Please take God's Word and turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Returning to our study of these first three verses, 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter says, therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. As we looked at this last time, we learned in verse 1 that there are five vices that Peter mentions these five vices hinder us in our desiring the Word of God, they hinder us in our growth of the Word of God, and I would just equally say that all sin hinders desiring growth. We are drawn to that which we desire, and my prayer is that you're drawn to the Word of God. And the only way that I know to keep developing that desire and to keep feeding that desire is to feast on the Word. And especially in those moments and times when you don't feel like reading the Word or hearing the Word read to you, those are times that we need to recognize that we need it the most. But Peter says here that there is something that occurred that gives us this responsibility of desiring the Word. And what is that? Well, it's found in that first word that we looked at last time. It's the word, therefore. And that word, therefore, refers us back to verse 22. And it takes us on through the end of the chapter. Essentially, what he's saying here, beginning at verse 22, since this word is what purified your souls, that's verse 22, and since this word is what produced a sacrificial, sincere love of the brethren, verse 22, since this is the word that caused you to be born again, also verse 23, and since this is the word that was preached to you, verse 25, therefore, lay aside sin and crave the word. That's what the therefore is there for. It reaches back, but it also deals with the present. Based upon this, this is how you're to respond. And we see that many times in Scripture. For example, in the book of Romans, you have 11 chapters of doctrine, and then in chapter 12, verse 1, based upon those 11 chapters of doctrine, you are to present yourselves as living sacrifices unto God, holy and acceptable. So it's built on something previous, but it brings it into the present, and it's calling for a particular action. In fact, the command that we find in these first three verses is found in the word long, or crave, or desire. We are commanded to desire the things of God. We're commanded to desire specifically the Word of God. And as I said, if you look at verse 1, you find that there are things that hinder that actual growth and that actual desire. And we looked at a few of these last time. The first one was this, that we are to put aside all malice. And the idea of putting aside, Aristentes has used here, is put it aside once and for all. Put this away. Lay it aside. Don't have anything else to do with it. For some reason, we have this idea that we owe something to the flesh and we owe nothing to the flesh. And there are times when we're tempted that we feel like, well, we just have to give in because we don't feel strong enough to overcome it. But that is simply a lie. You have the Spirit of God within you as a child of God. And you need to be filled with the Spirit of God to put to death the deeds of the body. You've got to realize that you have this flesh. This is the only thing that hasn't been redeemed. You're fit for heaven. Your soul is ready for heaven. You've been transformed. You've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. But what is yet to change and what is yet to be put off is what? This vile body. And to be given another body, a body like unto our Lord's. And so when you struggle with sin, doing the things you don't want to do, and the things you don't want to do, you end up doing, realize this, that there's nothing good that dwells within this flesh, Romans 7. It's this flesh that we struggle with. And so we have to make a conscious effort to fight against sin, and if we're not going to kill sin, then it's going to kill us. It's really going to hurt our walk with Christ. It's going to hurt our relationship in the sense that we're not going to experience the joy, the fullness that we could experience in Christ because we've yielded to sin or keep yielding to sin. And if there's an ongoing pattern of yielding to sin, then that should bring you to the place of, hey, wait a minute, what's going on here? Am I really a believer in Christ? Because I have habitual sin in my life. Well, he says that we have to put aside all malice, and malice refers to any kind of wickedness. That's the word kakia, and it's an all-inclusive term. It refers to vice of any kind. And this was essentially part of our old life. Remember Titus 3 in verse 3? He says that we were also once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in what? Malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, which tells us that this is the past. You were once foolish by living this way, but now in Christ you don't live this way. And so we have to put it aside when it tries to show its ugly head, right? There are times you're tempted with malice, there are times you're tempted with envy, you're tempted with hate, you're tempted with all of these different kinds of sins that are the work of the flesh, Galatians chapter five, and you have to fight it. Whether it's an inclination, whether it's a temptation for it, even in those moments when you're weak, you gotta fight it. And I know I'm speaking to the choir. This is something that we all have to do. We'll fight the flesh all of our living days until we go and be in glory. You're never gonna eradicate sin from your life in this life. When you get to heaven, and I was watching a Q&A over the weekend, and one of the things that was said in that Q&A that you and I have to look forward to about heaven is the absence of sin. I mean, that should make you long for it even more, especially if you've had one of those type of weeks when you've been struggling like crazy with your flesh, because we have that, right? We have some days when we seem to be more tempted than others. But just remember this, being tempted is not the sin. Giving in to the temptation, that's the sin. But again, this was something that was part of our old life. And it's also something that we're never to grow up in. We don't want to grow up in sin. It says over in 1 Corinthians 14, 20, brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. So when it comes to evil, when it comes to sin, we want to be infants in this. But when it comes to thinking, we want to be mature. So they are to put aside, that is