In the sermon 'The Word of God in the Life of the Believer' by Jason Dohm, the focus is on the transformative power of the Word of God as described in 1 Peter 1:22 through 2:3. The sermon emphasizes that the Word of God is vital for the new birth and the spiritual growth of believers. Dohm explains that a purified soul is achieved through obeying the truth by the Spirit and is characterized by truth and love. The sermon warns against 'truth killers' and 'love killers' such as malice, deceit, and hypocrisy, encouraging believers to declare a 'holy war' against these traits. Believers are urged to crave the 'pure milk of the Word' to grow spiritually, drawing on the grace and goodness of God. The sermon highlights that true obedience is equated with love, and the Word of God is the incorruptible seed that leads to spiritual maturity and a life that reflects the love of God.

Our text for this morning is 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 22 through chapter 2 verse 3. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the word through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withers and its flower falls away but the word of the Lord endures forever now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you therefore laying aside all malice all deceit hypocrisy envy and all evil speaking as newborn babes Desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tested The Lord is gracious. Oh Lord God, we thank you so much for your word Father we thank you for For providing it for us and Lord we thank you for your Holy Spirit Lord that then those that have that have truly believed Lord your word is pierced fellow help us to live lives as true believers in you Loving the brethren and living to your word Lord God speak through Jason this morning as he brings the word that you've prepared in his heart.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, two quick pieces of housekeeping before we start the sermon. So I'm not going to count that on my clock. This does not count against my time. The first is that I talked with Marvin Gerry, the Malawian, yesterday.

Sounded like he was in the next room. Skype is amazing. But he's in Malawi and is doing well and just wanted me to pass along that he loves us and that he misses us. So anyway, we're thought of in Malawi. And the second thing is that the domes were a way to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary this week.

And it just made me want to come to 50 years of marriage myself, if God would sustain us that long, and have people so eager to celebrate our marriage. If you don't know my parents, They have just the sweetest marriage you can imagine. It's sweeter now than it ever was. And it's always been sweet. And I know their weaknesses, because I lived with them for all those years, but their marriage is sweet.

And their testimony to each other is that if they could go back in time, they would do it again in a heartbeat with no hesitation. So anyway, may God give us many marriages like we're celebrated this week, where a bunch of people cannot wait to celebrate the longevity and the sweetness, the sweet longevity of our marriages. It's one thing to make 50 years, it's another thing to make 50 years and have a true testimony be that it was sweeter and sweeter through the decades. So a big amen to that. That's right.

Now the clock has started. Now we're on the clock. So the title of the sermon this week is The Word of God in the Life of the Believer. The Word of God, the revealed words of God permeate the text. It's worked in all throughout the text.

Peter began this letter talking about the goodness of God. And so the foundation that Peter has built is the abundant mercy of God, how kind God has been. And having built that foundation, he then says, because of that, because God has been so kind, be holy, be the Lord's, be set aside for His glory because He's been so kind to you and it really is a reasonable service. And this week's text is a continuation of that. It's a further development of that.

He built the foundation, which is that God has been kind. And then he started building on that foundation last week by saying, be holy. Because God has been so good, so gracious, so full of mercy, be set aside for His glory. And now this week, He's developing that, Peter is developing that further. And he's saying the fact that we've been recipients of the kindness of God should result in something.

And the something that this ought to result in is that we would have lives characterized by truth and love. So the thrust of this text, and we'll see a repetition of both of these things in the text, is lives characterized by truth and by love. And he says, it's begun for those who have been born again it has begun lives characterized by truth and love has begun have begun and It's intended to grow. It's always intended to grow. So it isn't born into maturity, but it is born, and it's intended to grow into maturity.

And Peter, in our text, teaches us how the Word of God fuels all this. In other words, it's vital to the beginning of life. You'll not have life in God through Christ without the Word of God. It is vital. God's Word is vital to the new birth.

And it's vital in sustaining that life and growing. So if you want to be born again you must have the word of God. If you want to be sustained and grow you must have the word of God. Let's pray as we go to our text. Father, I thank you for the new birth, how aware we are that we need to be something completely different than what we were born into, that the natural man can never come into your presence.

