 So, I have been asked this weekend to speak on women of the word. In fact, Mark had called me and we had visited on the phone a little bit and what he was wanting. In fact, one of my sessions that I'll be doing tomorrow, I wrote just for you. And so, you're actually, I would say you're the first people to hear it, but you're not. So I just presented that a couple of months ago in Arizona as I was teaching on our God is enough and I actually, they got to hear it before you did. So sorry about that, but I did write that with you in mind. But anyway, I've been asked to speak on that. And when you think about being a woman of the word, the first thing you have to do is have a desire, right? Ladies, if you don't have a desire for the word of God, you're not going to be in the word. You're not even going to open your Bible. I was telling Debbie on the plane yesterday as we flew from Tulsa here, that I am grieved even if some of the women that I pour my life into one on one who seemed through the last few years to vacate scripture a meaningful time with God for, and they're exchanging it for time on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and those things. And I'm watching their lives and they have no victory over sin. There's no joy. There's no contentment. And so if you don't have a desire for the word, there's something wrong. There's something that's taking away your spiritual appetite. And so we're going to consider that tonight along with, after our break, delighting in the word. If you want to be a woman of the word, you've got to delight in it, right? Enjoy it. I remember asking a woman one time, do you read your Bible? And she said, yes. And I said, do you enjoy it? And she said, no. And I said, well, that's just really too bad. And I mean, I can't imagine not delighting in the word. And so I'm going to present after our break. And before we go home this evening, my material on scripture memorization, because I really, I'm praying and hoping that some of you will get a fire lit in your heart to start hiding God's word in your heart and being transformed by renewing your mind through scripture. So we're going to talk about that. And then tomorrow morning, we're going to be looking at being discerning. I don't know about you, but I am, I guess I could use the word terrified. At the amount of false teachers there are in our age. And it seems like every week I hear of another one that started out on the solid ground, teaching the word of God. And now all of a sudden they're, they either have apostatized or they've watered down the message or they're supporting things that are abominable before God. And so ladies, if you're going to be women of the word, you need to be discerning. And this is especially important for us as women because the Bible tells us that false teachers pray on silly laden women. And we are the more deceived gender. And I'm saying that I'm a woman and that's what God says. And so God says, and I believe it. And so anyway, sometimes my husband will say, where do you think like that? Or why do you think like that? And so it is true. And so we need to be discerning. And so tomorrow morning we're going to talk about how you can discern, how can you discern truth from air? What do you look for when you're looking for a false teacher? What kind of things would you want to observe? And so we'll talk about that in the morning. And then also tomorrow we're going to be considering if you want to be a woman of the word, you've got to be diligent in the word. And this is the material I prepared for you. Mark had asked that I present this material on how to have, a lot of women don't know how to have an effective devotional life, prayer life, meaningful study in the scriptures. And so tomorrow afternoon we're going to talk about that, how to be diligent by being disciplined with your prayer time, your Bible study time, and just daily reading and memorization. So we'll talk about that. And then we can take all that stuff, delighting, desiring, discerning, being diligent. And you know what, ladies? If you leave here tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock and you don't go out and do the word, you might as well just finish eating your vitals and go home, okay? Because there's other things better to do with your time tonight and tomorrow. Because James tells us, and that's going to be our last session, doing the word. James tells us, if you just merely come this weekend and hear, you're auditing, you're hearing, but you don't do the word, you don't go out and do and obey what God the Holy Spirit convicts you of this weekend. Do you know what he says? You've deceived yourself. And in the greater context of the Epistle of James, you know what he's saying? You've deceived yourself about your salvation. What does Jesus say? Those who hear my word and what? Do it, right? This is how we know him if we keep his commandments. He says, I know him, doesn't keep his commandments. He says, what? A liar, right? And the truth is not in him. And so this is probably going to be the most important session in the sense that we want to take everything we