Desire the Pure Milk Of The Word: Part 1

The praise of God was said. I'd like to minister to your heart this morning a few messages as we come to this wonderful study in 1

Peter 2. Desire the pure milk of the

Word of God. Desire the pure milk of the Word of God. This will be part one.

Basically, just make this an introduction to all of the other messages. But we're going to kind of skim over pretty much what the

Lord would have us. There's a lot here, folks. And I'm telling you, I think it's so important that we dig into this, be studying it on your devotional time along with me as we grow together in the

Lord. Amen. So in saying that, please turn with me in your Bible to the book of 1

Peter as we continue our study. First epistle of Peter, chapter 2. I'd like to ask you to stand just one more time in honor and reverence to God's holy

Word. Reading verses one through three. I'm reading from the

NASD. These are very familiar verses to us, and they're very rich.

Very simple, but very rich. Hear the word of the living God. The apostle

Peter writes about the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says, therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long, that means to desire, long for the pure milk of the

Word, so by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the

Lord. Amen to the reading of God's Word. Let us pray and ask the

Spirit of the living God to breathe upon us this morning. Father, only

You can take Your Word to our hearts this morning. Father, I bring it to their ears.

Father, I need Your help. I confess to You, Lord, I am not sufficient for these things, but You are.

And Lord, we know that You're in the presence of us, walking among us, so Father, we thank

You, first of all, for Your eternal Word. Lord, how can we take this for granted?

But we have. Forgive us, oh God, forgive us for doing this.

Lord, we thank You for the Word that's been translated in our English language.

Lord, there was a man burned to a stake by the name of William Tyndall hundreds of years ago, around this time period, in his 40s.

Strangled to death and burned to the stake just because he translated the

Word of God from Greek into our language, the English language. Father, we have so much to be thankful for.

It cost this man's life, a horrible death, just for translating

Your Word. Lord, and we neglect it so often. How sinful we've been.

God, forgive us for taking it for granted, for neglecting it, for allowing it to collect dust.

Oh God, we should be wearing out the pages of this blessed book. So Father, I pray among us today, may

Your Holy Spirit teach us the truth. You're a teacher of the truth.

Father, I pray that Your truth would sanctify us and change us forever. Father, may not one of us leave this room today unchanged.

Change us, oh God, change us and more into the image of Jesus. Father, we would glorify

Him as we seek to honor and worship You alone, oh God. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen. You can be seated. Thank you so much. I am so full this morning, but I'm telling you,

I need to be more full. I am not content. I've upped my prayer time, and not only my prayer time, but I've upped my time in the reading of the

Word of God and hearing the Word of God. And I need to do it more often, because I'm convicted as I've been studying this this week.

And I pray this is an encouragement, but at the same time conviction is our friend and leads us to the truth to deal with our problems of sin.

The Word of God has the remedy, does it not? Well, we praise Him for that. Let me begin the introduction of this message.

And like I said, this is gonna be an overview. I've got a few points to bring out this morning and then a conclusion.

But I'd like to begin an introduction because we all love the great Puritans of yesterday.

And you don't hear a lot about the Puritans now. Actually, if you were to ask most Christians about Puritans today, they would look at you and think, wow, how legalistic can you be?

That's the first thing that comes to most people's mind, honestly, when they think of Puritans. But they were far from legalistic, folks.

That just shows you how little people know about the Puritans. They were the most godly people,

I think, in their time and their generation. And we need more people like the Puritans of today.

And we're gonna look at a little bit in this introduction why they were so godly. There's J .I.

Packer in his book, A Quest for Godliness, and it was subtitled The Puritan Vision of the

Christian Life. The late Packer, he went on to be with the Lord here about a year ago, and speaks about the

Puritans and their deep love for God and His Holy Word. And he says this in the book, quote,

Puritanism was, above all else, a Bible movement. And to the Puritan, the Bible was in truth the most precious possession that this world affords.

His deepest conviction was that reverence for God means reverence for Scripture.

And serving God means obeying Scripture. That's what he meant to the Puritans. He goes on to write, to his mind, to the

Puritan mind, therefore no greater insult could be offered to the Creator than to neglect

His written Word. And conversely, there could be no truer act of homage to Him than to prize it and pour over it, and then live it out and give out its teachings.

He goes on to say, intense veneration. That word veneration's not often used, so I looked it up, that word veneration actually means great respect and reverence.

So you can actually say, intense, intense, great respect and reverence for Scripture as the living

Word of the living God, and a devoted concern to know and to do all that it prescribes was

Puritanism's hallmark, end quote. I could not help but write that down and share that with Redeeming Grace Church this morning.

And to all those that listen over sermon audio, I pray that this quote sticks into our mind.

That tells you a little bit about the Puritans and why they were such godly people of God.

They had such a reverence for the Word of God because they reverenced the God of the

Word. And love for and delight in God's holy Word is always a mark of the true born -again child of God.

I can guarantee you that. I met with a young man a few years back, and I asked him about his

Christian life to give a testimony, he was speechless, he couldn't give me a testimony. And yet he could tell me he's a

Christian. And then I said, well, how much of the Word of God do you know? I was just asking him basic, simple questions.

