Longing that Leads to Growth: Prerequisites

The Unique Nature of Scripture and Supra-Cultural Truths

0:03 The following sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 23, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter, 1 Peter, and for the first time this morning I'll say chapter 2, 1 Peter, chapter 2. I shall read the first three verses in your hearing. Putting away, therefore, all wickedness or malice, and all guile and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you may grow thereby unto salvation, if or since you have tasted that the Lord. His gracious.

1:10 Now, just a few moments ago I asked you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. And I noticed that many of you, not all of you, but many of you, most of you, either have a Bible in your hands or spread out on your lap. And if I were to ask you, what is the unique nature of that book that you hold in your hands or is spread on your lap, that book that contains? This portion of the Word of God, which I've read in your hearing.

1:43 If I asked you, what is the unique nature of that book? What makes it totally different from any other book you might ever hold in your hands or place on your lap? I hope most of you would answer by saying, it is the only Spirit-inspired revelation of the mind and will of God given to mankind. What makes this?

2:10 This book, utterly unique, is that it is the only Spirit-inspired revelation of the mind and will of God to mankind. As Peter himself writes in his second letter, No prophecy ever came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke and by inference wrote, as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. And I trust on that fundamental tenet of our faith, none of us will ever waver, and that we as a church will never equivocate in making our joyful confession that this book contains the very words that reflect the mind and will of the one true and living God. However, as you have been instructed many times, God did not give His words to us in some kind of special celestial or angel language. He gave His words to us through men. Holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

3:21 And they spoke in the thought patterns, the figures of speech, and all of the various tools that men use when communicating their thoughts one toward another. And that means there will be, as we have been instructed in great detail, in recent weeks, figures of speech, there will be figures, there will be things in the scriptures deeply embedded in the circle of the thought and the experience of the biblical writers. There will be similes, certain things will be like this, or metaphors, certain things will be said to be this or to be that. There will be references to historical events and some of those, because we are not in the world of the biblical writers, convey very little to us. And we have to go back and try to understand what made that clear to the biblical writer that he would use to illustrate a truth, something that is all darkness to me. For example, in our reading in Mark chapter 2 this morning, how many of you have ever seen a liter of wine in a wineskin? Well, all of those to whom Jesus spoke, that would have been, a common part of their life.

4:44 To see the skin of a smaller animal tied off at the four legs, and where the neck would be, the wine had gone in, and a wineskin was something very common to them. It's not common to us. In this day of pre-shrunk cloth, many of you have never seen a piece of unshrunken cloth, but that was very common in our Lord's day. And so the task of the responsible expositor, when he comes to such passages, is first of all to take the listener back into the world of the writer, and to seek to make clear to our minds what was very clear to theirs.

5:23 But thankfully, there are other portions of the Word of God where the biblical writers, under the guidance of the Spirit, make reference to things that are supra-cultural and supra-temporal. They are realities not bound by any given culture at any given time, in any given set of circumstances. For example, when Jesus is displaying the largeness of the Father's heart to His children, He says this, If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask? Well, you don't need to be embedded in Palestinian culture to know that the basic disposition of a father is to give good gifts to his children. You see, there's a real difference between the two. There's a real difference between the two. In the verse where Jesus says, Now, why have I said all of that?

6:21 Well, for the simple reason that I want to tweak your minds. Some of you are still half-asleep when it comes to the sermon time, and I make no embarrassment that I labor at my introductions to try to tweak your minds. But I'm also doing that to lead into the study of the passage this morning. Because in this passage, the heart of what we have heard is saying, in the word, the heart of what we have read, the heart of what you have seen, that your heart is dressed up in oil, your soul, your heart is dressed up in oil.

6:41 what Peter writes under the inspiration of the Spirit makes reference to something that is not peculiar to first century Middle Eastern culture. He talks about newborn babes that have a yearning, a passionate appetite for milk. Now that's a supracultural reality. All of us, in one way or another, have been acquainted with the passion of a newborn babe for milk.

Review of 1 Peter Chapter 1: Context for the Fifth Imperative

7:13 And at the center of this passage is Peter's exhortation, as newborn nursing babes yearn, long for, have a passionate desire for the sincere milk of the Word, or what the ASV renders as the spiritual milk. The milk which is without guile that you may grow thereby. But now before plunging into this text, which I trust you recognize is one that from the very outset should not involve a lot of detailed, concentrated thought to get back into the world of the biblical writers, let me take just a moment to make sure you have fixed in your mind the ground Peter has already covered in that first chapter. After his first chapter, Peter says, after his opening identification of himself as an apostle, and the identification of these believers in Asia Minor under the figure of elect sojourners of the dispersion, he then breaks out in verses 3 to 12 in this marvelous eulogy, blessing God for his great salvation in Christ, a salvation which, as Peter identifies it, has as its great focal point the hope that is set before us, blessed be this God and Father of our Lord Jesus,

