"TO ENCOURAGE GROWTH, PETER INSTRUCTS THE SAINTS TO BE AS BABIES IN DESIRING THE MILK OF GOD’S WORD."

Text:
1 Peter 2:2"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

Scripture Reading:
I Peter 1:13-2:10

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Ps 34:3,4
Ps 25:3,4
Ps 19:3,4,5
Ps 119:39,42
Ps 119:4
Hy 46:1,2

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

A number of young people are seated before us this morning because they wish to profess publicly their faith in Jesus Christ. By the looks of them, they’re strong, healthy young people, tested and tried in the tribulations of life, able to take on the chin a fair punch. I’ve chosen as text for this occasion a portion of Scripture that asks us to consider a newborn babe – able to handle only milk, milk…. It strikes us as out of place, as a trifle insulting to these youth….

The passage of Scripture before us is written not to infants but to adults. In fact, the passage is not written to senior teenagers; the passage is written to saints of every age, all the way to the retired folk. Each, no matter how long he’s lived in the Lord’s service, is asked to consider the baby, to consider its longing for milk. As a number of young people profess the faith today, I set before each of us, young and old alike, the instruction of the apostle about the baby demanding a feed.

1 We understand that Peter directs the words of our text to his readers; it is in first instance these readers who are to desire the milk of God’s Word. Who were these readers then? And what were the circumstances in which they found themselves?

According to what the apostle wrote in the opening words of our letter, his readers were

The names refer to the North West corner of present day Turkey. Beyond what is written in our letter, we know nothing about these people. The Bible gives us no record of any missionary having gone there to proclaim the gospel, the Bible does not record either how the church fared in that part of God’s world. We know only –and this is what we learn from Peter’s first letter- that the saints of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were abused and derided on account of their faith; they suffered for the sake of the gospel. And undoubtedly that’s also why Peter wrote his letter to them; though (as far as we know) he had never been to visit them, and didn’t know the believers of (present day) North West Turkey personally, he saw need to encourage the saints in the face of their suffering, saw need to encourage them to keep growing in the Lord despite their current difficulties. This encouragement is the point of the passage we read from chaps 1 & 2.

Of the passage we read together, it is the words of our text that form the punch line; the instruction to "desire the pure milk of the Word" is the point of all that Peter writes in this first section of his letter.

That in turn makes it clear, brothers and sisters, that the command of our text is not given to unbelievers; it is rather distinctly believers, saints, who are told to "desire the pure milk of the word." I draw your attention to 1:18, where Peter writes that his addressees were redeemed from the "aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers", were redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ"; they were Christians, believers. I refer also to vs 22; says Peter of his readers:

and he adds in vs 23 that these readers have been "born again". There can be no doubt about it: Peter addresses Christians, believers like you and me. It is to believers, like ourselves, like these young people before us today that the command of our text is given; believers, people like ourselves and these young people, are to "desire the pure milk of the word."

Truth be said, we find that command rather striking. We recall that elsewhere in Scripture (Heb 5:12f; I Cor 3:1ff) some Christians receive a reprimand because they "need milk and not solid food" (Heb 5:12). And does the Scripture not say that "everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe...." (vs 13)? No, we’re hardly comfortable with the thought that we –you and I- are to "desire the pure milk of the word."

But we are then to note, beloved, that Peter does not tell his readers that they must be and remain babies, and so live on a spiritual diet of milk only; the point of the apostle is rather the concept of desiring. Listen to the text: "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word." Peter does not say that his readers –Christians as they have been for many years- does not say that his readers are to be babies in the faith and so drink milk; Peter rather says that his readers need to adopt for themselves the desire that characterises newborns: "as newborn babes, desire...."

I’m sure we’re all familiar with urge babies have to drink, to drink specifically milk. Let a baby lie a while past its feeding time, and the whole neighbourhood knows of its desire for a feed, for milk. That’s the point of comparison which the apostle drives home to his readers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia: these Christians, redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ" are to develop within themselves that yearning characteristic of babies. No, not that these believers are to yearn for the milk of the bottle or their mother; Peter would have them rather long for the "milk of the word". And the point here is that the Word of God is to the believer what milk is to the baby; as milk is the source of life and growth for the child, so the Word of God is the source of life and growth for the Christian.

