Be Holy People

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  Be Holy People

  We've been in 1 Thessalonians. Great epistle, great preaching that we've heard here at our church from that passage. And I want to go somewhere different today, but similar in thought. We've been thinking about what it means to be a healthy church, what a healthy church is, how a healthy church grows. But you need to understand today that a healthy church consists of holy people, holy people. And that's what we're going to see today. From the text this morning in 1 Peter chapter 2, verses one through three. And I would invite you to turn to that passage in your copy of the scriptures. 1 Peter chapter 2, verses one through three. And we're going to look at this morning what it means to be holy people. As you're turning there, I want to speak very candidly about our walk with Christ. You see, the Bible speaks about being content. We should find contentment in all things, every circumstance and situation. We're to be content. But I do believe that it pleases God in one area of our life that we can be discontent. And before you check out on me for the rest of the sermon, thinking that I'm going to be preaching heresy. Let me explain what I mean. I believe that it pleases God for us to be discontent with the current state of our spiritual development. To be dissatisfied with the current state of our sanctification process. And not to be content to where you are in your personal holiness. Not to be satisfied with being in that place, but to continuously say Christ is the goal and I need to get there. Not to be, you know, you talk about this not content. We don't mean that this means that you should go down a path of despondency or or apathy or indifference, but that discontentment should drive you to strive to pursue Christ in all his fullness. It should never be satisfied with where you are. It's similar to what Paul said in Philippians chapter 3: 12 through 14. He says, not that I've already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on. He says, I press on so that I may lay hold of that which is also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. He says, I don't regard myself as of having laid hold of it yet, but this one thing I do is I'm forgetting what lies behind, and I'm reaching forward to what lies ahead. Paul wasn't satisfied as to where he was in his sanctification process. And that's the apostle Paul. If he wasn't satisfied as to where he was in his faith, where do you think we should be at? We should constantly be pursuing Christ. Sometimes we can have a tendency to to come to Jesus and salvation, born again, loving it and say, Jesus, this is about as good as it's going to get. I mean, this is what you got to work with. This is it right here. And we stop right there in our faith. We see others around us growing. We see others with a with a relentless pursuit of holiness. And we like man. I wish I had some of what they got. But guess what? If you are in Christ, you got what they got. Amen? You have everything that you need for life. And godliness is what Peter tells us. You've got it. You don't need to get more of it. You've got what they have. You have a work to do, and that's to work out what God has worked in you. And that's what this is about today, is being the holy people that God has saved you and called you to be holy. We need to be holy. And Peter is going to help us to see that, so that we can live a life where we're pursuing the holiness and the righteousness of Christ. I want to read the text, and then I'm going to pray and ask God to help us as we seek to understand its meaning. 1 Peter 2: 1-3, reads as follows. 
"Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. And like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." Bow with me in a word of prayer. 
Gracious father, we are just so thankful that we have your Word. We're grateful that we have the opportunity to open it up freely in this nation. And even in this hour, Lord, I pray that you would grab our attention from anything else that may be on our mind. Harness it such that we might be able to receive this truth and plant it. Give me clarity of mind and thought, boldness to be able to proclaim this truth so that it may edify the body of believers here present. And I pray that you use this to help us all to exalt the glorious Jesus Christ. And we ask all this in his name. And all God's people said, Amen. 
You know, Peter was one of the two most influential apostles in the early church. You know, Paul had a mission to the Gentile believers, and Peter had a mission to the Jews. And he went out and he's writing this letter to saints who had been scattered abroad. And even in verse one of chapter one, he says, they're residing as aliens scattered throughout Asia Minor, throughout the persecution that they were experiencing as believers. They turn away from their Judaistic practices. And now they've turned to Jesus Christ and they're getting persecuted. They're out, about, and scattered abroad. And Peter is writing to them. And you know what he has? He has a single purpose in mind how to conduct themselves in a hostile world. I think Peter had in his mind when Jesus told him, guess what? When the world is going to hate you because they hated me, that's why they're going to hate you. He had all of this in his mind, and he's writing to the saints how they ought to conduct themselves in a hostile world, and he's constantly pointing them back to the example of Jesus Christ. It's because of Christ. It's because of Christ. It's because of Christ. Peter is going to show them in this text how both God is working and the believer must work, so that we might pursue a life of holiness. And so the title of this morning's sermon is Be Holy People. We're to be holy, even as he mentioned in chapter one, verse 15 and 16. He says, but like the Holy One who has called you, be holy yourselves in all of your behavior. Not some of it. He didn't say, you get to pick and choose. He didn't say, do it on Sunday morning when people are looking. He said, in all of your behavior. In verse 16, it's written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. The predication of all of our holiness and what we do to pursue holiness is based on the holiness of God. He says, since I'm this way, you need to be that way, because you're my people. And we're going to see in this text two ways that we need to pursue holy lives and thus be holy people. 
