Preaching the Word (Part 2)

Let's take our Bibles tonight and finish up something from this morning.

! And in case you weren't here this morning, shame on you. Now, in case you weren't here this morning, I'm going to finish up something I started this morning.

And we're going to postpone the next bit of Romans until next Sunday night. And then next Sunday morning, we're going to take a little hiatus from our study or my preaching through 1 Peter and focus on the great I Am statements in the Gospel of John.

And there are a number of them. Just how many of them we're going to look at, I'm not sure yet. But we'll do that, kind of give you a rest from 1 Peter. Some people don't need a rest, you know, from consecutive preaching through books.

Some people do. And so I'm just kind of being sensitive. And we'll just take a little break from that a while and focus on something very worthwhile from Scripture. Some incredible truths that we can learn from Jesus' I Am statements in the Gospel of John.

And there are, by the way, a total of 12 of them. There are seven primary statements, usually identified. But there are as many as 12 in the Gospel of John.

And so we'll start looking at that next Sunday morning. But tonight we're going to finish up the subject of preaching. And so look at chapter 1.

And I'm going to begin reading with verse 25. And then we'll go on into chapter 2 again. But the word of the Lord endures forever.

Now this is the word which by the Gospel was preached to you. Therefore, 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.

All right. Now, the subject here really is, of course, the word of God. All right. That is the subject. And it is the word of God that Peter is speaking about here, the power of the word of God, and how we ought to treat the word of God.

But I really believe that we can draw from this text something very significant, something very important for us to learn about preaching, about the preaching of the word of God.

All right. Not just preaching. There is a lot of preaching going on that does not have as its substance the word of God, exposition of the truth of God's word.

There's a lot of preaching like that going on around, preaching on all kinds of different subjects, anywhere from, you know, how to prosper in life, to self-help type of sermons, to principalizing on certain subjects and felt needs.

And in fact, even some subjects that have nothing to do whatsoever with the Bible. But I'm talking about biblical preaching. Biblical preaching is where a man like your pastor stands behind a pulpit or a podium like this tonight and takes the word of God, opens the word of God, and exposes the meaning of the text.

The meaning, not a meaning that I have dreamed up or some meaning that I have stretched the text to say, but the meaning that was intended by the original authors as they were inspired by God.

And that's biblical preaching. And so I'm drawing that application from the text primarily because of the latter part of verse 25 and the first word in chapter 2.

Let me remind you of it again. This is the word. What word? The word of the Lord. This is the word which by the gospel was preached to you, or was we preached the good news to you, literally is what he is saying.

Therefore, therefore, and then he goes on from there. Now, there are many ways, of course, to access the word of God. You can read it for yourself.

And what Peter says here regarding how we ought to react and respond to the word of God can be done and should be done even on an individual basis. It's just upon you reading God's word.

We can also teach it. That is, a Sunday school teacher, a faithful Sunday school teacher, who spent the days prior to that Sunday morning and that crucial time with his or her class and prepares to teach the word of God.

Certainly, what Peter says here applies there as well, and maybe other ways that we can do it. But there is no substitute.

Now, listen to me. There is no substitute for the preaching of God's word. The other things should be done and can be done, and they complement.

But there is no substitute for the public proclamation and exposition of God's word in what we call preaching.

All right? I just want to establish that. And so we're drawing from the text what the preaching of God's word, first of all, represents for us. And that's what we focused on this morning.

And it represents for us something exclusive. That is, Christian preaching is unique from all other forms of public speaking, whether it's religious or secular.

And all the major religions of the world, the non-Christian religions of the world, have their preachers, per se. But there is one huge difference that makes Christian preaching unique.

That is, I preach because God has spoken. Our God has actually spoken. And our God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, moved upon the lives of His appointed writers, and He had what He said written down.

And we have that right here in this book, in our Bibles. And then I preach because I'm commanded to. There's the mandate that has not gone out of style.

And it's not time to take the pulpit out and remove the preaching, or even to minimize it down to a little five or ten minute little talk.

And then the rest of the time we do other things. It's not time to do that. Preaching is not passe. It is still very strong. We still have the mandate issued by the Apostle Paul to young Timothy.

And we can go other places as well in Scripture. But that one stands out significantly where he said, Preach the Word. Preach the Word. And I take that mandate very seriously.

And it is those three things as they come together that makes the preaching of God's Word exclusive, unique. And then I also mentioned that it is transformative.

