What God’s People Can & Must Do

Transcript

GRM 938
7/3/2005
What God’s People Can and Must Do
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Gil Rugh


I want to take you to I Peter chapter 1, and I’m going to do what Peter says that he does in his second letter. Peter wrote and said I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And that’s what he said he’s going to do until the Lord calls him from this earthly ministry. So I just want to review some things with you in a highlight form, overviewing a portion of I Peter. I believe some of you are studying I or II Peter. From time to time I talk to people who indicate they’ve been studying in the epistles of Peter, but I think we’re early enough in the book that it shouldn’t be into anybody’s material at this time.

The writer, Peter, is the great apostle that we are so familiar with, so much appreciate. We often point out the flaws and failures of Peter, but here is a man who is a faithful servant of the Lord, mightily used of him to the very end of his life. And through the grace of our Lord he has written 2 letters that are part of our New Testament. The first letter of Peter and the second letter, written not to one particular church, but as you note as the letter opens up, he’s writing to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. And Peter has a courage that not all of us would have, because in the very introduction to the letter, just in the salutation, the opening remarks, you know what he does? He talks about election. I’m not going to do that this morning, but when he says he’s writing to those in all these places who are chosen, who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God and through the sanctifying work of the Spirit they come to believe in Jesus Christ.

With a brief introduction, but loaded with good theology, Peter moves to unfold something of the wonder of our salvation. Many of you are familiar with the Apostle Paul’s letters. Paul has a pattern which he often follows in his letters, where for the first part of the letter he will lay out the doctrine, the truth that he wants them to understand. And then in the last part of the letter he will apply that truth and clarify for them how they are to live in light of that doctrine. Peter is a little different. He teaches from doctrine, and then he shows how that ought to be lived out in their lives. Then he’ll teach some more, then he’ll show. So he weaves it through the letter.

In verses 3-12 he unfolds something of the doctrine of their salvation, and it is a marvelous salvation. He began this section in verse 3 by saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then he continues to develop that and the sovereign work of God. In great mercy God has authored our salvation and works on behalf of those that He has chosen and caused them to be born again to a living hope, which involves, according to verse 4, an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and will not fade away. It’s an inheritance reserved in heaven, it’s reserved for those who are kept by the might power of God to assure that they will some day enter into the glory of heaven and receive the fullness of that inheritance. This is a reminder for them, because according to verse 6 they’re going through some difficult times, some trying times. But Peter reminds them, even though for a little while you are distressed by various kinds of trials, this is all serving part of the overall plan of God. It’s a testing and a refining of your faith, to prepare you for the glory that you will enter into at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Verse 8, even though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Then he concludes that section by saying this is a salvation that Old Testament prophets wrote about. But they didn’t have the privilege of seeing the fullness of that salvation in the coming of Christ, and the marvelous plan of God that the Messiah, His Son, who was destined to rule and reign in glory would first suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin so that it would be possible for us through faith in Him to experience cleansing and forgiveness and thus become the recipients of all that God has promised to those who love Him.

Verse 12 ended with, these are things that angels long to look into. We are reminded of the wonder of our salvation. There was never salvation provided for angels. Angels who rebelled and sinned against God are lost forever, doomed to an eternal hell, with no hope of salvation. But God showed great mercy to us. And we rebelled against Him and we are guilty of sin, but God provided His Son. So the angels are observers of God’s salvation, but we are the recipients of that salvation.

That moves Peter, now, to give a series of commands to these believers. In light of the wonder of God’s work in your lives with His salvation, in light of all that that salvation entails and the glories that are before you, here is what you must do. We’re going to look at a series of 5 commands that will being with verse 13 and go down through chapter 2 verse 3. And these 5 commands are each elaborated to one degree or another by Peter. So they will all be building on the truth that he has unfolded in verse 3-12. And you’ll note verse 13 begins with therefore. And that emphasis pervades this. Therefore, in light of God’s great work of salvation, His work in your life and in your lives, here is what you must do. And there are 5 commands given. Sometimes in English, in the translation it may be a little harder to pick them out. I’ll mention them to you and you may have them already underlined or highlighted in your Bible, but if not you ought to mark them some way—circle them, underline them, however you mark your Bible. And then we will go back and look at each one individually.