 And the first way is this. It's live for the Lord. Live for the Lord. Look there in verse one, if we're going to be holy people, we need to live as if God is our constant audience. It's living life before his presence in light of what he's done. We just sang about it. What he's done, what he's done. I mean, y'all even clapped. Move side to side. This is a time for us to live for the Lord because of what he's done. And as we're going to live for the Lord, we see the first way that we can live for the Lord is being be reminding ourselves of your faith in Christ. You constantly have to be reminding yourselves of this precious faith that we have in Jesus Christ. Even in the second letter that he wrote, he said, I want to stir you up by way of reminder. It was no pain for Peter to constantly help them know that these precious and magnificent promises that have been delivered to God was to stir them up so that they would be all that they could for his holiness. And he reminds them by using a simple word therefore in verse one that therefore points back to chapter one, verses 23 through 25, when he says, for you have been born again. He's letting them know that you're not the old person. You've been born again. You now have a spiritual birth that has been born from above, literally is how that that term means in the original language. You've been born from above now. God gave you new life. You had an old life, now you have new life. Remember that. Be reminding yourselves of that new life. And then he told them how they got it. He said, you've been born not by a perishable seed, but a imperishable one. You think about things that perish. Some of you have those perennials, those flowers that blossomed a few weeks ago. Have you looked outside lately, what's happening to those flowers? Are they still blooming? Some of y'all are good and some of us probably not. Anything dies when it comes to our house. But all that being said, flowers fade, right? But he says no, no, no, no. You've got an imperishable seed. One that's going to going to last forever. Your salvation wasn't going to initially sprout up and then fade away. It's imperishable. It's going to last. And he said it came through the living and enduring Word of God. Verse 23 of chapter one. So it's enduring. It doesn't taper off. And our physical life, we taper off. I'm in my latter 40s. You know, I think I'm seeing a decline physically. But that's not what happens to us spiritually. We should constantly be growing, but reminding ourselves of that we should be renewed day by day. But that's the living hope and the enduring word. And we have to be reminded of that, because there are going to be some things that are going to be impossible for us to do by human standard, if we're going to be living for the Lord and being holy people. So we've got to be reminded of this birth that came from above, reminding of this word and God's infinite power that he's displayed. If you're going to be holy, you've got to remember that you've been born from above. And if you've been born from above. You got to live like you're from above instead of from below. And in addition to reminding yourselves of the faith that you have in Christ, you need to also be ridding yourselves of the sins of the flesh. Look there later in verse one when he says, be putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. You see, as believers, we're called to make a decisive break between the former manner of life and the new life that we have in Christ. If we're going to live for the Lord and be holy people. You've got to say, man, it's a difference. I'm set apart. Set apart for God's holy purposes. And so therefore, I've got to rid myself. That word putting aside it really is, is is laying aside, putting aside, ridding oneself. It's almost a it's a word picture that reminded them of taking off garments, taking off garments that were filthy and putting on ones that were that were new. And even in the early church, there were times that as a new believer was baptized, what they would do is they would come up and they would they would come to the baptistry and they would have their old garments that they used to wear, that everybody knew them before they got saved in, and they would take those old garments off. Then they would be baptized. Then the church would give them new garments because they said you're new in Christ. Now you've got new life. Go live in that newness of life. And so every time they looked at their clothing, they thought about the new life that they represented, now that they have been cleansed in Christ. That's what Peter is trying to help them to understand. He says, you got to rid yourself of those things that used to mark your life before Christ. And then he goes on to, to to give a list of vices. And these vices are ones that would really separate believers from one another. The New Testament is filled with lists of vices. You can see it in in 1 Corinthians 6, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, multiple places that that show list of vices that you've got to put aside or kill. But in this one, he's talking about those that would ultimately jeopardize the health of the church, because he's getting ready to help them to understand what it means to be holy people so that they can be together as living stones to a spiritual temple, and to be a royal priesthood for God. The togetherness and unity that can't be rivaled, but it will be rivaled if they're not holy. And so he says, you got to be holy and rid yourselves of these things. And love how he does this. And he says, you've got to rid yourself of all malice. He uses this word all three times in one verse, because he's emphasizing that it needs to be comprehensive without exceptions of any of these sins. You know, somebody might say, well, I'm not really all malicious. You know, I'm not all to see. I don't got all that stuff going on. Well, the question for you is, do you have any malice? Do you have any deceit and envy? Slander. And that's what Peter is trying to help them to see, is that you've got to lay this all aside. And he starts with the first vice, which is malice. All malice. This term characterized the lifestyle of of us before we were born again. We were malicious in nature. It was just how