I invite you to turn with me
to Psalm 34. The 34th Psalm. In a few minutes, I'm going to
bring a message from what the psalmist said in verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Taste and see. But let me read
the words of the psalmist here. Beautiful Psalm. And he said,
I will bless the Lord at all times. I'm going to brag on him. You know, when we talk about
blessing the Lord, that's just saying something good about it.
When He blesses us, He adds to us. But we can't add anything
to Him. He's perfect Himself. David said, I will bless the
Lord. I'm going to say something good about the Lord. I'm going
to brag on Him at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Then he calls on all the congregation,
O magnify the Lord with me. Let's all get together in this. Let us exalt His name together. That's the reason we get together
like this. That's the reason we come together
like this, so that we can all join our voices together and
magnify Him and exalt His name. He said in verse 4, I sought
the Lord. If you want a reason for magnifying
the Lord, David said, this is it, this is what we've been looking
at in Psalm 116 on Wednesday night. David said, I sought the
Lord and He heard me. He heard me. Can you imagine
that He would hear us? That He would condescend to hear
these things that we call prayer? But I sought the Lord and He
heard me. And what did He do for me? He delivered me out of
all my fears. They looked upon Him and were
lightened. Their faces were not ashamed. You know, there's no doubt that
when David wrote this, he was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a prophet of God. And
here he's talking about when they looked upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said, and they looked
at what they did, and their faces were not ashamed. There was no
blush in them whatsoever. None at all. And then it says,
this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. He heard him,
and he saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear the hymn, and delivereth
them. Oh, he said, just stops right
there, can't you just get a taste? And if you ever get a taste,
you'll see what I'm talking about. If you ever get a hold of this,
you'll see what I'm talking about. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints. Worship Him. Reverence Him. For there is no want to them
that fear Him. The Lord is my I'll not lack any good thing. There is no want to them that
fear Him, that reverence Him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger. But they that seek the Lord shall
not lack or want, do without any good thing. And I tell you what, if you ever
seek Him, You'll find Him. I hear people talking about,
I'm seeking the Lord. I can't find Him. You know why? Because you're
not seeking Him where He is found. You're not seeking Him in Christ.
We're seeking Him in religious duties, in religious ceremonies,
in religious rituals. Because they that seek the Lord,
they find Him. They find Him. And they that
seek the Lord, they'll not like any good thing. Come you children,
listen to me. Oh, he said, if you'll listen
to me, I'll teach you the reverence of the Lord God. I'll teach you
what it is to stand in awe of Him. And then he begins in verse
12. What man is he that desireth
life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue
from evil and your lips from speaking God. Depart from evil. Do good. Seek peace. Pursue it. The eyes of the Lord
are upon the righteous and His ears are open unto their cry. Now who's that talking about?
Talking about Christ, who are the righteous. It's Christ alone
who is the righteous, but those who are in Christ. But when the
Lord God of heaven looks at us, He doesn't see us. He sees Christ. His eyes are upon Christ. His
eyes are upon Christ. Oh, His eyes are upon the righteous
and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is
against them that do evil. And how far is it against them?
How much is it against them to cut off the remembrance of them
from the earth? The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. You
got troubles? Deliverance is coming. The Lord
may deliver us from them, but one day He's going to deliver
us out of them. Death is coming. And for those
that are in Christ, no more troubles. This flesh, this corruption will
put on incorruption. This flesh will pass away. Oh,
we will be delivered out of all of our troubles. The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Save us such as be of
a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of Christ. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." All his
sufferings, the agony, all that he suffered for us while he hung
on that cross, we can't even imagine. Like Amos spoke of,
he carried that burden of the Word of the Lord to a people
that hated God. And he said, I'm loaded down,
I'm borne down like a cart that's loaded with many sheaves. Like
an overloaded cart, what a burden! Here, speaking of Christ, it
says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, because He
took upon Himself all the sin of all God's people, from all
eternity and to all eternity, and He took them upon Himself. And it was such an infinite death
that He paid a price. which we can't pay in all eternity. That's the reason ours, that
second death for us is an eternal death. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
He paid that death. He descended into hell, but God
raised Him up and seated Him in His right hand. You know why?