The first command is in the middle of verse 13, fix our hope. Second command is in the middle of verse 15, be holy, be holy. Third command is about the middle of verse 17, conduct yourselves. And down toward the end of verse 22, fervently love, fervently love. Then down in chapter 2 verse 2, long for, long for. All these are commands given as imperatives, as Peter wrote this under the direction of the Spirit of God, commands, things required of us who have experienced God's wondrous salvation. And in giving these commands, I find them to be greatly encouraging, because that means these are what God requires us to do and what He enables us by His grace to do. So as we look at these we want to remember these are things that can be done and must be done by God’s people, those who have experienced His salvation. These are not commands for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. These deal with the life and conduct of those who have been born into God’s family and now have God as their heavenly Father. That happens through faith in Christ, and His finished work on the cross.

Verse 13, the first command. And the first command encompasses verse 13, and I’ll tell you the sections governed by these commands. The command in verse 13, fix your hope, then is elaborated by the rest of what is said in verse 13. Fix your hope, have your hope fixed completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Hope refers to that which is anticipated, that which is yet future. We don’t talk about our hope for yesterday. Yesterday is past, that’s done. Now we may have some hope for some results of what was done for yesterday, but that’s yet future. And the hope here directs our attention to the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ is unveiled and we see Him in the fullness of His glory and then we experience the glorification that His grace will bring to us in bringing to fullness our salvation. We are to have our hope fixed completely, perfectly on that hope, the coming of Christ and all that will mean for us.

Up in verse 3 of this chapter we are told that He caused us to be born again to a living hope. Verse 4, to an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. That is our hope. Sadly some people who claim to be believers say well you know I don’t think we need to be too taken up with the future. We ought to be concerned about how we live today. But the Bible makes clear that our focus on the future and our understanding of the hope that God has set before is what shapes and determines all that we think and do in our present life. So if you’re fuzzy regarding the hope, you can expect then your life will be somewhat confused and disoriented because our lives are controlled by our hope. So fix your hope completely on this coming grace.

This involves, look at the first part of verse 13. There are 2 participles, participial phrases here. In the English they are not as clearly participles to us, we usually have on participles “ing,” that’s one of the clearest ways to determine English participles. Therefore, having prepared your minds for action, having prepared your minds for action. The aorist participle here, your minds, literally gird up your minds, or having girded your minds for action. Picture of when they would bind up their long, flowing robes around their waist so they’d be more free for activity, strenuous work. We are to have our minds prepared and disciplined. This is crucial. The Spirit of God is making us new in the area of our minds, and to have our hope fixed completely on the coming grace we must have minds that are disciplined so that they are properly focused. Keeping sober, present participle, that word sober originally was used of being sober from alcohol. People still use it that way today. If a person has been a drunk they may say, I have been sober for the last year. Then it comes to be used as a picture of a life that is alert and aware, sober. We use the word that way also. He’s talking about the fact they are not to be intoxicated by the things of this life, the things of this world. Paul wrote to Timothy and said not soldier soldiering entangles himself in the affairs of this life so that it may please Him who has called him to be a soldier. So here we are to have our hope fixed completely, our minds disciplined, not being intoxicated, distracted and taken up and confused by the things of this life. The world does not live with its focus rooted and fixed on what is beyond this life. And all you do is look around, all the appeal is on the now and what you should have now or in the future in this life. But we have to be careful we don’t get caught up in that. Our hope is the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And I want to discipline my mind to keep myself focused on that hope and continue to be sober in my thinking so that I am not distracted and confused, disoriented by the things that go on around me in this world.

The second command, and these commands as you would expect, build on one another, they’re interrelated to one another because they have all to do with the responsibility and the conduct of those who have been born into God’s family and now are to be living lives pleasing to Him. The command is in verse 15, be holy. And that command governs everything in verses 14-16. So there is one command in verses 14-16 and that is to be holy. Everything else in those verses is controlled by the command to be holy. So this naturally follows out of having your hope fixed on the coming of Christ and His revelation, because when your hope is fixed on the coming of Christ you will be committed to live a holy life. The word holy as we’ve talked about in many other contexts, different forms of this word, basically means to be separate from defilement. We get an idea the word is, to be separate. God is holy because He is totally separate from sin, from all defilement. Now the command is given to us to be holy. This naturally has to do with the lives that we are living now as those who have been redeemed and set free by God’s grace in salvation.