we were. And sometimes we think of malice as in like the most grotesque form of wickedness. But it can just be anything wicked, anything evil, anything that's contrary to the nature of God. That's what we were. We were malicious. And it really serves as the umbrella for all these other vices and sins that Peter has on the list. Having a a malicious attitude towards anyone. It could be just issues that you allow it to come up. In our Christian vernacular, we like to say, oh, it's I was just disappointed with my brother in Christ. I'm a little frustrated. We use these buzzwords. The Bible calls that anger. And then anger leads to to bitterness, and bitterness turns into malice. Before you know it, you might not have all malice, but you'll get there pretty quickly if you don't deal with it. Malice is what happens. He says you can't have any of those malicious thoughts towards brothers or sisters in the body of Christ. We're called to be a holy people. It's no way you can have a single offense. You shouldn't be that way. And you think about it. God in Christ. He's separated our sins as far as the East is from the West. At Psalm 103, verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so has he removed our sins from us. And if God has done that for you, brothers and sisters, we got to do that for one another. It should be nothing that should separate us from each other's love. That would cause us to have malice growing in our hearts. God's forgiven you. We should forgive. He says all deceit. The next one there, this deceit is a cleverness to get even or a cleverness to make a false impression on someone. You know what it is. It's using, uh, sort of guile or something that's inaccurate to try to present yourself differently than you really are trying to be clever, sneaky, crafty is what that is. That's what deceit is. Satan is father of deceit. But, you know, this is really detestable in the eyes of God because, you see, it's not like error when you got error. Error is the opposite of truth. But you know what deceit is. Deceit tries to hide in the middle. It says, I'm not going to be error. Imma have a little bit of truth, just enough to fool everybody. But I really got something else brewing on the inside. That's what deceit is, deception. He says that marked you when you were an unbeliever. You can't have that in the body of Christ. None of this deceit, get rid of it all. It's detestable in the eyes of God. And even in Psalm 101:7, it says, he who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house. He said, he'll get you out. You won't be named among my people if you have deceit. He'll cleanse his people. He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me. That's God speaking. He says he'll get rid of it. No deceit. As I started thinking about deceit, I said, how can we be deceitful in our interactions with one another? You know, what about those moments that you have someone come up to you and whether it's a serious illness or an accident or the death of a loved one, and you come up to them and you say, I'm going to be praying for you. But then weeks later, you don't. You don't pray. You don't pray. It would have been better if you had just even prayed in the moment. But you try to give them a surprise. I'm going to be praying for you. I'm going to be praying for you. Do you ever pray? What do you want them to think? That you're holy and you are praying person constantly on your knees. That's just a simple way that we can dwell in deceit. You see, it doesn't have to be this wicked extreme in. It could be just subtle. But you do enough of those subtle things and it can become a part of you, and you can be just like that old person that you're cleansed when Christ came in. Or maybe it's the person that isn't trying to get you to think highly of them. They're maybe just saying, I'm too low. I you say, hey, you know, there's some ministry opportunities to serve in, oh, you know, I'm a little too busy. I'm a little too busy for that. I can't I can't serve in that. That's, uh. Yeah. I'm just kind of busy. I'm busy. And. What are you doing, brother? Well, I, uh, me, me I I'm, um, I got I got to go home and, uh, I mean, I'm busy, I'm busy, I'm busy. We've heard a brother life group that was sharing that this week. He said, you know what? Busyness is the new laziness. People like to hide behind the word busy and make it seem like they're doing a whole bunch of things when they're really, they're storing up time to fulfill their pleasures in this life. Making the time for the things they enjoy. I'm busy, I gotta, I gotta, you know I got things to do I got stuff I got, I got stuff, stuff, stuff I mean, it's just so much stuff I can't even name it all stuff... that could be deceitful. You know, you would be better served to say, you know what? I'm just going to have to politely decline that ministry opportunity because that's going to cost too much. And I'm not willing to pay that price right now. You see how that's just truthful. Not deceitful. Just speaking the truth. That's what we should be. Truthful people not dwelling in deceit. Those are ways that we can subtly allow this in. Hypocrisy is the next one on the list. Present the truth instead of being a hypocrite. The hypocrite wants to appear a certain way in one setting, but then he changes when he gets into another. This came from the person that would be in a play, and they would wear a mask and they'd have a face underneath, but then they would have this mask that was a smiley face, right? It literally means to judge under you're judging under this face of smiling, but inwardly you're judging someone else or presenting yourself as higher. And that was something that even the Old Testament was rebuked about even before the Pharisees came about. Isaiah 29:13 it says, because this people approaches me with their words, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. That was what was happening. They were going through the religious activity, but their hearts were far from God. He says that the reverence for me consists of the commandment of men instead of the Word of God. That's what happens. They like man's rules because man's rules, they can keep man's rules, but then they duck and dodge God's Word, and then they hold you accountable