The King's Milk

Q: What does the Bible say about the gospel as our spiritual nourishment?

The Bible describes the gospel as essential spiritual milk that nourishes believers in Christ. The gospel is aptly described as 'milk' in the spiritual sense, symbolizing the foundational nourishment that every believer requires. Just as a physical child relies on milk for growth, Christians depend on the gospel for their spiritual sustenance. In Isaiah 60:16, the imagery of sucking the milk of Gentiles and kings suggests that the gospel is inclusive, bridging both Jew and Gentile. It shows that Christ, our King, provides this nourishment, making us one with God and with one another through the gospel. As believers, it is through understanding and embracing this gospel that we grow in faith and unity.

Q: How do we know that Christ is our Redeemer?

We know Christ is our Redeemer because He fulfills all righteousness and redeems us from the curse of the law. Christ’s role as our Redeemer is evident through His fulfillment of the law and His sacrificial work. The Bible teaches that none of us can keep the law of God perfectly, leaving us under the curse of sin. In Isaiah 60:16, the emphasis on knowing the Lord as our Redeemer reassures us that our salvation comes solely from Him. Paul articulates this in Romans 3:24, explaining that we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Believers understand that it is not due to our efforts or righteousness but entirely through Christ’s sacrifice that we have been redeemed from the law’s curse and brought into grace.

Q: Why is preaching Christ important for Christians?

Preaching Christ is crucial because He is the source of our salvation and the ultimate message of the gospel. Preaching Christ stands as the foundation of the Christian faith because He embodies the fullness of the gospel message. In the sermon, it is emphasized that true nourishment comes from Christ alone, making it imperative that the focus remains on Him rather than on human works or the law. This aligns with Paul’s assertion in Romans 1:16, where he states that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. By preaching Christ, we proclaim the only means by which sinners are reconciled to God, ensuring that our message reflects His grace and mercy. Such preaching encourages unity among believers, acknowledging that we are all recipients of the same redemptive work of Christ.

Q: How does the gospel create unity among believers?

The gospel creates unity among believers by showing that we are all sinners saved by grace, regardless of our backgrounds. The gospel acts as the great equalizer among believers, breaking down barriers that typically separate us, such as race, social status, or ethnicity. Isaiah 60:16 highlights that Jews and Gentiles alike come to Christ for salvation, which fosters a spirit of oneness. The apostle Paul elaborates on this unity in Galatians 3:28 by stating that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. Instead, we are all one in Christ Jesus. This shared experience of grace leads us to view each other not through the lens of earthly distinctions but as members of the body of Christ, unified by His sacrifice and love.

and the gospel is the milk. The gospel is the milk. So this is a mother nursing her child. And what I want to show you here is this is declaring that Christ our king, he's our king, primarily the milk is coming from him and he is the milk. And he makes his people kings and he makes us one with God in him and one with one another. He does all this through the gospel.

Back in 1982, some of you know this, there was an ad for milk here, remember, that said milk, it does the body good. I was real tempted to title this that, but I'm gonna call it the king's milk. And I'm gonna show you first of all the king's milk and then what we're gonna know by the milk and then how this milk does the body good. First of all, the milk of kings. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings. Now, Christ is our king. He's the king. The gospel's all about him. This whole book is all about him. And the milk comes from him.

And those that he'll use to minister in this verse are Gentiles and kings. These are elect that Father chose among the Gentiles, that Christ made kings by his blood, but some of them may have been in high positions of authority and power and what have you. But when our Lord first came, he called out his people among Israel. Luke, all through the gospel of Luke, we're gonna look today at when he called his disciples and he called his apostles, we're gonna look at that later. But then he sent the gospel to Gentiles. But he called some Gentiles while he was here, he did. But this is saying to us that the church that he called out, the apostles, they preached the gospel and the Lord saved some Gentiles. Now he's saying the Jews are gonna drink milk from the Gentiles. So there's oneness here. A Jew wouldn't have anything to do with a Gentile. So the Lord's done something to make these Jewish believers willing to be ministered to by Gentiles.

Luke was a Gentile, Luke was a Gentile, and the Lord used him to pen the Gospel of Luke, used him to pen the Acts. Timothy was a Gentile, made a preacher of the Gospel, used to minister to Paul and others, was a companion with Paul. Titus was a Gentile. Kings here stand for powerful people, wealthy people. Luke, for instance, was a physician.

Paul said that the Lord had saved some in Caesar's house. And then closer to Isaiah's day, the Lord saved Nebuchadnezzar. He was a king. The Lord used Cyrus to deliver Israel out of bondage. But before God saved us, now like I said, Jews wouldn't have anything to do with the Gentile.

