The Nature of God

I have some explaining to do. Some of you have looked, and
I’ve already been asked, where is the Gospel of John study? Well, I came back from vacation,
being away for about two weeks, and I had a rather sizable stack
as many of you do when you return from your own vacations, a lot
of different things to attend to, not the least of which is
our fall adult Sunday school study. And so, this by way of
kind of a forecast and announcement and all at one, We are going
to be embarking in the adult Sunday school class on a study
of the Psalms, and so we’re not going to study all 150 of them,
but we’re going to make it through more than just a few. What we
purpose to do, by God’s grace and blessing, is literally course
through a psalm per Sunday as the Lord enables us and we hope
to make it not just an academic thing but a worship inducing
thing the very purpose of the psalms and because of that rather
intensive study in the psalms and in preparing for that I had
to set aside where we are in the gospel of John at least for
a few weeks and we hope to get back there soon. Speaking of
the Psalms, if you would turn to Psalm 104, we’ll let that
be our lead in. It’s one of my favorite Psalms.
We’ll let Psalm 104 be our lead in into our message today and
I Even if you’ve looked at the bulletin, don’t be misled by
the bulletin. The bulletin is incorrect as
well. I’ve landed on a completely different
passage, and we’ll get there in just a moment. Psalm 104,
it’s a rich psalm. I remember preaching this. I
remember Y2K, when the world was going to come apart, the
computers, you know, they weren’t going to talk to each other,
and we weren’t going to have food, and the sun wasn’t going
to shine, and all the rest of the stuff. Well, I preached Psalm
104, and I did it intentionally. I preached part of it in the
last week of 1999, and then I preached, I intentionally broke it off
and preached the second part the following week. And yes,
I had a microphone. Yes, we had the ability to communicate. We had eaten to the full, all
of us, and the world did not come apart in the week between
those messages. The point of all that was that
Psalm 104 is a rich psalm telling us about the nature of God. If you glance down at Psalm 104,
the first few verses, Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God,
you are very great. You are clothed with splendor
and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a cloak. stretching
out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of his upper
chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks upon the wings of the
wind. He makes the wind his messengers,
flaming fire his messengers. This is all about God, and it’s
the God of creation, as you’ll see the psalm unfold. And what it’s really doing is
reminding the reader As the psalmist recounts his own heart, it’s
reminding us of how great God is and that God is not going
to be thwarted by the plans of men or even the feeble intentions
of man in their inventions. Even the computers cannot thwart
God’s plans. And then it goes from the God
of creation to the creation of God. Look at verse five. He established
the earth on its foundations so that it will not totter forever
and ever. You covered it with the deep
as with a garment. The waters were standing above
the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the sound of your
thunder, they hurried away. The mountains rose. The valley
sank down to the place which you established for them. You
set a boundary that they may not pass over so that they will
not return to cover the earth. He’s talking about the waters,
the floods, the separation of the seas from the dry land. This is all God’s doing. It’s
God’s creation. And this is exactly where I broke. As if to say, look, the God of
creation and the creation of God that God has established,
do we really think that God is going to let that fall to pieces? And then the portion of scripture
that really prompts me to use this as a lead into what we want
to talk about this morning. Not only the God of creation
and the creation of God, but God’s sustenance of his creation. Look at verse 10. He sends forth
springs in the valleys. They flow between the mountain.
They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys
quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the
heavens dwell. They lift up their voices among
the waters. He waters the mountains from
his upper chambers. The earth is satisfied with the
fruit of his works. He causes the grass to grow for
the cattle. and vegetation for the labor
of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and
wine which makes man’s heart glad, so that he may make his
face glisten with oil, and food which sustains man’s heart.”
Now I’m going to stop there this morning. It’s a great psalm and
we’ll study it further. But essentially the point there
is food doesn’t come from the grocery store. Food doesn’t come
from some farm. Food doesn’t come from some restaurant. Food ultimately comes, all of
it, from God. God is the one who sustains his
creation. We have this curious idea that
it’s almost an understanding that God set the world in motion
and he employs the wisdom and devices of men to kind of make
it work more efficiently But all the while, behind it all,
and it’s so subtle, the raindrops fall. God waters the earth. God is the one ultimately that
feeds entire creation. God is the one who is sustaining
this incredible creation. And you say, well, how is this
a lead-in? Just this. Are you hungry? I don’t know about you, I do
okay for a long time. I can go without food for a long
time and then all of a sudden I get kind of this queasy feeling
and I realize I didn’t pay attention and I’ve gone too long and I’ve
got to get something to eat quickly. You probably have that sensation
from time to time. Your tummy growls a little bit.