We must be born again. Thank you for the new birth that has been made possible through the abundant mercy of God in sending Christ. And now God we pray particularly for those in the room who have been born again for growth, Oh God, I want to grow. I need to grow. We feel it so acutely, Lord, that we ought to be more and more and more of what we see in the life and in the words of Jesus Christ.

Oh God use your word in a mighty way to do this, to sustain us and to cause us to grow in the faith. May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. So I've divided the text into just two sections. So we'll complete chapter one as the first section and then verses 1 through 3 of chapter 2 in the second section.

So let's read these last four verses of chapter 1 And then I'll talk about them. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you." Peter is a lot like Paul in this way. He loves long sentences with lots of phrases. And we won't fault him for that. He's inspired.

So he has the benefit of the doubt. But we are finding some of these long sentences with many phrases. And it's helpful to separate out what is the core and what are the phrases that just help explain the core. In other words, there are central truths and then there are other phrases that Peter uses to describe the central truth or illuminate, shed light on the central truth or teach about the central truth. So to look at verses 22 and 23 and 24 and 25, which is how many sentences?

One, right up until the very end of 25, this single sentence, to strip away the phrases that just describe and shed light on the core and just leave us with the core. Here's what you end up with. Since you have purified your souls, love one another. That's the core. Since you have purified your souls, love one another.

That's the core. Since you have purified your souls, love one another. And All the other words are phrases that the author uses to hang on these central truths to describe and shed light on them. But what he's driving at is since you have purified your souls, love one another. Peter begins with a purified soul, with a soul that was defiled but a soul that has been cleansed and now is something completely different.

It's a purified soul. How does this happen? How does a defiled soul become a purified soul? Well, two things work together. This is what Peter is teaching.

Two things work together, hand in hand, inseparably connected. Number one, obeying the truth. Someone has obeyed the truth when there's a purified soul. And number two, it is through the spirit. The spirit has gone to work on someone if there's a purified soul.

And both must be present. They work together. They're inseparable. When a soul has been purified, someone has obeyed the truth and the spirit has gone to work on them. Now let's talk about these individually.

Obeying the truth. Salvation is by grace alone through what? Through faith alone. By grace alone through faith alone. In other words, God initiates salvation.

That's grace. You didn't deserve it. It's unearned favor. It's undeserved favor. God initiated it towards you.

You never would have thought to do it on your own if he left you in the natural state. So it's by grace alone. God initiated it. And this begins at the cross, right? He initiated it at the cross by standing as a substitute for those who couldn't do for themselves what only Jesus Christ could do for them.

So he initiates it at the cross and then he initiates it personally in their life through the work of the Spirit. So God initiates, that's grace, by grace alone. And then we respond through faith alone. There must be faith. We must do something.

And when we do something, this reflects the work of God. This reflects that the spirit has been at work. And so I'm not saying something different than grace is irresistible. I'm not saying it's not irresistible, but I am saying that just because it's irresistible doesn't mean that we don't have to do anything. Of course we have to do something.

So if we do something, it's not grounds for pride. We shouldn't pat ourselves on the back that we have faith in God because it's the work of God. This is what Ephesians 2 says, so that no one will boast before God. But still, we've done something. And if we haven't done something, it simply means that the reverse is true, that the Spirit has not been at work.

If the Spirit has been at work, then we do something. There's a compulsion in our inner man that makes us, that brings us to the point where we must, we must, we must transfer our trust to ourselves and anything that we could do which can never be trusted, to Christ who can be trusted. And so what the Spirit has wrought in our heart is reflected in us doing something, in us transferring our trust and having faith. Mark 1.15, Mark chapter 1 verse 15, This is the first recorded words that Jesus says in his public ministry. And I believe it's the irreducible gospel.

