I have entitled this message The Taste of Your Faith. Not the test, but the taste of your faith. And you'll understand, I think, the title by the time we finish the message. Before I move into the text, I want to just share for a minute about Peter and his teaching style in his epistle that we are studying. Peter is not like Paul. Paul, as you read through his teaching and study it, Paul is very smooth. He's extremely logical, and as he presents his teaching, it unfolds and unfolds and unfolds, line upon line, detail upon detail, in a very smooth way. You could say Paul is the master thinker, and obviously his teaching, for example, in the Book of Romans or any of his other teaching, reflects An extremely controlled mind that is also extremely deep, also extremely clear. In a sense, I think you could sum up Paul and his teaching by the phrase, brilliant mind, brilliant mind. But you see, Peter is not like Paul. Peter is totally different, as we are all different, and reading his teaching is to study his personality. So that what Peter does in his teaching style is he jumps around, which is very much in keeping with what we see of Peter in the Gospels. What Peter does is he will begin a thought, and then he'll jump to another thought, not finish the thought he began. Then he'll come back to the thought that he began and jump from. He's a lot like a guy that had too much coffee, in that sense. So as you move through Peter and as we've been studying it, I want you to realize we're dealing with a man whose teaching really suggests to us that he is charged with emotion and that a lot of what he is saying is in a sense guided by that, certainly with the inspiration of the Spirit, but truth through personality. So that you get this emotionally charged teaching from Peter that kind of jumps around. In that sense, I think we could call Peter the brilliant heart. Whereas Paul is the brilliant mind, Peter is the brilliant heart. A man of passionate love for Jesus and his teaching is guided by that kind of emotion. Not to say that Paul didn't have that, but they're two different men. But the end result of that is that it makes his teaching in some sense at times hard to follow. And for the teacher, preacher, it certainly makes Peter hard to outline. Because of his way of jumping around, he doesn't close off an issue and then move on. He comes back to issues he didn't close off. So, you need to keep that in mind, especially because of the text in front of us today. So, understanding that bit about Peter, I want to ask you a question. Do you remember what we studied last time? Do you remember what we studied last time? Yes, good. You are brilliant minds and brilliant hearts. In 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22, we can remind ourselves of what we studied because it bears upon what we studied today. Peter said, since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, here's the essence of what we studied last time. Love one another fervently with a pure heart. We talked about loving one another fervently. Do you remember what the fervent was all about? Literally it means to be stretched out to the limit. And I don't know about you, but I don't know if that thought has left my mind for more than an hour or two in this last week. That God has called me to love the brethren in such a way as to be stretched out to the limit of my ability to love right now in my life. And again, you know, you see the personality of Peter here. You follow him through the Gospels, and the man is all extremes. But it's extremes attached to a great love for Jesus. That's why, if at any point in this study of Peter, you have felt like, you know, it seems like we're constantly being pushed out to the edge, you are. And it isn't me, it's him. It's his great, passionate love for Jesus, that to Peter, everything is all the way, and it was all the way or nothing for him. And so that comes from his heart as well. So we talked last time then about this whole idea of loving fervently, stretched out to the farthest point. That is directly connected with what we're going to study now as we come into chapter 2. You know in the Bible, when these guys wrote these letters, they didn't have chapters and verses, did you know that? You didn't receive a letter from Peter and he says now chapter 2. It just was a letter. And if you can understand that, you can see the flow of thought. The chapters were put in by other people later. Let's read through chapter 2, verse 1 through 3. Peter says, therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed You have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So you get the flow of thought. He's challenged us to love and told us exactly how we're to love intensely out to the edge. And out of that, he says, therefore, then lay aside all of this sin. Desire the word if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. The key thought, obviously, here is in verse three. where he says, if indeed you have tasted, the Lord is gracious. Do you see how that fits with your loving out to the farthest point? If you've tasted