put aside all, and you remember we pointed out that term all last time and it meant every form of, so we have to put aside every form of malice. Every form of malice. Now if you want some more details about this, I'm going to refer you back to the first message. The second one he gives is deceit. We're to put aside all deceit, and that's the word that we saw last time. It's translated guile. It comes from a verb that means to catch with bait. It's any cunning contrivance for deceiving or for catching. And the flesh has a way of doing this, too. Freyberg, in his lexicon, calls this fraud, treachery. It means to deceive by using trickery or falsehood. And again, he uses the term all, pas, pas means every form of. So we need to put aside not only every form of malice or wickedness, but every form of deceit. We've got to put that aside. You want to be true and honest with people. You want to be sincere. You don't want to be the type of person that your word doesn't mean anything. You know, it used to be a day when someone could just give you their word and that was enough, right? But what do we have to do now? We have to seal it with a contract that's illegal and binding because people lie. People have other motives. And that's sad. And we've all had it happen to us, maybe at one time or another, where a person promised something and you went by their word and they didn't follow through on it. And you possibly lost a family member or a friend because of that. Now, those things do happen too, but it doesn't make it right. And again, Peter is saying these are things that hinder our desire, that hinder our longing for the Word of God, that hinder our growth, that hinder us from tasting the kindness of the Lord. Notice the third one. He says we're to put aside hypocrisy. I like how Warren Wiersbe puts this, if we are guilty of malice, we will try to hide it. And this produces hypocrisy. And that word hypocrisy, that was generally used for flattery and deception. It's a word that speaks of pretense or pretend. I pointed out last time that the idea of pretending is something that we used to do when we were kids, right? You'd pretend to be another person or to play a character that you saw on TV. You were pretending to be someone you're not. Well, that's what hypocrisy is. You pretend to be someone you're not. You're not sincere, you're insincere. You have an outward show. The word was used of an actor on a Greek stage. Again, playing a part, playing a role that was not truly identifying who or what that person was. So it refers to acts of impersonation. You know, I like to When I'm watching TV, here's someone that can do voice impersonations, and especially if they're really good at it, and you can tell who the character is. I like that, but you keep in mind, well, that is not real. It is false. It's not true, but it's this person who has this ability to do this. It's pretty neat. But you don't want your life characterized like this, right? You don't wanna be a person that says one thing and does another thing. I mean, that's what the scribes and Pharisees did. That's why Jesus said, do what they say, but don't do what they do, because they were hypocrites. And now we come to where we left off last time, and that's the next one, is envy. We have to put aside envy. This word here has the idea of feeling displeasure. And that's probably a mild way of putting it. It's more like jealousy. It's more like coveting. Because you're looking at the prosperity of someone else and you're jealous because they are prosperous and maybe you're not. Or maybe they have something that you want. And because they have that and you don't have it, then you're upset. And you're not happy that they have it. See how dangerous that envy is? One person defined it as hatred of others on account of some excellency which they have or something which they possess which we do not. And again, that's a problem. These are problems. These are things that hinder growing in Christ. These are things that hinder your desire. And listen, desire and growth are connected together. You can't expect to grow in the Word of God if you don't desire the Word of God. And if you don't desire the Word of God, then guess what? You're not going to be in the Word. Or you may be in it every now and then, or you may be in it just on Sunday morning, but you need more than Sunday morning for your Christian life. You need more than one sermon. I'll tell you that right now from experience. We should be listening to the Word taught every day. Every day. And if you can tolerate me, there are a good 1,300 sermons on our website. But I'm not the only one. Listen to others. One of the things about the Reformation moment is that I've been putting up some people that you should be listening to. And we heard one of them this morning. Every sin is a hindrance. Every sin is a hindrance to desire and growth. And envy is one of those sins that carries its own reward. It guarantees its own frustration and its own disappointment. And by definition, the envious person cannot be satisfied with what he has and will always crave for more. That sounds like liberals, doesn't it? And the political parties. They finally get something that they want, but it's not enough, and they want more. And they just keep going, and more, and more, and more, and they can never be satisfied. The person who craves for more and more, who is dissatisfied with his own life, not acceptance of the providence of God or the sovereignty of God, his evil desires and his pleasures are insatiable. And he cannot abide by any other person having something that he himself does not have or having more of something that he himself has. And if you don't understand what I'm talking about, Maybe you live in one of those neighborhoods where your neighbor's got a nicer house than you have, drives a nicer car than you have, has a better job than you have. Or maybe at work itself, you're there and there are people that make more than you make. They get promoted more than you do. Maybe you've been there a long time, never have been promoted. These things happen as well. We ought to look at these things as tests in our life, tests of our dependence. Are we dependent on those things? Are we dependent on more things? You know, we can accumulate a lot of things in this life, but guess what? Not one of those things will go with you when you die. Not one. And you can enjoy the pleasures of this life and forfeit heaven. to where you focus so much in this life on the things of this world, and you're so caught up in the things of this world, and you live your life according to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And John says, if that characterizes your life, the love of the Father is not in you. Someone once said, don't envy the man who has everything, he probably has an ulcer too. Because you know what? With everything that we have comes great responsibility. Everything we have. If you have little, you still have responsibility. If you have much, you have great responsibility. But everything that we have comes with this. And this also was a feature of our old life before salvation. I remind you again of Titus 3 again. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice, and now he mentions envy. We spent our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. I remember times in my life before Christ that I had certain attitudes, and I didn't even know why I had them. And maybe it was just because of influence. People that you hung around, and they adopted those views, and because you were around them, they influenced you to have those views. And that's why, as believers, we need to be careful with the type of people that we're hanging around with. You say, well, I hang around with some of these people for evangelism, but it doesn't work if you're never evangelizing them. Well, I try to evangelize with my life. Well, that's not enough. The Great Commission says to preach the gospel. Yes, you live the gospel in front of them, but you've got to say something. You've got to speak it, right? This, my friend, is a work of the flesh. Listen to what these that are listed in Galatians 5, 19 through 21. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, we talked about that last week, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, And things like these, that tells me right there that this is not an all-conclusive list. Things like these that fall into this same category. And he says, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look at these things and look at your life. Is this something that characterizes your life? If it does, you're not a Christian. That's what he's saying right here, isn't it? If you practice such things, you're not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. This is a work of the flesh. This is what marks even those whom God has given over to a debased mind. It says in Romans 129, they're full of envy. This was the attitude of those who even delivered Jesus to Pilate. It says in Mark 15.10, for he was aware that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. That's pretty bad, isn't it? But again, here are these things that hinder our ability to desire the right things. These are the wrong things to be desiring. That's why you've got to put them aside, and you've got to put it aside once and for all, never to have anything else to do with them. Well, he mentions another one, and that is evil speaking, evil speaking. Put aside all slander, or evil speaking. That's katalelia. Katalelia is an onomatopoetic word. It's just like the word vain repetitions used in Matthew chapter 6. And that word is also an onomatopoetic word. It's a word that's describing a sound. It's batalalia. And that word is like running around going, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata. See, it's just a bunch of noise. And this word is just like that, but this word has specific because this word speaks of slander. It involves speaking evil of someone. It's hostile speech, it's insult, evil speech, defamation, backbiting, speaking down a person, refers to this act of defaming or slandering or speaking against another person. And I'll tell you what, many churches have been destroyed by the tongue, have they not? I tell you, I've sat in not as a leader in a church, but sat in as a observer of many business meetings and seeing the tongue explode in some of those meetings because a person didn't get their way. And they said all kinds of ugly, evil things. Paul said that his fear was when he left Ephesus that from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. There are those who come in from among us. They're truly not followers of Jesus. They give the impression that they are, but they began to speak perverse things. And what they speak is an effort to draw away the disciples after themselves. The church at Corinth experienced this, and they experienced much division, and all because of the tongue. And Paul, when he was writing to them, had to say to them this in 1 Corinthians 1.10, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. And now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I'm a Paul, or I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Cephas, or I'm of Christ. They're cliques. You don't need cliques. You don't want that. That's pitting yourself against other people. That's saying that I'm better than you. because of who I'm identifying with. Over in chapter 3, Paul had to tell them that they were still fleshly, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I'm of Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are you not mere men? What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one." Listen, you're elevating the servants of the Lord, and we don't want to be elevated, Paul says. In fact, there's a word that he uses that's translated ministers, but it shouldn't be translated ministers, it should be translated slaves. And when he says there, in using that term, that term is describing a third-level galley slave on a slave ship. And he says, when it comes to giving attributes or characteristics of my life, count me as a third-level galley slave, just pulling my oars, doing my part. Don't name cities after me. Don't name cathedrals after me. I think Paul would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that there was cathedrals named after him, churches named after him, cities named after him. That's the last thing on earth he would ever want. What does stuff like that do anyway? Nothing but appeals to the flesh, right? Over in 2 Corinthians 12 20, Paul says, I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish, that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. You know, this is some of the things that characterize the church at Corinth. And that's why Paul had to deal with this head-on because this church was fleshly. This church was giving in to sin, taking one another to court, allowing unbelievers to settle matters that unbelievers should never have heard