Planted and Watered
Planted
and Watered
Fultondale First Baptist Fultondale, AL
December 5, 2007
Wednesday Night Service
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
What is it meant lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness?
According to the Greek this is a once for all action.
Can we proceed in our spiritual life without doing this?
We cannot justify our sins
The best way to gauge a sin to ask if humanity could exist if the sin was allowed to run rampant.
James tells us here that we need to get rid of all filth like stripping off dirty clothes.
Seems strange to put the first part of this in the same verse as the last
What is the power and purpose of receiving the Word? (1:21)
All we have studied up to this point is beginning to come together. We are starting to practice what we preach.
According to James 1:21, what attitude is necessary to effectively have God's word implanted in our hearts?
Meekness is to be humble and not smarter than God.
Listen intently.
We must acknowledge who is all powerful - - - it is certainly not any of us.
Remember last week we are to be slow to speak this is where we are to listen.
The soil that we plant Gods word must be pure in order for our spiritual maturity to properly grow.
When I pray often on Sunday mornings that God allow me to die to myself and speak His words. I should do this in all I do and not just on Sunday mornings.
1 Peter 2:2
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.[1]
In 1 Peter 2:2 we read that to grow spiritually as newborn Christians, we are supposed to regularly feed on the Word of God.
Any parent knows that newborn babies drink a lot of milk. If they don't get milk then they begin to cry a lot! Little babies require regular feedings every three or four hours. They wiggle and squirm almost violently when they come near the bottle until they begin to get the milk into their system.
This is precisely the analogy that God is using in the scripture. Newborn babies in Christ must have regular feedings of the Word of God if they are going to grow and stay alive spiritually. When people mature in Christ, they must have the meat of the Word or solid food.
Hebrews 5:12-14
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The writer Illustrates this principle. The apostle Paul whom I believe wrote Hebrews admonishes believers for their spiritual immaturity because they should have grown to the point where they need the solid food or meat of the Word. Instead, like little infants, they are still on milk.
What is the difference between the milk of the Word and solid food? (Heb. 5:12)
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[1]The New King James Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1982.