personally of the graciousness of God, then you can do what you're being asked to do in terms of this kind of love. So it becomes a foundation, really, of the whole thing. Now, in moving through these verses, I want to give you three things to think about. The depth of this tasting. Secondly, The depth of tasting of the graciousness of God brings about a duty. The duty of this tasting. Third is the desire of this tasting as it relates to the Bible. So the depth, the duty and the desire of this tasting. But to get it all right in your mind and keep in flow with Peter's way of teaching, I want to begin with verse 3. In verse 3 we have the depth of this tasting when he says to us, Now, as you look at this and you see this word tasted, it's important to realize that this is a euphemism. Do you know what a euphemism is? It is a replacement word. It's a word that you use in place of another word, often a very descriptive word to replace another word. So when you read the word tasted it's a euphemism for faith. If you have tasted the Lord is gracious. He's talking about and you get that especially comes clear if you see the word if. The NIV translates since, but the NAS, the King James and the New King James all maintain if. And I think it flows better with the context. You're being challenged to love out to the extreme. Well, how can I do that? Well, you can if, if you're truly born again. If you have personally, if you have personally tasted experience the graciousness of God well then of course you can do this you see it is a word about real saving faith this word tasted and the word if is obviously not only a word of encouragement but a challenge if causes you to examine yourself to see if you have really tasted of the Lord But having had that brief explanation of the word taste and the fact that it really is all about faith. To go deeper. There are some great implications of this word taste as it relates to faith. And they become quickly apparent if you stop and really think about it. You see, when you see the word taste here, in reference to faith, then you realize, in the Bible, you find this quite often, God using the senses of men to speak of faith. You see, we're now, in the life we have with Christ, we're in the spiritual realm. We're discussing spiritual things. The hardship comes in the fact that our language revolves around the human experience, not spiritual experience. Therefore, things communicated to us in the Bible have to come in very human terms. So you find faith communicated in the idea of hearing God. of seeing God, of touching God, of feeling God, or tasting. These are all of our senses. In this case, taste is chosen on purpose very specifically, and the implications of it are very deep. For one thing, when you see here, it says, if indeed you have tasted, the Lord is gracious. This is really a vital aspect of faith. Because it is really all about a deep, internal, rich experience. And I say that because there's another place in the Bible where tasted is used and it means something totally different. Hold your finger here and Peter and I want to show it to you. It's in Hebrews 6. And if you don't see the contrast and the distinction, later on it'll haunt you. Hebrews 6, here in Hebrews we read of another tasting, but it's different. It says here, it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have, here it is, tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away. to renew them, again to repentance, seeing they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. That, to me, is one of the most horrifying passages in all of the Bible. Impossible, fall away, possible to renew, that's horrifying. Now we have studied that in detail when we studied Hebrews. So here you see the word tasted. What you have to realize is this, this is talking about a tasting short of regeneration. This is talking about, if I could put it this way, an external tasting. This is a pre-salvation experience. It's the idea of exposure to the goodness of God, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the love of the brethren. You've tasted in the sense of being exposed to it. If you are not born again today, you are being exposed in that way right now to the good things of God. You're tasting in that way right now. So, here is an external experience, an external tasting. That is totally different from what Peter is talking about, which is an internal experience, an internal tasting, a very deep internal tasting. So, go back to 1 Peter. Understanding that, we realize then that this is a vital aspect of faith because it's the idea, if you have tasted the Lord is gracious, it means that deep down in the inward recesses of your heart, you have continually, over the long haul, experienced the life of God. You have experienced God within you doing for you what you could never do for yourself. It's that idea. So, it is a vital aspect of faith because if you're truly God's child, every child of God has this. From the deepest part of your heart comes the cry, Abba, Father. The most intimate possible connection from the deepest part of your