I Peter 2:1-3
Living the New Life - Your Diet
Scripture reading –
1Pet. 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
1Pet. 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
1Pet. 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Pray
Intro
√ Did you note the first word of chapter 2?
"Therefore"
You know the routine! When you see a "therefore" look and see what's its therefore!
Chapter 2 must be understood in the context of Peter's closing comments in chapter 1…
1Pet.
1Pet.
That is, in view of the fact that we are born again by Grace to a new life in Christ…
…Peter now calls the Christian to action in chapter 2.
Thus, he begins to lay out for us what we need to know about living this new life.
We need a new diet (vs. 1-3)
We have a new purpose (4-10)
We have a new identify (vs. 4-10)
We need a new attitude (vs. 11-25)
Good stuff because with any new life we need to get educated so that we can help that new life to grow and mature to its God given potential.
Ex. A new baby
When a couple has their first baby there's a whole lot about babies they need to learn!
Feeding
Clothing
Changing
Cleaning
Sleeping
Ex. Me and Siobhan's birth mark!
Ap. Getting saved is just the beginning of a new life
Having been born again we need to know…
Who we are (new identity)
What we need what's required to grow and be healthy spiritually
What our purpose in life is
Foundational questions for every person!
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
Before you and I became a Christian we may have thought we had the answers to those questions…
…however, now that we've been born again the old answers just won't do.
We need to learn how to grow in our new life!
A new diet (vs. 1-3)
1Pet. 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
1Pet. 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
1Pet. 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
√ Soul food
Notice that Peter compares us to…
"newborn babes" - vs. 2
…who must desire the…
"pure milk of the word"
When a person is born again, they are made alive spiritually, and require spiritual food to sustain and grow that new life.
Just as a baby is sustained and grows by drinking of its mother milk…
…so our spirit and soul is fed by God's Word.
Soul food!
If we extend Peter's illustration a bit we'll discover some important truths regarding this spiritual food that God has given us.
Like the pure milk a baby receives from its mother, we find that the Word of God is essential to spiritual growth for these reasons.
• Gives life
• No substitutes
• Cleans out the junk from our soul
• Never spoils
• Causes us to grow
Gives life (I Peter
√ Look back at I Peter 1:23
1Pet.
A person is born again, or begins that new life, through the word of God.
God's word alone has the power to bring life to a person who was spiritually dead.
Additionally, God's word sustains life. Look with me to…
Ps 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.
The point is, that just as our bodies require food for life, so our spirit and our soul require God's word…
First to impart life
Second to sustain life
Ex. Famine
We've all seen on TV the tragic results when people don't get enough food to eat.
Their bodies become weak, susceptible to disease, begin drawing nourishment from their own body, until ultimately they die.
Ap. Spiritual famine
We see the tragic results all around us in the lives of Christians who are spiritually weak susceptible to false doctrine and cultic leaders, and generally beat up by the devil.
I believe there's a spiritual famine in the
Amos
But, God has made provision for His people.
Jer.
Ap. We all need to eat well of God's word, not only that we can have life, but that we can share it with others.
No substitutes (vs. 2)
1Pet. 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
√ Moms, you know that except in rare cases, the best food for a newborn baby is pure mother's milk.
It's got everything a baby needs to grow strong and healthy.
The perfect combination of nutrients, vitamins, and fluid.
Nothing else will do.
In fact, if you try to give a newborn something other than pure mother's milk you find that the baby doesn't do as well.
Ex. Baby formula - as good as it can be, it still can't duplicate what God designed into mothers milk.
Ap. The same is true regarding the food for our soul
The only thing that will cause us to grow spiritually is God's Word.
It's got everything a new babe in Christ needs to grow strong and healthy.
The perfect combination of spiritual revelation.
Nothing else will do.
So, if you want to grow spiritually, you need the pure milk of God's Word!
Ex. Spend time in His Word vs. the latest Christian book
There's a temptation to skip God's word and live off of the latest book offered at the Christian bookstore.
Don't do it!
Even the best books out there are only substitutes for God's Word. They can be helpful, but they can never replace God's Word in our lives.
Worse, there's a bunch of junk out there that will rob you of your spiritual health and stunt your spiritual growth.
May I be so frank as to tell you that just because a book is in a Christian bookstore doesn't mean that it's Biblical!