learn this weekend and then we want to go out and do it, right? We want to practice it, which is what the Greek word means. We want to practice doing the word. And so I'm excited. I don't know if I've ever done a conference on, I have done a conference on the word of God, obviously, but just this particular on being a woman of the word. And so for this evening, if you would, turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter, 1 Peter, and we are going to consider this very important topic of desiring the word of God, desiring the word. And before we get started, let's pray and commit our time to the Lord, because without him, I can do nothing. And you certainly can't listen without his help. So let's pray. Oh, Father, we come to you this evening with hearts of joy that you have called us by your name, that you have chosen us, that we might be holy before you in love, that we might walk worthy of the vocation by which we have been called. And, oh, Father, I fear that many, maybe in this room this evening, I know many that I've just visited with in the last year, the last few months, even this last week, even yesterday, I'm grieved, Father, at the lack of desire to be in your word. We have this precious book, 66 letters from you. And yet we fail to delight and desire the word of God. Oh, Father, forgive us, forgive us for our apathy, for our complacency, Father. And I pray, oh God, that you would stir the hearts of these women, that you would stir my heart to have a deeper passion and a desire for your word. And so God, open our eyes tonight, help us to behold wondrous things out of your word. And, oh, Lord, that you would wet the appetite of every woman, every child here to desire your word. May we be like Jeremiah who said, your words were found and I hate them. And they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart. So, Father, give us that. Help us to listen and help us to hear attentively what you have to say. I pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, after my husband graduated from seminary, which was a long time ago, we moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I was determined by the grace of God that we were going to have a women's ministry that was centered around the scriptures. And so the first thing I did when my husband started a church is I took our women one summer through a living by the book, which is a great series. Howard Hendricks is now dead, he's gone to be with the Lord. But it's a great series in teaching how to do inductive Bible study. And so I took the ladies through that and I wanted our women's ministry to be founded on the scriptures. In fact, even now, that's what we do. We teach the Bible to the ladies in the church. And I did that because ladies, it is the word of God that is the means to our spiritual growth. And yet some women don't think that. They don't think it is the means to our spiritual growth. They don't see the importance of God's word. And my question is why? Why do we not see it as the means to our spiritual growth? Why isn't there an appetite for spiritual things? Why am I having conversations with women in the last few months who are vacating scripture for social technology? Why is that happening? Well, Howard Hendricks answers that question in his first lesson. One of his opening remarks is this, the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. And you know the apostle Peter says the same thing, but just in a little bit more elaborated way. Look at first Peter two, one to three, which is what we're going to look at this evening. Notice what Peter says. Therefore, laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy and all evil speaking as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word so that you may grow thereby. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now, ladies, you have an outline there. Before you were going to look at our grievous sins. Then we're going to look at our need to grow up. And then we are going to consider our gracious Lord. Now I am not really fond of jumping into the middle of a book to teach, but that is what I'm doing this evening. But if you will notice the verse right before first Peter two, one has been talking about the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. And remember Bible translators came in and added the verses and the chapters. So when Peter wrote this, it was one letter. It was an epistle. And so he's just been talking about what? The word of God, all flesh is like grass and the man is like the flower of the grass, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And so he's been emphasizing the word of God and our need to be in it for our personal growth. But ladies, before you can receive the word, before you can receive that word with meekness, there are certain things that you must lay aside that might be hindering your listening to the word. Remember what the writer to the Hebrew says, let us lay aside every sin, that what? Every weight, every sin that so easily besets us. There's things that weigh us down. They say so we can run the race. So let's look at these grievous sins. Look at