[0:00] thank you lord amen amen well let's uh let's not dive in too quickly here but you can turn your bible to psalm 34 and while we're turning when i open it up to anybody has something to say anybody want to thank the lord for saving their soul anybody want to have a testimony to testify among the people of god of the lord's goodness to you or just something that's on your heart and if anybody does do it now anybody at all yes ma'am amen amen amen good good good amazing grace praise the lord for his grace anybody else yes sir amen praise the lord praise the lord yes ma'am i just go to the lord it says we ask and people answer us and i was doing this project and i asked the lord for wisdom and i was like i don't know what i was doing and he was so faithful and answered guided me that was word just to know what to do and then one time i would ask him how would he do this one part of it i don't know what i was doing i'm out there with the lunch and i'm trying to have everything i'm not saying i don't know it's sort of i'm just disappointed i laid down and i think it's going through my head and i thought i'll go check that i went out i tried and i'm not going to go to the i didn't know what to do i didn't know what to do i didn't know what to do i just it's not just the answer just the project but it's that he answered and then he showed me how to do it i just don't have that experience so it was really really good good good did you say you had a wrench and you were beating it beating it because that's how you do it just beat it with a wrench and it works okay well amen alright anybody else yes sir well i want to give thanks to the lord when he got me saved on October 8th every 22am i wanted to live this world i got saved i felt that that grace that rest that joy that inspired me up to a point that i want to search for every single day since that time and and now that i can see his words and i used to be catholic i still want to leave i wish i could have more more more more fire so i can preach the word like i used to i didn't
[4:00] i work i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i don't you? She's got the best of everything. She can tell you where they're all at.
[6:47] But I'm sure you've tasted something and said, oh, that's good. It's so good. You need to try it for yourself. And that's the way we are. We enjoy eating things that we like that taste good to us.
[7:00] And we even enjoy more than just that is sharing it with others. And I don't mean just sharing the item, but rather sharing the joy we got. We expect them to see if they like it just as much. And when they taste it and say, oh, that's good. It's like a moment. It's like a connection. It's just part of the human experience and the way that we're wired to enjoy things like that. I think we find satisfaction in finding something wonderful and sharing it with others and seeing them find it just as wonderful. It's just part of life. Now, when we're reading in Psalm 34 and verse 8, David is not promoting a recipe, a secret recipe of his family or some restaurant he's opening up within the kingdom. But David is talking about his relationship with the Lord, his God. When he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. David found something that is so good that he wanted everybody to get a taste. He wanted everybody to experience this for yourself. The Lord is good.
[8:04] David found the Lord to be so good. And he's been through some stuff. It's even alluded to in this passage. And through it all, he found out that the Lord is good. And he calls for everybody, not just to take his word for it, and not just to form an opinion about the Lord from what you hear from Christians or from somebody on the radio or television or on YouTube, but find out for yourself. The Lord is good. He's so good. And if you haven't found out from a personal relationship, then this is for you this morning. You need to taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good.
[8:43] He's either good or he's evil or he's neither. And some will say, well, he's neither because he doesn't exist. And you're just making that little fairy tale up to worship something to make you feel better.
[8:55] And some people have that opinion. Some people will have the opinion that he's not good because I've had a rough life and things have been terrible and they blame God for it. It's his fault. He could have stopped it. And he doesn't love me and he's not what everybody, and they say that.
[9:10] But David said something. He said he's good. He's so good. And he wants you to taste and see for yourself. And so what I want to do with you this week and even probably next week is to look at this passage. And I see five things in this passage that we read that shows why David recommends that you taste and see for yourself. Now, in this passage, there's a variety of verb tenses, meaning the past, the present, the future. And for example, in verse number one and two, David describes that he will bless the Lord. I will bless and his praise shall continually be. In verse two, my soul shall, that's future stuff, but humble shall hear thereof and be good. That's in the future. It's written in the future tense. And what we see is there's some things the Lord has done. There's some things that the Lord is doing. And there's some things that the Lord will do or some things that David will do in response to the Lord's goodness. And so there's the present or the future tense. Notice in verses four, five, and six, you'll see the past tense. I sought the Lord. He heard me, delivered me.
