If you will, turn back with me
to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2. I want to say before I get into
the message that our meetings in Jackson, Missouri went very
well. They were well attended and well
received. I stayed with Drew and Melinda
Dietz. He's the pastor there of Sovereign
Grace Church in Jackson. And I was really just overwhelmed
with their love and generosity. Pray for him and pray for that
little congregation. I do believe that he's God's
man in that area. But as always, I'm glad to be
home. Don't you feel that way when you go? I enjoy it, I enjoy
it. Visiting and meeting people all
over the country, but, oh, I'm glad to be home. I had the occasion
one time to go to Mexico down in Yucatan, and missionary drove
me all out in them jungles, and I preached to those people out
in those jungles, We met in little thatched huts. And I enjoyed
it. I did. I enjoyed seeing believers
clear out in the middle of the Yucatan jungle. I just enjoyed
that. It's a work like none other I've
ever read about or heard about. 40-some gospel churches in Yucatan,
Mexico set up under our missionary. But I was so glad to be home.
So glad to be home. I'm glad to be back where God
put me and where our hearts, I believe, have been joined together
by His grace. And I'm here this morning, I
want to constantly remind you of that and even more so to remind
myself of that. I'm here this morning as I was
there last week by the providence of God. God's providence opens
every day, don't it? Opens something new. We ought
to be excited, Winston, when we wake up. This is a new day. This is the day the Lord has
made. Let's look at it, wonder at it,
glory in it. And I'm here by what I believe
is a calling of God. called by God, who revealed His
Son in me, unless I'm totally deceived, that I might preach
Him to needy sinners. I'm not here
this morning to soothe the conscience of unbelieving men. That's what
men want you to do. That's what they want you to
do. But I'm not here to do that. I'm not here fishing for some
common ground that I might win some new friends. I might find
some common ground somewhere. I have nothing in common with
this world except my sin. If you're willing to own up to
your sins, then we have some common ground. We're sinners. We'll start there. And I'm not
here to season the minds of intellectuals who think they just meet together
like they did on Mars Hill to either tell or to hear some new
thing. I'm not here for that purpose
at all. I'm here by the grace of God to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ to you. To preach him to you, being sent
of God to you, just as that angel was sent to those shepherds,
I believe God has sent me to you. just as he delivered them
a message in which they wondered when they heard it. I pray that
that's what will happen today as I preach these things to you.
I'm here to minister to needy sinners, hungry sinners, bankrupt
sinners, sinners whose sin has become the plague of their soul. They know it. They know it. They know their every thought
is sin. They know that all of their motives
are sinful. We're sinners. We're sinners. And I'm looking for chosen sinners.
I'm looking to minister them such things as their Father has
purposed for them to have. And I think I can say With the
Apostle Paul, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Somebody who attends here every
now and then had been gone for about six or seven weeks, and
they come in one Sunday and said, I'd really like to hear you preach
on the love of God. I said, you should have been
here last week. That's what I preached on. Preached on that last week. We always want to hear something,
don't we? And we probably would have heard
it if we'd been here. I think I can say to you, I've
kept back nothing that is profitable for you. And I hope in my limited ability
that I've been to you a loving, caring, understandable, and hospitable
pastor. I'm not trying to make a name
for myself. I'm not trying to build some
kind of legacy. I'm here to teach and to watch
for your souls and to feed the flock of God over which he has
made me an under-shepherd. That's my purpose this morning.
That's what I'm here for. Having said that, the message
this morning I titled, of his grace, tasting of his grace. I tell you, I like to cook. Anybody
that knows me knows that I love to cook. It's fascinating to
me that you can take a little of that and a little of this,
get it on there, follow the directions, and at the end of the time you
have this delicious food prepared. And I enjoy eating it. But I'm
going to tell you something. The proof is in the tasting.
I fixed a lot of things in one. Got done, I throwed the recipe
and the food out. The proof is in the tasting. Peter begins this chapter with
a wherefore. Brother Mahan told me years ago,
when you see a wherefore or a therefore, look to see what it's there for. That's good advice. He doesn't
say, whenever he says for, or wherefore, or therefore, he's
building. He's building upon something.
Building upon something that he's already said, that he's
already established. And this particular wherefore
is based on several things. First of all, he's writing to
those who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
He's not writing to every man and woman born of Adam. He's writing to his elect. He's
saying things to them that was meant for them to hear. He's writing to them. These things
have no value, no association, and no application to the world
in general. If I buy my son, his birthday
was this past Saturday, and I ordered him some coffee from Joe. He
really likes coffee, and I had him send it to him in Washington,
D.C. I didn't mean for everybody in Washington, D.C. to have the
coffee. I meant for him to have it. I bought it for him. It was
his birthday. I bought it for him. I bought
it for him because I love him. I want him to have something.
