"Peter, Feed My Sheep” (3 Of 21)

After the Lord miraculous converted Paul, the Lord told him to go into the city and he would be told what he was to do.

The apostle Peter's conversion was unusual as well. The Lord first met him by the sea of Galilee.

Look Matthew 4:18, “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.”

The Lord must have made a big impression upon Peter on the sea of Galilee, because he became a very devout follower from that day forward.

This is the same Peter to whom the Lord said, "Feed my sheep."

In 1 & 2 Peter, he does just that. For almost two thousand years now, this great apostle has been feeding God's sheep.

Let us look at chapter two and digest some of this spiritual nutrition he provides for God's sheep. The first thing he tells them is-

I. WE MUST LAY ASIDE SOME THINGS

He lists some things to LAY ASIDE.

Look at verse 1, we read, "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings."

Look at the word "ALL" before each of these:

• All malice

• All guile.

• All hypocrises and envies

• All evil speakings

God does not want one trace of these things in our lives. He says, ALL of these things in the life of the child of God must be laid aside.

Peter, by using the word ALL, wants to make it clear that there is NO ROOM in the life of a Christian for these things.

Notice, he did not say, IF YOU AGREE WITH HIM, OR THINK IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO DO THIS. He gives us this specific command to, “lay aside” these things.

The words, "laying aside", mean like a changing of clothes.

Paul had the same thing in mind in Ephesians 4:22, "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,"

Paul uses the words, "put off", which mean the same thing as Peter's, "laying aside."

Illus: I look across this congregation and see folks that have their clean Sunday clothes on. But suppose Bro. _____________ had been doing some mechanical work all week long, and he came to church with grease and dirt all over his clothes. If he did, I would have a hard time holding your attention, because you would all be looking at him.

Such clothing is unacceptable, and we would expect him to lay aside these dirty clothes to attend the Lord's house.

Peter recognized that we Christians have a DIVINE COMMAND to lay aside those dirty things in our lives that are unbecoming to us as Christians.

So that there won’t be any misunderstanding about what we are suppose to get rid of, he tells us:

(A) MALICE

Malice is badness, depravity, malignity, trouble, evil. Notice that malignity is a synonym with the word, malice.

Illus: We generally hear the word malignity used as a medical term. For example, when a person is tested for cancer, we want to know if it is malignant.

You can drive all over this country and see ministries that God once greatly used and that were blessed of God, but because they are not willing to lay aside malice, as God’s Word told them to do, those churches are dead and buried.

When a church is full of malice (Evil) , it is a matter of time before it will be dead and buried.

We are to lay aside MALICE and -

(B) GUILE

Guile is deception. We live in an age of deception. It seems that everywhere you turn these days, people are being deceived.

We are being deceived by:

• Lawyers

• Doctors

• Hollywood industry

• Merchants

• Advertisers

• Car Salesmen

• Real Estate Salesmen

• Carpenters

• Mechanics

• Church denominations

• Television Evangelists

• School Systems

It is a fact that we live in an age of deception. The reason we are being deceived most of the time can be traced back to people’s greed for the almighty dollar.

For example, we are deceive by television commercials every day.

Illus: If a foreigner was to come to America for the first time and watch TV for one day, he would think that all we Americans do is get excited about soap, tooth paste, and chewing gum, and we sit around each day squeezing toilet tissue.

Illus: Some people in this deceptive society remind us of the little boy who was in a large shopping center crying, "I want my Mommy! I want my mommy!" People passing by felt sorry for him, and gave him, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Finally one man came to him and said, "I know where your Mommy is." The little boy said, "I do too, but keep quiet because I am getting rich with all these nickels, dimes and quarters!"