Leaving and Longing
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
This week we had a Foremen get fired because he;
Had our truck out at 3:00 am without permission.
Had an unauthorized passenger in his truck and driving...
Was driving at 98 MPH
Was under the influence of Alcohol.
Wrecked our truck. Everyone of these actions broke one of our rules/laws.
Here is the question that was asked yesterday afternoon. How can we have all of these company rules and policies and still have people continue to break them…Do you know how hard it was for me to stay seated and not just stand up and start preaching! To say, let me take you to the Scriptures to let them know that the law reveals our sin it does not prevent us from violating it. I tell you that this morning because Peter is about to continue calling Christians to obey some things, to stop doing some things, and to start doing other things, but apart from experiencing the new birth in Christ, these things are nothing more than words on paper and will provide us with no eternal benefit.
Paul begins chapter two right where he leaves off in Chapter 1 almost like these chapter divisions and verse numbers were not even there…He continues his call to holiness, his call to love one another earnestly from a pure heart. He begins to tell us how to love one another, and does it in detail. Paul provides these actions in the context of the gospel which we cannot forget. For the person who has not been born again, who has not had this good news preached to them, and has not been purified by the Spirit generated obedience to the truth, trying to obey these commands are at best going to keep you out of jail they may help you keep a job, and might even help hold your family together, but they will by no means make you right with God and keep you or I or anyone else out of Hell.
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
In these first three verses of Chapter 2, Peter is calling all the elect exiles to leave behind their sin nature and long for pure spiritual nourishment!
Peter begins by pointing us to,
I. Pre-Conversion Sins We are to Put Away (1)
I. Pre-Conversion Sins We are to Put Away (1)
Notice how verse 1 begins,
So put away
The phrase put away literally means to take off, figuratively to lay aside, rid oneself of...
It is used in the sense of — to stop oneself being in a state or condition; conceived of as divesting oneself of a garment.
Peter then is calling those who have been born again, who have repented and trusted in Christ for salvation to begin living in a way that is in line with our new nature. Yes there is still parts of our flesh that remain within us, but we are to recognize it, repent of it, and remove it. We are to take these things off, put them away, and put on our new nature, put on things that the Spirit has given us and Christ through His Word has revealed to us.
Put away, should not be unfamiliar language to us. Consider these verses,
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Paul reminds the Colossians here, to not only put off the old self, but to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Do you see the parallel idea of Peter’s call. We can’t just quit doing things and expect sanctification to happen we have to put on new things that replace our old nature. Without putting on the new, all we are doing is a self help, self clean up, self sanctification. We are trying to do what we cannot do. We cannot clean ourselves up enough to earn God’s favor or earn a place in God’s kingdom.
Colossians
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
What does James say here, put away.....recieved with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Peter is not calling us to some legalistic obedience to a set of policies, instead he is calling us to a loving obedience to put away sinful attitudes and actions that will stunt our growth in Christ and hinder our love for one another.
Consider the five sins he calls us to put away,
All malice, - a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition, malice, ill-will, malignity. David explains it is also often used as a synonym for wickedness.
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 500). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2. All deceit, - taking advantage through craft and underhanded methods, deceit, cunning, treachery.
3. and hypocrisy, - to create a public impression that is at odd’s with one’s real purposes or motivations, play-acting, pretense, outward show, dissembling.
4. and envy, - Jealousy, Spite or resentment towards the possessions or success of another.
5. and all slander, - the act of speaking ill of one another, evil speech, defamation, detraction
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 500, 256, 1038, 519, ). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
“It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest,” and he is an ill believer who tells tales about his fellow Christians. If you, as a church member, have anything against a brother, tell him alone. Then, if it should be some public and crying sin, tell it in an orderly manner to the church officers. But for you to go chattering about things you do not know to be true is such an offense against church order that if you are expelled from church communion for it the ejectment will be justifiable. You certainly cannot expect to have fellowship with Christ if you mar the fellowship of Christ’s church by talking one against the other. Spurgeon, C. (2014). Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter. )
Spurgeon, C. (2014). Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter. (E. Ritzema & J. Strong, Eds.) (). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Do you see the damage that these sins can cause to our own sanctification, and the way we show love to one another. It is sad to say that even as believers we can harbor these sins in our heart if we are not careful, if we are not constantly growing in our knowledge of God, his will, and His word. How many of us can see that we may still struggle with some of these sins or maybe all of them? How can we strive to put them away, take them off, and put them to death?
