Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracechurchwilliamsburg.org/sermons/26123/what-to-love-and-long-for-most-part-2/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] so just a quick thank you to my partner in crime over here i want to thank him so much from the depths of my heart publicly for what he's pulled off in the last few weeks i was out of the pulpit the two weeks ago greg preached for me and gave me a time of focus for some things i had going on in my graduate program and then lo and behold i got sick last week i had a reaction to some stuff and greg had to at the last minute come in and step in and shepherd the church all by himself but i i was told he had some great help and support thank you brother for all that now i have a question because i never found out who led the music did he's holding out on me over here man i'm telling you no microphone i just you just praise the lord all right i had to give up my mic and just did just go that yeah amen well thank you brother and thank you all of you for your prayers and concerns it's all good uh the lord knew and i got i was able to get some medicine sunday morning at an urgent care and 24 hours later i was i was clicking again so it's all good and the lord is very gracious and how he's cared for us as a church family but isn't it wonderful for us to be able to benefit from a plurality of pastors that is more than one there's there's no chief we have the lord of the church the lord jesus christ and we have a couple of under shepherds tag teaming as best we can to shepherd the flock and that's the way the lord would have us do it well beloved as we turn our attention to god's word we're in first peter we're continuing to work through chapter one and we're into the initial verses of chapter two today the title of my message what to love and long for most now i'm hearkening back to a few weeks ago when i did part one of this message this is part two what to love and long for most which is the the theme the dual theme that peter's dealing with in this passage and to begin i want to remind you of hebrews 4 12 which has been a memory verse for us right in the in the recent past hebrews 4 12 if you turn there before we read in first peter hebrews 4 12 for the word of god is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit all the way down into soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart the work of the word is the work of getting into your souls the word of god seeks out and reveals to you who you really are who you truly are not even necessarily who you want to be or who you think you are but what god's word says you are now for some people that's terrifying for other people that's a blessing for those who count holiness as a premium in their lives it's a blessing for those who run and like to hide in the shadows of sin it's terrifying but that's the work of the lord one way or the other god's word is living and active it lives and it acts so that it works god's will in your heart and produces god's will in your works now just think about i put that up there to start because that is so powerful that's from the word of god that is a work being spiritually done in you as a human being for the will of the god of the universe to be worked out in you i mean you're not all that and yet god is working that in you and then he works it out of you so that the life that you live pleases him your speech and your behaviors become a joy to him now i don't know about you there was a time in my life when that i was as far from that as i could possibly be nothing coming out of my mouth and certainly nothing uh working up in my heart was pleasing to god at all the fact that i can now live live for one minute in a day in a way that honors and pleases the god of the universe is that's crazy good encouraging hopeful purposeful beyond all the travesty and travail and hardship and suffering of life that reality stays true that's what peter's saying to suffering people these people are suffering his readers are suffering and that's what he wants to get across to him so let's keep all of that in mind as now we read our text from first peter chapter one and we'll begin in verse 22 looking back to a few weeks ago since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren that would be the brothers and sisters of this local assembly fervently love one another from the heart for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring word of god for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass the grass withers the flower falls off but the word of the lord endures forever and this is the word which was preached to you therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the lord now here's what we need to do to unpack this together we need to zero in on the emphases that peter's making here by two two primary commands two primary commands and in each case the command is tied directly to your relationship to the living and active nature of the bible now last time i made a big deal in my intro about every single person on the planet having a relationship to the bible it's either a saving relationship or a damning or judging relationship or a damning or judging relationship because the word of god judges the human heart which is what we just saw everybody stands on the same level ground in that regard the word is judging our heart that's the reality it