verse one, what Peter says. He says, therefore lay aside malice, beguile, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking. Now Peter starts with the word therefore and anytime therefore is in the Bible, this is a good rule of interpretation, it always points back to something. So we have to ask the question, because of what Peter, therefore what? Because of what I've just said, Peter says, because you've been born again with an incorruptible seed, because the word of God lives and abides forever, then purify your soul in obeying the truth. Get rid of these grievous sins that are weighing you down. And again, as I said, this is an unfortunate chapter division that we have here. So Peter says you gotta lay aside these things. Now it's interesting, his list is not very long. I don't know if you've considered, but Peter's gonna be merciful to us tonight. I mean, some of the other epistles are not so merciful. I think of Colossian where Paul has a similar idea. He says, therefore put to death your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inorn affection, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which these things, sake the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. And then he goes on to say, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Do not lie to each other, seeing you've put on the new man. And so Paul's list is like, wow, it's like five times as long as Peter's. Also in Galatians, Paul has another long list. He says now the works of the flesh are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, inorn affection, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. He talks about that in these heresies, drunkenness. And then he goes on to say of which I've told you before and I'm telling you again, that if you practice these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. That's Paul gives again a pretty long list in Galatians. And James, our brother James, he has a little bit of mercy on us. His list is shorter than Paul's, but he says therefore lay aside filthiness and overflowing of wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul. Now Peter's list is much shorter than Paul's list and James is even shorter. And you might say, well, why? Why does the apostle Paul have these long lists of sins? Peter has this little list and then James is even shorter. Well, I don't know. When you get to heaven you ask him, I don't know why. But the list we have tonight is grievous enough. So Peter says we're laid aside grievous sins. Now what does it mean to lay aside? Well, it actually means to cast off, to strip off these things like you would a filthy garment or a badly stained garment. In fact, Isaiah admonishes his people, cast away your idols like you would a menstrual cloth. And ladies, we're talking among women and so we know what that's like. Get away, right? Peter says cast these things off. Throw them off like you would a menstrual cloth. Get rid of it. Don't let it cling to you. That's what he's saying. Get rid of these things. And by the way, the Greek here is a once for all. You know, we like to, okay Lord, today I'll stop gossiping, but tomorrow I'm gonna be getting with my BFF and I can't wait to tell her something. No, Peter says you put it off. Don't pick it back up again. I mean, would you throw off a filthy menstrual rag and pick it back up and put it back on? You wouldn't, would you? That makes no sense, right? Put it off and do it once and for all. Don't dally around. In fact, there are so many scriptures that are replete with it. Ezekiel talks about casting away all your transgressions. Roman says put off the works of darkness. Hebrews 12 that I just quoted about laying aside every sin that easily besets us and run with patience the race that is set before us. Paul talks about that in Hebrews. And on and on we could go looking throughout scripture, we are to lay aside all sin. We're not to hold on to even one. Now, the first grievous sin that he mentions is malice. What is malice? Well, malice is evil, badness, in fact, it's a word we don't use anymore, but when I was growing up, we use this word. It was naughty. Your child is naughty. I don't hear that anymore, but I remember when I was growing up, my mom and dad used that word, you're being naughty. That's malice. Malice is a term for all sorts of wickedness. Someone who is malicious desires to hurt other people. I think about that. I think his name was Stephen Paddock who killed 57 people in Las Vegas a few years ago. I mean, this guy was malicious. He planned it all out. He got his guns. He went to the top of a hotel room and just slaughtered people that were at a concert. That's malicious. That's evil. King Saul's a great biblical example of someone that we know in the Bible who was malicious. He was bent on killing David, right? He was hunting him down. He was malicious. I remember when I first got married, my father-in-law owned his own company and I worked. We had just got married. I was 19 years of age and I worked for him and I was a sales secretary and I remember coming home every night as a young bride in tears crying to my husband