For my text today, I want you to turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2, and I'll be reading verses 1 through 3. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Let's pray. Father, as we come to you, we recognize that you have acted graciously on our behalf. Indeed, we have tasted that you are gracious. You have shown us the depth of our sin. You have brought us to repentance. You continue to show us the ways in which we are not conformed to Christ, the ways in which we hide from the implications of your law. By your kind work, you continue to conform us to be fit for your holy presence in heaven. We thank you that you have qualified us for that in Christ and in his death and in his perfect righteousness. And we thank you that you are continuing not only to save us from the condemnation of sin, but remove from us the corruption of sin by your Spirit. We pray that this time today will accomplish that according to your purpose. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. As you know, many people think about sanctification in terms of both mortification and vivification. Mortification is that aspect of the work of the Spirit in which our own wills are energized in order to kill sin. As Dr. Beeke has said earlier, we need to constantly be killing sin, running a sword through it. we're admonished to mortify sin by the Spirit. And so mortification is that activity of our own wills energized by the Spirit in which we see sin and every point at which we see it we seek to kill it, we seek to get rid of it, we learn about our tendencies, we learn about our weaknesses, we learn about situations in which we get, in which we will be tempted to sin. We seek to avoid those and we seek always the presence of God in our lives in those things. We want constantly to be killing sin. Vivification is that activity of our wills energized by the Spirit, in which as we learn the Word of God and learn what godliness is, learn how we are to please Him, we seek to build into our lives that life that is consistent with eternal life. Paul told Timothy, lay hold on eternal life. That is what we do. We see the things that are characteristic of eternal life, we see what it means to live in the presence of God, what it means to stand before a holy God and to praise Him, and we inculcate those ideas. This morning I'm going to be speaking mainly about mortification. though it's impossible to separate these two things entirely. And then this afternoon I'm going to speak about vivification and the idea of the continued pursuit of sanctification by good works. So the text that's before us I think divides itself up very well, and these are generally the ideas that I'm going to try to discuss. First of all, we have wherefore. Wherefore always indicates that there is an accumulation of the argument up to this point, and the writer is beginning to give us some instructions based upon that cumulative argument. So we'll look at that first of all. Then laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envy and all evil speaking, based on what he has already said, he admonishes us to lay aside these five things which are indicative of a broader presence and power of sin that still hangs into our life. And so we're to lay these things aside. And then he says that the way in which this is done is through a great desire, what he calls his newborn babe's desire, the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. This is the point at which we look at the work of the Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God in order to overcome these things he's told us to lay aside. And then he gives us what the motivation is. The power is the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. And the motivation is, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So, wherefore? The book of Peter is a book, 1 Peter is a book in which he is arguing for the actions of the triune God for the salvation of his people. He blends these operations of the Father and the Son and the Spirit in such a way as we realize that this is an action of the one God, that there is absolute and perfect conformity in the eternal covenant of redemption for the salvation of his people but then there are specific things in which each person of the Trinity does that are characteristic and fitting of that particular person. He speaks in the very first part when he says we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He has placed his affection upon certain individuals before the foundation of the world. He has given them to his Son, and the Holy Spirit takes them in particular and makes the word effectual to them, which is the very next phrase that Peter uses when he says, through sanctification of the Spirit. The Spirit sets us aside in this life. He sets us aside by calling us to repentance and faith. He continues to set us aside onto holiness as he operates in our lives. And that by which we come to God as the Spirit operates is what he calls here onto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. disobedience. Peter uses this word obedience for faith because he includes within it not only absolute trust in Christ and his completed work with no trust in our own works, but this trust involves and implies that we will be obedient to the gospel that has called us. We have seen the righteousness of Christ in such a way as we value it, we love it, and we desire for that righteousness to be consistent with our own lives. So we're sanctified by the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. A reference back to the sacrificial system and the cleansing that comes from that. So we see Peter here speaking of the triune God in this one operation with three distinct features of it to call us to salvation. We see also that he emphasizes the work of the Spirit in the Word by talking first of all about the work of the Spirit in the prophets. when he says, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. So the