is only by god's word that you can and will love one another no bible no love we'll see that as we go and it is only by god's word that you can and will grow in your faith one of the chief characteristics of someone who is spiritually immature over the course of time in their christian life is their lack of regard for the bible for as my brother said this morning ingesting the word of god taking it in that's your responsibility we may be called as shepherds to feed you the word but then you need to learn to feed yourself and to take in you need to learn to chew carefully and swallow carefully so that your spiritual body can digest the rich nutrients of god's word for growing up in christ jesus and living a life that pleases him that's the way it works the absence of that in your life stunts you but listen nature abhors a vacuum that stunting that stunting will do this to you i can't moonwalk but if i could this is what it would do it takes you backward takes you backward it doesn't propel you forward in your spiritual life and this is what peter is concerned with he adds to that suffering persecution trials hardships of life are not not more powerful than the power of god's word to help you love and grow in daily life hallelujah my sin is not more powerful than the word in my christian life it's not more my sin is not more powerful than the word of god as it works to help me be a marriage partner to my wife in a way that pleases the lord and blesses her boy think if i was more powerful than the word and i could constantly get in the way of that the word is more powerful god's word does the work in our hearts to produce god's will in our life that's what we're talking about so peter now takes these two realities here here they are god's will at work in you and god's will as it works out of you and he applies them to the two most enduring desires of any believer's redeemed heart fervently love your church family and faithfully long for god's truth yes we could have included in those two as an endearing quality of our life loving the lord but this is how we show love to the lord we love one another and we long for his word we show love to jesus as we live like that and do that so fervently love your church family is the first major point that he wants to make the first emphasis that he's making in this section of scripture and we dealt with this last time in larger measure let me just run through some of it with you that starts in verse 22 since you have an obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters in christ fervently love one another from the heart now this is very straightforward friends love your spiritual family love your spiritual family of rescued sinners invest with zest all right you said ingest i'm going to explain that in just a minute so i'm going to add that you ingest the word in order to invest with zest come on i'm working here right that's what we want that's what we're aiming at love your spiritual family of rescued sinners who share in the forgiveness of jesus with you look do this with genuineness he's emphasizing that earnestly zealously intentionally enthusiastically love your brothers and sisters in christ with your entire being invest with zest this is not drudgery it isn't drudgery to be here it isn't a burden for us to give up time and money and other resources in our life in order to reach out and minister to each other in this family it's one of the ways critical ways that we show love for christ it's not supposed to be a burden not like oh we carry it around you know this is supposed to be something that actually energizes us as we find opportunity to do it this is particularly true for our brothers and sisters in christ in our local church family because this is the local expression of how we show or demonstrate that love of christ we have to have a practical way to work it out people here receive the actions of our love now here's here's the question that we want to kind of deal with am i genuinely and zealously showing love to the people in my local church family through my own personal investment in their growth and welfare am i attuned to ways that i can be useful to christ in ministering across the aisle through the week week after week month after month am i am i meeting people am i am i going around and and finding people on sunday or calling or targeting or watching or listening so that i i can move in and and see if god can use me in even a small way look this is a group effort it shouldn't be the effort of just a handful of people trying to carry the whole load of ministering to each other it's something that we share in together and what happens when we share in that together it bonds us it brings us together in a common effort a common goal a like-minded desire to see something honor christ and that elevates us you see that it draws us up spiritually to a higher plane of living together in the lord in other words i can say it this way it gets you out of yourself we need that i need that we all need that we do this by the one another's of scripture bear one another's burdens love one another forgive one another be kind to one another show compassion to one another pray for one another i think there's 30 something of those in scripture so peter does not he does not in two letters give us any clauses or caveats for not living like this together as god's people things like this