Desire the Pure Milk of the Word: Part 2

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The Chosen Stone and His Chosen People: Part 3

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I promise you, I will not be long today because we have communion. I just want to give us an overview of what we've been looking at from this wonderful epistle of 1
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Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2, and we're looking at verse 1 to 3.
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Verse 1 through 3, desire the pure milk of the word, this will be part 2.
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As we continue our study here in the first epistle of Peter, please stand with me in honor of God's word.
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We're reading again chapter 2, beginning with verse 1 to verse 3.
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Hear the word of the living God. I'm reading from the NASB, God's holy word from the apostle
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Peter. Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, 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
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Lord. May God richly bless the reading of His word that is all sufficient to our hearts this morning.
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Let's pray. Our Father, we would pray that only
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You and You alone has the power to take this word, this endearing word to our hearts this morning.
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Bore it within us, Lord. May the Holy Spirit fall fresh upon us within this hour.
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Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to understand Your holy word. Father, we do thank
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You. It may not a day go by that we do not thank You for this wonderful word in our language.
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There are people in this world who do not have this. And Lord, they need it.
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But Lord, we have it. We have this great revelation. And oh, how we have sinned and taken it for granted so often.
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So, Father, forgive us for this. Forgive us for this sin. And Lord, we praise
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You for this great gift, a special revelation that You've given to us. Lord, we would ask
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You, by Your blessed Holy Spirit, that You would do a great work within our hearts today and our lives.
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And may not a one of us here leave the same way we came. Change us, oh
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God. Break us, oh God. Mold us and make us into the likeness of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we would ask this for Your glory and Your glory alone.
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In Jesus' name, amen and amen. You can be seated. Thank you so much. The question is simple, but I must ask it and I'm asking it for myself as well.
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Do we long for the Word of God this morning? Do we long for it? Do we long for it like a newborn baby does?
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The milk, the unadulterated, the sincere milk that's not polluted with water.
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Do we long for the Word of God like that newborn baby does? Let me ask another question.
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How's your appetite been? How's your appetite? Medically speaking, loss of appetite is usually a sign of serious illness.
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Anorexia sets in from starvation. Possibly can even go to impending death.
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Just as serious and more serious, I should say, since it deals with the eternal things of God, is one's loss of appetite for the spiritual food found only in God's Holy Word.
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That's even more important. Philippians 2 .16, the Apostle Paul says, Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain because of the
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Word of God. Paul, the Apostle, had a love for the
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Word of God. Jesus Himself defeated temptation because the living
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Word quoted the written Word. It is written. It is written. It is written.
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Jesus told the enemy.
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Again, do we long for the pure milk of the Word of God like a newborn baby this morning? There's a true story let me give to you in my introduction of a young French girl.
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I don't know the source of this story, but I heard it's true. She was born blind and she learned to read by touch.
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A friend gave her a Braille, a copy of Mark's Gospel.
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One she read so often, one she read and her fingers became so calloused and insensitive because of her much reading it.
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Matter of fact, it became so calloused that in an effort to regain her feeling of it, she lost her feeling because of the callousness of it.
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And she cut the skin from the ends of her fingers to cut the callousness off.
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Tragically, her callouses were replaced and then even more insensitive scar tissue came up.
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She sobbingly gave, and she could no longer read the
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Braille as she wanted to and desired to, so she sobbingly gave the glorious book of God of what she had, the
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Gospel of Mark, a goodbye kiss. And by kissing it and saying, farewell, farewell, sweet word of my heavenly
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Father, and in doing so, she discovered so tenderly that her lips had been more sensitive than her fingers.
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And had ever been, and she spent the rest of her life reading this precious book of God, the treasure of God, with her lips.
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That's a true story. Again, I don't know the source of it, but as I read that story, it shames myself.
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Here was a blind lady that treasured the word of God to read it by Braille.
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And when she lost sensitivity to that, she began to read it with her lips. She kissed the word of God and read it with her lips.
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Do we kiss it? Do we love it? Do we desire for it?
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Oh, beloved, that we would have that kind of hunger and appetite for God's word this morning. I pray,
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Lord, enlarge our heart that we would desire it more. I think that's the problem.