He could not quote me one verse of Scripture. Folks, he could not even quote

John 3, 16, a very well -familiar verse. Of course, that shows you the deception that people have in this

American Gospel, this so -called American Gospel, being told that they're Christians, and yet they have no love for the

Word of God. That is a contradiction of terms. Because when you and I, and when anyone is a child of the living

God, they love the Word of God. They love this truth. They love this book.

They pour over this book, because it is our living bread, and it is the pure milk of the

Word. And that's what we're gonna look at this morning. It is, we cannot do without, as a baby, cannot do without milk.

And this is exactly the point Peter gives us in the Word of God in our text. Well, Jesus said this about disciples in John 8, you don't have to turn there, but John 8, verse 31 and 32,

Jesus said this, our Lord Jesus Christ says this, if, speaking to His disciples, if you continue, that means that word continue means abide, if you abide in my

Word, continue in my Word, if you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

Isn't that a wonderful scripture? It speaks about the true disciples of Jesus is marked by a continuing abiding in the

Word of God. The Apostle Paul himself, who was a lover of the

Lord Jesus Christ and of the church, but he loved the Word of God, echoed those principles when he said, in Romans 7, 22,

I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. So in other words, what he's saying,

I delight, my inner man delights in the law of God, in the Word of God.

The Old Testament saints, there was many of them, but I want to just pick out just a few, also expressed a strong desire for the

Word of God. The patriarch, God -fearing Job, as we look at so often, which is one of my favorite books in the 66 books,

I love them all, to be honest with you, I don't have one above the other, all great, all good, because all of it's the

Word of God. But Job stands out, and it's a poetical, along with Proverbs and Psalms and Ecclesiastes, it's right in tune with those books.

But Job 23, 12, and listen to what Job says, and think of this, Job did not have a

Bible in his day, but he had the Word of God, and God spoke to him, and he says,

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

That's how much he loved and treasured the Word of God, more than the very food that his body would crave.

In other words, his spiritual man craved the Word of God more than his physical man.

The opening Psalms says that the godly man's delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

We're familiar with that, Psalms 1 and 2. He meditates day and night.

Again, David says, with a love for God, and his word in Psalm 19, 9 and 10, the fear of the

Lord is clean, endeared forever, and the judgments of the Lord are true. They were righteous altogether, and in verse 10 he says, what does he say?

They are more desirable, more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold.

And then he says this, sweeter also than honey. Now, honey's sweet, folks. You ever take a spoonful of honey in your mouth?

It is so sweet. But he says the Word of God is sweeter than honey, and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Isn't that wonderful how this man desired the Word of God, and he loved it more than anything else in this world?

And in chapter 40, verse 8, a psalter cries out in song, I delight to do your will, oh my

God. Your law is within my heart, within my heart.

And the prophet Jeremiah cherished God's revelation in a very difficult time in Jeremiah 15, 16.

And he says, your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became for me joy and the delight of my heart.

It was the very delight of his heart. Now, we know it has to go through the mind to the heart.

And the Scripture says to love the Lord, that God with all your heart, soul, and mind. But mainly, it has to be in the heart.

Again, again, throughout the Word of God, we see the God -fearing men and women who had a tremendous longing, and a tremendous desire, and a tremendous delight for the

Word of God. And actually, that is the dominant theme of the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119.

Now, I'm not gonna read all verses because it would take up the rest of my time, but let me say this.

Read it in your devotional time. I like to say it's the Mount Everest of the

Psalter. It is the mountain peak. And actually, it's a commentary on the Word of God itself in the

Word of God about midway through the chapter of the Psalmist. Now, I take the view personally that it's

David here that wrote Psalm 119. We don't know that for sure, but I take that personal viewpoint because it sounds so much like David in Psalm 19.

Psalm 19 is the shorthand of Psalm 119.

119 is more the long version. But it's about God's Word. That whole chapter is the longest chapter in the entire

Bible, isn't it something? It's about the Word of God. Now, that should tell us something.

And I wanna read just a few verses here on God's Word. And the Psalmist cries out in Psalm 119, 97 through 104.

Listen to what he says. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.

Not some of the day, all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they were ever mine.

I have more insight than all my teachers, for they are your testimonies and are my meditation.

I understand more than the age because I have observed your precepts.

I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word.

I have not turned aside from your ordinances for you yourself have taught me.

How sweet. Now, it sounds like Psalm 19 here. How sweet are your words to my taste.

Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. From your precepts,

I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way.

Now, there is just a brief example of what is found in Psalm 119.

So the apostle Peter, it's interesting, he gives us an imperative. And within this chapter, in verse two, he speaks about long for the pure milk of the word.

That word long is an imperative. It's a command from Scripture. It's not just a suggestion.

It is a command from God. It is an imperative word. And it's a word that even has more strength to it in a sense than meditation.

The Bible says to meditate on God's law. It says to hide thy word in your heart, to treasure it in your heart, to search the

Scriptures, to preach the word. Paul told Timothy. But beloved, in order to do all those things, we must long for it.

