An article written by Pastor
Henry Mahan, who's gone on to be with the Lord, and he takes
his thoughts from 1 John 5, 11-12. These words are, "...and this
is the record that God hath given to us, eternal life. And this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Henry writes, this is the record,
it says. Declared the apostle John, this
is the sum and the substance of all that is written and preached. God, out of his pure, free grace,
is pleased to give unto us eternal life. This life is the spiritual
life lost in the fall, life forever free from sin, sorrow, and death. This life is in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. This life is not only purposed
in Him, promised through Him, and purchased by Him, but He
is that life. Colossians 3, 4. He that has the redeeming Christ,
the interceding Christ, the indwelling Christ, has life. Plain and simple. I'd like to ask you to open your
Bibles this morning to 2 Peter chapter 2. You might want to
put a little marker in there. I think if I remember right in
my notes that we might leave it for just a moment, but we
will come back to it. The yellow pollen in the air
is really settling into my lungs. I take an allergy pill, so it
doesn't bother me too bad, but you'll forgive me for having
to clear my throat once in a while. Take a moment, if you would,
after you've turned to your scriptures there in 1 Peter chapter 2. Take
for just a moment, if you would, and consider the wonder of God's
creation. Isn't it amazing how we have
oceans that suck up the moisture from all that water into clouds? Those clouds travel across the
land, and as it comes across the land, it drops that water
in a pure form, filtered form as you might say, and it waters
the land and things grow. Isn't that amazing? A baby. I've been seeing a lot of stuff
lately about children in the womb. I have to be reminded that my
position is to talk about our Lord, because I get kind of carried
away about abortion. And I'm not going to go there
this morning, but I get to see a lot of stuff about babies in
the womb. I guess it's kind of because
my granddaughter is about to have a child. I'm going to be
a great at something. I'm going to be a great grandfather. I remember Gene saying that,
and it never really clicked to me what he meant until now. I'm
going to be a great-grandfather. And there's this little teeny
child, a living being in my granddaughter's inner parts. And it has fingers. It has ears. We're talking about God's creation. It has a mind. The Lord will give it the breath
of life and it will have a soul. He does. That's amazing to me. I don't know why this is more
amazing now than it was when my children were born. I think
I was too busy working maybe at the time. Oh yeah, yeah, that's
good. Glad you're having a baby child.
I've got to go back to work. Take a moment and consider the
wonders of our great God's creation. The lands, the seas, the elements,
the rule of natural things. Aren't you thankful that when
an apple falls from a tree, it falls down? What chaos there
would be if we were all floating around like we were on the moon
or something. All these things that a great
and wise God created going together to supply man's needs. We can go a step further and
consider these bodies that our Lord has given us. Ears that
hear, a nose that can smell, etc, etc, etc. What a wonder
of His great wisdom. My thoughts are drawn to these
words in 1 Peter 2, verses 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice
and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that
we may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. My title this morning is Tasting
Grace. You folks know I like pie. I
also like chocolate. So chocolate pie is even better.
Man, you know, sometimes you take a piece of chocolate. Oh,
I thought about this. Could you imagine what it was
like for the first natives to some island somewhere? Somebody
came along on a ship and gave them a piece of chocolate for
the first time. Could you imagine what that native must have thought?
Wow, what a taste. That's kind of the way chocolate
is for me. I can't help myself every once in a while, I gotta
get a chocolate bar and have one just because I love the taste.
It is so good! In verse 2, our Lord says, As newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the Word. Desire the sincere milk of the
word. There's going to come a moment
when that child is born and comes into this world. It's going to
need nourishment. It's going to need something
because it's no longer part of its mother's body. It's now outside
of that body that that little child, and I don't know what
it is yet, by the way. I think my granddaughter's having some
kind of a party next Saturday. And you all are invited if you
want to come down to find out what she's having. Kids nowadays,
any reason to party, it's called a reveal party. It's not the
baby shower thing, so don't bring gifts. But come down and have
some hot dogs and hamburgers and find out what kind of a grandchild
we're going to have. But that grandchild, that great
grandchild is going to need some substance to help it grow. Imagine the wonder of the mother's
milk that that child will want, desire, and must have that it
might grow. This is what you and I need.
This is what we do coming to church on Sundays, Bible study
on Friday nights, sitting down and listening to a message on
recorded or whatever. When we go into the Lord's Word,
we are desiring the milk of the Word. The sincere milk of the
Word. that we may grow, thereby grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. That our faith may be supported, encouraged, not through
something that you and I might do, but through God's Word, helping
us to face the troubles that we go through in this world. Consider this picture our Lord
has given us in these words. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. A child is born
in such weakness, undeveloped. Everything is just getting started.