soul. You understand? The deepest part of your spirit. So, for that reason it is a vital aspect of faith that you have tasted of the graciousness of God in this way. If you have not, then you're not a Christian. And so we have a vital aspect of faith in this tasting. It is a deep, inward experience of the grace and the life of God. But that isn't all in the word taste. Also in the word taste is a discerning aspect of faith. Think about your physical taste. Think about your tongue. That's where it is. Now, if I were to say to you, if I came to you right now and I said, could you just do me a favor? Could you close your eyes? And you said, yes. And you closed your eyes and said, now stick out your tongue. And you stuck out your tongue, and I dumped an entire shaker of pepper on your tongue. Would you know that you didn't like it? Now how could you discern that? Your taste buds would immediately tell you, wouldn't they? Now, if I said, stick out your tongue, And instead, I drop some nice, sweet cherry syrup on it. And you go... Would your taste buds discern that you liked it? Yes. You see, in taste there is a discernment between sweet, between bitter, and so on. That's what taste is all about in some senses. But, you see, the Word is chosen on purpose because when it comes to real faith and really tasting in faith of the graciousness of God, what happens is this. You gain a discernment. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, then It matters to you what is true and false. It matters to you what is right and wrong. And thus, you become one out of the context of a deep inward tasting of the graciousness of God who contends for the truth. So that discernment to the deep taster is a very real issue. And you go through your life discerning between what is right and wrong, what is heresy, what is false doctrine and so on. And that's why we have in the body of Christ ministries that are devoted to that. For example, the Christian Research Institute, you know, when the Bible Answer Man Hank Hanegraaff is on the phone, hi, you know, this is the Bible Answer Man, and questions from all over the country of, is this right, is this wrong? What does this mean? And it's all discernment time stuff of the truth, out of the context of knowing a gracious God. So there is this discerning aspect of faith implied by the tasting, but that isn't all. You see when you read, if you have indeed tasted, the Lord is gracious, there's another implication there if you connect it with the goodness, the graciousness, and that is the delightful aspect of tasting. I don't know about you, but this is one of my more preferred aspects of tasting. Physically, when you eat food, One of the greatest things about eating is the delightful aspect of it. Oh yes, the discerning part is important, discerning, sweet, bitter and all of that. But you know the great thing is when you take a big spoonful of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and you've left it on the counter, you followed directions so the bouquet could come out. You didn't know ice cream had bouquet until you had Haagen-Dazs, right? But it's gourmet and it's foreign, you thought, until you read the label, it's made in America. Anyway, You know, in the 90s, one of the great things about living in the 90s is that all this gourmet stuff is available to us. It comes from all over the world. One of my favorite things is to taste Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Or how about a good Dove bar on a hot day? Oh man, it sounds so good right now. Someone rush out and get me one. You know, there's so many delights of tasting. You know, it's Mother's Day and certainly there's going to be some fresh pies out there. We're not talking microwave. We're talking fresh gourmet. Oh, fresh cherries. Can't you just... Is your mouth squirting yet? Cakes, you know, a perfect... Think of this, a perfect cut of prime rib. Oh, the delight of it all. Or how about gourmet coffee? Now we're talking! How about this? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Anyway, you understand that involved in taste there is this delight. And so it is in the Christian life. That's why he says, he says, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, I want to encourage you. Taste and see the Lord is good. Delight yourself in Him. Love Him. Let Him love you. Enjoy the Christian life. It is the most enjoyable of all lives. And you know one thing you need to watch out for is this. This discerning aspect of taste. Don't get stuck there. Some people get so preoccupied with discerning in the Christian life, correcting everyone that is wrong, that they leave very little room for enjoyment of the good things of the Christian life. You may have met them, you may be there now, it's possible to get caught there. Why? Because it's so important. But you know there's more than that. And the more important thing than that is what it should lead to, which is this delightful tasting of the graciousness of God. I think it's very sad, and I'm not pointing the finger at anybody, but I think it's very sad when you meet somebody