now i get it as i say these no judgment i'm just saying this is what we this is the real that that we battle these people were battling this things like this here's what gets in the way of this i'm too busy with life just i'm just too busy i got too much going on you won't find that in the bible as an eject handle to punch you out there's no parachute for that you're in or out family i'm just too busy with family i get it we raised three kids it's full time we homeschooled we did the whole nine i understand life happens we're too busy with work i just work too much well then you work too much that's the answer hobbies you know i gotta have some me time okay here's the issue what we're talking about so far is a command to obey fervently love your brothers and sisters sincerely from the heart how many ways does he need to say it before we get the fact this is a priority to god and there's just no getting around it and when we don't do this it dishonors christ and it'll bring ruin to our church well what is the number one reason then that peter's hammering here for us in the way of the absence of this kind of loving investment in the church it's the absence of our obedience to god's truth that's what peter's hammering right now an absence of obedience to the word of god will bring about an absence of fervently living for and longing for serving one another in the church now folks i'll say it again just to make it clear fervently loving one another fervently loving one another boy what a way to put it it shouldn't be in competition with fervently loving your spouse your wife or your husband it shouldn't be in competition with you fervently loving your family your kids it shouldn't be in competition with you fervently loving others in your extended family or it shouldn't be in competition with other spiritual priorities in your life or even necessarily the things that are necessitated in life like going to work hey you should go to work you need to work and provide etc but what what what peter is giving us here is a lifestyle this is this fervently loving thing it isn't something that we work in when we have time this fervently loving thing is something that defines the way we go about our lives it comes out of who you are it comes out of what you put your priority on what you focus on what defines you let me give you another word what you worship because what you worship is who you are in any given moment i love jesus oh yes i do i love jesus but in that moment i didn't love jesus so much i love me because i said some things i shouldn't have said and i heard some people that that reveals the worship of my heart in that moment who was i worshiping jesus or jeff me that's the way it works what i'm pointing out to us is peter's convicting emphasis on fervently loving each other as being a matter of obedience to god first and foremost so this is god's priority for every member of his family to invest with zest in what's important to the lord and that's his family now in verses 23 through 25 we have a reinforcement of this reality in our lives look at 23 with me for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring word of god for all flesh is like grass all its glory like the flower of grass the grass withers the flower falls off but the word of the lord endures forever and this is this is the word which was preached to you what's he talking about well the power of god's word to save and sanctify purified the souls of these believers and that means they were converted to christ in love and they are continuing in christ in love love brought them to conversion the love of god hear me church the fervent love of god while they were helpless and sinners rebelling against the lord the fervent love of god drew them to himself and they became renewed converted born again reconstituted to new life at their worst fervent love oh what if god would have said i'll tell you what jeffrey you get your act together and do these three things and show me you're serious and i'll give you some of jesus and if you're a good boy next week i'll give you a little more and we'll just see how that goes for a while you know what would have happened within three hours jeffrey would have showed jesus i'm not serious why because peter's point is this the word does the work you can't tough this out you can't change yourself you're not jesus you're not your own savior you're the problem you're the problem jesus needs to get you over i started to ask you can i say that but i said it i just said it mona that's me folks i'm with you i'm in the same boat jeff jackson needs jesus to help jeff jackson get over jeff and that's the work that he brings us in this loving kindness that we read about earlier it is the power of god's word now he offers this wonderful contrast this wonderful contrast you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and enduring word of god and then he tells us about what fades what dies what falls off and withers so we have a contrast here we have in verse 23 something that is living and enduring and then we have something in the next couple of verses that dies and withers and falls away the seed which is perishable is human seed now adults you follow me it's the male seed okay we good all right that's what he's talking about it's the male seed which brings about birth new life but will eventually die right and so we all understand that