It lets you know, hey, I’m here and you haven’t fed me in a while. The body has a way of telling
us when it’s hungry. It has a way of reminding us
that it’s time to eat. But the bottom line is there
is, there’s an appetite that we don’t all often listen to.
If our stomach growls, if we start to feel queasy, if our
blood sugar starts to drop, we’re going to attend to that. But
there are a lot of times, that there’s another kind of
hunger that manifests itself and all the signs can be there
for the fact that we need to eat and we don’t. We put it off and
we suffer the consequences because of it. Would God’s people turn
to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. What I want to look at this morning
is the Christian’s appetite for God’s eternal word. And that is the subject at hand. And if you would, if you’re in
first Peter two, if you just go back four verses into chapter
one, look at verse 21, 22 rather of chapter one, where Peter says,
he’s not doubting their salvation. Since you have in obedience to
the truth, purified your souls, for a sincere love of the brethren,
fervently love one another from the heart. And he’s admonishing
them to that great calling that we have as Christians to be unified
and at peace and on the same page with one another, pursuing
the same purpose. Since you have purified your
souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one
another from the heart. For you have been born again,
not of a seed which is perishable, but imperishable. He says, look,
this salvation that you enjoy was a work of God. It was a spiritual
work. And it’s never going to die.
If you have placed your faith in Christ, you will grow. You
will continue to grow. You will continue to manifest
God’s grace, working itself out in your heart and life. As long
as you live, because the seed is eternal. You’ve been born
again, not of a seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and
abiding word of God. That was the seed. I love to
hear the testimonies of God’s people because invariably it
is the word of God that first awakened them. And it’s the spirit
of God applying that word that really awakened them from the
sleep of death. It’s the living. and abiding
Word of God. It’s the Word that comes to them,
takes resident within them, and begins to grow and flourish.
Look at verse 24. For all flesh is like grass,
and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers
and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. It’s an eternal Word. It’s God’s
Word. And even though it takes up residence
in this human flesh, it manifests itself eternally. It will grow. It will touch the soul. It will
have an eternal effect on the believer. And then Peter just
shows it up in verse 25 by saying, this is the word that was preached
to you. It was the eternal word of God.
It was the living and abiding word of God. Now, if that’s the
case, If that’s the context, and it
clearly is the context, wouldn’t it make sense that the child
of God is going to hunger and thirst and yearn, desire with
everything in his being, the very word of God, this thing
that saved him, that seed, that eternal seed that is growing
and flourishing in him, wouldn’t we long for more of that word? And the sad truth is, not always,
Some people can ignore that spiritual growling. Some people can ignore
those signs of hunger and famine until it looks like they’re not
even spiritually alive. What I want to look at this morning
is the divinely given nourishment, God-given food in verses one
through three. of chapter 2 where Peter says,
therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy
and envy and all slander like newborn babes long for the pure
milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation
if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. I want to look at the contributing
factors in fostering a desire for God’s Word. Not only why
should we long, but how is it that we could ignore these factors? We can be literally starving
ourselves, spiritually speaking. The first contributing factor
in fostering a desire for God’s Word is a preparation for the
meal. There are times where you’ve
probably been there before. You go out to dinner and first,
you know, they serve you either chips or bread, which is the
restaurant’s way of telling you, look, our food isn’t that great,
so we’re going to fill you up with something cheap so that you think that you’ve
had the greatest meal ever served. And then it comes invariably
Near the end of the meal, the waitress approaches you and asks
you, would you like dessert? Not me, I’m too full. The truth is here, sometimes
we’re too full of all the wrong things to really enjoy what God
would have us. And Peter lists, and it’s an
ugly list. Peter lists. things that literally
will crowd out. They leave no room in the spiritual
stomach for anything that is really, truly beneficial and
nourishing. Peter says, putting aside. And
that putting aside is something that we have to be engaged in. We have to be about what the
Puritans called the mortification of sin. We have to be about searching
it out, looking for it, and when we see the specter of sin, putting
it to death. This isn’t as bloody and violent
a fight as it sounds like. We do it by means of confession.