8:38 who has begotten us again unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance, undefiled, etc. And that theme of hope is central in his opening up of this amazing salvation purchased at so great a price for the people of God. And then he begins in verse 13 to tell the people of God, how they are to walk in the light of the real circumstances in which they find themselves against the backdrop of the great salvation that is theirs in Jesus Christ. And it would be, I trust, edifying, but I'm choosing not to do it this morning, to see how as Peter begins to say to the believers, this is what you ought to be and to do in the light of what you have and are in Christ, each of those imperatives takes its clue from what they have already been given in Jesus Christ. For example, since they are called to a salvation which has as its glorious focal point the hope, that marvelous, that wonderful inheritance that awaits them, his first imperative in verse 13 is, set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation. At the revelation of Jesus Christ.

10:06 Their life before God is to be a life of steadfast hope. Verses 14 and 15, it's to be a life in the pursuit of universal holiness. Verses 17 through 21, it's to be a life of appropriate fear. And then Peter says in principle, you not only have a life to live before God as elect sojourners, blessed with so great a salvation, a life of hope, a life of holiness, and the life of appropriate fear, but you have fellow travelers.

10:42 And so he lays upon them that fourth imperative in verses 22 to 25, they are to love one another. They are to love as those who have experienced the purification of their souls in obedience to the truth. They are to love one another because they have been begotten of imperishable seed. Now, we come to chapter two. Note that at the center of this fifth imperative, and this is the fifth imperative, is this issue of longing for milk that we might grow. Here in verses one to three, everything is clustered around the imperative of verse two. As newborn babes, here's the only imperative verb, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile that you may grow thereby unto salvation. And the bare bones of that imperative is long for the milk that you may grow. Everything else leads into it or flows out of it. Or

11:53 to change the imagery, everything else is like a satellite surrounding itself. Shedding that central concern, shedding light upon that concern. So we might well call verses one to three the mandate for the longing that leads to growth. The mandate for the longing that leads to growth. Long for the milk that you may grow. That's the heart and the soul of this fifth imperative. Now do you see what Peter has done? From three imperatives that point us to the Christian life, primarily in relationship to God, a life of hope, holiness, and fear. Then he says your Christian life is also to be marked by concerns that relate to your brethren. You are to love one another from the heart fervently.

The Mandate for Longing and Growth: Prerequisites

12:51 But then he says the Christian life is also to be concerned with your own personal growth. And he now lays before them, the imperative to long for the milk that they may grow. And in the opening up of these verses, we'll consider first of all the prerequisite to the longing for spiritual growth, verse one. Verse two, the precept which mandates longing for spiritual growth. And then verse three, the personal experience which leads to the longing for spiritual growth. So we'll consider the prerequisites, the precept, and the personal experience. Now I had hoped to be able to expound and apply all three verses this morning, but to do so would mean I would keep you for an inordinate length of time and violate the biblical injunction, love does not behave itself unseemly. And as you would that others do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.

13:53 So God willing, this morning we'll take up heading number one, the prerequisites to the longing for spiritual growth, and God willing, next week, verses two and three. First of all, the prerequisites for the longing for spiritual growth. As Peter now, with his pastoral passion, fulfilling his commission given to him by his Lord some thirty years earlier, to shepherd his sheep and to feed his lambs and care for his lambs, he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he for milk that they may grow. But notice, before he does, he sets out a prerequisite. Verse one, putting away, therefore, all wickedness or malice, and all guile and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes long. There is no ability to long as newborn babes for the milk that they may grow. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual

14:59 growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. And he is about to lay this injunction upon them to long for spiritual growth. In Peter's mind, apart from this putting away, all malice, all guile, hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings. Notice that the verse begins with the word, therefore, putting away, therefore. And as some of you will remember, you have been told, whenever you find a therefore in the scriptures, you should pause and ask, what is it there for?

15:32 It is there for a reason. And don't slip over the therefores. When you find the therefores, immediately God is saying, invalid if detached. Don't take this unit of thought from what precedes.

15:47 It is either a consequence, a deduction to change the imagery. It is superstructure built on a previously laid foundation to change the imagery. It is the tail to which is attached a body and a head. When you find a therefore, stop and ask, what is it there for?

The Connection to Brotherly Love and New Birth

16:07 When the letter was written, there were no chapter divisions, no verse divisions. If you were sitting in one of those churches in those five provinces of Asia Minor, and one of your elders were reading this letter, you would have heard the words go right on from being begotten again of imperishable seed by the Word that lives and abides forever. The quotation from Isaiah 40, right on into the words, putting away therefore, in the light of what I've just established, in the light of what I've just said to you in my letter, therefore, in the light of those things, I now direct you, putting away all wickedness and guile, hypocrisies, etc. Well, what's the connection? Well, those of you who have been here for the expositions, I hope you readily answer that. Question in your own mind. He has just set before them that fourth imperative, love one another from the heart fervently.