[10:21] They looked. Verse six, this poor man cried in the past. Lord heard him in the past and saved him. So there's the past tense. And then elsewhere we'll see there's a present tense of the verbs in this passage, things that God is currently doing. And so that's kind of how, I'm not going to say that's our breakdown of the passage, but as we study it, we'll begin in the past. And notice today the first, the first thing here, that reason why David says that we need to taste, you need to taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good. Don't take his word for it. And let's pray together and then we'll get into the Bible some more. Father, please, please speak to our hearts. Please stir our hearts.
[11:03] Please revive our hearts and minds to your word and quicken us. And may these words have power and may they have effect inside of us. And Lord, inside of us that are saved, we have a new man that needs the truth and it needs the word of God and he needs to be fed the words of God. And so Lord, please administer this book to us today and please strengthen us in the new man and get our minds on you, get our minds on your goodness and not necessarily on the bounty that we live amongst in this land, but rather on your goodness to us. We pray that it could be personalized this morning.
[11:41] We pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right, we're going to compare two verses here. I want you to look closely at the wording of verses four and verses and verse six. And let's start with verse four and notice the beginning of the verse where he says, I sought the Lord. And then go down to verse six.
[12:01] It says, this poor man cried. Now I'll come back to verse four and says, I sought the Lord and he heard me. Verse six says that this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. Very similar statements. And now the ending of verse four says, and delivered me from all my fears. And verse six ends by saying, and saved him out of all his troubles. We've got very similar verses here saying similar things.
[12:28] In verse four, I sought the Lord and he heard me. And so it's notable that David's seeking of the Lord is with his voice. How do I know that? Because the Lord heard him. He sought him with his voice.
[12:41] He's not looking for him with his eyes, looking around the corner, trying to find God. He's seeking the Lord, crying out to him. And that matches verse six. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him.
[12:53] And so what's notable here is that he's seeking him with his voice. And the Lord responds to that by delivering him, by saving him. It says in verse six, saved him out of all his troubles. He was in some trouble and he had some fears. I realized that what David writes about is his enemies and running from the king that's trying to take his life. And David had enemies. David had fears. And he cried out to the Lord and the Lord delivered him. The Lord saved him from those fears. Now I realize that we're talking about David's life, but there's an application to be made. And the first thing I want to say here that we need to taste and see is to taste and see for yourself the Lord's salvation. The Lord's salvation. He delivers those that cry and call unto him. He saves them is what he does. If we could take that thought and compare it to some things that the apostle Paul writes in the New Testament, he says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And one interesting thought is that when he takes that, when he makes that statement, he's pulling that from an Old Testament reference where the quote says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And he's talking from Joel and that calling, they're crying out for the Lord to deliver them from their enemies, much like David.
[14:12] He's a picture of that Jew in tribulation. But Paul takes that thought and that verse of scripture and tells Gentiles that if they'll believe on Jesus Christ, Romans chapter 10, and call on him for salvation, he'll save their souls. And Paul applies that what would otherwise be a physical application to their life and to their destruction and fear of enemies. Paul applies it to the eternity of their soul and calling out to Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 10, he says, how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
[14:50] And how shall they hear without a preacher? And et cetera. So taste and see for yourself the Lord's salvation. Mankind has his ideas about salvation. He has his own philosophies about eternal life and how to get to heaven. And if we could, if we could just put all the religions into one lump and, and that might, to some might sound like you can't do that, but really if you study them out, you can. And I could just boil it all down to one little thought here. The religions of this world say this, be good, be good, be a good person, be a moral person, love your enemy, do good to them, just be good. And that's what will gain acceptance with God. If we could picture a classroom where religions have, have all summed up to be the professor. And he says, what you need to do to get to heaven is be good. I could see somebody raising their hand and saying, how good, how good do I have to be to get to heaven? Well, the religion would say, you've got to do your best.
[16:03] The hand would go up again. I've tried to do my best, but I mess up. Okay. Well, the answer is you need to do better. You need to try harder because obviously you're not trying the hardest if you mess up. And then the hand goes up and says, I've been trying for years and years and years of my life and I still mess up. What do I do with that? Oh, the religion says, oh, I know what you do.