It's a break-in time for it. Those of us who ride Harleys,
we know this in a way, or ride any kind of a motorcycle, you've
got to drive it and take it nice and easy for the first 500 miles.
Well, you don't want to give a child, newborn, a lemon. And some fathers aren't too smart. Thank God we had dad. My children
had a good mother. She knocked me up right side
of the head and said, don't do that again. You can't give a newborn child
meat, a steak. They need something soft. Isn't
it amazing how God created a liquid form to come from the mother
that would give this child all the nutrition that they would
need? Isn't it amazing that God Almighty would give His children
a form that would feed them in their childhood? These bodies must have a break-in
period. We don't come out of the womb
running, do we? Our nutrition is also important. The stomach must be developed.
The digestive system must be tuned to accept the things that
we will use for fuel as we get older, as we grow. What a creation. This nutritional fluid called
milk designed by the one of all wisdom to grow a newborn into
a healthy living child. All the needs that the body requires
in a nutrition, but yet gentle and sensitive to the organs as
they develop. And here, our great God gives
you and I a picture of his word as the nutrition needed for the
souls of men and women. Our Lord says this in Matthew
11, verses 29 and 30. He says, take my yoke upon you. Oh, the burden of trying to earn
salvation on your own. Do you know why the priests of
old went in every year? Because the work was never done.
They had to do it over and over and over every year because the
work was never done. Yet by the offering of one, by
the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ one time, it was effectual. He purged us by
Himself and then He sat down at the right hand of the Father. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, it says, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And ye shall
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light." It sounds like milk, doesn't it, for a child? The
Gospel of Christ, the good news for sinners, is like milk to
a newborn. warm to the taste, it fills the
belly and it provides all that we need to be sustained as we
go through this life. I shared this in Bible study
with the message that was left for me by Leanne, Polly's niece. She closed the message by praising
God for all that He brings her way, even though she is suffering
right now from the COVID herself, and many of the members of her
family, and her husband, who is in ICU right now in the hospital.
She praised the Lord. Amen. Our walk through this life is
clouded by the flesh and drained by sin, bringing us to our Lord
for nourishment. I come to the Word every week
because I need to be nourished. When I first started coming here,
Kathy goes, why are you going back to church again? I don't
know. I need to go. I really didn't
know. I know now because I needed nourishment. I needed to hear my Lord walking
around. You figure out how many hours
a week and a month that we spend in the Lord's Word. Figure out how much you spend
there. Some more than others. Most not very many. I know I'm your pastor. I should
spend more time, huh? I should. But I don't spend as much as
I could. I need to be in the Word of the
Lord, and when I am in the Word of the Lord, I feel peace in
my soul. Peace that my Lord, it reminds
me of who it is that's in control. It reminds me Of who's got me? Despite the wickedness that I
see in my own flesh, it reminds me that I stand in His righteousness. I stand in the blood that was
shed on the cross for my sake. And you, if you belong to the
Lord, stand in the very same thing. Just as Bill Parker said
last night in his message, we stand in Christ perfect before
God. I know it's hard to see, so I
know it's hard to tell. Especially going out into the
world and spending all that time seeing as we are in the flesh. I need the milk of the Word. Our life is clouded by the flesh,
we're drained by sin, and it brings us to our Lord for nourishment,
as newborns are drawn to their mother for the milk of life,
we are drawn to the Word of Life, the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Romans 10.17, it says this, listen
carefully, hear the Word of God, so then faith cometh by hearing,
And hearing by what? By what men can do? By coming
down to the front of the church and praying a prayer? By getting
in a baptismal? No, it doesn't say that at all.
What does it say? Hearing by the Word of God. And the Word of God points us
to Christ and Christ alone. Consider the word desire for
a moment. It means to have a need. What happens to a baby if you
don't feed it? Mamas know. Some of his daddies
turned our heads and didn't listen, but mamas know. Gotta feed it. Gotta have that nourishment of
the Word, don't they? Consider the word desire. A baby desires
the milk of its mother just as you and I desire the Word of
Truth. It means to have a need, to long
for, to burn within. Two men were on the road to Emmaus,
and the Lord hid Himself of who He truly was to them, and He
walked with them for several miles, talking and telling them
and expounding to them the Scriptures. And what was He expounding in
the Scriptures? The things concerning Himself. Not the things of, well,
you know, you really need to start feeding the poor. You know,
you really need to stop doing that. You really need to stop,
you know, you need to start, you need to stop, you need to
start. No, it was expounding the things of Christ. What the
Lord Jesus would do. And from the beginning of Scriptures,
our Lord has taught, I must go to Jerusalem and suffer the death
for my people. And then after, it was all over. After the long walk and expounding,
and he expounded through all the scriptures, all of the Moses,
the books of Moses, and all the other prophets, all the things.