[23:22] I have three kids but I understand how those three kids were conceived how they were brought forth and put into the world I get all that all right but here's the problem I also know that that seed is going to die true absolutely contrast we have a different seed that is living and enduring won't die imperishable imperishable that's what we're dealing with in God's word in God's word as this seed God birthed you spiritually with an imperishable seed which has brought you to new life new birth another way to say it is you have been begotten anew God has begotten you trying to unpack that was so hard that's the best I can do right now this begetting this begetting is a life-giving seed

[24:29] God implanted in you and it's imperishable it's the living and enduring word of the living God himself and so the promise of that imperishable word is that you now face eternity with God when that seed is implanted in you however the flesh in verse 24 is like grass everything that is temporal about this world is exactly that temporal in this space and time it won't survive this you know that your cars wear out your clothes wear out you are wearing out we have something that doesn't and it lives in us the enduring word of the living God why is it imperishable because it because it is the living and enduring word of God and again that's what verses 24 through 25 stress what is man's flesh his seed his body like grass and flowers they wither they fall off they die he's actually quoting from

[25:44] Isaiah 40 Peter goes on to say this but the word of the Lord endures forever and this is the word that was preached to you this is the word that was preached we are sharing with you we are heralding before you something that offers life in fact it's the only thing that offers life conquering death look conquering your fears your anxieties your troubles the things that hammer you down the shame the guilt the insecurities that can overwhelm your soul Peter says I'm offering you something that conquers every single bit of that oh will you struggle with it absolutely why because you're a fallen person living in a fallen world until you get to heaven you're going to face the reality of all of that but I have something that will do a work in you and bring you hope bring you a sense of peace bring you a sense of foundation and grounding that nothing in this world can rob you of oh you may be shaken you may be rattled but you won't break you bend but you won't break that's the promise of

[27:10] God that is the enduring the living word of God in you brothers and sisters that's the promise of Jesus this is what Peter's giving us this is the gift that he gives us most of us would say I don't take the word seriously enough we all struggle with that that's why we have words like this folks he's telling us this is what I brought to you this is the message that was preached to you this is what gospel preaching is the literal rendering here is preached as good news to you you see that at the end of verse 25 and this is the word that was preached to you that we brought to you this is the preached as good news to you word it's good news it's the gospel it's the good news that God forgives in Christ trust Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins he stood in your stead as a substitute on the cross to take on your sin and pay the penalty that God requires for the sin that you've lived what is that penalty death somebody had to die for the sins you've committed

[28:25] Jesus said I'll step into the gap and I'll die for this person because for this person to die in sin means a devil's hell for all eternity and Jesus said I want to rescue him from that so Jesus stepped in to substitute himself to save you to spare you from having to stand before a holy God in sin without forgiveness and be sentenced devil's hell automatically every one of us same penalty Jesus became our substitute God took all of your sin and put it on Christ and then he crushed Christ to death and he died to pay your penalty not his own he didn't have any sin he died because he took yours took mine then on the other side of the equation now I stand cleansed of this penalty I'm debt free in terms of my penalty but I lack something very important I don't have the perfection the holiness the righteousness that I need to stand before this holy

[29:28] God I'm kind of in a neutral zone right now I need something that makes me worthy to stand in front of this God so you know what God does then he credits to your spiritual bank account the perfect sinless life that Jesus lived on your account so you get him paying your penalty and taking away your debt and you get him giving you the best of what he lived on your behalf so that when God looks at you he sees Christ and the perfect life that his son lived and he counts that to your account and you say Jeff I don't deserve that no you don't and I don't either that's why we call it grace it's a gift of undeserved favor now do you see a loving God in that do you see loving kindness compassion goodness folks that's the gospel that's the gospel the gospel is the compassion of God on ruined sinners that's why we sing these songs and so this this is why you and

[30:36] I must be about preaching the gospel sitting under gospel preaching obeying gospel preaching loving each other in the gospel of God's preached word God's gospel brings us life and bears us along in life we must have we must support gospel preaching and living we never outlive the gospel never we live and breathe and have our being in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that's what Peter is stressing for us here we have new life because God's gospel was the gospel that he used to fervently love us to himself the good news through Jesus Christ and by God's gospel we live to fervently love each other love each other with that same love with which he loved us we turn from the