In other words, if you boil down the gospel to what can't be boiled down any further, you get it in Mark chapter 1 verse 15 where Jesus says, repent and believe in the gospel. The irreducible requirements of the gospel are repentance and faith. You repent and believe in the gospel, repentance and faith. And when you understand the fundamental things about God, for instance that He made you, for instance that He's almighty, for instance that He's holy and He requires perfection from you. When you understand the fundamental things about man, for instance, that He's corrupt to the core.

For instance, even the things that he thinks are righteous look like filthy rags to this holy God. When you understand the fundamental things about what God has done about this horrendous disconnect between a holy God and unholy completely defiled men and that God has addressed that through the work of the cross through what Jesus has done to stand in the place of sinners who would trust in him. Then you have these fundamental truths about God, about man, about the cross, and it demands what? It demands a response. It demands that you repent and believe, or that you stay the course and live in unbelief.

You must do one or the other. The claims of the gospel demand a response. And a non-response is a response. In other words, if you say, I just won't respond to the gospel at all, you've actually responded to the gospel. And you've stayed the course.

Instead of repenting, instead of turning around, you've stayed the course. You've stayed on the course of the natural man and you said, I'll just continue in unbelief. So your non-response is a response to the gospel. The truths and the claims of the gospel demand a response. Either you will repent and believe, transfer your trust, or you will not repent.

You'll stay the course and you'll continue in unbelief. That's why Paul says in two different places, in Romans 10 and in 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul calls this obeying the gospel. Obeying the gospel. We tend to think of it in terms of embracing the gospel. Accepting the gospel.

And those are true. But what Paul says is true also. It is obeying the gospel. Why? Because in the gospel, God is commanding all men everywhere to repent.

So either you'll obey that command that goes to all men everywhere to repent or you won't. So Paul calls it obeying the gospel and Peter is saying something much the same here in verse 23. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth, and then if we skip to the bottom, the very last words of the chapter, now this is the word by which the gospel was preached to you. Peter is going to hang this, obeying the truth, to the gospel in the last words of the chapter. Peter calls this word, these words, the content of which provide the basis for the good news about Jesus Christ.

Gospel just means good news. Peter calls these words incorruptible seed. Seed. You remember Matthew 13? The parable of the seeds, the parable of the sower?

The seed was the word of God. Peter says the same thing here. And he calls this word of God incorruptible seed, imperishable seed that abides forever. And he's setting up a contrast. And he's contrasting this incorruptible, imperishable, abiding forever, enduring forever seed with you, who are nothing like that.

So here's the contrast that Peter gives us. The word of God, which abides forever. It's incorruptible. It's imperishable. It endures forever and then there's you.

You're like grass. All flesh is as grass. Here today, gone tomorrow. Let this 95 degree sun work on this grass for a couple of days. Then see what happens to it.

You're like that. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. In other words, the best that man can do, same category. The best, the most Glorious, whatever, the best. Make a stack.

You make a heap. Peter's been making a heap of things that flow from the abundant mercy of God. Now you make a heap of all the best that man can do. Grass, like the flower of the grass. It looks glorious, but just let the sun beat on it for a day.

See what happens to it then. So Peter gives us something solid, something imperishable, something that will last forever, and it's the Word of God. And he gives us something that is shifting sand and something temporary, so temporary, and it's man and the realm of man, the glory of man. And he's weaning us away from the world, from the love of the world, from the things of the world, from depending on anything associated with the world, and telling us that there's only one solid place for our feet and it's the Word of God because it endures forever. It would be easier for the heavens and the earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle of the Word of God to fail.

That's what Jesus says in Luke somewhere. I don't remember the exact reference. Listen to what Moses says in Psalms. Did you know Moses was a Psalmist? He was.

Psalm 90 was written by Moses. And in Psalm 90, verse 12, Moses writes, so teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Teach us to number our days. God, please teach us to number our days because the number is really small because man is as grass and the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. Here today, gone tomorrow.

And when you know that, when God teaches you to number your days and you gain a heart of wisdom, in other words, you see life in perspective, your life is this, and eternity is that. And it makes you wise. And it makes you wise. So number one, purification of a heart begins with obeying the truth, But number two, this happens through the Spirit and only through the Spirit. There's no one who obeys the truth without having been worked on by the Spirit of God.