That means they spent a little bit of time walking, didn't they?
There was a lot there in the Old Testament. After all that was over, they
were sitting around afterwards, and this is what they said in
Luke 24 verse 32, and they said one to another, the two disciples,
did not our heart burn within us? The desire of the milk of
the Word. Did not our hearts burn within
us while He talked with us by the way and while He opened to
us what? The Scriptures. As newborn children, we must
have milk to nourish our bodies. We must have the Word of our
Savior to nourish our souls. Notice in verse 3, If so be ye
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. What does that mean? To understand grace. One must truly know, first off,
why they need grace. Folks, when Adam fell, you and
I fell in him. God is so holy that those who are left to themselves,
those who are not Children of God. And I don't mean you can
make yourself a child of God. I'm saying those who are not
children of God. If you're a child of God, you
have been one since before the world ever began. You just didn't
know it. You just didn't know it until
the Lord brought you under the preaching of His gospel. But
He died. He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world for our sakes. Before we were ever
born. And if you're a child of God,
you will have the revelation of how this flesh stands before
God. It is a flesh full of sin. Dead
and trespasses in sin. That's what the Scripture says. In order to understand grace,
you must understand your worthlessness. The worthlessness that we all
are in the flesh. Left to our flesh, we will perish,
and there will be many in that state. But few, a few have God chosen His elect
to be recipients of His love, to be vessels of mercy, is how
the Scriptures put it. Vessels of mercy. receiving His
grace. And when you see yourself for
what you are, when the Lord has given us a revelation of what
we are before Him, we see His grace magnified bigger than anything
we can imagine in our own minds. Think of the grace that God became
flesh for you and I, and provided Himself our sacrifice. And then
the grace that God shed His own blood for us. Think about that
in your hearts. Is that not precious to you? Have you tasted the grace of
God? Do you desire the milk of His
Word? Our Lord said this in Matthew
11, 25. And at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Oh, what it is to be a babe in
Christ and desire the milk of the Word. The Word of Truth. In the book of Luke, Mary is
singing a song of praise to her Savior for His goodness to her,
and she cries out this in Luke 1, verse 53, Her Lord hath filled the hungry
with good things." Are you hungry for the Word? In verse 1 of chapter 2, we read
this, This is to point us to what has
just been said before. Wherefore, meaning what I just
told you there, wherefore it means this. Wherefore, laying
aside all of that. Go to verse 1 of chapter 1 with
me of this epistle. And may God be pleased to fill
us with His Word. Look at verses 1 and 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. Now, we're studying this Peter. his path that the Lord has put
him on in our Bible studies on Sunday mornings. And we're going
to get to this epistle one of these days. It's been two years
almost now on the path that the Lord has been leading him on.
And we read this, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers,
to God's people, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect called, chosen according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied." Peter is addressing God's people. He's
addressing Israel, the called. Those that were scattered about
going through much trials, just as it is today. Robert Hawker wrote this, he
says, reader, the oftener I read this precious
verse, the more my soul becomes impressed with the sublime truths
that are contained in it. Was there ever a form of words
chosen or can be chosen to express the plainest and most palpable
truths than Arius used? both to show and to manifest
the existence of three distinct personalities of the Godhead
and their distinct office characters as revealed to the Church of
God in Christ. What can more fully prove the
joint operation of the Holy Three in One by the way of defining
their distinct personalities in the same time? What more fully
show their oneness? in all essential nature and design
and in their merciful tendencies to the church. We see, end of
quote, we see his address to the elect as an address to us
all, to the called out, the church, the assembly. But here is the
gospel declared right out front, says grace unto you and peace
be multiplied. Why? Why should grace be unto
you? Why should your peace be multiplied? Because of the foreknowledge
of God. He knew you before the world ever was. That means everything is going
right along as He has planned it. Everything that has happened
before you and I has been happening just so you and I would be right
where we are today. That's the way God does things.
Everything according to His counsel. Everything according to His will.
He rules it all. Why should you have peace and
grace be multiplied? Because of the sanctification
of the Spirit, as it says in verse 2 there. It is the Spirit
that sets us apart. We don't make a decision for
Jesus and set ourselves apart. Christ Almighty sets us apart
from the world. He's the one who makes us holy.
