Longing Leading to Growth: Precept/Source

Introduction: The Spiritual Reality of 'You Are What You Eat'

0:04 The following sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 30th, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together in the Word of God to Peter's first letter to the people of God there in Asia Minor. First Peter, and I shall read in your hearing the first three verses of the second chapter. First Peter, chapter 2, verses 1 through 3.

0:44 Putting away, therefore, all wickedness, or better rendered, all 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 when you are born again. For since you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

1:17 Now most of you sitting here this morning have perhaps at one time or another heard the saying, you are what you eat. Now I don't know if that's the title of a book written by one of the pioneers in the area of health and nutrition. I couldn't track it down, but I've heard the term or the little phrase many times. I think most of you have.

1:40 You are what you eat. And that does capture a very basic reality that all other things being equal, we are by and large in our physical well-being what we ingest. The kinds of foods we eat, the amount that we eat or do not eat, the balanced diet, etc. We are what we eat.

2:07 Well, in a very real sense, what is true of our physical constitution is true, in the spiritual realm. And it is for this very reason that Peter, having directed these elect sojourners of the dispersion as to how they are to live their lives before the eye of God, a life marked by steadfast hope, by the pursuit of holiness, by an appropriate fear, and then having addressed the issue of how they are to live their lives in relationship to one another, namely, they are to love one another. They are to love one another from the heart fervently. Here in chapter 2, in the first three verses, Peter now turns to these sojourners, to whom he has directed his words of exhortation as to how to live before God, how to live with respect to one another. And he now says, this is how you are to live with reference to the matter of your own personal spiritual growth. Amen. And as we noted last Lord's Day, the heart of these first three verses in chapter 2 is found in the words, long for the milk that you may grow.

3:25 That's the heart of this fifth imperative in this first section of Peter's pastoral exhortations to these believers. They are to long for the milk that they may grow. So, everything else? In the verses, flows into those words, or flows out of those words, or surrounds those words, shedding light and giving further definition to them.

The Prerequisite for Spiritual Longing: Putting Away Sin

3:55 And so, as we took up the exposition of these verses last Lord's Day, I entitled that exposition, The Mandate for the Longing that Leads to Growth. Here is the mandate for the longing that leads, to growth. Peter says to them, they are to long for the milk that they may grow. And the imperative focuses upon the necessity of this yearning, this longing for the means that will result in their substantive growth as the people of God.

4:34 However, Peter knew that in the realm of the spiritual, as in the realm of the physical, if there is, if there is to be growth by nutritious ingesting of food, you must not only have a wholesome diet, but you must have a healthy digestive system. You can put the best food in the world into a man or a woman, a child, an infant, and if that individual has a sick, a sour, a malfunctioning digestive system, no amount of the increase of the wholesome food will make that person healthy. And so before Peter focuses on the imperative, long for the milk that you may grow, he isolates and identifies what I called last week, the prerequisite for the longing for spiritual growth. And that prerequisite is the putting away, therefore, of these five sins. Three basic categories as they are structured, by the word all in your English translations, and certainly it is clear in the original. Peter is saying, in essence, I cannot, as a wise spiritual physician and nutritionist,

5:54 enjoin upon you the duty of longing for the milk that under the blessing of God will result in your growth, if I leave you with the impression that that's all you need for growth, is simply to take in the milk that will nourish you spiritually. No, he says, you must take it into a spiritual digestive system free of the rancor and the rottenness of all malice. Not just 70% of it. Not 80, 90.

6:27 The heart that would profit from the milk of the word must be a heart that presently by the grace of God is free of every trace of ill will to our fellow men. Put away all malice. And growing out of malice, he then identifies guile, duplicity, and the hypocrisies, the wearing of a mask, the envy that grudges the good God gives to another, and then that to which it will all eventually lead, evil speaking, speaking against, and tearing down another by words. Peter says, you must have a healthy spiritual digestive system.

7:07 And as we move on this morning to attempt to expound verses 2 and 3, may I ask you a simple question? How's your stomach this morning? Is it ready, according to this passage, to receive the milk of the word unto real profit? I'm committed to seek to bring you wholesome food.

7:34 But if you're not equally committed to bring a healthy digestive system, we may as well call it quits. My labors will be in vain. And your listening will be in vain. The word of God says, having put aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, long for the milk that you may grow.