It is impossible. Those two things are inseparable. If you purify your heart by obeying the truth, it has been done through the Spirit. There is no other way to purify your heart by obeying the truth. The will of man is not sufficient to muster up enough strength to carry that through.

It is impossible. It requires the work of the Holy Spirit of God. These two things worked together, Obeying the truth through the Spirit. That is what leads to a purified heart. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4 verse 12.

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What a book! What other book can you say that about? It's living and active. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Why is that? The Spirit of God. It is through the Spirit of God so that the natural man can come to this book a thousand times and never describe it that way. Because even though the words are divine, they have not been illuminated by the Spirit of God, the tutor, the teacher, the one who comes alongside in the inner man to make these words alive. So the natural man will come and read it 1, 000 times and say, this book is irrelevant.

I don't understand one word of this book and the things that I do understand I don't even agree with. But someone quickened by the spirit of God will come to it and say it's active. It's alive. It's living. It discerns my thoughts and the intents of my heart.

That's because when you cross over from one kingdom into another kingdom, you get a tutor that helps you with this book, and it is the Spirit of God. So we have the Word of God in our text and we have the Spirit of God and they work together, obeying the truth through the Spirit. It is the spirit who quickens and activates and makes alive. It is the spirit who gives ears to hear. You remember that in Matthew 13.

Some have ears to hear, some have eyes to see. Same data, same words, same evidence. Some can hear, some can see, some can never hear, Some can never see. The difference is the work of the Spirit of God. Now look back to verse 2.

Here in chapter 1, verse 2. Peter's already been talking about that is what we find. We look back to verse 2. Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit has set you aside in sanctification of the Spirit.

The Spirit of God puts His hand upon you and says, you are God's. You've been sanctified. You've been set aside. You've been consecrated by the Spirit of God. And what does it say next?

For obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So if you have saving faith, it is because the Spirit of God went to work on you. It is through the Spirit that you have purified your soul through obedience to the truth. Peter said it in verse 2 and he's saying it again in verse 22. So Peter begins with a purified soul And then he continues with the expected result.

What is that? Love. For those with a purified soul, there is an expected result. Peter expects to see something. What does he expect to see?

Love. The King James Version renders it instead of insincere love of the brethren. The King James version renders it unto, unto, unfamed love of the brethren. And the ESV and the NASV and the NIV render it for sincere love. In other words, all the other translations except for the one we're using, give us a cause and effect relationship.

Make clear that there's a cause and effect relationship here. A purified soul is the cause that has this predictable effect, love, love, love, love, love of the brethren. A purified soul is the cause of the effect which is love of the brethren. Purification, being born again, propels you into love. If you look at your heart and you don't see much love there, it's time to troubleshoot.

I look at my heart and say there's not nearly enough love. So I think Christians can do that. I think Christians ought to do that. I think Christians are considering themselves more highly than they ought to if they look in there and say I've arrived there's enough love in there but if you look in and you say there's really no love there's so precious little love in there you ought to wonder is the cause really there for the anticipated effect because Peter's Peter anticipates the effect Peter expects to see some something from someone with a purified soul. And what he expects to see is love of the brethren.

So should we only love brethren? No. But you've got to go to the other texts for the other kind of love. There are plenty of texts to go to, but Peter doesn't talk about it, so I'm not talking about it. But He's talking about right now a very special love, and it's the love within the family of God.

It's the love that ought to be flourishing and growing and growing in the heart of someone with a purified soul. Love towards your brothers and sisters, because we've all been added to the family of God. So Peter is linking salvation with obedience. One causes the other. Salvation, purification, being born again causes obedience.

Now you might say, wait a minute, you're switching words in the middle. Peter didn't use those words. Peter said love. You're saying obedience. I'm saying they're the same thing.

Love equals obedience and obedience equals love and this is what Peter expects to see coming out of a soul that has been purified, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Is love or obedience? Love and obedience. Obedience and love. Why am I saying that?

