Time New Life Conference

Well, I have an interesting topic, as you might have guessed, time. When was the last time you heard a sermon on time? I don't know. I'm not sure. Do they do sermons on time? Maybe time management. If you go to a cemetery, you might have a class on time. Okay. Excuse me here. All right. Okay. We're going to talk about time in the Christian life.

And actually, you know, Miles Stanford in his writings has a section on time. And he kind of took a different tack than I'm going to take. He kind of looked through scripture and said, you know, you look at all the patriarchs, you know, and they didn't develop overnight. You know, God took time like with Moses, right? You know, he was 40 years here, 40 years in the desert, and 40 years there. and Paul's life wasn't instantaneous. So I'm going to take a different, maybe a slightly different tact, but I think it, hopefully it's going to be good here. So let's take a look at this. Let's think about this.

How does God view time? So I went to a very familiar verse, Psalm 20 verse 9, Psalm 90 verse 2 says, before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So God is from eternity, right? He's an eternal being. He knows everything from eternity past to eternity future.

But He did create time for man. He gave man time on this earth to live a life. So, but then we come to the question, why is God so slow? From man's perspective, He seems to be not in a hurry. He seems to be slow because he seems like, from our perspective, from man's perspective, he wants things to happen. You know, things gotta happen, you gotta get going with your life, you gotta be busy. You know, you don't... If a person isn't aware of time, usually they don't do too well in this life, right? They just don't. They're not responsible people.

So let's think about this. but God is not slow and this is a beautiful verse in 2nd Peter 3 9 it says the Lord is not slow about his promises as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance so God is patient he is patient with man he created man at time continuum but he's patient And he's desiring that all men come to know him as their savior. But God has ordered in his universe, we see birth, life, and death. All living creatures have that characteristic, right? Something has a birth, they have a life, and it dies. So all creation follows that scheme.

So we shouldn't be surprised that in our Christian life, that it shouldn't be any different. Time is going to be involved. So the question is, how should we view time? Should we be anxious about time? Should we be patient like God? Certainly we should be. So let's look at this particular approach. Let's think about this for a second. So actually, in preparing for this, I came across a quote by Charles Coates.

And he says, we cannot be spiritually mature believers all at once. We must be content to begin as babies. So that got me thinking. I said, begin as babies? What is he talking about? So I started looking, and I found, oh, there's this neat verse that talks about how we're babies at the beginning of our Christian life. We're like babies. So we're going to talk about that today. And we're going to see it's true of all believers, regardless of how long they've known the Lord Jesus. He desires that we have a baby-like characteristic. In fact, it's actually a very specific baby-like characteristic. It's a nursing baby. It's just not babies in general. It's a nursing baby. A very hungry baby is kind of the idea.

So we're going to see that in 1 Peter 2.2. We'll look at that in just a second here. We'll read that. But it's going to come down for this desire or this longing within a believer for what's called the pure milk of God's Word in that passage. For the pure milk of God's Word.

And we're going to see that that is not something that happens instantaneously, just like a baby starts out very, very hungry, right? And the analogy somewhat breaks down over time because the baby moves on and eventually they don't have, they go beyond milk. But this desire seems to be, the desire that Laura's looking for seems to be, and my mic keeps sliding, I apologize for touching my ear, but it keeps sliding the wrong way. I have small ears I guess or something, I don't know what the deal is here. where this desire for milk is to continue into adulthood for a maturing believer.

But that analogy is still there with desiring the pure milk of God's word. And there's a wonderful verse that talks about the connection with knowing God. It says in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death so his we are to know him and know who he is and what he's done on behalf of us so now before I start into the message here I wanna read if you have your Bibles or have your the handout has part of it too I wanna go back and read a little bit in 1st Peter chapter 1 then on into chapter 2 so in 1st Peter 22 it says since you have an obedience to the truth Purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren fervently love one another from the heart and Here's kind of the key idea in this section for you have been born again Not of a seed which is perishable, but imperishable that is through the living and enduring word of God this in chapter 2 begins it says therefore Actually, there's a section I skipped over. Therefore, putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, all slander, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if, or probably better sensed, you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. So we're going to see these verses that talk about longing for this pure milk of the word are going to be critical to our understanding here.

So let's kind of get into it here. I'm going to kind of go through section by section of verse 2 here. We're going to go back to verse 1, then to verse 3. So we start out with this picture.