8:04 And though of necessity I must move on from verse 1 to work through the next couple of verses, we are not moving away from the pressure of that text. May God grant that we shall never move away from it in the theater of our own conscience and ask ourselves every time we come to the word, in private, in family worship, and in the public gathering of the people, do I bring a healthy digestive system? If I don't, I will not profit from the word of God. All right, having looked then at the prerequisite to the longing for the means of spiritual growth, as time permits, we want to take up verse 2.

The Precept: Mandate for Longing for Growth

8:43 We want to take up verses 2 and 3 under these headings. The precept mandating the longing for the means of growth, that's verse 2. And then the source of the longing for the means of growth, verse 3. Now then we come to verse 2.

9:00 The precept mandating the longing for the means of growth. As newborn babes long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, you may grow thereby unto salvation. As we have previously asserted, the words, long for the milk that you may grow, are the heart of the text. And here in this fifth imperative, in this first sequence of pastoral directives, Peter gives us another gracious gospel command.

9:39 This is one of the all things that Christ said should be enjoined upon his disciples. And the true child of God does not have a knee-jerk reaction when he hears, we're going to have a command expounded. The word duty to a true believer is not dirty. Duty equals delight.

10:02 For Jesus said, He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. If I love him, I want to please him. And if I want to please him, I want to know what pleases him. And nothing helps me to know better what pleases him than an explicit command.

10:18 There are times when I'll say to my wife, honey, what do you want me to do? Just state it. She's trying to be gracious and tactful and she sneaks around it and makes a hint. And I say, sweetheart, do you want me to do that?

10:30 Well, yeah. Well, just tell me. I'll be glad to do it. I stand ready to do something that pleases you.

10:35 Just make your will known to me. In a nice, straightforward, blunt, well, I was just, I know you were trying to be tactful. Trying not to appear like a bossy wife. But, you know, if you want me to take the garbage out, just say, honey, take the garbage out.

10:48 Don't say, you know, it would be nice if the garbage pile were empty in the next, just say, sweetheart, take out the garbage. If you love someone and your disposition is one of a prevailing desire to please them, aren't you delighted when they make known how you can please them in a simple, straightforward command? Isn't that your experience? Then, frankly, I have no stomach for people who say they love Christ and they want to have more preaching of Christ but have a knee-jerk reaction when the commands of Christ are clearly expounded.

11:23 There's something sick and perverse in that mentality. And Peter assumes that these believers who've been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto this glorious inheritance, that they're not going to have a knee-jerk reaction with the imperatives. So in this first cycle, he brings five of them together. And this is the last in this first cycle.

11:46 And the imperative he uses is long for the milk of the Word. Now, this verb is a verb that points to a very strong felt craving. We might call it a felt and almost painful yearning. It's the verb that Paul uses several times in his epistles when he's describing how he yearned.

12:12 He yearns to be with certain believers. In Romans 1 and verse 11, you know he had purposed many times to go to Rome but was hindered and he prayed for them regularly. And he says, I long, I yearn to be with you. He says a similar thing in Philippians 1.8 to that church that had a peculiar place in Paul's affection. It's the very verb he used when he described how much he longed to have his resurrection body. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 2, he said, we long, we long to put off this earthly tent. How Paul yearned.

12:51 He had a yearning that bordered on an internal pain. And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, this is the word used twice in the well-known Psalm of David's yearning. Psalm 42.1 As the heart, as the young deer, pants, longs, yearns after the water brooks, so yearns my soul after thee, O God.

13:19 It's found several times in Psalm 119. But you get the flavor of the word now. This is not just a passing idea. Again, forgive the homey illustration.

13:27 Often on a Sunday night on the way home and my wife knows we haven't eaten since the noon meal and she'll say, well, honey, do you want a Werther's? And I may say, yeah. Or I may, no. And my response often is very ambivalent.

13:41 Why? Because I'm not really starved. I mean, when you're really hungry, you don't stick anything in your mouth that ain't crawling or nailed down. Right?

13:52 Now Peter says, as newborn babes yearn. He's not speaking of the attitude that says, oh yeah, maybe I'd like a snack, maybe not, we can wait till a little later. He says, as newborn babes yearn long, have a felt craving, a strong desire. And then with respect to that desire, I want you to note three things in the text.