In that context it’s important to realise what Peter says about the Word. In the last verses of chap 1, the apostle had quoted Old Testament Scripture to demonstrate that the Word of God "endures forever". People die, grass withers, the flower falls off: everything on earth is temporary, is here today and gone tomorrow. But not so the Word of God, says Peter. It has abiding value, has an everlasting quality. Indeed, the Word itself lasts forever, Yes, and therefore that Word also has in itself the power to give the hearer life eternal, for the Word is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s that characteristic of the Word as the eternal source of everlasting life that prompts Peter to instruct his readers to yearn for this Word, to yearn for it as a baby yearns for milk. Add to this quality of the Word the thought that the milk of the word is pure, that there’s no poison, no cause of sickness in it, and it becomes readily apparent why the believers Peter addresses are to yearn for that Word.

And again we say: if one has come to faith in Jesus Christ, one no longer needs to yearn for that word. One has faith already, and isn’t that good enough? But Peter is insistent: believers, those already redeemed by the blood of Christ, yes, those who have been to catechism classes for so many years and followed the pre-confession course, indeed, those who have gone to church for who knows how many years, who have grown to manhood in Christ, precisely they must yet yearn for the Word of God as a baby cries out for life-sustaining milk. It’s to be fixed in our minds, beloved: Peter would have us to have the same hunger for the Word of God as a baby has for a feed. Yes, the apostle would have us to cry out for that Word, to let (if I may say it this way) to let the whole neighbourhood know that we’re hungry, that we want a feed on the pure milk of the gospel.

That being the instruction of the apostle, we can now look into our own hearts and lives. You, my young brothers and sisters, have heard the gospel over the span of many years, first from your parents, then in church, in school, in catechism classes. You have heard of the love of God in Jesus Christ for people dead in sin (you!), you have heard of how the Lord reached out to rescue miserable wretches (you!) from eternal damnation, have heard too of how this God of grace cares daily for the children He adopted in Christ (again, that’s you!) so that you receive day by day all He knows you need to serve Him. That gospel –so rich that it’s certain to move the regenerated to a life of deep gratitude for such deliverance- that gospel has been laid out for you countless times, has been impressed upon you in all its glory, and the result is that you want to profess the faith. Now the question is: now that you profess the faith, do you in fact hunger for that gospel? Do you long for a feed of that gospel as a baby does for milk? Peter says that such an appetite is something His readers are to cultivate. That’s the instruction of our text: "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word."

And cultivating this appetite is not, says Peter, something bizarre or impossible. In fact, in vs 3 he implies that all who "have tasted that the Lord is gracious" definitely will yearn for that Word. They’ve tasted the riches of God’s gospel, and once one has the taste of it…, one wants more…, and more. You, my young brothers and sisters, have "tasted that the Lord is gracious"; why else do you wish to profess the faith. Very well, now the command of the Lord is plain for you: see to it that you crave more and more to hear that gospel. Desire that word so much that the whole neighbourhood comes to know that you want a feed. Such an appetite is what Peter instructs his readers to have; yes, such an appetite is what Peter commands you to develop too.

Please, my young brothers and sisters, do not say that such an appetite will come automatically for the one who has tasted the Lord’s mercy. If it would come automatically, the apostle would have no need to give the instruction of our text. The heart of man, even those renewed by the Holy Spirit (cf vss 22f), remains so depraved that effort is required to make sure that one hungers for God’s Word. A baby’s yearning for a feed comes naturally; the healthy infant does not have to develop such a yearning. But we’re not healthy; we’re damaged by sin, and so need to make it our business to "desire the pure milk of the word."

And let no one say, beloved, that the instruction of our text is directed only to the young people who today make profession of the faith. At one time or another many others of us also stood before the Lord and His church to profess the faith, and we said that we loved the Lord and His gospel of redemption. So the instruction is real for all of us: see to it that you hunger for the word. And since that’s the instruction of the apostle, the question is place too: Do you in truth long for a feed on the gospel with the yearning a baby has for milk? You have made profession of faith so many years ago; have you in the meantime developed more and more a yearning for the word? Does your neighbourhood know that you long for God’s word as a baby craves for a feed??

2 We move on to our second point. Given Peter’s insistence that believers –we ourselves- are to yearn for the Word of God as babies for milk, we want to know why Peter is so insistent on this hungering. What prompts the apostle to tell his readers to cry out for the Word as a baby for milk?