But now that the Lord had done something in their heart, give them a new heart, You know, before, we used all these carnal things to exalt ourselves over others. That's what's going on in the world today. We use carnal things. The Jews used their law-keeping, so-called. They used the fact they had the oracles of God. Gentiles, the Greeks sought after wisdom. They thought they were wise. And they used these carnal things to exalt themselves over each other, just like we did.

Racism is an example. Racism is one worm exalting himself over another worm using the most shallow thing there is, the skin color or whatever. An educated man, when they look down on somebody that's uneducated, they prove that they're ignoramuses when it comes to spiritual things. They prove they're simpletons when it comes to spiritual things, to do that. to make that to be a difference.

But we were carnal. That's why we used carnal things. Carnal things we thought made us to differ. That's being carnal. And even as believers, we can do this. You know, the church at Corinth, they were putting one preacher above another because of how they looked, because of their style of preaching. Paul said, brethren, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

So the Lord has to teach us. We have to be taught of him that it's not the outward. But when he reveals himself in the new heart, that's when he makes us one in him. He begins to teach you that none of these outward things make a difference. It wasn't our law keeping, it wasn't our good works, it was not where we were born, it's not who our parents were, it's not our social status. Christ makes us know we are sinners. We're sinners, that's all. Everybody he saves are sinners.

And he makes you to know that the difference is the difference he made. It's only the difference he made. He said, who maketh thee to differ from another? What do you have that you didn't receive? Everything the Lord's people have, we got it from God. God gave it, everything. And so he said, now if you received it, if it was freely given to you from God, why boast as if you didn't receive it? Sadly, due to our sin nature, we can't even have pride of grace and be looking at gifts that the Lord gave.

That's what the church at Corinth were doing. And Paul said, He said, I would not have you ignorant. And he's saying that because they were acting ignorant by trying to exalt themselves using their gifts. And he said, you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols. And he said, and now no man speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.

And the only way a man can call Jesus Lord is by the spirit of God. That's the only thing that made the difference is the spirit of God. And as far as any gifts that are given, he said, there are different gifts, but it's the same spirit. There's different administrations, but it's the same Lord. There's different diversities of operations, but it's the same God which worketh all in all. In other words, even the use of the gift is worked by God. So we can't even boast in that. There's nothing about anything the Lord does for us wherein we can boast. But you see, this is necessary. This would have to be necessary.

The Lord humbling us and teaching us everything's of him. For an elect Jew who he's called out to be willing to be ministered to by a Gentile. So we see in that the Lord makes his people one by showing us we're sinners. Everything we have is the gift of God. That's the only thing that made us to differ. Now secondly, he makes us know him. That's what the Lord does. This is how he makes us one. He makes us know him. He said there in verse 16, thou shalt know. Certainty, thou shalt know.

Here's what he's gonna make us know, that I the Lord am thy savior and thy redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. He's saying when I bring these Gentiles and these kings to minister to you, and I work in your heart and in their heart, you're gonna know, you shall know that I am the Savior. I, the Lord, am the Savior. We're not the Savior. We didn't do anything to save ourselves. We didn't do anything to save anybody else. The Lord did the saving. His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. He's the Savior. He's the Savior.

Somebody sent me this this week, I believe, but the analogy was if somebody was drowning and the Coast Guard comes and plucks them out of the ocean and, you know, they were flopping in the water going under and obviously drowning and the Coast Guard plops them out of the water. What if that person started saying, wait a minute now, I did my part. I look high as treading that water. That'd be like a sinner trying to say we did something to save ourselves. It's all of the Lord. We didn't do anything. It's all of the Lord. He said, you shall know I am thy savior. And he says, and you shall know I am thy redeemer. I'm thy redeemer.

We didn't fulfill the law. We have never kept the law. You believe that? That's so. We've never kept the law. The law speaks to the heart. If you've ever had one thought, James said, to break one is to break them all. To offend in one point is to offend in all. We came forth guilty. We came forth guilty in Adam.

It's not enough to just start today forward, you've got to be the whole of your life had to be righteous and holy. The Lord Jesus is the only one that was holy from the womb. He's the only one that fulfilled all righteousness. And he went to that cross and redeemed his people from the curse. The curse was we couldn't keep the law. The curse was the law demanded we die. The curse was the condemnation fury of God's holy justice. And our Lord Jesus stepped in and bore that on behalf of his people. and he redeemed us from that curse. We're no longer under the law, we're under grace now, under grace, led of the Spirit, kept by the Lord, all of grace, all of grace.

And the Lord said, when I do this, you shall know, you shall know that I am thy Savior and I am thy Redeemer, I am thy Redeemer. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, because therein is Christ revealed. The righteousness of God is revealed. That's Christ. From faith, from his, the faithful one, to the heart of faith he gives. and he keeps the justified walking by faith.