The Graphic Figure: As Newborn Babes

14:15 First, the graphic figure employed. And then we'll consider the specific object identified. And thirdly, the definite goal described. Notice the graphic figure employed.

14:27 As newborn babes. The only time the word in the original is found here in the New Testament. Newborn. As newborn babes.

14:40 And the word for babes, limits this to children that are still nursing. It can mean the embryo, the fetus in the womb. It's used that way sometimes. But a suckling infant is its most general usage.

14:55 And Peter says, using this graphic figure to drive home his point, as newborn babes yearn long, have a constant craving for this means. This means of your spiritual growth. Now how is Peter using this figure? Is he saying, since you are newborn babes, referring back to chapter 1, where he says in verse 23, having been begotten again.

15:26 Chapter 1 in verse 3, he speaks of having begotten us again. Is he saying, now that you elect sojourners, there in Asia Minor, are newborn babes in Christ, you are recent converts, as being newborn babes spiritually, yearn for the milk that you may grow. Now some of the commentators go off into orbit, taking this graphic figure and saying what Peter is saying is, they were all relatively young converts, and he's telling them as baby Christians, you should yearn as a natural baby yearns for the mother's breast, so you yearn for milk, the basic fundamental truths of the Gospel that you may grow thereby, and implying a time will come when you'll no longer need the yearning of a newborn, and no longer feed upon milk, you will be in the language of other passages in Scripture, full grown men and women in Christ. Well I don't believe that's what the text warrants, either grammatically, or in the analogy of Scripture, or in the context. Rather what Peter is saying is this, as newborn babes, that is, just like newborn babes have an insatiable yearning for nourishment suited to them, you believers at any age, at any stage in your spiritual development, you must have a yearning

16:55 and a craving for appropriate nourishment to your souls. As newborn babes yearn, that is, have a yearning that is beautifully illustrated in newborn babes. But you are to have it not just when you are newborn spiritually, but you are to have it through all of your pilgrimage. And that will become clear as we further open the text, and not the least convincing thing is, he says, that you may grow thereby, not unto a state of maturity, and when you cease to be babes, then you must have an appetite that is like a full grown man who has worked in the fields for twelve hours.

17:35 He says that you may grow thereby, unto salvation. Until we come into the inheritance of our full salvation, we are to have a hunger for appropriate nourishment that is mirrored in the insatiable craving of a baby for its mother's breast. That's the graphic figure employed. Now I'm fully aware that in passages like 1 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 5, both Paul and the writer to the Hebrews speaks of remaining years of being a babe in a way that is not desirable.

18:10 Paul said, I fed you with milk, you're still little babes, I couldn't feed you meat. The writer to Hebrews says the same thing in Hebrews 5. So you see, you must never take an analogy and press it on every passage. Look at the context, look at the thrust of that given portion, because there are other qualities of a babe that are to characterize us through the entirety of our life.

18:30 Matthew 18, 3, except you be converted and become as little children, you'll in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. And once you become childlike in the qualities essential for conversion, you grow in those qualities, not out of them, not beyond them, not away from them. In the same way, Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 14, 20, that with regard to certain spiritual qualities, he wants them to remain babes. One commentator has captured the heart of this graphic figure and its significance very helpfully.

19:04 Peter wants all of his reasons whether they are beginners or veterans in the new life to act as just newborn babes with respect to their longing to be nourished with the Word. The point of the figurative language is this, a babe longs for nothing but its mother's milk and will take nothing else. You don't flatter a babe by offering it caviar. You do the babe and its yearning for the breast no good by offering it caviar.

19:37 You offer it prime beefsteak. Its yearning is for the nourishment appropriate to its stage. Peter says it is that kind of yearning that is to mark the Christian throughout his pilgrimage. The image is beautiful and expressive.

19:53 Look at a babe at its mother's breast. In this way, you should ever drink the milk of the Word. So the graphic figure employed with this precept is as newborn babes long. That tells me that whenever I come to the Word and when I am away from the Word and I pause to reflect what is my spiritual disposition, I ought to know something of that craving, that yearning, that longing that finds some replication in that of the newborn babe that instinctively, incessantly, irrepressibly yearns for the nourishment to be found at its mother's breast. Well, that's the graphic imagery employed. Now, note with me, secondly, in opening up this mandate, the specific object identified. What precisely is it that they are to long for in order to grow?