Now, let's move on to the second thing. The preaching of God's Word, or let's consider what the preaching of God's Word represents for us.

And secondly, what the preaching of God's Word requires of us. I think it was Adrian Rogers some years ago who said that we ought to put a sign above the doorway into the church to enter at your own risk.

Enter at your own risk. And the reasoning behind that was that you're coming in here, expect to hear from God, and expect for Him to require a response.

To do something with the preaching of God's Word. And so let's just consider what Peter says here. Look at verse 1 of chapter 2.

Therefore, Now let me stop right there because it is that portion of the text from which I'm drawing this idea, this significant feature of preaching.

What preaching of God's Word requires of us, and requires two things very clearly. And we might conceptualize it this way.

It requires some refusing and some choosing. Right? It requires some refusing and some choosing.

Or maybe I can put it this way. It requires some despising and some desiring. Don't like that one? How about this one? It requires some putting down and some picking up.

Or how about this one? It requires laying aside and longing for. Now we need to attach some substance to that.

That's just an outline. And so we have to ask the question, refusing what? And choosing what? Well, it's right there in the text. Pretty clear to see, isn't it?

What is it that the preaching of God's Word, if you'll hear it, if you'll listen to it, if you'll receive it, what does the preaching of God's Word require of us?

What does it require us to refuse and to choose? Despise and desire. Well, in the first place, we are to refuse or despise or put down or lay aside, whichever term you want to use.

Sin. All right? There it is. We're to lay that aside. The preaching of God's Word, God's Holy Word. God has spoken.

It is written. The mandate is preach the Word. And that's what I'm doing here tonight and do every Sunday. And other preachers like me are doing all around the world. And the preaching of God's Word requires that you refuse, reject, despise sin in your life.

To lay it aside. To get it out of your life. And he names some of them here. He gets very specific, doesn't he?

He's not general here at all. Now, I'm being very general when I say that the preaching of God's Word requires that you refuse sin. But he's being very specific, and he's being specific for a reason.

And what does he say here? He says we're to lay aside what? Malice. There's the first thing. I explained this, I think, a couple of weeks ago.

We could define it in a number of ways. Just strictly speaking, it's just simply the word for wickedness. Just lay aside all wickedness.

But because of the list that we have here where malice is included, it really is speaking of a sin that takes place within the body, within the church.

He's speaking to believers. And it's a sin primarily of attitude that works itself in the things we say to one another.

It's an ill will that you can have for others. I don't want to get too much into that here. That is, into the meaning of each one of these sins.

The greater point is that whether you're reading God's Word privately on your own and studying God's Word for all it's worth, which every one of us should do, or whether you're sitting under the tutelage of a Sunday school teacher, or whether it's in a sanctuary like this and you're in the pew and you're listening to the proclamation of God's Word, it requires, God's going to require of you to refuse sin in your life.

That's the greater idea here. All right. But he says malice. And then he says deceit. And then he says hypocrisy. And then he mentions the word envy or the sin of envy.

And then finally wraps it up with evil speaking. In a sense, all of these sins fall under kind of a certain category.

And they all involve words. It's rather interesting. They all involve words. Now, certainly, the sin resides in the heart.

And the commitment of this sin comes much deeper than just the mouth and the tongue and the lips and the teeth and all the other parts that we use to communicate.

It goes much deeper. It's down in the heart. Certainly so. But these are all sins that manifest themselves within the body, within that local body, between the brothers and the sisters in Christ, manifest themselves with the things we say.

And the wickedness that we speak toward one another, whether it's malice or ill will speech or deceit, deceptive speech, or whether it's hypocrisy, which is just simply spiritual phoniness.

I tell you, most of us are pretty talented. Well, I shouldn't say this. I don't know if most of us are. But we all have the capacity to speak or to talk a big talk.

And to speak way further than our knowledge, way further than our experience. And if we're not careful, we can fall into that kind of sin, this kind of spiritual phoniness.

It's hypocrisy. It's hypocrisy. And it manifests itself in other ways as well. And envy and all evil speaking kind of wraps it up that way. In fact, you'll find a similar list, almost identical list, in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 8.

I'd have you notice that. In fact, I would start with verse 5 of Colossians chapter 3. We can kind of put all this together. The same kind of same idea, this time coming from the Apostle Paul.

Where Paul says, therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth. He's not talking about your church members, okay? Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. That is, he's talking about your unredeemed life prior to conversion.