17:10 Verse 22. He has reminded them that in giving that commandment to love one another, he is not like Pharaoh's taskmasters, telling them make brick without straw. He has told them that they all have this twofold, twofold spiritual experience. They have purified their souls in their obedience to the truth, which according to verse 22, tends towards unfeigned love of the brethren.

17:42 In other words, one of the inevitable accompaniments of the purification of the soul in conversion is the implantation of a disposition to love the brethren. So he says, having purified your souls unto the experience of this disposition, having purified your souls unto the experience of this disposition, love one another from the heart fervently, having been begotten again of imperishable seed. Behind your purification of your souls in your obedience to the truth was the sovereign, gracious, mighty work of God in begetting you anew by means of the imperishable seed of the Word. That Word which lives and abides forever, that Word which he identifies at the end of verse 25, with the good tidings preached to them. And now he says, therefore, in the light of these realities, that you have experienced soul purification unto the love of the brethren, in the light of the injunction to love one another from the heart fervently, in the light of the fact that you have been born of the Spirit of God, you have known the influence and power of the imperishable, the imperishable seed of that Word. It has brought forth new life. And I'm about to give you an injunction which says, in essence,

19:07 the Word that breeds you now must feed you. The seed that gave you life must be the food that sustains life. Therefore, and then he's going to give his prerequisites before he gives the precepts. But there is an intimate connection between that immediate preceding, the context, and what he's now about to say.

The Meaning of 'Putting Away' Sins

19:32 And that, I trust, will become increasingly clear as we work our way through this text. So we've considered that connective in the prerequisite to the longing for spiritual growth. Now he says, in the light of these things, putting away, and then he names five specific kinds of sins. Now, what is this putting away?

19:56 The word can literally mean, to take off and shed a garment. It's used that way in Acts 7.58, where it speaks of those who took off their garments and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. That's in the incident of Stephen's stoning and martyrdom.

20:17 But most frequently in the Scriptures, it's used metaphorically. The putting off of a garment, what I did with my jacket, took it off, stripped it off me, and put it on a hook. It's used as a metaphor for putting off moral evils. It is used several times, about a half a dozen times in the New Testament, for the putting off of various sins and evils.

20:44 And we'll make reference, or turn you to several of those references in a few moments. Now the form of that particular verb, for you Greek students, it's an aorist participle. It could mean, that Peter's referring to what they already have done in their conversion. And we could translate it this way.

21:05 Having put away therefore, all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, when you purified your souls in your obedience to the Lord, you made a definitive, radical, heart breach with the dominion of these sins. And linguistically, grammatically, syntactically, contextually, in every way, that could be a legitimate rendering. And there are some very responsible Greek students, and very devout students of the word, who say that's what Peter is saying. Just as the command, to love one another, is predicated upon the reality of soul purification, and the new birth, so the command, to long for milk that you may grow, is predicated upon the fact, to long for milk that you may grow, is predicated upon the fact, is predicated upon the fact, is predicated upon the fact, that they have put away these sins definitively in a very marked way in their conversion. Now that's a truth taught in the word of God. If you have not made a definitive heart break with sin, with all sin, you're not a Christian. I didn't say, if you have not gained the mastery over all sin.

22:23 If that were true, none of us would be Christians sitting here. For if we say we have not sinned, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. But if you have not in the heart repudiated sin as your master, and sin in terms of specific sins, you've never repented. And except you repent, you'll perish.

22:45 So it could be that Peter's referring to that, and linguistically, that would be perfectly legitimate. However, it could mean that what Peter is doing is he's using this form of the verb in order to, as it were, shroud it with the aura and the climate of an imperative. But he's so concerned that we focus our attention on the central issue, which is long for the milk that you may grow, that he uses this participle, but it takes the flavor and the overtones of an imperative. And what he is saying is, now in the light of all of your privileges, as those who've purified your souls have been begotten again, and are now called to fervent love one to another, now you must determine throughout the course of your life, if you're to cultivate real longing for that word that you may grow, that you will not expect that word to grow in a heart that to any degree tolerates these five sins. Therefore, putting away as the pattern of your life, putting away whenever you're conscious, that the garment, the garment of malice, the garment of guile and hypocrisies or envies is beginning to cling to you or you find it upon you, put it off, put it away, get rid of it.

