the kindness of the Lord.

You have not tasted the loving kindness, the grace of God. You have not been saved.

This is just a brief. We just had to blast through these verses. But the picture here is plain.

We must love Christians. We must love God's word. We have the answers in God's word.

We know God's plan for transforming the world. It is to change one heart at a time.

He's going to change the whole world, but it's not about salvation for the whole world. He's going to change everything.

But in our own lives, again, we don't have to do some kind of research.

We don't have to wait for illumination. We don't have to wait for a zap. God changes lives through his effective and eternal word.

That word saves us, gives us a supernatural, sacrificial love for believers.

And a never satisfied desire for more of the word.

Let's pray. God, would you give in each of us.

A growing desire to be pleasing to you.

To recognize your work in our lives. To love one another sacrificially.

To be acquainted, involved with one another.

To serve one another. To even be willing to stretch out to our own harm.

Would you give us hearts that would so love that even unbelievers would take note of it.

That even as the Lord said that they would know we are

Christians by the love we have for one another. That we are followers of the risen Christ by the love we display for one another.

Father, would you so work in our lives as to remove every obstacle, every hindrance.

Whether it be the sins Peter lists here. Or whether it be some other priority that we've allowed to supplant the word of God in our lives.

Father, would you remove every obstacle. Would you convict us of our lack of love for your word.

Would you so move in our hearts that we would rejoice. And in rejoicing, long to hear it more and more that we might be refined.

That we might indeed be willing clay in the potter's hands. That we might submit ourselves to the hammer and chisel of your word.

we might be conformed into the image of your son. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.