The Pure Spiritual Milk

Introduction

LET’S PRAY.

Today

Text: 1 Peter 2:1-3

Please rise for the reading of God’s word.

(read)

Please be seated.

Theme: Growing in Christlikeness through God’s nourishing Word.

Main Points

1. Growing in Christlikeness (v1)

2. Nourished by God’s Word (v2)

3. Tasting God’s Goodness (v3)

Our text this morning begins with “SO.” SO is a conjunction; it ties things together; it means “for this reason” or “therefore.” SO… what is this text a “therefore” to? Obviously it must be the text that came before it, 1 Peter 1:22-25.

Peter exhorted us in the previous text to love one another, and grounded it in three reasons:

You’re already loving one another, v22

You’re born again (v23)

Your new life is the growing seed of God’s imperishable word, which has been planted in you

SO…

1. Growing in Christlikeness (v1)

1 Pet 2:1, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

Peter began his last exhortation by telling his readers to love one another. He begins this one by telling us to put away the works of the flesh. This is a call to holiness; the Apostle’s instruction here is for us to put away from us everything that is not holy. We can find the purpose in verse 2: We are to grow up into salvation.

The wages of sin is death; all sin leads to death. John Owen, one of the greatest theologians of the 17th century, wrote to “be killing sin or it will be killing you.” This morning as we think about what it means to put away these particular sins and to grow in holiness I want to consider the effects of sin in our lives through the metaphor of growth that Peter is employing in this passage.

Many sins involve abusing God’s good gifts. Sins like these can include laziness, gluttony, lustful desires of the flesh… As an example of what I mean by this: I love taking a good Sunday afternoon nap. It’s refreshing and it’s a good thing. Psalm 127 explicitly says that our endeavors depend on the Lord’s providence and that understanding this is how God gives his beloved sleep. Rest is a blessing from the Lord.

But what if I just quit working and spent all day laying in bed every day? Like the door turns on its hinges, so turns the sluggard in his bed. We take a good thing and basically throw it back in God’s face by using it wrongly.

The sins Peter tells us to turn from in this passage aren’t these sorts of sins—Although we are to turn from all sin, the particular sins he is thinking about all have something in common: None of them really involve taking a good thing and abusing it because of physical desire. Again, abusing rest becomes laziness; think of abusing food becomes gluttony, and so on.

These sins are not physical sins. They are sins of the heart. These sins stand in direct and complete opposition to the love Peter called us to love one another with at the end of chapter one. All sins are opposed to the love of God in Christ, but these sins are especially opposed. These sins are sins of pure destruction. Through them we destroy others… and ourselves.

Think about them with me.

Malice is a desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to someone else.

Deceit is concealing or distorting the truth. When I deceive someone, I am intentionally leading them astray.

Hypocrisy is outwardly being one thing but inwardly being another. It’s disguising my true bad intentions with seemingly outwardly good acts.

Envy. It’s more than just wanting what someone else has; it’s thinking that you deserve what they have and they don’t deserve it. It’s grieving that someone else has something good.

Slander is intentionally tearing someone else down through falsehood.

My parents wouldn’t let me drink coffee as a child because they said it’d stunt my growth. I’m not so sure about that today, but I am sure that sin stunts our spiritual growth in Christlikeness.

In our text today, we are called to set aside these particular sins, and we are called in the next verse to grow up into salvation. So can we walk in sin which destroys and grow in holiness at the same time?

It’s Hebrews 12:1 all over again:

let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus…

You don’t put your main pack on before you run a PFT! You wear green on green PT gear and running shoes. You don’t look to your sin when you’re looking to Jesus!

Let me illustrate this with a story. Once upon there was a young woman who walked her dog every morning. Along her route there was a house with a big yard that was just destroyed. It looked like someone had been doing donuts in a big truck through the grass, the flowerbeds, just everywhere. And every morning as she walked her dog by, she said hello to the homeowner, who was out working diligently in his yard to put it back together. One day he’d be re-sodding the lawn; another day he’d be planting flowers.

She got talking to him and he told her that he loved landscaping and more than anything wanted to get his yard looking nice.

But as day after day went by, she noticed that oddly enough things never got better. No matter how hard he worked—and she admired his work—it always seemed to be about the same.