24:13 And as I've tried to look in every context where this word, put off, is used, and there are at least five other passages in the New Testament where it is used, and in three of the five, the exact same construction is found, and it's clear, in those five instances, that he's telling Christians already converted, already born of the Spirit, that this is to be part of their present activity. And therefore, I'm expounding the passage, convinced in my own judgment that what Peter is doing is not making a reference to what they did in their conversion, but what they are to do as the pattern of their life, as long as they are sojourners, and until they come, through their blessed inheritance. For you who want to look up the passages at your leisure, Romans 13, 12, cast off the works of darkness, an injunction to believers, Ephesians 4, 25, where believers are told to put off certain sins, Colossians 3, 8, Hebrews 12, 1, the well-known passage, we are to lay aside the sin that does so easily, the seven, all of us and every weight, and James 1, 21, which is in many ways of parallel passage. And the same form of the verb is used here. It's participle form.

25:41 James 1, 21, speaking to believers, where for putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness. And there's the central imperative, receive the implanted word. Now, I know that took a little time to work through that, but this is the word of God. And we who are called upon to expound, it are to cut a straight course in the word of truth and persuaded from the text of scripture that Peter is saying to believers who have indeed experienced that dramatic, definitive purification of the soul in their conversion.

26:19 They have been begotten again. He is the realist who recognizes that while sin no longer reigns, it remains. And while no, no longer do they voluntarily wrap themselves up in all of the sins in which they once lived. They have put those off.

26:36 They have put off the old man, as Colossians says, and have put on the new man. But just as Paul says in Colossians, those who have put off the old man are to go on putting off the specific sins that yet cling to them from what they were when they were yet in the dominion of sin. So he says, you must put away like an old garment, like a moth-eaten garment, something that you no longer want to have clinging to you. You must cast off and discard if you are to long for the milk that you may grow.

Prerequisite for Growth: Wholesome Food and a Healthy Digestive System

27:16 Peter says two things are necessary. If you're going to grow, there must not only be wholesome food, but a healthy digestive system. You can put all the wholesome food. You want to with a little babe who has a sick digestive system, and the child will not grow.

27:36 You need wholesome food, and you need a healthy digestive system. And here Peter is setting forth what I'm calling the prerequisite for longing for spiritual growth. And what is it? It is the putting away in the light of all that we are as purified, born-again children of God, commanded to love one another.

28:02 You are to put away, says Peter, these five things. And as he lists them, the structure is such that it's clear. He's putting them in three categories structured by the alls. Notice this even in your English translations.

28:18 It's very clear in the original. Putting away, therefore, all wickedness. That's category number one. And all guile and hypocrisy, and envies.

28:31 That's category number two. And notice the all again. All evil speaking. You have three alls.

Category 1: Putting Away All Malice

28:37 And the three alls place these in three categories. Organically related, practically related, but distinct. Category number one. Peter says, putting away all wickedness.

28:55 Now the word used for wickedness is a word that if you wanted to use, a term that would describe in the broadest way, anything that was the opposite of good and virtuous, this is the word you could use. However, most frequently in the New Testament, when it is used in a list of sins, it is not speaking of wickedness in the broadest, most general sense. It's speaking of wickedness in a more specific and limited sense. It is the wickedness manifested in what we would call a malicious, malicious spirit, ill will, malice, the disposition of moral baseness that is eager to injure another. You see, it's not the accidental, you didn't see the person behind you, you turned quickly and your elbow caught him in the nose, and you bloodied their nose. It's when you see the person across the street and everything in you says, if I could, I would give him not only my elbow, but my fist. It's the disposition, the disposition that desires to harm another.

30:04 In a real sense, this first mentioned sin is the mother of all the sins that follow. And so Peter, as he would exhort these believers to cultivate this newborn, babe-like longing for milk that they may grow, the milk of the word of God, the same word that begot them unto life through the blessing of God, then will now nourish their life. He is a wise pastor knows that no amount of effort to ingest that milk will ever produce growth. If it's ingested in a heart in which there is the toleration of the slightest bit of malice, it's impossible for a malicious heart to be a heart hungry for the word and hungry to grow. And so Peter says, there must be a putting away, a way of all malice in all of its manifestations. However, hidden from the eyes of men, when known to us as it is known to God, that malice is to be put away. There is nothing another person can ever do to you.

31:25 That justifies for one millisecond, the entertainment of a disposition, of malice, never, never, ah, but it makes no difference. There is nothing. Any fellow creature can do to you that ever justifies the disposition of malice. So Peter says putting away, therefore, not just 90% of your malice, not just 99 and 44, 100%.

32:00 So it equals ivory soap in its purity, but, putting away all malice, all malice, whenever a threat of it, attempts as it were to put itself back upon us as our native dress. When once for some of us, perhaps malice was a garment. We wore day and night grudges against all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons. And when God saved you, the basic power, of that horrible moth-eaten garment was broken and you put it off.