We do it by means of self-control. We do it by means of restraint,
not putting ourselves in situations that might be tempting, We put
it in play by God’s grace. Putting aside points to the fact
that we all are naturally inclined to fill ourselves. This is the
junk food. We’re all naturally inclined
to gorge ourselves on these things and then leave no room at all. for that was just truly nourishing
to our soul. I love the way one pastor said
it, that he said, our hearts are by nature cages of the unclean
birds. Cages, I love that image. Stuffed
to the full with everything that is absolutely inedible. Look at the list. therefore putting
aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all
slander.” In other words, what Peter says is, you know, if you
want to entertain those, you might as well just leave off
your pursuit of the Word of God. If you’re not willing to deal
with your sin, if you’re not willing to seek out these things
in your life that are likely there, If you’re not willing
to seek them out and destroy them and deal with them insofar
as you are able, you might as well just leave off the idea
of sitting down to a feast of God’s word. You have no room. There’s no room in your stomach. Commenting on those first few
malice guile and hypocrisy and envy. One Puritan writer said
that malice and envy are but two branches growing out of the
same bitter root. Self-love and evil speakings
are the fruit that they bear. Malice is the procuring or wishing
another’s evil. Doesn’t that even sound terrible?
But if you examine your heart, and I don’t know that there’s
anything particularly worse about you than any other person. I
just know the inclination of the human heart. Read the Psalms. The inclination of the human
heart is to wish evil upon our enemy. Malice is the procuring
or wishing another’s evil. Evil is the grumbling at his
good. We hate it when somebody that
has rubbed us the wrong way is blessed or seemingly so. Psalm
73. And both of these vent themselves
by evil speaking. This internal fire within smokes
and flashes out, measuring the actions of those they hate or
envy, aggravating their failings and detracting from their virtues.
In fact, you know, what he says as you look at him, nobody is
as great as you are, right? Nobody is as good. Nobody is
as noble. Nobody is as righteous as us. So we look about and we gnash
our teeth. Malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy. This word putting aside, it’s
a graphic one. It’s like taking off and throwing
aside dirty, filthy garments. It’s something that we have to
do. As Christians, we have to do it if we are going to grow
in grace. If we’re gonna feed ourselves
with the spiritual nourishment of God’s word Something has to
happen first and it has to start with us. This isn’t exclusive
to Peter. Romans 13, the night is almost
gone, the day is near. Let us therefore lay aside the
deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. It’s a favorite
theme of the Apostle Paul. Ephesians 4.22, in reference
to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self. Take
it off and put it away. Colossians 3, 5, consider the
members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil, desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. That’s
what it comes down to, doesn’t it? We love what we love. And we want to do what we want
to do. And if we want to feel malice
towards a particular thing, we begin to justify it. We begin
to make excuses for it. We begin to cultivate and polish
that idol, don’t we? The list that Paul gives us,
or Peter rather, gives us here is essentially a snapshot of
the evil fallen pagan world. Take just a minute and turn to
the book of Romans. Romans chapter one, you know
where we’re headed. Romans chapter one, I want you
to see the list and I want you just to listen to how many of
those same exact vices are in this particular catalog. Verse 28, just as they did not
see fit to acknowledge God any longer, This is what God sees
of the fallen pagan world. God gave them over to a depraved
mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanders, haters
of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful,
and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but
also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Turn also to the book of Titus. If the book of Romans tells us the nature of those who do not know Christ The book
of Titus tells us quite clearly that we used to be among that
same pool. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. Paul’s talking to Pastor Titus
and he tells him, look, you’ve got some work to do. Remind them
to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for
every good deed. to malign no one, to be peaceable,
gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once
were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy,
hateful, hating one another. If the book of Romans tells us
what the natural man is by nature, The book of Titus in chapter
three tells us that’s what we were. And all Peter is saying
here is saying, let’s make sure that that’s who we were. Let’s deal with it. Back to Peter,
if you would. First Peter chapter two. Peter
says, put aside, kill it. All malice and that malice points
to It could be anywhere from the
general vice of hatred or it could even go to treachery. We saw it in Romans 1 29. We
see it again in Paul’s writings in Ephesians 4 31. Let bitterness
and wrath and clamor and slander be put away from you along with
all malice, all hatred of others. I love, I can’t wait to sit down
in heaven over a cup of coffee with John Eady, one of my favorite
commentators, godly man. There will be coffee in heaven,
I’m supposing, hoping. John Eady said this, this verse
contains a melancholy genealogy of bad passions. Isn’t that beautiful? A melancholy genealogy of bad
passions Acerbity, exciting passion, the passion heated into indignation,
indignation throwing itself off in indecent brawling, and that
brawling darkening into libel and abuse, a malicious element
lying all the way at the basis of these enormities. He says
in other words, you know where it starts? It starts in your
heart with malice, and then it just unfolds from there. It’s
the launching point of evil. It’s a cruel habit, evil habit
of mind where we desire the actual harm of another person. We rejoice
in another’s calamity exactly in opposition to what the Proverbs
urge us. We’re not supposed to rejoice
when our brother stumbles. Not only malice, but guile, trickery,
deceit, putting on a front, a false front. It is the sin that threatens
all believers, regardless of our conversion, because we end
up tricking ourselves. We begin to believe the lie.