who is given to discernment in the body of Christ, but never gets beyond that. And as a result, all they ever talk about is what is wrong. They have no joy. And they are missing out on all the delightful things of the Christian life. Listen, I can appreciate a discerning ministry as much as anybody else, and I'm committed to it. But I am also committed to tasting and seeing the Lord as good, and just rejoicing in the goodness of the Christian life. Joy unspeakable, full of glory, it's all ours. So there is this delighting aspect of faith. And one more thought here. There is, in the spiritual realm, when you read, if you have tasted, the Lord is gracious, there is a contrast between the spiritual realm and the physical realm of tasting. You see, in the physical realm, the older you get, the less your taste functions. So that, you find a guy I know you're all acquainted with from your morning devotions in 2 Samuel 19.34 named Barzillai. You know Barzillai? I'm just kidding. I know none of you know who he is. But there's a guy named Barzillai. He's in 2 Samuel 19.34. He's an old friend of David's. And he says an interesting thing to David. He says, Barzillai said to the king in 2 Samuel 19.35, I am today 80 years old. And he says, can your servant taste what I eat or drink? Saying, David, I'm so old. I can barely taste at all anymore what I eat or drink. And then he was going on with his discussion. But that's the idea. The older you get, the less you can taste. But you know the great thing about the Christian life, the great thing about tasting of the graciousness of God in the Christian life, is that the older you get in the Lord, the more you grow in the Lord, the greater your ability to taste, the greater your ability to taste of the love of God, to enjoy the love of God. The Bible says the outward man perishes, but the inward man is what? Renewed day by day, you become sharper and sharper and sharper and sharper. The greatest tasters in the kingdom are those that have been walking with God and seeking Him the longest. And that is why, often on the deathbed, these great committed saints of God, they may become fuzzy in their outward senses, but their taste and their ability to comprehend Jesus Christ hits the apex of their entire life. And so it is a growing taste that we have in terms of our faith in Christ. So you understand the depth of the tasting here. It is tremendous. But that leads to the duty of the tasting. Now we will go to verse 1 of chapter 2 in 1 Peter. I want you to follow me through a few verses as we approach this. First of all, 2 Peter, I mean, chapter 2 verse 3 where we just were. If indeed you have tasted, the Lord is gracious. Now go up to chapter 1, verse 22. Love one another fervently with a pure heart. If indeed you have tasted the Lord as gracious, love one another fervently with a pure heart. Doesn't that make sense? Now go to verse 1 of chapter 2. And therefore, suddenly explodes with meaning to you. Therefore, throw off these sins. You understand? You learn to hop around with Peter, And pretty soon you get his meaning. So, therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy, and all evil speaking. You know, there was a time, and I'll have to say this, actually for years, where I got to chapter 2, and I just thought he's jumping on to another issue. Disconnected and basically saying, hey, lay aside sin. He's not. He's saying this. These are the sins which make up a list of love suppressants. Love suppressants. These are the particular sins. They're chosen on purpose by the Holy Spirit. These aren't random sins. These are the particular specific sins that suppress and kill your love. If you're to love out to the farthest edge, you must lay these sins, these sins, aside. And all of a sudden I understand completely what he means. Let's go through these sins. We'll do them quickly. He says here, therefore laying aside malice, all malice. Again, that's the extent of Peter's heart, all. What is malice? It's hostile ill will toward another. That's what it is. Someone has said, and it's been for years among the non-Christian world forever, just about an old saying that revenge is sweet. You know that saying. But you see, not for the Christian. Not for me as a child of God. If I have tasted the Lord as gracious, how could revenge be sweet to me when I, who have offended a holy God, an infinitely holy God, with my life of sin and have been forgiven rather than punished, how could I say that revenge is sweet when I have experienced so much grace? You see, revenge is not sweet to the Christian. It should not be. Revenge to the Christian should be something you abhor. You know what should be sweet to you? Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Listen to this. I came across this story this week about a woman. She had a really rather drab life. But one of the bright spots in her drab life was an unknown secret pal. This secret pal never forgot her birthdays, anniversaries, anything important. So she brought a brightness to her otherwise drab life. That brightness, however, was offset by this growing animosity that she had toward a now former pal. And a former close friend, no longer close, however. And as time went by, her inward ill-will toward this former friend only grew. She became more critical to the point that she constantly criticized her. However, notwithstanding her bitterness and her malice, she found and heard that this person had suddenly died. So, overcoming her inward feelings, she thought it'd be neighborly to go over and at least help the grieving husband, you know, take care of things. She went over there, and as she began to help straighten up, she found a letter. The letter, without a stamp unmailed as yet, was addressed to her. She opened it up and she read it. You know what she found out? This person who she had now long criticized, spoken ill of, and thought ill of, was in fact Her secret pal, who through her letters brought so much comfort and brilliance to her life. She found that the one who meant the most to her was the one she had despised and hated the most. And she was now dead and there was no way to make amends, putting aside all malice. Maybe there's somebody in your life that you need to put away the malice and get the things right. Because this is an appetite, this is rather a love suppressant. So we are to lay it aside, you understand why? And then he says the next thing here is deceit, laying aside all deceit. This is the idea of craftiness, guile. It's the idea of deceiving someone to get something from them. People in sales that aren't Christians, that really have no specific value system, seek to become masters of this. And yet in the Christian life, it's the kind of thing that ought to make you sick, really. So if I said to you today, having tasted the Lord is gracious, and having experienced the deep work of God within, what is your feeling about deceit in your life? Each one of us ought to be able to say, it makes me sick, I'm tired of it. Our feeling about deceit should be akin to Jesus' feeling about the church at Laodicea when he said, if you don't repent, I will what? Spew you out of my mouth. In other words, we should feel the same way about deceitful talk and all of that deceit. We want it out of our lives, we abhor it, we're sick of it. A life without Christ and enough deceit is enough. And so we are to lay it aside. How can you truly love if you're filled with malice? How can you truly love if relationships of love are built on trust and yet you live in deceit? You must lay it aside. Third thing here is hypocrisy. You know why this is here? Because a Christian should hate to pretend to be what he or she is not. You know the thing about tasting that the Lord is gracious is this, we don't have to pretend we're something we're not. I don't have to act with all of you like I'm perfect. Mr. Perfect lives the Bible perfectly. I don't. And I'm so thankful I don't have to act like I do. I'm thankful I can share my failures with you, my frustrations. And at times you have seen them, because I live in a fishbowl, a glass house as it were, up here in this pulpit, and sometimes my real feelings get out. You know? You lose a little respect for me. I have to repent the following week. Hopefully a little respect comes back. You see, I am not perfect, and I don't have to pretend I am. Why? Because I've tasted of the graciousness of God. I've been saved by grace. My perfection is in Christ and His blood that was shed for me. If you've tasted the Lord is gracious, you can put aside hypocrisy. You don't have to pretend you're something you're not. And you would never want to glory in the idea of someone thinking you're holier than you are, or this kind of thing. But rather, anytime someone sees good in your life and they marvel at it, rather than taking the bows, you're very careful To say, oh no, no, no, no, no, this is the grace of God at work. The only way it happened is by God's grace through me. I give Him all the glory. And you would never want to take vows for work that someone else has done. Often in the ministry I see people delegate out work, you know. Then this committee or this individual does all this hard work behind the scenes, and then someone up front takes all the vows for it. You would never want to do that. That's hypocrisy. To pretend that you are something that you are not, how can you do that? Why would you want to when you've tasted of the Lord and His graciousness? You're freed by grace to be who you really are, accepted, forgiven by God, and you can be transparent and open before others as we all together bathe in the grace of God. We put aside hypocrisy. Another thing here that we are told to put aside is envy. Envy. I don't think there's a person in the room, in the building, in the congregation that doesn't know what envy is. Envy makes you incapable of loving. That's why it's in the list. Thomas Brooks put it this way, he said, Envy, it tortures the affections, it vexes the mind, it inflames the blood, it corrupts the heart, it wastes the spirit, and so it becomes at once both the man's tormentor and the man's executor. Envy eats you from the inside out. It rots you. It makes