Well my text this week is in
1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 3. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. If so be that ye have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. I could ask you some questions.
Who likes olives? Who likes olives? Who likes olives?
Some of you do, some of you don't. Some of you, like me, used to
absolutely hate them, and now you love them. Or anything else,
any other food that we could mention. Who likes oysters? Mm,
well, mm, some do, some don't even try them. Who likes red
wine? One or two of us here, I think,
do. Stilton cheese, ooh, mm, mm. Well, you know, to some of
you, probably to the children, the smell of Stilton cheese is
horrible. Who likes chocolate cake? Any
children like chocolate cake? I think one or two of you do.
And it's coming up to Christmas and Christmas dinner. Who likes
Brussels sprouts? Now there's something to divide
us. Even worse, even worse, who likes snails? Who likes snails? See, now look, look, how interesting,
you see? The mere mention of these things
has stirred emotions, hasn't it? I've been talking about the
taste of food. The mere mention has stirred
emotions. It's stimulated memories. It's
provoked desire for more of it. It's a mixture of delight to
some, I mean if you say to me, would you like this lovely snail
in garlic butter, then no thank you, it just prompts disgusting
me, but others of us absolutely love them. But there are very
few who are left untouched by these things. So look at our
verse, verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. What about a taste for the Lord
God? What about a taste for him? A
taste of his grace? Have you tasted? Have you savoured? that, have you savored his grace,
that the Lord is gracious? You see, not everyone does. There's
an if there, isn't there? If so be, because not everybody
does. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. In fact, those that have and
do taste that the Lord is gracious are in a very, very small minority
today. It was ever thus. the Lord himself
said fear not little flock there never was going to be a huge
number except when we're in heaven and you will see that the people
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world is a multitude that
no man can number from every tribe and tongue and kindred
every single one known to God if so be ye have tasted apparently
Having a taste, and relishing the gracious taste of the things
of God, is far from the experience of everyone. In fact, it is a
very specific blessing, a very particular blessing. It is only
bestowed on some. It's the blessing of God. And
what are the benefits of that blessing? To taste that the Lord
is great. Have you, if you have tasted,
if you have tasted, because not all have, have you tasted the
benefits of that blessing of tasting the grace of God? the
blessing of knowing God. To those of you that know it,
to those of you that have believed, the savour, the taste of knowing
God is a sweet taste. What a comforting taste. What a soothing taste it is to
know God as God our saviour. Not as our judge and the one
who will condemn us for our sins, but as our saviour in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh the blessing of having learnt
reverent fear of him, to know what it is to be a sinner saved
in the presence of God who is holy, who is a consuming fire
and yet gracious to his people. The savour, the sweet taste of
experiencing peace with God because the Lord Jesus Christ, God himself,
he, God, became man. that he might take our sins and
deal with them and pay their penalty and thereby make peace
with God. Oh, the sweetness, the taste
of the sweetness of peace with God. It is well with my soul. You know that hymn? It is well,
it is well with my soul. Can you say that? That's the
taste of the grace of God. It feels good. It feels delicious. It's lovely. of acceptance, of
knowing I am accepted in the Beloved. I'm accepted in Him. I'm not accepted because I've
done certain things. I'm not accepted because I've
been baptized or I exercise faith. I'm accepted in Him because of
what He is and what He's done. I have the forgiveness of my
sins. Oh, what a blessing it is to
know My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not
in part but the whole is nailed to his cross and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. My sins
are forgiven. I am cleansed from the stain,
from the foul stain of them. And I'm given an assurance, what
a sweet assurance of heaven for eternity. To know that when,
whatever age I am, whatever stage I am, whatever condition I'm
in, when I leave this life, when he takes me, it is to be, as
he said to that thief on the cross, with him that day, that
very day, in paradise, in paradise. Ask yourself if you really have
any right to claim this blessing for yourself. This sermon is
to me as much as it is to you. It's something we have to ask
ourselves. Are we amongst those who have tasted that the Lord
is gracious? If so, be. There's a hymn that
was written by John Newton. It says this, it is a point I
long to know. Often it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? You see, there's a great danger
of presumption of entitlement. Many presume to be entitled to
heaven, to be going to heaven. They're going to meet up with
all their relatives that have gone before and they're all going
to have a good time together in this heaven of their own imagination.