because there was this lady that worked there and she was bent on making my life miserable every day. She was malicious and I don't know why. I didn't know or I was trying to be nice to her but she was just mean. She was malicious. Ladies, do you know we are not to behave like that? Paul tells us in Titus, that's how we used to be for we ourselves were also once what foolish, evil, we were living in malice and evil but we weren't like that anymore, right? After the kindness and love of God our savior, not by works as we have done, he saved us, right? Maliciousness describes what we used to be but not what we are now. There's no room in your life for being malicious. In fact, did you notice the little word that Peter uses? He says all, put away all malice. You know what that means? All, the whole, everything must be flung off. Ladies, you cannot even hold to one little sin and think you're living in obedience to God and practicing holiness. I know some of our well meaning, I don't mean well meaning, they're not really well meaning but some people today have rewritten Romans 6-1. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? My Bible says God forbid but you know what some people are rewriting today and they're living? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? Yes, let's do. In fact, let's sin a lot so that we can experience God's grace. That's a new teaching out there in case you hadn't noticed it yet. Ladies, my Bible says no, we should not continue in sin, right? Put it off. In fact, Paul goes on to say, how can we that are dead to sin live any longer in it? Why would we want to do that? Well, secondly, notice what Peter says. We're laid aside the grievous sin of guile. What's that? Guile is just a seat trickery. It means to catch with a bait like you would for fishing. I can't say that I've ever been fishing but you know what it's like if you go fishing, you put the little worm on and you catch a fish, right? And it's the bait. You're tricking him into thinking that he's getting a worm when he's really getting a hook in his mouth and then you're gonna go cut him up and eat him, right? That's trickery, right? Someone who has guile is someone whose motives are never pure. They take on the appearance of truth and then they trick their victim. Ladies, we're not only to not only practice this sin but we're not to speak deceit. Did you know that? The psalmist says, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile or deceit. We're not even to speak deceit. In fact, Peter will mention on later on in this letter that he's writing to these persecuted Christians when talking about our Lord. He said, he committed no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth. He didn't practice deceit. In fact, he'll tell his readers later on, if you wanna love life and see your days as good, keep your tongues from evil and your lips that they speak no guile, no deceit. Ladies, if you're not seeing your days today as good, maybe you might have asked yourself, am I using my tongue for evil? You know, can't really have a good day in the Lord if you're using your tongue for deceit, right? Keep your tongue from deceit. Deceit is a wicked sin. We should have no part in it. Well, there's a third sin that Peter mentions and he says it's hypocrisy. What's hypocrisy? Hypocrisy is a word that was used to describe an actor on the stage in the biblical world. In fact, the actor and we have it today, the actor or the actress, they pretend to be a part that they're not, right? That's why we call them actors and actresses. That's not really who they are. They're pretending. They're putting on a mask. That's not who they are. Ladies, the hypocrite is someone who assumes mannerism, speech and character of someone else and hides his true identity. I was one of those for 30 years. God didn't arrest me until I was 30 years of age, threw me in a hospital bed and I saw the depravity of my heart and my wickedness. And, but, you know, before that I was a hypocrite. I knew all the stuff to say, but I was not a genuine Christian. I was a hypocrite. I was pretending to be a pastor's daughter and a pastor's wife and, you know, walk in the walk. And I was living a double life. Somebody else at home, then I was at church. Ladies, that's a hypocrite. And Anias and Sapphira, they're great examples. Acts five, right? Whoo, they agreed together to lie to the Holy Spirit. Remember that story in Acts five? You know? Peter says, did you sell the land for such and such? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. Well, he fell over dead, you know? And they carried him out and three hours later his wife comes in and he goes, Peter says, yeah, tell me, did you sell the land for so and so? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. Why do you agree to lie to your husband with your husband about this? She fell down dead and he said, behold the feet of those that just carried out your husband, they're coming in to carry you out. Now, ladies, that's pretty swift judgment for hypocrisy, right? Sometimes I, you know, it's a good thing I'm not God because sometimes I think, Lord, if you could just, you know, really show yourself like that again, maybe some of these people would quit being hypocrites. God killed them instantly for their hypocrisy. Ladies, we as Christians should be ourself. We should be an open book. We should be transparent. We should be what we are everywhere. Don't be something different this weekend than you are tomorrow when you go home, be the same. Pretending to be something you're not is hypocrisy and God hates it. In fact, you know, in the book of the revelation, he says all hypocrites will have their place in the lake of fire. That's not gonna be a pretty picture. Well, number four on Peter's get rid of list is envy. What's envy? Envy is longing for something that someone else has that you do not have. Envy is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of someone else. And ladies, envy is a terrible sin because if you don't nip it in the bud, it can lead to hatred and murder as the case as seen in Cain and April. Envious, right? So he killed his brother. My daughter-in-law told me that the number one cause of death among pregnant women is murder by a jealous husband or boyfriend. We need to put off envy. We know from 1 Corinthians 13, genuine love does not, what, it's not envious. We're not envious of other people. Someone once said envy is the last sin to die. As long as yourself remains active within someone's heart, there will be envy in that person's life. In fact, it's really sad, but even the night before Christ died, do you know that envy reared its ugly head among the disciples? They were arguing about who was gonna be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Seriously? They were envious. And Jesus reminded them, as he often did, the greatest among one of them would be the servant, right? The slave. Our brother James says it well, if you have bitter envy and strife in your heart, do not glory, do not lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above. It's earthly, it's sensual, it is demonical. And he says where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. Why would we wanna be involved in that? Doesn't sound like a lot of fun, right? Listen to this one, all us women, especially as we're aging. Proverbs 14.30 says, a sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to your bones. Now ladies, they say as we get older, you know we have risks of hostile process and I don't know about you, but you can't afford any more rotting of your bones, right? And Proverbs says, if you envy, it's like rottenness to your bones. And you know they actually say that some of the sins that we commit, anxiety, worry, some of those things, they really affect our bodies. All kinds of things, acid reflux, backache, headache, all that kind of stuff. So we need to stop being envious of others, right? Cut that sin out. In fact, I believe women are more prone to this than men, I don't think men really struggle with this. In fact, my husband has said, I don't know how you work with women. But I said, well, that's because that's what I'm supposed to do. But I think definitely women are more prone to this sin of envy. Well, the last sin on Peter's throw-off list, notice is evil speaking, evil speaking. It means to speak against or to speak down. It refers to slandering someone, gossip, backbiting, slander. It was used in the biblical world to speak of a slave that would blab all of his master's secrets. So it was a pretty strong sin back then. In fact, evil speaking many times can be a result of envy because you know what happens? When you're jealous of someone, when you're envious of someone, you know what happens? You start gossiping, backbiting. That's why we call it backbiting because we don't do it to their face, right? We do it behind their back. And so we're envious or we're jealous, and so we try to put them down by elevating ourselves. Ladies, Peter will mention later on in 1 Peter 3.16 that that kind of speech comes from evil men. James says, do not speak evil one of another, brother. And if you speak evil of your brother, you speak evil of the law and you're no longer a doer of the law, you're a judge. And then he goes on to basically say, who's made you the law-kiffer? Who do you think you are by judging other people? And again, I think this is a special challenge for us as women. Ladies, we need to guard our speech. In fact, I hope none of you in this room will have written on your tombstone what one lady had. And I quote, beneath this stone, a lump of clay lies Arabella Young, who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue the day she died, you know? Finally, she quit gossiping. Now, we could spend a whole lesson on the tongue. We don't have time to do that. I wasn't asked to speak on the tongue, but I can come back next year for the 13th time. We can talk about the tongue if you want, but we need to move on to the next verse. Well, instead of being involved in such wickedness, Peter tells us about our need to grow up. So we move from the grievous sins to our need to grow up. Notice what he says, as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word so that you can grow. In