Matthew 22, Jesus is asked, which is the great commandment? He says, love God with all your being. Love God. And the second command is, like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And then he says this in Matthew 22, 40, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

In other words, all the commandments are commandments of love. So when you obey God, you are loving. And when you love, you are obeying God. Because the commandments are commandments of love. Either loving God or loving your neighbor, usually both at the same time.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 13 verse 10. Love is the fulfillment of the law. What Jesus was teaching in Matthew 22 was not lost on Paul. Paul says love is the fulfillment of the law. When you obey, you love.

When you love, you obey God. Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, verse 5. Here's why I'm piling these up. Because we think wrongly about the law and obedience. And it's a chore to be done.

It's a mechanical duty. But Jesus didn't say that and Paul didn't say that and Peter's not saying that. Peter's saying it's not mechanical, sterile chore to be done with the rolling of the eyes and a sigh. No, it's love. They're all related to love So we should think rightly about obeying God because it's simply loving.

First Timothy 1 verse 5, Paul writes, now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and from sincere faith. I'm going to read that again. 1 Timothy 1.5. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith. In other words, Paul expects to see something coming out of a purified soul.

What is it? Love. What Peter is teaching in 1 Peter 1, Paul is teaching in Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 1. Jesus taught it in Matthew 22. If we are to think about obedience in the way that Jesus thinks about obedience, or Paul thinks about obedience, or Peter thinks about obedience, it's to equate it with love.

Not with something that we have to do like we do our chores. It is love. Saving faith produces obedience to God. And what does that look like? It looks like love.

We are saved, born again, purified unto love. You're saved to love. Do you get that? Does it get any more fundamental than that? Does it get any more foundational and ground floor than that?

You are saved to love. Purified unto love. So Peter talks about it in chapter 1. And he talks about it in chapter 2 verse 17. Love the brotherhood, he'll be saying in chapter 2, 17.

And in chapter 3, 8, he'll be saying love as brothers. And in chapter 4, verse 8, he'll be saying have fervent love for one another. It's so central that Peter talks about it in chapter 1, and in chapter 2, and in chapter 3, and in chapter 4. I don't think he mentions it in chapter 5. He takes the chapter off.

But love flowing out of a purified heart is a major theme of this letter. Turn your Bibles to 1 John. It's only a couple of pages away. But we can't talk about love and obedience without going to 1 John. It's impossible.

1 John chapter 4, reading verses 7 through 11. 1 John chapter 4, beginning in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. In 1 John 4, John equates love with obedience. And he says that the Christian has been given resources by God to love.

What is that? That he loved us first. So he's given us a reservoir of love to draw on. What is that? That Christ went to the cross out of love.

So you're not commanded to do something that doesn't come with resources, you're commanded to do something that comes with a reservoir to draw upon. And it's that God has demonstrated his love towards us, so we draw on that and love one another. Let me summarize where we are so far. The Word of God provides the contents of the Gospel. In other words, it tells you what you need to know about God, about man, about the cross, in order for you to respond.

It provides the contents of the gospel. And it's incorruptible seed. And the Spirit brings it to life. In other words, it's through the Spirit. The Spirit causes this incorruptible seed to germinate, to burst into life, and that this is unto love.

There's an expected result from a soul that's been purified and it's the love of the brethren. Let's go to chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 and start by reading them. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Having laid aside the ways of the natural man, I'm going to verse 1 and I'm going to say that list, If you just lump them all together, you can say that these are the ways of the natural man. These are the things that the natural man is inclined towards.

When you lay that aside, we're exhorted by Peter to grow by the pure milk of the Word. That's a summary of these three verses. In the first section, the very end of chapter 2 that we just talked about, Peter is emphasizing Truth and love. He's saying a person who's born again is characterized by these two great pillars, truth and love. And then here in the beginning of chapter 2, he's talking about truth killers and love killers.

That's what's happening. The end of chapter one, truth and love. Christian, you should be characterized by that. And then in chapter two, He talks about truth killers and love killers. The things which characterize the natural man which must be set aside.