Turn over a few pages into I John, I and II Peter, I John, and I John 3:2. The first verse said see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God. What an honor, what marvelous love God has bestowed upon us. Verse 2, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We are children of God, but there’s more to come. We know that when He appears we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. Now note verse 3, and everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. So you see having your hope fixed on Christ and His coming has a purifying effect on your life, so that the command to be holy as given by Peter is to be expected. We are to live as those separated from sin, pure, not defiled by the pollution of the world.

Come back to I Peter 1:15. Look at verse 14 and see how we lead into this command. As obedient children, that distinguishes us from the realm of the nonbeliever. We won’t turn there, but if you jot down Ephesians 2:2 and Ephesians 5:6, there unbelievers are called sons of disobedience. The unbeliever, the one who is not a child of God, who has never experienced God’s salvation is characterized by disobedience to God. That’s why we are not surprised, not shocked by the sin of the world, not shocked that whole countries take a position in defiance of God and in disobedience to Him. Spain just recently moved to make homosexual marriages legal. The world is open in its defiance against God, it’s characteristic all over. They are sons of disobedience.

But we are obedient children, we are those who belong to the living God and our lives are now characterized by obeying Him. As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance. Do not be conformed is another present participle. So you could translate this, as obedient children not being conformed to your former lusts, be holy. Obedient children would be those who would not allow their lives to be conformed and would not conform themselves to their former lusts. This word to be conformed is used one other time in the New Testament—Romans 12:2, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. You see the similarity in content. So what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 12 and what Peter writes here in verse 13, we are to prepare our minds for action and we are not to be conformed, in verse 14, so that we can be holy. We are not to be shaped by the world, molded by the world.

Not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, be holy. Be holy as obedient children, not being conformed to your former lusts which were yours when you were ignorant of the living God and the wonder and power and freedom that His salvation brings. This is a tremendous truth. It’s going to be reiterated through this section. The salvation of God brings freedom from sin. Much of the church today is preaching a kind of salvation that is foreign to the salvation of the New Testament. God’s salvation sets you free from sin. We’re going to see that more clearly stressed even in a moment. But we are not to be conformed to our former lusts which were ours in ignorance. I don’t have to live, in fact I am not allowed to live the way I used to live, controlled by sin, dominated by sin. I must be holy. It’s not a recommendation, it is a command and the standard is awesome.

Verse 15, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy. The standard is not some of the most holy people that you know, some of the most godly people you know. You be holy like the God who called you is holy. That is the standard of perfect holiness. Look at the end of verse 15, be holy yourselves in all behavior. Every area of my life is to be characterized by God’s character of holiness, free from the defilement of sin. That’s what He has done for me in Christ. This is not a new commandment. We won’t take the time to go back there. Verse 16, he draws from the Old Testament, it is written you shall be holy for I am holy. Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus 20:27, God reminds Israel, I am your God, you shall be holy for I am holy. You belong to me, you must be like me. That doesn’t change. So now for believers in our day, we are to manifest the beauty of the character of God in His holiness.

Turn back over to I John again, just a few pages, I John 3:7. You’ll note verse 4, everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness. That’s why unbelievers are called sons of disobedience, they are characterized by rebelling against God, contrary to His law, His commands His will. Verse 7, little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil. Now he’s not telling you how you get saved, he’s telling you what you are and the evidences of what you are. The one who practices sin is a child of the devil, the one who practices righteousness is a child of God. Verse 9, no one who is born of God practices sin because His, God’s, seed abides in Him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Something marvelous happens when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. We are born from above, or born again. In II Peter 1:4 Peter says we become partakers of the divine nature. We don’t become divine, but we become partakers of the divine nature. Now God’s seed abides in us, His character is placed within us. We are made new creatures, new creations in Christ. So now we live new lives out of what we are. So those who have been made new in Christ are to live new. They are to live manifesting the character of their Father.

Years ago, many years ago I was in grade school and I was sitting in a class in western Pennsylvania and I had the same teacher in that class that my dad had had. And I did something, and it stuck with me, and the teacher didn’t approve. She says, you are just like your dad. She didn’t mean that as a compliment on that occasion.. We say that, we look around and see kids and say you’re just like your dad, you’re just like your parents. Well that’s what people are to look at us and say you’re just like your heavenly Father. In what areas? Well back in I Peter it says in all your conduct, all your behavior, in everything you do. We can tell who your Father is, you are a child of God.