about. That destroys your testimony right there, doesn't it? The believers can't get along, can't settle disputes among themselves, but yet they have to go to the unbelieving courts and have those disputes settled there. That's not the only thing they were doing. Sexual immorality was rampant in the church. A man had his mother-in-law, was having a sexual relationship with his mother-in-law, 1 Corinthians 5, and the church didn't mourn over that. The church didn't put him out. They allowed that stuff to happen. The church at Galatia also experienced the same power of the tongue, so much so that it was leading others astray. And Paul said in Galatians 1, 6 and following, I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, He is to be anathema, accursed, And as we've said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, he is to be accursed. Notice in all those passages the tongue is used. Preaching is using the tongue, right? But here's preaching a false gospel. A gospel contrary to the gospel that had been preached to them. And so when it comes to the tongue, we have to be careful here. We have to make sure that what we speak is things that are edifying, things that build each other up, not things that tear people down. And probably one of the biggest things that believers are guilty of in slandering someone is to bring it up in a prayer meeting and say, brother and sister, we need to pray for so and so, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they feel like that they have liberty to tell what has happened. All because it's a prayer meeting. Well, can I say this as clearly as I can? That if, number one, you haven't went to that person privately, then you're guilty of slander. You're guilty of defaming. You're guilty of backbiting. You're in sin. If you have a brother that sins against you, you need to go privately to that person and be reconciled. You need to go to that person and tell them his fault. It's between you and him alone. Matthew 18, 15. If He doesn't hear, then you take two or more witnesses with you, two or three. You don't take any more than that. You don't tell everybody yet. You're taking them for the purpose of trying to win your brother or sister. And only if they don't listen, when you take two or three witnesses, Matthew 15 or Matthew 18 tells us that we are to tell it to the church. And when it's told to the church, it's not for gossip. It's so the entire church can be involved in trying to win back this brother or sister who has fallen into sin. If that person still chooses not to repent and to be restored, then they're treated like an outsider. They're put out of the church. That is so foreign to many churches today. So foreign. And that's why when you have a business meeting and someone gets all upset and they don't get their way and they're spewing all their venom and everything, that meeting should stop right then, close it right off. and don't give any more ear to any of that stuff and go privately to that, well, you could call down that person publicly because they did it publicly. If you have a false teacher come into the church and they're sitting in the pew and all of a sudden they interrupt the pastor that's preaching and start spewing heresy, you need to shut him down and get him out of the building. And even if he's speaking truth, shut him down because this isn't his hour. This isn't his opportunity to go and tell everybody what he thinks the Bible says or what Bible means. This isn't a Q&A. You stop it. We must make sure that we do not slander and we do not speak evil of others. And in a political climate, that's very difficult to do, isn't it? Very difficult. Titus chapter 2 tells the older women to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. You know, the interesting phrase there, malicious gossips, it comes from the word that means devil. Quit acting like the devil. Don't act like the devil. When you gossip, you act like the devil. He's the father of lies. And of course, 1 Timothy 3.11 talks about women being dignified, not malicious gossips, temperate, faithful in all things. But it's not just with women, whether older or younger. It's everyone. It says in Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. See, slander or evil speaking, it's not fitting for a believer. It's sin. Just as all these are sins. James 4.11 says, Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but you're a judge of it. And so Peter says, Because you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls, Because the Word of God has done this, because the Word of God has given you a sincere love of the brethren, because the Word of God has caused you to be born again, because the Word of God endures forever, because this is the Word that's been preached to you, you have to, once and for all, put this off. Put this aside. And do what? Crave the Word. crave the Word. He says in verse 2 and 3, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Peter wanted his readers to be as eager for the nourishment of the Word as babies are for milk from its mother's breast or a bottle. I have seven kids, I've seen this. And you have too, if you have kids. The intensity from which a little child wants that milk, doesn't care about anything else, doesn't care what color the room is, doesn't care if it's got booties on, doesn't care if it has anything on. All it cares is that when I'm hungry, give me milk. Right? Amen? Amen. And so Peter says that same craving that a baby has for milk is the same craving that you and I need to have for the Word of God. Where that craving just controls you. Wouldn't you like to be one who says this? I just can't get enough of the Word of God. I love it. I hunger for it. I long for this. And you know, when you hear good teaching, that is essentially what is produced there. You hear the truth and your soul just yearns for the truth. You long for the truth. We're to crave it as newborn babies. That's a just born or recently born baby. In classical Greek, it was used of a baby at the breast. And just as a newborn baby desires his mother's milk, we are to intensely crave for the milk of the Word. What's he mean by crave? Well, that word is translated desire, it's translated crave, it's translated long, depending on what translation that you're using. But that one Greek word right there means to intensely crave, to earnestly desire. It means to long after. And interesting that that term is a command. That is a command right here in this passage. In fact, it's the