It's all of the Lord. And look what he says there at the end. He said, and you shall know I am the mighty one of Jacob. That Hebrew word there that's translated mighty, that word is only used in reference to the Lord, nobody else. Because it's saying he's the power. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it's the power of God. Christ is the power. He's the power that made us believe.

We're Jacob. We're the supplanter. We're the sinner. When he came to Jacob, what happened? Jacob wasn't wrestling the Lord. I hear people say that. Jacob was not wrestling the Lord. Jacob was trying to, and he wasn't gonna prevail that way. You won't prevail if you're trying to wrestle and do your part. The Lord pinned Jacob, and the Lord put his thigh out of joint, so Jacob couldn't do a thing but just beg mercy, and Hosea said, that's how he prevailed.

Lord's gotta bring us to the place by his power where we say we're the sinner, we cannot do anything. And then we call out for mercy, Lord, please save me. And that's how you prevail with him, is by the Lord, and the Lord brings you there. And he won't fail, they shall all know, he said, and He won't fail to make all His people know He's the Savior, He's your Redeemer, and He's the Mighty One, the powers of Him, not of us.

Look back here at Isaiah 42. Look here, Isaiah 42. He said, this is Christ, He's the servant of God, the elect of God. Hebrews read, shall he not break? Look here in verse 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he hath set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. He set judgment on the cross. He settled judgment for his people. And he has to come and set and give judgment in the new man, give you discernment to know him.

Remember when Paul said, no man knows the things of a man. save the spirit of that man, and then if he tells you, that's the only way you're gonna know what he's thinking. That's the only way you'll know what a man's thinking. Well, the scripture says, he went on to say right after that, he that's spiritual, he judgeth all things. You have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. You know Christ is all, because the Lord gave you that judgment. He gave you discernment. He said, but he himself, Christ himself is judged of no man.

We can't know what he's thinking. We can't know how he saves of ourselves. He has to give you that spiritual judgment, that spiritual discernment. And when he does, Paul said, we have the mind of Christ. That's how come we know him. He made us know him. He told us his purpose and it's for him to get all the glory and our salvation. That's how we know him. And when that happens, The Lord said, you're gonna know I'm all your righteousness. I did all the saving and you're gonna know I'm the mighty one. I'm the one that saved you. Now, lastly, I wanna show you what's the effect of this?

How's all this milk gonna do us good and do the whole body of Christ good? Well, one, we're gonna preach Christ. We're not gonna preach law. We're not gonna preach the works of man. And the reason we are is because we know now that everything Christ is and everything Christ gave us is better. It's better than that old covenant. Everything he's given us, him and everything he gave us, his righteousness, his holiness, his redemption, complete in him, salvation in him. It's all better than anything in that old covenant. And that's the point of verse 17.

For brass, I will bring gold. For iron, I'll bring silver, better. For wood, brass. For stones, iron. That old covenant, it was temporary, like wood. The Lord gave it to show us our sin. And it was a heavy, oppressive yoke, just like iron is. But the Lord comes, and his promises, and his way of ministering to us, and it's all better, better, better. And it gets better. as it goes. If you start at the end and work back to the beginning, it gets better, better, better. Stones for iron, wood for brass, then it's, for iron I'll give you silver, for brass I'll give you gold. It gets better, and it's gonna get better as we go. Because it's all Christ, and we know him more, we see more of him. And then two, here's how it does you good. Because he revealed himself through the gospel, you're going to preach only Christ.

And you're not going to try to make people do stuff. You're not going to try to use your pressure tactics and all that. You're going to preach Christ. You're going to pray for him and you're going to wait on the Lord. Look what he says in verse 17 at the end. I will also make thy officers peace. We preach Christ who made peace between God and his people. We preach Christ who makes peace in the heart and makes his people to be reconciled to God, trusting Christ. That's how we're peacemakers. That's how we're peacemakers, is preaching the Prince of Peace.

And he said, and thine exactors righteousness. Levi's an example of an unjust exactor. He was taking taxes from people and he was taking more than he should have and he was keeping some for himself. But when the Lord saves you, Now you preach righteousness. You preach righteousness. You preach Christ Jesus, our righteousness. And that's right. That's what it is to do right. That's doing what's right. It's giving him all the glory and preaching him and waiting on him.

Here's what this milk creates. Within Christ's city, in his church, there's no violence. It's this way now and it'll get better when we get to glory. No violence. Look here, why? Because we know Christ protects us. He said in verse 18, violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy wall salvation and thy gates praise. Lord willing, we'll look at this more another time. But that salvation is Christ and that praise is Christ. He said, I'll be a wall around my church. Nobody's gonna hurt my church.

What makes violence is one person trying to protect themselves from another person or steal from another person. When you know Christ is your full provision and you know he's your protection, you don't have anything to fear. You don't have violence. And the analogy in verse 16's not violence, it's a mother nursing her babe in arms. There's no violence in that.

