1 Peter 2:1-10 – If Ye Have Believed – Bible study

1Peter 2:1-10 If Ye Have Believed 1. Notice how Peter lays out his book. We have noticed in Paul’s writings, that he often opens his epistles with doctrinal teaching and the, toward the end, turns to practical teaching. Peter takes a different approach. He disperses his doctrine in with lessons on practical living. I like that. After all, we all know it is not just what you believe but how you live out what you believe. 2. Notice the point Peter is making. 1Peter 2:3 If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. a. Peter is using a conditional phrase. b. The topic of the phrase salvation. (1) Peter compares salvation to having a taste of the Lord. (2) The idea of "tasting" the Lord 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. c. IF implies that you may or may not have meet the qualification. (1) Not everyone who reads this epistle has come to "taste of the Lord." (2) However, IF you have, some things should be true in your life. (3) Peter mentions some of them in the first verses of this chapter. I. \#1Peter 1:1\ If we believed, we have the power to put off wickedness. A. Notice the WHEREFORE in this verse. It connects this verse to what was being discussed in the last chapter. 1. What was being discussed? 2. \#1Peter 1:19\ speaks of Christ. 3. \#1Peter 1:21\ speaks of believing on Him. 4. \#1Peter 1:22\ says that doing so "purifies the soul." 5. \#1Peter 1:23\ calls that act "being born again." 6. Peter is clearly setting up the "born-again" precept as he makes the early statements of this chapter. B. Peter lists, in particular, five wicked items that we should put off. 1. We ought to put off MALICE. a. The word means evil, trouble, ill-will, a desire to injure. b. Over the years of studying this word, I think of it as a word to mean DARK NATURE. c. In the heart of the unregenerated is a darkness, a delight in doing harm, hurt, and evil toward another. d. The devil can harness that dark nature and cause meanness and violence to flow out of us like water from a geyser. e. That is what happened in Noahs day. Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. f. And it is what is happening in the world today. 2. We ought to put off GUILE. a. That is trickery and deceit. b. The notion here is that of a con artist or swindler. c. Gods people do not take advantage of others. 3. We ought to lay aside hypocrisy. a. Hypocrisy is pretending to be someone we are not. b. Some lost people pretend to be saved and some Christians pretend to love the Lord. 4. We ought to lay aside all envy. a. Desiring to have what we do not or to be what we are not. b. Envy is like an acid. It will eat away at your integrity. 5. We ought to lay aside all evil speaking. a. There are more ways to sin with the tongue than any other instrument of our body. b. Evil speaking would cover both saying bad words or saying bad things. C. Peters point was NOT that if you are saved, you will stop these five sins. 1. I believe Peter had a bigger point and was just using these five sins to illustrate it. a. If you have a problem with these five sins, take seriously what Peter says. b. Understand that IF you are truly saved, you have the power to put them off your body and out of you life. 2. However, Peters point was that if you are saved, you will stop sinning. a. We should not suppose the power of Christ is limited to five sins. b. These are but a sampling of the change that Jesus brings. c. Peter is saying that Christ being in us is all we need to be have a changed lifestyle, a sin-separated lifestyle. II. \#1Peter 2:2\ If we have believed, we are like new born babies. A. Babies have certain characteristics in common with new converts. 1. Babies crave milk and new converts should crave the Word of God. a. No one has ever had to wake a baby up to eat. b. He wakes up hungry because his growing body needs food. c. So is it with a new covert. d. He needs what God has written in this Book. 2. Babies are satisfied when they feed on milk and Christians are satisfied when they feed on the Word of God. a. Milk isnt much to an adult, but it is all a baby wants. b. God made them that way. c. Neither water nor steak will do for them what the Bible will do. d. So Gods Word produces a satisfaction in Gods people. (1) It will keep the need for sin at bay. (2) It will keep the need for things at bay. e. The Word of God can produce a contentment within ones soul. 3. Babies grow when they feed on milk and Christians grow when they feed on the Word of God. a. I notice that the list of sins that a Christian can put off is surrounded by references to the Word of God, (1) \#1Peter 1:23\ – It is called "the Word of God." (2) \#1Peter 1:23\ – It is called "incorruptible seed." (3) \#1Peter 1:25\ – It is called "the gospel," or good news. (4) \#1Peter 2:2\ – It is called the "sincere milk." b. Perhaps the reason the putting off of sin is surrounded by references to the Word is because the Word gives the power to PUT SIN OFF! c. Like babies, God creates a desire within new converts for the MILK because it is needed to grow and change the convert. d. I think you will find that there is a relationship between the change in a Christians life and the amount of time they are exposed to the Word of God. B. Peters point is just as surely as a baby can grow with milk, a Christian can grow by the Word of God. III. \#1Peter 2:4\ If we have believed, we have become part of a bigger work. A. Peter starts by saying we have come to a LIVING STONE. 