WWUTT 312 Long for the Pure Spiritual Milk?

1 Peter 2:2-3 and the Call to Long for the Word

1 Peter 2 .2 Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments email whenweunderstandthetexts at gmail .com. And don't forget our website www .utt .com.

Here's our host Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. We are continuing our study of 1 Peter today beginning in chapter 1 verse 22 and reading through chapter 2 verse 10 as we started yesterday. This is the section where Peter is talking about living as a new people of God.

So here we begin in chapter 1 verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love. Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding 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, but the Word of the Lord remains forever. And this Word is the good news that was preached to you.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the Word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Going back to verse 22, where Peter says, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

In other words, Peter is saying, if your soul has been purified by your obedience to the truth, and you desire a sincere brotherly love, then love one another from a pure heart, which has been purified by the Word of God.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. And as we talked about yesterday, we are all born of that perishable seed from our father that fertilized the egg in our mother.

Yeah, you didn't know we were going to have that talk today, did you? And we are born again of the imperishable seed of the Holy Spirit, because this being born again has come through the living and abiding Word of God, which remains forever, verse 25.

So therefore, this imperishable seed by which we have been born again will never be taken from us, and we will live forever by that seed. The seed of our father inheriting the sins of Adam, that's a perishable seed, and our bodies, which were conceived in such a way, will die because we were conceived in sin.

But we've been born again by the holiness of God, which is imperishable and perfect, and comes to us through the Word of God, which remains forever. Let me kind of backtrack a little bit here. If you have never had the talk with your kids, like your child has never asked you yet, Mommy and Daddy, where did I come from?

Let me give you a little piece of advice. It's easier to have that conversation, at least it was for me, explaining original sin. When my oldest asked me about this, this was when we were going through Romans in church, and we were in the section about original sin, and when we got home she was asking me questions about it.

So she, you know, she said, I don't understand this concept, original sin, what were we talking about? So as I was explaining original sin to her, you can't explain that doctrine without having the talk also at the same time.

So talking about how we are born of the seed of Adam, and that everybody who is born of Adam is born into Adam's sin. We have inherited his sin nature. But then contrasting this with Christ, who was not born of the seed of a man.

He was not conceived of a man, conceived of the seed of a man. He was born of a virgin, conceived in the Holy Spirit. So explaining to my daughter what a virgin was, and what was different about Jesus, and why he was born sinless, because he was not conceived of the seed of a man.

Explaining all of that to her was how I explained sexual intercourse, and how she came to be, and also explaining the doctrine of original sin in that process as well. Actually made it easier for me to have that conversation, because I can explain theology a lot better than I can have a talk with my child about sex.

That wasn't as comfortable for me as talking about doctrine and theology. So it made it easier. Of course, you have to know the doctrine in order to explain it, but that's my piece of advice for you. Maybe it will help you in having that discussion with your kids if you haven't had it yet.

So that's what we're talking about here. It's a whole doctrine of original sin that's being explained here by Peter in this verse. We are born of perishable seed. We are born again of an imperishable seed through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls. So why is it that we die? Why is it that our bodies die? Because we were born of perishable seed.

And like everything else in the world that is withering away and falling apart, our flesh is that way as well. It is like grass. It's glory like the flower of the grass. Boy, you have just a few years of a glorious, good-looking body, and then it just starts falling apart after that.

The grass withers and the flower falls. Some of you are probably going, I never had that either. I never, never had the good-looking body. I have a face for radio, which is why I'm just talking to you this way instead of doing this via video.

But the word of the Lord remains forever. Because we are born of an imperishable seed that came to us through the living and abiding word of God, which lasts forever. Therefore, we who are born again, imperishable, will not die.

This will never be taken from us. It's a wonderful assurance that Peter is putting in here as well, that we can be assured of the salvation that we have in Christ that will never be taken away. Because if it's imperishable, it's incorruptible.

It can't be corrupted. It can't be taken from us. It can't be removed from us by any sin, because Jesus has forgiven us of our sins. There is nothing that will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As Paul says in Romans 8, in fact, that's such a good verse, I just need to go ahead and read it. Romans 8, verse 38, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And Paul also says it this way in 2 Timothy 2, verse 11, the saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So the reason why we can be assured of our salvation is not because of anything that we have done, but because of God who is faithful to his promises.

And as we have been elected from beginning of time, from the foundation of the world, we have this assurance that nothing can take that election from us. God has chosen us to be born again in Christ Jesus.

And what a beautiful assurance that is. Even in the moments when we are faithless, our sin has not separated us from God. For God is more powerful and more triumphant than the power that our sin has over us.

