1Peter 2:1-6
If, Then
Our study through this book continues:
\\#1:1\\ Peter Named the people to whom he was writing.
\\#1:2-12\\ Peter Described the people.
\\#1:13-17\\ Peter Challenged the people he was writing.
\\#1:18-19\\ Peter Explained to the people why they should continue.
In chapter two, Peter begins to give commands. Tonight, we will
begin to look at three.
I. These are conditional commands.
A. That means they are not to everyone.
B. The only ones that people was commanding were those who meet
the condition.
1Peter 2:3 IF so be that ye have tasted that the
Lord is gracious.
C. The topic of the phrase is salvation. We know that for two
reasons.
1. \\#1\\ "Wherefore"
a. That ties what Peter is about to say back to what he
has already said.
b. What was Peter just talking about? Salvation
(1) \\#1:19\\ Blood of Jesus
(2) \\#1:21\\ Believing on Jesus
(3) \\#1:23\\ Being born again
2. However, we also see in \\#2:3\\ the thought of tasting
that God is gracious.
a. The idea of "tasting" salvation is not new.
Psalms 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is
good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down
from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he
shall live for ever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
of the world.
b. Those that have tasted are saved.
D. So "IF" you have at least tasted of God, then these commands
are for you.
E. If you have not, they are not.
II. If we believed…
A. We must discard some old.
1Peter 1:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and
all evil speakings,
1. Peter listed, in particular, five sins that we should put
off because we have been born again.
a. I wonder why Peter listed JUST five? Perhaps because
there is not enough room to list all of them.
b. I wonder why Peter chose to list THESE five? Perhaps
because he knew that in these conditions these
people might be tempted to do these five.
c. What sins?
(1) We ought to put off MALICE.
i. The word means evil, trouble, ill-will, a
desire to injure.
ii. Over the years of studying this word, I think
of it as a word to mean a DARK NATURE.
iii. In the heart of the unregenerate a darkness
abides which, a delights in doing harm,
hurt, and evil.
iv. The devil can harness that dark nature and
cause meanness and violence to flow out of
us like water from a geyser.
v. In a time when people are being hurt, it is
easy to want to hurt.
vi. Peter was saying, "Don’t."
(2) We ought to put off GUILE.
i. That is trickery, deceit, deliberately
misleading another.
ii. The notion here is that of a con or
swindler.
iii. It pains me to think that anyone who calls
himself a Christian would be tempted to
swindle or take advantage of others,
especially other Christians and especially
when they are going through such severe
trials.
iv. But the devil is a sly one and human nature
is often very weak when tempted.
(3) We ought to lay aside hypocrisy.
i. Hypocrisy is pretending to be what we are
not.
ii. God is not saying we should not do better
than we are.
iii. I have always tried to put on a better man
than I am.
aa. None of you have ever seen what I am.
You only see what I put on.
bb. I do that not to be a hypocrite but
because that is the man I want to be.
cc. I pray if I wear that man long enough,
I will become him.
iv. Everyone should stretch themselves to be
better than they are.
v. If not, we will never get any better.
vi. The hypocrite is not interested in becoming
better.
aa. His goal is to deceive others into
believing he is better.
bb. That is different and that is wrong.
vii. I image that during these kinds of trials,
some Christians were pretending they were
going to stand for Jesus when they knew in
their hearts, they were not even going to
try. That’s hypocrisy.
viii. Peter doesn’t want us to quit striving to be
a better person. He wants us to quit
pretending we are a better person.
(4) We ought to lay aside all envy.
i. Envy is desiring to have what we do not and
cannot have.
ii. Most of the time when we speak of envy, we
are speaking of wanting material things we
do not have.
iii. I wonder if in this case, the envy being
spoken of was simply for a peaceful, safe
life.
aa. As normal as it would be for a person
to want to have a safe, peaceful life;
if it is not what God has for us, we
are to thank Him and take whatever
life He gives us.
bb. I know that is a lot easier to preach
than it is to live; but that is the
wrong of envy (i.e. wanting what is
not ours to have).
(5) We ought to lay aside all evil speaking.
i. In the context, Peter might be telling the
Christians not to speak evil even of their
enemies.
ii. If so, I plainly say that the calling of God
requires the power of God to live!
2. I don’t believe Peter’s point was that if you are saved,
you will stop these five sins.
a. I believe these five are just Peter’s way to
illustrate that if we are saved, we will discard
sin—all sin.
b. May God help us to do so!
B. We will digest some new.
1. The idea of digesting comes straight out of the text.
1Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk….
2. Like a baby takes in milk and digests it, so the Christian
should take in the Word of God and digest it.
3. I see three thoughts here:
a. We need to be digesting and growing.
(1) Like a baby eats and grows, so the Christian
should eat and grow.
(2) I keep coming back to our theme for the year,
MORE.
(3) How much more can we grow in Christ Jesus?
b. We need to be digesting the Word of God.
(1) The bottle that feeds the Christian is the Bible.
(2) Read it. Study it. Meditate on it. Memorize
it.
c. We need to have the desire to digest.
(1) As babies desire milk, so converts should desire
the Word and all other spiritual attributes.
(2) No one has ever had to wake a baby up to eat. His
personal need and desire will do that for him.
(3) Christians should have spiritual desires which
they have to have them met.
(4) Question - Do you have spiritual desires? Follow
up question-What are they?
i. Do you desire to see souls saved?
ii. Do you desire to know the Word of God?
iii. Do you desire to please God?
iv. Do you desire to lead your family in
righteousness?
v. Do you desire to help others?
vi. Do you desire to see God glorified?
vii. Do you desire to serve God in some capacity?
viii. Do you desire to know and do God’s will for
your life?
ix. Do you desire to demonstrate God to a lost
world?
x. Do you desire to hear God say, "Well done,
thou good and faithful servant?"
4. I fear something is extremely wrong.
a. Some do not desire anything of God. They never have.
b. They hunger for the same worldly things they desired
before salvation.
C. We must dedicate ourselves.
1. Peter started off talking about Jesus.
a. Peter started by saying we have come to a LIVING
STONE.
1Peter 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God, and precious,
(1) What does that mean? Jesus is the LIVING
STONE to which we have come.
(2) That Stone was disallowed by men.
(3) DISALLOWED means REJECTED.
b. But the Stone that was rejected became the chief
Corner Stone.
1Peter 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the
scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner
stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth
on him shall not be confounded.
(1) That is the most important stone in the
structure.
(2) It sets the line upon which all the others will
be aligned.
(3) And those who believe on Him will not be
confounded or confused.
c. All of this makes it clear that Jesus is the Living
Stone.
2. However, Peter was still focusing on us who have believed
on Jesus, those of us who have "tasted that the Lord is
gracious."
a. Peter wanted us to understand what we are.
1Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built
up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ.
(1) We are "lively stones;" that is, we are living
stones.
i. This is the same word that is used to
describe Jesus.
ii. These phrases tell us that we have been
changed to be like Jesus Christ.
iii. He is the LIVING STONE, and we are the
LIVELY STONES.
iv. First we are come to Jesus, then we made
like Jesus.
v. This change is the key test of our
Christianity.
aa. If we believers, we will be
different. We will be like Jesus.
bb. If there has been no change in your
life, there has been no Christ in your
life.
There is much more to be said, but I have to stop some place so this
is where I will. Let us ask God to help make us into a stone that
He can build with!
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