only command right here that we find. We're to put aside all these things in verse 1, but we're commanded to crave the Word. And so you've got to get rid of anything and everything that would hinder your ability to crave the Word. So if it's TV, if it's games, if it's telephones, if it's friends, whatever it may be, whatever gets in the way, whatever hinders your ability to crave the Word or even spend time in the Word. All of our time is different. And I told you one of the things that helps me is being a pastor because every Sunday here I am. And I can't walk up here on Sunday morning and say, Really didn't have any time this week to study, so let's watch a video. Wouldn't be here very long if that happened. Shouldn't be here very long if that happened. So it creates an accountability. Same is true for anybody that teaches a Bible study. It creates accountability. And you say, well, I don't do any of those things. Well, you have a partner, you have friends, You have children, you have grandchildren. Let those things be your accountability. Share the Word of God with them. Spouses, sharing the Word of God together, praying together, reading the Word together, talking about the Word together. Men, you need to lead your wife. You need to lead your home, lead your family. Right? The word that he uses, I say, here is talking about this intense craving. It's interesting that this word occurs in Psalm 42, 1 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. And notice how it's translated, as the deer pants for the water brooks. So my soul pants for you, O God. Translated panting after. We have animals we see at times when they can't get enough water. I watch the dog we have in the house and sometimes I'm like, are you ever going to stop? Just lapping that water over and over and over and over. Carries half of it from the bowl to the other room. Or you take the animals for a run. I mean, you know that insatiable urge. Or you go for a run. Or you do something strenuous, something laborious, and it creates that thirst, doesn't it? Well, that's not the only place the word is used. Paul used it in Romans 1-11 to describe the desire that he had to see the believers at Rome. He says, for I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established. He longed to be with those believers in Rome. He longed to be with believers, period. He also used the word in Philippians 2 verses 25 and 26 to speak of Epaphroditus Epaphroditus had a longing for them. He says, but I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need, because he was longing for you all and he was distressed because you heard that he was sick. He's upset because he heard that you heard that he was sick. And he longed to be with them. Longed to be with them. Paul longed to be with these believers at Philippi. Philippians 1.8, for God is my witness, I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. The word is also used in 2 Corinthians 5 to describe the longing that believers have to be clothed with their glorified bodies. He says, for we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, for indeed in this house we groan. longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life." You long for that, don't you? You long to be rid of this vile body, right? This body that brings you down. Spurgeon said, when the apostle describes us under the character of a newborn babe, he would have us lay aside all that is inconsistent with that character. Newborn children have no malice. They have no guile or craftiness. They have no hypocrisies, nor envies, nor evil speakings. They are clear from all these evils. Would God we were as clear as they are. It would be better to be infants not speaking at all than to be among those who speak evil. It would be better to begin life over again than to live long enough to have gained a treasure of malice and a hoard of cunning and to have learned the tricks of hypocrisy. Let us be as simple as little children, as guileless and harmless, as free from anything like unkindness as newborn babes are. And inasmuch as we are to follow them in what they have not, let us also imitate them in what they have. Let us desire ardently as for our very life, the unadulterated milk of the word. Let us cultivate that combination of hunger and thirst which is found in a little child that we may hunger and thirst thus after God's Word. We have done more than taste the Word. We have tasted that the Lord Himself is gracious. Let us long to feast more and more upon this divine food that we may grow thereby." Over in Deuteronomy 32, we hear Moses' last words to the children of Israel before they crossed the Jordan River to possess their possession. It's very fitting. Notice what he says here. He said to them, take to your heart all the words which I'm warning you today. Take it where? To your heart. which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess." Take this to your heart. This is your life. It's not an idle word. So his newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word. What does he mean by pure milk or pure? He's referring to the undeceitful and adulterated milk of the Word. It's not mixed with any sin, any impurities. Now the interesting thing about the term milk and applying it to Scripture The Scripture is either milk or meat. It's depending on how deep you go. Babies only can handle milk. They can't handle meat. You don't give a baby a steak, right? But those who have been walking with the Lord longer should be those who are growing. 1 John 2 talks about levels of growth, children, young men, fathers. We should be in that pattern right there. And so that means that our desire for the Word should grow and our desire for the depth of the Word should grow. But the sad thing is in some churches there's not that ability to go deep because the preacher won't go deep and won't challenge us to go deep. In fact, many times the sermon is like a birdbath. It's a mile long and an inch deep. There's no depth to it. It's a devotional, or more like a talk is what they call them now. And it lasts about 10 minutes. I don't stand up here for 50 minutes to an hour because I want to stand up here for 50 minutes to an hour. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes about that much time to develop the text so you can understand its historical context. My goal is not to keep you forever. My goal is to give you the understanding of the Scripture. And sure, I could just tell you what it means, but wouldn't you like the process? Wouldn't you like to know how you get there? That's what expository preaching does. It takes you through the process. And it gets you to the meaning of the Scripture. And when you get to the meaning, you have the Scripture. I can read the Scripture just like you. We could sit here and read it, but we could all sit here and go, oh, I wonder what it means. And unfortunately, that's what some Bible studies are too. Nobody studies it and they all sit around pooling their ignorance of what they think the verse means. Somebody's got to study it. And somebody's got to teach it and make sure that they're applying a proper hermeneutic as they do it. But the Word of God is either milk or meat. And again, it depends on how deep you go. Listen to Hebrews 5 verses 12-14. It says, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You have come to need milk and not solid food, for everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is what? An infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." They had a need to go back to the elementary principles because they were not practicing the word. You and I need to be doers of the Word, not hearers only. James 1.22 says, if you're a hearer only, you are self-deceived. Self-deceived. What's he mean by of the Word? The pure milk of the Word. Of would be a preposition, the object would be the Word. Three possible meanings. One is simply of the Word. The second meaning could be what is reasonable or what is rational. A third possible meaning could be what is spiritual. Some have translated it to the spiritual milk of the Word. And how are we to desire it? Well, Jesus said how to desire it in Matthew 4 forward. It says, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Just as you, in this context, would eat bread for food, for nourishment, and for sustaining your life, guess what? The word of God sustains your life as well. And sometimes you would do well to skip breakfast to have some time in the word. I remember those days when I had to be somewhere at a certain time. And so that meant everything I did leading up to that time, if I was going to have some time in the Word before I left, I had to get up earlier. I had to forfeit the sleep so that I could have some time to read the Word of God. You know, you're heading into your job, you don't know what you're going to face for the day. I don't want to go at it alone, do you? So you want the word of God planted in your mind. You want that on your mind and on your tongue so as you walk in, maybe you walk into your job and your boss has something unpleasant to say to you, what are you gonna do? How are you gonna respond? Well, if you've already been in the word and your mind is already accustomed to the word of God, you've already been being filled with the spirit, you have a greater chance of not getting in the flesh and saying something you're gonna regret or something that's gonna cost you your job. How are we to desire it? Job said, Job 23, 12, I have not departed from the command of His lips. I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. How are you to desire it? As a great treasure, as the greatest treasure. I don't know about you, but you know, when I sit my Bible down on my desk at the house, I don't sit anything on top of it. because I have more respect for it than that. And if it's a book I'm reading by somebody else, I don't mind that so much, you know? And I have stacks of books around in my office, have them back there in that office, and try to put them back where they go, and that doesn't always happen, I just sit them right there, and at least I know where it's at. My dad used to tell me, when I walked into his office, he said, don't touch anything on my desk, I know exactly where everything is. And it looked like a chaos, looked like a mess, but he sure could find everything. Mine doesn't look like chaos, but I'll just say this, there's just this respect for the scripture. You know, cults treat their false scriptures with more respect many times than Christians do. I remember a young lady in a church that I was at, she had went to China to do some missionary work, and while she was there, she was under some intense pressure and felt like she was under some spiritual warfare, so the people that were there with her told her to physically stand on her Bible. Put your Bible on the floor and physically stand on it. What in the world is that going to do but just disrespect what you got there? Didn't see any point of that. And she claimed that helped her. You know what helps in situations like that? Prayer. Right? Earnest prayer. Earnestly reading the scriptures. Maybe tuning into some teaching that deal with the issue that you're addressing. I think everybody in here should have a topical Bible along with your Bible. And I'd recommend the MacArthur topical Bible. Naves has a topical Bible. There are others that put out topical Bibles. The reason why I like the MacArthur topical Bible, because when you open it up, it's got the verses all written out for you. You don't have to go and look them all up. They're right there. And just look it up. Whatever topic that you're dealing with, say you're struggling with something, just look that up, and you get a pile of verses right there, and they put it in some kind of systematic order, and then you take your Bible along with that, and you can go and look at it and go through it. Make sure that you're understanding these passages and not taking them out of context. Kenneth Weiss said that the prerequisite to the act of intensely yearning for the Word of God is the act of once for all putting sin out of our lives. Sin in the life destroys the appetite for the Word. The Christian who tries to find satisfaction in the husk of the world has no appetite left for the things of God. His heart is filled with the former and has no room for the latter. A healthy infant is a hungry infant. A spiritually healthy Christian is a hungry Christian. This solves the problem of why so many children of God have so little love for the Word. You say, well, I just don't know how to do it. Let's be very pragmatic here. You take your Bible, and you open it, and you start reading it. But I would be a little bit more systematic than that. Pick a book to read. What I do is that I systematically read the New Testament and once a year the Old Testament. But where I'm constantly reading the scripture or it read to me. You're driving, take advantage of that alone time you have if you're alone. And get