I want him to know that I love him. And when God sends these
things, He's sending it to His elect. All of these things that
He's talking about is for His elect. All God's eternal blessings in
Christ, He said, Ephesians chapter 1, according to all of these
blessings. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. That word according,
I brought a message out in California on that one time. According,
according, according, according, all down through Ephesians chapter
one, you keep finding that word according, according. It's based on those who are God's
elect, known of Him, chosen of Him. Listen to this over in Galatians.
He said, because ye are sons. How'd we get to be sons? How'd we get to be sons? Well,
I just read it to you. predestinated unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. That's how we got to be sons.
And because you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of
his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. I've never had any neighbor children
come and call me father. Have you? Never had. But my kids
all did. They all did, and God's children
don't do it. They call Him Father because
He sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. So this
wherefore has to do with God's elect. In 1 Peter 1, 2, he says this. These ones that he's writing
to have undergone a sanctification of the Spirit. Sanctification
of the spirit, according to 2 Thessalonians 2.13, has to do with belief of
the truth. Belief of the truth. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Let me show you this. Here's
a clear definition of God's spiritual sanctification. In 1 Thessalonians chapter one
and verse four, Paul writing to this assembly, and he said,
knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And you become followers of us
and the Lord. Now, I'm going to tell you something. And I'm guilty of it, and some
of you are. We get 20 years down the road,
and then we start wondering why we ain't got assurance. Because we're human, and we go
back and start looking for other reasons. These people here just
heard. They just heard, and they had
assurance. The reason they had assurance
is because of whom they heard. They heard who Christ is. Assurance
is in Him, not in you. If He's not a sufficient Savior,
you can't have assurance. And you'll have assurance when
you believe that He can do what He said He's done and is doing. That's when you'll have assurance.
Is He still on the throne? That's what one old The preacher
went to seminary with Brother Henry. He was walking to church
one morning and he saw this guy and he saw him cut across the
road and he knew it was going to be a confrontation of some
kind. And the minister greeted him and he said, it's been a
long time, Henry. He said, I haven't seen you forever.
He said, are you still saved? Henry said, I don't know. Is
God still on the throne? If Christ is still on the throne,
I'm still saved. Because that's my salvation. You see what he's saying here?
This is the sanctification of the Spirit. He shuts us up to
Christ. Everything shuts us up to Christ. Of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Sanctification of the Spirit
is Christ. It's enabling you to see Him
and rejoice in Him and hope in Him. So this wherefore has to do with
God's elect, and it has to do with those who have undergone
sanctification of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God uses the
gospel preached, which he makes effectual by his power. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3,
5, not as though we are sufficient of ourselves to do anything of
ourselves, our sufficiency is of God who makes us able ministers
of the New Testament. We're not sufficient to do, I'm
no more sufficient than any of you or anybody else in this world.
But I am if he's my sufficiency. Wherefore has to do with the
elect of God and the sanctification of the Spirit, which is unto
obedience. And this obedience has to do
with the applying of the blood of Christ to our guilty conscience,
which only the Spirit of God can do. And this wherefore has
to do with being begotten again. Begotten again unto a living
hope, a lively hope. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Now this living hope is not you
being raised from spiritual death and empowered to work your way
into glory. That's not what he's talking
about here. Or to rearrange your life by an obedience to the law,
which God now empowers you to keep, and looking upon your obedience,
count you righteous. The lively hope to which we are
begotten is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's our hope. Our hope's in him. It was in
him when God chose us in him before the foundation of the
world. And it's been in him. Been in
him all this time. Everything rests on him. God
rested all things in his hand. It's by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ and our inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled,
is in him, and therefore it can never fade away, he tells us.
Reserved in heaven. How'd it get there? Christ went
there. He raised us up with him. Actually seated us with him on
the throne. Isn't that something? It never fade away. It's sealed and reserved in heaven
for you. Now listen, for you who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We're not plumb
saved yet. Not plumb saved yet. But he's gonna reveal the salvation
in the last day in its completion, in its perfection. and we're
gonna see it and experience it. The power of God, according to
Romans 1 16, is in the gospel of Christ. That's where the spirit
of the living God moves and reveals the truth to chosen sinners. Ephesians 4 teaches us this very
thing. We minister to our congregations
till, till we all come in the unity of the faith, the knowledge
of the Son of God. Believers don't hear the gospel,
believe, and then put it on the shelf. You know, I go down to
the insurance company, and I have insurance on my car and my house.
And I pay my bill, and then I just go home and put it in the filing
cabinet. If I need it, I can go in there
and pull it out of the file cabinet, get the number, and call them.