There must be a great inner hunger, a desire for the word of the living

God. So the apostle Peter desired Christians in this time period here to be faithful to that same kind of spirit prompted longing for the word of God.

And as we have seen, Peter has been speaking to the believers concerning the endearing word of God.

These believers needed some encouragement, didn't they? We've got to keep in mind they were persecuted believers.

And he gives them something to stand on. He gives them a living hope to stand on. So chapter two, as we come into chapter two here, it begins with that wonderful transitional word.

Notice what it says. Therefore. That's a very important word. It's used quite often.

Paul used it quite often in transitional phrases. But that therefore

I like to say is there for a reason. It is there for a reason.

Therefore, he refers to the previous verses before he gets to this point.

So look with me to verse 22. Since we've looked this over, but this is where he's leading up to.

Since you have an obedience to the truth. Now what's the truth?

The word of God. See, he's speaking about this truth, which is the word of God. It has the power to do what?

Purify your souls. Purify your souls for a sincere, that means unfamed, genuine love of the brethren.

Fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, and then he gets late to the point.

That is through the living and endearing word of God. See where he's going? Then he says this, and he gives us an

Old Testament passage from Isaiah. For all flesh is like grass, and all of its glory like the flower of the grass, and the grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the

Lord endures forever. That's the theme. That's what he's getting to. And then he says this, and this is the word which was preached to you.

Therefore, he gets right into where he has taken us.

That therefore is speaking of the seed, which is imperishable, the gospel of Jesus Christ that produced the new birth.

And folks, we cannot even longer desire for the word of God unless we've been born again. It's very obvious.

Like I talked to that young man. He said he was a Christian. He thought he was a Christian, but he wasn't a

Christian because there was no love for the word of God. Now, people say, you're making a judgment there.

You know, it's really the word of God that makes the judgment. I was just looking at the evidence of the fruit, and the fruit was showing bad fruit.

And I'm not trying to make a judgment within myself. We judge righteous judgment. And where do we take that judgment from?

The word of God. We always take people to the scripture because we see it's not our judgment, our opinion.

It's God's judgment. And this is what people don't like today. You know, I like what

Pastor John MacArthur says. I'm here to represent the word of God. And then he says this, not only do

I represent the God, he says, I'm here to offend everybody. You know, I love pastors with that kind of boldness because he knows he's just a channel for the word of God.

He's a representative of the word of God of God, of Jesus Christ. He's been a faithful ambassador of Christ.

And he says, this is the book. This is where we go. It's not about us. It's about God.

And this book, these 66 books that's put together in the Bible, we call the inspired word, all sufficient word of God, is all about God.

And we're not going to know anything about God or anything about our sin until we go into this book.

And until the spirit of God reveals that sin to us and reveals God to us. That's what we need.

You know, this is so important for us to get this. We have the two agent, we have two wonderful assistants to help us by the way.

And that's the word of God and the spirit of God. We're not alone in this. And by the way, we just can't intellectually find these things out.

We have to have a revelation. And I was thinking as I was studying this, we had, Brother Keith brought this to mind today as they took a vacation to North Carolina, noticing the rundown buildings and the rundown town, but yet above all that stands the great hills in God's creation.

Now think about this also in comparison to the special revelation of God, which is far greater than God's general revelation.

We look at God's general revelation and we marvel and we're amazed at the beauty and the greatness and the wisdom of the power of God, don't we?

But we go into this special revelation of God and there's so much here that comes out and we are missing.

So I think that's the way we should long for it. Lord, I don't want to miss nothing. I don't want to miss anything that's found in your word.

So may we not squander our time, but redeem the time because the days are evil because at any time the church needs to hear that thus says the

Lord is today, there's a famine in the land for the word of God. God help us, may we bring this word to people's attention and to their forefront of their eyes and say, this is where we stand, the word of God.

The same truth that we trusted and obeyed to become Christians, to become children of the living God is the same truth that nurtures and empowers us.

Keep that in mind. This word of God through the spirit of God will help us focus on one great truth within this hour and that will be effective for a lifetime and that we must have

God's word to grow thereby. We must have it to grow in respect to salvation.

And that's what Peter says. We must have and long for God's word to grow in salvation.

And that he's talking about in general terms that that salvation is all that is given to us in Jesus Christ.

It extends to all, all the great blessings, all the eternal delights that is in God and God alone.

Therefore, Peter writes, because you have been born again through the living and abiding word of God.

And then he says this, like newborn babies, like newborn babes crave, long for the pure spiritual rational milk of the word.

That's what it means, rational milk of the word that by it you may grow towards salvation.

God's word has life, it gives life and it nourishes life.

That's what God's word does. God's word not only imparts life to us, it has the power to nurture us and to sustain us just like when a mother gives her milk to a newborn baby, that baby thinks of only one thing and that baby is thinking not about anything else but milk.

What nurtures that baby? And believe me, if it doesn't have the milk, it sure will let you know. Apart from the word of God, we shrivel up, don't we?

We will shrivel up and die like a starving child whose mother's breast milk has dried up and who has not the source for the food.