One day the young woman’s morning didn’t go quite as expected so one thing led to another and she wound up walking her dog late in the afternoon. To her complete surprise, the man she homeowner was in a truck driving in his own front yard! His tires are trenching everything up and throwing mud everywhere and the grass is getting ripped up by the roots and it’s just a mess.

She waves him down until he pulls up near her, rolls his window down, and sticks his head out of the window. “Sir,”she calls up to him. “You’re always working so hard to fix your yard up. Why are you tearing it up?”

“Well,” he said, “I want to be a monster truck driver, so I’m practicing for it.”

You’re never going to grow in holiness if you can’t let the sins that destroy you go!

All sin destroys, no matter how good it seems in the moment. We’ve already discussed this morning how sins are more destructive than others. But all destroy. Have you ever seen the rocks that have the water drops falling on them that show how many years the drop has been falling in the same place? The rock that the drops have been falling on for a year seems untouched. The one that’s had water dripping on it for five years has a little divot in it. And the rock that’s had drops of water falling on it for thirty years has a huge gouge worn in it.

Sin is not only destructive; sin is the opposite of the goodness of God. God out of his goodness and love gave his son to cleanse you from your sin; sin makes a mockery of that gift. Sin is the height of ingratitude.

What are the sins in your life, Christian, that you can’t put away? Malice, Deceit, Hypocrisy, Envy, Slander? Sins that destroy without even pretending to give happiness?

Perhaps the sins we cling to are more subtle. Perhaps it’s pride. Perhaps lust. Perhaps gluttony. Maybe its idolatry—is there something better you wish you were doing this morning than being among the saints worshipping the Lord?

Put your sin away from you and turn to Christ.

So what does growing up into salvation look like?

Christian, if you have faith in Jesus Christ today, you have been born again. You have newness of life. Your sins have been forgiven. You have been justified. This is an accomplished fact in your life.

But your calling in this life is to put off your sins, and to GROW.

There are at least three ways we grow into the image of Jesus Christ. Knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

We are to grow more like Jesus in knowledge, Col 3:10

And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

We are to grow more like Jesus Christ in Righteousness and Holiness, Ephesians 4:22-24:

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We grow more like our savior with every passing day, until the day we are brought home to him in glory and receive the fullness of our salvation.

You can’t put on the new self in the morning and do donuts all over it in the evening! Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption! Ephesians 4:30.

Christian, you are called to grow up in salvation. Grow in the knowledge of God. Grow in righteousness. Grow in holiness. Grow by putting your sins away from you. Be killing your sin, or it will be killing you. Become more like Jesus Christ.

Summary: 1. Growing in Christlikeness (v1)

Summary: Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Grow in Christlikeness

2. Nourished by God’s Word (v2)

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- (1 Pet. 2:2 ESV)

We’ve been told to lay aside our sin, to grow in Christlikeness. This verse answers HOW—it tells us of the means God has graciously given to help us set our sin aside and to grow up into salvation.

Set sin aside and grow up into salvation BY partaking of the pure spiritual milk.

The pure spiritual milk is God’s Word, contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This morning, in this room, we are drinking this pure spiritual milk right now together. We are to long for the pure spiritual milk of God’s word like newborn infants, because by it God grows us up into salvation.

God’s Word is pure spiritual milk, whether we think it is or not.

This is actually why our canon of Scripture is different than Rome’s. The Catholic Church says that the books of Scripture are Scripture because the Church decided they’re Scripture.

As Protestants, we rightly recognize that we don’t decide what’s milk and what’s not; God gave us the milk and the Holy Spirit helps us recognize the true milk through bearing witness by and with it in our hearts.

We had to switch one of our daughters over to formula at around four months. She knew what real milk was, and she recognized the formula was something other than real milk. She flat out refused to take it. She hated the bottle’s rubber nipple too.

The Catholic Church would say that because she decided the milk wasn’t the real deal, it was therefore formula.

Protestants would say, no, the formula was formula all along, regardless of how she felt about drinking it.