It's idolatry because it has no foundation in the word of
God. Many, presume, who have no claim
at all. And so this morning, I've got
two points. First of all, warnings of fake
taste. And secondly, marks of true taste. First of all, warnings of fake
taste. Now I want you to turn to the
epistle to the Hebrews with me. I want you to turn there. Hebrews
chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Let me read
a few verses for you. beginning at verse 4 Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 4 For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they
shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him
to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation though
thus we speak and then turn over to chapter 10 of Hebrews chapter
10 and verse 26 Chapter 10, verse 26, For if
we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a
certain fearful looking of judgment and fiery indignation which shall
devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know
him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,
saith the Lord. And again the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Those two passages in Hebrews
give a warning against presumption. You say that you believe, you
do well. The devils also believe, says
James, and they tremble. It's not enough to say you believe
in God. The devils, the fallen spirits,
they know that God is true and they tremble at the thought.
Oh no, no, no. It's continuing in the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's walking continually in his
ways. Oh yes, we slip and we fall,
but the overall progress is to walk in him and keep believing
in him. There's a possibility of presuming
you are entitled to the benefits of citizenship of God's kingdom,
when in fact you are not. It is perfectly possible, as
those passages show. There is plenty of religion all
around. There is plenty of religion that
calls itself evangelical Christianity. But as Philpott puts it, I love
JC Philpott, many of you get these daily readings each day.
he puts it like this, many are like the foolish virgins in the
parable you know who were going to the the eastern wedding, the
night time eastern wedding and they had oil for their lamps
and there were some that were wise and had oil to spare and
there were others who hadn't taken oil for the lamps and he
says they're like the foolish virgins, many people who think
that they're in the right way in the faith of Jesus Christ
but he says they've got the light of knowledge in their heads and
the lamp of profession in their hands, but there's no oil of
grace in their hearts. There are many in religion who
claim gifts, but without the grace. They profess belief, but
they don't possess Christ. They have a form of religion,
but without the quickening power of God's Spirit. They're like
those at Sardis in the letters to the churches in Revelation.
They have a name that they live, they have a reputation that they
live, but in fact, they're dead in reality. You see, there's
a warning here. a fake taste. There are those
that think they taste the things of God when in truth they don't.
And this can be a shocking realization when we're alerted to the danger.
Have you ever woken up to this? That there is a danger that we
need to beware of? There's a shocking realization.
Imagine that you were on that first transatlantic crossing
on the great ship the Titanic and it was its maiden voyage
and this was the unsinkable ship It was built to be unsinkable.
And they're proceeding through the night on about the third
night of their voyage, their four-day journey across the Atlantic
Ocean to New York. And there is the Titanic arrogantly,
presumptuously progressing to New York with all of its passengers
on board. And in the night watch around
midnight, somebody up on the bridge, at the last minute before
it's too late to do anything about it, in the distance out
of the gloom spots an enormous great iceberg and there's no
way of turning the ship it's too late it's going to hit it
can you imagine the shock of that so it is many in religion
who think that they're in a fine state who think that they're
in a comfortable state with god there's a shocking realization
coming Has it crossed your mind? Has it crossed my mind? You know
when, at the Last Supper, when the disciples were at the table
in the upper room with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said to
them, one of you is going to betray me. Now they didn't all
say, yeah, my money's on Judas, I've been watching him, I know
what he's like. For me it's gonna be Judas. No,
what did they say? What did they say? They said,
Lord, is it I? Is it me? Is it me? Is it me? Am I the one that's
going to walk out on you? We're encouraged to examine ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5 says,
examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own
selves. Don't look to your works, but
where are you looking for salvation? Know ye not your own selves how
that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Imagine
the catastrophe of presuming your name is in the will of a
very rich person, and you're going to inherit great riches,
and then you find, late in the day, that your claim is legally
flawed. You've got no right to be there.
Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew
7, 22 and 23, he said, will say to me in that day, in the day
of judgment, that Lord, Lord, haven't we done great religious
things in your name? We've done so much for you. Didn't
we do these, all these things for you? And he will say to them,
depart from me. I never knew you. Your religion
was a sham. It was hypocrisy. It was false.
You'd never tasted that the Lord was gracious. You'd never known
that truth of God within. So what about me? And what about
you? Have we tasted that the Lord
is gracious? It is possible to know and to
be sure, of course it is. So let's look at the marks of
true taste. I'm not talking about cultural
taste. You know, they say, oh, that's very tasteful. Those furnishings
are very tasteful. No, I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about real sensory taste as a figure, as a picture
of real saving faith. Do you know there's true and
there's false things in sensory taste? For example, any of you
that does any cooking and sometimes with dessert recipes it will
require some vanilla and the better recipes will always say
either a real vanilla pod or more likely some vanilla extract
and they'll tell you don't go for vanilla essence. Do you know
why? Vanilla essence superficially
tastes and smells like vanilla, but it's artificially made. It's
made from crude oil. It isn't vanilla. You need vanilla
extract, is the real thing. One is like it, the essence is
like vanilla, but when you get down to it, it isn't vanilla
at all. So it is with faith. One looks like faith, but it's
false. The other is true. It's true. There is true and there is false.
So it is with true religion, true Christianity, true gospel
grace. And what's the fundamental difference
between the true and the false? The fundamental difference is
the genuine work of God's Holy Spirit in the heart of a person. You see, everything else to do
with religion, the works and the demeanor and the external
look of enthusiasm can be faked to a degree. You remember what
I read about Philpot. You can have the light of knowledge
in your head even. You can answer all the right
questions. And you can be holding the lamp in your hand, but you've
got no oil of grace in your heart. It's God's Holy Spirit that makes
the difference. Look back at chapter one of 1
Peter and verse 23. So chapter 1 of 1 Peter, verse
23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth forever. It's about the new birth. This thing of the Holy Spirit
is about the new birth. Now turn back to John 3 that
we read earlier, and let me point out some verses to you there.
John chapter 3, the account of Jesus speaking to Nicodemus. Verse 3, look at John 3, verse
3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, to Nicodemus, verily, verily, truly, truly, I'm telling you
the truth. I say to you, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. You've all been born once when
you came into this world from your mother's wombs. You've all
been born, but he said, unless you are born again, Don't talk
to me, Nicodemus, about the kingdom of God. You've got no opinion
about the kingdom of God, Nicodemus, because you're not born again.
I don't know whether he ever was, but at this stage you're
not born again. Unless a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. You must have that rebirth to
be able to see the kingdom of God. Verse 5, Jesus reinforced
it. He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a man be born, not like a physical birth again,
of course, not, no, but of water and of the Spirit. What does
that mean? Water refers to the Word, the Word of God. By the
word of God, which lives and abides forever, and of the Spirit
applying that, you're born again internally. Unless that happens,
you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Who's going to enter
the kingdom of God? Those who are born into it, who
are born again into it. Verse 6. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. That's it. You don't get your saving eternal life by ancestry. John says that in chapter 1,
back in chapter 1, who were born, verse 13, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
No, it's of God. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit, verse 7. Marvel not, don't be surprised
that I said to you, you must be born again. And he talks about
the wind blowing where it lists, where it wants to. And I know
we've got complex weather charts, but generally speaking, where
you are at any one time, you can't tell where the winds come
from and where it's going to. And so it is with everyone that
is born of God's spirit. God's spirit must do a quickening
work. Do you know what a quickening
work is? It's a making alive work, making alive. it's an old
term for being alive is the quick, the quick and the dead, the alive
and the dead a quickening work he must do that before you can
taste the grace of God there must be a new man born within
of God's spirit if we are to see God's kingdom or discern
his truth you remember that verse in first Corinthians chapter
two verse fourteen the natural man man as we are born in the
flesh receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God they're
foolishness to him, these spiritual things they're foolishness to
him neither can he know them they're spiritually discerned
if you don't believe me go and have a conversation with anybody
out there in the world today And I guarantee 99 out of 100
will tell you that this is foolishness. They don't see any sense in the
gospel of God's grace because they're still in their natural
fleshly condition. But the things of the Spirit
of God, they are spiritually discerned. How? by the Holy Spirit
coming, and revealing God in the heart, and giving birth to
a new man within. It's the Spirit of God within.