As it turns out, brothers and sisters, Peter had a distinct reason why he came to his readers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia with this instruction to desire the Word of God so earnestly. According to vs 1 of our chapter, there was amongst Peter’s readers a measure of malice, of guile, of hypocrisy, of envy, of evil speaking. Peter tells his readers to "lay aside" this malice, guile, hypocrisy and evil speaking, and in that context he voices this instruction about desiring the Word of God. We, then, need to consider what connection there might be between getting rid of this malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking on the one hand and desiring the Word of God on the other.

The thing is, beloved, that the saints to whom Peter writes had come to faith numerous years ago, and with their conversion had also broken with their former manner of life; that’s what we read in 1:14. They had been changed, renewed by the Holy Spirit, converted, and so they had broken with their "former lusts", had broken with that life-style of old, that life-style in which pursuing the pleasures of this life had been the end-all and be-all of existence. That was now past, and these believers had –vs 22- "purified [their] souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren." Here was a unity among the saints as is not found in the unbelieving world; here was love for one another, here was that fruit of faith, that work of the Holy Spirit known as brotherly love (cf Gal 5).

But Peter, beloved, knew enough about the heart of the Christian to realise that no Christian in this life ever reaches the goal of perfection; even the holiest has only a small beginning of the obedience God requires. Peter never went to visit the churches to whom he wrote this letter, but he yet knew that in the midst of these churches there was "malice", there was "guile", there was "hypocrisy", there was "envy", there was "evil speaking". How he knew it? Peter knew that in this life brotherly love is never perfect, knew that in this life the saints never reach the goal of perfection, and that’s why Peter could be so sure that amongst his readers there was need to lay aside "all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking." The saints Peter addressed, though, were not unique; as they were imperfect and so given to malice and guile and evil speaking, so also are the saints everywhere. And that fact, brothers and sisters, means nothing else than that the evils of malice, guile, hypocrisy, evil speaking which beset the churches of Peter’s day surely beset the churches of our day too. Indeed, were it not so, the Holy Spirit would not have included this letter in the Bible. Yes, in Kelmscott too, these evils are a reality; a bit of self-examination in the light of the terms used will confirm the point.

"Malice": here is a reference to "ill-will", to "the force that destroys fellowship". Elsewhere in the Scripture the term is joined with grumbling, bitterness, envy (cf I Cor 5:8; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8; Tit 3:3; Jam 1:21). The term captures an inner attitude of the heart that leads in turn to destructive words and damaging deeds. And who will maintain that there is in our midst no such ill will amongst brothers and sisters??

The word "guile" indicates "speaking or acting with ulterior (usually base) motives, that is, anything less than speaking the full and honest truth from the heart." The term "guile" portrays how Jesus’ opponents treated Him (Mk 14:1; Mt 26:4), how Paul was treated by his enemies (Acts 13:10). Scripture depicts this attitude as stemming from twisted hearts, and so in no way may such an attitude exist in the church of Jesus Christ.

The word "hypocrisy" describes "any type of pretence or deception before God or man", describes any inconsistency between what one believes on the one hand and does on the other. It describes a word or an action, then, that doesn’t match up to the standard of truthfulness and honesty demanded by the gospel. And who, in truth, will maintain that there’s full harmony between what we believe on the one hand and what we do on the other??

So too envy. "Envy" is an attitude of the heart that lies behind much deceit and hypocrisy. One finds the word in the Bible to describe the nature of the unconverted person (cf Rom 1:29; Gal 5:21; etc). It’s associated with community strife and party spirit.

The last term, "evil speaking", is exactly that; it denotes speaking evil of a person. Whether one speaks evil of another in the context of "sharing a problem" or in the context of expressing a "concern" makes no difference; the Scripture considers "evil speaking" as a work of sin (cf II Cor 12:20; Jam 4:11).

Take it all together, we shall be humble enough to know ourselves addressed; in our midst is too much of malice, of guile, of hypocrisy, of envy and of evil speaking. Peter insists that those redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ think and speak and act only in terms of honest truth and love; any thing else, any malice, ill-will amongst the saints, any guile, any hypocrisy, any envy amongst the saints, any evil talk is simply inconsistent with the redemption Christ has obtained and the renewal the Spirit has worked. As Scripture says elsewhere: such conduct, such talk, such thoughts are of the devil.