fact, remember when I read that list, quoted that list from James where he says, lay aside all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. We've got to throw that off before what? We can receive the word of God and grow. Now, Peter uses an analogy here of a newborn baby. I've seen several babies come in this evening, but I didn't see a newborn yet, but this means a newborn baby. In fact, it's the same Greek word used of Jesus in the manger. Just born. In fact, in classical Greek, it was used of a baby at the breast. As a newborn baby, you desire the word just like they, a baby acts like their life is dependent on the next feeding, right? Ladies, do you long for the word like that? You know, when a baby is born, what's the one thing they wanna continually do all the time? Eat, right? They want to eat. Peter says they desire milk, which means they have an intense craving for it. And it not only entails intensity, but it includes the idea of a reoccurring yearning. Ladies, that's the type of desire that you and I should be having for the word of God. In fact, the psalmist uses it in Psalm 42.1, as the deer pants for the waterbrook. So my soul pants for you. Oh, God. In fact, I remember one time, I think it was when I was nursing my kids, someone said, you know, don't ever make your baby wait to eat. I go, why not? Well, you know what they say. If you make a baby wait like two minutes to eat, it's like you having to wait three days. I was like, really, who did that statistic? Baby, what's it like for you to, you know? I mean, I wanna ask some of these babies here this week. How do they know that? Babies can't talk at that age. But if that is true, if it is true, do you hunger for the word like that? Do you hunger and ache over it until you partake and are satisfied? I remember when my two children were infants, you know, they would scream, you know, to be fed. And I remember my husband will laugh often because our daughter, she would, you know, she didn't sleep through the night for a long time. My son did it two weeks, but she took a whole year. And he'd say, Susan, I'd say, what? And he goes, you know, Cindy, she's crying. I go, baby, we got a baby? I don't remember that. And, you know, he'd go get her and bring her in the bed so I could nurse her. But I remember they would scream at the top of their lungs. And you know what? As soon as I put them to the breast, they stopped crying. They immediately stopped crying. In fact, they would usually make noises of satisfaction and they'd kick. My dear sister, do you kick and scream if you don't get to spend time in God's word? And by the way, my baby's just didn't want one quick drink. I mean, I'd feed them and then two or three hours later, they wanted to eat again. It's like, seriously? Again, what in the world? Ladies, we should not be content with just a taste, a verse here, a verse there. Our spiritual appetite should be that, that we partake until we are satisfied. Does that describe your appetite for the word? Do you have a reoccurring yearning even throughout the day? Or are you satisfied with just a chapter a day or a verse a day? Ladies, our desire should be like that of Jeremiah who said, your words were found and I did eat them. And they were the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I'm called by your name, O Lord of Hosts. Or the psalmist who says, how sweet are your words to my taste, they're sweeter than honey to my mouth. And even Job, Job in the midst of suffering and affliction and losing his children and his health and all of his stuff and everything that went through him, went to him. He says, I have not departed from the commandments of your lips. I treasure your words of your mouth more than my necessary food. Ladies, the psalmist tells us, we're gonna see this in just a little bit. Next session, it is the godly man who meditates day and night in the scripture. It's not just in the morning or in the evening. It's a day and night meditation. Now I know most of us can identify with appetite or for those of us who like to eat and I love to eat. Just ask Debbie, I like to eat. I think of how many times I have ruined a perfectly healthy meal by eating the wrong thing. Back the other day I was making chocolate chip cookies for our gap a meal for Sunday night and I won't tell you how many, hey, I came out of the oven. But after eating those, who wants to eat anything else, you know? I've ruined a perfectly good healthy meal by eating chocolate chip cookies. In fact, when your kids grow up, you tell them no snacking before dinner, right? No more, why? Because you want them to eat the healthy food. Ladies, have you ruined your appetite for God's word? What is ruining your appetite for scripture? Are you putting junk in your mind and in your heart? Are you wasting time shopping, talking on the phone, surfing the internet, watching television, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter account, whatever. I can't even keep up with all the stuff out there anymore. My friend, anything that takes away your spiritual appetite should be forsaken so that you might desire the pure milk of