Taste The Kindness of the Lord
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Call To Worship Scripture
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A Song of Ascents.
How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.
When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands,
You will be happy and it will be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
Within your house,
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.
Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion,
And may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
Indeed, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
Sermon Scripture
Sermon Scripture
1 Peter 2:
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Taste:
If the goodness of God is truly known then it is not a passing statement of goodness.
If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, then it is a savoring taste that leads one to wanting more and wanting more to taste it.
It is not that of another’s convincing. The goodness/kindness of God for us has been made to be a personal indwelling.
It is not a taking of another’s word, but it is of our own consuming of the things of God that we come to know the goodness of God, based upon what has been, is being and shall be done by God.
As verse 6 puts it, as, “it stands in Scripture”.
In 1 Peter, we are reading of the Holy Spirit’s addressing of those who have taken up the invitation of .
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
The Psalmist says, “taste and see” and the Holy Spirit through Peter now addressing the Saints says, “if you have tasted”.
To taste the Lord and know His goodness is to recognize your own plight and take refuge in Him.
It is to hear and trust in the good word of the LORD that has been and is being even now preached to you.
The desire this morning is that you would know that the Word of God is indeed a refuge for you.
It is a place of provision, of growth, and the maturation of salvation. It is a place of rest, a place of hope.
It is more than just good. When the Word of God is ingested into the ready soul, it is nourishing and pleasant, strengthening and invigorating, sustaining of life and causing of new growth.
It is sweet to the lips, pleasant to the tongue, satisfying to the stomach,, restoring to the fatigued and energizing for life’s every need.
It is the word of life - the word which has birthed life within us.
It cannot be compared to any other. Not in our minds, nor in our applications.
It is a Word of effectual powers, which is not only alive within us, but is living and enduring forever, birthing a purified truth and sincere love within the Saints of God.
It is the story we love to tell, the assurance we live by, the treasure we loose everything to find.
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word which was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:
What a promise it is, to be of those born, not of the perishable but of the imperishable through the living and enduring word of God!
“How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” says the Psalmist.
It is not that your enemies do not surround you,
It’s not that there are not dangers lurking about.
What it is about is the strength and protection of God. That though those dangers are lurking, you are safe in the bosom of the Almighty. This tasting is of the reality that your life is in the Hands of God for the purposes of life and blessing rather than death and judgment.
This means a lasting hope and a great future which circumstance here below holds not the power to change the reality of.
Thus, the call to taste, and the encouragement here for those who have tasted, is a call to trust in the Word and Righteousness of God alone.
The Word of that which has been spoken and thus will be. It is according to , “the good Word of God, and the powers of the Age to Come”.
It is Christ Jesus who is the Word Incarnate.
It is the vicarious death of Christ upon the cross and resurrection from the dead three days later - in which, not only was His own perfection and righteousness proven but also He became our righteousness. His righteousness imputed unto us.
Our plight now has a defense, we now have a refuge. The adversary of old cannot infiltrate or steal away our new found position in God and our old depraved state is done away with a new birth of life in righteousness. Blinded eyes have become faith filled eyes of blessed hope.
The promises are sealed to all of those who through faith alone have trusted in the Word of God alone and thus, have been led to repentance from the depraved works of self, to the perfect work of Christ alone by grace alone, giving all glory to God alone. We have tasted and see that the Lord is good.
Though the world with Satan as it’s commander rages war against the saints, the saints weary not in the fleeting days but rest in the coming promises of God.
These promises we have read, we have spoken them upon our lips, we have dined upon them to the reviving of our souls. We have tasted the Word of God, known the redemptive power of Christ, and set our eyes upon the glorious victorious powers of the Age to Come. And to these things we have said in unity with the Spirit and one another - the LORD is Good!
THUS:
Separate:
malice - evil, depravity, the way of wickedness
deceit - a fraudulent way. lit.”a bait”. Perhaps no other word more rightly describes the way of the world. It is a crafty, evil, manipulation.
hypocrisy - dissembling (hiding under false appearance)
envy - displeasure which comes from seeing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of another and thus leads to or becomes expressive of ill will of another.
slander - evil speech which is practiced or used to transact hurt or manage the demise of another.
Everyone of these word describe not only those seeking the things which are perishable, but the describe the even now perishing. The Word of God is true giving life to the soul. But the way of the world, is the way of wickedness. It drains soul, mind and body through crafty manipulation and empty promises. It hides behind a false appearance of empty promise and modern convenience. It turns your eyes away from your brothers needs and towards your own want and your mouth rather than tasting the goodness of God, spues out the envious bitterness of Satan and death.
Church separate yourselves from this path. Do not seek this fleeting kingdom. Do not seek this fleeting world. You have Christ, thus you need not the world. Christ is fully sufficient and He needs nothing that you would gain from the world.
I am pleading with us as a church to intentionally see the world as it has been described by the Word of God and see ourselves having been dreadfully tainted by it in the same way, so that we might despise any part of it seeking to attach itself to us.
To put off or put away is to push it away in disgust, to not want it to be a part of you, to desire not taste of it.
As a baby pushing away a spoiled bottle of contaminated milk and screaming in disgust so ought we be with the way of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander.
That is not for us. We desire what is good and truly able to give nourishment.
Desire:
Pure Milk - that is the Pure - the uncontaminated, perfect and full Word of God. When we say the Word of God, we say all that God has spoken and done. The promises past, present and future and the trusting in them. The hope that is only found and fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are speaking of the living Word of God.
As so many of you are aware of the health benefits of eating “living food” rather than “dead food” - that is food which is able to nourish, stregnthen and help cleans the body as apposed to food which the body has to drain itself in order to filter out…the same is true with what is being described between the promises of God and the promises of the world - the ways of God and the ways of the world.
One gives life and the other hastens death for their is no life in it.
Life is found in the Word of God, in the partaking of it, in the living dependent upon or trusting in it. This is what you are to crave.
Think as the world and it’s way as being dead rotten carcus, puffed up with canserous growth shots and smothered in msg to make you think that it is abundent and good, but in reality the carcas and everything that was put into it is dead and causing of death.
Don’t crave that.
Crave the fresh living food, given life by God and purosed to give life to you.
Crave the pure milk which is rich and full of every form of vitamiin, protien, and healthy fat that you need to grow to the fullness of your potential.
And crave it so that you might not only grow, but grow up into salvation.
Growing up into salvation is growing up into the fullness of who God has birthed you and created you to be.
It is to grow up into the fullness of who God has spoken that the children of God are to be.
It is to mature to know all of the promises of God alive in you through God.
It is to grow to know the limitless powers of God, your great refuge!
This is our view of God vs World. This is the truth that drives us to even now crave and come into the presence of God to be fed.
Thus:
Come: Or should I say as you are coming. As you are marching through this wilderness land unto the promised land of God remember the Word of God and what has been purposed for you through that eternal word and thus be stregnthened and matured by it, always abiding in it.
1 Peter 2:4
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
“The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the very corner stone,”
and,
“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”;
for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
There are two types of people. Those who are of God and those who are of to Satan. Those who live for this world and this age and those who live for Kingdom come and glorify God in the day of visitation (which is the day of wrath or judgment - (, ).
To glorify God in the day of judgment. That is to witness He who is your refuge, who’s word is good, eliminate all that rages against. That is indeed good.
But have you tasted it?
Have you come to Him?
Are you coming to Him?
I will leave it here beloved, with the word of God fill us and seep in our ears, to reverberate in our souls and through proper digestion, to become the faith needed to sustain and grow us until that day and forevermore. - Amen