sermonette: Spiritual Milk
A Christians Need for Spiritual Milk
Bill Cherry
Given 30-Aug-03; Sermon #628s; 14 minutes
Description: (show)
There is a place and purpose for spiritual milk, those basic scriptures designed to explain rudimentary Christian conduct. Spiritual milk could be likened to those admonitions to refrain walking in the ways of the world—avoiding malice, anger, sexual immorality; basics to those mature in the faith, but difficult to those who have just emerged from a lifetime of worldly behavior. This spiritual milk, like physical milk, provides the necessary vital nutrients for remaining healthy, developing immunity or resistance to false teaching, and keeping us in contact with our spiritual mother- the church. Even though it should not be our sole source of nourishment, we never outgrow our need for milk- physical or spiritual.
Please turn to Hebrews 5 and verse 12 and 13. I'm beginning in verse 12. For when for the time that you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the
oracles of God and have become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. The Hebrew Christians have become spiritual babies again. They were and they were unskillful in the use of the word, and they needed milk again. Now the shame is not that they were using milk. But they needed only milk and that they had reverted back to needing only milk. And the milk of God's word is good for Christians at any level of maturity. And so the purpose of this sermon is to show you the value of spiritual milk. Uh, in verse 12. It says they had need that one teach them again what the first principles of the oracles of
God are. And so someone asked
Jesus, what is the first what is the great commandment? And we will not turn that. It's in Matthew 22. For the sake of time, we will not turn there, but Jesus said, as you probably well know, thou shalt
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And he answered his question. He said, This is the first and greatest, greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it. So he added to his answer to the question because it was relevant. The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And then he added something of principle which I will for the purpose of this sermonet formulate a definition for the purpose of this sermonette of spiritual milk. Now I, I have tried to Coincide with what the writer had in mind and I Pray that I have. But he says, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And so, in essence, he was saying the, the word, the written word that you have in your hand, and this man was a lawyer that asked him the question. The written word that you have in your hand, all of it, the purpose of everything that is written is so you can learn how to properly love God with all your heart and to properly love your neighbor as yourself. So From this I have also feel like that by extension we can say that the total Bible as we have it today is God's word. And it is a word which we can depend on to be the mind of God, and in it, we can find passages which are spiritual milk, milk that is designed especially for newborn Christians, Christians that are just coming into the
faith and they need specific, basic instructions on how to act or how to love God and how to love their neighbor. So, And for the purpose of this sermon that and what I think the writer of Hebrews means is, are, are is talking about partially anyway, the basic scriptures that tell people rules of Christian conduct. And if we buy a product or if we want to learn how to drive a car, for instance, Our desire, our love for driving is not enough. We need specific basic instructions to tell us exactly what to do, when, and how to do it, and we need to practice it. And such is the case of these passages which have spiritual milk, and they tell us specific things that we need to do to be able to love God and to love man. Now, Um, I will show you some examples later, but please turn to I Peter 2 and verse 2. But in this verse you have the same connection as as you had in Hebrews, babies. Spiritual milk and the word of God. And so he says, um, in verse 2, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word of God that you may grow thereby. So he's not just talking to spiritual babes, he's talking to everyone when he says this, and he says, desire it. In other words, hunger and thirst after the righteousness, and he desires the sincere milk of the word of God. So I wanna show you passages which I consider advice to new Christians because If you've been trying to understand God's way, and you do, and you are in a sense a growing Christian or a mature Christian, these scriptures are knowledge that you do not have to know. I mean, you, you do not have to be taught. You already know. But they are passages which will help you to prod and examine yourself in your relationship to God and man, and we are looking at one right here in the first verse, wherefore laying aside all malice, all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speaking. So these things I do not think any of you need to be told that this is God's way to lay those things aside. But somebody that just has come into the faith probably needs to be told, well, this is not something that Christians do. You do not do this, you do not do this, but for for us to read it or somebody that's more mature or growing. It is a prod. It's a very valuable source of of spiritual growth that we can read and understand. This is something we can examine our lives for on a regular basis to get this spiritual milk that is good to help us to grow. Now, we will not turn there, but I will make mention of another passage which I consider spiritual milk, and from the context of it. And He he's talking about newborn, he's talking to newborn Christians. Now, in Ephesians 4 verse 17, he starts off by saying, To, to Gentile Christians, converts, do not walk as other Gentiles walk. And he tells them that you have taken on a new life. You have not learned Christ this way, but you are supposed to have the love of God in your heart and mind, and you changed the way that you act. Now these are some more admonitions that I would consider spiritual milk, basic things that we all know not to do. And he tells them. Uh, basic things like Don't lie. Speak truth to your neighbor. Uh, do not steal work, so you'll have to give to other people. Control your anger. And control your speech and let your speech be edifying. Uh, be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, and then avoid
sexual immorality, and, and he tells them basic things that we know a Christian should not do. But they needed to be told specifically, and a lot of times we take for granted, even our children, sometimes we think they know things without specifically telling them because we know them. And sometimes we, we make a mistake in not sitting down and giving them specific instructions and basic instructions. So this is what Paul was doing for early Christian babies. Now, it's necessary for them, and one reason it's necessary for them is because they, like we lived in a society that was a twisted evil world, and they could take things like lying,
adultery, stealing. And take them and portray them and philosophy and make it look like doing these things in a certain situation was showing actually love for mankind and love for God. So this is what happens as we read these things, we can examine ourselves in the light of this and see if maybe in our spirit, some of these things can help us to grow as Christians. Now Physical milk. It's one of the most marvelous creations of God. It is a perfect food for newborns. For a newborn calf, cow's milk is a perfect food for a newborn calf, and for a newborn baby, mother's milk is a perfect food for a newborn baby, and they If they can give the milk directly from the mother to the baby, many things happen that are beneficial. Now 3 major things that I would mention today, they get the nutrients that they need to become healthy. They get all the nutrients that they need for the first few early part of their life, and you see many robust, healthy, fat. In a, in a healthy way, babies. And they have been exclusively fed mother's milk, so they get nutrients that make them healthy. And another thing is they get immunities from diseases. The mother lives in an environment and she builds up an immunity to that environment and so the baby when they grow up, when they get the milk, they get the immunities and the resistance to diseases that Does not come in bottled milk as you buy it or formulas and things like that because it's not tailor made for that specific baby. And also there is the nurturing that comes with the close contact that the mother has with the baby. The baby realizes the source of that milk is the mother. And likewise, all these things are beneficial for spiritual babies when we drink spiritual milk and we get all the nutrients we need are in God's word. And if we properly discern them, then we can get all the the things that we need essential ni nurturing for spiritual bait. And older babes tooWe get immunity or resistance to false teachings from God's word and studying the sincere milk of God's word, and we also have direct contact with the source, and we can listen to things or read articles, but when we read it directly from God's word, we have direct contact with the source. So. The Bible reading God's word is spiritual milk and it's good for all ages. Now, we all need spiritual milk, no matter what age and level we have. Some do not get this spiritual milk because they neglect to study it on a regular basis. Some study it on a regular basis, but they do not understand it because they do not understand it through the perspective of the two great commandments that their purpose of reading it is to know how to properly love God and know how to properly love men. So spiritual milk is a perfect food for all Christians. And I would say Drink up You never outgrow your need for spiritual milk.