work of the Spirit and the prophets was testifying about these things. It was not a full display, as full as it would be when Christ actually comes, but nevertheless They knew that the Messiah would come, there would be suffering of the Messiah, there would be a glory that would follow, and this was something revealed by the Spirit. And then he says that in verse 25, but the word of the Lord endures forever and this is the word which by the gospel was preached unto you. He has said that earlier in verse 12 when he says they're now reported to you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. So we see a unity of the work of the Spirit in revealing these things to the prophet of working in Christ those things that are consistent with the prophetic word and then revealing to the apostles the gospel so that they preach this gospel thoroughly consistent with the work of the prophets and expanding in our understanding of what this was to be when Christ came and would suffer and would also have glory to follow. And he points specifically to the idea that this is the word, the word of the Lord that endures forever was by the gospel preached to you. Not only do we have this revelatory work of the Spirit in pointing us to Christ and in revealing the gospel to the apostles as they preach it, but we focus on the work of the Spirit as the one who, in a sense, completes the holiness of this entire enterprise of the gospel. Peter introduces us to this, that we are living within the framework of holiness. When we believe the gospel, when we come to Christ, we're coming to one who was perfectly righteous in his humanity out of a principle of holiness that was abiding within him. There was never a point at which he disobeyed his father. There was never a point in which he shrunk from the will of his father. He always loved the will of his father. He loved God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. There was never a point in which he ever doubted the love of God for him, in which he ever faltered in his love for the Father. had a perfect righteousness. This was within the whole framework of holiness. We're called in the framework of a holy gospel. And so, Peter begins to emphasize this as one of the elements of the wherefore laying aside all malice. If you look back at verse 15, but as he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. because it is written be ye holy for I am holy and if you call on the father who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear we have come into a relationship with God and particularly with the Father as the one who judges according to every man's work. He knows everything perfectly. He knows our hearts. He knows our motivations. He knows our thoughts. He knows all about us. He is no respecter of persons. He judges in accordance with His perfect righteousness. And so when we come to the gospel, we must realize that this is not any kind of God's relinquishing His holiness. This is not God backing away from His righteousness. This is something that He has done in accordance with His perfect justice. And even when He judges us, He will judge us in accordance with our being in Christ, a perfect righteousness given to us, and He will judge us according to the operations of the Spirit. Is there a principle of holiness that is operating within us that will be fit for the presence of heaven? Of course in his sovereignty he grants us these things, but this does not in any sense diminish the reality that he judges impartially. And so this sets our entire salvation within the context of this deep sense of holiness, this deep sense of the gravity of what it means that God actually saves sinners. And then we look also and we see that involved in this is the holiness and the righteousness of Christ. We could not be saved without such in one. He says, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world was manifest in these last times for you." And so the Savior, the Father judges according to an absolutely just and righteous standard. The Savior is the one who is our Savior because he was unblemished, he was perfectly righteous, he was perfectly holy. If we have come to salvation, we have come to salvation only in one who is completely pleasing to this God who judges impartially. And then we see also that he sees the work of the Spirit. Not only has the work of the Spirit revealed these things to us in perfect accordance with God's will, perfectly reflecting what God's plan is, both in the prophets and then in the preaching of the apostles. But we see here that he says, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth, again this idea of obedience involving a full trust in Christ because He alone has pleased the Father, but also a desire to follow His commands, to follow His will because we know it is the way of perfect righteousness. you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently and now he basically he says the same thing again in different words in verse 23 being born again this is consistent with you have purified your souls in obeying the truth not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. This is the operation of the Spirit of God, which above he says, through the Spirit. This incorruptible seed is the Spirit of God himself, which emphasizes the perfect holiness of the one who is bringing us to salvation. And what does he use? Well, he uses the word that he himself has inspired, the word that he has revealed by the Word of God. So the Spirit gives us the new birth. He himself is incorruptible. He does this by the Word of God that he has inspired. And this Word of God is such a perfect Word. This little next phrase just struck me within the last week as to how important it is because it sets forth the Word of God as having the characteristics, the attributes of God himself in its enduring and truthful quality. which liveth and abideth forever. This that he has revealed is indeed the Word of God. It is that which has