Come back to I Peter 1:17. He picks up with the third command and that command will govern verses 17-21. The command is found in verse 17, conduct yourselves. And everything in verses 17-21 is controlled by that command. Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. It might have helped in our English Bible if they had made a little more of a connection. That word translated conduct, the verb in verse 17, is the same word we have in its noun form translated behavior at the end of verse 15. So be holy in all your behavior, all your conduct. Verse 17, conduct yourselves in fear. Be holy in all your conduct, conduct yourselves in fear. He’s talking to God’s children. We are to have fear, a proper fear. And again we’re talking in the context of a father. Look at verse 17, if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourself in fear during the time of your stay on earth. And we’re reminded, this is a short period of time. We are strangers and pilgrims here. Now sometimes when your children are little, you may be going someplace for a little time. You tell them how you want them to behave and you say when I get back we’re going to do this. It’s something that is really great, they really enjoy, they really look forward to it. You say I want you to behave yourself, conduct yourself this way. When I get back then………….. Basically, that’s what God has told us. He just told us that we have an inheritance in heaven that’s imperishable and undefiled, it’s reserved for us. His grace is a revelation that Christ is going to bring us greater glory. But during your time and stay on earth, here’s what I want you to do. And a reminder that we are just here for a time. The world pours themselves into this life because this is all they have.

I saw on a program the other day house decorating. She says I put my favorite saying around the ceiling—eat, drink and be merry. Big letters ??????, that’s my saying for my life—eat, drink and be merry. Too bad she didn’t finish it, which is what? For tonight we die, and it is appointed unto man once to die and then comes judgment. But the world this is it, eat, drink and be merry. That’s all we can do. You watch them interviewing college kids on spring breaks, what do they want to do? They want to get drunk, they want to have sex, they want to have fun, they want to party. Who’s thinking about life after death and the future? But we understand this is just a short period of time. All eternity lies before us and we anticipate the beginning of that eternity with the coming of our Savior.

So we conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our stay on earth. Note how verse 17 began, if you address as Father. Those who call Him Father know something about Him. I had a healthy fear of my father when I was a child. Your children must respect and fear the father. The first thing my mother would say is go to your room and wait until your father comes home. My father loved me, he didn’t abuse me, but there were consequences, and one of the worst was when I had to go to my room and wait for him to come home. Well here’s a reminder, if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourself in fear. I didn’t fear the neighbor kid’s father, they didn’t fear my father. But the relationship you have with your father, and true of your heavenly father, is unique and special. The world doesn’t fear God, they’re going to come under the judgment of God. But they don’t have the good sense to fear Him, they don’t know Him. But He’s my Father, I know Him. He loves me, I am of Him, but I fear Him in the proper sense. Not in terror, not that He will destroy me or disown me, but He judges impartially.

Now note what follows, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For it was foreknown before the foundation of the world but it has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who are through Him believers in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. That word in verse 18, you are not redeemed, ransomed, means to be set free. He set me free. Now you’ll note the context here. You are not redeemed from your futile way of life by perishable things. You know my being set free was not just from the penalty of sin and eternity in hell, He redeemed me from my futile, empty way of life. So you understand I will give an account to Him as my Father for how I conduct myself. And I have been redeemed, ransomed, set free from the old life, the empty life, the futile life. And He didn’t set me free so I could go back and live there. Just as verse 14 says, we are not to be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance. That’s a glorious truth. You understand He didn’t set me free from some things. You know we Protestants like to ridicule the Catholics because they have a doctrine of purgatory, that the salvation Christ provided didn’t do enough so you have to go to purgatory after this life and pay the penalty for some of your sins. We Protestants say that’s terrible, we evangelicals say no the death of Christ paid in full the penalty for sin. When I die I go to glory, there’s no purgatory. But then we create the Protestant purgatory here. We have some kind of twisted, perverted notion that the freedom that we received in Christ was a freedom from most kinds of sins. It freed me from my futile way of life and that empty way of life, but not all sins’ power were broken. And so some of those, they are processed sins, they have to be dealt with over time with special techniques. I look at that as the Protestant’s purgatory, it’s here and now. We’re trying to work our way out of certain sins.

You know what the foundation here is, conduct yourselves in fear, knowing you were not redeemed with perishable things from your futile way of life. It is an assault on the character of God and a denial of the work of Christ to imply in any way that I was not totally set free from all sin and its power. That doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with sin, but it does mean I never have to submit to sin again. We’ve seen this developed in other passages of scripture like Romans chapter 6. Understand here our conduct as those who fear God is shaped by the fact that we have received a salvation that is so powerful it could not have human origin. We were redeemed with the precious blood as of a Lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. This was the plan from before the foundation of the world. There is no other provision for sin, there is no other way for a person to be set free from sin. So important. Certainly we are grieved as we see the open rebellion of the world against our God and the flagrant display of sin shamelessly carried out. But it does not surprise us. Those are people who have not been set free.