It says like newborn babies. So parents, think back to when you had children. Children, you're not old enough yet, but when you have children, babies are, boy, it's a life-changing, I think for as newlyweds, it's the most radical change. Marriage is pretty radical, but children are more radical in my mind. It just totally, because your view is off yourself and onto the child.

And that's a very good thing. A very, very good thing. Anyway, like newborn babe. So this is newborn, recently born. It's a child or an infant, or the picture really is that baby's word is actually literally a nursing baby, a feeding baby. Not a quiet baby, like you'd like to have them, but a baby that wants to feed and is feeding. That's what it's about, like newborn babies. And so this is a simile. So it's actually a comparison, so the emphasis is on a comparison between newborn nursing babies and the believer.

So he's going to say, look at my creation, look at these wonderful children you've gotten, it's a beautiful gift. Look at how they have this desire. If I remember, about every four hours, I think I'm summing that, that's about the frequency that a newborn baby likes to feed. Because their tummies last, they get full, four hours later, they're ready. And you know, for moms here, I might be a little bit off, but in that area. So that means for moms and dads, not a whole lot of sleep. That's the bottom line. Anyways, I'm telling you, that's old news, right?

Okay, so the main point of comparison is this desire for milk. And we know babies have a nonstop desire for milk. They're hungry and it doesn't stop. It continues and continues and continues until they grow older. and it continues in beyond that. So the picture is for believers, it's this nourishment, so it makes this simile or comparison with the nourishment of God's Word to this nursing baby.

But we're going to see that, we're going to see back in verse 1, which we'll cover in a little bit, but there's a hindrance to this desire for this pure milk of the Word. So let's look firstly at this longing for the pure milk of the Word. So I like to kind of do what Mike does, but I do it a little bit different form. Let's kind of look at the main. So what's the main part? If you look at this, if you have your Bible or have your phone or whatever, you'll notice that verse two is kind of has a key subject, verb, direct object.

So it says, and this is the plan for every believer. It says, you, use implied, you long for or desire, that's the main verb, and the direct object, the complete direct object is the pure milk of the word. So that's the key part of those three verses, you long for a desire, the pure milk of the word. So it says, and it's you, it's you all, if you're from the South, y'all, y'all, all of you, all believers, and not just new believers, are to have this longing, this desire. And this longing for is the idea. It's a command to have this longing for. And the idea, it speaks of an intense yearning for the believer for this pure, and it's literally pure spiritual milk. That's the literal interpretation, word for word from the original. Pure spiritual milk is the idea.

And it's used here in that longing for, or it's used in Philippians 1.8, For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affections of Christ. So let's do a little more deep dive into that. The pure milk of the word. So we saw that literally it's a pure spiritual milk. And milk is gala.

But if you look at the sentence, it's modified by two adjectives. So the first adjective is a pure. It's unadulterated, unmixed, nothing has been added. So this longing, just like the baby is, most babies should be pretty particular. I don't know, I haven't really done any testing, but it's a pure, unadulterated milk of God's word, if you will.

So spiritual is this word. It's a form of Logos. The idea of spiritual milk is literally, it's logical milk. Think about it. It's from God, so it's not going to be illogical. It has to be logical. It refers to the spiritual nourishment found in God's Word, this logical milk or spiritual milk. And it means, this word, which is a form of Logos, means reason. It's often used to describe God's intelligent expression in human words or human speech. And then lastly, this nourishment is to be understood as of a spiritual nature, developing spiritual growth.

So if you notice back in chapter one of 1 Peter, he talks about how we're born again by God's word. Well, now he's telling us that we're fed. We're fed by God's word, and there's to be this longing and desire if we were created by God's word and we are fed by God's word, we need to maintain that feeding, and it needs to be something that is ongoing in our Christian life.

Okay, so now I want to back up just a little bit to the verse 1. So Peter says there is a obstacle, if you will, from the flesh, from our fleshly, our fallen nature, as Myles was talking about with the two hats. We still have that fallen nature. There's an obstacle to that, and he talks about that in verse 1.

First Peter 2.1, therefore putting aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.

So how does it connect? And it's pretty straightforward with the main part here. You long for the desire of the pure milk of the word. It basically modifies the verb. So it says, in essence, what's interesting is the way it's constructed is this putting aside It's an event.