This brings us to point number 2, Peter points believers to the,
II. Pure Spiritual Milk We are to Long For. (2-3)
II. Pure Spiritual Milk We are to Long For. (2-3)
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
1 Peter 1:
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
In verses 2 and three we see three aspects of longing for this pure spiritual milk.
A. The command to long for the milk.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
Many times in Scripture it is not a good thing to be like an infant with a bottle in you mouth. For example,
I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
Here Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for lacking spiritual growth and not letting go of the bottle. Also, in
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
Both of these are examples of believers who are not growing because that will not eat meat, will not recieved the deeper doctrines of God.
However Peter is commending/commanding that believers long for, desire, and crave pure spiritual milk,
Like an infant. We are all familiar with this picture Peter is painting. I had almost forgotten until the Lord blessed us with a grandson. When he is tired, when he is sick, and when he is hungry he will cry out for milk, he will plead for milk, he has a desire, longing and hunger for the milk from his mother. How about us? Do we desire the word that way? Do we long for getting into the Word of God? Do you and I desire the Word on the Lord’s day? Do we come ready to receive it? Do you and I desire the Word in personal devotion? Do you and I desire to consume the Word with our family?
B. The growth that comes from the pure spiritual milk.
Let me ask you another question, what happens when an infant, doesn’t long for and receive pure milk from his mother? Their growth can be stunted, their health will deteriorate, and so on.
What about a believer who has no desire for pure spiritual milk?
Peter say’s we are to long for this milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation--
This milk is to be pure, unadulterated, not tainted with man’s idea, but to be illuminated the the Spirit of God, pointing us to our salvation in the Son of God. It is only through this milk that we will grow up into salvation.
Paul presents this same idea of growing up into salvation to the Philippians,
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
-134
As God works in us, we should be growing in our desire for his Pure Word, we should be working out, growing up in our salvation. Understanding the God is the one who gives the growth as the seed is planted and watered.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
1 Corinthians
Our growth up into salvation is dependent on God, but the way He works it out is through our being fed the pure spiritual milk of the word of God.
The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter Fifth Exhortation: Desire the Word (2:1–3)
“We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture.” This leads, not to church growth, but to stunting the growth of the church.
So how do we get to the point of longing for pure spiritual milk? Peter explains,
C. The prerequisite to growth from pure spiritual milk.
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
There will be no spiritual appetite apart from tasting the goodness of God, apart from consuming the person of Christ, his body and his blood!
Jesus himself said,
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Apart from receiving spiritual life, there will be no desire for spiritual milk. If you and I are not made alive in Christ, by the Spirit of God we will have no appetite for the things of God. We will have no desire to commune with God, hear from God, learn from God, serve God, fellowship with God’s people, or proclaim God’s Son.
What is it that we must taste? That the Lord is good. How good is He? He is so good,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God is so good that he gave his one and only Son that you and I might be saved. He gave his Son to hang on the old wooden cross that you and I as wretched rebels against God might eat his flesh and drink His blood and not perish, not be cast away into a place called Hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, but instead be brought into his kingdom where we will one day taste of his ultimate goodness at the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Have you tasted of His goodness?
The psalmist reminds us,
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
I love the way David closes his notes on these verses, “God’s means of illuminating the unbeliever to salvation is through the Scriptures, and his means of growing them in grace is through the Scriptures. All who have truly tasted remember and maintain an insatiable appetite for God’s goodness.”