The Specific Object: The Pure Milk of the Word

20:57 Well, here's where our English translations cause confusion, but it's understandable because what you have in the original, you have a noun, a common noun for milk, and there's nobody that knows anything about the language in which Peter wrote that debates. The basic word is milk. Milk is the direct object of the longing. You're to long for milk.

21:20 The problem is the two adjectives that come in front of it. And there are two adjectives in front of the noun. It is the logikon, that is the wordy milk, and it is the without guile or the undiluted milk. And that's why you'll find in your various translations, the old American standard, you are to long for the logikon, translated here, spiritual milk.

21:46 And then to take the one word, adalos, which is without guile, took all those words to translate it. The old authorized says, you're to long for the milk of the word. Others say the rational, the reasonable. Why?

22:02 I mean, can't they decide? What did Peter say? Well, that's one of the problems of understanding and expounding the word of God. The first adjective, logikon, comes from the word you've heard many times in this pulpit, logos, the word.

22:14 It's what Peter used up in verse 23. Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word, the logos of God. You've been begotten by this seed, the word of God. Now Peter says, you're to long for milk, that's the noun, that's the thing you're to long for, but it is the logikon, the adjective.

22:37 And you see in English, we can't go from the noun to the adjective with that word. We can do it with the word spirit. Something is spirit, noun, we want to make it an adjective, it is spiritual. But you can't say it is wordical.

22:51 We have the problem of language. And the further problem we have is this word used only one other time in the New Testament, Romans 12, 2. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable service, which is your spiritual service. What did Peter mean?

23:08 Well, it would be foolish for me to be dogmatic, but I take my position with a number of responsible commentators that the old authorized version is probably closer than anything. Having just said to them, and remember, there were no chapter divisions, no verse divisions when Peter wrote this, when it was first read, when it would be copied and studied by the people of God. He has traced their new birth back to its ultimate source in the sovereign act of God using, not perishable seed, but imperishable even in the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. What is more natural when he now is going to exhort them to have this insatiable craving and desire that they may grow, to make plain to them that the milk that will nourish them is of the same stuff of the seed that begot them. The very instrument that begot their divine life is the instrument that will nourish that life so he calls it the wordy milk, the logikon milk. It is the milk of the Word. It is the revelation of the mind and will of God for us now embodied in the scriptures.

24:27 That's the specific object identified. You are to yearn and to long for what? For that which in God's blessing was the very instrument of begetting you to life, it is that which will nourish your life. As one old Puritan stated it quaintly, the word that breeds us feeds us.

24:47 And it stuck with me and I hope it sticks with you. What breeds us feeds us. Well what bred us spiritually? It was the word that imperishable seed.

24:58 What will nurture and feed us? It is that same word. But then it is the without guile milk. That's the second adjective.

25:08 Well this word when used in human relationships that's the word we found without the alpha privative putting away all malice and all guile. Deceit intended to take advantage of another. When used in human relationships that's what it meant but it was used in the marketplace. And if you went to the marketplace and you were there in the bazaar and trying to dicker about some wheat and you were going to buy whatever you were going to buy you would want to know if it were wheat that was and here's the word you would use without guile.

25:50 Is anything other than wheat mixed in with the grain that you're going to weigh out for me? Or if you were buying a hint of oil or a liter of oil or you were buying wine you want to know was it guile less wine or oil. And Peter is saying this is milk that is undiluted. This is milk that is unadulterated.

26:16 Because it is the wordy milk it is the milk of the word you can be sure that there is no dilution of men's philosophy of error its promises promise more than the God who made them can give. Its threatenings are only a tempest in a teapot you don't need to take them seriously. I'll know he says you're to long for that milk that is characterized by being of the word and utterly undiluted. David could say the sum of thy word is truth.

26:52 Our Lord Jesus said thy word is truth truth undiluted unmixed with error unalloyed by anything that would in any way undermine our confidence in its veracity. Well that's the specific object identified. That's what we're to long for. We are to long for the milk of the word that is undiluted unadulterated undefiled.