Because He paid the price. That infinite Son of God gave
His infinite life and infinite death with an infinite value
that paid all of our sin debt. Not just mine, yours. And not
just ours, but the sins of every one of His people. Oh, many are
the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth Him out
of them all. You say, well, how do you know this is all talking
about Christ? Look at verse 20. He keepeth all His bones. All
of them. Not one of them is broken. That's
what it was said of Christ. Not a one of them. Evil shall
slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous. That's Christ. If you hate Christ, you're going
to be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of
His servants, and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate. Not a one of them. Not a one
of them. Oh, get a taste. Get a taste
of this. If you ever get a taste of this,
you'll see that the Lord is good. I want to look at this phrase,
but I want to kind of turn it around just a minute. I want
to make this declaration that the Lord is good. The Lord God
of heaven is good. The psalmist said over in Psalm
145, the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over
all of His works. He's good. He's good to us. But not only is He good to us,
He's good. He's the essence of good. When
you talk about good, you have to compare it to the Lord God
of heaven. He is good. It's not just a mark on His character,
it's who He is. And He is good to all. His tender
mercies over all of His works. That just shows us that He is
good. Also, the psalmist says in Psalm
145, Thou openest Thine hand and satisfies the desire of every
living thing. Can you imagine that? We usually
will look at these passages of Scripture and we'll look at these
all-inclusive verses, but yet we are so nearsighted that we
only see ourselves. And we see that he will, sometime
we'll quote it, use it out of context, that he'll open his
hand and satisfy every desire I have. Something like that,
we'll read it. But it doesn't say that. He said he opens his
hand, he's showing his greatness, he's showing his goodness. He
opens his hand and he satisfies the desire, and listen to these
next four words, of every living thing. You know, you stop and
consider that. You know, you look at the animals
of this world. You think about all the animals. He's good to all. His tender
mercies are over all His works. He satisfies the desire of every
living thing. He is good. But we are so little
affected by His goodness. Did you know that? We're not
affected by it. He made us. He made us. And we're wonderfully made. And
He's placed us high above all things. He's given us dominion
over all things. Man! And He's given us a world
that's filled with His bounty and His beauty. As I mentioned
to you here, just a few weeks or days, I don't know when it
was, but you look around now, we're in a time of year, it's
a beautiful time of year, is it not? Everything. You take
these last three months, everything blooms, doesn't it? Everything. But you just stop and think about
the beauty of the Lord God of heaven and how He's filled this
world with His beauty and with His bounty. The heaven, even
the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth He's given to the children
of men. He's given this to us. This place
of bounty. This place of beauty. He's given
it to us for inhabitation. He's given it to the children
of men. And then not only that, but the
scriptures say that He crowns the year with His goodness. His
goodness. He grounds the year with it.
He not only provides for our support to sustain us, but He
even provides all we need for our comfort. My! He not only feeds us and clothes
us, but He feasts us. I don't know how to say that.
It's a feast when we sat down to it. And it's not just enough
to keep us breathing. It's a feast every time we sit
down. It's a banquet. And not only,
He don't just give us a piece of cloth to put on to cover our
nakedness, but we're like that infant over in Ezekiel 16, that
after he took it, washed it, cleaned it up, put ointment on
it, clothed it, But then it goes on down and it says He adorned
it. He put jewels upon it. That's what He does for us. It's
not just the bare necessities. And He gives us all of our senses. Hearing, sight, smell, taste,
and feel. The five senses. And you know,
He could have given us these senses that we have as inlets
for extreme pain to our body, but he didn't do that, because
he's good. Our senses are the way, the channels
of a thousand pleasures, and thousands of thousands, and tens
of thousands of pleasures, our senses, hearing. To hear the
sounds, the singing, music, the sight, to see the beauty of the
heavens and this earth, the smell, the fragrances. He's blessed
us so with this sense. And to feel, to have the touch. And here he mentions specifically,
taste. To taste and see. He's given
us these senses. Ways of a thousand pleasures. And the food that He gives us.
You know, it could be tasteless, couldn't it? Be absolutely without
taste. But He's made it so tasteful.
You enjoy good food? You enjoy food? Let me rephrase
that. You know why? Because it tastes
good. And I remember working in the
hay fields down on the coastal plains of Texas. I went to work
in them when I was 12 years old. But after we'd bale all the prairie
hay, then rice farmers would start cutting their rice and
they'd leave that stubble out there in the fields and we'd
bale it, haul it, haul it to the dairy farmers. Cows would
eat it, but it didn't have any food value to it whatsoever.
