Taste And See That The Lord Is Good, Part 2

“Taste and See that the Lord Is Good, Part 2” (Psalm 34:8)

I. Introduction. A. Review. 1. This morning, we were looking at David’s exhortation to taste and see that the Lord is good. a. The Lord had been gracious to David in delivering him from Achish, king of Gath. b. Because of this blessing, David extols God, returning to Him praise and glory. c. Among other things, he also calls on God’s people to also put their trust in the Lord. 2. As we looked at this, we considered first that the Lord is good. a. The Scripture shows us that God is worthy to be trusted. Every aspect of His Being shows that He can be depended on: (i) He has the power to fulfill His promises. (ii) He has the knowledge to bring His promises to their completion. (iii) He has the wisdom to bring them about in the way that will best glorify Him. (iv) He will never cease to be, as He never began to be, so He lives forever to accomplish His will. (v) There is no limit to His Being, so He will always be where we need Him most at all times. (vi) He doesn’t depend on anything else for His existence, which means there is nothing that could fail Him making Him fail us. He is completely and infinitely dependable. (vii) And He never changes, which means He won’t change His mind regarding His gracious promises to us in Christ. (viii) These things are admirable and make Him worthy of praise by themselves. (ix) But they also give us a strong confidence that what He purposes He can fulfill. b. His moral character further strengthens our confidence: (i) If He were evil, unjust, or a liar, we would not only have no certainty of the fulfillment of His Word, we should expect just the opposite. (ii) That which makes God infinitely beautiful to our eyes also renders Him absolutely trustworthy: (a) His righteousness: He loves what is right. (b) His justice: He maintains what is right in His world. (c) His truth: He judges according to truth/His truth.

2 (d) His holiness: He is not affected with sin, so that He might be perfectly righteous and just. (e) And His love: God is gracious and merciful. (f) The Lord will not – He cannot – fail those who put their trust in Him. B. Preview. 1. This evening, having seen that He is trustworthy, let’s consider David’s exhortation: Taste and see that the Lord is good. 2. If we do, we’ll discover that He is good, and that the man is blessed who comes to Him for refuge. II. Sermon. A. First, we must trust Him to discover for ourselves that He is good. 1. Taste, of course, is a figure of speech. a. We taste food to see if it’s good, if we like it, if it’s good for us. b. In a sense, David is telling us to try God, to see what He is like. (i) He’s not saying take Him or leave Him. (ii) This is a command: Taste, and see that what I say is true. c. We should discover, along with David, that the Lord is good. (i) That He is altogether good; that He is altogether trustworthy. (ii) That He is better than anything this world has to offer us. (a) Not just by way of protection, which is what David has primarily in mind. (b) But in every imaginable way. (c) God is to be our treasure, not the world. 2. We are not just to know this, but experience it. a. So many today stop short at knowing. (i) We study, we learn, we grow in knowledge. (ii) But we don’t begin to practice what we know. (iii) We don’t benefit from what we know of God and His will. (iv) Knowing isn’t enough. b. God wants us actually to experience it. (i) To know Him: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). (ii) To step out in faith, actually to do what He tells us to do. (iii) Yes, there will be danger, temptation, trial, persecution (Pastor Green). (iv) But the Lord will deliver us: (a) He has promised. (b) As we’ve seen, He is trustworthy. (c) David tells us to taste and see! c. With Christianity, it’s not the knowing of truth that saves us, but experiencing the truth. The knowledge is the means to experience.

3 (i) “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). (ii) We can know that Jesus Christ is a Savior from sin; that He is the only Savior from sin. (a) We can know that Jesus saves us from the guilt of sin, but we aren’t actually pardoned unless we trust Him to forgive us and cover us with His grace. (b) We can know that He is a Savior from the power of sin, but we won’t actually be freed from it, unless we trust Him. (iii) Nothing in God’s Word will do us any good unless we experience its power in our lives. (iv) Christianity isn’t simply a set of beliefs; it is the power of a new life in the believer. 3. How can we experience the power of godliness? a. Only through Jesus Christ. (i) He is the only way to God. (ii) And He is not a locked door, but an open one. (iii) He calls us to come, to enter, to taste and see that the Lord is good. b. If we turn from our sins, and place our trust in the Lord, we will experience these things. (i) There will be times when grace is low and our experience low. (ii) But it doesn’t have to be that way. (iii) David was addressing the covenant community to encourage them to trust in the Lord. (a) Many were unconverted. (b) But there were many who were. (c) This is a reminder to us to trust in Him: He is good. (d) We need reminders, because we often forget. (e) God is real; Christ is real; there are things that we should be experiencing through the Spirit working in us. (f) Sometimes we miss it, because we are too busy imbibing the things of the world. c. If you have grown cold in the things of the Lord, taste of Him again, and see that He is good. (i) Begin again seeking the Lord. (ii) Seek for the fullness of His Spirit and times of spiritual refreshment. (iii) You won’t find it in the recreation of this world. (iv) Most Christians today would not find the power to die well as the Covenanters did in their Christianity. (v) It is not found in the path of sin; it is found only in the path of righteousness.