you incapable of loving. It's the idea of saying, I want what you have. And if you envy it enough, you don't just want it too. You want it and you want to make sure that if you can't have it, they won't have it either. Envy. Do you understand why it's in the list? Why it would have to be laid aside for to love? Watchman Nee had an interesting insight. He said, envy of another man's calling can work havoc in our own. You understand that? You envy the giftedness in another person's life. You envy the work of God, the blessing in this person's life over here. And as a result, you cannot be content to be who you are in the kingdom of God and do what he wants you to do. It can ruin your own calling if you envy the calling of another. I think Stephen Charnock, that great Puritan writer, summed it all up when he said, Envy is a denial of the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God and the providence of God. To envy another is to say, God, I don't believe you're in control seeking my highest good. Sovereignty of God and the grace of God will free you from envy. So we lay it aside that we might love. And then the last thing in the list is evil speaking. evil speaking. It could also be translated slander. The NIV and the NAS translate it that way. It has to do with being unnecessarily critical. We know what this is too, don't we? You know, I think one of the most destructive things in the Christian life is to be unnecessarily critical. You know why I think we do it sometimes? We're so dissatisfied with our own progress and so insecure in our own progress and our own inward state that we feel this insecure need to pull ourselves up by dragging others down verbally. That's so wrong and it's so unnecessary when you understand that we're bathed in the grace of God, we're saved by the grace of God, tasting of the grace of God will free you from being unnecessarily critical of others. Too often I think we're like the person in an anonymous poem I read. You want to hear it? Faults in others I can see, but praise the Lord, there's none in me. Right. So, the grace of God frees us from this unnecessarily criticizing others. Another thing is that this has to do with returning evil for evil. Slander. We're freed from that as well. We have nothing to prove once we're totally bathed in the grace of God, tasting deeply. One of my heroes in terms of brilliant military strategy is a man by the name of Robert E. Lee. You've heard of him? General Robert E. Lee from the Civil War. Not only was he a brilliant general, but he was also one of the most well-loved generals in the history of America. by all men, and he was also a Christian, and a great example of not speaking evil of any man. Listen to this. One day a soldier who heard Robert E. Lee speak to another person in complimentary terms about a fellow officer was greatly astonished. He ran over and he said, General, do you know that the man you spoke so highly of is one of your worst enemies? and that he takes every opportunity to slander you. Do you know that? I love this. General Robert E. Lee turned to him and he said, yes, I know that. But you see, I was asked to give my opinion of him, not his opinion of me. Oh, now that is a man who has tasted of the grace of God. not threatened, and able to see beyond the weakness of his fellow to the better qualities in his life, and to love out to the farthest extent, you see, in the face of sin, which is exactly what Peter says to do in chapter 4, and we saw it last time. So you understand why this list is here. There's a reason. It's not random, it's very specific, and it's attached to the idea that these sins specifically are love suppressants. So we have seen the depth of this tasting and the duty of this tasting. That brings us to the last thing, and that is the desire of this tasting. You see, Peter says in verse two, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. It is interesting to me that not only are these sins listed off, love suppressants, they are also appetite suppressants. Mark it. If this list is a description of your life, you have no appetite for the Word of God. Because this sin will have killed and suppressed your appetite. If you lay this sin aside, you find your appetite suddenly returns and you begin to crave the Word of God. And it's open and alive to you. And you can't get enough of it, because there in the Word of God you again and further taste of His graciousness. Now notice this thought, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word. This is directly linked to chapter 1 verse 23. Look back at chapter 1 verse 23. He says, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, notice, through the word of God. He's saying that the word of God is your life source. You're born again by hearing it, He returns to this thought as newborn babes then desire the pure milk of the Word. The idea is, this is a strong desire for your very life source. If you're to love out to the farthest edge, if you're to put away these sins and keep them away, then when you put the sin away, you put something in its place, and what is