See, that baby depends upon the milk of the mother. Well, therefore we must have the pure word of God, the milk of the word of God, pure milk of,

I like that, pure milk to grow up in Jesus Christ. Today we're gonna look at only two,

I'm gonna give you just two points, simple points. What, first, we will look at what the pure word is like.

What is the pure word like? And second, how to be motivated to drink in it.

How to be motivated to drink in it. Well, I'm just gonna start with those two points and we'll conclude with some practical applications for daily living in our

Christian walk. Well, let's go. Let's, what is, look at the first question. I think this first question has some depth to it, but what is the word like?

Wow, what is the word like? That's a good question, isn't it? Well, according to the word of God, the

Bible itself speaks of itself. The word of God answers this.

Now, I could take most of my time and we can range through the entire word of God just on this one point, but I'm gonna limit my time to just these two points and look at what the word of God says about what is

God's word like. Jeremiah 23, 29. Don't you love Jeremiah? This man loved the word of God.

He was the weeping prophet. He was a broken man. He was contrite at heart. He was humble, but he spoke the word of God in a time when

Babylon was in ruin. Jeremiah stood the test, folks.

He was thrown in dungeons. He was persecuted, but yet he said this about God's word in 23, 29, and he says, and thus says the

Lord here. Is my word not like fire? Is it not like fire, declares the

Lord. And then he goes no further. And like a hammer, which shatters a rock.

That's a question mark. Is it not like fire? Is it not like a hammer, which shatters a rock?

Oh, what a powerful statement. And the writer to the Hebrews, we don't know who that writer is.

That's a lot of people I've heard say, well, I'm gonna find out who that writer is in heaven, folks. Once we get to heaven, it's not gonna matter anymore because we're gonna be there with him worshiping the

Lamb of God forever and ever. But once we get there, oh, the writer of Hebrews, chapter four, you know this verse, verse 12, for the word of God is alive.

It's quick, it's quick, it's alive. It's powerful, it's active.

It's sharper than any two edged sword, a double edged sword. And what does it do? It penetrates, it cuts.

It penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit, the joints and the marrow, that cuts deep, doesn't it?

And it judges the thoughts and the attitudes. It goes to even the very motives of our very heart.

We could spend, like I said, the whole time here ranging over the entire Bible just about the word of God itself.

But we're gonna look at these two things. Well, I'm sorry,

I got, from my two points, I got three points I'd like to pull out. The first one is, under the heading, what is the word of God like?

And we're skimming over it. Like I said, we're gonna go back and we're gonna backtrack. That's why I have four parts into this, but this is an overview.

First, we will see, number one, the word of God is pure. It is pure.

This is important. The word of God is pure. Now, this is what the apostle

Peter says. Like I said, we can go through the whole entire word of God and see other spectacles of the lens of what the word of God's like.

But Peter says it is pure. Don't you love that? It has a purity to it.

It's clean. The Greek word here literally means not deceitful.

Not deceitful. It is the same word as in the verse translated guile.

It is without guile. What does that mean? It means it is unadulterated.

It is not watered down. Who waters it down? False teachers.

The devil wants to take away from it. Add to it. Subtract from it.

Dishonest merchants, by the way, in the New Testament times of that day would add water to the milk to make more profit for their gain.

Don't we see this today? This is where we are in the apostate church.

Sad to say. Far from the apostolic church, right?

This was called deceitful milk. Deceitful milk.

But why? Because it was diluted down. It was watered down. And Peter tells us to long for the pure milk of the word.

In other words, not deceitful milk. This means that the Bible, the word of God, if you take it straight and you take it pure, is not diluted down.

It tells us the honest truth about yourself, about God, about life, about everything we need to know.

It gives us the clear, right perspective from God's viewpoint of what we need to know.

It tells us the truth and it cuts straight. Don't you love that about God's word? I do. I'm so thankful that there is something pure in this world.

Come on. It's the word of the living God. Amen. That's enough to shout for.

You know, we live in a diluted, polluted, contaminated, sin -sick world.

And by the way, we were there once. But what cleaned you out? What purified you? What purified your souls?

Like the word of God says, the word of the living God is pure. And God exposes the very thoughts and the motives of our hearts so that we have nowhere to hide but the rock of ages.

And that is in Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful that God came after me.

He is the seeker. He sought me out. And by the way, when he found me, he found me stark naked.

And then he dressed me. But see, there's nothing we can hide from God. Reminds me of a story.

When our president, Roosevelt, years ago, during the war, went to visit

Winston Churchill. And he went to Churchill's door. Now, Churchill was quite a character.

And he came out of the shower and went right to the door absolutely naked in front of the president of the

United States. It's the prime minister of England. I know, it's something to choke about.

If you look at this character, Churchill, he was quite a character. And the president sat there with his eyes wide as saucers.

And he said, he looked at him, he didn't know what to say. And he was standing there naked.

And Churchill said, what you see is what I am right here, stark naked. But anyway, that's the word of God.

That's what God's word does to us. We're naked before God. Beloved, we all have a strong tendency to deceive and flatter ourselves, don't we?

Let me tell you like it is. Our heart is deceitful and wicked.