He has forgiven us these sins. And so, therefore, we can come before God, come before the throne of grace with confidence as it says in the book of Hebrews, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Christ has done.

And what a beautiful assurance that we've been given here in these passages. Same thing that Peter is saying here, that is underscoring this message that he is giving. The word of the Lord remains forever because we've been born again by an imperishable seed, incorruptible seed.

We will not be corrupted away from the love of God that has been given to us in Jesus Christ. This word is the good news that was preached to you. That's how he punctuates the conclusion of this thought.

Longing for the Pure Spiritual Milk

But we're still continuing in this lesson that Peter is giving about living as new people in Jesus Christ. So we continue that getting into chapter two, and it was verse one where we ended yesterday. So put away all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it, you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Now, there's a little bit of work that we have to do here because there are different ways that being a child of God is mentioned throughout the New Testament.

And you have to pay attention to the context because it's not always the same. For example, Matthew 18, three is where Jesus says, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God.

In first Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul says, when I was a child, I thought like a child. I acted like a child. I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. So here we have two mentions about being children, and both of them seem to contradict because Jesus says to be like a child, but Paul says, grow up and stop acting like a child.

So we have to pay attention to the context here. There are two different lessons that are being spoken. It's not a contradiction. It's two different contexts. Jesus is saying that we must be fully dependent upon our heavenly father as the giver of all things.

Consider your children. What can they not do on their own without their parents? I mean, you could leave them for two, three days, maybe, and they would die. What can your children do on their own? At some point, my child is going to find a way to the poison that is in this house, whether it's a bathroom cleaner or something, no matter how well we have that secure.

After three days of being alone, they'll figure out how to find it and ingest it and die. And now having just said that, social services is going to come knock on my door and do an inspection of my whole house.

Anyway, I'm just saying my children are problem solvers. They will figure out how to get into trouble. I remember earlier this year when Barack Obama, President Obama made a controversial statement about how if a child can't get into an aspirin bottle, they shouldn't be able to fire a gun.

Well, I have a gun and I have aspirin bottles. My child can get into an aspirin bottle. They cannot fire my gun. There's enough safety features on my gun. There's no way they would ever figure out how to shoot that thing.

But I have seen my kids get into medicine bottles that are presumably childproof. So it was an absolutely terrible analogy that President Obama was using. Anyway, I'm trying to cover for myself for the statement that I just made a little bit ago.

Where was I? I'm totally rabbit trailed here by this point. Anyway, so the context is that we need to be like children, completely dependent upon our Heavenly Father. That's the context that Jesus is using there.

And unless we become like children, we can't enter the kingdom of God. If we think that we can do it on our own and we are just fine by ourselves and, you know, I'm only going to turn to my father when it's convenient for me, whenever it works out for me and I don't have anywhere else to turn.

That's not the kind of attitude that we should have because it is not giving all of ourselves to the Lord. So we must become fully dependent children, fully dependent upon our Heavenly Father for every good thing.

Our benevolent Heavenly Father who wants to give us every good thing to to his children because he loves us. That's the way that we must be like in our worship and honor of the Lord God. Paul is using a completely different analogy.

Paul is talking about immaturity. He's saying that there are people who have who started out as children in the faith and they remained that way. They have never grown up. They have never matured in their faith.

And so therefore, you need to stop acting like the children that you once were when you first came to Christ, immature, not knowing a lot about doctrine, not knowing a lot about theology. And instead of continuing to make these claims, the same claims you were making 10 years ago, you need to grow up in your faith and in your doctrine, your love of the scriptures, put away childish things and become mature men and women of God.

Two different contexts. You have a child that's being used in both analogies, but spoken about in different ways. We still need to be children fully dependent upon our Heavenly Father, but we should not be children in our maturity when it comes to our understanding of theology and doctrine.

So having said that, we come back again to this statement that Peter has said, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. This is more like the way Jesus used the analogy of a child in Matthew 18 3 than it is what Paul said in first Corinthians 13.

There's another passage of scripture that goes with this as well. In fact, even mentions the consumption of milk, and that's in Hebrews chapter 5. It's warning about apostasy. Hebrews 5 verse 11. About this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Now I want to tell you that this analogy that is being given here in Hebrews 5 verses 11 through 14 is not the same.

Even though milk is used in Hebrews 5 and here in first Peter chapter 2, it's not the same analogy because who's being rebuked here in Hebrews 5 are those who should be mature by now, but are not. They're still they're still back in like the basic doctrine areas and haven't yet grown up in their understanding of the faith to maturity to mature manhood in the faith, which is by the way, something else that Paul instructs in Ephesians chapter 4 that we should grow up into maturity in the faith.