But now you yourselves are to put off all these. And then he lists them. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

There it is. All those sins, oddly enough, pertain to the mouth. That's what gets us in trouble, right? Now, again, mouth is just simply the instrument.

It comes from the heart. You know, and it comes up through the mind as we will and make decisions what we're going to speak. And it comes out in the mouth, all right?

And we're to put all that off. And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. There's a whole lot in that text that we don't need to delve into.

But, again, the list is very similar, isn't it? And the focus is somewhat similar. It has to do with the mouth. And that's really how what's in the heart becomes evident.

And Peter is saying here. This word of God. It's powerful. Transformative.

That has you have been born again. By this word through the word of God. And this word of God that endures forever. And this word that I have preached to you and others have preached to you.

Therefore, put all this, these other words aside. You might remember that I pointed out this morning that the word for word.

In verse 25 is the word Ramah. Ramah. And, you know, Ramah and Lagahs, quite honestly, are used synonymously in Scripture.

It's not that, you know, we can make a major separation there. Major difference in meaning. And yet the word Ramah does focus on words.

The words. Words. Now, I, for one, believe that we have right here. The inspired Ramah. The words.

The very words of God. It doesn't just contain his words. It is his word. His words. His word. However you want to speak it. But isn't it interesting that he's talking about the words of God.

And then he mentions putting off. Despising. Putting down. Laying aside. Refusing. Sins that tend to manifest themselves.

In our speech. Our speech. You know, Christians. Can, sadly, be. Some of the ugliest people.

Look. I mean, speak. Such ugly words. Hurtful words. Christians can. Use words that deceive.

Because of some. Ulterior motive. Or some desire for. Maybe self praise. Or self. Promotion.

Christians can. Be. Hypocrites. We can. In our speech. Be phonies. Christians. Can.

Speak. Some of the most. Ugly words. Now, I think. That Peter. Is. Making a point. Here. That. That the preaching.

Of God's word. Requires. Something. It requires. First of all. That we. Refuse. Our.

Own. Words. In a sense. Refuse. That. And. Choose. Something else. Choose. What? God's.

Words. God's. Words. Words. We're to. Choose. Look at it. As.

Newborn. Babes. We're to. Choose. We're to. Desire. And it's. Seriously. Much. Stronger word. Than the word. Choose. Desire. The pure.

Milk. Of the word. That. You may. Grow. Thereby. So. On the one hand. We're to. Refuse. Sinful speech. And rather.

We're to. Choose. God's speech. God's. Words. Spiritual. Words. As a matter of fact.

Do you notice there. The phrase. The pure milk. Of the word. Now. The word. For word. There. Is not.

Ramon. It's not even. Lagos. The word. There. Is. Lagikos. Big deal. What. Is that.

Well. Interestingly enough. It is not. The word. For word. At all. It's the word. For spiritual. In fact. Originally. And it has. Changed.

Its meaning. Somewhat. That is. In its usage. In the old. King's English. It. Was. It meant. Reasonable. Romans.

12. One. Your reasonable. Service. It's the same. Word. Lagikos. Some. Translations. In the. Romans.

Passage. Translated. Spiritual. And. That's. Rightly. Rightly. Done. And so. Really. And some. I think. The ESV. Brings this out. The.

Spiritual. Milk. And so. The. The. The word. Word. Is not even there. And yet. He's talking about the word. All right. Though.

He's not using. The term. That's why. I say. That the point here. Is interesting. And it's almost. A kind of. A play on words. In a sense. That.

That. Peter. Is. Picking. Sins. Of words. That we're. To despise. And reject. And he's saying. Embrace. Crave.

Desire. See. This word. Desire. Is a strong word. I. I really. Prefer. The word. Crave. You know. The word. Crave. Is a strong word. Is it? I mean.

The things. We crave. You know. You understand. What. Crave. Means. Something. I crave. When you have. Craving. It's something. You just got to have. You can almost. Taste it. You just got to have it. You know.

In regard. To something. That you eat. And usually. When I think of. Crave. I think of something. Eat. I don't know. Why that is. But. That's a strong word. And what are we to crave?

The pure. Spiritual milk. And that's the word of God. So.

There. There are the two sides of it. The sinful. Wicked. Words. And we're to.

Despise that. And rather. Crave. And allow to. Saturate our lives. Not just in the context. Of. Our church.

But. In our entire. Life. The context of life. In general. In every context. That is included there. We are to crave. God's. Pure.

Spiritual milk. His. Spiritual words. That should permeate. Our lives. Do you understand. The point here. That's what must. Permeate our lives. And every preacher.

