The Test of Taste

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1 Peter 2:1-3

Why laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings,…

Peter is here quoting from Psalm 34:8: "O taste and see that the Lord is good." The passage actually runs — "O taste and see that Jehovah is good," and Peter does not hesitate for a moment to apply the passage to the Lord Jesus.

I. A ROYAL DAINTY. "The Lord is gracious." Jesus is full of grace. Once tasted, this grace is remembered.

1. The Lord is gracious in His person, nature, and character. He would never have been Immanuel, God with us, if He had not been gracious.

2. We have found Him exceeding gracious in the manner of dispensing His salvation. He is most free, spontaneous, and generous in His gifts of grace.

3. As He is gracious by nature and gracious in manner, so is He gracious in His gifts. How gracious was He when He gave Himself for us! What priceless boons follow therefrom! He gave us pardon and life. Where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. Since we have come to know our Lord, how gracious have we found Him to be! "He giveth more grace." Oh, the wonders of free grace in its continuance and perseverance! Truly "the Lord is gracious."

4. The Lord is gracious, for He hears prayer.

5. Some of you have been favoured with choice times, "as the days of heaven upon the earth." You have climbed the mount and been alone with God. Oh, the rapture of intimate fellowship with God!

6. Possibly your experience has been of a sadder kind; you have backslidden, and He has restored you in His grace. But you do not know how gracious the Lord is.

7. Remember that He is preparing us for a glory inconceivable. Everything is working out His perfect design.

II. But now think of A SPECIAL SENSE which is exercised in tasting that the Lord is gracious. Faith is the soul's taste by which we perceive the sweetness of our Lord and enjoy it for ourselves. In answering the question, What is meant by taste? I would bid you notice the likeness of the word "taste" to another, namely, "test."

1. Taste is a test as to things to be eaten. We prove and try an article of food by tasting it. Even so we do not speculate upon the grace of God, but "we have known and believed the love which God has toward us."

2. In order to spiritual taste there must be apprehension. We must have some idea of what being gracious means, and some conviction that this is truly the character of our Lord Jesus. The clearer the knowledge the m. ore distinct the taste may become.

3. After apprehension must come appropriation. Martin Luther saith, "And this I call tasting, when I do with my very heart believe that Christ hath given Himself unto me, and that I have my full interest in Him, that He beareth and answereth for all my sins, transgressions, and harms, and that His life is my life. When this persuasion is thoroughly settled in my heart, it yieldeth wonderful and incredible good taste." Appropriate Christ, I pray you. Let each one take Him to himself, and then you will know what tasting means. But taste further means appreciation. You may have a thing within yourself and yet not taste it, even as Samson's lion had honey within its carcase, but he was a dead lion, and so could not taste it. A man may get the gospel into his mind, but never taste it. It wants a living man, and a living appropriation, and a living appreciation, or else the royal dainty is not tasted. Have you ever enjoyed the truth that the Lord is gracious? Jesus is all in all to all who are in Him.

III. A SEARCHING QUESTION. "If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

1. This is a very simple elementary question. I may not know what a dish is made of, but I may have tasted it for all that. I may be grossly ignorant of the mysteries of cookery, but I can tell whether a dish is sweet to my taste. I put it to every one here, whether babes or strong men Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious?

2. However simple is the question, it goes to the root of the matter; it takes in the whole ease of a man's soul. Do you know Christ by personal reception of Him? If not, you are in an evil case. Oh, that you would come to the feast! Oh, that you would eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness!

3. Every man here must answer that question for himself. We cannot in this matter be sponsors for one another. Tasting is an operation which must be performed by the individual palate. There is no other method of practising it. Let me tell you when we have tasted the graciousness of the Lord. We have done so after great bitterness. Our Lord, as George Herbert would say, has put His hand into the bitter box and given us a dose of wormwood and gall. We have drunk the cup in submission, and afterwards He has made us taste that the Lord is gracious, and then all bitterness has clean gone, and our mouth has been as sweet as though wormwood had never entered it. The taste of grace is always on some men's palates; their mouths are filled all the day with the praises of the Lord. These are happy beings; let us be of their number.

IV. A SERIES OF PRACTICAL INFERENCES.

1. "Desire the sincere milk of the Word." If you have tasted it, long for more of it.

2. Next, expect to grow, and pray that you may do so. Pray for more faith, more hope, more love, more zeal, and so let us grow. "Desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow."

3. Next, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious," abhor the garlic flavour of the world's vices. I mean those alluded to in the first verse malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking."

4. I want you also, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to lose taste for all earthly trifles. Let the ox have its grass and the horse its hay, but souls must feed on spiritual meat.

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