[16:31] Do you have anything that you can offer God? Some money? Maybe some property? What can you give to God? He'll be pleased with you. He'll accept you if you'll give. And as a matter of fact, as far as those sins, why don't you just pray some prayers? Pray some of these prayers, repeat these so many times and you'll be fine. And the hand goes back up and says, I've been doing that all of my life and I still don't have any peace and I have no assurance and I still don't know if I'm good enough to get to heaven. I keep messing up. It's not good enough. Your way is not helping me.
[17:14] Religion doesn't offer any explanation, any security, just you do your best. Now, can I contrast that with the Lord's salvation? I'm telling you, taste and see for yourself. Man's philosophy of salvation is an ongoing process. The Lord's salvation is a finished work and it comes with something. If it was a dish, it comes with a side dish of assurance. It comes with confidence. The Lord's salvation comes with promises. Man's salvation, man's idea or philosophy of salvation just says you're going to have to work harder and give more and do more if you didn't earn it yet. And speaking of that, man's philosophy of salvation is an earned reward. You earn it by doing your part, doing your best.
[18:05] But the Lord's salvation is a free gift. It's a free gift that you don't earn. It's a free gift that you don't work for because he did all the work and he forgives you of your sins and he creates a new creature and places his righteousness within your spirit and soul. God does a work that you can't do.
[18:24] And if it sounds too good to be true, that salvation is available to you and to you and to every soul on this planet, that God would offer a free gift of eternal life to anybody, anybody at all. It doesn't matter how bad you are, how good you are, how far you've gone. None of that matters to God. He can forgive all of your sin as the offer and he can give you eternal life. If that sounds too good to be true, it's not because it's not true. It's just because it is good. You know why? Because the Lord is good. And you should taste and see for yourself the Lord's salvation because it's so good. It's so true. I talked to a friend of mine. I texted with a friend of mine on Friday and he just dropped in and said, said, hey, I've been witnessing to this guy today and I was telling him the truth. And he said, he told me that he has a good preacher who told him that hell is only separation from God. And so his faith is in that good, so-called good preacher that's lying to him. And he believes him. And my friend that was, was witnessing to him said, I tried to give him the truth, but he wouldn't shut his fat mouth.
[19:46] The guy wouldn't shut up. He wouldn't listen. He was supposed to have, be swift to hear and slow to speak, but he wouldn't. And he told him that he won't, he doesn't want to hear anything that about hell and about judgment. He just believes that's what he believes his preacher told him. What I find interesting is man's so afraid of judgment, so afraid of hell that he pretends he can just eliminate it by saying it doesn't exist or that that is just this. It's just separation from God, which show me the Bible on that. You can't do it. You can't show that at all. Psalm 139, if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. What do you think fuels the fires of hell? Is it coal? Is it, what is it that can burn a spiritual being, a soul? The Bible says our God is a consuming fire. You're not going to get away from God. You don't, you don't get separated from God just because you go, gets damned to hell. That's not a biblical teaching at all. It's a man-made philosophy to assuage his fear of judgment and penalty. And you don't have to fear hell. You don't have to eliminate hell. It's there. It's real. You don't have to fear it though because Jesus Christ paid for all of your sins. And you can taste and see for yourself the Lord's salvation. Don't fear death. Don't fear hell. Just trust Jesus
[21:13] Christ and be saved. David said this poor man cried and the Lord hurt him and saved him out of all his troubles. And if you're here today and you've never tasted how good it is to be saved, you need to taste and see for yourself the Lord's salvation. There's nothing like it. This brother talked about peace.
[21:33] That's true. That happens immediately. There's a, there's a rest for your soul. Jesus Christ said, come unto me, all you that labor, working, working, working, I'll give you rest for your soul.
[21:45] You can't find that in religion. You can't find that with works. And so praise be to God for his goodness of his salvation. Now, secondly, I want you to look at verse number five and we're still looking in the past tense, something that God did for David. And he says this in verse five, they looked unto him and were lightened. They were lightened and their faces were not ashamed.