And then what grows from there, the next in the list is hypocrisy. We trick ourselves and we trick
ourselves long enough to where it grows and it becomes full
blown. It’s a life of hypocrisy. This is Phariseeism. It’s that
hypocrisy that we’re strict in our outward appearances, but
below the veneer, and it’s a thin veneer, we’re ice cold in our
heart. It is what one called spiritual
insincerity and pretense. And you know, it’s an occupational
hazard for us as church attenders, isn’t it? Because it’s easy to
come and dress up for an hour. Or if I go long, an hour and
a half, right? It’s easy. Starts to wear off in an hour
and a half and, you know, we got to get out of there quick
before we say something or do something or before somebody
sees what we’re really like in our heart of hearts. Then envy, the next on the list,
malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy. They think they’re so good, you
know? Even the apostles themselves
weren’t exempt from this particular sin. This is the heart that just
resents other people for their so-called goodness, for the so-called
blessings that they enjoy in their life, for what they appear
to be, because we don’t really know what they are in their heart
of hearts. ultimately issues forth in this
bitterness, these grudges. I mean, when you read Romans 129,
that means something. Somebody’s doing this. Unrighteousness,
wickedness, greed, envy, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit.
That’s the natural inclination of the human heart, and we had
better watch for it. Slander. We tend to think of slander People
want to try to explain it away from time to time, but it’s really
any evil speaking, any kind of harsh speaking about a brother
behind his back. Paul feared this more than anything.
In 2 Corinthians he said, I am afraid. You don’t picture the
Apostle Paul being afraid of anybody or anything, right? I’m
afraid. That perhaps when I come, I may
find you to be not what I wish. That God’s work hadn’t been completed
in them. In fact, it had never even gotten off the ground. That
you may not be what you wish. That perhaps there will be strife,
jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance,
disturbances. That’s a frightening list itself,
isn’t it? And it’s frighteningly familiar. This word kataleo means to speak
evil of, and it’s almost always behind their back, to rail at
someone, to speak evil of them. Here are a few translations.
King James, speak not evil of one another. Another translation says, stop
talking harshly about one another. Do not disparage one another
says, Yet another translation. It’s the utterance of a false
charge, a misrepresentation about somebody else’s character or
habits that really seeks to defame and damage their reputation. Same word used four different
occasions, three of them in this one epistle. It was a problem
to the people that Peter was writing to. In 2.1, 2.12, 3.16, Peter says
that we’ve got to deal with slander. If you don’t have something good,
remember this is Bambi, right? If you don’t have anything good
to say, don’t say nothing at all. What he’s talking about here
is this carelessness, this derogatory, this critical behind-the-back
thing that runs down a brother. A propagation of what the Puritans
called calumny. Not a word that we use much anymore,
but it’s, man, what a graphic word this is. Calumny is the
act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously
calculated to damage another one’s reputation. We can do that
with a mere eyebrow raise. You realize that? Somebody says
something good and positive about somebody, and we just raise an
eyebrow, really? If you knew him like I knew him,
and that’s how it starts, isn’t it? It’s the exaggeration. It’s a distortion of the truth.
It’s passing on something that may or may not be true. Here’s how John Gill, predecessor
of Spurgeon, put it. Speaking evil of one another
is done either by raising false reports, bringing false charges
or by aggravating failings and infirmities or by lessening and
depreciating characters. We just start and we just start
chipping away. Well, that’s the preparation
for the meal we haven’t even eaten yet. Now we’re hungry. By God’s grace, God has exposed
those things to our heart. We begin to repent of them. We
begin, by God’s grace, to confess them and set them aside. Malice,
guile, hypocrisy, envy, slander, and it’s not easy. You’re not
gonna do this in one quiet time. This is gonna be an all-out war
to get rid of these elements. But when you do, you’re gonna
hunger for God’s word. You’ve gotta fill that void.
