revealed to us from the pages
of this book, the Lord. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
2. 1 Peter chapter 2. I think I have something for
you, or at least I hope the Lord has something for us, something
profitable. something edifying, something
I hope will be a savor of Christ and good tasting to you. Sweet to the taste. The title
of this message is Sincere Milk, to grow by, to live and grow
by. Sincere Milk. And if I can but do one thing, If the Holy Spirit will but do
one thing through this message, I will be pleased. And that is,
if he will just entice us with this roll, this sweet roll. That's what the Scriptures calls
itself. Do you know that? We're going to see that in a
little bit. And if he will just entice us to eat this roll, The Apostle Peter is writing
to believers here, and he's written under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, of course. He's writing to born-again, regenerated,
responsible children, and he begins this second chapter. This
is where we're going to begin—the second chapter. We're approving, rebuking, admonishing,
and exhorting us as little children. That's what John called us in
his epistles, didn't he? My little children. And Peter
treats us as such here. Paul said the same thing. And
here in verse 1 of chapter 2, let's begin there, it says, all malice. Peter says, quit
that. As to little children, like you
would tell your child to put something down, something that's
hurtful, put that down, or quit that meanness. And that's what
malice is, meanness is what it is. More particularly, it is
planned meanness, malice. You've heard them talk in the
courts, the courtroom about malice of forethought, how they come
down hard on that. Planned, contrived, meaningless. Now, we all get angry, don't
we? It's one thing to get angry. The flesh does that. But it's
worse to plan to hurt someone in order to get revenge. That's
worse. And he tells us, don't do that.
Quit that. Stop that. Lay that aside. And he says in
1 Corinthians 14, he said, Be men in understanding, but in
malice, be children. Children don't plan meanness.
They're just mean. But they don't plan it, and they're
quickly over it. That's what he tells us as little children.
He says guile. Lay aside all malice and all
guile. Guile is trickery, crafty dealings,
subtle dealings, deceitful dealings. He says quit that. Don't act
like that, he says. Don't be deceitful. Don't be
deal trickily and craftily, subtly and so forth. Be open. Be honest. Whatsoever the scripture says,
whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, think on those things
and act like that. Read on. And let me say this
about Guile. I think it was you and I were
talking about one of our dear missionaries. And that's the
way we described him, wasn't it? A man with no guile. There's no guile in him. He's
honest. And quite often, whatever he's
thinking comes out. You probably know who I'm talking
about. But that is the most Christ-like
trait, along with meekness and humility. And the Scriptures
tells us, as his disciples, to be harmless as doves. definition
of guile, being without guile, and harmless, meaning no harm. Without guile, not trying to
trick anybody or deceive anybody, but opening on it. Without guile. Don't use subtlety, correctness,
and so forth. All right? Read on. And hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Our Lord said this
continually in Matthew 23. When he described the scribes
and the Pharisees, you remember what he put on the end of it?
World War I, he describes Pharisees and hypocrites. Hypocrite. And what he said to
them, remember Rick, what he said? He said, they say, and
this is the description of a hypocrite, they say and do not. Remember that? Oh, they say,
they speak well. But they don't do it. And you
remember he said, all the things that they command you to do,
you do it, but don't do what they do. Remember that? Do what
they say, but don't do as they do, because they say and do not. And we studied Wednesday night,
and this is going to be strikingly familiar, Sunday night. However, he started there in
1 Corinthians 13 with, though I speak and have not. He talked about the mouth, and
how the talk is so cheap, so cheap, and so easy to do. But the walk is what matters.
Hypocrisies. Whatsoever you listen to this,
whatsoever things are true and honest, let's be truthful and
honest before God. Myron, you say no honest people
are going to wind up in hell. And what he means is, come honest
before God. Honest about your sin, about
yourself, and so forth. Let's be honest before God and
men. Read on. Hypocrisy is equipped
with that. And envies. Envies. We saw that, didn't we, in 1
Corinthians 13. Love, true love, envieth not. Love envieth not. It is not jealous
of the successes of a loved one. It envieth not. Not jealous in
any way. Doesn't envy successes, but rejoices
in the successes of a loved one, or the happiness of a loved one. Not jealous, not envious, not
cynical. This is the next term. He says,
evil speakings. Evil speaking. And that threefold
criteria for repeating a matter. I keep repeating it, but it's
worth repeating in the stamp. And my pastor used, he said,
whether a matter is worth repeating or not, or saying to someone,
particularly about someone, use this criteria. Is it true? Get to the bottom of it. Love
rejoices in the truth. Scripture says, not hearsay,
but the truth. Is that true? Beyond a shadow
of a doubt? Yes, it is. Well, let's go ask
him, too. If it's about so-and-so, let's call them up and ask them.