[22:10] To lighten means, well, there's two thoughts here. One is to give relief to, like to, to ease or to, to lighten a burden or a weight. You understand that thought to lighten it. And another idea is to light, to, to brighten, to, to put light upon, to lighten something that's dark, lighten it up a little bit. And I think considering that, I think probably both perspectives really can be attributed to this statement that they looked unto him and were lightened. The, the, the, there's a common old testament prayer where the Jew crawls out to God to make his face to shine upon them.
[22:52] And it's a cry for blessing and for help. It's a cry for assistance and for strength. There's a promise of God in the old testament that he would give light to them that sit in darkness.
[23:03] It's a reference to his encouragement and again, to his strength at the same time, uh, to pick them up out of their despair, out of their distress, to relieve their suffering, God giving light to them or lightening them. It says in verse five, they looked unto him.
[23:25] What that tells me is that they were in need. It implies they had a need, they were in trouble, and they're looking to God for help. They're looking to God to get them through. And they found it. They were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. You know, when your face is ashamed, it goes down. It looks down or it tries to hide its countenance. The very beginning in Genesis, the man and his wife were naked and they were not ashamed. But then when they were naked, they went and hid themselves. And when your face is guilty, it's ashamed. It, it put, it goes down.
[24:01] It doesn't want to look up, doesn't want to make eye contact. But, but the Lord lightened them and their faces were not ashamed. They looked up. Taste and see for yourself. Number two, the Lord's strength, how the Lord strengthens the needy.
[24:17] If you live long enough on this planet, I guarantee you with absolute assurance, you will experience low points. Some, it'll be some days. It'll be weeks. It could be seasons of life that are low points in life. You're, it's coming. And maybe you think, no, not me. I've never had anything like that.
[24:38] I'm just going to, I'll prophesy. I don't have any problem doing it. It's coming. Unless the Lord takes you out of here in a peaceful way, you're going to taste some sorrow. You're going to find out what it is to, to experience loss in this life. And it hurts. You're going to find out what it, what the experience of sorrow is and, and tasting pain. It's because, because it's a consequence of sin and this world's full of it and you're full of it. You're not going to get away with it.
[25:09] You're going to taste sorrow. You're going to experience all of that. It's coming with life. It's just, it's part of the territory. And so when you have problems and when you need something, who do you look to? Where do you turn? What's your go-to when things go wrong? Some people just say, that's it. I'm just going to, I'm going to figure this out. You're not going to get to me. I'm bigger than this. And they, they trust themselves. They trust their own wisdom, their own heart. And the Bible says, he that trusteth his own heart's a fool. And some people do that. They're just full of pride. They're not going to let anything hold them down and they'll fight and fight and fight and fight. And some of that's commendable. You don't want to be a coward and give up, but there's a better way. Some people would complain and charge God with folly. Job wouldn't do that when he was on his back with boils. He wouldn't do that, but others will. But as a child of God, you have a source of strength that is consistently available to you. The Bible says in Hebrews 14, that you can go to a place, you can access something when you need it. It's a place called the throne of grace. And at that throne of grace, you can obtain mercy and you could find grace to help in time of need. Our sister's talking about his grace because Paul, as he, God told Paul, it's going to be sufficient for you for anything you have to deal with in this life. It will be sufficient. My grace is sufficient for thee. You can obtain mercy and find grace to help you in time of need. And you live long enough. There will be plenty of those times of need. Come back to Psalm 27.
[26:55] I want to run you through a few Psalms here. Since David's the author, let's read some of his words. Taste and see for yourself the Lord's strength. Look at verse number one, Psalm 27.
[27:13] The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.
[27:24] Of whom shall I be afraid? Can you say that? Can you say that the Lord is the strength of my life?
[27:37] When you get into something that hurts, can you say that from your heart? Lord, you are my strength. You are the strength of my life. Without you, I have no strength. I can't do this alone. I don't even want to try. I will not rely on my own understanding or on my own strength or on the arm of flesh.
[27:59] You are the strength of my life. Look at Psalm 28 and verses 6 and 7. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
[28:12] The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I am helped. Is that true of you? Is the Lord your strength? Look at Psalm 31.