you an app that you can put on your phone that will read the Bible to you while you're driving. You know, when I was early in my Christian life, there wasn't anything like this. In fact, what I used to do, because my work hours were so different, I wanted to listen to Grace to You, and this is, I started back in 85, up to today, and I bought a timer that worked with my cassette player, and I could set my cassette player to record, and I had the timer to come on when that program came on, and it recorded the program, and then it shut off when it was done, and then I had that tape that I put it in my car when I got in the car, And I could listen to the program while I was driving. There was no internet. You go, what was that like to have no internet? You know, it was blissful to be honest with you. We actually went outside and did something with our life instead of always sitting in front of a computer. There were no cell phones. And then when they did come out, you had this big old bag you lugged around with you. Do you remember any of that? Let me give you what the Puritan Thomas Watson says about how to prepare for reading the Bible. This list is pretty lengthy, but let's listen to what he says. He says, number one, remove hindrances, remove the love of every sin, remove the distracting concerns of this world, especially covetousness, and don't make jokes with and out of Scripture. Number two, prepare your heart. Do this by collecting your thoughts, purging unclean affections and desires, not coming to it rashly or carelessly. Number three, read it with reverence, considering that each line is God speaking directly to you. Number four, read the books of the Bible in order. Number five, get a true understanding of scripture. This is best achieved by comparing relevant parts of scripture with each other. This is what the reformers called analogia scriptura, comparing scripture. Number six, read with seriousness. The Christian life is to be taken seriously since it requires striving and not falling short. Number seven, persevere in remembering what you read. Don't let it be stolen from you. If it doesn't stay in your memory, it's unlikely to be much benefit to you. Number eight, meditate on what you read. The Hebrew word for meditate means to be intense in the mind. Meditation without reading is wrong and bound to error. Reading without meditation is barren and fruitless. It means to stir the affections, to be warmed by the fire of meditation. 9. Read with a humble heart. Acknowledge that you are unworthy, that God should reveal himself to you. 10. Believe it all to be God's holy word. We know that no sinner could have written it because of the way it describes sin. No saint could blaspheme God by pretending his own word was God's, and no angel could have written it for the same reason. Number 11, prize the Bible highly. It's your lifeline. You were born by it. You need to grow by it. Number 12, love the Bible ardently. Number 13, come to read it with an honest heart, willing to know the entire and complete will of God, reading in order to be changed and made better by it. Number 14, apply to yourself everything that you read. Take every word as spoken to yourself. It's condemnation of sins as the condemnation of your own sin, the duty that it requires as the duty God would require from you. Number 15, pay close attention to the commands of the word as much as the promises. Think of how you need direction just as much as you need comfort. 16. Don't get carried away with the minor details. Rather, make sure to pay closest attention to the great things. 17. Compare yourself with the Word. How do you compare? Is your heart something of a transcript of it or not? 18. Pay special attention to those passages that speak to your individual, particular, and present situation. 19. Pay special attention to the examples and lives of people in the Bible as living sermons. 20. Don't stop reading the Bible until you find your heart warm. Let it not only inform you, but also inflame you. 21. Put into practice what you read. 22, Christ is for us, prophet, priest, and king. Make use of His office as a prophet. Get Christ not only to open the Scriptures up to you, but to open up your mind and understanding. Number 23, make sure you put yourself under a true ministry of the Word, faithfully and thoroughly expounding the Word. Be earnest and eager in waiting on it. Number 24, pray that you will profit from reading. He says, there are natural obstacles that you may still be able to profit from reading even though, number one, you don't seem to profit as much as others do. Remember the different yields. Though the yield isn't as much as others, it is still a true and fruitful yield. And number two, you may feel slow of understanding. I've been studying the Bible for over 30 years, 37 years. And there are times that I go, Lord, I just don't get this. I just don't get it. I have no idea what you're talking about here. And then he says, number three, your memory is bad. Remember that you're still able to have a good heart despite this. You may still remember the most important things even if you cannot remember everything. Be encouraged by John 14, 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. So there you have it. That's what the Puritans did. They prized the Word above everything. What else does Peter say here? As you put aside these five vices in verse 1, and as a newborn babe you crave the unadulterated milk of the word, he says, you do this so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. We do this to grow, to increase, Kenneth Weiss says, the words that you may grow thereby could also be rendered in order that we might be nourished up. Listen, that's always been the desire of the writers of Scripture, is that the readers would be nourished by the words of truth. This is truth. Colossians 1, 9, and 10. When he was speaking about the Colossians and their growing in the knowledge of God, he says, For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And then he gives a hint of purpose clause, so that, for the purpose of, that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. See, there's a point here to have the knowledge of God so that you can live a life worthy. You can walk worthy. At the end of 2 Peter, Peter desired that his readers would grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. See, they had come in salvation to taste the kindness of the Lord. Because the Word of God birthed new life in them. Same as for