Is it true? Is it kind? That'll do away with
eighty-five percent of rumors and so forth on it. Is it kind? Is that kind? Number three, this'll
do away with a hundred percent of everything. Is it necessary?
Is it necessary that we say this? That we repeat this? That'll
do away with most slander. That's evil speaking. Slander. That's all evil speaking
is. Slander. Wanting to do someone
harm. and puff yourself up in the meantime. Gossip? Do away with that. That'll
do away with rumors. All right. Now, note with me
what it is that ought to motivate us to do these things. All right? He begins this verse, this first
one, with the word, Quaipho, doesn't he? Quaipho. Quaipho. And he tells us in chapter
one why. We should do this. What it is
that should cause us to, or motivate us to, good behavior. As I said, this is written to
believers. We don't tell this to unbelievers. They're dead
in trespasses and sin. But to believers, they're responsible
children. And it deals with us as such.
Alright, look back at chapter one, verse two. He says, you
are elect. You are elect. chosen by God
according to the foreknowledge of God. You're the elect of God,
foreloved of God before the foundation of the world. God hand-picked
you and set his love and affection on you, who made you. And look at this, and then he
sanctifies you through sanctification of the Spirit. He culled you
out of the herd. set you apart from the rest. It is he who maketh you to differ
from someone else, from your sister, from your brother, from
your father, mother, your children, from your cronies, your neighbors,
your friends, your workmates. God made you to differ, sanctified
you by his Spirit, elected you, set his love upon you, called
you out of the pack, out of the herd. And to obedience, or that is,
faith, gave you the gift of faith, sprinkled you with the blood
of Christ's grace unto you, and peace is multiplied." My, my, my. Isn't that good motivation? To stop that. Blessing. He said, well, blessed be God.
Blessed be the God. Peter just lets out a A little
shout here. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy,
and Paul says the same thing in Romans 12. He said, I beseech
you, Terry Kindler, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself
as a living sacrifice unto him. Present your body as a living
sacrifice. Isn't that good enough reason?
The mercies of God. Not law, but mercy. and election, and forelove, and
sanctification, and the gift of faith, and the sprinkling
of blood, and the grace, and the peace that's multiplied.
Bless God. Oh, bless God. Bless His holy
name according to His abundant mercy. And He hath begotten us.
Look at that. He hath begotten us, or given
birth unto us, given us a lively hope, a living hope, a good hope,
a sure hope, a sure hope, a good hope for a great by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. There's a man in glory, so bless
God, we're going to be there, too. Verse 4, and he's given
us an inheritance. There's a place waiting on us.
There's some things waiting on us, and they're unspeakable. Christ said, I go to prepare
a place for you, that where I am you may be also. An inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, faith is not away, and it's waiting
on you. Reserved in heaven. Got your name on it. Got your name on it. What's got
your name on it? Christ's breastplate. That's
what you're waiting on. That's what you're looking for
in it. But there's more. Not that we need more, but there's
other things. Inheritance. In verse 5 it says
that you're kept by the power of God. Don't have to keep yourself. He's kept you. He's keeping you.
Kept by the power of God. Who's that? That's Christ. the
bell preached on that, didn't it? The power of Christ is the
power of God. We were given to Christ for safekeeping. And he prayed to the Father there
in John 17, 12. He said, Those thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost. And I don't pray for them only,
but their other sheep, which are not of this folk. Them also
I must have, and I will. And he'll present them to the
Father, and they'll be kept, By the power of God, by Christ,
who is the power and the wisdom of God, through faith, he gives
us faith, he makes us willing unto salvation, ready to be revealed. Here they are, Father, I and
the children. Here they are, the children you
have given me." Boy, isn't that motivation enough? Huh? Where's Thorne? Lay that aside.