It's something that we're to do. We're to put aside that. Put aside those things. And we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Before we can truly long for the Word, we need to put these things aside. These things get in the way. They hinder. And Macaulay says sin must be handled before the Word will be desired. And so basically, first you put aside, and then secondly, the longing for God's Word can happen, can come into play. He doesn't say it won't happen if you don't put these aside. It seems like that's a hindrance to your longing or desire. Your desire may be less.

So putting aside is actually, in the verb tense, it's for your benefit, to put off from oneself for your own benefit. And there's a kind of parallel verse in James. It says, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness and humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save your soul." So we see that this is God's plan, that we desire his word, but just like we see in all the Christian life, all the Christian life is impacted by the fact that we still have this fallen fleshly nature from from Adam is still there but God never leaves us alone never leaves us without a plan so he has a plan and a purpose for us to long for this word and he tells us to put aside these things that may hinder us so I'm going to spend just a little bit of time going through the list I don't think the whole point is to examine these just to to put them on the refrigerator. We have a common saying in Holly Hills, you put things you should be doing on the refrigerator. We don't want to do that.

We want to recognize what they are. So I found a pattern to these guys. So there are five things he mentions. Malice is the first one. Malice, this entertains evil thoughts about others. Deceit, seeks to hide what we are. Hypocrisy, pretends to be what we are not. Envy, This is the desire to have what others have, and slander speaks evil of another. So if you notice, there's like two groups, right? Malice, envy, and slander are all about someone else, right? That's all focused on someone else besides ourselves. Deceit and hypocrisy. or about ourselves, how we look, what we're like. So that kind of helps me a bit. I can say, okay, where's my focus? You know, where's my focus? Am I focused on myself? Do I look good today? I'm not saying we shouldn't look good, but that's my whole focus in life. I got a problem, right? Am I speaking evil of my brother?

So I think without getting into the minutiae of this, we can say, hey, God has said, I have a problem and this is my nature, and here's, he enlists them, so we should notice them. Okay, let's carry on. So it's kind of a parallel verse here that kind of, maybe in a broader sense, says, for you are still fleshly, since there is jealousy and strife among you. You are fleshly and not walking like mere men. Okay, so that's kind of the negative part of this, the things we're to put off, but now let's look at his big plan. His big plan is, like newborn babies, once you put off all those things that were mentioned, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that, so, so that, introduces a purpose.

It's a purpose clause, so that, by it, by the word or the spiritual milk, You may grow, this by it indicates, this is the means by which you're going to grow by God's word. You may grow is interesting here, like with all scripture, right? Do we in our own strength cause ourselves to grow in the Lord? Are we the ones by our own bootstraps? Do we get, I'm going to grow in the Lord today? No. is he is working in us, since it's his life in us, we can't make the Lord Jesus grow in us, right? It's Christ's life in us, so he's the one that's doing the action, so it's passive. You may grow, God's at work in us. Our part is to long for the word, that's our part.

So we're to grow or increase, couple of neat verses, but grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Then Ephesians 5.15 says, But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up into all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. So now the kind of the bottom line, we're to grow, but what's the goal of this growth?

It says, in respect to salvation. So this might become a kind of a head scratcher here. It says, in respect to salvation, resulting in your making progress in your salvation. So you might say to me, well, wait a minute. At a point in time, I trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. I'm not to go back and do that again. So what does he mean by resulting in progress in my salvation? So I think we can understand that better by looking at this picture. It's a time picture. We're talking about time here. And if you've been around Holly Hills, you'll recognize this concept.

If you think about the Christian life, the Bible is very clear that the Christian life starts this way. In the past, you trusted Christ as your Savior and you received what we will call salvation from the penalty of sin. God declared you righteous, your sins are forgiven because you trusted in Christ. So that's called the past tense. In the future, you will receive salvation from the presence of sin, right? You'll be with him in glory. Sin will no longer be an issue. Christ, you'll be with him, face to face with him. But the big question is, what happens in the present? That's the entire, your entire Christian life. What happens in the present?

And that's what I believe Peter's talking about here. You're to grow by longing for, desiring for the pure milk of the word, You're to grow in this present tense of salvation. You're to grow to know him more, to walk with him more, to love him more. That's your entire Christian life, this present tense of salvation. So I think that's what he's speaking of there. But let's just kind of define that, just have one chart and just, and this is kind of old ground for many of you, but let's just look at a couple, some statements here about the present tense of salvation.

