I'd like to turn back to that passage of scripture which we read together in 1 Peter and chapter 2. Now last week, as we've been going through this epistle, we completed the first chapter and we saw that the last few verses were all about the importance of reading and studying the Word of God. Whereas people are like grass and people wither and perish with the passage of time, God's precious and infallible word, we're told, lives and abides forever. Many generations of people have come and gone. Many monarchs and presidents have come and gone. Many kings and rulers and empires have come and gone. But God's word still lives on. We're told that it endures forever. The word of God can never be destroyed. It's absolutely incorruptible. And this should be a tremendous comfort to us as Christians to know that the promises of God will always stand and bring much peace and assurance to our hearts. Well, the Lord has promised to preserve his word from one generation to the next. So although today the Christian faith has many, many enemies, And I'm sure that there are many people in various lands today who would love to see the Word of God outlawed. They would love to have all those people who preach and distribute the Word of God apprehended and imprisoned. Nevertheless, the living Word of God endureth forever and it will still stand strong when all of its enemies have been destroyed. Well, Peter continues with the same theme at the beginning of chapter 2, the importance of God's words. And he also shows in this opening verse of chapter 2 about the importance of living a changed life. When a person becomes a Christian, they leave behind all those sins which they loved and lived for before, and now they want to live lives which are pleasing to Almighty God. When a person embraces the message of the gospel, it must affect their conversation and behaviour. If there's been no change, there's been no conversion. A conversion is a radical change within a person's heart. And if a person still loves the world and still loves sin as much after their profession as before, that's a telltale sign that they've never been soundly converted at all by the Holy Spirit. We read in verse one, wherefore, or in the light of what's gone before, laying aside all malice and all guile, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now when a person is converted they must repent of their sin. And repentance isn't going to confession or staying penance. Repentance is a complete about-turn in a person's life, a complete change of direction. Those things which they once loved and cherished, they now love them no more. All those things which they live for, just serving the flesh and living for the world, oh, they lose interest in those things. These things are replaced by new pursuits. As a new convert wants to live a life which is pleasing to Almighty God, they want to do God's will and they have an appetite for God's words. So we're told in this opening verse that certain things need to be put off or laid to one side. Now if an athlete is running a race today, They're not weighed down by heavy clothing. Could you imagine somebody stepping up to start the 400 meters in the Olympic Games and they appear on the running track with a pair of heavy boots and a heavy overcoat just in case it might start raining along the way? You'd think that person has got no chance of winning. It's complete madness to dress like that when they've got to run a race. Even the track suit is discarded. Anything which might hinder the athlete is laid to one side. The athlete wants to give the race their very best. Even all those cyclists who were participating in the Tour of France in London last week, They didn't wear any padded jackets or heavy jeans just in case they might fall off and injure themselves on the tarmac. No! They had to lay aside anything that would hinder them or stop them from being successful. So all unnecessary clothing is laid to one side. Now in the spiritual realm today, Christians and new converts also want to give God of their very best, so they lay aside those sins which might be a hindrance to them. We can't bring our sins with us. If we still want to practice sin, then we've not really repented at all. Like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, we want to be rid of this big burden upon our back which is weighing us down and dragging us down to this earth. And we're told in this opening verse about five specific sins that need to be put away. There's malice, there's guile, there's hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking. These are five great pillars which the Christian needs to topple right at the beginning of their Christian race. Notice it says, all malice, all guile, all evil speakings. Don't do a partial job, do a thorough job in getting rid of these sins out of your lives, because it will be a hindrance to your spiritual growth and your spiritual well-being. If a person was to be taken to hospital in order to undergo some type of treatment, in order to remove a tumour, would they be happy if the doctor said, well we've removed part of the tumour, but not all of it? No patient could take comfort in that. It has to all be removed. Every last cell of it has to be erased. If a person was cleaning a teapot after it's been used several times and it's terribly stained, they may use bleach. But the person will want to know that the teapot's been thoroughly rinsed after the bleach has been in it, before they'd be happy to pour out their next cup of tea. If somebody said to you, well we've got rid of most of the bleach, but not all of the bleach, that just wouldn't be good enough. They would expect the person to do a thorough job. I remember reading about a teenager many years ago who said to his friends that he didn't need to buy expensive mouth watch, he could use bleach instead. And his friends didn't believe him at all. And he says, well of course you can't drink bleach Neve, it would be very harmful. But if you dilute it with 10 parts water, it will do the trick. Well this friend was a little naive and he tried it and shortly afterwards he was rushed off to hospital with terrible burns in his throat and in his mouth. Now some of the sins which are mentioned in this opening verse, verse 1, are equally destructive. Did you know that some whole churches can be destroyed by the sin of malice? So much murder and so much theft has come about as a result of envy. Lives and reputations have been destroyed as a result of evil speaking. Now