That's what that word means, sanctified. Set apart, made holy. He's the one who has made us
holy. There's nothing holy in this
flesh. But we have a perfect holiness
in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Why should grace and peace be
multiplied to you? Because of the blood of Jesus
Christ, the Son, being sprinkled on the mercy seat of which Christ
is the mercy seat. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And because of His blood, being
sprinkled on that mercy seat. Yes, God did have to become flesh. He couldn't just say it was soul
from before time. He had to be made flesh so that
He could die and shed His blood for us. There is no remission
of sins without blood. Paul wrote the same thing. that
we just read, but he put it in a few more words over in Ephesians
1-3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
places in Christ, according as He has chosen us
in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Now
look at verses 3-5. 3-5 of 1 Peter chapter 1. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope,
a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Does not our cup run over when
we see the mercies our Lord have bestowed upon us through His
Son, the Christ the Lord? What a hope we have. What a hope
We all have seen a hope that was not in us before we were
called by the power of God. A hope that rests in that power,
keeping us from falling, holding us in an anchor holds a ship.
The very power that is of God and all power in heaven and earth
belong to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now look at verses
6-8. We're in. Here comes that good
milk. wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations." Is not our sister Leanne and her husband Kelly
in a great, great trial right now? Have you and I not also
been in a great trial at one time or another where the Lord
has brought us through it? I recall a time when my brother
and his sister went through the worst trial I can imagine anybody
had to go through. to watch one of their children
die. Pastor Gene actually had it happen
in his own arms. And I remember the wonderful,
blessed truth that my brother and his wife shared with us.
All things, he said to John. The power. of God bringing one
of His children through such a trial. Wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold, that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love. in whom though now ye see him
not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory." The Apostle Paul writes it this way, in 2 Corinthians
12.5, of such a one will I glory. Yet of myself I will not glory,
but in mine infirmities. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given
unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And
He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure, Paul
writes, in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. Now turn over in that same chapter
to verse 18 if you would. For as much as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, Notice
it didn't stop at silver and gold. From your vain conversation,
it says. From your vain way of life. From
your vain way of thinking that you are a God, having power over
God. It's not God's will, but it's
my will. That's saying you have power over God. For as much as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish, without spot, who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God
that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your
souls, verse 22, in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another
with a pure heart and fervently, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Wherefore, because of those things,
laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies
and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire Long for, desire
the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby. If
so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." What is your
desire? What is your need? Folks, I can tell you this, you
can lean on Christ our Savior. Now look with me if you would
at verses 4-10. To whom, as unto a living stone,
disallowed and rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious, Ye also, as lively stones, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also
it is contained in the Scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone
of the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the
corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to
them which stumble at the word being disobedient. whereunto
also they were appointed. But ye, but ye, ye strangers,
you elect, you chosen of God, ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
and into his marvelous light. Amen. Which in times past were not
a people, but are now a people of God. See, we know that we
were blind, because now we see. We know that we were not a people
of God before, because we acted like we weren't people of God.
But now we know, because the Lord has taken up residence in
our heart, that we are His. We belong to Him. My desire is
to hear about Him. A people which in times past
were not a people, but are now the people of God which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. There was a time we were all
without God. We all had walked in darkness
of this world, yet in the day of His love, the day of His power,
through the preaching of His Word, the Word of Truth, the
Child of the Most High is called from that darkness. And the light
of His glory, the glory of God, is shed abroad in our hearts,
a new heart. It says, ye must be born again.
That's not an option. And just like with our mothers,
we had no part in that. We have no part in our new birth. It is all of God. He will receive
all the glory. We are brought to believe His
truths. Where once we were dead, now we live. Now if you would,
I'll make this quick. Turn over to Romans. Again, hold
your place there in 1 Peter. I think we're going to come back
to it for a second. Look over Romans chapter 9 if you would.
Romans chapter 9. Look at verses 25 and 26. Romans
chapter 9, 25 and 26. As he saith also in Osi, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and your beloved,
which were not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God. Have you tasted? The grace of
God? Have you experienced His grace?
What I mean by experienced is this. Do you see what you are
in the flesh before the Lord? Has He revealed His grace to
you in making what you are in Christ Jesus? If you believe that you have
tasted the grace of God, for faith or belief is a gift
of God, not of works, this man should boast. Isn't that what
it says in Ephesians 2? If you believe that you have
tasted the grace of God, then our solid rock is Jesus Christ
and Him alone. There is no confidence in the
flesh. And it is upon Christ, that solid
rock that I stand, for it says in their song, all other ground
is sinking sand. If you can say amen to that,
stand with me if you would.