Ex. Benny Hinn's "Good morning Holy Spirit"
In the first edition Benny tells us that God revealed to him that the each member of the Trinity was also a triune being, therefore, there were really nine members of the Godhead!
Completely unbiblical, yet, thousands of copies were sold before Benny retracted that "revelation".
That kind of thing will mess you up!
So, stick with the pure milk of God's word for your spiritual diet.
Cleans out the junk from our soul (vs. 1-2)
1Pet. 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
1Pet. 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
√ Note the contrast…
Out with the bad (vs. 1), in with the good (vs. 2)
When a person comes to faith in Jesus and begins to live a new life, that person brings with them a lot of junk!
We all need a spiritual de-tox!
God uses His word to cleanse our souls of all the junk that we've fed on up to the time that we begin our new life.
Ex. Long distance sports
You come to training camp having lived on a diet of fast food, sugar, and fat…
…you find that your body has to get all that junk out before you can really begin to develop.
Ap. Spiritually speaking
When we come to faith in Christ we bring with us all sorts of wrong ideas and wrong thinking concerning life and Godliness.
Those things are spiritual junk food!
Before we can grow in Christ that junk has to get purged from our soul (mind).
Ex. "God helps them who help themselves"!
One of the most frequently quoted proverbs that is not to be found anywhere in the Bible!
Rather, we find that God helps those who let Him!
God honors faith, not works, because He wants to do a work of the spirit, not of the flesh.
Ishmael!
So, read His word and let it purge you of spiritual junk food.
Never spoils (I Peter
1Pet.
√ His word never spoils
One of the problems with the food we need for our bodies is that it doesn't last forever!
Ex. John's practical joke leaving a tray of milk under guy's bed
The point, what was good for you yesterday may not be good for you today!
Ap. God's word is eternally good for the soul
One of the great testimonies that the Bible is in fact God's word is that it has met the spiritual needs of people since the beginning of time.
Always relevant
Always fresh
Always good
In short, God's word never spoils because as Peter tells us it…
"lives and abides forever"
Listen, you can read the Bible over and over again for your entire life and never reach the end of God's supply of spiritual food.
Causes us to grow (vs. 2)
1Pet. 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
√ Growth
Have you ever noticed that healthy babies grow! In fact, if you're not careful about how much you feed them you'll wake up one day and find that they're bigger than you!
The point, as a baby takes in that pure nutritious milk, the baby begins to grow.
People weren't designed to remain a baby.
They're supposed to grow and mature into adults. Good food provides the necessary nutrients to grow strong bodies.
Ap. Christians are supposed to grow up!
Getting saved is just the beginning of a new life. Once a person is saved God begins a work to grow them into the spiritual adult that he has designed.
Mature Christians can accomplish much more for the KOG than baby Christians, just as mature adults can do more than a baby can.
One of the problems we often find however is that people don't want to grow up!
In fact, we find that Paul and the other apostles had to deal with this very subject because Christians didn't want to break for the bottle!
Ex. Mom breaking us of the bottle
√ We need solid food
Look with me at a few scriptures
1Co 3:2* I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;
Heb 5:12* For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Heb 5:14* But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Note the progress of growth from milk to solid food.
Heb. 6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Heb. 6:2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Ap. We’re called to grow in Christ!
Just as it
would be tragic to
find a 20-year-old
who still drank milk from a bottle, so it’s tragic to find a person who’s been in
church for 20 years and doesn’t know anything beyond the “milk” of God’s word.
That’s why teaching is SO important.
It’s the
bedrock of spiritual health and growth.
No teaching, no growth. We need a
balanced diet of God’s word – found only by taking the whole counsel of
God.
All to often we find that pastor's fall into the trap of preaching the Gospel every week to a group of people who are already saved!
What the people need is not milk, but solid food, which is found in the teaching of His Word.
Ex. "I've grown so much since coming here"
That's the common theme of a teaching ministry. Not that we don't preach the Gospel…
…we do, but not at the expense of feeding people the solid food they need to grow in Christ.
√ So, we need the "whole counsel of God".
Cover to cover, line by line, book by book. Christians need to know more than just how to be saved…
…they need to know how to grow.
Close
√ We need a New Diet
The Word of God, from milk to meat!
Gives life
No substitutes
Cleans out the junk
Never spoils
Causes us to grow