32:40 Oh, how easy it is to slip back into the entertainment of a malicious spirit. Peter is saying, here's the first prerequisite for the longing essential for spiritual growth. Putting away all malice. Category one.

Category 2: Putting Away All Guile, Hypocrisies, and Envies

32:56 Now, category number two, all grouped together by the second, all, all guile and hypocrisies, plural, and envies, plural. All guile. What is guile? Guile means deceit, cunning, or craftiness.

33:15 The term was the one originally used when you wanted to describe what you did in baiting your hook for a fish. You beguiled him. Now you kids, if you go fishing with dad, most moms don't like to fish, some do, but suppose you're going fishing with mom and dad, and you put a minnow on your hook. Put the hook through the minnow's lips, or through by behind its dorsal fin, and the minnow's swimming around there in the water.

33:43 What is that minnow saying? And what are you making the minnow say to any unsuspecting fish? What you're saying is, hey, fishy, fishy, I've provided a free meal for you. You got any sense, little fishy, fishy?

33:58 Certainly anyone with any sense will take a free meal. Nice little fat minnow, swimming around in the confines of the sports shop. He doesn't even burn up as many calories as all the other men. Doesn't he look fatter than all his fellows?

34:13 Hey, fishy, fishy, free meal. What are you doing? You're trying to get a fish in a frying pan. You're offering him a frying pan, not free meal.

34:23 The free meal is what? It's guile. You're trying to catch the fish by deliberate determination to deceive him. You promise a minnow or a worm, and all you're going to give it is a hook in a frying pan.

34:40 That's your intention. You're not just unwittingly passing a minnow in front of him, and it just happens that the fish goes from the water to the frying pan. It's your purpose. It's your calculated determined purpose.

34:53 Now, Peter says, putting away, therefore, not only all malice, the disposition of ill will to a fellow human being, and in particular to your brethren, but all guile, all deceit, all cunning craftiness, the deceitfulness that harms others through trickery and falsehood. He says, put it all away, every single bit of it. And also, he says, while you're at it, put away that which grows out of the guile, hypocrisies. The basic concept of the word is play acting.

35:31 It means to hide your true identity from another. That's what the actors used to do in the plays of that day. They put on the mask. To do what?

35:43 Hide their true identity. Deliberately assume the identity of another. And Peter says, putting away all hypocrisies. It is described by one as follows.

35:55 The one who conceals his real motives. A man who meets you with a face that is different from the state of his heart. Who communicates with words that are different from his true feelings. Who greets you with the smile and with the language of a brother beloved.

36:15 But in his heart, his affections have long since died. And rather than have the manly or womanly courage to say, my brother, my sister, there was a time when I could greet you with an open face and a warm heart that was behind that face. My heart has grown cold to you. Can you help me work through this?

36:38 Here are things that are putting me at a distance from you, and my affections that know the mask is worn. Oh, all is well. Peter says, putting away all hypocrisies, all of the ways and all of the shenanigans that we can indulge in, in order to take the role of a hypocrite. You see, it is to lapse from the very thing Peter emphasized in verse 22.

37:06 He said, you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto, here's the same word, with the alpha privative in front of it. It's the same Greek word with a little A in front, which means the negation of it. You have been purified unto, unsained, unfaked, literally non-hypocritical love. The purifying of your souls brings you into an orbit where for the first time in your life, you know what it is to be real with your fellow men.

37:41 Now, Peter says you can lapse from that. And the moment you find yourself drifting back, into hypocritical love, into Judas-like love. And how sickening it was in the earlier morning hours to read again, as I've told some of you, I try to do frequently on a Lord's day, to read the account of our Lord's death and resurrection, to bring myself afresh to the realization, why am I gathering with a group of people on the first day of the week? Because Jesus died and rose again!

38:17 And Lord of the Sabbath has made this his special day. Mark 14 says, when Judas came, he not only kissed him, but the Greek of Mark is emphatic. It says he kissed him much. He slobbered all over him.

38:33 All he needed to do, he had told the chief priests and the soldiers, whomsoever I kiss, all he needed to do was plant a little furtive kiss on Jesus' cheek, and the signal would have been given! But he slobbers all over the Son of God, and is sickening him. Make you feel sick? May God help us to feel sick in our own hypocrisy.

39:00 And we would deliberately do with our bodies and say with our lips, that which is not the disposition of our hearts. Peter says, put it all away! That's what the leaders were doing in Luke chapter 20, verses 20 to 23. Listen to how Luke describes it.

39:20 They watched him send forth spies who feigned themselves to be righteous, that they might take hold of his speech, so as to deliver him up to the rule and to the authority of the governor. They were calculated hypocrites. They wore the face of righteous men, who were hanging on the words of the righteous teacher and the righteous Lord of heaven. Then he gives an example of how they conducted themselves.