us. The Word of God has birthed new life in us and we have come to taste the kindness of the Lord. Therefore, we are to crave the Word so that we can grow. You don't want to remain in the state that you're in. You want to grow. And don't ever think that you've arrived and that you can't learn, you can't grow. That's just pride. When he says there, verse 3, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, the term he uses there, translated if, it doesn't imply doubt. It assumes the reality of the past experience of God's amazing goodness and compassion in Christ that you saw in salvation. The term if is a first-class conditional participle. It introduces the facts or the condition necessary for a proposition to be true. And since His readers had tasted or experienced the kindness or the goodness and the grace of the Lord in their conversion, they already knew how blessed and wonderful it was. And therefore, they should have desired more of that goodness through feeding on His Word. So you could translate it, since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. But the conditional construction here, as D. M. Hybert tells us, is an implied invitation to the readers for self-examination on the matter. Do you long for the Word? Have you tasted the kindness of the Lord? Are you saved? We'll put it in those terms. One writer says the verb does not imply a cautious sip on the part of the readers, but denotes actual appropriation and enjoyment on their part. And he uses the aorist tense, as he speaks of this, of tasted, to look back to a past experience that begun at conversion. I think of this verse, Jeremiah 15, 16. Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I have been called by your name, O Lord God of hosts. Your words were found and I ate them. That is passion. That is desire. A taste will excite the appetite. And Peter assumes that the enjoyableness of the past experience will excite them to further appropriating the Word of God in their life. Their experience had assured them that the Lord is good. And he says there in that last verse, verse 3, tasted the kindness of the Lord. That's from Psalm 34 in verse 8, which says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord, or Jehovah, is good. Peter used the Septuagint version, and he omitted the words NC. But notice also, by using the Septuagint version, which is, as I said earlier, that's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, some parts in Aramaic. But there is a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, usually identified by LXX. And that verse, In verse 3, where you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, the term Lord in the Septuagint is the term that's translated in the Hebrew, Yahweh. It reflects the Hebrew of Yahweh, so just like in Romans chapter 10, when it talks about calling upon the name of the Lord, that's a quote from the Old Testament, and it's the same term, calling upon Yahweh. So, we have to ask this question then, are we actively putting aside these vices that he lists here, and are we actively craving after the Word so that we can grow in our respect to salvation because we tasted the kindness and the goodness of the Lord? And listen, if you're not killing sin in your life, don't be surprised if you have little or no desire for the Word of God, because that will take over your life. Sin will weaken your desires for God. It will weaken your desire for His Word. And that's why we have to take up the cross daily. There is a self-denial that goes on every day. You deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow me, Jesus says. See, it's more than making a decision for Christ, it is an active following Him. And so in following Him, I have to die to myself because I have to die to those desires that I want that are not in line with His. It's like, really in a way, like a marriage. Because in marriage, both partners have to die to self. And if you don't believe that, your marriage ain't gonna make it very long. You're gonna have nothing but trouble. And I can tell you from 33 years of marriage, death of self and forgiveness, and to get to forgiveness, death of self. You've got to die to yourself to forgive when you've been wronged, or you feel you've been wronged, you've been hurt. Don't walk around like a little puppy dog with his tail between his legs, you know. So the question is, have you died to self? Have you died to self and received Christ? Have you come to Christ? Have you humbly submitted yourself to Jesus Christ, who is Lord? You're not making Him Lord, He is Lord. Are you submitting yourself to Him who is Lord? James says it this way, James 1.21, Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. If you haven't come to Christ humbly submitting to Him, then you haven't come to Christ at all. There has to be humbling before Him. There has to be a recognition of your sin. There has to be a recognition of who Jesus is, that He is God incarnate. And you submit yourself to Him. And I would urge you, with all the urging that I could give this morning, is if you haven't come to Christ, come to Him right now. Repent of your sin and embrace Jesus. Call upon Him to save you. Confess your sin to Him. Turn from your sin and turn to Christ. And trust in Him and Him alone for salvation. And trust in His finished work on the cross for your salvation. And trust in Him to be the only person by which you can be saved. The Bible says that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus said himself, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me. Father, we thank you for your word this morning. And our prayer is essentially that, that those that are in here this morning would evaluate their relationship with you. And those that don't know you would humble themselves right now, quit holding on to their pride, holding on to their lives, thinking that they have a better life now. Their life is enslaved to sin. But Lord, you are the one who delivers from sin. You make the chains fall off. You grant true freedom. Help them to find that in you this morning. Help them to commit their lives to you. We thank you for your word and we thank you for the opportunity that we've had today to study it together. And we pray, Heavenly Father, to apply it throughout this day and throughout this week and throughout our lives. And if there's anything in our lives that has hindered that desire, we get rid of it. And we would feast on your word. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.