I had a wreck. My car's tore up. OK. and they
take care of it. That's not salvation. Faith,
you don't hear this thing and believe this thing and then go
put it on the shelf and then go about your life just as you
were before and then all of a sudden something happens. You have cancer. I'm sorry, Mr. Pruitt, you're
going to die in two months. Well, I better go in and get
that policy out. No, that ain't faith. That ain't faith. Believers don't
hear the gospel, believe, and then put it on a shelf for safekeeping. They continue to hear, they continue
to grow. They're kept from falling through
God-given and nurtured faith. And this wherefore has to do with
the rejoicing in Christ. And oh, how the redeemed, as
they're reminded again and again of what they are and what they
have in Christ, rejoice in him. The nearer to the grave I draw,
the more I rejoice in Christ and what I have in him, because
the less and less I have in this world. All the sparkle's gone. Get a
little age on you and the sparkle's gone. New car just ain't what
it once was. All these things that, boy, just
captioned our minds and hearts, kind of gone, ain't it? The nearer
we draw to that grave, the more we rejoice in those things that
God has sealed in heaven for us in Christ. We rejoice in Him. He said, Christ is a Son over
His own house, whose house are we. How do I know if I'm of His
house? Well, here it is. if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. That's how you know, that's Hebrews
chapter three. And this wherefore also has to
do with being tried of God. Tried of God. God gives faith,
saving faith, gracious faith. He gives it. Well, how do I know
God gave it? Because he's going to prove it. Everybody's going to know it
because he's going to prove it. He's going to try it. Well, we can just bow up and
go through it. Oh, no, you can't. Oh, no, you can't. He'll send
you a trial. It'll prove your faith. And nobody
will doubt. He'll prove it. He'll prove it.
They take gold and it's got a dross in it and they pass it through
the fire and they purify it and the gold melts at a certain temperature
and comes down and it's so many percent pure when it comes out
the other side. And that's what he's telling
us here in this chapter one. He's telling us your faith being
much more precious than gold that's tried in the fire. He's gonna try it and it's gonna
come out pure. He's gonna come out here, he's
gonna show this world a God-given faith. Satan said, you lift,
you take that hedge, you take that hedge off of Job, you just
take it off, he'll curse you to your face. Well, all right,
I'll take it away. He lost everything, Winston,
he lost his children, he lost his home, he lost his holy, he
lost everything. Even his wife came out and cursed
him. I ain't lost it all. No, he didn't
lose it all. He said, the Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's God-given faith. That's what that is. Even his
friends gathered around him and mocked him and tried to get him
to confess some lewd sin or something that separated him from God and
blessed him. And you know what he did? He
ministered to his friends. That's God-given faith. He proves
it. And when it's over, when it's
over, nobody doubts it, not even his friends. Pride of God, every man's work
shall be manifested, for the day shall declare it. For it
shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. Is it his or is it God's work?
God'll make it known. He'll make it known. What God
enables us to do and effectually does within us cannot be destroyed
by circumstance, persecution, or even death. Those trials of
our faith, precious faith, faith more precious than that of gold,
shall be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. And so this wherefore in 1 Peter
2.1 is a big word. It takes in a lot of meaning.
We want to read that and just throw that word wherefore over
our back and get on to something. No. All the somethings is in
that word wherefore. It's a big word. It takes in
a lot of meaning. But, he said, if these things
be so, then lay aside all malice and all guile and all hypocrisies
and envies and evil speakings. Why would he tell us to lay these
things aside? Because we all wear them. That's
why. It's a part of our Adamic nature. We all have it. It's here all
the time. I can't get rid of it. But I
can lay it aside temporarily, can't I? I can disregard it. I can quit acting like it's the
only thing I know. Lay it aside. Lay it aside. These things are a part of who
we are as sons and daughters of Adam. We have these things
and we do these things without even giving them a second thought.
But they're unseemly for a believer. Because a believer is no longer
ignorant. He knows the truth. He's not
ignorant. Many of the converted Gentile
women of whom I read in this book were at one time harlots.
To say the least, they probably dressed very promiscuously. Their
speech, no doubt, was pretty rough. I grew up with some women
who were like that. They were rough, now. And their attitude, totally opposite
of a believer. And many of those men who were
seamen, fishermen, I always get these pictures of these fishermen
being such polite men. I've been around fishermen. I've
been around the coastal regions. I'm going to tell you something.