39:48 They asked him, saying, Teacher, we know that you say and teach rightly, and accept not the person of any but of a truth. You teach the way of God. We've got a sincere question to know how we may please the God, whom you fear, because you teach His way honestly and righteously, and you don't bend the truth to please men, and we want just such a teacher. A bunch of bald-faced hypocrites.

40:11 They wanted no such thing. They were there to listen and to catch his words and twist them, that they might have a semblance of a rationale to put him to death. Peter says, you want to have a holy yearning for that milk that you may grow? Then settle it in your mind and heart that such a disposition will never be found long in the heart of one who entertains any form of hypocrisy, putting away not only all malice, the root Sid, but all guile, deceit, and cunning craftiness, all hypocrisies, all play-acting, all face-wearing, and he then goes on to say in the second category, envies. Another plural. Now what is envy? It's amazing how when you're a preacher, you think you know what a thing is.

41:09 Everybody knows what envy is, until you've got to state envy is. If you had to write on a little tablet, envy is. You know what envy is. Yeah, but what is it?

41:26 What is envy? You know in your heart what it is. Can you articulate it? What is envy?

41:32 What is envy? Well, surely it's something akin to what I'm going to try to describe, and here I'm indebted to several of the commentators who helped me to crystallize my own thinking. Envy is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the benefits received, or the blessings received by another. Envy is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of another.

42:07 It's that vicious attitude that reasons, he doesn't deserve what he got, and I would like to have it, and in reality, I believe I deserve it more and ought to have it. That's some of the ugly stuff of envy. And when you read your Bible, it's not shocking that with respect to the religious leaders who handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities, you know what was the Christ-killing sin, and Pilate knew it. It's amazing.

42:37 Pilate listened to all these false accusations being hurled, but the Scripture tells us in Mark 15 and verse 10, that, Pilate knew that for envy, and you have, for you Greek students, you have the awe with the accusative, on account of envy, based upon their envious spirit, he knew that for envy, he perceived that for envy, the chief priest had delivered him up. What did he have? He didn't have wealth they didn't have. They were wealthy.

43:16 They were the fat cats in Jerusalem. Possessions? No, no. What he had was the love and the devotion of the masses that they thought belonged to them.

43:28 We're the official leaders in Israel. We can't stand this Johnny Upstart rabbi coming down from Northern Palestine, and everywhere he goes the crowds follow him. And it was their burning envy, the Scripture says, that led them to hand him over to the Roman authorities. It's interesting that it's the fifth, it's listed next to murder in two lists of sins, Romans 1.29 and Galatians 5.21.

44:00 The sense of displeasure at what another receives in the will and providence of God can be so deep-seated that the only way that envy can vent itself is to destroy its object. It's listed next to murder in two contexts. It's listed next to strife in two other contexts. Philippians 1.15 and 1 Timothy 6.4.

44:26 Ah, but you say, no Christian would ever fall prey to such a hellish spirit. Paul apparently was not of that mind, for he says in Philippians 1.15, some indeed preach Christ of envy and of strife. And it's there that you have the diah with the accusative.

44:46 I'm sorry, I got away from my notes. It's there. I don't know about the Mark passage, but here in Philippians, the diah with the accusative. On account of envy, their great passion in preaching Christ was motivated by envy.

45:01 Envy of whom? Envy of Paul. In the providence of God, he had been given a chief place in the advancement of the gospel. And their envy burned in their breast.

45:13 And when they saw him in prison, they said, aha, we can now take the field from Paul. He said they preach as they do, seeking to heap, sorrow upon me and my imprisonment. But he said they don't know me. As long as they stick to a true message and preach Christ, I'll rejoice.

45:33 I have no envy in my heart. For to me to live is not being number one in usefulness. To me to live is Christ, whether in a prison, or standing in the Areopagus, or in the synagogue, or before the crowds on the street in the Roman Empire. My one passion, he says, is whether by life or by death, Christ be magnified in my body.

Category 3: Putting Away All Evil Speakings

45:53 You see, Paul rose above the base sin of envy. Peter says, before I can enjoin you, elect sojourners of the dispersion, with this fifth pastoral imperative that you long for, that milk that will enable you to grow, I must exhort you to put away all malice, category one. Category two, all guile, hypocrisy, and envies. And now category three.

46:27 Look at the text. We have another all. And all evil speakings. Again, the plural.

46:35 All evil speakings. This word is found only one other place in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 12, 20. But its verbal form is found two more times in this epistle, and there the meaning becomes very clear. Look at chapter two in verse 12.

46:54 Having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you. There's our word in its verb form. They speak against you as though you were evil doers. Then in chapter three and verse 16.