Jesus said of Him and His Heavenly Father, He said about someone
that believes in Him, we will come to Him, and we will make
our abode with Him. He will come. He will come. I
know there's lots of Arminian sentimental nonsense spoken,
but terms like, coming to my heart, Lord Jesus, there's a
sense in which, yes, that's true. Jesus said that he and his father
would come and make his abode. How does he come? By his spirit.
He comes by his spirit within. And a new man is born within. A new man. And that is the essential
and only mark of true faith. It's the essential and only mark,
the spirit of God within, the new life within, the new life
that sees things the way God sees them. and not the way we
used to see them. The new life that hears the voice
of the Good Shepherd, and hearing that voice, follows him. My sheep
hear my voice, said Jesus, and they follow me. Only the true
sheep of God can follow. He said to the Pharisees, as
you'll see in one of the articles in the bulletin, he said to the
Pharisees, you believe not because you are not of my sheep he didn't
say you're not of my sheep because you haven't yet believed he said
you don't believe because you're not of my sheep his sheep are
his people his elect people from before the foundation of the
world and they hear his voice and they follow him and they
taste him they taste that the Lord is gracious. You see, faith
is spiritual sense. I know I always tend to focus
on it as spiritual sight, which it is, but it's more than just
sight, it's spiritual sense in general. Do you know we have,
they say we have five senses, physical senses, right? Think
of, children, you think of the five senses. There's your eyes
to see, there's your nose to smell, there's your ears to hear,
There's your tongue to taste salt, sweet, sour, bitter. There's your hands and your skin
to touch and sense and feel things. You've got those five senses.
Well, faith is spiritual sense, and it is manifested in aspects
like that. So, for example, we often see
allusions in the scripture to faith as sight. When God, in
Isaiah 45, says to his people, look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none other.
What does he tell them to do? Look. What do you look with?
You look with your eyes. You look with the eyes of faith.
He says in another place, hear, and your soul shall live. Hear,
and your soul shall, hear the gospel. Do you hear it? You hear
my voice, you hear the voice of a preacher, you've heard the
voice of many other preachers, but do you hear it? Is God speaking
to you within? Smell, smell, the scriptures
again, it uses terms of the myrrh and the aloes. in poetic language. Look in the Song of Solomon and
in the Psalms, you'll see a lot of myrrh and aloes, and it's
speaking about that sense of the sweetness of the redemption
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a sense of touch. Touch. We need to reach out and touch.
That woman, in the gospels, she, as Jesus was going about his
earthly ministry and she'd had this terrible medical condition
for years and years that nobody had been able to cure, though
she'd spend all that she had on various physicians, and when
she knew he was there, by faith, she went, and what did she do?
She touched the hem of his garment. She touched. That was faith.
Faith. Faith manifested in the aspect
of touch. And then taste. Taste. This is
the one we're focusing on. Taste. Psalm 34, verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Psalm 19 tells us that the law
of the Lord, by which it means gospel revelation, the truth
of God's grace in Christ, is sweeter also than honey. It's sweeter also than honey.