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We don't desire it enough. Even as children of the living God and born of the
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Spirit of God, the only way we can desire the word of God is being born of the Spirit of God, and God has given us that desire.
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But how great is your desire this morning? That's a great question, isn't it?
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A .W. Tozer says, every person is as holy as he desires to be. That is so true.
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How much do you desire God this morning? And if we desire God, we would desire His word.
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And vice versa, if we desire God's word, we desire God. Because they go hand in glove together.
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You cannot separate the two. Oh, beloved, that we would have that kind of hunger and appetite for the word of God.
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You know, Peter says here in verse 3, If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
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I think that's really the point of the text. If, if, the if is there.
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If you have tasted of the kindness of the Lord. I really believe the
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Apostle Peter had David in mind here. A psalm. And that psalm, as you're well familiar with, is a great chapter.
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Psalm 34. And Psalm 34 is a great chapter. And it's really encouraging.
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But verse 8, David says this, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
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Oh, taste and see. You know, in order to see, we've got to taste. We've got to taste it.
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In other words, there's a, there's something tangible, something real, something there that's close.
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Tasting it. Tasting God through the word of God.
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And then he says, how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. The writer of Hebrews thought of this.
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Chapter 6, verse 5. And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.
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So Peter says, back to Peter, Therefore, as we have seen last
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Lord's day, The therefore is there for a reason. It speaks of the previous verses Peter has written.
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And again, let me read this because it really helps us get the text and what Peter is driving to. Verse 22 of chapter 1.
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Since you have an obedience to the truth. What's the truth?
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The word of God. Purify your souls. The only way we can purify our souls is through the word of God.
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For a sincere love of the brethren. Fervently love one another from the heart.
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Verse 23. For you have been born again, Not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable.
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That is, through the living and enduring word of God. He calls it the living and enduring word of God.
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And then he says this. And he quotes Isaiah. For all flesh is like grass and all of its glory like the flower of grass.
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The grass withers and the flower falls off. But the word of the Lord endures forever.
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For this is the word which was preached to you. Every time I think of that verse, I cannot help but think about mankind.
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Men and women alike. And as you will see, they start from a seed. And the seed grows as a baby.
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Comes into this world. Grows thereby. And grows through the nourishment of food physically.
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And physically grows up. There is a beauty that comes about.
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A freshness and youth. And you see this. And I can take a small illustration here.
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You see these people that the world lauds so much externally. But does not really look into the heart.
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The heart of course is deceitful and sinful and wicked and so forth. But physically speaking, people look at the physical likeness.
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The loveliness that you could say. Like a flower that comes up from a seed.
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And the flower springs up. And there is a beauty there. Right? And that is the way we all are.
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And people of the world look at people like this. And the flower flourishes.
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There is a beauty. But by and by time goes by. And age comes about us.
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And then old flesh begins to wrinkle and to age. And then your flower starts to crumble up.
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Kind of like a flower or a rose. And it begins to wither. I cannot help but think about time and process.
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And because of the sins cursed upon the human race. That flower.
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All the glory of that flower. Of grass. The grass withers. It withers. And the flower falls off.
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And it fades. And then it is going to eventually die. And go back to the dirt. That is the way it is going to happen.
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There is no escaping it. But the word of the Lord endures forever. You want something enduring?
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You want something that is going to last? Take a hold of the word of God. The word of God has power to change us.
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We may be heading to the grave. We may be withering. We may be fading. But God's word endures forever.
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I see this. You know, we watch old pictures. Teresa and Elizabeth really enjoy these old pictures of yesteryear.
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And they had a great moral to it. And I think about most of those great actors back in the
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Hollywood age. Golden age. There they were. Sparkling in their youth.
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Now they are gone. They are faded away. That is the way it is. You know, that should be sobering to us.
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That one day we are all going to fade. Every one of us. We are going to fade, folks. But God's word doesn't fade.
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See, we are going to fade. But the word of God never fades. It is a poor illustration, but it is the truth.