[28:29] Psalm 31. And look at David's crying and David's pain in his heart and how he handles it. I'm going to read a passage here from 10 to 19.
[28:41] Psalm 31. 10. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed.
[28:53] I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors. And a fear to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.
[29:07] I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
[29:17] But I trusted in thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.
[29:30] Save me for thy mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed, O Lord. For I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed. And let them be silent in the grave.
[29:42] Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. O how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them, that trust in thee before the sons of men.
[30:02] So David experienced suffering. David experienced lowliness, persecutions, grief, sighing. His own strength faileth.
[30:14] He is low and brought so low. All he can do is trust the Lord. And as I showed you early, crying for his face to shine on him. He doesn't want to be ashamed. And so he looked unto him.
[30:25] And he's lightened. And what he says is in verse 19, O how great is thy goodness. And taste and see for yourself that the Lord is good.
[30:39] David got strength from the Lord. He was lifted up and put on a high place because he trusted in the Lord. And you're going to experience the suffering in this life and the sorrow, whether it's here now, it's coming in the future.
[30:53] Be prepared for it. Be ready to run to God. Be ready to get strength from the Lord. If you haven't yet, then I recommend what David does. Taste and see for yourself the Lord's strength.
[31:07] Stop trying to fight this on your own. Commit it to the Lord. It's not always an easy thing to do. And part of the reason is because you're full of pride. And it's hard for you to humble yourself and just give up.
[31:18] Because God's not standing in front of you. You can't call him on the phone and actually get an answer. So it's hard for man to just trust someone he can't see.
[31:28] Someone he can't grab a hold of. That's not an easy thing. Your relationship with God had better be real. And if it's real, in those times you'll find out that it's not as scary as you think.
[31:43] What's that song say? Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. And it said, how I've proved him. Or and or.
[31:55] Over and over again, he's proven himself to me that I can trust him. And then the cry is, oh for grace, to trust him more. If you've gotten strength from the Lord, if you've gotten salvation from the Lord, you should surely be able to rely on him with your life.
[32:13] And so taste and see for yourself the Lord's strength. Now I want to look at verse number seven. And look at one more thought here from this passage. In verse seven, the angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear him and delivereth them.
[32:30] Now we're moving out of the past and something into the present, which is ongoing. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
[32:42] This verse describes being surrounded by the angel of the Lord. Now that's just one being, the angel of the Lord, but he's encamping round about.
[32:53] As if where you reside, you're inside the circle of his protection because he's encamping round about you. Now keep that thought and come back to where we just were in chapter, Psalm 27.
[33:06] Look back again to 27. I want to go back through some of these Psalms again. And watch how these thoughts bring something out. Psalm 27, and I want to read three through five.
[33:19] You see the picture of this army, this enemy coming against you and host?
[33:30] Should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
[33:50] Now if you're picturing Solomon's temple or some tabernacle, you're thinking wrong. Let's keep reading. Verse 5, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion.
[34:04] That's not a temple that's in some specific locality in Judah or Israel, where I'm going to run to this little building and hide inside. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me up upon a rock.
[34:21] So David mentions a temple, a tabernacle, a pavilion, a secret place where the Lord will protect him. Now a tabernacle is where God dwelt, a dwelling place.
[34:34] So keep that in mind. Look at chapter 31 now, Psalm 31. Come back to this passage. We stopped at verse 19 where he says, Oh, how great is thy goodness. And now look at verse number 20.
[34:49] Verse 20, Psalm 31, 20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of, notice it, thy presence from the pride of man.
[34:59] Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. That secret place, that pavilion, that tabernacle, that temple is called here the presence of God.
[35:17] That place of protection, that place of security from the enemy, from the host, from the army, is a place where the enemy cannot enter.
[35:29] It's a pavilion. It's the presence of God. That place is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that pavilion.
[35:40] He is that temple or tabernacle that I want to spend the days of my life in when the enemy encamps around me. The picture, as I said, is an enemy on the horizon, but the Lord, the angel of the Lord encampeth around about them.