So Peter is telling us something very, very, very important here, which is that sanctification being set aside and molded into this image of Christ is progressive. Did you need to be told that? Probably not. You might have noticed if you've been saved that you didn't look and sound just like Jesus on the day you were saved. And that you might have been in the faith for decades and you still long to see that chasm between you and the perfect image of Jesus Christ close just a little bit more.

Sanctification being pressed into this beautiful mold of the image of Jesus Christ is progressive. You have to grow into it. This is how Peter is starting chapter 2. By listing the things that categorize the natural man, what people are like from birth, and saying, you've got to lay that aside. You can't look like that anymore.

That can't characterize you anymore. Love and truth should characterize you, not the love killers and the truth killers. In the Christian life, there are things that must be fed so that they'll grow and flourish. You don't feed them, they won't grow and they were intended to grow. Love and truth are both like that.

You feed them, they'll grow. And in the Christian life, there are things that must be starved, deprived, so that they'll shrivel up. So let's say you've transferred your trust and you've purified your soul by obeying the truth. That doesn't mean that you looked like Jesus on day one. And that does mean that there are still encumbrances.

There are still the sin and the weight that so easily entangles us, right? Hebrews 12.1. Therefore, lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares, so easily entangles. So you've got this list of things that characterize the natural man, what you were born like, that has to be starved so it will shrivel up. If you keep feeding the old man, it will be alive and well.

Can a saved person feed those old things and have them be alive and well, you betcha. You betcha. So there are things that must be starved so they'll shrivel up and there are things that must be fed So they'll grow and flourish. This is what Peter's talking about in these first three verses. And this is exactly what Paul teaches in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3.

If you go and look at Ephesians 4, and you go look at Colossians 3, you find Paul saying, put off your former conduct. The old man. Put it off and then he'll give you a list. And what is the list? It's the love killers and the truth killers.

Not exactly the same words that Peter's using, but they're all love killers or they're all truth killers. They fit those categories just like what Peter's saying. And then Paul will say what? Put on. They'll give you another list.

The things that ought to be fed so that they'll grow and flourish. Peter's saying the same things. Put off the old conduct. Put off the old man. What is the target?

All. A-L-L. All malice. All deceit. All evil speaking.

So what Peter puts before us is a holy war against the things that characterize the old man, the natural man. A holy war, scorched earth. You know, scorched earth Sherman in the Civil War? He's ready to end this war so it is no prisoners taken. It is burn and kill and pillage so that the South will be so sick of war that they'll give up.

So when he takes a town, he burns it to the ground. And he goes to another town, and he burns it to the ground. And he goes to another town, and he burns it to the ground. And historians call this his scorched earth policy. And it brought the Civil War to an end.

Peter is putting before our eyes scorched earth policy, holy war against the things that characterize the natural man. Is a little malice okay with you? Is a little deceit okay with you? Is a little hypocrisy okay with you? Is a little evil speaking okay with you?

To my shame, I think my answer is yes. If it can be managed so that it's not too disruptive. That requires repentance. Because Peter's not saying a little is okay. Peter is saying all, all, all.

And he is calling for holy war. He is calling for scorched earth. No truce, no quarter given to the enemy. Here are the love killers in his list. Malice, hating others, hating your brother in your heart without a cause, ill will towards your brother, envy, Wanting what God has given someone else that hasn't given you and being mad at them for it.

Envy. Evil speaking. Slander. Speaking against someone. These are love killers.

These characterize the old man. This is former conduct to pull language from Paul in Ephesians 4. This is the former conduct. But it needs to be former conduct, not current conduct. Did you know that Jesus calls these murder?

Hello? Back to Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount. You have heard that it was said to them of old, you shall not murder, but I say anyone who hates his brother in his heart without a cause has committed murder. Anyone who says you fool to his brother has murdered in his heart. They're love killers.

And someone whose heart has been purified ought to be characterized by love. And these are love killers. And they're holdovers from the old man. They're the holdovers from the former conduct. So they're patterns that have to be broken and you're going to have to declare holy war and scorch the earth behind you to be rid of them.