So we can say the present tense of salvation is salvation from the reigning power of sin, the sin nature, Adam's nature in our life. We're to walk by faith, wrecking ourselves dead to sin. We're gonna see a verse for that shortly. This is salvation from the power of sin, the power of the sin nature, to being alive to God.

We've received Christ's very life. And then the verses that back this up, Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that our old self, our old man, was crucified with Christ, that our body of sin might be done away with, better rendering it would be put in idle, taken offline, it's still there. And then Romans 6-11, even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And then just one kind of Closing comment on the present Christian life. And this is something that has helped me. We were talking in one of the discussions earlier about sin in the believer's life. And we talked about 1 John 1, 9. After you sin, we are to agree with God about your sin. But God in his grace has given us what I like to call the proactive, God is proactive for us in terms of sin. So he asks us by this reckoning or counting upon It's God's proactive way of having us to avoid sinning, right?

We're to say, no, I'm dead to that desire. I don't have to go there. I have a choice here. So God in these verses has explained to us, quote, a game plan or a life or to live that we don't need to sin. We can say, I'm dead to that. I reckon myself dead to sin. The sin can still happen, but I don't need to respond to it, to the temptation to sin.

Okay, so let's go on to the last thought here. Last thought is this, if or since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. So this kind of wraps up this little section. So here's our main section again. You long for or desire the pure milk of the word. So we learned that, so that the purpose was that you may grow in respect to salvation.

But this says, if or since You have tasted the kindness of the Lord. So this says, you know, as you long for God's word, you realize what you have. And you realize that you're realizing the event of your salvation. If you've tasted, God has blessed you because you responded by faith. You've been blessed with his very life. So you've tasted the Lord's kindness. That word kindness is just really cool. We're going to see about this in a second here. So let's just go down here. So kindness is this word for gracious or excellent. So here's a cool verse that kind of uses that.

Or do you think like me of the riches of kindness and tolerance and patience? Knowing the kindness of the Lord leads to repentance. His kindness, His excellence, His graciousness has led to your repentance. So not only in this longing or desiring for the pyramid of the Word, you grow in salvation, you learn to walk with Him day by day until you go to be with Him, but you also are thankful. Thankful that you've tasted the Lord's kindness.

He has two aspects that He wants you to remember. One, that you're growing in salvation, and secondly, that you're thanking Him for His kindness and graciousness to Him. Okay, so what can we take away from this? So what have we learned? So we had a few thoughts on this area.

So the prerequisite to act, prerequisite to the act of intensely yearning or longing for the word of God is putting sin out of our lives. Sin in the life destroys the appetite for the word. The Christian who tries to find satisfaction in the husk of the world, on this world system, if you will, has no appetite left for the things of God. A healthy infant is a hungry infant. A spiritually healthy Christian is a hungry Christian. And then my last chart, final last chart, is this. And this is from Harry Arnside via Miles Sanford.

He says, nowhere in scripture is it taught that there is a sudden leap to be taken from carnality to spirituality, or from a life of comparative unconcern as to godliness to one of intense devotion to the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, increases in godliness is ever present as growth, which should be as normal and natural as the orderly progression in the human life. from infancy to full stature. So this kind of wraps up the whole point. We grow, as any other thing in God's creation, we grow day by day, moment by moment, as we take in God's Word, we grow in His grace and the knowledge of Him.

It's a slow process from our perspective, but that's the way He intended it. And sometimes we think we aren't quite doing as well or as timely as we should. We think, I should be moving along faster, but I'm not. But we should not doubt God's timing. We should trust His timing, just like we trust Him for our salvation. We trust Him for the timing in our life. Things don't happen, we say, well, this had only happened earlier.

Well, you know, it reminds me of like we were saying about the Lazarus. Remember Martha and Mary? Wasn't it Martha who said, Lord, if you only had come, I'm not sure, Mike taught it, I should remember it better. But anyway, she complained that he wasn't getting come at the right time, right? Kind of reminded me of today. You know, we should not doubt God's timing. He knows what he's doing.

So let's just close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your timing, Lord. We interacted each one in this room individually with you at some point in our life, Lord, some as children, some as adults, but we never were late. We never were at the wrong time because you knew us. You knew us before the foundation of the world, Lord. You know those who were gonna be yours, and we thank you for that, and we came to you at the right time, and we trust you for that, Lord. We pray as we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, you would help us to settle down and trust you for your time in our life. We ask it in his name, amen.