This is where Peter’s going, look at the passage once again,
therefore putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and
envy and all slander like newborn babes long for the pure milk
of the word. I love that. This is arguably
one of my favorite verses in all of scripture. And it’s such
a beautiful image, right? Especially in this church, you
know, with this sudden boom Baby boom all over again. Kids being
born all over the place. And the image is so graphic,
isn’t it? When you go to bring a bottle
or present a baby to the mother, they just begin to quiver all
over, right? It’s a beautiful image. When
was the last time you yearned for God’s word like that? When
was the last time you couldn’t wait to get away from the TV,
and away from the laptop, and away from the cell phone, and
away from everything, and just be quiet with God’s Word? And make no mistake, He isn’t
likening the quivering baby to somebody enjoying Scripture.
What He’s basically giving there is a command, an exhortation.
He’s not saying, if you note and observe, the average Christian,
when they go to have a quiet time, is much like a small child
yearning for a meal. That’s not what Peter’s saying
at all. He’s telling us, long, desire,
yearn for God’s word, and do it like a newborn baby longs
for its milk. Like newborn babes long for the
pure milk of the word. I’ve seen the other end of life.
And one of the sure signs that life is coming to an end is the
loss of appetite, right? You’ve seen it. And your loved
ones lying on their deathbed, they just begin to reject food.
A water and ice chip, perhaps, But the loss of appetite is a
dangerous sign, isn’t it? How on earth can we practice
some kind of spiritual food abuse to our own bodies by ignoring
the desire, the yearning that we should have for God’s word? God’s word is the object of our
desire and we are to long for it. We are to desire it more
than anything else. It’s an intense yearning. These
are spiritual hunger pangs. This word is often used in Scripture
of a really heartfelt desire to see someone who is dear to
you. It’s a longing. Psalm 42.1, you’ve heard it there,
as the deer pants for the water books. It’s an appetite. Job speaks
of it, Job 23, 12, I’ve departed from the command of his lips,
I’ve treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary
food. When was the last time he had
a quiet time like that? What a beautiful image is presented
before us in this. And it begs the question, do
we desire God’s word like a small child desires It’s milk. Do we really sit with God’s Word
and yearn for God’s Word and desire to hear God’s Word on
any given issue? Is that the first place we turn
or is it just one of many? Do we really desire to know God?
Do we really want to know His standard? Do we really want to
know what God believes on an issue? Do we really want to grow? not only the likeness of the
meal, but look at the passage again because he tells us the
nature of this meal. This isn’t just anything. This
isn’t junk food. It’s not a snack. Putting aside all malice and
all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn
babes long for the pure milk of God’s Word. This is the unadulterated, guileless,
to use the old word, nothing added, no additives here. When I go to the store, I don’t
want to see vitamin D or anything else added. Just give me what
the cow made, right? I don’t want to see additives.
I don’t want to see, you know, preservatives added, color added,
flavor added. I don’t want any of that. And
especially when it comes to God’s Word, I don’t want to know His
opinion, no matter who He is. I want to feast at God’s Word. I don’t want to be bogged down,
do you, by human opinion, by false teaching. I don’t want
powdered formula. I don’t want junk food. I want the real thing, and that’s
what Peter says we come to. We come to the very pure Word
of God. And it is to the child of God,
the very pure milk, the most needful thing for our growth. And don’t get sidetracked here
comparing this verse to the verse in Hebrews. It’s not wrong for
the child of God to long for milk. The correction there in
Hebrews was that they were just content with the basics of Christianity. This teaches us quite the opposite. I love the way one shepherd put
it, he who lives up to a little light, take a little drink, faithful
with that little bit of teaching, will have still more light. A
little knowledge, more knowledge. A little faith, more faith. A
little love, more love. Verily, the main reason why such
men are babes and shrubs in grace is because they do not live up
to their attainments. We haven’t been faithful with
what we read yesterday. When we take in God’s Word, when
we come to God’s Word, there’s nothing wrong with the material.