See that? Read on down, verse 13. No, verse
7. Read there. He says he'd given
you some trials. Yeah, they're gifts. They're
good things. Trial's a good thing. The trial
of your faith, he gives you. Much more precious than of gold
that perishes. It's faith, that is. Though it
be tried with fire, fiery trials. And this is the end of those
trials, that you might be found in him. That you might be found
not having your own righteousness. That you might be found holy,
unblameable, unreproved, that you might be found, look at it,
unto praise and not found up there one day praising and not,
who's that? That's an old sinner saved by,
that's old Roberta. Praising and honoring and glorying
in Jesus Christ, at the appearing of Jesus Christ in that great
day. Ah boy, verse thirteen, wherefore, he said, wherefore,
there it is. Wherefore? So, isn't this reason
enough to gird up the loins of your mind? Eh? If you're interested,
you will. Strap up, hitch up your gallows,
and listen up. If you're interested, if so be
that you've tasted, the word is sweet to you, what I've said
thus far. It's got you looking your lips.
It ought to be. Wherefore? Gird up the loins
of your mind. Why? There's more. He's sober. Hope to the end for the grace.
Here it is. Hope to the end for the grace
that is to be bought unto you. That final grace that's to be
bought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 14, "...as
obedient children." Now, here he goes on to instruct us and
tell us how we ought to live. Now, he's already given us the
impetus, hadn't he? He's already given us the motivation. Here, he doesn't use law, he
doesn't use guilt, he doesn't use guilt manipulation. He said,
now, you ought to do this, you ought to do that. That's the
thing you're supposed to do. The goodness of God. You see,
John, it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repent. It's
the goodness of a believer, that is. As obedient children, verse 14,
don't question yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance.
Paul said, I obtained mercy, and I did it in ignorance. But
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. So you can see the motivation,
the love of God, the goodness of God. Verse 17, if you call
on the Father, you do, don't you? Don't you? You call on the
Father, don't you, Ellen? You call Him your Father? If
the Spirit of God has been given unto you, given you the spirit
of adoption, whereby you cry out to Him, Abba, Father, then
He says, who without respect to person judges according to
every man, pass the time of your sojourn here in fear. Not fear
for your souls. Oh no, perfect love casts out
fear, Joe. No, you don't need to fear for
your soul. Did Christ forgive you or didn't
He? All your sins, or didn't he? He did. He said he did. You
can bike on that. You can count on that. You don't
fear for your soul. What this means is you just merely
stand in amazement and awe of your God and fear sinning against
him. Right? Fear grieving him. Fear grieving him. Isn't that
really what keeps you from hurting your loved ones? You can't bear the thought of
hurting them. So that's what it is that keeps
you from some things, keeps your flesh from doing what it might
be prone to do. So he says, pass the time with
fear. Verse 18, you know that you weren't redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold or some silly from your vain conversation
received by tradition, from some silly conversion experience,
or some silly dedication and consecration, some silly committal,
or you willing something, or making some kind of profession
of faith, or getting baptized. None of that stuff. This is what
it took to redeem you. Verse 19, the precious blood
of Christ. That's what it took. His lifeblood,
he gave his lifeblood, he strove unto blood against sin. You haven't,
he said, didn't he, John? You have not yet resisted unto
blood striving against sin. Christ, man, he swept blood and
finally gave it all to put away your sin. My, my. That's motivation
enough, isn't it? What would you have me do? Lord
so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." That's
what it says in the name. Wherefore? All right, down to
the text now. Wherefore? Wherefore, he said,
laid it aside. Cut that out. Cut that out. In verse twenty-three, he says,
You have been born again, up to chapter 1, verse 23, you've
been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God. That's the seed that gave birth
to you one day, the word of God which liveth. Does that sound familiar? The
word of God which liveth. Look over to Ezekiel 16 real
quickly, okay? very familiar to everyone here,
I know. Ezekiel 16, this story of the child in the field, such
a picture of us. And like that child, we had been
left to ourselves. We had died in sin. Ezekiel 16,
because we were unclean, we were unwashed, unsalted. But this
is what our great God did to us. Ezekiel 16, look at verse
6. Ezekiel 16, verse 6, he said,
When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted. Doesn't say he saw us as good
little boys and girls, sweet, sincere, you know, honest. No. Polluted. When I passed by
thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood. When I passed
by thee. That's when salvation comes.
to a sinner is when—no, when they come to Him is when He first
comes to them. When Christ first comes to them,
He comes looking for us. Not that we were looking for
Him. He comes looking for us, doesn't He? And when He comes
to us and looks upon us, then and then only do we look upon
Him. Right? Barnabas didn't look on Christ
until Christ looked on him, did He? Huh? Well, the Spirit caused Barnabas
to call out, but Christ looked on him and gave him his sight. And the first one Barnabas saw
was Christ. When I passed by thee and saw
thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee." He spoke the
Word of Him. That's what happened. When a
man, when a man say, this is what happens. God speaks to it
through his word. Look at it again. He said, I
said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Didn't say this man lived. He
said live. Live. Yea, look at it again. I said unto thee. Yea, I said
unto thee. when thou wast in thy blood."