1. What does that mean? Jesus is the LIVING STONE to which we have come. a. \#2:4\ Tells us that this stone was disallowed by men. b. DISALLOWED means REJECTED. c. \#1Peter 2:6\ tells us that He is the CHIEF CORNER STONE. d. And those who believe on him will not be confounded or confused. 2. All of this makes it clear that Jesus is the Living Stone. B. However, Peter is still focusing on us who have believed on Jesus, those of us who have "tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1. \#1Peter 2:5\ Peter wants us to understand who we are. a. We are "lively stones;" that is, we are living stones. (1) These phrase tells us that we have been changed to be like Jesus Christ. (2) He is the LIVING STONE and we are the LIVELY STONES. (3) In the Greek, the same words are used. (4) So we are come to Jesus, but we have been made like Jesus, hence, a great change has taken place. (5) This change is one of the key tests of Christianity. (a) If you are a believer, you will be different. (b) If you have not been changed, you are not a believer. b. We are "built up a spiritual house." (1) Not only have we been changed, we are also connected or joined together. (2) Like bricks in a house, the individual has been joined to the whole to make up something far more beautiful, powerful, and purposeful than the individual. (3) This is a reference to individual Christians being called Christs body. Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 1Cor 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (4) The connection to one another may or may not be seen as much as the change, but if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious, the connection is there. (a) Some people seem to perceive the connection between believers and others do not. (b) I am amazed at how little value some place on their relationship with other believers. (c) I suppose a case could be made that if you are truly born again, you will sense this connection; but I do not feel compelled to argue that case. c. We are a "holy priesthood." (1) Together, as a body, we become "a priest." (2) Not that we as individuals are priests, but as a joined group, we are a priest or priesthood. (3) This implies that as the church, we have a purifying role in the world around us, perhaps to fend off sin, perhaps to hold off the judgment that sin warrants. d. We "offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1) This again refers to the work of the believers as a whole. (2) Some allegorize the phrase to mean that we do good works; however, the work of Old Testament priests was not to do good works. (3) It was to make atonement for sinners. (4) Perhaps unbeknown to ourselves, our very existence and presence on this earth moves God to be merciful and forgiving to a planet that otherwise deserves an immediate judgment. 2 Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 2. \#1Peter 2:9\ Peter further describes who we are to God. a. A chosen generation b. A royal priesthood c. A holy nation d. A peculiar people 3. And in the same verse, he further describes what we are to do. a. "shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness" b. In part, we are to manifest our God by praising Him. C. I am not sure that we comprehend just how much the collective body of Christ means to God in a practical, everyday sense of the word. 1. I am not speaking of a mystical or magical work for us to do, but rather a holy work that we accomplish just by being who God has made us to be. 2. However, it is obvious to me that this section is dealing with the collective presence of the believers who have tasted of the Lords graciousness. 3. \#5\ Together, we are a "spiritual house." a. This is a collective term. b. \#1Peter 2:10\ Together we are PEOPLE or a NATION. c. "In times past," that is, before our salvation, we were no PEOPLE; that is, we were not a collected group of people. 4. I think there is no doubt, the believers have more power as a group than we do as individuals. Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. IV. \#1Peter 2:7\ If we have believed, He has become precious to us. A. To the unbeliever, Jesus is not precious. B. Rather, He is despised and rejected. C. One of the truest signs of a genuine salvation is an appreciation and love for Jesus Christ. D. How precious is Jesus to you?