You remember as we’ve seen on other occasions in Titus chapter 3 God reminds us we were just like them, enslaved to sin and its lusts. We sometimes forget when we’ve been Christians for 10, 20, 30, 40 and on years that we were just as vile, just as polluted, just as dead in our trespasses and sins as the vilest sinner. We look at people and say, oh I thank you Lord that I am not a sinner like others. We forget we were just like them. I’m set free in Christ. And they will never be free. We think they ought to at least clean up their lives. God never tells them, clean up your life. They can’t. Can man by his works become acceptable before God? When a drunk ceases being a drunk he may have a better life, is he any more pleasing to God? You must be set free.

And I find this a liberating truth for me as a child of God. I am to conduct myself in fear, knowing that my Father will judge me impartially and He paid the price with the gift of His Son to set me free. There’ll be no excuses there. Well Lord I gave up most all, I didn’t………. You know there were a few what the Puritans called bosom sins, sins that we like to keep close to us because we enjoy them more. Some sins we can give up and not give another thought, but all of us have those sins or sin that just has a special attraction. And I don’t, as the Puritans called bosom sins, we don’t like it to get too far from us because we may want to enjoy it again soon. But you know I never have to. I am free in Christ and so I am to live as one who will be judged by the freedom God has given me.

The fourth command, fervently love one another from the heart. That command governs verses 21-25. Fervently love one another from the heart. You have in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, so do it. And here one of the reasons God saved us, purified us and made us new is so we would love fellow believers, love other members of the family. Since you have in obedience to the truth when you responded in faith to Christ you believed in Him. You purified your soul. Now you don’t love the things you used to love, but you love the people of God and the things you didn’t love before.

For a sincere love of the brethren. That’s one word for love, we have it in the word Philadelphia, which is the word here, love of the brethren. Fervently love, and this is the other word for love, the agape love, agapao here. Both blend together, as well as having their own distinct emphasis. It’s a family love and it’s a self-sacrificing love. And they go together, one with the other. As the people of God we have the family love for one another, we give ourselves for one another. He saved us so we would love one another as a family and give ourselves in that love. Love one another from the heart. He’s talking about fellow believers primarily here, he’s talking about brotherly love, love of the brethren.

Love from the heart. You have that word sincere. We get the English word hypocritical, and here you have the negative of it, unhypocritical. Hypocrite originally was somebody playing a role, acting a role. Sometimes you’ll see an actor being interviewed on a program, perhaps they have a television program or a move. They’ll say it amazes me, I meet people someplace, they come up to me and they’re amazed. They think I’m the person that I’m playing that they saw in the movie or on the television screen. They don’t realize that’s just a role I play. We’re not to be playing a role in our love for one another, we are to be unhypocritical. It’s a sincere love, a genuine love, it comes from the heart.

Turn over in Peter to 4:8, above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Keep fervent in your love, fervently love, keep that love intense and it will cover a multitude of sins. That happens in our love relationships in your family with your husband, your wife. How do you think I live with Marilyn? I love her and so I overlook all those faults she has. You know me, right? Your question is how in the world does she live with him? We all look around and say if I were married to him I couldn’t take it. But the person who married to them thinks they’re happy. They love them, they overlook those things, they’re not the things that occupy them. In love we overlook in the failures. That doesn’t mean in love we don’t have to deal with certain things, but how do we get along as a church family here? We love each other, and so that covers a multitude of sins. The failures, the imperfections, the stumbles, sins, I overlook it. We love one another. Doesn’t mean at times there is not discipline necessary, but fervently love. And he’ll later tell them keep fervent in that love, keep it intense. A picture of being stretched out, all your being, reaching for something. I want that love to maintain that intensity. You know like that new love. I mean you enter into that relationship with someone and all of a sudden you don’t see their faults. And we tell them I hope you’re going into this with your eyes open. We really ought to tell them, just keep your eyes closed so that in 30 years you still think they're wonderful and beautiful, and everything you wanted and everything you need and everything you desire. Because you love them and you’re blind. We say love is blind, there’s an element of truth in that. So in the church and God’s people.