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A truthful illustration that helps us sober a little bit for eternity, right? Well, taste and see that the
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Lord is good. And here we have the word of the living God. Now, what does he begin with?
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I don't have an outline. I am just giving an overview and then we are going to take communion. But I want to touch on a few things.
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I think it is significant and important for us to look by the Holy Spirit that Peter, as he says, therefore, and the therefore is the previous verses in the previous chapter.
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He focuses on the word of God. Then he brings to our attention, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it, by the word of God, you may grow in respect to salvation, if or since you have tasted the kindness of the
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Lord. Now, we cannot hear this admonition enough, can we? So, in other words, to long for the pure milk of the word, what he is saying here is like newborn babies, we as believers need to renounce our sins.
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Renounce it. Putting it aside. Putting it away. Now, this is a strong admonition.
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And anything that God says, the spirit of God says, even through the apostle here, is always a divine order.
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Always. We see this in the word of God. Jesus, when he began to preach and he opened his mouth and spoke with authority and he spoke like no one ever spoke.
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And when he preached the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, there was a foundation that he started with and it's almost like a building of a pyramid.
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He takes it to the peak. The apostles do the same thing. Everything the apostles speak of is commentary on Jesus, what he spoke.
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So, when the apostle Peter speaks of, therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander, he is building a divine order for us.
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In other words, there has to be repentance. Repentance must take place. So, in order to long for the pure milk of the word of God like a newborn baby, we must renounce.
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In other words, we must get serious about our sins and put these sins aside. These sins, these dirty garments, these dirty clothes must be thrown off.
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That's what the apostle Peter says. We must take action on these things by the power of God.
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We cannot do it within our own strength, of course, but it's the power of the living God. So, to long for God's holy and pure word, we must deal with the sins in our life.
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That's what he's saying. Therefore, putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.
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Now, these are the sins that they're not exhaustible. There's much more, but I will say this.
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Notice the sins that he has brought to our attention. These are relational sins.
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Relational sins toward our neighbors, toward our brothers and sisters.
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Relational sins. And these are the sins, by the way, that hinder the believer. They hinder us from growing in Jesus Christ.
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They will retard or stunt our growth. I can guarantee you that.
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And that's what sin does. But these are relational sins that deal with that problem.
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So, we must grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what are these relational sins?
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Well, again, I've read them, but I'm going to break them down, just give a short definition of them, then we're going to go on.
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Peter tells us, by the Holy Spirit. Again, malice. We looked at this a little bit last Lord's Day.
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But what is malice? This means wickedness, evil. All malice, all evil, all wickedness.
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That covers a lot of territory, folks. Anything that, any wrong, evil motive that we have in our mind, in our heart, any thoughts against another person that's wicked, malice, beloved, nourishes antagonism.
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It builds up grudges and secretly hopes to revenge or harm or bring about tragedy toward another person.
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That's basically what malice is. It's speaking harm, and not only speaking, it's thinking harm.
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And grudges, it holds a grudge and secretly hopes something revengeful toward the other person.
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These are relational sins. Now, the second one, going on, is deceit.
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Deceitfulness. It's any form of dishonesty, anything that's dishonest, anything that's trickery, anything that basically speaks of a lie.
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Scripture speaks a lot about this. Anything that's deceitful, deceitfulness, that's dishonest.
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Deceitful falsifies income. And we'll get practical here. Anything that falsifies income tax returns.
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How many people you know that do these things? They cheat on their income taxes. Cheats on exams.
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He's dishonest, she's dishonest. Lies about the age on paper. Fills out another resume and lies about it.
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God will have nothing to do with lies. Deceitfulness. And also pulls shady deals in business.
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Brother Keith can say, if he was up here ministering today, he can tell you one story after another about deceitfulness in business.
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And you know what I'm talking about. You've seen it as well. Matter of fact, Brother Keith pulled away from a group of people that offered him some pretty big money.
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And he come to find out they were very deceitful and lying about the income tax,
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I believe, Brother Keith. He mentioned that to me and he pulled away and he said, I don't want nothing to do with that. And I highly commend
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Brother Keith because he wanted to stay away from anything that is deceitful. And this is what he's talking about.
