The sermon continues an exposition of 1 Peter, moving from 1:22-25 into 2:1-3, and the preacher stresses that the connective "therefore" ties the new passage to what came before. Two weeks earlier the congregation considered the command to love one another earnestly, as those born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God — the gospel that was preached to them. Before turning to chapter 2, the sermon draws out a further application of that same imperishable word: if the gospel has given believers new birth, they are now compelled not only to love fellow believers but also to love those outside the church who do not yet know Christ. The preacher recalls his own conversion at age eleven, brought to church for months by his grandmother's neighbor until an evangelistic youth rally where he heard the gospel and believed, marking the start of new spiritual life even before total transformation followed. From this the sermon presses a correction: Reformed churches, confident in God's sovereign election, sometimes reason falsely that predestination removes any urgency to evangelize — if God has already determined who will be saved, why preach at all? This logic is rejected as unbiblical, illustrated by an architect who builds precisely because a detailed blueprint already exists, not despite it. The sermon points to Acts 18, where God assures a fearful Paul in Corinth, "I am with you… for I have many people in this city" — meaning God's elect are precisely the reason to keep preaching, since the gospel is the means by which the chosen are gathered. The missionary Peter Cameron Scott, founder of the Africa Inland Mission, is held up as an example: repeatedly struck by illness and grief (including burying his own brother in the field), he was strengthened at Westminster Abbey by David Livingstone's epitaph quoting John 10 — "other sheep I have… they shall hear my voice" — a reminder that God's elect are out there and must be brought in. The gospel is likened to a herald's proclamation from a king, precious and authoritative, entrusted to believers to carry to the ends of the earth, including through mission efforts like church-planting outreach to remote areas.

Turning to 2:1, the sermon reads "therefore, put away" as the natural fruit that must follow the new birth: malice (the desire to harm others), deceit (manipulating others for personal gain), hypocrisy (appearing better than one truly is), envy (resentment at another's advantages), and slander (falsely defaming others to elevate oneself) — all of these stand opposed to the sincere, wholehearted love the imperishable seed produces and must be discarded. Verse 2 then shifts to nourishment: believers are to be like newborn infants craving pure spiritual milk, so that by it they may grow up into salvation — better rendered "grow up in your salvation," since salvation is already given and the growth that follows is sanctification, not acquisition. The image of a hungry infant crying out with mouth wide open illustrates the intensity, regularity, and purity of this craving: intensity, because it is a desperate longing; regularity, because infants must feed every few hours, corresponding to daily feeding on Scripture and reflection on the word day and night, likened to the blessed tree planted by streams of water in Psalm 1; and purity, because the milk must be unadulterated — the preacher urges disciplined daily reading of Scripture and sound theological books (illustrated by a plan of five pages a day yielding roughly 1,500 pages a year), while also warning, citing the noble Bereans of Acts, to test all teaching against the word rather than mixing in corrupted milk, using a story of his newborn daughter's diarrhea from tainted breast milk as an analogy for spiritual danger. Growth in this milk is growth "in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18) — growing in grace meaning an ever-deepening dependence on God, as seen in Paul's thorn in the flesh, where God's refusal to remove it teaches that grace is sufficient and power is perfected in weakness. An illustration of a Native American boy left alone overnight in a dark forest, only to discover at dawn that his father had been guarding him with an axe the whole time, pictures how God is nearest precisely amid hardship and struggle. Finally, all of this rests on verse 3 — "since you have tasted that the Lord is good" (echoing Psalm 34) — the sermon insists that mere intellectual assent is not enough; one must personally come to Christ and taste his goodness, an experiential foretaste that will one day give way to the full feast at Christ's return, when the present partial satisfaction of "tasting" becomes eternal fellowship with the Savior face to face.

Bible Verses Used

• 1 Peter 1:22-25: Establishes the imperishable seed/living word that gives new birth and grounds the command to love, setting up the sermon's transition into chapter 2.

• 1 Peter 2:1-3: The main text — put away evil, crave pure spiritual milk, and grow up into salvation because you have tasted the Lord's goodness.

• John 10:16: Quoted via Livingstone's epitaph ("other sheep I have… they shall hear my voice") to show that God's elect must still be gathered through gospel preaching.

• Acts 18:9-10: God assures Paul not to fear, since "I have many people in this city," used to refute the idea that election makes evangelism unnecessary.

• Psalm 1:2-3: The blessed man who meditates on the law day and night is like a tree by streams of water, illustrating daily feeding on the word.

• 2 Peter 3:18: "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" — the stated purpose of Peter's letters and the sermon's goal for the congregation.

• 2 Corinthians 12:7-9: Paul's thorn in the flesh and God's answer that grace is sufficient, illustrating growth in grace through weakness and dependence.

• Matthew 11:28: Christ's invitation to the weary and burdened to come to him, applied as the necessary first step before tasting his goodness.

• Psalm 34:8: "Taste and see that the Lord is good," the key text behind the sermon's call to experiential, not merely intellectual, faith.

• Psalm 23:6: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever," pointing to the eschatological fullness that present "tasting" anticipates.