All the food value went into making that rice. They'd have
to mix molasses with it to add a little bit to it. It was just
a filler. It was just to fill up those cows in the wintertime. Had nothing. He could have given
us food like that, you know, just to sustain this flesh. But
He's good. He's good. He's made the most
basic need that we have, eating, a great pleasure to us. But there's
a particular goodness about Him. That's for us as sinners. The
Scriptures call it mercy and grace. Oh, He's so good to us. Mercy. That's the Lord giving
us, not giving to us what we deserve. We deserve hell, but
He doesn't give us hell. That's mercy. And then He's gracious. That's Him giving to us what
we don't deserve. You say, well, isn't that what
you just said? No, that's not. Grace is Him giving to us what
we don't deserve. That's unmerited favor. His mercy
is when He doesn't pour out upon us the wrath that we do deserve.
His mercy and grace. This is a particular goodness
to us as sinners. And that's what led Him to remember
us when we were dead in trespasses and sins. That's what led Him
to make provision for all of our salvation from every effect
of the fall. His goodness, His mercy and His
grace toward us. Paul told the believers in Rome,
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? I tell you, don't you imagine
you'd give me everything before you gave up your child for me.
Don't you think that's the way it would be? My, if He's given
His only begotten Son for us, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? He said He was delivered for
our offenses. He didn't die because we were
good. He died because we were His enemies. He died for the ungodly. He was delivered for our offenses,
and then God raised Him up for our justification. And in Him,
He is so good, all things are now ready for our acceptance. All we have to do is just taste.
In Him, as unworthy as we are, we may obtain all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places forever. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us. And this favor which He shows
to His people with reference to the soul and eternity, that's
what we're to seek after. Now how will I ever come to know
that the Lord is good? That's the question we come to.
And that's the first part of this phrase here. He said, taste
it. Just get a bite of it. Come to
it. Embrace Him. If you ever taste
Him, you'll know that He's good. You know, David doesn't tell
us here to hear and know. He doesn't say read and know.
He doesn't say believe and know. He said, but taste and see that
the Lord is good. I know a lot of things I've never
seen. Did you know that? You know what
I'm talking about? I know it by fact. But I've never
seen it. This is more than knowing. This
is eyewitness. I can know that someone's guilty
without being an eyewitness to what he did. Isn't that so? This
is more than just knowing. You know how I see? Because I've
tasted. I've tasted that the Lord is
good. And this, when I get a taste of Him, This is when I don't
rely on the word of another. I know it because I've tasted
it. I see it. We can't determine taste by testimony
of another, but we have to taste it ourselves. It's personal experience. One time I was traveling in Mexico
and I was down on the Bay of Campeche, and I stopped in this
little fishing village, Champoton, right where a river dumped into
the Bay of Campeche, which is the southern gulf of Mexico.
And this place, it wasn't about 200 or 300 people there, but
everybody was a fisherman. They had good shrimp there. And I stopped at this little
grass hut, and it was a cafe, and I went in, and I wanted a
shrimp cocktail. But when I ordered, I said, just
bring me a bowl of boiled shrimp. They had the makings on the table. Besides, they don't make cocktail
sauce like I like it. It's got horseradish in it. They
don't make it like that. But they had some makings there.
I said, I can make my own sauce. So while they were bringing the
shrimp, I got to look around. They had this bowl, and it was
a paste. I knew it was some kind of paste
made from some kind of peppers. But when the waiter came back,
I said, is this hot? He said, nah, it's not hot. I
said, okay, so. He brought my shrimp, man, I
just popped it in there, you know, three or four spoonfuls,
and I put a little hot sauce in there, you know, and a little
ketchup, mixed it all up, took a bite of it, and you'd think
Mount St. Helens erupted out of my head.
It was so hot. I called the waiter back over
when I got to where I could breathe. And I said, you said this wasn't
hot. No, it's not hot. I said, taste
of it. So he stuck his finger down. It's hot. I said, I know it. I know it
for a fact now. I took your word for it. It wasn't
so. Your word wasn't right. I know for a fact now. Why? Because
I tasted of it. I couldn't find this out when
he told me about it because he said it wasn't so. But now I
know by personal experience. I know that it's hot. And how
do I know that the Lord God of heaven is good? I can't take
your word for it. I've tasted it for myself. And
until we taste Him for ourselves, we're going to be a yo-yo down
and up, down and up until we get a taste of it ourselves.
You know that's the reason you don't have to put a set of rules
and regulations. I've had people ask me, want
me to put rules and regulations. Oh no, if we ever taste, You
don't have to beg me to get a bowl of banana pudding. Why? Because
I've already tasted it. I know. I know. I've never had
a bad one. Just different. But I've never
had a bad one. Why? Because I've tasted of it.