The Definite Goal: Growth Unto Salvation

27:23 It is the pure milk of the word. But then having looked at the graphic figure employed you're to long as newborn babes long for the milk the specific object it is the logicon it is the word of the word undefiled undiluted without guile milk but what's the goal that Peter describes the definite goal described. Why cultivate this longing for the pure milk of the word? Is it that these believers may become puffed up with knowledge for Paul says knowledge puffs up.

28:03 Is it that they might increase their biblical IQ and be very impressive in the Bible category and they get on a run and walk off and are candidates for the semifinals? No. He gives a very definite goal. Look at it in the text.

28:24 He said as newborn babes long for the milk of the word which is without guile in order that here's the end in view in order that you may grow. That's the definite goal that Peter sets before them. It is his goal in giving this admonition this exhortation laying upon them this fifth imperative and he wants it to be their goal. The goal of God mediated through his apostle is to be the goal of his people.

29:03 Now let's look at it for a few moments. You have the process and the end of the word in order that you may grow. You are to long that you may grow. You are to long for the right thing that you may grow.

29:24 And the process Peter has in mind is that of growth. Now the word grow is the standard word for grow in the New Testament. It used the flowers behold the lily is the field the cactus grew. But it is also used metaphorically of spiritual development.

29:46 Ephesians 4 that you may grow up into him. Ephesians 4 15. Peter will use it in his second epistle. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

30:01 And you see the whole concept of growth is gradual and oft times gradual development in all of its parts of a living organism. Only that which has life grows and only that which is imperfect grows. If it is already perfect and realized its ultimate potential it doesn't need to grow. If it is not alive it doesn't grow.

30:37 So Peter is assuming here are living ones the power of God. All of this gracious redemptive blessing surrounding them. But Peter says yearn and long for the pure milk in order that you may grow. You are never to feel that you have reached the stage where you can be static.

31:05 That you have never reached the stage where you want to quote pure milk that you may grow. And the end in view is look at the text that you may grow. Now some of you have the New King James it doesn't have these words unto salvation. They are not in the old authorized version but they should be.

31:26 This is one of the times when the textual basis of the old authorized version has some things missing that ought not to be there. More frequently there are things in that textual tradition that probably should not be there. But these words unto salvation are established by the best and the overwhelming manuscript evidence. There is every reason to believe when Peter wrote the epistle he wrote in order that not you may grow period or semicolon or colon but that you may grow thereby that is that you may grow in this thing literally.

32:10 Worthy pure milk. Long for it. Assumption is that longing for it you are going to put yourself in contact with it you are going to assimilate it and thereby by it you are going to grow and what is the ultimate end in view? You are going to grow unto salvation.

32:35 But wait a minute I thought they were saved. Didn't he just say up in chapter one you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth? Verse 22. Didn't he say in verse 23 you have been begotten again?

32:51 And now he is saying do this that you might grow unto or into salvation. Well are they saved or aren't they? Yes they are saved and they are being saved. Let me illustrate it from a true story.

33:06 A lot of you don't know much or anything about Salvation Army. Some of us know a lot. My father was a Salvation Army officer when I was born and I was brought up in the Salvation Army hall. I used to fight with my other friends and peers who would get the drumstick and bang the drum when we would sing the opening hymn.

33:28 My family will attest to that and I figured I would confess it before one of them is visiting here and tells you. But we used to do that and one of the good things about the Salvation Army in the better days was that they would go out where sinners were and the Salvation Army lasses with their bonnets and their blue uniforms would go out with the men and in this particular situation over in England there was a young Salvation Army lass and she approached a man on the street and she was going to ask him about his soul and not knowing who this man was he happened to be one of the most profound knowledgeable Greek scholars of his generation a 19th century man and she stopped him and said Sir, are you saved? She didn't wait to do small talk I mean she went right for the jugular vein. Are you saved? And he very graciously answered using three different tenses and modes of the Greek verb I save sozo and he said Do you mean have I been saved and he said it in the Greek form am I being saved a present tense of the same verb or am I to be saved and he used a future at which of course this poor Salvation Army lass not knowing a word of Greek he stretched her head and said Sir, what are you seeking to say to me? He said Well, lass according to my Bible salvation is a broad marvelous word that encapsulates what God is committed