[31:41] Lord loving us and pouring into us this wonderful fervent love that he has this burning intentional invest with zest love for us we turn from that to our brothers and sisters and let it just spill out of us into their lives folks this is how the world sees that we're really different not better saved forgiven different made different by him they look in and they see that and they don't have an explanation for it because that's not the way the world works and so they have to come up with something to explain why these people gather like they do why they give of themselves to each other like they do and why they put their hope in something beyond this world like they do why they do all that it's a name it's Jesus that's why that's why therefore with all that therefore that's what verse one of chapter two starts with as a recreated person as a begotten person look fervently long for

[32:57] God's truth how do I do this how do I do this by getting rid of sin through the truth that's where he goes next look what he says therefore putting aside all malice deceit hypocrisy envy slander putting all that aside is where he starts now I'm cueing the baby a little early hold on to that that's a cue we talked about it Thursday night didn't we all right I'm going to use that in just a minute he's telling us that what we first need to do is put aside all of this the main action or command of this section is long for the pure milk of the word just like the main section main emphasis on the other section was fervently love one another this one is now fervently long for the pure milk of the word long for it but everything else around longing for the word in those first three verses is supportive

[34:09] Peter adds all of that around long for the word to support and undergird his main emphasis of you longing for God's word this way so we need to understand how these other phrases help support his emphasis in all of it what does he say how does he say it what is he doing with it all right he offers us a precondition we have to act on before we can experience a longing for God's word we have to get rid of love destroyers or longing destroyers those things which rob us of the desire the impetus the catalyst that he's speaking about here in these verses chapter two verses one through three we've got to deal with that we might say it this way fervently let go of ungodly hindrances if you want a word for this in chapter two verse one repent repent turn away from sins which so easily entangle you and rob you of expressing your new life of love in

[35:25] Jesus Christ all right don't diminish Jesus in you to others that's what's at stake don't do that all right I want to show you this up here look at this with me putting aside is an interesting Greek word apotith a me apotith a me it comes from the same Greek word and this is why I'm bringing it up Greg dealt with a few Sundays ago when he was in Hebrews 12 1 so just as a reminder Hebrews 12 1 turn back a couple of books here James is before Peter and then Hebrews Hebrews 12 1 therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us also here it is lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us we need to put aside push back lay off take off leave in the trail behind us the things that would so easily entangle us in this walk with the

[36:43] Lord this pursuit of righteousness in our lives and then if you look in James the very next book right before Peter James 121 also will help you nuance this idea of putting aside these sins laying them aside James 121 therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility do what receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls that's so good isn't it you're doing two things you're putting aside and you're receiving they go together you have to deal with that you have to deal with the stuff inside of you the inside of your heart that displeases the Lord and he's saying put it aside it's going to get in the way of you fervently loving your brothers and sisters and it's going to stand in the way of you fervently longing for God's word which does the work of transforming you and personal change in your life so put it all aside now Peter chooses very interestingly back to first

[37:55] Peter he chooses five five words or five sins which clearly destroy love in relationships they destroy this fervent longing that you'll have now this is very important let me caveat it these five things aren't just behaviors don't look at them just like that they are they have consequences absolutely but these are sinful heart attitudes these are sinful heart attitudes they start at the core of your being and work their way out they may work out and look in different different ways but they all have root in our hearts it's very important they wage war in your heart against loving Jesus and then in turn loving others they're love destroyers and he wants to comment on these why these this was

[38:55] Peter's choice now let me give you one other thing commentator Tom Schreiner whom I read he had a compelling comment on the church's need to deal with these kinds of sins in the family in the camp here's what he said the sins the sins listed tear at the social fabric of the church ripping away the threads of love that keep them together Peter signals thereby that no sin is to be tolerated in the community our community that sin is to be rejected comprehensively now we're not talking about hiring a God squad that shows up at your house and knocks on your door and wants to sit down and rehearse all of the things they think you're sinning in or all that we're not talking about that kind of stuff we're talking about us helping one another and coming alongside of one another to take sin seriously in the camp and not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to sin in our life we can't do that and love one another and love

