Sincere Milk Overcomes Sinful Minds

Sincere Milk Overcomes Sinful Minds
1 Peter 2:1-3
 
Sins to Avoid (1)

1. Peter continues his thought in the second chapter writing, “wherefore.” He is pointing back to the call to holiness, the call to love God and love one another, and the brevity of life.
2. Because we are to be holy, because we are to love, and because life is so short, let us lay aside the sin in our life. Peter names five sins we must put behind us. Yes, we must turn from all sin, but these sins are familiar. These sins are prevalent in the body of Christ. As Christians, we must repent of them. Pastors much preach boldly against them.
3. Five sins we must avoid:
   1. Malice – literally wickedness. All sin is rooted in the heart. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Wicked thoughts in our heads, wicked ponderings in our hearts, and wicked deeds on our hands. The sad truth is that many of our churches have very few Christian distinctives. Our people look, act, and speak just like a lost person. Adultery, fornication, pornography, alcohol, drugs, cheating and much more wickedness has found a home in our church pews. We must lay aside all wickedness.
   2. Guile – literally deceitful or two-facedness. People lie. People in the church lie. Stop it! Repent! Lay it aside and be honest with yourself, with God, and with one another.
   3. Hypocrisies – We all have a certain amount of hypocrisy within us. We want to hide things from public view. We pretend to be something more than we really are. We want to hide our sin and confess our good works, but God’s Word tells us to do the opposite. If our churches are going to do anything for the cause of Christ, we must lay this sin aside. 
   4. Envies – Church people do not get jealous, do they? They can be the worst! Jealous of another’s good works, attention, position, worldly goods, spouses and a host of other things. A little bit of jealousy will eat as doth a canker when it gets started in a believer’s heart.
   5. Evil Speakings – This may be the American Church’s pet sin. Gossip. Slander. Backbiting. A host of evil speaking surrounds the church’s choir room, parking lot, Sunday schools, prayer groups, and so on. We must lay this sin aside. If the world will know us by our love for one another, they will not recognize us unless we lay this sin aside.
4. The verbiage here reminds me of Paul’s admonition to put off the old man.
   1. Ephesians 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
   2. Colossians 3:8-17 (This passage not only duplicates this correction, but it also adds several directives. In addition, Colossians 3 is somewhat of a parallel to many of the topics in 1 Peter 2 and 3.)

 
We must lay aside these sins if we are going to grow in Christ. Again, referencing Paul as he writes, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1b).
 
Sincere Milk to Desire (2-3)

1. A newborn calf must have colostrum, mother’s first milk, in order to survive. They will drink approximately one gallon of it during the first 24 hours and must get a portion of that gallon before the first six hours expires. If they do not receive this “first milk,” they will die.
2. Much like a newborn calf, Christians must be nurtured and discipled with the sincere milk of the Word. If they do not receive this, then they will very likely never make an impact for the cause of Christ.
3. I knew a man who owned a black heifer which gave birth to twins. The heifer accepted one of the calves and abandoned the other. The deserted calf laid in the cold. Alone. Desiring that “first milk.” No strength to cry. Not old enough to know what it needed. Rejected by its own mother. Starving to death in the cold. The man didn’t find the abandoned calf until the next day. He promptly rushed over to the Co-Op to get some colostrum and milk replacer, only to get back home to a dead calf, because it didn’t have the mother’s “first milk.”
4. Many of the people in our churches are the same way. They are starving for the Word of God. Pastors won’t stand on the Word. Pastors fail to preach the true Gospel. Pastors won’t stay faithful to God’s call when they’re in a hard spot. And, when we do decide to give some milk to those newborn babes in Christ, it’s as if they are already dead. How many pastors are preaching to dead congregations because somewhere along the way, the babes were starved to death for the Word of God? Let us not be guilty of that, brothers. Let us feed the flock of God! Let us give them the sincere milk of the Word. Let us preach sin bad, hell hot, and Jesus saves!
5. Simply, if we are going to grow as Christians, if we are going to disciple another believer, if we are going to be like Christ in any way, we must desire and be fed the sincere milk of the Word of God. 
6. Hebrews 5:10-6:2, John 4:31-38 – Moving on to the meat does not mean moving on to deeper topics as we sometimes think. Before we can be blessed my deeper truths, we must first be obedient to the truths God has already given us – milk.

 
The greatest way to stay out of sin is to stay in the Word. Beloved, do you desire the sincere milk of the Word of God? Without it, you will never thrive as a Christian.
 
Announcements for April 30, 2020

1. Drive-in Church Sunday @ 9 AM
2. Feed My Sheep (Thursdays)
3. Tornado Relief
4. Mark 12:31 Challenge
5. VBS, July 26-31 (Tentatively)