Live? There's line upon line in it,
precept upon precept. God speaks in his Word. God has
spoken once, he ate twice, and some have perceived it. Some
in mercy and grace have perceived it. I've heard him. Now, I'd
like to first Peter 1. That's when salvation comes to
us. It's when it came to me, when
God Almighty passed by me in my pollution and looked upon
me in mercy and grace and love and spoke the word unto me and
said to me, live. He didn't tell me to do anything. He just said, like old Lazarus
in his poem, live. Sinner, come unto me. Live. That's like Hebrews 4,
verse 12 says, the word of God liveth. Word of God is quick. It's powerful. It's alive. I
heard the word of God one day as clearly and as really as the
very voice of God, the audible voice of God, and you all did
too. And still, it's called the word of his power, and he speaks
powerfully through it. And this is the word, Peter says,
verse 25, the word of the Lord endureth forever. Because he's
written it on the tables of your heart. And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. There's a lot of men that say
they believe the word. They're going to preach the way you preach.
I preach the way. Well, what do you do preaching it? Well,
I just preach the word. You know, you've heard it. What do you
all believe? We believe the Bible. We're Bible-believing Christians.
Well, what about the Bible? Well, we just believe the Bible.
That's not being very specific, is it? This is the word, Peter
said, this is the word that you got to hear to be saved. Not
just Bible stories, not just genealogies, not just preaching
of the Bible, but the gospel. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. Nobody is saved till they hear
the gospel. That's the word that quickened
him. That's the word you heard. The gospel. The gospel. And no one's saved without hearing
it. And that's the seed. That's the word. Isn't that what
Peter said there? You're saved, born again by this incorruptible
seed, by the word of God, and said this is the way. It's the
gospel. So that tells me that man got to hear the gospel and
be born again. The gospel. Not just good Bible
preaching. I hear a lot of that with no
gospel in it. Gotta hear the gospel. And eventually
every one of God's sheep do. They hear it, they believe it,
they repent, they come to Christ, and they're born again. Christ
said that in John 6, 45. He said they shall all, he was
quoting Isaiah 54, they shall all be taught of God. Every one
of them. Taught that God's God, their
center, and Christ is the only one. That's the basic, that's
the fundamentals of the faith. You're not a fundamentalist if
you believe that. God's God, I'm nothing, Christ is all. Is
that good enough? There's a lot in there. They
shall all be taught of God. Every man that hath heard this,
heard and learned of the Father, what does he do? This is the
end of it. Comes to Christ. Comes to Christ. That's what the Father says,
you get to Christ. He doesn't tell the Jehovah Witnesses, you
keep worshiping, he says get to Christ. Does it? Get the crowd. And now, like a faithful parent
that he is, our Lord begins to instruct us, and he says in verse
1, now, then wherefore? See why it says wherefore? All
these, I beseech you by the mercies of God, all these good things,
wherefore? See that all this has been done
for you, and through you, and to you, and in you. You're not
your own. You're bought with a price, and
old things are passed away, and old things become new. You're
not servant of sin. Don't you know that you render
yourself servant that him you're a servant, a slave? Don't do
that. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, not under the law, but under grace. Now wherefore? Wherefore? See why it says wherefore? Wherefore? Stop that. You see, Rick, he
doesn't say this to anybody without exception. Unregenerate. But
Dad, but you're not, if you're a child of God, you're responsible.
He says, quit that. Stop that. Lay that down. Quit that. Malice, guile, hypocrisy,
ignorance, all evil speeches, and those two. Now, this is where
I want to spend the remainder of the time. As newborn babes,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may
grow thereby." That's newborn babes. Put those other things
down and pick up the bottle. Desire the sincere milk of the
word, that you may grow thereby. As far as I know, Now, I looked
it up, and I couldn't find it anywhere else, but this is the
only use of this word sincere. The only use. It's right here.