[40:00] Christ we can't it's not love it isn't love to overlook sin like that to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear as if it doesn't happen I don't want to wade into your mess we can't do that so he lists these now some of you are from backgrounds you're going to recognize these you're going to have stories people's faces are going to come to mind this can happen in your family this can happen with your friends but folks the context here is church these sins happening in a local church community and tearing it apart look at what he says therefore putting aside all malice deceit hypocrisy envy and all slander all slander folks this is what's at stake here look at this malice is wicked ill will I'll just take a few minutes outline these for you what is he talking about you fail to believe the best now remember we're talking about these people who are sitting in this room with you across the aisles here you fail to believe the best you fail to give the benefit of the doubt in a person's favor rather than give them the benefit of the doubt and believe the best about them and put the good spin on it you go right to the bad spin and what you end up doing is this you harbor ill will in your heart against a believer no matter how minor or how major you may think it is what you end up doing is this malice will lead you to assign motives to people's hearts and judge their hearts you begin to set yourself up as the judge and jury of their heart oh I know why they said this oh I know why they did this oh I know what this is all about oh why and boy you just can't sleep at night you're rehearsing it you're in the shower it's in your head and every time you think about it the other person takes the hit you say

[42:12] Jeff what if they're guilty well we'll talk about that another time but right now we're talking about your issue of letting malice grow in your heart because this is your issue my issue malice he goes on to say this look at this one deceit deceit deceit is deliberate dishonesty you know what that is this is a deliberate attempt to lead astray and it comes in all forms so this is guile a deliberate attempt to mislead or introduce what is false have you ever had anybody talk to you about some issue going on in the church or about somebody in the church and as they talk you get the impression that they're embellishing the reality and they're making this person look pretty bad in the process they're making it sound like it's all on their end have you ever experienced that yes folks this stuff tears the church to pieces deceit it eats away at trust look if you can't trust someone you'll find it very hard to love them look at a couple of places right here in our book of first

[43:29] Peter chapter 2 verse 22 look at what Peter says about Christ do 21 for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example to follow in his steps who committed no sin nor was there any what in his mouth Jesus never spoke deceitfully about other people he never embellished or exaggerated anything that he said about other people when he called the religious leaders snakes when he said they were whitewashed tombs that wasn't deceitful it was true and if they'd have listened to him it could have saved their lives deceit and then in chapter 3 of 1 Peter verse 10 look at this one for the one who desires life to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit do you think

[44:30] God takes I could give you verse after verse God takes this seriously it is not okay for us to go around talking about each other and saying things even things that we think are true that portray other people in this bad light we have to be super careful about this it's an easy slippery slope into being deceitful about what's really going on right how about this one hypocrisy it's falsehood duplicity it's pretended piety it's disingenuineness and it's interesting this word plays against the word sincere in chapter one verse twenty two where he says you have purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren the word is the same word there and it means not hypocritical genuine it's the absence of pretense falsehood self-centeredness and Peter heightens the emphasis on deep genuineness when he says this fervently and from the heart love one another fervently and from the heart do you know why he has to say that he caveats that because he knows how prone we are to the opposite so he tells us you've got to make an effort at this the effort that you make is striving according to the truth of God and letting it get into your heart and change you and change you you can see this in

[46:07] Galatians let me give you a quick example and I'll move on if you'll turn to the book of Galatians I want to give you a biblical example of this I'm taking a little minute here because I want you to have some ammunition to recognize this stuff going on and you can put a stop to it look Greg and I are not policemen we're shepherds we need you guys working together to make sure that we're not harboring this kind of stuff in our church so in Galatians chapter 2 we see hypocrisy given as an example and it's in a person that might be surprising to you verse 11 of chapter 2 but when Cephas who's Cephas Peter but when Peter the apostle Peter came to Antioch Paul says I opposed Peter to his face why because he stood condemned what did he do