These legalists that tell us that it's the law of Moses that
condemns us that's sweeter than honey, they don't know what they're
talking about. It's gospel grace that's sweeter than honey. In
communion, by faith, in spiritual reality, we eat the flesh of
the Son of Man. When we share the bread and wine,
we eat the flesh, spiritually. Spiritually. Not physically,
it's bread and it's wine, but spiritually. Looking at those
symbols, we eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his
blood. Whose words are those? The words of Jesus, John 6, 53.
Except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, he has no part
with me. And in that way, when we share
communion, discerning the body and blood of the Lord, we taste
the grace of God. If, if indeed. So if so be, you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And with faith, in
this aspect of taste, we discern. You know, we tell the difference.
You know, like with taste, you can taste sweet, sour, bitter,
and salt. They're the four aspects of taste,
and all other flavors come from smell, combined with those things. But we taste, spiritually, and
we discern. And we can discern the difference
between law and grace. We discern the difference between
the works that I might do to earn me favor with God, which
are worthless, and the work which Christ has completed, which has
accomplished all things for me. We can tell the difference when
we hear preaching. The true child of God doesn't
need to listen very long to discern the difference between works
preaching and gospel preaching. Likewise, You know, you might
have a finely honed sense of taste that is highly discerning. But then if you go, and this
is no disrespect to our fellow human beings from India who tend
to love very spiced meals, but if you go and you eat the strongest
vindaloo type of curry, then it's not gonna do a great deal
for your taste senses regarding the finest French food. It's
going to blank it out, isn't it? And likewise, continuing
the figure, the picture, we can ruin our sense of spiritual taste
by exposing it to the highly spiced taste of worldly things. You know I'm not talking about
physical taste, that's just a picture. But in the same way, if we dabble
and engross ourselves too much in the things of the world, the
entertainments of the world, the pleasures of the world, it
dulls the ability of our spiritual taste to discern. And we also
experience delight in taste. Delight. Not just critical discernment,
but enjoyment. Enjoyment. Taste and see that
the Lord is good. That the Lord is good. Have you
tasted that the Lord is gracious? Was it a good taste? Did it taste
good? Yes, of course. There's discernment
and enjoyment. You know, you could have an expert
wine taster. who could tell you that the fine
difference between this particular 1992 Margot from Bordeaux, as opposed
to one grown in the next door vineyard, which was on slightly
different terroir, as the French call it, and it isn't quite as
good, and you and me, ordinary people with ordinary taste buds,
might hardly tell the difference. although he can tell that very
very precisely almost like a chemical analysis kit in his mouth and
in his nose does that thrill of the taste of something complex
and wonderful excite him like it does some who have none of
that specific knowledge like music you know you can you can
understand every bit about the theory of harmony and the notes
coming together and uh... uh... as uh... not as eric mochum
once said you know all the notes were right but not necessarily
in the right order you can have all the right notes in the right
order and yet still miss that tingle. You know I love music
and some of the performances I've heard, honestly, the hairs
on the back of your neck stand on end. It's enjoyment! This
is what I'm saying. It's not just a sense, it's not
just a discernment, it's not just a knowledge, it's enjoyment.
It is right to ask yourself, have I really tasted that the
Lord is gracious? Have I been born again of the
Spirit of God? Do I know? Because if you go
on one chapter from John 3 into chapter 4, he talked to the woman
by the well about if she gave him a drink, he said, if you'd
asked of me, I would have given you this water, this spiritual
water, a well of water springing up to its everlasting life. When
he went to the Feast of Tabernacles, wasn't it, in John 7, And he
stood on the last day, the great day of the feast, and he said,
whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And he talked
about rivers of living water. What are these rivers of living
water? It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within. That
life of the Spirit of God within the person. So back to 1 Peter,
chapter one and verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. There are all sorts of corruptible
seed in the world that can cause you to take a new direction in
life. All sorts, there's all sorts of things. You know, people
get new hobbies and new interests all the time. And all of these
things are things that can cause you to take a new direction in
life. but they're all corruptible. It's only the incorruptible seed
which comes through the Word of God, which produces the eternal
life of God, isn't it? It's only that. The Word of God
is unique, absolutely unique. In the literature of mankind
available to us, the Word of God, the scriptures that we have,
as close as we can get to the original intention, as the Holy
Spirit inspired them, This book is absolutely unique, because
everything else is of a corruptible time nature. Even the things
that have lasted a long time, ultimately they fail. But this
Word of God lives and abides forever. Because everything to
do with flesh, as verse 24 tells us, is like the grass outside
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass and you watch
the seasons in our garden out there and you see different flowers
come and go and it's quite remarkable there are still flowers there
even though we've had some very cold nights recently but it will
fade it will perish the grass withereth and the flower thereof
falleth away but Unlike that, unlike everything in this world,
the word of the Lord lasts forever. It endures forever. It continues. And what is it? Look in verse
25, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is
the word. What are you talking about, Peter?