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It has something to do... These are relational sins toward our neighbor. It's interesting, he's dealing with this.
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Because these are the kind of sins we... We do sin against God, ultimately, first and foremost.
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But these are, as we sin against our brother and our neighbor, we're sinning against God. Ultimately.
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The third sin he speaks of is a big one. It's hypocrisy. You don't hear a lot of sermons on hypocrisy today, do you?
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Insincerity. Pretense. Means a sham. The hypocrite, as we looked at, is a play actor.
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He's a stage pretender. And what is he doing? He's pretending to be something that he's not.
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He pretends to be happily married and all about in front of people and at home is a battlefield.
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There's fighting, throwing, cussing, arguing. But when he comes to church on Sundays, everything seems to be pretty and neat and nice and all put together.
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This is pretending. Let's be honest. We've all probably fallen in this field, haven't we?
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Hypocrisy has to be dealt with. They pretend to be spiritual on Sundays, like I said, and as fleshly and carnal as a goat on the weekends.
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Weekdays, I'm sorry. And he pretends to be something he's not on the weekends. Pretends interest in others, but his motives are selfish and sinful.
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Hypocrisy covers a lot of territory. Jesus dealt quite often with the
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Pharisees. He called them hypocrites. Jesus didn't beat around the bush.
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He flat out called them like they were. Hypocrites. John the
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Baptist called out the religious people. Hypocrites. Snakes. Vipers.
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You know, this sin is a serious one, isn't it? It has to be dealt with.
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The fourth sin listed is envy. Envy. Then he goes on to envy. What does this mean?
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Envy is bare -faced jealousy. It basically means to be jealous. Vine. Vine's dictionary said it like this.
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It is a feeling of displeasure produced by observing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others.
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It is serious. It's, again, to remind us how horrible this sin is.
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It was envy that caused the chief priest to deliver up Jesus to Pilate and to be crucified in Matthew 27, 18.
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Envy is a killer. You see this among all of us, but women can have, can look daggers at others because of their better homes and gardens and smarter clothes.
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And you see this all over the Internet. Superior cooking. Who can outcook who and who's better than who at doing gardens and decorating and don't leave out the guys.
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The guys can brag about having a new car and a speedboat, but all along a guy could be thinking,
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I'll show him I'll get something even better than what he's got. That's envy. There's jealousy.
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He wants to be on top of the totem pole. Hey, it goes in the theological camps too.
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Don't let me leave that out. Even among preachers. Oh, I can now preach hymns. I can preach better sermons.
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I'm top of the totem pole. That doesn't sound like what John the Baptist says, that I must decrease in order for Jesus to increase.
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You see, it's even in among the churches and among preachers. So how can the churches grow spiritually if these kind of sins are rampant behind the pulpit?
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Has to be dealt with behind the pulpit. I'm aiming the guns at myself this morning.
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Rightly so. But do you know as well as I do, redeeming grace, is it about this preacher?
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It is about a one man. How smart he is theologically. You can look in the
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Bible. There was men that had great intelligence of the Word of God. And they split hell wide open.
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A .W. Tozer says, the devil is a better theologian than any of us.
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And a devil still. So because we know all about the Bible, doesn't mean we know
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God. Now the Word of God, we must know it. I'm not going to pull back on that because Scripture says we must desire it.
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Like a newborn babe of the Word. But let me say this, we must be born again. That's why
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Jesus told the Pharisees, called Nicodemus, that was up in age. Pretty much dumped all his religion.
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You must be born again. You must start over. Wow, we need to hear that, don't we?
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Somebody came up to George Whitefield and said, why do you preach you must be born again? And he said, because you must be born again.
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Amen. He aimed it right at her. Well, these are serious sins.
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They must be dealt with. What's the next one he mentions? Evil speaking. Oh wow. Each one of these sins that he's dealing with, these relational sins, is a sermon in itself.
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Backbiting. Malice gossip. Read in the book of Proverbs.
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You see this constantly dealt with. God hates it. Recrimination. Slander is an attempt to make one's self look cleaner by slinging mud at someone else.