[47:09] Paul prior to the coming of certain men from James he used to eat with the Gentiles but when these men came he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof in pride because he feared the party of the circumcision this is the fear of man I want to impress these guys that are coming down from Jerusalem with James I want to show them I'm a great Jew and a godly man and so I'm going to withdraw from the Gentiles whom I've been fellowshipping with and put myself out here as pretty pious Paul said I condemned him verse 13 the rest of the Jews joined Peter in his hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by that hypocrisy Paul says when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel I said to Cephas in the presence of everybody if you being a Jew live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews how is it that you compel the

[48:09] Gentiles to live like Jews he's confronting him to his face and folks the point that I want to make here is this do you see what's at stake in this hypocrisy nothing less than the gospel hypocrisy cancels out gospel reality in terms of the way people see us living you can't talk about loving Jesus and following Jesus and surrendering to Jesus and live like a hypocrite people people sniff that out in a heartbeat don't they you do you you can tell when people are being disingenuous Peter says we're not going to have any of that how about this one envy envy that's next on his list it's resentful discontent it begrudges people what we think they ought to have and then hopes for the downfall of another I should have that that should be happening to me how come that's not happening we can't be happy and rejoice for them we're too busy thinking about what we don't have and that we should have it if you'll remember in Mark 15 10

[49:17] Pilate knew that the Jewish leaders had handed Jesus over to him for crucifixion out of envy do you hear that envy drove the religious leaders of Israel to hand over their Messiah to the Romans to torture to death envy did that that's Mark 15 10 what are we supposed to do with this well one more how about this one now have you ever been on the receiving end of slander it's backbiting backbiting lies that disparage other people now here's the interesting part the lie is that we are using it out of context and we are weaponizing it to harm other people we may be saying something that is fairly accurate about somebody else but we're weaponizing it and that's the lie we're using it to their harm and to our good at least that's what we think

[50:21] Shriner again described slander not only as spreading false stories which could be the case you're just telling outright lies about people and slandering their name but he said this it could also have to do with well-timed words that carry insinuations about each other there are people that are really good at this boy they look for that opening and then they slide in and just plant the seed you know you understand what I'm saying this is this will tear a church to pieces have you ever seen it I don't want to show a hands have you ever seen this I've been in the ministry for 30 years and I've seen it over and over again it's terrible it's devastating one other thing slander is an interesting word in the Greek because it is now hear the word it is onomatopoeic onomatopoeic it's a word that sounds like what it describes like this here's an onomatopoeic word meow doesn't that sound like what it meow or something like this honk honk or boom those are onomatopoeic words they sound like what they describe that is what this word for slander is it's katalalia speed it up katalalia katalalia now do this katalalia we might do it this way na na na na na na na na they did katalala that's the whisperer that's the gossip that's the slanderer right and it captures it that's what we do out of our hearts now an interesting thing for me

[52:25] I mentioned the years I've been in it's interesting to me that in my experience these sins are captured by a critical spirit if I took time to break it down for you and what we've seen and counseled and dealt with in this as we've tried to get behind the scenes of these kinds of sins manifesting in the church they stem from a critical spirit say Jeff what do you mean by a critical spirit well this always accompanies these hard attitudes it's people who continually struggle with these sins are looking and listening for reasons to criticize and it reflects a lack of thankfulness it is hard to be critical and demanding and always looking for a reason to get in there and slice and dice when you're thankful I'm thankful for you brother I'm thankful for you sister I'm thankful for our church I'm thankful for what

[53:25] Jesus is doing here when you're thankful it helps drive out a critical spirit if you're thankful towards your spouse I promise you it's going to help you be ten times less critical of your spouse you struggling with being critical towards your spouse or someone at work let me tell you how to help with that start looking for reasons to be thankful for them if it's nothing less than this that human being was made in the image of God and because of that they're immeasurably important and valuable to God and then go from there thankfulness will help drive out a critical spirit just that's for free that's for free all right key the baby cue the baby how else do we do this by growing in sanctification I'll be real quick how else do we do this we grow in sanctification through the truth we grow in terms of getting rid of sin and we grow in sanctification through the truth look what happens when a newborn baby gets milk here's the point