it? The pure Word of God. And you begin to understand the power and the life that is there to the degree that you end up craving the Bible the way a newborn baby craves milk. And a newborn baby craves milk automatically. You don't have to say to that kid, you know, one day old, hey, you need to eat. And you mothers know, this is Mother's Day, I put this in for you. You mothers know that at odd hours of the night, and you fathers as well know, you don't want to remember some of you. I'm beyond it, don't take me back. But you know that this craving a babe has for milk, that's the idea here. Now, this becomes then the source of everything we're being asked to do, the sustenance, it's our life source. But what I want you to see here is this. You need to disconnect this from perhaps a previous understanding or a limited understanding of the use of milk as attached to the Scriptures in the Bible. When you think of milk as it relates to the Word of God in the Bible, what do you think of? You think of meat and milk, right? In other words, well, we all know that immature Christians feed on the milk of the word, and mature Christians, we, I, am into the meat of the word. Give me the meat. Don't let me listen to some preacher who gives nothing but milk. I cannot stand that. I'm beyond all that. Give me meat. You know why we understand those things? Because Paul was frustrated by these very things with the Corinthians. He wrote in 1st Corinthians 3.2, he says, I gave you milk, that is, not solid food or meat, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, here's his frustration. You are still not ready. In other words, I have had to condescend down to your carnal immature level with my teaching because you're so carnal. I cannot give you the lofty things I'm capable and want to, capable of and want to give you. And even now I have to keep simplifying everything for you. He was frustrated. Not to the Ephesians. He blows out of the first verses in Ephesians right into the heavenlies, and we're into eternity past, and predestination, and chosen, before the foundation of the world, and out into the future, a redeemed community, all this. What was the difference? Maturity. So we identify immaturity with milk, and maturity with meat, right? May I say this? Peter, in chapter 2, is dealing with a different issue as it relates to the milk of the Word. He is talking about something different. He is talking about this. He is talking about a strong craving for your very life source. And this strong craving for your very life source in the Word of God is something you will never get beyond, no matter how mature you become. Never. And so, you need to understand that to get the full thrust of the passage. Like newborn babes, crave the pure spiritual milk so that you may grow up into your salvation. You lay aside the sinful appetites of presence and your heart begins to ache for this, to feed, to love, and to grow. And you move beyond the edge, the entry level of the Christian life, and you grow into maturity where you are loving out to the farthest edge of your ability, and enjoying and tasting deeper and deeper of the graciousness of God. You've heard of the little boy, haven't you, who was asked by his mother why he fell out of bed? And this was his answer. Well, I guess, Mama, it's because I stayed too close to the getting in place. You know why so many Christians keep falling? they simply stay too close to the getting in place. And the reason they're too close to the getting in place is because they allow sin to creep in and just make their spiritual life sick and they lose their appetite for the Word of God and they cease to grow and as a result there's all this failure. You got to move away from the getting in place. Go on to crave your life source, the pure milk of the word, literally the unadulterated word. It is this kind of craving that I believe I find in this church. And why I love preaching in this church. You know, I'm almost done. But I want to say this. You know that I make an issue out of people sleeping in church. In all reality, I want to say honestly, it is a rare thing in our church when you guys take your eyes off me. I'm amazed. And it isn't me. It's the attention to the Word of God. Oh yes, we have our sleepers. And we're getting plaques and trophies. We're going to put your faces in the foyer soon. But anyway, we have our sleepers. But they are few. I want you to know that. I just have a high intolerance for these few. But most of you rarely take your eyes off the pulpit because you crave the Word of God. And I thank God to be a part of a church that is like that. because this is the way that we grow into tasting further of His graciousness and manifesting that gracious love to one another. Let's pray. Father thank you for this time together as your people as your family and thank you so much for the letter from Peter so full of instruction so well designed to lead us into this deeper tasting of the graciousness that you have for us in Jesus Christ. We thank you for these things and we do pray and give you glory and honor in Jesus name.