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Don't we see this? It may take on very subtle forms such as, yes, she is a lovely person, but she has this one failure.
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See, it takes on forms that pretend to be... It ties right in with hypocrisy, doesn't it?
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And you've got all these sins kind of connected and clustered together. And then, as you well know, the knife comes out and thrusts into the back.
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That's usually what happens. You'll be a person to smile and talk nice of you, and then there's a knife that's going in the back.
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Or, may even have a religious pose to it. I may mention this only for your prayer and fellowship, but did you know that he is blank, blank, and blank.
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And then, the character is assassinated. May God save us from such relational horrible sins.
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Beloved, all these sins are violations of the fundamental commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.
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Isn't that what Jesus focused on? To love our neighbor as ourselves. And by the way, only
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Jesus loved his neighbor more than himself. He says, we're to love our neighbor as ourselves.
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That'd take us a long way. We pamper ourselves, but how do we love our neighbor?
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No wonder Peter tells us to decisively throw these sins down like soiled garments and dirty clothes.
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Throw them down. Get rid of them. Get rid of them. Look at verse 2.
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You see, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word. This is the driving text, folks.
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From the new birth, we have an insatiable craving.
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Insatiable craving. I'm sorry, I mispronounced that. A craving, longing for the pure spiritual milk of the word of God.
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The sins that are mentioned in verse 1. Stunt, retard our spiritual growth. The word of God nourishes it.
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See? So verse 1 gives to us the negative, how these sins, these relational sins, retard our spiritual growth.
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They stunt our spiritual growth. But then he tells us good news. The word of God will nourish your growth.
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Don't you love the word of God because it tells us exactly how to deal with it. So we must deal with these sins in order for our souls to be nourished.
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So the word of God nourishes our souls. So verse 1 gives the negative aspect and then verse 2 gives the positive aspect.
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Puritan William Grinnell said this, Quote, the Christian is bred by the word and he must be fed by the word.
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End quote. So we see that sin will blunt or stunt our appetite for the word and needs to be cast off like dirty clothes.
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Well, if our appetite is dulled for the word, we ask God's Holy Spirit to search us out, right?
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And that's what we need. Lord, search out our own hearts. We cannot depend on our own hearts.
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Let me quote another Puritan here. I'm sure you've heard this one, but it bears repeating. God help us to practice this.
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John Bunyan, sin will keep us from the Bible or the Bible will keep us from sin. Isn't that the truth?
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Think of that. That's a good one. Put it over your door post. Sin will keep us from the
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Bible or the Bible will keep us from sin. Spurgeon said this,
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Read good books, but live in the Bible. And some books, beloved or good, yes, they're written to inform us.
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A few of them's written to reform us, but can I say this? Only the word of God can transform us.
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The Bible. Turn with me to Hebrews, please. Hebrews.
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I'm not going to spend a lot of time here. I just want to read this to you. Hebrews chapter 4.
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I'm going to read the whole chapter because there's not many verses here. There's only 16 verses. But these are very good verses.
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And this whole chapter deals with how to enter into God's rest. How can we enter into the rest of God?
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There's a promised rest. And notice what he says, There it is again.
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That therefore, a transitional phrase. A lot of times you'll see this at the beginning of a chapter, but back up to verse 18, chapter 3.
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And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest but those who were disobedient?
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So we that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
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And he tells us right there that they did not enter into the rest of God in which God promised because of unbelief.
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And then he says, Therefore, let us fear. Now, here's an admonition.
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Here's a warning. There's promises here, but there's a warning.
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Let us fear if while a promise remains of entering into his rest,
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God's rest, his rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
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For indeed, if we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them.
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Why didn't it profit them? He tells them. Because it was not united by faith in those who heard it.
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It must be united with faith. And you know how faith comes.
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Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's what Paul says in Romans. 10.
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And then verse 3. For we, don't you love he includes himself. For we who have believed enter into that rest just as he has said,
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As I sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Now God said that.
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Then he says this, Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
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And again in this passage, they shall not enter into my rest. And verse 6.
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Therefore, since it remains for some to enter in, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience.