the first thing on the list which needs to be laid aside is this sin of malice, which means to have an intention within your heart of doing evil. And in the Bible the sin of malice is often related to a person's speech. People need to be very careful about what words they use in case they destroy the lives and the reputations of others. When a person is being very rude or very nasty or being very abusive towards another person, we say that they're being malicious. They're seeking to wound and to hurt others with their words. Now, when we want to ruin somebody's reputation today, we'll often highlight their faults and their failings so that other people may think ill of them. And then when we do this thing, we're committing this sin of malice. We're being very uncharitable. Now, when a person is first converted, one of the areas in which the change is often noticed, first of all, is in their speech. When a person becomes a real Christian, their speech changes. They no longer want to use the bad and foul, abusive language which they once did. You shouldn't hear a Christian using swear words and certainly not blasphemy. These things should be put to one side. But what about rude and nasty, abusive, uncharitable talk? Surely that ought to go the same way. When Peter denied the Lord Jesus by the fire of coals, it was his speech that gave him away. People said to Peter, surely you were with him in the garden, your speech betrayeth thee. I can tell that you're a Galilean by your accent. It was his speech that gave him away that he was a follower of the Lord Jesus. And I believe today that every person who is a real Christian, their speech and their language should be different to that of the people of the world. Now it's true to say that it would be very rare to hear a Christian using bad language or to lose their temper and to curse and to swear, although it does happen on occasions. When Peter was put on the spot and he denied knowing his Lord and Master, we're told that he denied the Lord Jesus with cursing and with swearing. It should be even more rare to hear a professing Christian taking the Lord's name in vain. However, to say that the speech of every Christian is always with grace seasoned with souls, we would have to say that that's not always true either. You know, some Christians have a real problem with malice. They're always running people down, their view is always the right view, they never have a good word to say about anybody who has a different opinion to their own. They run churches down, they run people down, they run the minister down. They may be sound in faith in the sense that they've embraced all the important doctrines of the Christian faith and they believe in being justified by faith without the deeds of the law and so forth. But they're certainly not found in charity and in patience, and have no forbearance with their fellow Christians at all. And sometimes these characters end up not going to any church at all. I've met people who don't have a good word to say about any Christian or any church and they end up staying at home and having no fellowship with other Christians at all because they just don't have the charity, the patience and the forbearance which a person needs in order to exist in a local fellowship. Now the root of a lot of malice is of course pride. People give themselves and their egos a boost by destroying and ruining the lives, the reputation and the character of others. Now these people may argue that they're only saying what's true. They're not being dishonest. But what right do they have to be habitually nasty and malicious towards others, particularly those who are their fellow believers, sons and daughters of Almighty God? Look at the way that they're treating them. Would they like their lives to be scrutinized with a fine tooth comb? Would they like to be at the receiving end themselves of some of the nasty and sharp and uncharitable comments of others? Well, we need to think very carefully before we speak, particularly if we're feeling angry or disgruntled about something, or it's so easy to just blurt something out on the spur of the moment without thinking it through carefully. Before we do say something, it's always good to ask ourselves, is it kind? Is it necessary? And is it true? And if we can answer yes to all three, then maybe it's good to say it, but otherwise it may be best to keep our views and opinions to ourselves. Now we all know what it is to be wounded by the comments and the words of others, but we would also have to acknowledge, if we're honest, that these little tongues of ours have also been the source from which many uncharitable comments of our own have come. Now malice is not the same as reproof. Reproof in the Bible is looked upon as something which is good and useful and constructive. If you see one of your fellow Christians going astray, you know, out of love for them, you will want to help them and get alongside them and encourage them. If they're doing something which is wrong, you may even have to reprove them and pray for them, that they might come back to the Lord once more. However, malice and criticism is when a person wants to ruin somebody's reputation and character, when somebody has a bad motive within their heart. It's not something which is done out of love, but something which is done out of hatred. When somebody's talking behind somebody's back with the intention of getting others to think ill of that person. Well, running people down may come naturally to us at times, but the Bible says it's something which needs to be laid aside. Now you're a new believer, now you're a new convert, there's no place for malice in your life anymore. Sometimes you hear on the news about gunmen going into churches in countries such as Pakistan or Nigeria and they fire indiscriminately at the congregation and kill and wound many people. And we condemn such atrocities and those people who participate in them. But did you know that we have a little weapon housed within our mouths that can be just as harmful and just as destructive as any shotgun? And that's our tongue. And we ought to be very careful about how we use it. Well, the next sin on the list is the sin of guile. Guile is the word which you don't hear people using very often today. It means treachery, deceit and cunning. Sly behaviour, where somebody is out to do a lot of harm, but they do it in a very subtle and a very underhanded way. Now shady characters such as Achan and Gehazi in the Old Testament, it