There’s nothing wrong with the food. It’s what we do with it. God’s Word is the primary means
of grace for the Christian, and to neglect it in any way is just
foolish. Psalm 1910, your words are more
desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also
than honey and the drippings of a honeycomb. Psalm 119, your
word is very pure, therefore your servant loves it. New Testament,
Acts chapter 20. I commend you to God and to the
word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you
the utterance among all those who are sanctified. God’s word
can do it. You know this, but 2 Timothy
3, all scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
It’s pure, it’s worthwhile, it’s productive, it’s legitimate. But I said there were four contributing
factors in this cultivation of a desire for God’s word, not
only the preparation for the meal, getting rid of all that
junk food and slop and sinful behavior and thought, but the
likeness of the meal, that of a Christian longing like a small
child for its basic and necessary food, not only the nature of
the meal that is the very pure word of God, but the purpose. Why eat? That’s what Peter tells
us. I’ll tell you why. like newborn babes, long for
the pure milk of the Word. Why? That by it you may grow
in respect to salvation. If you have tasted the kindness
of the Lord, see, I’ve never met a Christian yet who doesn’t
want to grow. But I’ve met a lot of them that will not lift a
finger to do what it takes to grow. The average Christian will
speak glowingly about some person that they know or some great
preacher or someone who has discipled them or some godly individual
that they know. They will speak in glowing terms
about them, but they will not do what it takes to truly become
like them. What Peter does is commend that
this eating This feasting that we do on God’s Word is for the
very purpose of our spiritual growth. God’s Word is productive. Peter says it, the very purpose
of our desire is that by it, by God’s Word, we would grow,
grow in godliness, grow in Christ-likeness, grow in righteousness. See, that’s
the bottom line. I read several weeks ago about
a child who had been born to a family And it just never grew. It didn’t gain weight. It didn’t
get longer. It had a disease. And it just
never grew. It was heartbreaking to read it. And the bottom line, Christians
are, by God’s design, designed to grow. We come to Christ. We enter into the things of grace. And if you’re like me, in rapid
fire, a lot of things fall by the wayside real quick, right?
The hard work starts years later, when we really need to do the
hard work of examining our heart and dealing with sin. Psalm 119,
thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin
against thee. It’s the knowledge of and avoidance
of sin that becomes the real hard work of Christianity, doesn’t
it? Well, God gives us everything
that we need. He literally wakened us from
the sleep of death. He gives to us the Holy Spirit.
He gives to us like-minded believers that surround us. And then He
gives us His word. which is not just an optional
instruction manual in those few moments that we need it. It is
designed to nourish our souls. This is Charles Bridges, one
of my favorite Puritan writers, who said, because therefore the
want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity
amongst men. And I want you to pause and hear
and understand what he says. The lack, the want of the knowledge
of God is the cause of all iniquity among men. If there’s sin in
your life, if you see sin, if you sense sin, sinful attitudes,
sinful responses, it’s because you don’t really know or you
don’t yet understand God. You need to understand Him better. Because of therefore the want
of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity among men
as contrary wise the ground of all of our happiness. Are you
unhappy? Are you frustrated? Are you angry? Are you beside
yourself? Do you want to call God into
account because of how he is caring for you, if you can even
call it that? and the seed of whatsoever perfect
virtue grows from us. Do you think that you’re going
to become the great and godly Christian on your own by some
discovery of human nature that no one else has ever discovered?
Is a right opinion touching things divine? This kind of knowledge
we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which
God imparts to his people. and our duty of receiving this
at his merciful hands for the first of those religious offices
wherewith we honor him on earth. He says this is the starting
point. The word of God is the starting point. Then he says
this, for the instruction therefore of all sorts of men unto eternal
life, it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God
be openly published to them. Read it. Feast on it. Nourish your souls. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, some of us when we walked in
here this morning would have sworn that we were not hungry. We were not spiritually hungry.
We’re good. But Father, we begin to examine
We begin to realize that there are other things filling our
stomach. Other things crowding out the
spiritual nourishment of God and his word. And father, we
pray that you would grant us the grace to first deal with
those things. And then cultivate in our hearts
an appetite, a longing for the pure word of God. Lord God, we
desire to grow. We know that we grow by your
amazing grace. The Lord, the means of that growth,
the information of that growth is the very pure word of God.
Grant us that desire, desire that puts us on a course of killing
off those sins that stand in the way. And calm our hunger. for the
true and the right. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.