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Now, let me stop right there. Now he says disobedience. Now, notice the connection. Disobedience and unbelief.
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They are like brothers and sisters. The opposite of that is faith and obedience.
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So he's talking about unbelief and disobedience, but here he says disobedience because of disobedience.
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And then he says in verse 7, He again fixes a certain day, today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as he had been said before, today, if you hear his voice.
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This is so important. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Today, if you hear his voice.
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Talking about the voice of God. The special revelation in which I'm quoting right now. Do not harden your hearts.
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What an admonition. I'm here to tell you right now, that is so sobering. And as I've read that to you, it's like an arrow, a dagger went right, just pierced my heart.
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Today, if you hear his voice. We had the wonderful privilege of hearing God's voice today. And then he says, Do not harden your hearts.
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Do not. Then he gives us an illustration. Verse 8, For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day after that.
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So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his work.
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As God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest.
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We've got to be diligent. So that no one will fall. Wow. Now he's telling us, we're diligent to enter into that rest, so that no one will fall.
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In other words, we can fall. Through following the same example of disobedience.
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And that's how we fall, is being disobedient. Being disobedient to God's word. If you could sum it up, really the
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Christian life is summed up in obedience to God's word. So when we disobey it, we're in deep sin.
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We're in disbelief. Notice what he says in verse 12. This is a text.
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This is the word. This is a scripture that's quoted so often, but this is in context of everything he's saying about entering into God's rest.
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For the word of God is living, and it's active, and it's sharper than any two -edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit in both the joints and the marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the hearts.
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And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things, all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
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Sober, isn't it? Now, he doesn't leave us there, as convicting as that is, but the word of God does the work to help us enter into that rest.
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Therefore, and he doesn't leave us, and notice what he gives. He gives us an answer on how to deal with it.
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Since we have a great high priest, who's our great high priest? Listen to this. Who has passed through the heavens?
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Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.
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In other words, what he's saying, Jesus has done this. Jesus has did it. He's there. He's at the right hand of the
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Father. He's our great compassionate high priest. And it's not our works that we can get this done and get in there to His rest, but it is through the word of God, the written word of God, but He points us to the living word.
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Don't you love this? Therefore, let us draw near. Oh, there it is.
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Let us draw near. Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
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Aren't you glad for the throne of grace this morning? So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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That's the whole chapter right there, chapter 4. And look at how it's packed of admonitions and warnings and even gives us the remedy.
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Well, that's how we enter into God's rest. Puritan Thomas Gertry has warned this.
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If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the
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Bible, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven, take alarm, take alarm.
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What should we do? What should we do? We repent and return to our first love.
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We come to Jesus. We draw near to Him. We draw near to the throne of grace.
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Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Let me conclude with a couple of things very quickly.
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One is a story by J .I. Packer. It gives, as I quoted last week, this is another quote, but it's a story from his book,
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The Quest for Godliness. He tells of a
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Puritan preacher in the 1620s named John Rogers who bore down on his 500 hearers for neglecting the
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Bible. He preached hard, folks. Listen to this. First, he impersonated
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God to the people, telling them, I have trusted you so long with my
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Bible that it lies in such and such in houses all covered with dust and cobwebs, and you care not to listen to it.
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Do you use my Bible so? Well, you shall have my
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Bible no longer. And then he took the Bible from the pulpit and it seemed as if he was going to carry it away from them.
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But then he spun around and impersonated the people to God again and he fell on his knees and pleaded earnestly.
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And this is what he said. He said, Lord, whatever you do to us, take not your
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Bible from us. Kill our children. Listen to this.
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This is how serious he is. Kill our children. Burn our houses. Destroy our goods.
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Only spare us your Bible. Don't take away your Bible. And then he impersonated
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God again to them, saying, say you so.
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Well, I will try you a while longer. And here is my
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Bible for you. I will see how you will use it. Whether you will love it more, observe it more, practice it more, and live more according to it.
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Now, at this point, according to the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, you heard the
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Puritan Thomas Goodwin, he actually became a great preacher of the Gospel, a powerful preacher of the
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Gospel in his own right, to the entire congregation dissolved in tears.