Here are the truth killers in the list. Deceit, lying, deceiving, and hypocrisy, wearing a mask, having two faces. These are truth killers. These are things that were so native to us before we transferred our trust to Christ, repented and believed in the gospel. So native, they didn't just disappear on the day you were saved.

They're patterns that have to be broken. You're going to have to scorch the earth and declare a holy war if you're going to be free of the truth killers. Peter with this list is being particularly rough, I think. Why? Because these are things that can be completely hidden and nurtured in the heart.

Every one of these things. You can find unbelievers who seem to have these things under control. Let me tell you, they don't. They do not. The unbelievers that you know that seem externally to have this list, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking under control, it is raging in their hearts.

They do not have the power to scorch that earth. Only those with purified souls have the power to declare holy war on malice, envy, hypocrisy, evil speaking, which one did I miss? Envy. So these are things that can be nurtured in the heart, but your neighbor never knows it and thinks you're just fine. And so Peter challenges us not just to examine our externals, but to look at the heart because that's what God's looking at.

Man looks at the outward appearance and he's just fine with his neighbor. Man looks at the heart and the neighbor is in big trouble with God Because his heart has not been cleansed by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So Peter says, lay aside all that stuff of the old man and feed yourself the pure milk of the word so that you'll do what? You'll grow. Feed it.

Feed your soul with what? The pure milk of the world. You set aside, you starve, so those five things will shrivel up. You starve them by scorching the earth and declaring a holy war and then you feed, you feed your spirit, you feed your purified soul with the pure milk of the word. Now babies and milk are used in illustrations in two different ways in the Old Testament.

You need to understand that. One way is negative, where you're actually scolded for not having gone further. Hebrews, that happens. Babies and milk is used as opposed to maturity and meat. And the author is saying, you should be beyond that by now.

Peter's not using babies and milk in this way. In the way that Peter's using it, you should never be beyond it. Ever, ever, ever. If you've walked with the Lord for six decades, seven decades, you'll never be beyond this. You should still be like a newborn baby craving, desiring the pure milk of the word.

This is how Peter is using it. Let me give you an example from the Psalms. Psalm 131 verse 2. Psalm 131 verse 2. The psalmist writes this.

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me." So the psalmist is using a weaned child with his mother as an example of someone who has stilled and quieted his soul before God. Why a weaned child with his mother? Because an unweaned child with his mother is a wreck if he's hungry. Right there with his mother, smells milk, not weaned, demanding milk now.

This is what Peter's talking about. Peter's talking about an unween child with his mother who's not still or quiet for a second. You've been around a mother like that, if she's not in position where she can Feed that child right now, what does she have to do? Hand off that baby. Get that baby away from the milk.

Because if the baby's with mom, it smells milk, and it's going to demand to be fed right now. An unweaned child, a hungry, unweaned child with his mother is a wreck. And Peter is calling us to that, to be like a hungry, unweaned child with his mother. The NIV, instead of desire the pure milk of the word, The NIV renders it crave. And when you look at the Greek word, it's a great translation.

ESV and NASB render it long for. I think the NIV in this case really might Have the best rendering. Crave the pure milk of the word. Be like an hungry, unweaned child being held by its mother that is demanding satisfaction. Ha, ha, ha.

There's a natural impulse that must be satisfied. I must have your word Now, God. Don't take this in the wrong way. I'm not saying we have the right to demand things of God. I'm just saying this is the spirit that Peter is commending us to that is restless until it gets that pure milk.

It's Craving it. Listen to the psalmist in Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is probably David, but it never says David. Psalm 119, verse 20. My soul breaks with longing for your judgments at all times.

This is the spirit that Peter is talking about. Or Psalm 119 verse 97, oh how I love your law. Or Psalm 119 verse 103, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. This is the spirit that Peter is calling us to. A spirit that craves the Word of God so that we can grow.

Question. We all say we want to grow. Are we cultivating a craving for the word of God? Do You want to grow? Yes, we all want to grow.