Would hope. That when he is. Preaching God's word. That. That message. Would be conveyed. He. He hopes. That the outcome. Would be. That God's people. Would.

Loose themselves. From. That way. They would. Despise. The sin. As God's word. Is preached. And God's word. Highlights. In life. That. When it's.

Highlighted. And brought to light. By the. Conviction of the Holy Spirit. Especially those sins. That. That. Cause havoc. Within the. Body. And the fellowship. Within the body.

That. When that's. Brought to light. That God's people. Would despise. That. That would be. A great goal. Preaching. That. As we preach.

God's word. And God. Points out. Certain sins. Certain points. Of wickedness. Certain points. Of rebellion. About our lives. That we would reject that.

And that we would rather choose. The pure. Spiritual milk. The pure. Word of God. And that's.

What Peter is saying here. As newborn babes. Like. Infants. Not infants.

A few days old. He's. Using. Two words. Together. That basically. Mean the same. It's like him saying. Infant. Infants. Brand.

New. Just. Out of the womb. Babies. And what. Do they. Crave. Immediately.

Milk. Milk. Milk. They don't have to be taught. I know sometimes. There are difficulties. With that. But usually. Not the baby's.

Difficulty. But. It is born into them. They want one thing. And one thing only. And really. That desire. Continues. For some time. You know.

Babies are very. Self-centered. They just want. What they want. About the only time. In life. That they can get away. With that. And they desire.

That milk. That pure milk. And so. We're to be like that. In regard to the word. Now. He's not talking about. Being newborn babies. In the sense of. Maturity. Or spirituality. That's not his point.

Here. The other place. In scripture. Where that word is used. Or that term is used. To describe people. Who have not grown. In their faith. As they should have. You're not talking about that. It's just simply. An analogy here.

It is highlighting. Just what this desire. What this desire is. And how strong. Desire it is.

And it is. A strong. Craving. For God's word. A hunger. We could use the word hunger. Oh. Really. It's.

Even stronger than that. I think craving. Is the right word. So. Some refusing. And some. Choosing. And. We're to desire.

The pure milk. Of the word. All right. So. What the preaching. Of God's word. Represents for us. Something. Exclusive. Something.

Transformative. And what the preaching. Of God's word. Requires of us. Some refusing. And some choosing.

And then third. And finally. What the preaching. Of God's word. God. Realizes. Realizes. In us. Realizes. In us. Or that is.

What it. Accomplishes. What becomes a reality. In us. As a result. Of.

Our desire. And craving. The pure. Spiritual milk. The pure. Word of God. What does it realize. In us. Well look at verse.

Two. Later part of verse. Two. That. So that. Here's the result. That you may grow.

Thereby. That you may grow. Thereby. May. So number one. What is it. That the preaching. Of God's word. Realizes. In us.

Spiritual maturity. It's pretty simple. Isn't it. There isn't anybody. In this room. That would argue. Against that. That when we get.

Into God's word. On a consistent. Basis. Basis. Approaching God's word. From a heart. That says. Whatever you say. God. I'm going to do it. And submit to it.

This is your word. And I believe it. And I trust you. And I. Open and willing. And ready. For you to speak to me. In my heart. And. And by your grace. I will respond.

To it. And obey it. Anytime you approach. God's word. And. Desire his word. Whether it's. Through the. Medium.

Of the preaching. Of it. Or your own. Personal study. Of it. The result. Will always be. Spiritual maturity. It is.

As they say. Though the. Expressions. Kind of outdated. Now. It is a no brainer. And sometimes.

We Christians. We. Are so foolish. We really are. So foolish. And we. Catch ourselves. Wondering. Why we're so weak. Why at times.

We cannot. Seem to say no. To sin. Why we seem to be. So. Dead at times. And maybe our prayer life. Is. Just kind of pitiful.

Maybe. Just barely hanging on. And. And we wonder. Why we struggle so. And we don't really have to. Look very far. Are.

Every one of us in this room. No. The answer is. We're not feeding on God's word. Not like we. Should. And the ebb and flow.

In our lives. As believers. Where. There are times of. Of spiritual strength. And. And. We are sound in our thinking. And we enjoy our.

Our. Our. Moments with God. Each day. And so much so. That we can't wait. To have that time with God. And. And then there are times. On that ebb and flow.

When we are down here. And. We can't seem to spend. One holy. Minute. In prayer. Without looking at our watch. And thinking it's only been a minute.