[35:54] He's surrounding you and protecting you 360 degrees. But in reality, not just in picture of enemies and armies, but in reality, what is the truth is that you are in him.
[36:08] You're in Jesus Christ, protected 360 degrees from anything that would try to get to you. The devil cannot get you out.
[36:20] The world cannot call you out of Jesus Christ. And so, thirdly, I want to say, taste and see for yourself the Lord's security.
[36:32] In the verse, they looked unto him and were light, and their faces were not ashamed. No, verse 7, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. The Lord keeps you safe.
[36:45] The place of safety and security is the Lord. The Bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. Taste and see for yourself the Lord's security.
[37:00] The security of being inside Jesus Christ. A place that you cannot lose your salvation because you're in him. A place that no man can pluck you out, as he says in John 10, because you're in my hand and I'm in the Father's hand.
[37:18] He's explaining the security and the strength, and nobody can pluck you out of that. Taste and see for yourself the security. Now, the reason I bring this out is because there's a lot of believers.
[37:29] They've cried to Jesus Christ for salvation, like we read. They've tasted the wonder of the gospel, of the salvation of Jesus Christ, to have sins forgiven.
[37:46] They've become children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of believers that have done that. And yet they don't understand what we call eternal security.
[37:58] They don't understand that they're in Christ forever, that God sealed them with his spirit, and they're not getting out. And there's so much bad teaching on this.
[38:09] There's maybe just being ignorant of the Bible itself. Or just never thought about it, never read it, never put in perspective of what the Bible teaches about your soul and about being eternally safe in Jesus Christ.
[38:25] And it's a shame that so many people are taught wrong. I went, when I was in Bible school, I went, I had a helper with me in our, we were a crew in our truck.
[38:36] And we were driving through kind of an area of town that he was familiar with, he grew up in. And he's like, hey, I want you to pull over here.
[38:47] I want you to meet my uncle. He's a pastor. He's a bishop. And this guy, the guy that I worked with, my coworker, he was a really good guy. He was a nice guy. I liked him. We had a good relationship.
[38:59] He knew I was in Bible school, and he always called me the preacher and things like that. And he wanted to try to just connect his world with my world. He really wasn't trying to be dumb. He didn't know anything about denominations and doctrine.
[39:11] He didn't know any of that stuff. But he thought it would be really cool to show me that he has an uncle that's a pastor. And so we pulled in, and I'm like, oh, man. Like, I just wanted to be nice to him, so I did it.
[39:26] But I didn't want to go meet this guy because it was, I knew it wasn't going to be good. But I pulled into the parking lot because we were just driving right through there, and he saw his Mercedes Benz in the parking lot. He's like, oh, my uncle, he's here.
[39:38] He's here. So we went in, and here he comes, and they do their greetings thing. And he says, hey, I want to introduce you to my guy here, Toby. I work with him.
[39:49] He's a preacher. And his uncle, who's probably at the time twice my age, just looks at me. He's like, oh, yeah? You're a preacher, are you? And I just said, well, I'm studying the Bible.
[40:00] I'm in Bible school right now. And I knew I was not in a place where I wanted to start. I just knew what was coming. I could feel it. Like, this guy's like, he's like, oh, yeah, where do you go to school?
[40:12] What's your denomination? What are you? And I said, well, I'm just studying the Bible, the King James Bible. It's a Baptist church. The Pensacola Bible Institute's the name of the place.
[40:23] And he's like, oh, oh, okay. So you believe once saved, always saved, huh? And I just, man, I didn't come here to argue with you.
[40:34] And I don't want to do it in front of him. Like, I don't want this to be nasty. It's just, but I'm just a kid compared to him, really. I'm telling you, he's twice my age. And he starts kind of just coming at me. And I said, well, I believe that when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you're born of the Spirit.
[40:50] And that you have eternal life. And I believe your life is eternal. So, yes, I believe once you're saved, you're always saved, eternally. And he's like, what about Hebrews 6?
[41:02] Like, I mean, he came sharp. He wasn't being nice anymore. What about Hebrews 6? And I know what he means about Hebrews 6. I know what it says. And I know how it applies. And thank God, by the grace of God, I've been taught right doctrine and how to handle the scriptures.