4 (vi) And so turn from the world to Christ, seek the Lord while He may be found. (vii) The Lord tells us, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). B. Second, if we do seek Him, trust Him, taste of Him, we will find blessing. 1. We may lose some of the things of this world. a. Following Christ means that we will lose friends, the affections of family members, sometimes even our own spouses (1 Cor. 7:15). b. It may mean that we lose opportunities in this world, advancement in our employments, sometimes financial gain. (i) E.g., keeping the Lord’s Day Sabbath holy may mean we won’t be hirable for certain jobs, because we refuse to work on God’s holy day of rest. (ii) So many lie, cheat and steal to get ahead; the Christian won’t be able to advance in this way. c. We may even lose a measure of our safety through persecution: (i) Christians are persecuted by Muslims in many places. (ii) The McIlhennys were persecuted for taking a stand against homosexuality in their church. (iii) Pastor Green in Sweden is facing two years in prison for simply preaching what the Bible says about the same subject. d. There are some things we may lose. 2. But what we gain will make it all worthwhile. a. What we gain in the world to come is worth it: (i) Deliverance from all our enemies: (a) The forgiveness of all sins which would have condemned us. (b) Deliverance from the enemy of our souls. (ii) Entrance into heaven. (iii) Fellowship with the saints of all ages. (iv) Fellowship with the angels of heaven. (v) Communion with our risen Savior. (vi) Communion with God: the blessed vision that brings blessing. b. And even what we gain in this life is worth it. (i) Communion with the Father and His Son isn’t just for the life to come. (ii) Remember, we are to experience these things now, not just know about them. (iii) Those of you who have communed with God and Christ know that that communion is more precious that any other joy or pleasure in this world. (iv) You wouldn’t trade it for anything else. (a) Sadly, we often do. (b) That just means we have more sin to put to death.

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c. Let me close with the words of Jeremiah Burroughs, from his book, Moses His Choice, with His Eye Fixed upon Heaven Discovering the Happy Condition of a Self-Denying Heart: Delivered in a Treatise upon Hebrews 11:25, 26, “Dear believer, you have found good already, that might make you say with David, ‘Surely it is good for me to draw near to God, and though I do meet with some troubles and temptations, yet let my soul say, It is good for me to draw near to God; it is good for me that I left such and such things, it is good for me that I have these ordinances, though it be with the loss of some outward comforts, and my estate be abated, and my trading less.’ Say as David in the seventy-third Psalm, ‘Truly God is good to Israel’ (v. 1). However it be, yet God is good to Israel, though many things seem to the contrary. Therefore, conclude with your own heart, ‘Though I should never see a good day in the world, yet that comfort I have received in the ways of God is enough to make me prize them forever. If now I should die, and be annihilated, if God should deprive me of the joys of heaven, and turn me into nothing, yet that good that I have had already in God’s ways should be enough to [compensate for] all the troubles that I have met in the world, or ever shall meet. Though God should withdraw Himself in all the course of my life, and I should be in darkness, and have nothing but trouble, yet I have had enough in God already, to {compensate for] all.’ Hath God thus spoken peace to your soul? Remember that text in Ps. 85:8, ‘Return not again to folly.’ The Lord has spoken peace already to your soul in afflictions, and therefore, God forbid that you should return to folly, but continue in your way. Go on constantly in your way to the end, and the Lord bless you in your way. This is for the encouragement of the hearts of God’s people that have with Moses made this choice: rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season” (Jeremiah Burroughs, Day by Day, 327). d. Having tasted of the Lord, we know that He is our greatest good e. Having Him, we have all we need. f. Let us find our happiness, our contentment, and our security in Him. Amen.