Beware the counterfeit! You know how I got her to drink the formula? I put a little strawberry quick in it to sweeten it up. That did the trick! It’s always a temptation to find teachers who tickle our ears and who teach things we personally agree with, just like it’s a temptation to give up on your scruples and drink the strawberry quick formula.

Here’s the thing, though: every bottle had less strawberry quick in it until there was no strawberry quick at all—and she was drinking the counterfeit, forgetting what the real milk tasted like.

Beware the counterfeit! I put strawberry quick in the formula and she chugged it like a frat boy chugs a beer. I made it seem more appealing than it was by adding something to tickle her taste buds. It’s always a temptation to find teachers who tickle our ears, just like it’s a temptation to give up on your scruples and drink the strawberry quick.

But you know what I did? Every bottle had less strawberry quick in it until there was none left—and she was drinking the counterfeit, forgetting what the original tasted like.

Milk is really our foundational food as human beings. It has everything we need for life and growth in it. It’s packed with every nutrient we need. It even has antibodies in it to protect babies from getting sick.

Christian, you are the newborn, and God’s Word is the milk. Without food, we cannot grow. Without food, we cannot live. Without food, we die.

God’s word nourishes you, born again Christian, like a mother’s milk nourishes her baby. In the work of salvation, the Holy Spirit is the one who takes God’s Word and uses it to grow you in Christ.

And we are to long for this spiritual milk of the Word like newborn infants long for their mother’s milk.

Before we think what longing for this spiritual life looks like, did you catch that you were just compared to a newborn? It’s a great description that ought to really put us in our places, especially if we start getting proud as Christians.

Born again Christian, a newborn is completely dependent. They can’t hold their own heads up, they can’t really see, they can’t even burp without help. They can’t change their own diapers, get themselves dressed, roll over…

You are this dependent on God’s Word for your growth. This is an accurate description of the state of things for you.

And recognizing that you are as dependent on the Lord as a newborn is for her mother, you should long for God’s Word like a newborn longs for her mother’s milk. I think there are three basic characterizations we can draw as we ask ourselves what this looks like.

First--singular focus. Newborn babies are singularly preoccupied with their mother's milk. “Obsessed” might be a good term for it. I think it’s safe to say that it’s their first great love in life. Yes, mothers, they figure out who you are pretty quick. But they figure out what you’re good for first. Does your desire for God’s word look like this?

Second, dogged pursuit. If anything touches a newborn's face, they'll whip their wobbly little heads around and chomp down on it with their gums and start trying to drink. It doesn't matter if they just ate five minutes ago. They're always hunting for more milk. Always. Do you hunt for God’s word like this?

Third, utter satisfaction. A nursing newborn is a completely contented newborn. Have you ever seen a newborn baby after feeding? They go into a milk coma. Seriously. They just zonk out in utter overwhelmed contentment for a few minutes. Do you find satisfaction in God’s word like this?

Do you want the Spirit to grow you more in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you want the Spirit to make you more like him, Christian? Then drink deeply from the pure spiritual milk of the Word!

Let’s apply this to our view of the Word. Do we not only long for the Word, but do we come to it with an expectation that God will use it to grow us in our walk with him?

Think about this on a personal level. Do you spend time in it on your own? When you read and meditate on the Word, do you expect that God is using it to renew you in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness?

Think about this on a corporate level. Do you come to the public worship of the Lord and sit under the reading and preaching of the Word not only with a longing for the Word, but with an expectation that God will grow you through it?

What sets the Church apart from every other institution in the world is that Jesus Christ, the King and Head of the church, has given the church the mission to preach the gospel. There is good news, and that good news is the salvation that is ours through faith in Christ.

When the church abandons that, when we lose sight of that, we are pouring out the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word and replacing it with who knows what. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. There’s no substitute or replacement for it. Without it, the Church is no more significant or world changing than a gas station or a laundromat or a Dennys.

Christian, you’re not going to grow without the pure spiritual milk. God works to grow us into salvation in other ways too, but this is the primary one. God’s Word is the macros. That’s a major reason we’re gathered here this morning to listen to it proclaimed. We’re not worshiping because God needs us to worship him. We’re here worshiping him and proclaiming his word this morning because we need to be nourished.