I couldn't find it anywhere else. It's called the sincere milk
of the word. You ever wonder why it says that?
Why is it called the sincere milk of the word? Charles, why
is it called that? Well, here's what it means. I
looked it up. The Greek meaning of this word
has a double meaning. It means sincere, it means undeceitful. Undeceitful. And Paul says in
2 Corinthians 2, 17, we are not as many which corrupt the word
of God, or that is, deal deceitfully with it. He said in 2 Corinthians
4, he said, We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully. In other words, we must preach
and must hear the word of God as it is, as God said it, in
all its plainness. See if you know what he meant
by that. He said the Word doesn't say what it means. It says what
it says. Most of the time he didn't explain
himself. He just said it in that gruff way. The Word doesn't say
what it means. It says what it says. Go home and learn what that means.
It says what it says. Paul said, we don't handle the
word of God deceitfully, make it say what it doesn't say, or
take away from it, or add to it. Speak it plain. He said,
therefore, seeing we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. Plainness. The way we are born
again, the way a man or a woman is going to be born again is
when he hears the plain preaching of the word. And the way we grow
is to hear it plainly declared again and again and again. That's how we grow thereby, to
hear the same thing. You see, we don't hear everything
the first time we hear it, do we? It's like little children.
Like that woman said to that mother who had told her child
something to do nine times. And the woman said, why did you
tell her to do that nine times? She said, because she didn't
get it the first date. And Peter said, I will always
be putting you in remembrance of these things. He said, I've
made arrangements after I'm dead that you're here. The Lord made
the arrangements. Remembrance. Remembrance. Line upon line. Precept upon
precept. line upon line, precept upon
precept. It says that double, twice, that
we don't always hear things the first time. We need to hear them
again and again and again and again. So that's what it means
by sincere. You know, and it means the plain
preaching of the Word. The power of God's Word lies
in its sharpness. It convicts, it convinces, it
reproves, it rebukes. And men today that call themselves
preachers, they pare the corners off, don't they? They make it
less sharp. Well, that's too hard, too sharp. That's the power of it, isn't
it? Don't cut—it's called a sword,
isn't it, Joe? What if you just file the edge
off? It's a dog. Think you're going
to get up and call us dogs, shouldn't you, from the Word? That's what—and
here's the marvel of it. God's people that are dogs, they
just rejoice. And those poodle dogs don't.
They don't. Those who are offended, it's
an offense to the cross. To some, to the Greeks, to the
Jews, it's offensive. Ah, but that's what you're saved.
It's the power of God. And they go out of here, like
old John said to me the other day, call me a dog. Keep calling
me a dog. It's good news for an old dog
like me. And Sherry and I came to this conclusion afterwards,
talking about dogs. We said, there's only one thing
worse than a dog. And I said, we did now. And that's
what Scripture calls us to, doesn't it? That's what Uncle Phoebus
just said, my favorite story in all the Bible, I believe.
When he came to be seated in the house of the king, he said,
Who am I? What is—who am I that thou shouldest
show such favor unto a dead dog? That old dead dog was sitting
up at the king's table, not eating bones and scraps. or crumbs,
meat and taters, with the rest of the dogs. All right. So that's the sharpness, the
power of the Word of God lies in its sharpness. We use plainness
of speech. Paul said, if our gospel is here,
it's not because we're hiding a thing. It's to give to them
that are lost. They're lost. Here's another meaning of the
word sincere. It's a sincere milk. Do you desire
that me to stand up here and call you a worm? Undeceitful,
I mean, just plain. Do you desire that? Deborah,
you're a mighty pretty woman, but you're a worm. Is that all right? Beauty, your
beauty's fading fast. You're getting old. You're forty
years old, son. Fading fast like the flower in
the fields. Fading fast. You're a worm. Is
that about it? Fear not, thou worm, Deborah."