And it will take us right to hell. By the way, the word of God says, there's a way that seems right unto man.

I love to quote this verse to people that's out there searching and seeking for truth. And I said, there is a way that may seem right to you.

But the end thereof is death. The only way, and that's when you take them to the way, the truth and the life,

Jesus Christ. And our own hearts will deceive us, but our own conscience will also guide us right into hell.

So you can't even trust your own conscience and your own heart. But you can trust the word of God.

Why? Because it's pure. It's pure. The word of God cuts deep into our inner thoughts and it lays us out.

It will fillet you open and it will pull out every recess in sin and presumptuous sin, the secret sins in which we would want to hide, but it's not hidden from God.

The word of God will expose it and bring it to our attention. Beloved, our heart is deceitful, but the word of God is not deceitful.

It's without guile. In other words, it's pure. It's pure. And it lays out the honest truth.

Jesus says, when he prays in John 17, thy word is truth, and then he says, and then he prays, sanctify by the word.

See, the word of God has the power to sanctify us, to set us apart, but also that setting apart means to cleanse us, to purify us, to make us clean in a dirty world.

And we may be exposed and naked, but it doesn't leave you exposed and naked. He dresses you.

He dresses you in the righteousness of Jesus so that we can deal with our sin, we can go to our problem.

He gives the remedy, in other words. The law of God will expose us out of our sins and then help us to see that we need a

Savior to go to Jesus Christ. Well, I love the Bible, the word of God, because it's pure. Is there a chapter and verse?

Oh, my goodness, there's so many, but let me give you one that comes to the mind, the old King James Version says in Proverbs 30, verse five and six.

He speaks of it being pure and clean. Listen to what Solomon said about it. Every word of God is pure.

Now, that's the old King James. I like that translation. Every word of God is pure.

He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him and not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

That's the word of God. NASB says that every word of God is tested. That's a good translation, but I like that pure.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

Makes me think that's a very serious thing, just like the word of God closes with a warning that anybody that tampers with the word of God adds to it or subtracts from it, but basically talks about taking away from it.

In Revelation 22, 19, if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.

That's a serious warning. You know, we don't play with God. You don't put your hand on God like Pastor MacArthur was telling

President Biden. You don't put your hand on the ark and swear on this book and want to kill babies and go for the homosexual lifestyle when

God says it's an abomination. We don't play with God. And we don't tamper with this book.

I thought about that verse, about all the people who has tampered with their translations and mistranslations, has added to it and subtracted from it and put their little points of view in it and has taken away the power of the word of God.

Well, one day they're going to stand before the judge of judges and the judge of all the earth is going to do right and judge them in righteousness and they're going to have to give an account for what they did.

And why they did it. Don't you love the word of God? It warns us.

Now, folks, we think these warnings are so strict and serious and they are. But every time

I read a warning in there, I think, oh, the great love behind it. The great love behind the fire, the eyes of Jesus Christ that loves his church.

And I think about the strict, I say, God, give it to me the way it is. I need to hear it the way it is.

The way I am. What my heart needs. This is very serious.

Warning after warning to anyone that tampers with the word of God. Aren't you glad?

There's something pure in this world. The word of God is pure. In these days, there are plenty of churches, beloved, by the thousands that dilute down the pure milk of the word.

I say that with grief. The church, and I was hearing Pastor MacArthur on this, the body of Christ is anorexia.

She's starving. She's starving for the pure milk of the word. She's starving for bread.

The church is starving. She's anorexia. I think about the body of Christ. The body of Christ is anorexia.

God help us. To even grow up in the full stature of Jesus Christ, we must desire and long for the pure milk of the word.

But the Bible declares that the root cause of our problems is our sin. And by not confronting our sin and our sin problem, we go on sinning.

But the word of God says, renounce it. Turn from it. Jesus says it would be better to enter into life maimed than to continue in your sin.

And then Jesus basically gives a warning about repentance. He says, stop what you're doing. Pluck it out. Deal with it.

And God will help us. He doesn't leave us to ourselves to do those things. He gives us the power to do that, doesn't

He? Don't you love that about God? He has given us everything to godliness, for godliness, and for godly living.

He doesn't leave it to ourselves. And by the way, that's why we come into the new birth. No one can do this outside of the new birth.

No one can lay hold of God without the new birth. No one can trust in God without the new birth.

No one can turn away from their sin without regeneration. That's why regeneration is always first, then conversion.

Well, we present God's remedy, and that is the word of God. And the word of God brings healing and restoration. He just doesn't leave us to our sins.

Well, that leads me to the next point. First, we must desire the pure milk of the word. Desire the pure milk of the word.

The next is the word of God is rational. It's rational. Now, look at this word here.

It's rational. Verse 2, literal translation of this verse 2 is that we should long for the pure spiritual milk.

The word spiritual also means rational. The Greek word is logios, logios.

It's from the word logos, but it's a different Greek word. Logiosa, logiosa.

The only other time it occurs in the Bible is found in Romans 12, 1, where Paul says that presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, our spiritual, our rational act of worship.