no possibility of alteration. It is that which has no flaw. It is that which is unblemished. It is that which does, like the Father, judge impartially. It is that which has the power to describe for us and can be legitimately used by the Spirit of God to grant us a new life, to change our hearts, to point us toward what it means to be holy before God. And so the Apostle Peter has set up this framework for the admonition that he's going to give. And he has said that we have purified our souls in obeying the truth. This is the action of the human will. It calls for the involvement of our mind, the involvement of our heart and understanding of where it is that we are to seek to move ourselves in our relationship to God, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. It gives us the standard by which we purify our souls. It is the truth, obeying the truth. Through the Spirit, this is the power by which this is done, the content is in the Word, obeying the truth, the power by which it is done is through the Spirit. The result of it is called an unfeigned love of the brethren. a change in heart in which we're changed from hatred and we're changed from vileness and we're changed from all the things that separate brothers we're changed from all of those violations of the second table which is summarized and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind you should love your neighbor as yourself and so we've been born again And the clearest manifestation of it immediately is the love that we have for one another. The desire to fulfill not only the first table, but to see that the first table is evidenced by the way we operate toward the second table. An unfeigned love of the brethren. And then the fifth thing we see here is that this can be increased. This is something that will grow throughout our lives. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. So it involves the will, it involves the truth, it involves the spirit, it involves a change of heart, and it involves the possibility of continued growth. Now on the basis of that, he says, wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, and so forth. So he gives us specific instructions about how we are to operate, what we are to look at. Now, these five things that are listed here are elements that relate to the second table of the Commandments, although it's impossible for it not to imply of the admonitions and the requirements of the first table, but it specifically is talking about that and more so the commandments 9 and 10. It's interesting to me that Peter would focus on those as being things that constitute the most vital or perhaps the most difficult areas of sanctification. Commandments 6, 7, and 8 have to do with murder and adultery and theft. These are things that he mentions later on as those acts of the flesh which wage war against the soul. They certainly are things that need to be laid aside, but we might say that that's sort of like the low-hanging fruit when we're converted. Those are things that are immediately such external actions that we are involved in that we would never desire to take someone's life. We would not want to commit sexual infidelity of any sort. We would not want to steal. But then there may be situations in which the idea of bearing false witness sneaks up on us. We may have gossip. We may tell something about someone. We may not even realize that we are sharing something salacious about a person that would hurt their reputation. And then there's always within us those aspects of covetousness. We covet someone's reputation, we covet someone's goods, we covet someone's gifts. And sometimes we do this without even noticing it. And so Peter is going directly to those internal aspects of our lives that appear to be the most difficult to discern and he describes them here. in very vivid terms. He gives us five different words. He says, first of all, you lay aside all malice. Malice is having a spirit that hopes for the failure of another. We hope for their falling into ill favor with those around them, particularly with those in authority over them. It embraces a spirit of revenge. says as the Proverbs represent this, thus I shall do to him as he has done to me. I will render to the man according to his works. We develop a malicious spirit. We wish ill will towards someone. It can be just a little slight that someone has given us in a conversation and immediately we think about some really hot reply that we can give that will put them in their place. It's amazing how quickly malice can come upon us, how deeply embedded it is in us. So the next word that he used then is deceit. Our interactions with people can be mixed with words, can be mixed with impressions. that are designed to mislead either about our intentions, about how others regard us, about our importance, about what we have done, or they can be things that might misrepresent what other people think about the person to whom we're talking. We have this constant propensity to deceive in our conversations. And sometimes we're even unaware of this. Sometimes the plain unvarnished truth is too embarrassing. Sometimes it's not flattering enough to us. And so we will put a little varnish over what is happening in order to make our acceptance more than perhaps it should be with someone. The third word that he uses is hypocrisy. This is a profession, a profession to believe certain truths without any intention to follow their meaning in our own lives. We feign sincerity in order to condemn another. We find an action like this described in Luke 20, 20. that epitomizes the spirit of hypocrisy. As the Jews were seeking to catch Jesus to do harm to him, it says, so they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might catch him in something he said so as to deliver him up to the authority and the jurisdiction of the governor. Matthew 23, Jesus said about the Pharisees, they preach but do not practice. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. They love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues. He calls them hypocrites six times and describes their superficiality and their officiousness. in calling others to a standard that they themselves personally had no intention of following or of defining service to God in a list of conformity to external man-made rules. And they denominated themselves, the religious ones, the good ones, the righteous ones, as a result of having followed these external rules that had nothing to do with the heart. Jesus called the things that they had omitted the weightier matters. The fourth word he uses is envies. We're warned clearly that we're not to be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them. For their minds devise violence, their lips talk of trouble. We might glance at the apparent worldly success that they have, or the plaudits they receive, but again we are warned by scripture, let not thine heart envy sinners. But be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. We can just as easily be envious of the grace of others. Peter seems to have this in mind when in the fourth chapter he says, verse 10, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth. that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever." We're not to envy the gifts of others. We're to see these as gifts given by God for the good of the body and for the glory of God. If we covet particular usefulness of another, we do not foster contentment with the gifts and opportunities that God gives us. as faithful stewards of those, but we want effectiveness of others as our own. Paul notes this in Galatians 6, when he writes, if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each one will bear his own load. And then the fifth word, as he continues to probe, as he continues to show how deeply and how subtly sin operates within us. He's telling us to put these things aside. This is mortification. This is coming in touch with who we are and seeking to avoid hypocrisies and envies and malice and deceit. And then finally, slander. Evil speaking. We pass on destructive information about others, whether true or false. in order to see them harmed. This can be done with such ease and so quickly that we might not even be aware sometimes of how our indwelling sin has deceived us. We have not put a guard on our lips with sufficient care. Well, having told us things that are indicative of the depth of our opposition to the full understanding and the full righteousness of the law by emphasizing those most internal aspects of the second table. He then talks about the intensity and the earnestness with which we should desire to be rescued from these things. He says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word. A newborn babe, desiring the sincere milk of the word, we have seen how a newborn babe will latch on to the breast of its mother, how eagerly it wants that nourishment. Sometimes, like newborn babes, it's used for immaturity. For example, in perhaps Hebrews 5, you are still babes when you ought to be men. You ought to be teaching others what you have need to be taught. But in this case, Peter is using this image for the kind of intensity with which we should desire to know the Word of God. The kind of commitment that we should have to having our lives conform to this revealed truth that he has already talked about. How the Holy Spirit has revealed these things. How the Holy Spirit uses the Word of Truth. to change us and if we're going to be continually to be sanctified then it is it is this word that we must desire it is to this word that we must give ourselves and he says we desire the sincere milk of the word this is an aspect of the work of sanctification that has to do with the powerful moral impact, the rational and moral impact that the Word of God has on the mind and the spirit, the human spirit, when energized by the Holy Spirit. It is something that is perfectly fit for the work of sanctification. It's one reason that he has emphasized the role of the spirit in Revelation prior to this. In Romans 12, he uses the same word when he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, which is your spiritual worship." And that's the word, logikon, there. It's how the Word operates in the mind, continually set within our mind to have that power of altering our attitudes and altering our actions and coming in touch with our internal lives. This is the reason that meditating on the Word and thinking about the Word and memorizing the Word is so important because Now that is what the Holy Spirit takes. He's already revealed those things. We do not need special revelations now in order to understand how it is we're to conduct ourselves. We do not need special revelations in order to feel and sense the leadership of God and trust the providence of God where we seem to have very little light as to how to step forward. We learn that there are aspects of God's providence and His divine guidance that sometimes we don't have exact clarity. But all of this comes from the Word. And so that's the logikon. It is from the word which we get logic from. There is this rational conforming of the mind to the attributes of God into the purpose of God as we understand more and more of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit who has inspired this Word, has revealed this Word, will illumine our minds, will operate upon this Word to change us, to alter us, to bring us into a more and more full understanding as to how our lives are to be conformed to Christ. And so we yearn for this as newborn babes. We desire this pure, unadulterated milk of the Word. We don't want it mixed with anything else. We want the Word. We don't want the Word to be be clouded by some assumptions we have that are not Word-centered. We don't want the Word somehow to lose its power by our saying, yes, but. We want the Word to be the sincere Milk of the word we want it in all of its strength and all of its power