to doing God's Word. That's why people outside the body can talk about Christians for being hypocrites. Because they're one way, one way, and one way another day. We shouldn't be that way. All hypocrisy should be laid aside. One theologian wrote this. He said, it is when we claim to be sinless that we are guilty of the charge of hypocrisy, claiming to be sinless, like, oh, we ain't got no sin. You can see that happening in life group in mutual ministry. I've seen some moments in mutual ministry where everybody in the room got sin except for this person. They spouse got sin. They boss got sin, they dog got sin. They like man, my dog need to repent. We need to give him a Bible study, you know, third Philippians or something. The dog have third Philippians. I don't even know. It's not even the third Philippians, by the way. Just the dog needs it. But everybody around the room is in sin except for them. That's hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy. Come and you've got nothing. Got nothing. Do people around you know the real you, or do they know the you that you put on a Sunday or in spiritual settings of brothers, brothers and sisters in the church? That's hypocrisy. That's got to be laid aside. If we're going to be holy people, we've got to lay that aside. And even envy. Envy is a jealousy that's caused by a desire to have something that another person possesses. You know what the root cause of envy is? It's a jealousy on the heart. And jealousy comes from when you're just blind to the multitude of blessings that God has given you. But you can vividly see the blessings that he's given somebody else. That's what that is. It's like we just. I'm missing. I'm blind to all these things that God has done for us in Christ. All these things. And even just to be here in America, where we can freely open the scriptures and read it, worship collectively so much we blind to all that. It's like, what can I have? What do I need? What does somebody else have that I need to have in my life? That really is a life that's marked by a lack of gratitude. Lack of gratitude cultivates envy. Even James 3:16, it says we're envy and self-seeking exist. Confusion and every evil thing are there as well. Confusion. It'll be chaos if everyone is envying one another here. But he says, lay that aside. That's what you did when you were unsaved. You have to have a new frame of mind. Can't be envious. You see, before we were saved, we envied everything. You looked on television. You started envying. You looked at a billboard I got a hat at. You saw people at your work. I got to have that. You went to church. I got to have that everywhere you went. It was an opportunity to get something. But when you got the gospel of Jesus Christ, you say, I have enough. I have enough. If I have Christ, he is sufficient. Everything else is plus. It's like the one who got the great, the one pearl of great value. And he went and sold everything else because of what he had. You think he was envious of what everybody else had at that moment. He said, no, I got the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm content. I got everything I need, kept him from envy that can kill relationships. If we allow that to stir in our church. The last sin that he lists here is slander. He says all slander. This is speech that overflows from an envious heart, a heart that wants to speak evil about another person. It wants to bring them down. Because ultimately, if you bring them down, it'll put you up. That's what happens in slanderous speech. And people do that sometimes they do it on the slide. Well, let me tell you about brother such and such. Oh, you ain't heard about sister such and such. Hey, hey, let me tell you. Slander, slander. It can tear the people of God down. Slander. And you can sneak it in the way out and try to sanitize it a little bit. But you know how we prevent from slander. You can turn to Ephesians. Go left in your Bible. You can go to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four and look at verse 29. This was in a situation in this context that Paul is just writing and telling them to lay aside all falsehood and and we you need to speak truth to each other, but they're going to be moments that you're going to be angry. There's going to be moments where there's going to be genuine offenses. Issues are going to happen. We're sinners. It's got to happen. But you don't have to slander. And how did you prevent from that? Verse 29 says, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. It talks about unwholesome. That's rotten speech, that's rotten words. One little negative word can spoil all of the things that you want to say to someone, even if you're giving them a loving rebuke or a correction, you throw a bad word in there. It can spoil everything. Like superlatives. I found that out and trying to correct people. You can't give superlatives. You always do this. No I don't, no I don't. And then before you know it, you go tell somebody. They don't never do this. I mean, it's just superlatives. That's an unhelpful word. Just give them good feedback. Don't have to slander them around the church. Think about wholesome, not unrotten words. And he says, don't let any of those leave your mouth, but only words that are good for edification. That means that they can build somebody up. Even if you give someone corrective, you should be able to edify them to the point where they say, thank you brother, I needed that. Thank you sister, that was helpful. You see, that's how we don't slander. We go right to the person and then build them up by giving them feedback. Because, you know, if you've been offended, sometimes it's a tendency to tell everybody else except for the person who needs it. Paul says here, let it be for edification. And then he says, according to the need of the moment. Sometimes it's just not the time to give feedback. It's not time to say something. But he says when you do, it should give grace to all those who hear. Everybody ought to be built up in truth based on what you say. That's the opposite of slanderous speech, and that's what you do because you're trying to be holy people. Let's turn back to 1 Peter 2. All of these really is what Peter is trying to help us to understand that you had this formal