At least we say we do. Well, Peter tells us how to grow. Crave, long for, desire the pure milk of the word. Are you cultivating a craving for the Word of God? More on that in a minute.

In John 17 verse 17, Jesus says, He's praying to his father for his disciples and he says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. This is how sanctification happens. This is how growth happens. This is how God sustains His people and gives them progress in the faith.

Do you want progress in the faith? I want it. This is how. Sanctify that God sanctify your people by your truth, your word is truth. If we want to grow and be sustained and flourish, it will come by the truth of God's word, which endures forever.

Finally, Peter grounds all of this in the graciousness of God, saying, if indeed you have tasted, the Lord is gracious. He is presuming that everyone who is elect and has been purified, who reads these words will have tasted that the Lord is good. He's presuming that his readers have tasted and seen that this really is true about God, that he's gracious, that he's good, that his word really is sweeter than honey, and that God himself can be experienced in his word. Robert Layton. I'm really enjoying the commentary by Robert Layton.

I wasn't even aware of him until we started on 1 Peter. But he was in the middle 1600s in England and Scotland. And he says this, For people who have indeed tasted this goodness, how insipid are the things the world calls sweet. In other words, for those who have tasted of God and know something of the taste of the goodness of God, The things of the world just don't taste very sweet anymore. They're insipid.

They're tasteless. So the things that seemed sweet before, seemed desirable, That we would spend all day and all night chasing after before in our former conduct, when we were the natural man, when we were the old man. Those things we'd give anything for are tasteless now. Now the things of God are sweet. And so what Peter is calling us to is a reasonable service to draw upon last week a little bit.

Okay, four applications. Four applications in two minutes. It can be done. These are commands, God's commands, not my commands. I don't write the mail, I just deliver it.

Isn't that what Vodi Bakum says? I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. So these are not my commands. They're God's command, commands through the inspired Peter. Number one, obey the gospel.

Obey the truth. It'll purify your heart. You'll say, well it has to be through the Spirit. How do I do that? If God has put you in a place where you hear the gospel over and over, if God has put you in a family where you've been given Christian parents, you have many good reasons to hope that the Spirit will work.

Many good reasons. Obey the Gospel. You do what you're able to do. Your heart will be purified. Number two.

Love one another fervently with a pure heart. What kind of love? What kind of love? Fervent love, pure-hearted love. It's a great check for how you're doing.

The love meter. The love meter. How are you doing? Are you struggling to love? Some people are easier to love than others.

Sometimes your pastor is not that easy to love. Sometimes your elders are not that easy to love. How's your love meter? The health of the church depends upon our goodwill toward one another. Why?

Because Jesus died for us. That's why. Because we have a reservoir to draw upon, to love one another. We should be actively, aggressively drawing upon that reservoir that is available to us to love one another. Number three, Lay aside the things of the old man, brothers and sisters, declare a holy war on love killers and truth killers and scorch the earth and don't let a little be okay Because Peter does not say a little is okay.

He says all. Lay aside all malice, all envy, all evil speaking. Number four. Cultivate a craving for the word. It is the incorruptible seed that the spirit breathes life into.

And if anybody's ever been born again, it's because that incorruptible seed was planted and it germinated because of the Spirit of God. And it is the pure milk that sustains Christians and causes them to grow. I'll close with reading Psalm 1 verses 1 through 3. May it be true of us. Psalm 1 verse 1.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper." I trust that if we will do that, if we will meditate on his law day and night, not just to read and move on, but to come with a certain spirit to the word of God, to clear out time, to meet with God by reading his word and come happily come under his authority and give ourselves to the reading of it. That as we meditate on it day and night we'll be cultivating a craving for the pure milk of the word in our hearts. May it be so. Father, I thank you for your word.

I do thank you for the new birth that sinners can be cleansed, hearts can be purified by obeying the truth through the Spirit. And I thank you that we can grow as we apply ourselves to your word, as we soak in it. God, may we be a people soaking in your word so that we be changed and conformed into the image of Christ help us to grow. Oh God in Jesus name. Amen.