Remember what Paul said? Look at 1 Thessalonians 2, 7. How did Paul minister? How's the Lord's preacher gonna minister? Look here. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2 and look at verse 7. We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherished her children, like a wet nurse. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you were dear unto us. Reckon Paul got that from our text? Probably did.

It's not violence and nourishing like you nourish a babe. And what did we just see over there in Isaiah 42? A bruised reed shall he not break, The smoking flax shall he not quench. Did the Lord have reason to break us? Did we give him reason to, I mean, we are nothing but smoking flax. Smoking flax stinks. That's like when the candle starts burning out and it's just smoking now and it just stinks and fills the house up.

That's us. But he doesn't quench you out. He doesn't put you out. And he doesn't break you. He's gentle. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. And the Isles, the Gentiles, will wait for him. They'll wait for his law, for his word. That's what makes us wait on him to work in his people, because he worked it in us. And he was gracious to us, so you'll be gracious. He was merciful to you, so you'll be merciful to brethren. And you know this, brethren, when he makes you know that he did it all, and that he's doing it all, he does it all, he's saving us every day, And we know we need him, we know we need his gospel, we know we need each other. When you know that, you're not gonna make mountains out of molehills. You're not gonna look for things to fall out over with your brethren. We got enemies all around us. God's people aren't in the business of trying to make enemies in the church. We wanna help one another, that's all we wanna do. Go with me over to 1 Peter chapter 2. I want to show you this and I want to remind you of what Peter said leading up to this. I'm just going to be brief here.

He said, first of all, you know you weren't redeemed with corruptible things. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. He said, and you know, It's not by you that you believe. You know it's by Christ that you believe, and therefore your hope's in God. And he said, and you know that this gospel is how you were born again. Your flesh didn't profit. Your flesh is grass. It profited nothing. You know you were born again of the incorruptible seed, the gospel of Christ.

And so he said, so love one another with a pure heart fervently. And you know the chief way we do that? Look at chapter two and verse one. Wherefore, everything I just said that he told you, wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby If so be, you've tasted that the Lord is gracious.

That's what he does. That's what he does, brethren. He makes you one with your brethren. Jew and Gentile, there's no more Jew and Gentile in Christ. There's not rich or poor, male or female. We're one in Christ. And through this gospel, he makes you know he's your savior and he's your brother's savior. He's your redeemer. He's your brother's redeemer. and he makes you know, and he's the power by whom you know all this.

We're just Jacobs, we're just sinner. He made us know all this by what he did. And so the effect it's gonna have is we're gonna preach the gospel, we're gonna pray to him, and there's gonna be peace in his church, there's gonna be no violence. And if that erupts, if that comes about, you know why Moses is the meekest man on earth?

He was on his face asking the Lord to take care of it. And the Lord will take care of it. The Lord will take care of it. He's going to protect his church. That's just so. We can trust him. And everything that does happen, all the things that do happen, he's using that to teach us these very things. That he is our Savior. He's not going to let us go. And he's going to keep ministering his milk to us. That's what he's teaching us in everything you go through. All right, let's go to him, brethren.

Father, we thank you that you provided your son and made him our head. Lord, we're thankful that he's the king ruling all things. We're thankful, Lord, that he accomplished our redemption and then called us and made us to know that he is our salvation. Lord, keep us looking to Christ alone. Keep us speaking to one another this good news. Keep us remembering all your mercy is for his sake.

And Lord, carry us. We ask you to carry us. Just like you promised that you would carry your people, we need you to carry us. Lord, make us to Drink this milk, make us to feed upon this gospel continually. Cause us to be in the word, to study your word and have our affections set on Christ above.

Lord, whatever you're pleased to bring to pass, we ask that you remind us of this and keep us looking only to him. Thank you, Lord, for all this tender mercy and grace you've shown us. Thank you for doing these very things for us, for the time that we've known you.

Lord, do not leave us to ourselves. We beg of you, do not let us have our way. Keep us in the true way. Keep us walking by faith, trusting you. And Lord, wherever your brethren are, that any that have done contrary to this and we have. Lord, remind us again that it's not of us, it's not based on any good or evil in us, it's all by grace, that's why you keep us. And remind our brethren of that here and everywhere that your gospels preach. Lord, forgive us our sins and forgive us for being us. and just keep us, Lord, we ask it in Christ's name, amen.

The King's Milk

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the gospel as our spiritual nourishment?

How do we know that Christ is our Redeemer?

Why is preaching Christ important for Christians?

How does the gospel create unity among believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

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The King's Milk

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the gospel as our spiritual nourishment?

How do we know that Christ is our Redeemer?

Why is preaching Christ important for Christians?

How does the gospel create unity among believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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