Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Taste - the LORD is Gracious

Bryan Schneider · September 28, 2024

1 Peter 2:1-3

sharonrpc.org/sermons/taste-the-lord-is-gracious

Summary

Because believers have been born again through the enduring gospel, they must lay aside sins that poison Christian love and community.
Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking arise in the heart and destroy fervent love, so Peter commands their complete rejection rather than partial management.
The gospel gives hope in this battle: Christ died for people while these sins still marked them, and his blood frees them from slavery to those old identities.
Putting off sin includes putting on its opposite, love instead of malice, truth instead of deceit, integrity instead of hypocrisy, contentment instead of envy, and gracious speech instead of slander.
Believers are to crave the pure Word as a newborn craves milk, seeking spiritual nourishment rather than turning Bible reading into a legalistic badge of maturity.
To taste that the Lord is gracious is to receive personally the goodness of Christ's saving work and let that joy fuel repentance, growth, and sincere love.

Which of Peter's five sins (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or evil speaking) still has the deepest root in me?
Would someone who knows me well describe my private character the same way others see me in public?
Do my words build up fellow believers or disguise gossip and slander as spiritual concern?
What righteous opposite should I deliberately put on as I lay aside a specific sin?
Do I desire God's Word as necessary nourishment or approach it mainly as a religious obligation and source of pride?
What source shapes my thinking more consistently than Scripture presently does?
Have I personally tasted God's grace in Christ, or do I know the gospel only as information?

Malice: Ill will that desires another person's harm rather than praying and working for that person's good.
Deceit: Deliberately distorting or hiding truth for personal advantage.
Hypocrisy: Presenting a religious or moral appearance that does not match the private heart and life.
Envy: Resenting another person's blessing and becoming discontent with what God has provided.
Evil speaking: Using words, often falsely or destructively, to tear down another person's name or well-being.
Pure milk of the Word: God's unadulterated gospel and Scripture, desired as the essential nourishment through which believers grow.
New birth: The Spirit's life-giving work that makes a person a new creation in Christ before that person begins putting away the old sins.