34:57 to do in drawing people to himself in fitting them for heaven and according to the scriptures every true Christian is a saved person in three tenses he has been saved he is being saved and he shall be saved and he shall be saved and he shall be saved he has been saved from the bondage and the condemnation and the wrath deservingness of his sins so that the scripture can say for by grace you have been saved but the Bible says that we are continuing to be saved unto them that believe the scripture says that the word of the cross is the power of God to those who are being saved there is an ongoing work of salvation purifying us from sin keeping us from total apostasy preserving us to the final day and then when we get our resurrection bodies joined to our glorified spirits the Bible says we shall be saved now Peter understood what that little salvation army last did not and what the Greek scholar did and so when Peter writes that the end in view is that you are to grow unto salvation he is focusing upon the last dimension of the three tenses of our salvation and he had already done this way back in the beginning of the first chapter remember in verse five

36:26 who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time so he was not introducing a new thought he had already told these people you have been begotten again unto a living hope that tends towards and will issue in your consummate salvation at the last time so now he tells them reminding them that the best is yet to come that there are dimensions of God's saving grace and mercy in Christ that they have yet to experience that they are to yearn and long for this pure milk of the word in order that they may grow all the while in their eye that ultimate consummate blessing of salvation in Jesus Christ when all sin will be utterly and irreversibly dealt with and they shall be like their savior for they will see him as he is as one author has written their hope is future they do not merely wait for it but they grow toward it like flowers grow while facing the sun in this process faith is purified love is intensified and grace is tasted as we are tested

Application: Responsibility for Appetite and the Word's Centrality

37:56 and that's the goal they are to have in mind while seeking to cultivate that constant yearning that passionate longing for the pure milk of the word in order that they may grow they never lose sight of the fact of true salvation they are growing unto that place and point in God's dealings with them when that salvation will be consummated well this is the precept mandating the longing for the means of growth I hope you feel something of the strength of that word long for the graphic imagery employed as new born babes described in order to grow unto salvation and at this point I want to make two very vital words of application before very briefly opening up verse three and the first is this that only God produces spiritual growth for some of you who sit there with your Greek text on your hand you will have noticed it's not that you may grow in the active it's an heiress passive that you may be grown that you may grow thereby unto salvation only God produces spiritual growth but we are solemnly responsible

39:24 to cultivate and nurture a wholesome appetite for the means which under the blessing of God produce our growth Peter does not say as new born babes pray that God will grow you nor does he say pray that God will give you an appetite and a hunger he says as new born babes you long and he speaks in an imperative and uses a form of the verb that is stronger than the present imperative he lays this upon him in the strongest language possible yes only God gives the increase in the development of spiritual life but in essence he says you leave God to do his work and you get about yours and yours is to yearn and to long in order that you may grow what's one of the first questions if you go into the doctor because you've just got a general sense of malaise and dullness and a lack of energy what's one of the first questions as he's trying to get a profile of where you're at physically tell me about your appetite and when you and I come into states of spiritual malaise and dullness and we're in the doldrums we need to ask ourselves how's our appetite how's our appetite spoiling our spiritual appetite Proverbs 27

40:53 7 says the full soul loathes a honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet if your belly is full of the hogwash that comes over the television as standard fare I'm not surprised you have little appetite for the pure milk of the word if you are engaging in indiscriminate television watching and I'm just talking about cable I don't have it I wouldn't have it I'm not saying you're sinning if you do I'm talking about standard network television not to speak of the rotten foul stuff that comes over so called public television begging for my money when they promote homosexuality in every form of perversion and new age garbage and I say without any fear of being contradicted you feed yourself on indiscriminate television watching and you'll have no appetite for the word of God and you don't need to go off and spend a day of prayer and fasting asking why when Peter says putting away and names these particular sins as we saw last week he names them in the light of the mandate to brotherly love those are sins that are peculiarly related to fracturing and to hindering effective interpersonal relations among the people of God but that's not an exhausted list of the sins

42:22 Dwight L. Moody either sin will keep you from this book or this book will keep you from sin you young people indiscriminate listening to modern music if you've got your Walkman all the time stuck in your ears you'll have no appetite for the word of God how can you listen to the music of hell with its vileness and its rebellion and its utter rejection of all that is noble and upright and godly I know label me as old fashioned and over the hill but my friend as newborn babes long for the milk of the word and you won't long for it if your spiritual and mental gut are filled with that kind of rot only God produces spiritual growth but we are solemnly responsible as the people of God to cultivate and nurture a wholesome appetite for the means of our growth and the second point of application is the commodity which begets life nurtures that life I've already alluded to this but I want to make a very special application of it if we are really begging God to save sinners what is one of the evidences that we really mean our prayers we will jealously guard the centrality of preaching as the means ordained of God to save sinners God's ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached

43:52 to save them that believe that they are going to bless mime and drama and musical groups who smatter a little bit of Christ in their entertainment evangelism Peter says you've been begotten again by incorruptible seed the word of God what is true of begetting life is true of nourishing life if we as your pastors are committed to see your life in Christ as the pure milk of the word and while great segments of evangelicalism run crazy after every fad and I've lived long enough and been in this place for 35 years to see the fads come and go and to see God dishonored with the demise of every one of them God has not changed His means for growth it's the pure milk of the word and when you get weary of sitting with your Bible in your lap following the track of the preacher as he tries to unpack the structure and the grammar and the meaning of words then you're a sitting duck for some smooth talking person to come along and to erode your ability to grow in grace you think I'm defending my turf no it'd be a lot easier

45:21 to use whatever native gift of gab I have and tell you a bunch of stories and just waffle over a passage it's work God calls it laboring trying to find out what does logikon mean I gotta tell the people what kind of milk is it God you said it's the logikon it's the wordy milk what did you mean reasonable logical spiritual what am I gonna tell them God says you got your books on your shelf go to work buddy be nice I just looked up and said Lord I'm gonna put the three options on the paper flip a penny and wherever it falls that's it we don't do that now why do we do that not to impress you just to try to give you the pure milk of the word in order that you may grow thereby unto what unto salvation under God we're appointed to help get you the next part of your pilgrimage to heaven and that's what's going to help you grow unto that salvation is the pure milk of the word now very very quickly as we close look at verse 3 the source of the longing for the means of growth if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious now this is an if that ought to be translated since it's not the if of doubt it's the same if Peter used in verse 17 when he said if you call

The Source of Longing: Having Tasted that the Lord is Gracious

46:49 on him his father there was no doubt they did could be rendered since the little particle a since you call on him his father now Peter says putting these things away since you have tasted that the Lord is gracious and here he traces to its ultimate source in their experience how it is that he can expect them to have this longing for the means of growth look at the connection he said now I've directed you to get rid of the poisonous attitudes dispositions and actions that would sour your spiritual digestive system I have mandated of an insatiable irrepressible yearning for the unadulterated word but I've done these two things assuming you have really truly tasted that the Lord is gracious I'm telling you these things since you have tasted that the Lord is gracious now what do those words mean well it's an obvious reference to Psalm 34 8 maybe you even thought of it remember in that Psalm David says oh taste that the Lord is good and one of the sections of that is taken right out word for word from the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures that we call the Septuagint the LXX whenever you see

48:19 that and Peter uses that what does he say since you have tasted that the Lord is gracious now when we think of taste we usually think of sampling oh I tasted it but you see what it was to know by experience you remember Jesus said in Matthew 16 some of you here shall not taste death till you see the kingdom of God come he didn't mean you're going to have a near death experience he means some of you will not know by experience what it is to die and Hebrews 2 9 says our Lord Jesus tasted death well he didn't just nibble at it and walk away and say I don't like it so when the text says since you have tasted what Peter is saying is since you have come to know in your experience and what have they come to know that the Lord is gracious this word gracious could be translated kind beneficent loving Matthew 11 30 Jesus said my yoke is gracious my yoke is easy it is a non galling non oppressive kindly gracious yoke it's used in Luke 6 35 your heavenly father is kind to the unthankful and evil he has a disposition to do good even to sinners in Romans 2 4 do you not know Paul says

49:47 that the goodness of God the kindness the beneficence of God leads you to repentance you get a feel for the word now he says look I'm enjoining you to get your spiritual gut clear of these horrible things I'm directing you to cultivate this yearning and longing for that which will result in your growth and I believe my exhortation will cut mustard with you because you believers there in Asia Minor you have tasted you've come to know by experience and then there's a little shift in the Hebrew you'd have your word for Jehovah it would then come over into the Greek into the Lord and he says you know that the Lord I'm sorry the standard word for God and then you have Peter saying and you know that the Lord is gracious as so often the New Testament writers have no scruple about exchanging the words for the one true deity and referring them directly to our Lord Jesus and he says you have tasted that the Lord is gracious well when did that happen well that happened when they purified their souls again that happened in their conversion they came to know in their experience that the Lord was a gracious Lord he was a kind and a beneficent Lord and therefore