47:11 Having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against, they may be put to shame, who revile your good manner of life in Christ. Speaking against is synonymous with reviling, abusive, negative, denigrating, running down disparaging speech. As one has described it, it is a vice that deliberately assaults the character of another and usually takes place behind the victim's back. It's doing with words what you'd never do to a person's face.

47:51 Assault them with your fists or even assault them with your words. But it's assaulting them with words generally behind their back. One commentator has very helpfully written, it operates either by denying or darkening a neighbor's virtues. Never highlights them.

48:10 If it can't deny them, it will darken them. If they shine at a hundred watts, try to put a screen and make those virtues shine only at 20 watts. It operates either by denying or darkening a neighbor's virtues and either by attributing to him evil or imputing to him evil designs as he does good. If you can't get away with imputing evil, then you'll put evil motives upon the good that another does.

48:42 MacDonald notes that it can even act under the guise of a pious prayer request. Quote, I mention this only for your prayer fellowship, but did you know that so and so, I only mention this so you can share the burden with me, did you know that? And this one author has said, neither righteousness nor truth demand what follows in the giving of the so-called prayer request. Neither righteousness, justice, nor truth demand it.

49:09 It is the use of words to tear down, to batter the character, the name, the reputation of another. And Peter says, if you are to have this longing for the milk that will enable you to grow, you must put aside, put away, shed as a vile garment, all evil speakings. John Brown, the godly Scottish commentator writes, calumnious or vicious slander is the worst form of this evil, but all whisperings and back-bitings, all sly insinuations, hinting at faults and hesitating dislike, every species of thought, every statement having for its object the lowering the reputation of another, which justice does not require as well as truth warrant is included in this prohibition. And then he uses this graphic imagery. The mouth becomes as it were the vent through which the smoke and flames of the infernal fire of malice and envy which rages in the furnace within, makes polluting and withering all around. Graphic imagery.

50:31 What is this evil speakings that Peter writes about? It is letting the mouth be the vent through which the hellish flames and smoke of envy and malice within the breast vent themselves. And what does that smoke and fire do? It withers and blasts all that it touches.

Observations: Connections Between Sins and Brotherly Love

50:54 And Peter says, here is the prerequisite. As I am about to enjoin upon the believing community in Asia Minor this fifth pastoral exhortation that they long for the milk that they may grow, there must be a putting away of all wickedness and all guile in hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. Now let me in closing make just several quick observations upon the text. Do you see now the connection between these sins and the previously enjoined duty of brotherly love?

51:36 Do you see the connection? Peter is very selective. He is not just picking out all kinds of different sins that they might be vulnerable to in that society at that time. No, Peter is very conscious of the significance of his therefore.

51:54 Having just reminded them that they purified their souls unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That he has commanded them to love one another from the heart fervently in the light of the divine begetting. And they have been begotten again of an imperishable word which is to feed them. Peter is saying you cannot be fed if you are going to be indifferent to the injunction to love one another from the heart fervently.

52:20 Therefore, he says, putting away all that is contrary to that love, all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, long for that milk by which you may grow. You see, Peter is about to demonstrate that Christians grow in the context of being part of a living temple, that is what is coming in chapter 2, a priesthood, and the people of God. You don't grow in isolation. God has no long range of Christians.

52:53 No long range of children. When He begets you, He begets you into His family. And if you are not sensitive to the kosher relations within the family, you won't grow. And Peter is underscoring that.

53:07 I confess for years from the time I memorized verse 2 in the Navigator's Topical Memory System as a baby Christian, it was years before anyone pointed out to me that that injunction to grow has something to do with something more than just you and God vertically. You want to grow? Then you've got to be sensitive to your horizontal dispositions and attitudes and relationships. Putting away therefore, putting away therefore, do you see from the passage and the context, the connection between these sins and brotherly love?

53:41 I hope you see it. Secondly, do you see the connection of these sins with each other? These are not set out randomly. Put away all malice.

53:51 If malice is allowed in any way to remain in the heart, what will it produce? Guile? Hypocrisies? And endies?

53:59 And if those things are allowed in the heart, they will come out in evil speaking in the mouth. You see, if you start to deal with them at any point, you'll end up in both directions. If you say, I've got to stop my evil speaking, that will drive you to knees and say, Lord, why am I speaking evil? Well, it's because I have envy.

54:19 Why do I have envy? Because I have malice. It will take you right back to the foundational issue of the ill will that's in your heart until you cry to God that the love of the Spirit will suffuse your heart and regulate all you do. So note not only the connection between these sins and brotherly love, but the connection between these sins with one another.