He means in this that it's a spiritual thing to do since we don't do it literally as a burnt offering.

We don't offer up ourselves as a human sacrifice to God, but rather spiritually speaking, in a very practical way in our walk with the

Lord, what he's talking about is that we yield ourselves in obedience to God's word and God's will.

And it is the reasonable thing to do. Don't you love that? It's your reasonable act of worship in light of God's great mercy.

Because God is so compassionate, God is so good and gracious toward us, we give ourselves unto

Him, to His will. That's what he's saying. Thus, the term is purposefully given to us, and why?

Picard uses it to show us that he is just not talking about the literal mother's milk, speaking about the pure milk of the word, rather he speaks of the spiritual milk of the living and abiding word of God.

Now, but he gives an analogy, and it's a very practical analogy. Don't you love it?

That this pure milk, spiritual milk of the word is rational, and like I said, let me say this, it's not rational in a worldly sense,

God forbid, it's rational in a spiritual sense. I'm going to say that.

In other words, the human reason must be subject to the written word of God. We cannot understand it fleshly or carnally.

It must be the Spirit of God that weighs in on us and helps us to teach us the truth.

Because we haven't figured these spiritual truths out by our own good wits, have we? It's the

Spirit of God that teaches us. That's what the word of God says, it's the Spirit of God that teaches us.

It's the Spirit of God within you that teaches us. And then the Spirit of God bears witness with each other, that we are in tune with God.

There's many verses on this, but I'll give you one. Our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22 -37, great commandment.

He quotes Deuteronomy 6 -5, and I briefly mentioned it earlier in the message. He said to them, he speaks where they were testing him, you shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

And I tell you, don't you love God's Word when He puts those words all in you? Not with some of it.

You think of it, if He gave only some of it, people would lay back and go backwards.

God puts the standard high. There's something for us to press toward it. All of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind.

In other words, everything within me. It's all my being that God has created me to be.

My purpose is to glorify Him and love Him with everything I have. So we need to give time to God's Word and diligence.

The Word of God ought to fill our minds with the knowledge of God and move our hearts with His majesty and His love.

Well, my next point will be under this. The Word of God is nourishing. It's pure, it's rational, and it's nourishing.

God's pure Word is nourishment to our soul. The girl there by Peter is referring to a mother's milk, as I've already said, as an analogy.

He makes clear, He is a contrast in the milk of God's Word with meat here. We must separate those metaphors.

Those are different metaphors. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 -2 that he speaks of meat, but that's another metaphor.

Separate that metaphor. This metaphor is meant for this text. Rather, he basically is saying that we believers should always be feeding on, nourishing on the pure milk of the

Word. Always desiring for it. Always craving for it. Always longing for it.

Just like a newborn baby does. Desiring milk.

Can I say this? God has designed a mother's milk as the perfect food for a newborn baby.

Did you know that the milk that's within the breast of a mother, it will immunize that baby from many illnesses?

It has the nutrients in it. It has the nourishment for that baby, for growth.

And he speaks of newborn babies for a reason. Now the analogy is not talking about that all

Christians are newborn babies. No, the analogy is saying, he points to this illustration, a simple illustration, this is the way we should be desiring the

Word of God. Just like that newborn baby desires that milk. What I remember as a father,

I didn't have to get up in the night and put together some kind of, we call it, powder milk.

My wife, breastfed, I mention this to the boys now, they get sick and they run out the door. But I said,

I remember when you desired that milk. And boy, I tell you what, nothing else mattered to that baby.

That baby let out a scream like this world was coming to an end. You talking about craving it?

I thought, good night. I said, I'm thankful that Teresa's taking care of those babies because that baby didn't care about me, that baby didn't care about that crib, that baby wanted that milk and he screamed until he got it.

Good night. But what an illustration. We should be crying out for this book.

We should be crying and longing out for this Word. Just like that baby just said, oh, I'm going to cry until I get it.

Wow. Mother's milk. Make her baby grow for months without any food.

No food. Newborn baby. Well, God's Word will nourish believers so that they can grow toward salvation.

Peter means salvation in the ultimate sense. Well, praise God. We can never reach a place in our life where we stop growing.

And we say we're content with the Christian life. God helps. We should not stagnate. And if we do without this book, we're going to stagnate.

And we're going to dry up. But we got to stay in this pure milk of the

Word so we can grow thereby. Ephesians 4, 14, 15.

Be no longer children tossed and thrown, but grow up in Christ. We need to grow. 2

Peter 3, 18. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1, 3.

Thessalonica. The Thessalonians, I'm sorry, grew exceedingly in faith. They grew in faith.

Philippians 1, 9. Paul prayed for their love to abound more and more and more. How do we do it?

In this book. In this book. That's the Word of God. That's the way it's like.

It's pure. It's rational. It's nourishing. It's pure.

It's rational. It's nourishing. Well, let me get to my next point.

And this is basically my application to everything we say in here.

How to be motivated to drink the Word of God. We need a how -to, don't we? Apostle Peter says that we should be motivated as new -born babies for the mother's milk.

Now, beloved, I didn't understand, like I said, this analogy until it was real to me, until we had babies.