the word. Sin will destroy your appetite for scripture. If you were involved in any of these sins that Peter mentions or any of the other ones that are listed at any of God's word, I can guarantee you do not have a healthy appetite for scripture. You don't. Just like a fat piece of cake will take away your appetite for a healthy dinner in the physical realm so it is in the spiritual realm. If you are being satisfied with what the world has to offer, then you will have no appetite left for the things of God. Remember the quote? Either the word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the word. You know, even in the physical realm, if you were to go to your doctor next week and say, you know, doctor, I don't feel very well. You know, I haven't had an appetite in several months and I'm not sure what's wrong. You know, the doctor would say, that's not good. That's not good, you don't have an appetite. God made our bodies to eat, right? He provided food for us. And so it is in the spiritual realm. Ladies, if you don't have an appetite for the word of God, that tells your heavenly physician something is not right. You should have an appetite for the word of God. A spiritually healthy Christian should be a hungry Christian. A hungry baby is a sign of a healthy baby. A hungry Christian is a sign of a healthy Christian. One man said this, my rule for Christian living is this, anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away my taste for Bible study or cramps my prayer life or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me. And I must as a Christian turn away from it. Ladies, if you don't have an appetite for the word on a consistent basis, then something is wrong. Something's wrong. And it may be that there is sin in your life. I would say this to you this evening, your hunger for God's word will be in direct relation to your obedience to it. Now, you might say, well, Susan, why should I desire the word? Well, look what Peter says, it has a quality to it. Look at the quality of this spiritual food. It's pure, it's pure milk, it's sincere. It's uncontaminated, it's unadulterated. It has nothing added to it. Ladies, it's not like the watered down Christian books out there. And they are so many, it's disgusting. How many there are junk at the Christian bookstore junk. This is pure, pure. It is the pure milk of the word. In fact, they tell us, you know, Mother's milk is the best source of nutrition for her newborn baby over formula. Why? It's pure, it's unadulterated. It's full of nutrients and natural immune fighters. So it is in the spiritual realm. Ladies, the pure milk of this book right here, the word of God is the best means of spiritual nourishment for you, right here. In fact, one translation of the Greek is pure spiritual milk. And you know what, it's pure in contrast to those sins we just looked at, right? Envy, malice, evil speaking, it's pure. In fact, I had discipled a lady many years ago and she told me one time, she said, Susan, my husband and I have decided we're not going to read any religious books outside of the Bible. Now, that might seem a little extreme to you. I mean, I must say I am grateful for some of the writings of other people. But I know on the other hand of women who substitute devotional literature or fictional romance novels for time in the word. I would encourage you to not let that happen to you. Do not let that happen to you. You should be spending more time in the word of God than any other book. If you don't, you will become stunted in your spiritual growth. You will also become spiritually undiscerning to truth and you will adopt man's views and maybe be swallowed up by a false teacher. I hope not. Ladies, I want to warn you, religious books are full of dangerous ideas that are not from God. J. Adams once says this, watered-down teaching, oriented drink, superficial Bible study methods and pale preaching fail to give the true taste of pure milk that will make one cry out like a baby for more. End of quote. Now, why should we crave God's word? Why should we crave it? What is the result of craving God's word? Notice what Peter says, so that you can grow. So you can grow. In other words, so that you can be nourished and grow. Grow up in your salvation. Do you know they tell us milk is the most nourishing of all foods and children who drink milk grow faster than children who do not drink milk? Do you know that? Ladies, the word is the most nourishing of all spiritual food. Spiritual children who drink the milk of the word grow faster and children who do not. Have you asked yourself lately, am I growing spiritually? Is my life different today than it was last year? Do I know more about God and His word today than I did last year? Are my spiritual muscles being developed? Ladies, if you starve your newborn baby, they will die. If you starve yourself as a Christian, you will die and you will become ineffective for the Lord. In fact, you've never been around somebody who tells you they're a Christian. My husband, I've talked about this from time to time. People come to church, you never see their lives change and you wonder, why