And if we ever get a taste of Him, you don't have to tell people
what to do and what not to do. Why? Because they've tasted of
Him. You know when people get interested in the Gospel? When
they get a taste of Him. You know when people get interested
in being faithful? When they get a taste of Him.
You can take a baseball bat and try to beat people over the head
with it, but it's not until they taste Him themselves, and then
they can't get enough of Him. Just can't get enough of Him.
Oh, I tell you, it's personal experience and taste is the difference
between religion and salvation. Taste. Religion, you just know
biblical facts. Did you know that? Religion will
teach you biblical facts. You know what salvation is? It's not knowing biblical facts.
Salvation is knowing Christ. It's knowing Christ. Not knowing
biblical facts. We know that the Son of God has
come. We know it. And He's given to
us understanding that we may know Him that is true. And we're in Him that is true.
Even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is
salvation. This is life. It's not knowing
biblical facts. It's knowing Him. Religion is
to know what I believe. You know what salvation is? That's to know whom. It's a person. Not a what. It's a him. Paul told Timothy, he said, for
I know whom I have believed. Whom? And I'm persuaded that
he, not it, but that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. You know what religion will do?
Religion will make you a member of a church somewhere. You used
to get baptized into a church somewhere. That's what religion
will do for you. You know what salvation is? That's to be baptized
into Christ. To be made one with Him. Has
to be baptized into His death. To be a participant in His death. To be one with Him. That's life. That's salvation. Religion is
reformation. And how many times have we decided
that we was going to straighten up and do right? And it lasts
about as long as your New Year's resolutions last. Not very long. You know what salvation is? Salvation
is regeneration. And that's a far cry from reformation. Reformation is just painting
the outside. Regeneration is tearing it down
and starting over. Oh, that's what we are, in Christ
Jesus. Jesus said unto Nicodemus, He
said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. And let me tell you something,
religion is conversion. People always want to count their
new converts, get their reports sent in. You know what salvation
is? That's to be a new creature.
A new creation in Christ. And if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. He lives differently. He walks
differently. He talks differently. He thinks
differently. Everything about him is different.
Old things are passed away. And he said, Behold, take a look
at this. All things are become new. You know, experience, that's
like tasting. And experience is knowledge that
comes from the actual experiment or the actual doing. It's not
just theory. It's knowing for a fact. And
we can take that experience and we can apply it to the truths
of God's Word. And that's how we know them.
We've tried them. We've tried them. You remember
the story about Mr. Spurgeon telling about going
to visit the elderly lady in his congregation who was sick? She got up to get him some tea,
and her Bible was laying there on the table, and Mr. Spurgeon
picked up her Bible, and he got the thumb and threw it, and he
just kept noticing, TP, TP, TP, written in the margin of her
Bible by different verses. It was all the way through the
Bible, TP. When she came back and brought
the tea, He said, I was looking through your Bible, and he said,
I happen to notice you have TP written in the margin of your
Bible. What does that mean? She said, tried and proven. Up
until then, it's just theory, isn't it? It's just theory. But you take a promise of God's
Word, and I tell you, you read that. You know, like verse 15
we read, "...the eyes of the Lord upon the righteous, and
His ears are open unto their cry." Do you know that for a
fact? Or you just know it by theory
because the Word says it? Could you write TP for yourself
out beside that verse? That's how we prove what the
scriptures say about sin, what the scriptures say about repentance,
about hope, about peace, about joy, about believing. Why? Because
we've experienced it. We know it. So many people, they
just know about these divine things in theory. They don't
know anything about the power of them. They're familiar with
the truths of the gospel, but they don't have any effect on
their hearts and lives. They believe in hell, but they
don't make any attempt to flee from the wrath of God. They believe
in heaven, but they don't set their affections on things above. They can be satisfied with just
about anything because they've never tried it. It don't take
a whole lot of religion to get the world satisfied, does it? They're just satisfied with anything.
You make it loud enough and bright enough, and they're satisfied. That's all you have to do. Oh,
I tell you, they believe in hell, but they don't make any attempt
to flee from it. They believe in heaven, but they don't set
their affection on things above. They believe in the salvation
or in the value of the soul, but they neglect the only opportunity
to embrace that of which will only give them peace. They read
the Bible, but they're not affected by its threatenings and its promises.