I never have forgotten that, and that's been ingrained in my mind. I know Teresa hasn't forgotten it. But that baby would desire that milk.

I meant to mention this. I used to put a pacifier in their mouth. Now, that might help them for a few minutes, and then they figure it out.

It was a noble search for coming to that passage. They wanted the milk. And you know that's an analogy too.

You know people try to put a pacifier in people. Hey, we've got to have the pure milk. Oh, my goodness.

Passes ain't going to work it, right? Well, the analogy is very clear. We should long for that desire of the pure milk of the

Word. The question is how do we get that kind of motivation to the

Word of God? Well, it tells us. Well, the Word of God tells us negatively we're to put off relational sins that hinder the

Word's effect in our life. We're to put away these sins, and he tells us about sin. Look at what he says.

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Now, what's he talking about? That is quite a trail. Yes, it is. It's more obvious sins, and then he goes to the presumptuous sins.

He goes to the secret sins. Believers are to put aside. You know what that means?

It means to put it off. That is in tendency of casting aside your old garments.

Like dirt, you take off dirty clothes after work every day or after you go through the whole day. You cast aside the dirt.

You throw them off. That's what he's saying. You put it aside. Believers in Jesus Christ will not grow up in Christ unless the sins are renounced and forsaken.

That's what he's talking about. He's actually talking about repentance here. Now, he may not use the word repentance, but he's basically saying this is the way repentance happens.

You put it aside. You put it aside. You put away these things. And what does he say first?

All malice. Malice. That's the Greek word of all evil, all wickedness.

True repentance. You know what's interesting? That made me think about Martin Luther when he wrote the 95

Theses. You know what his first thesis was? When our Lord and Master Jesus said repent,

He intended that the entire life of the believer should be repentance. Amen. John Calvin said this about repentance.

Just as Calvin. That's so misquoted. True repentance is firm and constant, and it makes us war with the evil that is in us.

Not for a day or a week, but without end and without intermission.

It's constant until we get to glory. We never stop. Always repent.

Now it's interesting here, if you look, that as I read that text, there are five sins that are listed here.

Excuse me. The five sins, these are not exhaustible.

There are other sins that may not be listed here. But he does list these sins for a purpose.

Now as we look at the first one, Notice he didn't say some malice, he said all malice.

All of it has to be dealt with. The word evil is used 11 times in the

New Testament, this and the Greek, to indicate that wickedness which comes from within a person.

It's general wickedness. It's general evil. Most translators translate this, it's good for nothingness.

Disgracefulness. It's wicked. It's evil. That covers a lot of ground, doesn't it?

Matter of fact, in our lives, if there's no appetite for the word of God, it could be that we have left our first love.

That's sin. We're going after other gods. After another lover.

That's adultery and adulterous. And that's what James deals with in chapter 4. But this malice is evil.

It has to be put off and it has to be cast aside. All malice.

Put it off. The second word is all deceit. Deceit. What's that word mean?

It means guile. It's another word for guile, and it actually literally means bait on a fish hook.

It's deceitful. Now that's a very good illustration. When we go fishing, we bait the hook, and we throw it out there and we deceive the fish to think that the fish is going to get suffered, but actually the fish becomes suffered.

So it's deceitfulness in that sense. It's deceit, deception, dishonest, falsehood, seduction, treachery, all those words.

That's what guile means. Then Peter starts to narrow it down to even tighter. The third word is hypocrisy.

He's talking to Christians. He's talking to believers. Hypocrisy. What does hypocrisy mean?

Stage acting. Having a mask, pretending, phoniness, covering up anything that's not real, not genuine.

Then he mentions envy. It refers to our attitude behind the deceit. Envy is behind the hypocrisy.

It basically means to be jealous of another person or their things. Did you know that envy was the motive behind the crucifixion of Jesus?

Give me chapter and verse, pastor. I sure will. Gladly. Mark 15, 10.

Listen to this. For he, speaking of Pilate, was aware that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy.

Jesus was handed over to be crucified because of envy.

That's what the Word of God says. Envy often works itself out all sorts of slander.

And then he talks about slander. What's slander? Notice how he keeps digging, digging with these sins.

This word means to speak against someone. To slander them behind their back.

And it goes along with deceit. The slanderer says nice things to the person's face, but bad things behind their back.

That's slander. The book of Proverbs speaks a great deal about that.

The opposite of this is to speak the truth in love, right? With a view to building up that person.

Speaking the truth in love builds the person up. Slander tears them down. But Peter says we are to put off these things.

And Hebrews says therefore, in chapter 1, verse 1, therefore we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

Let us lay aside every... There's that word again. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.

And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

James 1 .21 Putting aside all filthiness. There it is again. Putting aside, throwing it all.

All filthiness and all that remains of wickedness to receive wickedness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.

So in other words, we cannot receive God's Word and harbor sin at the same time. The psalmist said it in Psalm 119 .101

I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep thy Word.

I don't know about you. I want to grow in this Word. I want to grow in Jesus Christ. And we cannot harbor sin.