The saints to whom Peter wrote had cut their ties with "the former lusts", they had been renewed by the Spirit "in sincere love of the brethren". Yet Peter knew that these saints had not yet reached the goal of perfection; in their midst were invariably those "community-destroying vices" characteristic of every church in this broken world, and so they had to get rid of these evils. For our part, we too have these "community-destroying vices" in our midst; one need only think of the way we discuss contentious issues with each other, how we speak with those with whom we disagree, and how we entrench ourselves in our own positions too….

And how is it now that we shall get rid of ill-will, of deceit, of not being straight-forward in our talk, of thinking evil of another? How it is? That’s the point of the text: the instruction to hunger for the Word of God as a baby for milk finds its place in this context, finds its place in this context because it is by craving for that Word that one is able to lay aside these evils. See there the reason, beloved, why Peter tells his readers to yearn for the word as a baby yearns for milk; Peter wants his readers to drink in the Word so that more and more they lay aside all malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and evil speaking. It’s through receiving that word, drinking it in, that one grows in the Lord, and that growth shows up by the attitude one has toward others, even those with whom you disagree. Milk is good, and as a result of milk the baby invariably grows. So too, says Peter, is the Word good, and as a result of that Word, of drinking it in, one invariably grows, grows in brotherly love, grows in the works of the Spirit. And with that growth whatever acrimony and distrust there is in our midst shall melt away.

3 That such growth is indeed what happens from yearning for the milk of the Word –and so drinking it in lustily- is pointed up by what the apostle further writes. That’s our third point: what happens when the Word is desired so hungrily.

It’s in vs 4, beloved, that we receive indication of what happens:

How it is that Peter’s readers can be built as a spiritual house? How it is that they come time and again to that living stone so precious to God? One way only: by yearning for the Word. That’s the effect of developing for the Word the longing babies have for milk; the effect is that one is built up as a spiritual house. That is: as a result of hungering for that Word, as a result of drinking it in, one grows, one changes, so that the Lord God is pleased to see you as a living stone that can be added to the building God is constructing, that catholic church of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. Without that yearning for the Word, and the growth that results from feeding on that Word – without that yearning for the Word, one cannot be recognised by God as a living stone and so be an active building block in Christ’s church. Then one can go to church for years and listen to so much preaching, and one can read the Bible at home so very regularly also, but without that yearning, that appetite for the Bible as the baby has for milk, one does not grow – for then the words go in one ear and out the other.

Certainly, it’s true that it is God who chooses a people for Himself, and those whom He has chosen shall receive the gift of life – that’s beyond a doubt (cf 1:2). But the Lord has given us a responsibility, the responsibility to grow in Him, to yearn for the Word, to drink in the preaching, to swallow eagerly what we read from the Bible at home. That’s the responsibility we have: hunger for the Word, long to hear it, cry out for it, desire it, for it’s by means of the Word that the Lord works and strengthens faith so that we may be built into the spiritual house of God, the catholic church.

So, my young brothers and sisters, see to it day by day that you yearn for the pure milk of the word. It simply is not true that your half dozen years at Catechism classes have given you the maturity and the knowledge you need to live committed to God alone from here on in. You too remain imperfect, affected still by the fall into sin, and therefore vulnerable to attitudes and actions of malice, of deceit, of hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking; Satan would love for you to give such vices a place in your lives. Because you know your abiding weaknesses, and because you delight in the redemption the Lord has granted, see to it that you maintain a lusty appetite for the pure milk of God’s Word – so that you grow the more in your God and Saviour.

And again, beloved, this instruction does not come to these young people alone. Though you may have been in church for years and years, and know the Bible inside out, you have not been perfected, are still affected by the fall into sin, and therefore vulnerable to attitudes and actions of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and evil speaking; it doesn’t take too much effort to see such vices in our hearts and lives. So, my beloved, see to it that you have every day again that lusty appetite characterising the baby; let your neighbourhood know how much you long for the word of your God!

And be assured –for God doesn’t change- that then you’ll grow. That’s the nature of God’s word: it is a solid feed, and the growth can’t fail. As the apostle writes: "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." Growth: yes, that’s the promise. Amen.