could be said of them that they had a lot of guile. They were portraying themselves as being faithful servants of the God of Israel, but secretly there was lots of mischief within their hearts. And in the New Testament, of course, you had Judas Iscariot, who was portraying himself as being a loyal, faithful disciple of Christ. But secretly, he was a thief, and he was a covetous man, and he was willing to betray his dear master for just a few pieces of silver. Judas Iscariot and many others like him were guilty of living a double life and practicing their evil in a discreet way, and the Bible calls that guile. Now God knows the hearts and motives of all men. We can deceive other people. We can even deceive ourselves at times. But we cannot deceive Almighty God. All things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. You see, God knows exactly what we're like, not just in public, he knows what we're like in private too. The Lord knows exactly what we like to think about when there's nobody else around. The Lord knows exactly what we like to watch on television at night time when there's nobody else about. It says about the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage, later on in this chapter, that the Lord Jesus Christ did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. But that couldn't be said about many of his professing followers. Neither could it be said about many of the characters that he came across during his earthly ministry. Well that brings us on to the next sin, the sin of hypocrisy. Where a person says one thing and they do another. Where their speech and their behaviour are not in harmony together. When a person doesn't practice what they preach, they're known as being a hypocrite. They have glaring double standards in their lives. Now this was one of the sins which the Lord Jesus was always condemning and speaking against. The Lord was often surrounded by religious people who claimed to be following God, who claimed to be doing God's will, and yet they were always finding faults and criticising the Lord and his disciples. They had no love or no compassion within their hearts for those people who were in need. And their hearts were full of envy, full of hatred, full of covetousness. But they were all being covered up with a cloak of religion. And Jesus said that was hypocrisy. In fact, in Matthew chapter 23, virtually the whole passage is devoted to our Lord condemning this sin. How often the Lord says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! Hypocrites! and he exposed their sin and people hated him for it and they conspired to have the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended and crucified. The word hypocrite or hypocrisy appears 40 times in the Bible and on 23 of those occasions it was our Lord who was used in the words in order to condemn it. So hypocrisy, we're told, needs to be laid aside. Don't carry hypocrisy with you into your new Christian life. Put hypocrisy to one side. It's part of our old life. Now, hypocrisy is something which all of us can be guilty of. Because of our pride, we want people to think well of us, we want people to speak well of us, and sometimes we can keep our sins under wraps. We can speak out vehemently against the sins which we can clearly see in others, and at the same time we can make excuses for the faults and the failings which are within our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. Our own sins don't seem that bad, but the sins of others often are perceived by us to be shocking. Now the world often complains today that there's far too much hypocrisy in the church. And that's one of the reasons why they say they don't go to church, because the church is full of hypocrites. And the media will often find some scandal relating to some religious person and splash it all over the papers. And people say, well I've got no time for church, no time for Christianity, no time for religion. Look at those who profess to be following the Lord Jesus. Look at their behaviour and how shocking and awful it is. They hear about all the scandals, all the extramarital affairs, all the extortion, and all the child abuse which is taking place under the umbrella of religion, and many people are put off by it all, and they say, I'm not interested in God at all because the church is full of hypocrites. Now many people will use this excuse about too many hypocrites in the church as an excuse. The reality is that they're just not interested in God. They may stay away from church, but are they reading the Bible indoors? I very much doubt it. Are they spending time upon their knees every day, praising and praying to Almighty God? I very much doubt it. People say that they're put off by the hypocrisy, but they use that as an excuse to live an ungodly worldly life with no spiritual interest at all. So maybe their excuses are a little hypocritical. Having said that, it's important that, as Christians, that we shouldn't give cause for the enemies of the Lord to reproach. We shouldn't have glaring inconsistencies in our lives where people can point an accusing finger at us and say, this person is professing godliness, and look at their behaviour, it just doesn't match up at all to the things which they profess. Now it's sometimes hard being a Christian witness, particularly when we're living before people who know us very well. You know, you can speak to a stranger in the street, But the stranger doesn't really know you very well. They're not watching you 24 hours a day. They don't know anything about your faults and your failings. But if a person is working in a secular job, you can guarantee that your colleagues will notice if you arrive on time. They will notice if you throw stickies or pretend to be ill when you're not. Or whether you work hard in your job, they notice if you're doing your fair share. Your colleagues can see how you work under pressure. They can see how you speak to and deal with difficult and awkward clients. At home, if you're living with people in your households who are not believers, family members can see if you help out with the household chores indoors, or whether you're thoroughly selfish. They can see what type of programs you like to watch up on the television. Children are particularly good at observing the behaviour of their parents. And the last thing they want to see are their parents behaving in a Jekyll and Hyde type of manner. They might be all peaceful at church, but they may be at one another's throats indoors. Well, the