That's what it says, thou worm, he said. But the Word of God
says, thou worm, fear not, fear not. I'm the God of worms, he
says, the God of Jacob's. It also means unadulterated. He says, desire the sincere milk
of the Word. That word sincere means unadulterated,
whole. milk, whole milk, pure milk,
not watered down, not watered down. And that's what most men
are doing with the Word of God, aren't they? Watering it down. Not only cutting the edges off
of it, but they're watering it down. There's an old fellow up
in Ashland with John Flamingham. Every time he prays, He says
the same thing. You know what he said? He said,
Lord, open unto us, he's got, he's from California, he's got
a, sorry, man, he's got a strange accent. And he says, Lord, he
says, open unto us the naked truth. The naked truth. The pure truth. Unadulterated. Whole truth. Whole milk. That's what I like. What I like
in my cereal, that's what I like in my preaching. I won't give
you that skim milk, Sam. Don't give me that skim milk.
Uh-uh, don't want it. Water it down. Tastes like water.
And I don't—here's a play on words. I don't like those who
just skim through the word either. Do you? Just skim through it.
Give me the whole milk. Paul said, I'm not shunned to
declare unto you the whole counsel of God. the whole counsel of
God, all of it, as God said it, word for word. And that's the
reason we go word for word, verse by verse. We're not going to
skip any of it, not going to apologize for any of it, not
going to leave any of it out. Verse by verse, like God said
it, and when we come to it, deal with it plainly, as God said
it, right? That's what we need. Do you desire
that? Desire it then. Desire it. It's a shame he doesn't
tell us to desire it, but he does. Desire it. Eat it. Eat it. That you may
grow thereby. Look at that. It says that you
may grow thereby. Milk. Milk. Not only are we born again by
the Word, but it says that we grow by the milk of God's Word. We grow by this milk. Milk is
the first food that a baby eats after birth. And a mother's milk
is the most amazing, marvelous of all foods. We're the nurses in here tonight. I'll tell you that mother's milk
is some of the most amazing food of all. It contains all that
a child needs. Everything. All it needs. It's
the most essential food of all for that. Stands to reason why this generation's
not in favor of breastfeeding it. Not in favor of this feeding
this either. It's all irrelevant, isn't it?
It's the most necessary food of all. It's what you start out
on. It's what starts out and gives
a person good bone structure. Bone structure. That's the framework,
isn't it? Desire the sincere milk of the
bird. It gives the immunities that you need. What's that stuff
called that's in milk? Colostrum? Yeah. In that, the
baby receives all the amenities that it needs to ward off infections
and so on. It needs that. It's vital, isn't
it? It's vital that they receive that. He says the milk of God's
Word is the same thing. What is this milk, more specifically? Let's get down to it, okay? Let's
get down to what this milk is, what this milk is all about,
more specifically. Read verses 2 and 3 together.
Are you with me? As newborn babes, he says, desire
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, So
be. You have tasted, or drunk, or
taken of the milk. If you have tasted that, what
is that milk?" Here it is. The Lord. He is that milk. You see that? Did you see it?
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby
if so be you have tasted that milk or the lord you taste him
taste and see that the lord is grace you taste of him the word
the gospel the milk is nothing less than christ himself It's
the person. Did you notice there? The person
and the work of the Lord. See that, Rick? Taste the Lord
is gracious. Huh? If so, then you have tasted
the Lord. Have you tasted the Lord? Huh? The person of Christ. Ah, boy. Sweet smell and savor, as Scripture
calls Christ. Savor. sweet to the taste. Christ the Lord, his person,
Lord, and his work, is gracious. Have you tasted the Lord, his
person, and received of his work? He's gracious. It's all of grace. Everything about him is gracious
and sweet to the taste. All of grace and sweet to the
taste. When God brings a sinner to where Christ is preached,
it's like God bringing him to a land flowing of milk. and honey. Isn't it? Honey out
of the rock and milk of His Word. Upon hearing the gospel, listen
to this over in Ezekiel. You couldn't turn there. You
really need to see this again, over in Ezekiel chapter 3. This
is good. And it's so—I just marvel at
the providence of God in the King James Bible. In 1 Peter
chapter 2, the first three verses, It's so, so much like Ezekiel
chapter 3, the first three verses. Look at this. It's a marvelous
providence of God in making it easy for us to remember and showing
us his divine power in bringing this word together. Upon hearing
the gospel, it's so sweet to a bitter soul. When you first
hear the gospel and all of its sweetness in Christ, it's so
sweet. Look at it, verse 1. He said unto me, Son of man,
eat thou kind of desire. Eat this roll. You got it there? Now, you got the roll? Got that
sweet roll here? All right. Get ready to eat it. Eat this roll. Yeah, the man
can't speak what he hadn't eaten, can he? They'll speak under the
house of Israel. So I open my mouth, and you know
it's so hard. It's so hard for a child to eat
what's right for him, isn't it? Until a parent just makes him. And I open my mouth and he calls
me to eat. He wrote, Nancy, you're not going
to receive a thing tonight unless God the Holy Spirit says, Nancy,
receive this. But he does say, open your mouth
and I'll fill it. with a roll, a sweet roll. Read
on. He said unto me, Son of man,
and here it is, cause your belly to eat. Desire. Cause thy belly
to eat it. Don't just take it in the mouth
and chew it around, spit it out. It's got to go down into the
bowels. Fill thy bowels with this roll
that I give thee. Then I, so I did. He said, come,
I came. He said, listen, I'm listening.