way of life, but you've got to put it aside because of your love and devotion and affection for Jesus Christ. That's the old man. He can't exist now with his new born again life that you have with Jesus Christ. You think about that. It used to be like Romans one said that people that were wickedness and greed and evil and envy and strife and deceit and malice, gossiping and slander, used to identify us. But now we've been sanctified and we look more like Christ. And so let's keep walking in holiness and not in the deeds of the past. Yeah. Think about, you know, uh, people, some of you like to work out here in the church. And some of you don't. That's okay. But, you know, after a workout, sometimes for me, on occasion I get to work out. What I love about the workout is the other side of the workout. After the work is done, the muscles are still twitching and I'm sweating. I'm tired and fatigued and I'm like, it's over. All that agony and work, it's over. I like to jump in a cold shower and then get a warm towel. Because I'm a skinny man with a skinny plan. I need a warm towel. That's what it is. I cold shower, but a warm towel I need to need to warm up a little bit. But the last thing on my mind after cleansing myself after a workout is to think about going back and getting some of those old, dirty, filthy workout clothes and and putting them right back on. That's the last thing from your thinking. You know, worked out. Some of them clothes are sticking to you. You shower and cleanse yourself. Do you want to put them back on? The answer is no. The same should be true of the life that you had before Christ. That should be so filthy for you that you are putting it aside, laying it off. You've been cleansed by the blood of the cross, by the precious fountain of Jesus Christ. Don't go and put that stuff back on again. Lay it aside and keep laying it aside. That's how we are to be holy people living for the Lord. Amen. Let's live for the Lord. Lay those things aside. That's the first step in being holy. Is realizing that you've been born in hope, called to holiness, and that should allow us to walk in harmony with one another as one body. Be holy people living for the Lord. The first thing is living for the Lord. 
And the second feature that we see here to be holy people. Is to long for the Word. In addition to living for the Lord. You want to long for the Word. And Peter says this in verse two, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. He says, you ought to do some living, but you also ought to do some longing. You ought to have some craving. Something should be going on. There's a sense in which you've got to have the Word of God. We should be craving spiritual nourishment as a believer. And I love how Peter, he doesn't tell the Christians to stop doing these things and start doing these things. I got this other list because, you know, us, we'd be looking for that list. But he says, stop doing these things that used to identify you as an unbeliever and then long for the Word of God, and he's going to tell you everything you need to do. Amen. It's the Word that's going to tell you what you need to do that's going to drive your motivations. It's going to dictate your desires. It's going to give you new cravings, even. You long for the Word. It'll give you new longings. That's what Peter is saying. You know the desires, not just behavior modification, but it's spiritual transformation. And that comes to the degree that you pursue the Word of God. Brothers and sisters, long for the Word of God. There's four features that I want to point out as he talks about longing for the Word that will help us this morning. And the first one is this we need to long for the Word desperately. Who need to long for God's Word desperately. There ought to be a a level of desperation when we're longing for God's truth, a sense of urgency. You get some people that they like to get a little verse a day to keep the devil away. I mean, that ain't going to get you much. You need to have some urgency. Like, I need the Word of God today. And it gives us an illustration. He says, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the Word. You see, just as the baby reaches for the bottle, you ought to be reaching for the Bible. That's what the believer is. He gives an illustration right there before us. You think about a newborn babe. You can't stop a babe from desiring milk. Try to keep them away from it. What happened? That was a little bitty babies. But they turned into muscle men at that moment. They moving around. They will snatch you up. They will grab you. Feed me. They can't even talk. But that's what they say. Feed me. We've had a child that was like that, even as a newborn would stand up on top of the crib, feed me milk. Now I'm just playing. He didn't do that. He didn't do that. But it felt like that. It felt like that. And it was good for me to be like, babe, that's all you. That's all you, girl. Go ahead. That's all. You roll over and go to sleep. Okay? I'm sorry. I supported at times. I supported at times, just not in the night. But you can't stop a baby from longing milk. And that should be the same craving that we have. There should be a level of desperation. You see that newborn babe every 3 to 4 hours like clockwork. Need feeding, needs milk, needs milk. Baby does two things. Eat and sleep. Okay. Maybe you know something else, but it comes after the feeding. But all that being said, they. They need food, they need food, they need food. And Peter is saying, recall that believer, God has bought you and you're born again. Crave and long the pure milk of the Word. Make it a sense of desperation, urgency. Don't do it haphazardly. You know, some people say, man, I got the latest tweet is my devotion for the day. I needed that Word. That isn't the craving that you need is to get somebody else's tweet. Long for the word personally, privately, yourself. Dig in because you need it. You won't take another man's food. You go get your own. This is what you need is is craving the Word of God. And he's not talking about new believers here, as some suppose. As he's talking about new babies, he's really making a comparison to their former manner of life. And to say, like babies long for this milk. He's not saying it as if they're immature. This isn't a rebuke. Because it doesn't matter how mature you are in Christ, you need to still have this desperation of longing for the Word. Some of the older saints, seasoned saints, I'll say in the room said Amen. No matter how seasoned you are, you still need to long for the Word in desperation, almost like you did the first day you found the light of Christ. And again, it's the babies are reaching for that nourishment. We should as well. The Bible talks about the Word as nourishment. First of the Word is bread, and Matthew 4:4 man should not live by bread alone. But what by the Word of God? Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. You can't live on bread alone. The word refers to it as meat in 1 Corinthians 3:2, even it refers to the Word as honey in Psalm 19:10. Love what he says sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Is that the Word of God is just good. The psalmist is letting us know. That is necessary. Job 23:12 he says, I have not departed from the command of his lips, and I have treasured the words of God's mouth more than my necessary food. Job said I got necessary food, but this Word is even necessary. It's even more necessary. I know I have a daily ration that I need, but this is my portion. I gotta have it more than the food that I need. I need God's Word. Do you act like your life depends on your next feeding from the Word of God? Are you wired that way to where you have that type of desperation for the Word? Now you make it your joy to to long for the Word because you crave it desperately, like a babe. Speaking of craving, it's like Psalm 42: 1-2. It says as the deer pants for the water brook. So my soul pants for you, O God. He says, my soul, it thirsts for the living God. That's a that was what the psalmist is teaching us. It's a it's to crave the Word because you're craving God. The typical deer. It needs 2 to 3 quarts of water per day per 100 pounds of body weight. And then when the temperature rises, guess what? Their need for water increases. Trials rise. We need more water. We need more of the Word. We should be thinking about that. It's it's an urgency, a desperation. Some of you, you need to take the reading of the Word of God out of the optional category and put it in the vital category of your day. It don't need to be one of those things that's occasional. It needs to be essential. It don't need to be the the thing that if you get around to doing it, but it needs to be the thing that everything else is centered around. It's the Word of God. I need to feed on that, because that's going to influence the rest of my day. And we're not talking about just the person whose life is falling apart. We're talking about the person's life who's even held together because the the Lord and His Word is holding them together. Reminded of Charles Spurgeon when he said, A Bible which is falling apart usually belongs to a person who isn't. He said, you know what? There's a person that that's going through their Bible so much, they know where all things are at for every moment of need, that their life is held together because the Word is keeping them together. I know a brother he can't even find his book of Ephesians. It's sometimes missing in the Bible because he doesn't work the Ephesians backwards and forwards that it's almost out of his Bible. He's got to glue it back in to keep it intact. Did you work your Bible with that type of urgency and desperation? That's what Peter is saying here. I hear some people say, well, you know, I'm not really a reader, preacher man. I'm not really a reader. I'm not a reader, not really a reader. You know what I hear that it's almost like I liken it to a person that's in the desert. Hadn't eaten for about three days. You know, on their last breath. And someone comes with water and said, hey, hey, come take this water. And they look up to him. They say, no, I'm not a water person. I don't like water. I don't like water. Well do you like death? I mean, that's the alternative. Because death is pretty imminent right about now. We've got a long for the Word of God. Even if you're not a reader, read the Word of God. It's not the eloquence that you need to have afterwards, it's the devotion that will come as a result. Read desperately. But you also need to read discerningly later in this verse. He says, long for the pure milk of the Word that pure milk. He says, there's a there's a purity. This word purity. It's the only time that it appears in the entire New Testament. And we translate it really pure because it has no deceit. It's the opposite of that word that was used deceit in verse one. It's the opposite. There's a unadulterated, it's uncontaminated. He says. You need to be seeking and longing for that pure Word of God. Unadulterated. It's not been tampered with. It's unmixed. And that's how God's Word, it comes in its purity. Even the psalmist in Psalm 19: 7-8, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoice in the heart. And the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. He said, that's a purity that comes from the Word of God. You need to be seeking that Word it to be trying to determine good expository preaching from healthy people that you know and trust. Get good commentaries. Get a good study Bible. We can help you with that. A lot of people that have been built up and strengthened, they have a MacArthur Study Bible. They're reading the Word and they can see the notes and understand because they see purity there. They see the the truth that's there. They're able to have discernment as you grow and understand the truth. God wants us to have discernment and grow as we long for this pure milk of the Word. But growing in discernment starts with growing an appetite for God's Word and having a a craving and a desire for that truth. Warren Wiersbe talks about this, he said it's sad when Christians have no appetite for God's Word, but must be fed with religious entertainment instead. That's what happens. And he wrote this like in the 80s. And we don't. We don't have an appetite for God's Word. We want to get entertained. We just want sound bites. We want somebody to illustrate it for us. We don't even want to hear preaching no more after that. You just want, hey, act it out for me. What I should