They're not happy. And they try to flee from their
misery. And you come along and you tell
them what the problem is and they get mad at you. Do you know
that? You know why? Because they hadn't tasted. They
hadn't tasted. They're under the sentence of
death. But they can't find any peace
in Christ. You know, we're a mess of contradictions,
aren't we? Oh my goodness, what a mess we
are. All of our knowledge, it doesn't
have any value. Because we know what the refuge
is, but we won't flee to it. And to know what the refuge is
and to not go in is just theory. We've not experienced it. To
know there's a remedy and not apply it, that's just a knowing
theory. We'll not only perish, we're
not going to have anybody to blame. And that's just going
to aggravate our sin and our condemnation. We've been blessed,
have we not? We know a lot. We know a lot. But you know what? All this knowledge,
if it doesn't become ours by experience, it's just going to
put us in the first line of punishment when it's handed out. It's going
to aggravate our condemnation. Because we know. I told you the
other night, we've been blessed as a congregation to hear some
of the greatest preachers this world's ever had. I know to hear
some of the greatest preachers In the last hundred years, I'm
thinking about Spurgeon. My, I would love to hear him,
but we've heard as great as him. We have. But I tell you what,
that's just going to put us heading up the line when punishment's
given out. Don't be satisfied until you know these things by
experience, until you take a taste of them for yourself. But you
know what that'll do? Once you've tasted of it, you
know what it'll do for you? It'll establish your heart. I
tell you, like Paul said, my feet are set in cement. That's
what it meant when he said that. I'm there. I stand. My feet are in cement. It's going
to establish it. When all this stuff comes out,
all these books come out, all these movies come out, you know,
oh, it doesn't bother me a bit. I laugh at them. I realize the
foolishness of them. Does it shake you? Your confidence
that this is God's Word. Not once you've tasted it. Not
once you've tasted it. I tell you, you'll be so confirmed
here, you won't want to go anywhere else. You know, Claudia, I told
you, she'll eat anything. She's not a vegetarian, but if
it even gets close to a vegetable, she'll eat it. And here a while
back she grew some radishes and she cut the leaves off. She made
a salad and she said, I took some of those radish leaves and
put them in your salad. I said, I don't want to eat those
things. I said, how do you know they're not poisonous? I've never
heard of anybody eating radish leaves. She said, they're not
poisonous? Well, I wasn't about to trust
her. And I wasn't going to trust her. Then the other day she came
in and she had boiled some beet leaves. I said, I've never heard
of anybody boiling and eating beet leaves like there's mustard
greens or something. She said, they're good. Well,
they convince those rats that poison's good too, you know.
But I'll just give you another chicken leg. You know, I know
that. I've tasted that. And I'm not
carried away by all this other stuff. I've had that. And I tell you what, if we've
ever tasted of the Lord, we're not going to be carried away
by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Why? Because our
feet are set in cement. Tell me what you want. You try
to convince me banana pudding ain't good. I mean, I'll laugh
at you. I'll laugh at you. You know why?
I'll taste it. It will establish our heart in
grace. It will confirm us in its truth. And we won't be led
away by the error of the wicked if we ever taste. Because then
we'll see that the Lord's good. Then you'll desire to know Him
more. If you've ever had a taste of it, you just can't get enough
of it. You can't get enough of it. You want your kids to like
it. You know, probably if you didn't
eat squash, and you don't eat squash, you probably don't force
it on your kids, do you? But Claudia likes squash. And
we have three boys that love the stuff. I don't understand
that. But I tell you what, when we like something, we're going
to impress it on someone else. They're going to be impressed
with our desire, our joy in it. We're going to impress our children.
You're going to want to know more of Him, knowing that He's
full of grace. And you know what your prayer
is going to be? Lord, evermore give us this bread. He'll give
me anything else, just keep giving me this bread. You know what? That's when you're going to be
qualified to speak to others. That's when you're going to be
able to just do as our Lord said, just go home and tell them what
great things the Lord's done for you. Don't go home and argue
about what your church believes, because who cares? Anyway, you've
got one argument, they've got a hundred. You're not going to
convince them. But I tell you what, you tell
them what great things the Lord's done for you, who can argue with
that? Who can argue with that? That's when you'll speak from
the heart. And you can say, buddy, I've
tried it. I've tasted it. And it was good. It was good. And you can recommend
a tried remedy to somebody else because it worked for me. It
worked for me. Just go home and tell them, how
do I know this? Because I tasted it. I tasted it. And once you've
tasted it, you go through the Scriptures and look up where
that word tasting is used. It's used a number of times in
the Scriptures. And boy, do you ever get a taste of that. Like
you say over in Hebrews 6, you get a taste of that, where are
you going to go? Where are you going to go? I've tasted of it.
And if I walk off from this, there is no other salvation.
There is no other redemption. I've tasted this one. Have you
tasted it? If you ever do, you'll never
leave it.