51:17 he is bold to say look I know I can charge you to put away all of these sins and to cultivate this yearning for the pure milk of the word because having known in your experience that the Lord is gracious I'm convinced you want to know him better you want to grow in your knowledge of him your experience of his graciousness you desire to know him better and to become more and more like him you have tasted that the Lord is good we sing that in the hymn we taste thee oh thou living bread and we've had enough and long to feast upon thee we taste thee oh thou living bread and long to feast upon thee still and Peter's confidence is that this would not be thrown off as just so much preacher's talk he says you've tasted the Lord is gracious and tasting that the Lord is gracious in your conversion I know that you long to grow in your knowledge of him and in your likeness to him and you will bow to his wisdom the pure milk of the word in order that you may grow and knowing that you cannot grow with a spiritual gut full of these ugly things that you will make

52:47 every endeavor to keep putting them away because you've tasted you know in your experience that the Lord is gracious and I bless God that I have that confidence for the vast majority of you sitting here as members of this assembly you have shown that the Lord is gracious and any duty laid upon you that takes you directly to your relationship to Christ you lay it to heart it's a matter of concern to you I have reason to believe that some of you sitting here have been praying Lord increase my yearning help me to do everything possible that I may use whatever means is necessary to have as the characteristic of my life a yearning a longing a passable passionate yearning of a babe for its mother's breast but for some of you this explains why you have no yearning for the word doesn't it you got a bible it lies on open day after day you come to church only because your parents make you you could not care less about what's in this book if there were a clock above our head back here your eyes would be glued on it that's reality isn't it you got a mom or dad that seeks to open up the word of God to you

54:15 and you treat it as something despicable you don't listen to sermons you don't read books that explain the word you know why it's very simple right here you've never tasted that the Lord is good you've never known in your experience that the Lord is good and that's why you're feeding on the husks of what you think is going to give you some meaning in life and I don't say that to be nasty that's reality for if you had tasted that the Lord is good you'd no longer have a mouth for the stuff on which you feed trying to find something that will satisfy the yearning of your soul again in the language of an old gospel hymn all my life long I have panted for a draught from some cool spring that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt with that's you the chorus in that song is hallelujah I have found him whom I say I love my soul so long had prayed Jesus satisfies my longing by his grace I now am saved you see that yearning that God shaped hole that vacuum into which you try to place everything but God can never fill it my friend you say well what do I do in this state well you do what David said in Psalm 34 8 oh taste and see

55:45 that the Lord is good many of us here know it by experience added nothing to this how do you know you ain't tasted added nothing to that well there may not be to you but don't say that to me don't say that to many here the David who said oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man who trusts in him he was the David in my mind when he said you know you can hear at a distance you can see at a distance you can even smell at a distance let a skunk get hit on the road and a half a mile away but you cannot taste at a distance you can see objects at a distance you can hear things from a distance you can smell them but you can only taste them by intimate personal appropriation my friend who's never come to Christ you can only taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man who trusts in him we came as you must come in all the defilement the undone-ness the unworthiness of our sin and we embrace the Savior in all the plenitude of his grace and the offers of his mercy to sinners

57:13 and you'll notice those are the first words of verse 4 unto whom coming you see he assumes continual covers they're not looking for another stream to satisfy them they're not looking at another fountain from which to drink they have found the fountain of life may God grant that you go there and drink this morning let's pray our Father we thank you for your holy word we thank you for this portion with its clear directives to your people and we pray that you would forgive us where we have had such a paltry appetite for the pure milk of your word we ask that you would make us restless with holy desire to cultivate an insatiable thirst until we can say with the Psalmist my soul breaks for the longing that it has unto your precepts at all times until we can say with David I open my mouth wide and panted and longed for your commandments oh God we pray and for those who have no appetite because they are dead and there is no life oh God by your grace bring them to taste and to see that you are good have mercy seal your word

58:43 to our prophet and to the eternal salvation of some hear us and continue with us throughout this day we ask in Jesus name Amen