That ain't how it is. They were rough. They were rough. And while these things were perfectly
normal, where they once were and among whom they once lived
and associated with. There's no room for these things
among God's people. Lay them aside. Lay them aside. They're not seemly. They're uncommonly,
they're unnecessary, and they're of no value in the kingdom of
God. No value whatsoever. And believers who love the Lord,
and they all do to some degree, don't wish to bring any reproach
or shame upon him or his people. They guard against it. In Romans chapter 14 verse 7,
Paul says, for none of us, talking about believers, none of us liveth
to himself. Did you know that? My life, I'll
live it the way I want to. No, it ain't your life. It's his life. Our life is hid
in Christ, in God. He's my life, that's what Paul
said. For me to live is Christ. None of us live it to himself,
and listen, and no man doth to himself. And you get all down
in the dumps and you get that gun out and you cock that trigger
back and put it up to your head, you think about that. No man
dieth unto himself. This is going to affect more
than you. This is going to affect the Church of God. This is going
to reflect how people think about my Savior. Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether
we live, therefore, or die, we're the Lord's. Let's act like it. That's what Peter said. Let's
act like it. Nothing of this old nature is
of any value to us. The scripture said, being under
sin, we are together become unprofitable. And all believers and heirs of
Christ were to lay these things aside. There is, bless God, a day coming
when we shall lay this whole body aside in death. We'll lay it all aside. This
whole nature. This nature of sin. This cursed,
oh, wretched man that I am, Paul said. He's gonna lay that wretched
man aside. in death. But until that day
comes, we're told in the scripture to mortify our members which
are upon the earth and abstain from all that proceeds out from
this cursed flesh. Lay it aside. Think about what
you do. Don't just do it and then think
about it. Think about what you're about to do. And this is absolutely impossible
for a natural man to do, but made possible for every believer
to do. Paul said, it's the love of God
that constraineth us. Well, if we weren't sinners,
we wouldn't need to be constrained, would we? We have need to be constrained.
And I'm gonna tell you something. I've seen awful men. I mean awful
men. I've seen their whole lives turned
around for the love of a woman. They met somebody, they fell
in love, had such an influence on them that their whole life
was turned around. How much more the love of Christ? When our life makes a little
turn, it shows little love. Little in front. And then he tells us here in
1 Peter 2 verse 2, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the word that you may grow thereby. You don't get the sincere
milk of the word from a bottle. I don't imagine There was very
many bottle-fed babies when this was written, do you? Well, where'd
they get their milk? From the breast of their mother.
That's where they got it. Well, who's the mother of God's
elect? His church. Huh? I don't have the words. I just know that it's so. God,
He births a son through the semen of the gospel, the Word of God
preached unto you. He births a son, He births a
daughter, and that church cuddles that baby. It loves that baby. It cherishes
that baby. It watches for that baby. It
cares for it. If they see it in need, they
give to it. They do what they have to do
because they love it. Those born of God. They have
an appetite for the sincere milk of the word. The church has cradled
them, and they've tasted that gospel milk, and they don't want
nothing else. My wife only breastfed one of
my children, but you could give him a bottle and he'd spit it
out. It was like the first time we
ever gave him a pacifier and he just spit it out. He couldn't stand it. That ain't
it. And you give him a bottle and
he'd get a little taste and he'd spit it out. You understand what I'm saying? Newborn babes. Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. Now watch this, if. Oh, this is a big word. It's only two letters, but it's
a huge word. If so be you've tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Grace is a wonderful thing. It's wonderful to hear. Every time when I didn't, it's a wonderful thing. As a
young boy, I was in false religion, shut up to my own nature, shut
up to the law of God, shut up to self-righteous demands, shut
up to a God who could do what he would in judgment but was
helpless in the salvation of sinners, shut up to decisions,
A biased will. And the first time I heard the
gospel of the grace of God in Christ, how wonderful it was
to me. Hymn writer said, wonderful grace
of Jesus, greater than all our sin. How shall the tongue describe
it? Huh? Where shall its praise begin? It's wonderful. And grace, my friend, though
it is the doctrine of Christ, yet it is much more than a doctrine. It's my very experience. It's
the experience of a lost soul. A lost soul taking his first
drink of that sincere milk. Tasting of Christ. Tasting of
his grace. Tasting of his glory. They tell me when a mother feeds
its child, when it breastfeeds its child, that the child gets
all of the mother's immunities. Think about that. Newborn soul held in the arms
of the loving bride of Christ and tasting of his grace. If
so be, you have tasted. And I know that you've heard
the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, but have you
tasted that blessed milk? Have you taken it in? Has it
become a part of you? That's what that milk does, it
becomes a part of you. Has grace entered into you? Has
it begun to fill your empty soul? Has it satisfied, has it created
an appetite in you? This is what I want, I don't
want anything else. This is what I want. It's not Christ to you or Christ
at you, it's Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. And all my friends, Don't be
satisfied with hearing only. Drink in this sincere milk. Swallow
it down. Drink it up until you can hold
no more. There's nowhere else to get it.
If he's not preached unto you, you ain't gonna get it. But every time he is, the milk
flows. The milk flows, and all Christ's
lambs feed. They all feed. And so he tells
us in verse seven, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. Why do others walk away? Why
do some come and despise the message? Why do some hear and
walk away indifferent? They've never tasted. They've
never tasted. May the Lord be pleased today
to enable us to taste his grace and hunger for more and give
us an appetite for Christ that will never fade away. Thank you.