We were purified by God, in I Peter chapter 1, to have this kind of love. For you’ve been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable. You’ve been born again by the living and abiding word of God and this makes you new, it makes you different. This is the kind of love we’re talking about that God produces in a life. It is a fruit of the Spirit, it comes from the working of the Word of God in the life and bringing about salvation and making us new. We need to be careful, sometimes the petty things that come up that cause us to be upset with other believers, we need to back up and say wait a minute. Have I had my soul purified by the powerful Word of God? Then do I fervently love this person. But we find excuses to not love them.

Last command is in verse 2 of chapter 2, long for the pure milk of the Word. And this command is like the command to love. You know I just can’t help it, I don’t love them. What can I do? We act as though love is something that comes over you and it comes upon you and it leaves you. I just don’t have any control over it. But when God commands us to do something it means something we are responsible for that is under our control. When He commands me to fervently love, that means that’s something He expects me to do and can be done. I don’t know, I just can’t stir up the feeling. Well love them anyway. And so here we are to have an intense longing or craving for the pure milk of the Word. Well what can I do, you either have it or you don’t. And I just don’t have the same interest or passion for the Word. Well get it. That’s easy to say but not easy to do. Where does that come into it?

Like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word. He’s not saying they’re new Christians, but however long they’ve been believers they are to be like newborn babies who have that intense craving, that insatiable desire for milk. And we are to never lose that. Long for the pure milk of the Word that you may grow in respect to salvation. If you’ve tested the kindness of the Lord, and I think you have is the way Peter writes it. Do we ever lose that appetite and desire for Him? Talk to new Christians and they just can’t get enough and they’re learning so much. And sometime after we’ve been a believer for 30 years or whatever and we’ve been through so much and we’ve been through so many studies and we’ve taught so many studies…… You know we just don’t have the same passion and craving. Well get it. That’s the command. Have it. It never goes away, it must never go away. If you’ve tasted the kindness of the Lord then that appetite is to be there passionately desiring the Word. You know we shouldn’t have to be telling people who have been believers for years you need to be in the Word, you need more of the Word. What happens? The cooling.

Well be careful. Chapter 2 verse 1, therefore putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. You know you tolerate things in your life, they ruin your appetite, they ruin the health. Any sin, we say well it’s not that big, it’s not much of an issue. It’s an issue, can destroy the health of your body. I only have a little malady. I have a member, a relative that just came home from the mission field on an emergency. Developed a spot in his lung. Doctor says we’ll look at it in a month or two. By the time he got back he had another spot in the other lung. So he said you have to go see a specialist in the States. By the time he gets here to see a specialist in the States something has taken over, one whole lung is covered now with these things. Now they’re doing tests to find out what it is. All starts out with something little. I don’t know what it is, he doesn’t know what it is yet, may end up being something to be corrected, but it’s something that has to be dealt with. How many people have died of cancer, started just as a little thing. And I felt healthy, and I thought it was okay. Then I knew I had a little lump or a little this or that but it was nothing that really bothered me. But……… You know what happens with little sins that are tolerated? They work on us. Nothing kills your appetite for the Word like sin. Feel I don’t have the same desire for the Word that I once had, now my appetite for the Word begins to dull and pretty soon I can’t isolate the sin and then……… So you put aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander and you crave the Word as those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord.

This is so we might grow in respect to our salvation. These are commands for those who have been born into God’s family, these are growth matters. Fix your hope on coming grace, be holy in all your conduct, conduct yourselves in fear knowing you will give an account to your heavenly Father who is impartial in His judging. Don’t think He’s going to overlook my sin. Fervently love one another, have that passionate, intense love for fellow believers, from the heart. And long for the pure milk of the Word, the pure milk of the Word, the unadulterated, unmixed Word of God, the Word in its purity. So you can feed upon that and be nourished in your soul in the fellowship of the believers that you love as you conduct yourself in fear of disobeying the God who saved you, who is your heavenly Father. And holiness characterizes your life as you now live new life in Him, with your hope fixed on the goal to which you are going as one redeemed by His grace.

We’ve been greatly blessed by God, by a marvelous salvation. And it’s not over, it will only get better.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your grace and the wonder of your mercy. Thank you that through faith in your Son and His death as the payment for sin we are set free and made new. And now privileged to live as your children and to obey your commands. May our lives be an ongoing testimony of that grace until Christ comes. We pray in His name. Amen.