[54:35] I'm just going to come right to it when a newborn baby gets milk they get a taste for it and then what do they want more how do they let you know they want more the only way they can right if a newborn baby like this one could stand up and say mama I want some milk then that be fine all right but they let you know a different way right and it's just as direct isn't it yeah but babies when they get milk they learn to yearn for it you need to learn to yearn learn to yearn we yearn for stuff God saying Peter saying yearn for the truth in our hearts how we need to develop a taste for it how well we need to re experience the wonderful goodness of God's word for ourselves over and over again so that that goodness becomes precious to us so this is a straightforward analogy that

[55:38] Peter is giving newborns crave milk look like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word he is giving us a comparison not a contrast like similar to newborn babies you should be longing for the pure milk of the word straightforward they crave what feeds them and we should crave what feeds us so we're talking about spiritual milk that sustains us in spiritual growth in life now interesting what kind of spiritual milk Peter says pure oh my goodness pure well of course pure you want to get a grip on pure milk think about this would you give spoiled rotten sour milk to your baby look if you were getting a bottle ready and you smelled it and whoa would you just put the cap on it and say here try this of course not and look probably the baby wouldn't take it but what if it did what if the baby drank that milk could kill it the bacteria could kill their little form could happen

[56:47] Peter says take in the pure that's one of the promises of God's you have a guarantee the guarantee is anytime you're taking in or ingesting the word you're ingesting something pure for your soul you don't have to doubt it it's not contaminated it's the only unpolluted thing on the planet that you can trust your soul with or why don't you go out and let Hollywood tell you what to think or the news or Madison garden or whatever it is all the advertisers only God's word can give you something that is pure undiluted living enduring and able to save your souls and again interestingly pure is the word adalon adalon and it's contrasted with deceit dolos you see dolos in adalon Peter's making this big contrast adalon uncontaminated and that's

[57:48] God's word you don't want a baby to drink bad milk and you don't want to drink it either now folks one other thing I'll tell you this craving that we're talking about isn't something that just limits itself as a desire well as long as I have kind of a desire for God's word but I never really act on it yeah you know it's good and I before find their lives stunted because they don't discipline themselves to long for and learn from God's word so folks this is about this is about you will never invest with zest if you don't come to the place where you get zest how do you get it you get zest for God's word by being in God's word discovery in God's word fosters desire and desire leads to discipline and discipline leads to discernment and discernment leads to more desire more discovery and it just repeats itself so you're you're feeding yourself and you're enjoying the reality of how

[58:59] God's word is enlightening your heart and soul and so you want to run back for more instead of coming in here and sitting here and doing it vicariously through me I want you to get from this but I want all the more ready next Sunday to come in here and just let it explode out of you say Jeff that's the ideal no that's the that's the reality Dr.

[59:27] MacArthur says we all ought to have a righteous sense of discontent about this it's good so Peter caps it off in verse 3 if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord he just brings it home if you've tasted God's kindness and salvation then you should long for more of his kindness ministered to you through his pure word it's it's cyclical that's the way it works let's pray together well father we bow our hearts before you now and we thank you we've already had a full morning and we're grateful it's a full morning of being under the word of God the preached gospel singing the gospel praying the gospel and so we thank you for the gospel we thank you for the good news of Jesus Jesus who was crucified in our stead raised again that we might have life in his name we look to him we honor him and we thank you father for bringing him to us

[60:32]  God with us and we thank you now and ask you that as we go about our week you will help us to ingest the word of God that we might invest with zest fervently loving one another and fervently longing the truth we pray this in Jesus precious name amen月 him o nat Hey God pray we Ivar from to us