And. We're weak. And there are temptations. And we. We seem to just give in. So easily. And all we have to do. Really. Is to stop. And think. How much time.

Am I spending. In God's word. And when I am there. In church. And listening. To that guy. Up there. Behind the pulpit. Lately.

My mind. Has been a million miles. A way. Have you ever come. To the end. Of the service. On a Sunday morning. And. Suddenly.

You come back. To reality. And you're thinking. You know. I didn't hear a word. He said. Now come on. Be honest. You've done that. Haven't you? Just go like this.

And we just. Kind of get away. From God. And. I might add. This note as well. Even though my subject here. My focus. Tonight. Is preaching. Sunday.

Is not the only time. You need to be in God's word. Sunday. Is not the only time. You need to be feeding. On that. Pure. Spiritual milk. Sunday.

Is not the only time. That you ought to be feeding. On. God's word. You know. How ridiculous. Do you go all week. Without eating. Eating food.

And then. Eat on Sunday only. No. You eat every day. Don't you? Well. It's no different. With God's word. So you see. Spiritual maturity.

That's the result. And then one more. And I'll be finished. Spiritual. Reality. All right. We're talking about. What the preaching of God's word.

Realizes. In us. And according to Peter. It realizes. Spiritual maturity. And it will bring that about. You'll engage. In the preaching of God's word.

And also study God's word. On your own. It'll bring about. Spiritual maturity. But also will bring about. A spiritual reality. This is a kind of interesting. Verse three.

If. If indeed. And it's very close. To. Really. The meaning being. Sense. Though it's something.

A little less than that. It's not a questionable thing. Even though the word. If. Is here. In the text. But if indeed. You have. Tasted. That the Lord.

Is gracious. If indeed. You have. What does that mean? I think. Implication.

Of course. The first. Implication. Would be. Are you saved? If indeed. You really are saved. That is. You have actually.

Tasted. The grace of God. And yet. That's really not. Exactly. What he's talking about. Here. See. There is.

An incredible thing. About God's word. For Christian. Whether it's studied. On your own. Or someone's teaching. Or some preacher's preaching. There's an incredible thing.

About God's word. When you really get into it. It causes. You. To remember. How sweet. Jesus. It really is. Because.

You see. As a Christian. You have tasted. That he is good. Haven't you? Haven't you? Maybe.

Some of you. Have to go all the way. Back to your salvation. And you haven't tasted. In very much sense. I don't know. But. You certainly. Can go back. To your salvation.

And you tasted. That the Lord. Is gracious. Didn't you? Hello. Out there. Are you there?

Anybody here still? And yet. For Christians. Listen. You know. It's true. And many.

Many. Junctures. In your spiritual. Journey. You have had. Instances. Where. God. Was so gracious. To reveal.

Himself. To you. In a special way. And you tasted. His graciousness. Tasted. I'm just telling you. That. That the idea. Here. Is. That the word.

Of God. Realizes. That in us. When we get. Into his word. We begin. To recall. How sweet. Jesus is. Jesus.

And that. In itself. Is a motivation. For getting. Into God's word. Studying it. For yourself. You know. I don't know. About you. I bet.

This is true. Of many of you. But I don't. Always eat. Because I'm hungry. Now.

Maybe. At the beginning. I start out. That way. But with certain foods. I continue. Eat. To eat. Not because I'm hungry. But because it tastes. So good. You know.

You know what I'm talking about. I see you smiling. You. You're just. Just like me. And that's a very typical. American. Too. Because we have such.

An abundance. And. And you know. Sherry. She's such a great cook. And. You know. Roast. Beef. And potatoes. One of my favorites.

And I can just smell that. And. Right off. I'm hungry. And so. I begin to eat. And. I'll have that first portion. And my hunger.

Will be. Satisfied. Really. But I take seconds. Because it tastes so good. And that's.

That's really the idea here. I think. That it just reminds us. Of how sweet Jesus is. And the more we read.

And study his word. Study it. Devotionally. Especially. As we just. Kind of. Read it. And let God speak to us. The more we do that.

The more we remember. All those times. God was so gracious to us. And how sweet he is. And now. We. Find out again. Or reminded again.

Of how sweet he is. This is a quote actually. From Psalm. Psalm 34. Verse 8. Where. Where.

David is saying. Taste. Taste. Taste. And see how. Good. The Lord is.

So that's what preaching. Realizes. In us. Preaching of God's word.

Thank you.