And to them that have ears, let them hear what the Spirit saith
unto the children. He said, Open your mouth. Here,
I've got it open, Lord. He said, Eat. I'm eating. And
it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Honey for sweetness. Upon first hearing the gospel,
it's so sweet to a bitter soul, and upon hearing it over and
over again, it grows sweeter. What's that song? What's that
song? Sweeter as the years go by. Doesn't it? It most certainly should. On
hearing it over and over again, it grows sweeter, and we grow
in faith and grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord. And
I'll quit with this. You turn to Isaiah 66. Let's
close by reading this. This is marvelous. This is the
Lord's doings. This is the Lord's writings.
It's marvelous in my sight. The Lord's writings on this roll. Look at this, Isaiah 66. And
listen to these verses. I wrote down a few verses here
that speak of Christ being the milk. I said that he's that milk,
isn't it? We taste of him, his person,
and his work is gracious. It's all gracious. When you taste
the Christ, you'll taste grace, won't you? There won't be any
law in it. It'll be grace. It won't be hard
to chew. It'll be savory. Right? It won't be hard to take, Joe.
It'll just go right out into your belly. Listen to these verses
that speak. When Jacob was given his Blessings to the twelve tribes. Listen to what he said of Judah.
You know what the tribe of Judah was, don't you? Judah, you know, was the surety.
Judah was the lawgiver. Judah was the lion's wept. Judah
was where Shiloh come, Prince Pete. Judah is the kingly tribe. That's where Christ the King
came from, Judah, the tribe of Judah. That's where Jews came
from, Judaism, right? Listen to what this said when
he was giving this blessing to Judah. He said, His eyes are
red with wine, and his teeth are white with milk. John, that
made me think of Christ. He opened his mouth, and grace
poured from those lips. The gracious words of God poured
white with milk, flowed from his lips, no stain of sin, white
with milk, pure milk. of God's Word. Listen to this
in the Song of Solomon. He says about our beloved, he
says, Thy lips, oh, they drop as honeycomb. Honey and milk
are under his tongue. Listen to this. His eyes are
as eyes of doves by rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly
set. And in closing, look at Isaiah
66. verses nine through fourteen. Shall I bring to the birth, and
not cause to bring forth? He said, no. He said, they're
all going to be born of the Word, aren't they? I'm going to bring
them to the birth. What's that? The Word. And I'm
going to bring them forth, saith the Lord. Shall I cause to bring
forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God, shall I bring
them to Christ? and shut up my bowels of mercy?" No. He said,
Come. Rejoice, ten. There's ten. Rejoice, you of Jerusalem, the
city of God. Be glad with her, all you that
love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all
you that mourn for her, that you may suck and be satisfied
with the breast of her consolations, that you may milk out and be
delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith
the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and
the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall
ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, be dandled upon her
knees." In the context of the Church, you get in this nourishment. As one whom his mother comforted,
so will I comfort you. and you shall be comforted in
Jerusalem. And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and
your bones shall flourish like an herb, and the hand of the
Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation
toward his enemies." Can anybody quote that? In Isaiah 55, where
we get this milk and how much it costs, he says, They'll come
to me and be saved, all years of it. I said, come unto me.
Come, buy wine and milk without money. That cost a thing. This
didn't cost you a thing, did I do it? Just fruit from the
mouth of God. Come and buy wine and milk without
money and without pride. And that milk is Christ himself. It's so big that you have to
taste it. He sure is gracious, isn't He? The milk of His Word.
Desire it, but you may grow thereby. All right. Stand with me.