be doing today for the Lord. That's what happens. A lack of discernment can happen in the church, but we've got to long for the Word discerningly, have discernment in it. You see, if we don't seek discernment, we could be tossed to and fro by every word of doctrine and every wind. As as Ephesians 4:14 says to and fro, the doctrines will come and go. But you need to be steady in the Word of God, sitting under good truth and seeking it with good resources that we supply. You see, false teachers will abound. Paul even told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3. He says, there's going to be a time that's going to come where people are not even going to endure sound doctrine. They're going to want to have their ears tickled, and they're going to accumulate teachers in accordance to their own desires. What's going to happen is, is people say, I like to hear these kind of words instead of the Word of God. So, preacher, preach these kind of words and they'll hire pastors to preach those things so they can feel good about themselves. That's what happens. But you don't need to be that way. You need to long for the Word in a discerning fashion to detect that and say, no, I need truth. I need truth, I need truth. Then go pursue it and have discernment in it. We got false teachers out there. But there's also false feeders out there. They love it feeding on that false teaching because they know that it'll never hold them accountable to the Word. Have some discernment when you're longing for that Word. So long for the Word desperately long discerningly. But you also need to long for the Word diligently. You need to strive in this. And the reason that we know this is that he says later in verse two, so that you may grow in respect to salvation. You're literally growing up in salvation. When Peter is talking about salvation, he uses a past tense, a present tense, and a future tense. He says, you've been saved from something. You're being saved. And then there's a future salvation that is yet to come. But he's saying right now, you want to grow up in that salvation that you have. And as you long for the Word, that's what the result is, is that you grow up just like that baby. When they get the nourishment, you hope that they grow. A mother would be sad if they were still having to give a bottle to their 9 year old, 15 year old, 20 year old because they never grew up. The purpose of of longing for the Word is so that we will be able to grow up in our salvation. And the goal is to look exactly like Jesus Christ. And that's God's goal. And the way that we get there is by the Word. And Peter is diligent to say, hey, you need to add these things to your faith. If you turn right to 2 Peter, you can look at chapter one. And as he's saying this in verse 3 of 2 Peter chapter 1, he says, look, if you're going to be these holy people. He says, seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, you see, God is the one who supplied you with the power to even long for holiness. You say, how did I get this? Well, it's the next phrase. It's through the true knowledge of him, aka the milk of the Word that called us by his own glory and excellence. And for by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises found in the Word. So that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world by lust. That was in chapter 1 of 2 Peter 2. All those things that was the lust. And then he says, now for this reason, applying all diligence in your faith, supply what?... Moral excellence and moral excellence, knowledge. That's the Word of God, longing for the Word. And then the knowledge, self-control and self-control, perseverance, godliness, godliness, brotherly kindness, and then love. You see what happens is, is your longing should lead to growing. And that's what Peter is saying that you should get when you've got the precious and magnificent promises of God. You start with milk, but you'll move on to the meat. And before you know it, you've got a complete meal. Getting the whole counsel of God. You know what growing in Christ does? It allows you to have a desire for truth. That desire for truth. It allows you to grow in obedience. You start to obey God from the heart, not doing it just because you have to. But you do it because you get to. Because you're longing for that Word and you're growing up in salvation. Then that obedience leads to perseverance. Peter is writing to these saints that are in all these trials, and he's saying, look, as you're in that Word, you're going to look just like Jesus Christ, because he is the one that went through his trial. And yet he said, forgive them. They know not what they do. Perseverance. You persevere like Christ does because you're in the Word. Your prayer will grow. Prayer life. It'll be enhanced when you grow spiritually in the Word. Your character. People that see what you say and do you will grow because you're longing for the Word. Your service to Christ. Your witness to unbelievers. All of that will grow as a result of you longing for the Word. Are you longing for the Word so that you can check it off a list? Are you longing for the Word so that you can grow up into the full character of Jesus Christ? That's what Peter is saying, and this is what we have before us. You could turn back to 1 Peter 2. We need long for the Word desperately, discerningly diligently, and the last thing we need to do is long for the Word devotionally. We need to long for the Word devotionally. There was a loyalty, a fidelity to the Word of God that comes because you've been personally impacted by the author of the Word. You know him personally, and so you just you can't get enough of him. And that's what he says in verse 3. He says, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, that word" if" it really is a first class conditional statement, that means since so that you can render this verse. Since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. This kindness is both God's kindness and his goodness. He says, you go after this Word in a devotional fashion because you've tasted the goodness of God. I had a brother in life group earlier this week said, man, I know what it's like to be in the Word. It changes my whole day because I got joy in my heart and a smile on my face when