Summary: 2. Nourished by God’s Word (v2)

Summary: The Holy Spirit uses the nutrients from God’s Word to grow us into the image of Jesus Christ.

3. Tasting God’s Goodness (v3)

1 Peter 2:3 IF. This is the big IF. The previous two points hinge on this one being true FIRST. IF you have tasted God’s goodness, THEN you will put away evil and grow up into salvation BY the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word. You can’t taste how good the Lord is without wanting more of Him. He is our highest and greatest good; He is the source and fountain of all good. Everything that’s good in this world is only good because it reflects His goodness. When Peter speaks of tasting, he’s not describing a complicated concept. Tasting is nothing other than experiencing the power of God through the Holy Spirit. We experience this power when the Holy Spirit takes God’s promises given to us in His Word, and makes them ours. If we haven’t experienced it, we have no idea what it is. For those of you who were old enough to remember life before smartphones—did you want a smartphone in the 90s? You didn’t, because you’d never experienced them. You’d never tasted the power of a smartphone, so you couldn’t want one. For anyone who can’t remember life before smartphones… Pretend. The illustration still works; you just need to imagine what it was like living in the good old days. The Last Battle used to be my least favorite book from the Chronicles of Narnia. I mean, not much happens in it. They spend most of the time sitting around a campfire in front of a stable talking in the dark. Then the world ends, and they all run for a while and it ends happily ever after. The last time I read the series through a few years back, I discovered that it was my favorite of the books. It’s just packed full of great stuff to chew on. There’s a number of Narnian dwarfs who have been thrown through a stable door into Aslan’s country. All of the friends of Narnia are there, and Lucy Pevensie is trying to get through to the dwarfs and get them to realize that they’re not tied up in a small dark stable but sitting in a sea of waving green grass beneath a bright blue sky. Lucy tries to reason with them but they are convinced they’re sitting in a pitch black stable. So she picks a handful of violets and holds them under their noses. Perhaps they can smell if they can’t see. But they try to hit her and accuse her of shoving dirty stable litter in their faces. Tirion, the last king of Narnia, picks one of them up and carries him away from the others. But when he lets go the dwarf runs back to huddle with the others and says he’s banged his face on the wall. Aslan himself appears, but they don’t see him. He growls, but they say the sound is some kind of trick. He shakes his mane and makes a glorious feast appear in front of them, but they think it’s the sort of food you’d feed farm animals. The gospel is folly to those who are perishing. It’s not because the feast isn’t there. They haven’t tasted the sweetness of the gospel. Because it’s folly to them, they refuse to taste—therefore they cannot taste. 1 Cor 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18 ESV) To us who are being saved, God’s word is the power of God for our salvation. You can’t taste that and not want more of it. We’re going to sing a hymn in closing today—How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place. As we sing it, we ask why it is that we taste. “Why was I made to hear your voice And enter while there’s room When thousands make a wretched choice And rather starve than come” Well, the answer is in the hymn too: Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly drew us in Else we had still refused to taste And perished in our sin So why do we taste? It’s all from the love of God. The God who accomplishes redemption for you from start to finish is the same God who applies it to you from start to finish! The Father purposed redemption; The Son accomplished redemption; the Spirit applies redemption’s benefits to you. You may have recognized the fact that Peter is quoting this verse from Psalm 34:8. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! The effects of tasting is desiring him, and the effect of desiring him is drawing near to him—taking refuge in him. Blessed is the man or woman who takes refuge in him. Blessed is the child of God who sets aside his sin and grows in Christlikeness by the pure spiritual milk of the Word. That brings us to THE question, the only question that really matters. Have you tasted? Do you know what it is to be born again by the Spirit? Do you know what it is to grow in newness of life? If not, why not? What’s stopping you? Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Summary: 3. Tasting God’s Goodness (v3) Summary: We taste God’s goodness when the Holy Spirit takes God’s promises given to us in His Word, and makes them ours.

Review and Conclusion

Main Points

1. Growing in Christlikeness (v1)

2. Nourished by God’s Word (v2)

3. Tasting God’s Goodness (v3)

If you have tasted that the Lord is good, THEN you will put away evil and grow up into salvation BY drinking from the nourishment of God’s Holy Word.

Let’s pray.