We want to realize what the book of Hebrews said when it said the Word of God is living and active It's sharper than any two-edged sword it pierces to the dividing asunder of bones and marrow of soul and spirit and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart That's what we want the Word to do. We don't want to blunt it in any sense. We don't want to dull the edge of it by other things. We want the sincere milk of the Word, the logikon power of the Word so that it has that operation of discerning the thoughts and the intents of the heart. That's a powerful thing when we can divide between what we call the thoughts of the heart and the intents of the heart. Those rational processes, but then how does it operate to make our will work in a certain way? So this is what he means here. We desire the sincere milk of the Word that by it you may grow. The Word of God is absolutely and perfectly fit for everything that God intends to do in changing us. The Word of God has been revealed by the Spirit of God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, what eye has not seen or ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man. the things that God has prepared for those that love Him, He has revealed to us by His Spirit. In other words, we do not figure this out through empirical operations. What the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard. It's not a knowledge that comes by empiricism. It's not that empiricism does not have any value in gaining knowledge of the world and we examine the world and we're thankful for all of the empirical investigation that has been done and all the progress that has been made in science and all of these things. It's marvelous. We've all benefited from it. Probably most of us are here today alive because of some advance in science that was made 30 or 40 years ago. We're thankful for all of that. But that is not what does surgery on the soul and what has not entered into the heart of man. It's not through pure ratiocination. It is not through a bunch of philosophical or psychological or sociological assumptions that we may have that we can apply in an effective way in order to make us holy. There may be some of those ideas about social interactions that we can observe. There may be truths that we see and we can discern and we can help create more justice within society and more balance within a culture through these, but if we're talking about the sanctification of the heart, if we're talking about being pleasing to God as individuals or being pleasing to God as a church, then we have to have something beyond those kinds of knowledge. Paul has said, those things God has revealed to us by His Spirit, yea, even the depths of God. The Spirit searches all things and reveals them to us. But not only has he revealed these things to us, but he's made sure that we have them in words that are fitting and appropriate. He has inspired them. The truths are revealed, the way in which they should be set forth are inspired. 2 Timothy 3 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And there in 1 Corinthians 2, where Paul talks about comparing spiritual with spiritual. The meaning, I think, is that he takes the spiritual truths that have been revealed and then he puts them in spiritual words. Those words that are fitting, those words that will be consistent throughout the whole corpus of divine revelation because they're inspired in such ways that if we contemplate them, if we read them, if we come to grasp them, then they will have that powerful effect in us. But then he does not only stop there, because it is not a matter of pure intellect by which we understand these things. We must embrace them and desire them. As Peter says here, we must long for the pure milk of the word, and that's where the process of illumination comes in. The Spirit of God illumines our minds. The spiritual man understands these things, Paul said there in 1 Corinthians 2. The spiritual man is not judged of anyone, but he judges all things. Because he is looking at them through the revealed and inspired Word of God. And as his heart is desiring these things, he is conformed to them. He is able to judge his own life. He is able to judge his situations more and more accurately in light of this Word. The Spirit also convicts and calls and regenerates. He convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment through the Word of God. We're called by the Word of God. We're called by the glory and excellence of God that is set forth in Scripture. The new birth is given us in accordance with the Word. He says there in 123, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding Word of God. And this Word is the good news that was preached. to you. And so every aspect of the Spirit's work in giving us truth, making us desire truth, bringing us to faith in Christ, renewing our will, showing us the glory of God, all of these things are a spiritual work perfectly fitting with who He is, but He has, as it were, prepared the way for His own work by giving us a Word that is thoroughly consistent with the holiness and the righteousness that He wants to place within us by His effectual operations. And so if we are going to grow, if we're going to lay aside malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and evil speakings, then we have to desire this Word like newborn babes. We have to see it as the sincere milk of the Word, that it has all the rational and the propositional capacities that the Spirit will use to help us judge every situation and bring us into greater conformity to as well as a desire to be conformed to the Holy Gospel. that we have believed. This is the way we grow, that you may grow thereby. There are some early manuscripts that add the words unto salvation. This would be consistent with the way Peter deals with things. He talks about salvation being future. He talks about salvation being present. Paul says in Philippians 2, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. What he's saying here is that all of these things are consistent with what it means to be saved. All these things are consistent with what God does with us when he saves us. He removes us from this verdict of guilty. He removes us from the certainty of eternal punishment through Christ's blood. He gives the merit of eternal life through Christ's righteousness. And then he removes from us the devastating effects of the sin that has corrupted our heart through the work of the Holy Spirit. All of this is a part of what he does when he saves us. So there we are without condemnation because we're in Christ, we're justified by him. But we're also being saved from the corruption of sin in accordance with all the principles of salvation. Well, my time is flying here. Let me just make the last point. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. We've seen the content in the word, we've seen the power in the Holy Spirit, but here Peter points us to the motivation. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Who has come to Christ in the forgiveness of sin and has not tasted that the Lord is gracious? how how could we be his children if he were not filled with overflowing grace how could we be forgiven of sins unless he had made a way that was consistent both with his justice and his mercy in order to save us truth and mercy have kissed each other in the person and work of the lord jesus christ if we have tasted that then we're surely going to desire that everything that is inconsistent with it will be done away with. The Apostle Paul talked about this in the book of Titus in the third chapter when there he gives a picture as to why we should be patient with all people. My goodness, Christians should be the most patient people in the world when we realize the patience that God has had with us, when we realize how offensive we were to Him. No one can be more offensive to us than we were to God, and yet God was patient with us. Paul argues this. He says we should be gentle, showing meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." Notice how he has these summary words that include both tables of the law. We hate God, we hate man, and all the manifestations of our life found out creative ways in which to demonstrate that. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. And there's the word kindness. If you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, you've tasted that he is kind. Have you tasted that? The kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us. by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Notice these two operations of the Spirit. The washing of regeneration, the cleansing of the soul that comes in regeneration. That operation in which washing is always seen is that purification and that's what he does in regeneration. He continues that then in the renewal of our lives, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. and which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Again notice the Trinitarian operations here. That being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The grace of God. Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious? Have you sensed the calling of Christ to believe the gospel, to see the truth of the word? Has there been that happen when all of a sudden it dawned upon you? you had heard all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God and you knew that was a proposition of scripture all we like sheep have gone astray you knew that was a proposition of scripture but then there was a time when it came home to your soul and when it says all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God you realize yes that is that is true that's who I am no one can ever convince me that that is that is not true you were convinced of that by the spirit of God you sensed it you have tasted the reality of that. Then you have heard that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You see that as a clear proposition. No one can deny that that's a proposition of Scripture and that God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him. That's a proposition of Scripture. You know that. Yeah, that makes sense to me. I know that. But then when you taste it, When you realize that you're hopeless without Christ, when you realize that He is the only one that has the kind of righteousness and has the kind of abiding holiness within Him, even in His humanity, in the incarnation that He emptied Himself to pursue sinners, if you have tasted that, then you know that the Lord is good. if you have sensed what it means to be justified and to have that those texts come upon your mind with some degree of power there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit you see that justification immediately is followed by and goes hand in glove with the sanctifying work of the spirit you stand righteous not in condemnation because God has taken care of all of that your justification does not depend upon the degree of righteousness but because you love righteousness, you're glad the Spirit is operating in you to bring you to greater and greater degrees of righteousness. If you sense that, you have tasted that the Lord is good. And that is a motivation to do exactly what Peter says here. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is powerful. We thank you that it leads us to see Christ in all of his beauty and his holiness. We thank you that the Spirit takes it to bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ and continues to operate in order that we might more and more reflect him. We pray that we would be in league with the Apostle Paul who says, I count not myself to have attained or yet to have been made perfect, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching toward what is ahead. I press on for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Help us, dear Lord, to press on in such a way. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.