[41:15] And I just said, well, I don't think that what you're referring to applies to me. Because I'm in Christ. And he didn't know what to do with that. He's like, oh, that's what I thought.
[41:26] And I said, look, we got to get going. And I was able to get out of it. But it was sad to see that this is a preacher. He's preaching to his congregation.
[41:38] That you trust Christ to get saved. But you have to live it to stay saved. And then what falls on your shoulders is the burden to perform for God to continue to be his child.
[41:53] As if God saves your soul. Washes away your sins. Grants you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Just justifies, sanctifies, reconciles you unto himself by the death of his son.
[42:08] And then just waits for you to mess up. So I can take it back. You don't deserve it. You didn't keep it. God is good.
[42:20] Remember? The Lord is good. And you should taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see the security. That when he saves you, he saves you for eternity.
[42:31] When he makes you his child, you're born spiritually. And we've already taught this plenty of times. And we'd have to go back for quite a while to really articulate it thoroughly.
[42:43] But he creates a new creature inside of you. That new creature cannot sin, according to 1 John chapter 3. Any sin that is done is a work of the flesh.
[42:54] The old you. The one who's not saved. And inside of you resides eternal life in the new man. You are secure in Christ. The Bible has an answer for every question you can throw.
[43:06] Well, what if you commit suicide? It's got an answer. It doesn't affect your soul. Don't do it, but it's not going to send you to hell. You can't prove it from the Bible. But that's a common one.
[43:18] What if you stop believing on Jesus Christ? What if you renounce him? What about it? The Bible has an answer for that. 2 Timothy chapter 2. If we believe not yet, he abideth faithful.
[43:30] He cannot deny himself. Once you're born into him, you're placed in the body of Christ. Spiritually, you're baptized into the body of Christ. Spiritually. And you can't be taken out.
[43:43] And that's because God's good. He's better than you. He's better than the preachers who don't understand this. He's better than the men that can't handle the word of God.
[43:54] And don't know how to rightly divide. And don't study to show themselves approved unto God. I'm thankful I don't have to keep my salvation. I really mean it.
[44:05] I'm thankful because I'd have lost it this week. Gone. Now I've got to get it back. Oh God, I'm sorry.
[44:16] Oh God, please forgive me. Oh God, please save me again. Please take me back as your child. You're going to have to do that every week, every day? Why? Taste and see the Lord's security.
[44:29] It's more important than you know. I talk about it because it's more important. So many people are confused on it and they don't have it. And they wrestle with it and they're confused. And eventually, after fighting that fight, they'll just give up.
[44:43] And you don't need to do that. What you need to do is trust him and rest in him. And study the Bible and find out why you are eternally secure in Jesus Christ.
[44:54] It's a Bible doctrine for this age. If there's passages in the Bible that seem to contradict that, chances are it's for another age. Where somebody can lose their salvation or lose their righteousness is a better way to say it.
[45:08] Now I'm going to stop there for today. We've gotten through three parts. And to put five on you is a little bit much. You'll not remember the first three. So this morning, taste and see the Lord's salvation for yourself.
[45:23] If you've never been saved, stop trying to please God and just trust Jesus Christ. He pleased God. He did it for you. If you're going through some struggles, taste and see the Lord's strength.
[45:35] He's good. He'll give you strength and grace and mercy and all that you need. David needed it and he got it. And chances are you're going to need it too. Taste and see the Lord's security.
[45:48] He's encamping round about you. The enemy's not getting in. He can't touch your soul. You're sealed. You're settled. It's done. And praise the Lord for that. So I trust that if you've been born again, you've experienced much of this.
[46:01] There's more to come. We'll catch that next week. And it should even tie in maybe a little bit to the season and the holiday of Thanksgiving. And I'm a little bit excited about something next week that we cover in this passage.
[46:12] Because I think it just, it goes a little bit out beyond this life. And is indicative when we know that God is good of how he's going to reward us. And how he's going to, what he's got in store for us in the future.
[46:25] And so you're going to want to be here for that. It'll stir your soul. I promise you. So let's be dismissed with a word of prayer. Amen.