Observations: Vulnerability of Saints and Uncompromising Necessity

54:41 And then thirdly, note the possibility that the best of saints can fall prey to the worst of sins. There's no indication that Peter had received information that the believers there in Asia Minor were guilty of any of these sins or all of them as a pattern, unlike Paul writing to Colossus in Corinth. There were certain sins he knew were patterns among them. And he could say, it's been reported to me.

55:03 This and this is so. It's well known. It's commonly reported and you're even bragging about it. There is this sin in your midst.

55:10 There's no indication in the context that Peter is addressing these sins because they were dominant in the life of the congregation. But Peter was a realist. He knew his Bible. He knew his own heart.

55:22 And he knew that all of us, every one of us in any moment can be vulnerable to the vilest of sins. And therefore he says, putting away therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings whenever they arise, recognize there is never at any time in any set of circumstances any justification for them. Put them all away. And finally note the uncompromising necessity of constantly dealing with these sins.

55:57 If you and I would have a healthy appetite for spiritual food, that's the connection. This is the prerequisite. Yes, Peter says, I want to exhort you to long for the milk that you may grow. But I know that exhortation will be fruitless unless you have a disposition that says I can never afford the luxury of indulging any of these sins at any time in any circumstance.

56:25 The moment I'm conscious of them, I must put them off. Put them off by going first of all to the fountain open for sin and unclean. And confessing my sin of a malicious attitude. Confessing my sin of hypocrisy, my sin of guile, my sin of evil speaking and then crying to God that by the grace and power of the Spirit He would enable me to continue to put off any recurring sin in the presence of those sins.

56:58 There is to be an uncompromising disposition with all of them. And these are ones who have been furnished with the grace necessary. They have purified their souls. They have been begotten again.

57:13 Verse 3, They have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And therefore they cannot sit back and say, Oh well, God's got to do it. No. God has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.

57:26 We are to put away. Put away. In the dynamics of grace and in the power of the Spirit out of gospel motives. Yes.

57:35 But you are to put these things away. I'm to put them away. You're not to sit back and say, Oh God, take them off me. He says, You shed them.

57:44 And when you throw back at God what He's put on you, you're in bad shape, my friend. You're tempting God to chastise you very, very severely. Because what you're saying is, God, you didn't get it right. You should just tell me I'm ready to take off from you.

58:00 All malice and guile. No. God says, You put it off. Having put off, you've done it.

58:07 Not having had taken from you. It's not a passive participle. It's an active. You and I are engaged in the putting off.

The Gospel Call to Unbelievers

58:17 But for you who are not Christians, you see, we're back again to square one. Jesus said, You make the tree good and the fruit good. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. You may be sitting here today saying, Pastor Martin, you've described my heart.

58:33 I sit here today and I do have malice. And I've got grounds to feel this way. Sure, I can't be honest with people. If I were honest with people, I'd lose my job.

58:43 I'd lose half of my so-called friends. I can't walk in a guileless, non-hypocritical way. It's impossible, my friend. It is impossible given where you are.

58:52 They that are in the flesh cannot please God, the Scripture says. Jesus said, An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. That's why Jesus said, You must be born again. You need the purification of the soul in obedience to the truth.

59:06 You need to be begotten again by the Word of God. You need to see, even through this message that has expounded the duty of believers, that God is again saying to you in the Gospel, You ain't got what it takes to do what I've demanded here. You don't have it. But it's in Christ.

59:25 And Christ is accessible to you in the Gospel. That's what Peter says at the end of chapter 1. He said, This Word by which you have been begotten again, this is the Word that was gospelized you. This is the Word of good tidings that was preached to you.

59:39 It's not some mysterious thing. And we preach that Word to you. From Mark chapter 2, Christ delights to call sinners. He says, Come as a sinner.

59:48 Don't fix yourself up. I'll fix you up. Don't get yourself up. I'll sort you up.

59:52 Come to me. Come to me. Come to me. Come to me.

59:57 I'll cleanse you. I'll renew you. I'll give you both the desire and the desire to be again both the desire and the power to put off malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and evil speaking. O my unconverted boy, girl, man, or woman, go to Christ and in Christ you too will be furnished with the grace and the motives and the power that these people had because they were in Christ.

60:27 But they got into Christ the only way sinners get into Christ by a believing obedient response to the Gospel. That basic message that says God has sent His Son to die for sinners. He has raised Him from the dead, seated Him at His right hand and the living Christ invites you to come to Him and promises that all who come to Him He will receive. Let us pray.

60:53 Our Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word. Thank You for this portion of that Word and how we earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit will write it upon the fleshly tables of our hearts and that we may leave this place determined, we who are Your children, that we will live as those who constantly put away all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings that we might by Your grace attain and maintain that holy longing for the milk that will enable us to grow thereby unto salvation. O God, we thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. O God, we ask that Your Word will do its intended work in each of our hearts for our good and Your glory we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.