I done started in the Word of God. It's that joy because he's tasted the goodness of God gives him joy throughout the whole day. That's what Peter is saying here. He would do a devotion because you've tasted it like what David writes in Psalm 34:8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He's even challenging and provoking and pleading the people of Israel to taste themselves and see that God is good. He's good. There's blessing and protection from trusting in him. He's given over and over again his kindness to his people. He distinguished himself from all other gods with that kindness. Isaiah 54:8, I hid my face from you for a moment, but everlasting loving kindness I gave you compassion day by day, because I am your Lord, your Redeemer. That's God. Was kind to them even when they were fickle and frail. God extended his kindness and David tasted it. You know what? We know the kindness of God that led us to salvation. Titus two and three and even three. It says, but when the kindness of our God and Savior and His love for mankind appeared, he saved us. God saved us through that kindness. Don't you love it when you taste the kindness of God in salvation? You knew where you were and you now know where you are in Christ. You can say, I tasted the goodness of God. That's what it means to to long for that Word in a devotional fashion. You see, it's the kindness of God that led us to repentance. Romans 2:4. And that kindness of God is found in the Word. It's like why the psalmist says, oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. It's because he tasted the kindness of the Lord. How sweet are your words to my taste. Even sweeter than honey to the mouth. Man, I can remember where I was when I had my first Krispy Kreme doughnut. I remember where I was, I can remember what I was wearing. I can remember what time of day it was when I bit into that ooey gooey goodness for the very first time and tasted how good it was. But you know something i can remember more? Is the day I tasted the kindness of God. It's the day that I knew that I was a sinner that was worthy of his wrath. And he saved me when I tasted the goodness of God. I can't go back. I can't go back to that old life. I look in the Word each day because I want to discover this God who has saved my soul. That's the goodness of God. Believer, that's how you need to long for the Word of God. When you've tasted his goodness and you want it over and over and over again. People can't tell you enough to be in the Word because you're already there, longing for the Word, because you've tasted the goodness of God. Long for his Word devotionally because you know the author of the Word. I might be speaking to someone here who doesn't know God, and I'm mindful of that. And the truth is that naturally, you might be sitting there thinking, I hear your preacher man, but. I really have a different view of God. I have a different taste. Have a taste of that God is rigid and severe. He's judgmental. Wants me to do all these commands. We all were that way. We all were that way before God. But today you can change. You can set your affection on God and allow him to make you new on the inside. That will give you new cravings. And you'll be able to taste the kindness of God. You see, you'll realize that you're a sinner who falls short of his glory. You have wayward ways because that's your nature. But he wants to make you new. And he can do that. By giving you his Son, Jesus Christ. Said that he all of us are like sheep. We've gone astray. Isaiah 53 but you know what God did? He didn't leave us that way. You know what he did? He put his Son on the cross so that you could have life. And you can have that life today. We'd love to be able to share that with you. Caused all of our sins to be placed on him, and he gave us his righteousness to live. Out. And you can do that too today and taste the goodness of God. Urge you strongly. Cling to Jesus Christ. You can have a new taste of God. Have that bitter taste out of your mouth and it'll be sweet and it'll be good for the rest of your days, even leading through eternity. But for the rest of us, we're going to be holy people. Let's live for the Lord and long for His Word. You know, as you think about this, would encourage you to take some time this week to examine those items in verse one. Examine your thoughts and speech and actions. Maybe write down in your notes a personal relationship that you want to improve based on putting aside these sins and go do it. Be immediately obedient to the Word. And then when it comes to longing the Word I pray that you would just make at least one goal. Maybe it's a goal you've been putting aside for the longest. Adhere to that goal and do it, and then delight in it. Grow in your delight and affection for the Lord of the Word as you, as you pursue it more and more. Some of you might be saying, man, that was a heavy sermon, preacher man, that was heavy. You don't know me, man. It's hard for me to get into the Word. But there was a young believer who said this very same thing. He was discouraged about his attempts to read and remember the Bible. And he said, it's no use. No matter how much I read, I almost always forget what I read. But then there was a wise pastor that replied. He said, take heart, because even when you pour water over a sieve. You may not collect much water in that sieve, but you'll always end up with a clean sieve. You'll always be clean. If you're living for the Lord and longing for His Word, you will always be clean because you're constantly being cleansed by the Word of life. Let us endeavor together that we'll live together for the Lord, and that we'll long for His Word to be holy people. Let's pray. 
Gracious father, thank you so much for all that you've done and just allowing us to be here in the Word. And I just pray that you would help us to see you high and lifted up in this passage. Help us to see ourselves as to where we were before Christ, and to realize that we've been saved to a new and living hope. Help us to put aside those deeds that used to identify us before Christ and long for the Word so that we might grow up in salvation. We love you and praise you for this time. Be glorified in it and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.