next thing we're told is envy, which is a feeling of discontentment and resentment. where people wished that they had some of the things which other people have got. Now envy is at the root of many sins including malice and theft and covetousness, adultery and even murder. Jesus said the reason he was delivered up to Pontius Pilate was because of this sin of envy. But surely being a Christian should make somebody content. Surely Christians shouldn't be envious of others. We shouldn't be looking around to see what others have got and others have not got and comparing our lots with them. And what complete madness is this for somebody who is a real Christian wishing that they could change places with an unbeliever because the unbeliever has more material possessions than what they have. What complete madness is that? Now in these materialistic days in which we live, where we all have such a high standard of living, and there's so much advertisement on the media about you must have this and you must have that, you think, well, surely people would be happy and content with their lot in life. But that's far from being the case. Sometimes in life, it's the people who have the least who are the most content and the most happy. There's a verse in Ecclesiastes that says, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, neither he that loveth abundance with increase. So envy is something which needs to be laid aside. Let it never be said about a Christian that they're envious of others. And then we have the last sin which is mentioned in this opening verse which is evil speaking. Once again we're taken back to the sin of the tongue. This clause would forbid all foul, abusive, slanderous and malicious conversation, including gossip, including rumours, including lies. These little tongues of ours may seem relatively harmless, but they can do a tremendous amount of damage. I remember reading about an enormous paint factory going up in flames, and when the fire investigators tried to work out the cause of the fire, they found it was a spark on a forklift truck had ignited something, and the whole factory ended up in flames as a result of one spark. Now a few evil words spoken here and there can cause wounds which can take years to heal. All evil speaking, we're told in this opening verse, needs to be laid aside. Now our tongues can be used for good, we can praise God, we can pray to God, we can share the gospel with others, we can have good fellowship with our fellow believers, and we can encourage our fellow believers with these tongues. We can speak well of others and concentrate upon their strengths and their good points rather than their faults and their failings. But these little tongues of ours can also be used to do a tremendous amount of evil. They can be used to criticise and find fault with others. They can be used to run other people down. They can be used to habitually moan and complain and criticise. They can be used to employ foul and abusive language towards others. These tongues can be used to tell lies and to be dishonest and to exaggerate and to always put ourselves in a good light. Now some people would say in reading this list, well surely Christians shouldn't have to be told to lay aside all these things. But the reality is that we do. I'm sure that in this list anybody with any humility at all would have to put their hands up and say, yes, I've been guilty of all of these sins. Yes, I've broken God's law over and over again. I can see various ways in my life that I've been guilty of breaking God's law. Sometimes we can even hate ourselves for the many times that we've given into the flesh and the many times that we've yielded to temptation. That's why it says about the Word of God in the Bible that it's profitable for correction and reproof. And don't we find that the case when we're studying the Scriptures? We feel bad at times. We don't always go to church to be made to feel good. Sometimes when you are hearing a very searching message from the Word of God it brings you conviction of sin. But you know the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus came into this world to save us from our sins. When we're aware of the fact that we fall short of the perfect standard of Almighty God, isn't it good to know that God has provided a wonderful saviour in the Lord Jesus who has died in our place to atone for our sins on Calvary's cross. He kept the law of God perfectly. There was no hypocrisy in the Lord, there was no envy in the Lord, there was no guile in the Lord, there was no malice in the Lord, there was no evil speaking in the Lord. He alone has kept the law of God perfectly and therefore he's a perfect innocent sacrifice and substitute to die in our place to atone for the sins that we have done. He died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Who can sail through life and say that they've never committed a single sin, never uttered a single lie? We are all imperfect creatures. None of us can reach up to that perfect standard of Almighty God. It's a task which is altogether beyond us. And that's why the Lord came into this world to save us. He did that which we were unable to do and he laid his life down upon Calvary to atone for our sins so that we might be saved. Well I hope that we're all trusting in the Lord Jesus here this morning. I wonder if there's anybody in this place of worship who's not sure. Have you come as a lost sinner to him? Have you accepted him as your Lord and Saviour? Do you believe that Jesus shed his blood on Calvary to atone for your sin? And you believe and place all your hopes for eternal salvation in that glorious sacrifice that Jesus made. Well, next time, God willing, we'll go on to this whole business of desiring the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow. But let us learn from today's passage that the Word of God does bring us conviction and reproof at times, but to the end that we might flee to the Saviour in order to receive His pardon. Some people may have been believers for many years and may not have grown very much. And the reason for that is because they're not feeding upon the word of God on a regular basis. And maybe they're holding on to some of those sins that the Bible says that we should lay to one side. So may the Lord give us much wisdom and much courage in our generation today and the desire to apply these practical truths to our day-to-day lives that we might live wholeheartedly for the glory and for the praise of Almighty God.