It's this, the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
It's the gospel, the gospel of Christ that was preached to you.
That's the word of God. Jesus said, these scriptures,
all of them, are they that speak of me. In verse 21 of chapter
1, he talks Peter says to them, you who by Him, by Christ, by
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you want to believe in God, don't
say you believe in God, I've already told you, the devils
believe and they tremble. If you want to truly believe
in God as the child of God, as a servant of God, as the one
who is in the care and keeping of God, you believe in Him by
Jesus Christ. By Him you believe. I am the
way, the truth, and the life, said Jesus. No man comes to the
Father but by me. If you would believe in God,
if you would truly follow God, you must come by the Lord Jesus
Christ, and God raised him, Christ, from the dead, and gave him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. That's the one by
whom we know God, and believe him, and hope in God. So then,
if that true life of God's Spirit is in you and me, If we sense
the true spiritual things of God which come only by God's
word, because don't underestimate it, God himself said, Psalm 138
verse 2, that he has magnified his word above all his name. Revere this book. have reverence
for this book. This is the word of God. God
has magnified it above all his name. If that's the case, we
cannot remain unchanged. Look at verse one of chapter
two. Wherefore, because of this, 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 that belief is ours, if that
spirit of God is in us, if we are born again seeing the kingdom
of God, we cannot remain the same. Laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies, this is the gospel
precepts that are throughout the New Testament epistles. These
are the things which fulfill the spirit of the law of God.
in reality, these things, these things do, not legal obedience,
these things do. We're changed. There's a new
man inside. There's a new man with new desires
and new hopes. We cannot remain unchanged. And
we will be like newborn babies. When a newborn baby is born,
what does it want to do? It wants to drink milk. It's
mother's milk. Because why? Why does a baby
drink milk? Look, it's there in verse two.
That ye may grow thereby. the baby drinks its mother's
milk because the baby grows by drinking that milk because that
milk feeds the baby there's nothing better and so the word of God
the word there translated sincere is a very poor translation actually
unadulterated would be better the pure milk of the word the
nutritious milk of the word the wholesome milk of the word would
be all better than sincere desire it, that you may grow thereby,
because it's your food, it's your food that causes you to
grow. So then, you say to me, that's all well and good if God's
spirit has come and given you faith, but what if he evidently
hasn't? Well let me ask you, what is
your will? What is your will? What do you
want? What do you will regarding the taste of the grace of God? want it? Do you want it? You
think there's something there? Well, if you want it, take courage. Because the only reason you want
that is because God makes his people willing. Psalm 110, verse
3, in the day of his power. And he invites those he has made
willing. Not in an Arminian sense, in
a genuine gospel saving sense. He invites those he has made
willing to come to him. Because he says, In John chapter
6 he says, no man can come to me unless my Father in heaven
draws him. God must draw you. He makes his
people willing in the day of his power. He invites those he
has made willing to come to him, to call upon him, to look, to
taste, and to see that the Lord is good. Drawn by the Father,
enabled to come. And do you know what he says?
Whosoever comes, I will in no wise turn away.