aren't they growing spiritually? How come their life isn't changing? They're hearing the same sermons I am every Sunday and they're coming to the same ladies Bible study I'm coming to every Tuesday night. Why aren't they growing? Maybe it's indirect relation to the word of God and the lack of time spent in it. Some believers that I know are anemic, why? Because they don't have proper spiritual nutrition and they don't know where the simplest things in the scripture are. They don't have power in their lives to overcome sin because they're still crawling around in their spiritual diapers. Ladies, we need to grow up. It's time to grow up, to get into the pure milk of the word. Well, we turn from our need to grow up to lastly our gracious Lord. Peter reminds us how good the Lord is. How good he tastes. Why do we wanna partake of sins when we can taste of the Lord? Look what he says. If indeed you've tasted the Lord is gracious. The word if means since you have tasted. In fact, Peter's quoting from Psalm 34.8, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste, see the Lord is good. What does it mean to taste the Lord? It means to experience. In fact, the word gracious here is a Greek word where it speaks of old wine being better. Taste and see the Lord is better. He's good. He's excellent. Peter's reminding them you have tasted of the Lord. He's excellent. Now continue to taste him. Ladies, we can understand what Peter's saying here because even in the physical realm, do you know if you taste something that excites your appetite for more? Remember that commercial? Well, this tells my age. Laced potato chips, bet you can't eat just one. I love potato chips. It's hard to eat just one. I love chocolate chip cookies too and the dough. It's hard to eat just one, isn't it? I mean that taste excites your appetite, doesn't it? You want more. And so it is, ladies, once you've tasted of the excellency of God and the pure milk of his word, you want more. You want to eat more. Taste it. It's good. It's excellent. What did Jesus say? I'm the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, right? He who believes in me will never thirst. Ladies, Jesus Christ is the only thing that satisfies the hungry and thirsty soul. If you are eating something else this evening besides the living word, I guarantee your soul is not satisfied. So what are our grievous sins? Malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. Are you practicing any of these tonight or any other sins? If so, then they're keeping you from growing up. Peter tells us we need to grow up. Do you desire the milk of the word like a newborn baby who desires milk with great intensity? If not, why not? Ladies, if not, why not taste and see the Lord is gracious? Peter tells us our Lord is gracious. He's excellent. Have you tasted the Lord to know He's excellent? Are you craving the word often and with great intensity? Do you not only taste it, but do you chew on it? Do you memorize it? Do you study it? Have you lost your appetite for God, for His word? Martin Luther says this, whoever sits at the table and is hungry relishes everything heartily. But he who has previously been satisfied relishes nothing. He can only murmur at the most excellent food. My dear friend, do you treasure God's word? If so, does it manifest itself by your desire for the word? Has your desire for the word of God grown? If not, I beg you to repent of any sin you're holding onto, throw it off like a filthy rag. Do it now so that it doesn't spoil your appetite for God's word and then get into the word. And if you don't know how to get into the word come tomorrow. I'm gonna teach you how to get into the word, how to have effective prayer life, study time, Bible reading time, find someone to challenge you, hold you accountable, find a woman to mentor you. I encourage you, be like that newborn baby with an always hungering, never satisfying desire for God's word, let's pray. Dear Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts, that we would lay aside any idols that we are clinging to, that we would forsake all sin, that we would desire to know Christ above anything else. And Father, I don't know the hearts of these ladies. Some people may not have a desire for your word because they don't know you. They don't know the living God. They've never repented of their sins. They don't understand that Christ died for their sins, that he was buried and he rose again for them. He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. And I pray, oh God, that your spirit might touch their hearts, to open their eyes, help them see Christ. Pray that they would come to the cross, they would bow and make you Lord of their life. If that's the issue, and they would do it tonight. Father, we would just commit the rest of our evening to you. I pray, I pray for these ladies, oh God, that you would do a mighty, mighty work in each of their lives this weekend for the Savior's sake, so that our God would be glorified and his word would be held high in this evil and adulterous relation, world that we live in, Father. And I pray this for the Savior's sake, amen.