And that's what he deals with. You've got to put these aside. You've got to put aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, anything that you're pretending to be that you're not, envy, and all slander.

Put it aside. Long for the pure milk of the Word. Well, there's much more to be said about that.

I've got to skip a lot here because my time is almost gone. As a matter of fact, I've just had just a few minutes.

In the valley of vision, I think about a prayer.

And I sent this to Brother Keith and this is one of the convicting prayers I think I've ever read in my life. You know, it's bad enough to sin against God's law, and that's breaking

His commandments, which is displeasing to God. But you know, let me tell you one thing that's worse than to sin against God's law.

To sin against grace. To sin against God's kindness. To sin against God's graciousness.

To the believer, this has got to be the most horrible thing. At this period, these periods knew

God. Listen to His heart's cry. He cries out, No poor creature stands in need of divine grace more than I do, and yet none abuses it more than I have done.

And I still do. How heartless and vile and dull

I am. Humble me in the dust for not loving

Thee more. You talk about somebody searching their own God. You talk about God searching their own

God. This is the way we should come to God. 2

Corinthians 7 -1. There's a remedy. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

So if we're going to have a desire in the pure milk of the Word, we've got to clear our minds, our hearts, of all these illicit sins that are sins against God's law, and yes, against God's grace.

God help us. What leads us to perpendicence? You know what the word says. Romans 2 -4.

Or do you think lightly? Listen to this. Do you think lightly of the riches and the kindness and the restraint and the patience, not knowing that the kindness, the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

You see, that's what leads us to repentance. Goodness. I don't know about you, there's nothing that convicts me more than when

I sin against grace. That I know I've sinned against the crucified

Son of God that loved me so much upon the cross and poured out

His life unto death. God in the flesh giving

His all on a cross for my sin and my penalty and then

I sin against that? That makes me triple.

Revelation 2 -5. Therefore remember from where you've fallen, repent and do the deeds you have did at first, or else

I'm coming to you and I will remove your lampstand out of its place. That's love speaking. Unless you repent.

Don't you love it? The Word of God cuts straight to the heart. Unless we repent. God save us from apathy.

God save us from being lukewarm. God save us from being mechanical. MacArthur said this of the church of Ephesus.

Quote, their doctrinal and moral purity, their undiminished zeal for the truth, they had zeal for the truth, and they had a disciplined service, but all that was no substitute for the love of Christ that they have for sin.

Doesn't that convict you? We can have all those things. We can have a zeal for the truth.

We can have moral purity. We can be right in our doctrine. We can even have a disciplined service.

You can even have a pastor that can preach perfect sermons. Beloved, if we have lost our passion and love for Jesus Christ, we need to repent and return back to our first love.

We need to love our Lord Jesus Christ and love His Word. The psalmist said in Psalm 119,

I close with this, I had a deep love for God and His Word from before sunrise to beyond the sunset.

Listen to how much this man, this psalmist loved God. Before dawn, in Psalm 119, 147, he says,

I will rise before dawn and cry for help. I wait for Your words daily.

In verse 97 of 119, he says this, Daily, oh how I love Your law.

It is my meditation all the day. Seven times a day. In verse 164,

Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous ordinances. Even at night.

In verse 55, He says, oh Lord, I remember Your name in the night and I keep

Your law. And in verse 148, My eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on Your Word.

And at midnight, what did he do? Verse 62, At midnight

I shall rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.

Colossians 3 .16, Let the Word of Christ dwell within you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

May God grant to us to have a teachable spirit and humble ourselves before God to desire the pure, rich Word of God and His truth.

Let's pray. Father, there's so much more that can be said about Your holy

Word. Oh Lord, we can be here for the whole day, all day, and Lord, rightly so.

Oh God, my prayer is this, we don't love this blessed treasure enough.

We don't. So my prayer, Lord, for myself and for each and everyone here in redeeming grace and for all that's listening over sermon audio, forgive us, oh

God, forgive us. Let us be honest to You. Forgive us for neglecting Your Word because we have neglected it.

We've pushed it aside too often. We've been too busy with our own needs, our own busyness.

It is Martha, Father, give us the heart of Mary to sit at the feet of Jesus, to pick that which is needed, needful.

Father, I pray that by Your grace You would enlarge our hearts and to increase our desire for Yourself and to love

You more and more and to love Your truth more and more, but most of all, Lord, to love You because this is

Your love letter to us. It's just not another, but this is You speaking to us and this is how we come to know

You, oh God. Father, forgive us for not obeying it. Father, forgive us for not heeding its warnings.

Forgive us for not bearing and pouring over it because,

Lord, there's great reward in it to those who keep it. Lord, help us.

As the psalmist David said, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. In other words, failing to observe

Your Word is failing to obey it. And then he prays, let us not have dominion over me.

Let not these presumptuous sins have dominion over us, oh God. And then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression because,

Lord, thank You that Your Word has the power to cleanse us and purify us through the blood of Jesus.

So now, Father, let the words of my mouth, as David said, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight.

Oh Lord, my strength, my Redeemer. In Jesus' name

I pray. Amen and amen. Praise God for His Word. Amen.