So what Peter is talking about here again is more in line with what Jesus said in Matthew 18 three, unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God. So like newborn infants, we need to long for the pure spiritual milk in our faith and in our development in the faith.

We always need to be looking at the word of God with with a longing hunger and a desire like a newborn infant has a man. And if a newborn infant doesn't eat again in the next two hours, they're going to pitch a fit.

We're about to introduce a newborn into our family again here in just a couple of months. We're in the last trimester. Becky is due at the at the end of January. We're entering the home stretch here. So anyway, so so a baby, a newborn has to eat all the time.

And this is the way that Peter is instructing us to be when it comes to our growth and understanding in the word of God. We need to be like newborn infants craving the word of God, not not just eating at meal meal times, you know, not just eating at the scheduled times.

OK, you know, eat my breakfast, eat my lunch and eat my dinner, not getting to a point where we are going through the motions and just doing it because we know that's the allotted times for us to do it.

But we are constantly craving and yearning after the word of God described as a pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. No matter where we are in our spiritual development, we still need the word of God.

You never graduate from the gospel. You never graduate from the gospel. We need constant reminders of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which I've been giving in this program already being reminded that the gospel has saved us from death and brought us into life and no one can take it from us.

We are secure, held steadfast in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We need these constant reminders because the world is toxic and is going to infect our brains with worldly thinking, especially since we still inhabit these fleshly bodies.

So we constantly need our minds cleansed, our hearts refreshed in knowing the hope that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Long for this daily. And if you're a regular listener to this program, I know that you do, because I don't I don't have any special gimmick that I do here for this podcast.

It's just straight Bible teaching. So I know that that's that's what it is that you long for. That's what it is. Do you want on a daily basis? You want to hear more from the word of God. We need to have that constantly desiring these reminders of the gospel of Christ that by it you may grow up into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, Psalm 34, eight, taste and see that the Lord is good. And if you have tasted that the Lord is good, how could you not want anything less than what the word of God has to offer us?

Why would you want to hear moralistic sermons or or these these self-help sorts of messages that most pastors in America are giving on Sundays? You want to hear the gospel proclaimed. You want to hear about doctrine and theology and growing in the deep spiritual truths that are given to us here in the scriptures.

This is the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up, that we would grow into salvation. If indeed we have tasted that the Lord is good. I think there is something underscoring that as well, that that in in those that Peter is writing to, there may be some who have not yet tasted the goodness of God.

Maybe they're hearing this message from an apostle for the very first time. And so there's yet to be somebody who is convicted in their heart of their sin and repents and comes to know the truth of salvation in Christ Jesus.

This is right after Peter is just mentioned sin. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, perhaps there is somebody in the congregation that is hearing this letter being read that is going, boy, goodness, that's me. I am. I'm the malicious guy.

I'm the deceitful guy. I'm the hypocrite. I'm envious. I'm slanderous. I don't know that the Lord is good. I have not yet tasted that pure spiritual milk. Teach me more about this, that I might turn from my sin and know salvation that is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And I hope that that that is you, that you have turned from your sinfulness, that you despise worldliness and the passions and desires of your flesh. And instead, by this spirit of God that has been poured out on you through the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, you are longing for sound doctrine and good theology that you may grow up into salvation.

Let me pray. Let us wrap up with prayer. And then if you are still convicted about this, about wondering if you are really saved, if you have truly tasted and seen that the Lord is good, I hope that you know a good pastor at a sound biblical church that you can go to and talk with more about this.

Or you know a friend that just loves the gospel, talks about it all the time. Express your heart to him and say, I've been convicted, reading the Word of God, that maybe I don't really know the Lord. Maybe I haven't really tasted and seen that God is good.

I don't know what that means. Help me to understand this better and the two of you together going through the scriptures so that you might have assurance of salvation in Christ Jesus the Lord. Dear God, we praise you for this Word that has been given to us.

You have shown us what is on your mind and on your heart through what we read in the Word of God. If we want to know the mind of God, if we want to get to know your heart better, where else do we turn except your Word?

This is how we get to know God and how privileged we are to be able to know you, that you have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light, the light that is the Word of God shining into our souls.

Lord, we desire to grow up into salvation. So teach us these things all the more. And what we have read and seen and heard today would continue to feed us as we go throughout our day, that we might long all the more for the pure spiritual milk that continues to mature us in Christ.

We pray and ask these things in his great name, Amen.

This is a protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt .com.