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This is what Thomas Goodwin witnessed since he was there. And he says the whole congregation was in tears at this time after Rogers said this.
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Goodwin himself, when he got outside, hung on the neck of his horse, weeping for a quarter of an hour before he had the strength to mount on it.
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So powerful an impression was upon him. May God help us to give us an enlargement of our heart to crave for God's Bible, God's Word, like these
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Puritans. Where do we stand? Where do we stand?
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I have something else here I want to bring before you here. In April 1521, as you well know, a reformer, a little monk by the name of Martin Luther appeared before his accusers at the
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Diet of Worms and they had given him the ultimatum to repudiate his unwavering faith and the sufficiency of Scripture.
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And Luther said to have responded, unless I'm convinced by Scripture in plain reason,
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I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other.
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My conscience is captive to the Word of God. God help me, here I stand. May we have that kind of heart like Luther had.
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And like Martin Luther, may we rise above the doubts within and confront the threats without when
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God's Word is assailed. What about the Bible?
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The Bible, this comes from an old King James trance. Oh Bible, they used to,
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I have one. They always put this writing right in the front before the context and this is writing, it says this, and I love them saying this.
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I don't know who wrote it, but it's powerful and I want to read it to you. This book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, the happiness of believers.
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Its doctrines is holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, its decisions are immutable.
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Read it to be wise, believe it to be saved, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, comfort to cheer you.
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It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the
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Christian's charter. Here heaven is open, the gates of hell are disclosed. Christ is the grand subject.
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Our good is its design, the glory of God is its end. It should fill our memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet.
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Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mind of wealth, a health to the soul, a river of pleasure.
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It is given to you here in this life, will be opened at the judgment, and is established forever.
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It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and condemn all who trifle with its contents.
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One more. Now let me give you an admonition from David.
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Psalm 29. Just 11 verses.
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The voice of the Lord. This is what David said about the voice of the Lord. Ascribe to the
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Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the
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Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Worship the Lord in a holy array.
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And then he talks about to the Lord, to the Lord, to the Lord. And then he says, the voice of the
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Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters.
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The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.
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Yes, the voice. I'm sorry. The Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes
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Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sarion like a young wild ox. The voice of the
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Lord hews out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord. Notice how many times he speaks of the voice of the
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Lord. The voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kedash.
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The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve. And strips the forest bare.
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And in his temple everything says, glory. And the Lord sat as a king at the flood.
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Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to his people.
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And the Lord will bless his people with peace. Oh, may the voice of the
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Lord be our. Here it is, right here. The voice of the Lord. In the Bible. Aren't you glad we have it?
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Let's pray. Oh, Father in heaven. Oh, Lord, we have sinned against you.
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And taken this book for granted. May we have that kind of desire as the
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Puritans had of old. Lord, kill our children. Take our houses.
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Take everything from us. But don't take your word from us. Such a desire.
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We fall so short of having such a desire. But, God, you can give us a desire.
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You can enlarge our heart. As we partake of what the psalmist's beautiful invitation.
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Taste and see that the Lord is good. Lord, help us to taste and see your goodness.
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Oh, God, it serves to whet our appetites. But more than that, it's food.
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It's goodness to our soul. Only by your Son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. At the cross of Calvary, Lord. Where justice and mercy kissed each other.
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Lord, this is where we meet. And this wonderful word of yours tells us about that.
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And it shows us how we can meet with you and be reconciled. And be pardoned by the precious blood of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So, Lord, as we approach the table that your
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Son ordained. Help us, oh God, to desire ardently. The very life.
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The milk of the word. Help us, oh God, by your grace to cultivate this blessed combination of hunger and thirst.
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Oh, God, help us. As a little child. As a little child would come.
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To hide your word in our heart. To treasure it in our hearts that we may not sin against you.
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Oh, God, help us. Help us, I pray. Bless this time as we come together.
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And partake. And to remember that you are good.
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And your mercy endures forever. As we look at your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Of giving his body to be broken for us and our sin. And his precious blood to be shed.
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That we may be reconciled to you. Father, bless this time together as we come to the table.
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And to gaze upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank you and we bless you.