935. Savoring Christ

Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. Today on The Daily Platform, Dr. Alan Benson, Vice President for Student Development and Discipleship at Bob Jones University, will preach a message titled, Savoring Christ. The scripture is from 1 Peter chapter 1.

Well, good morning. It is my pleasure to be here and open the Word of God for us today. What a great song for the passage of scripture we're going to consider today. Jesus is all the world to me. I'd like us to focus our attention today on the thought of savoring Christ, developing our spiritual taste buds, and we're going to look together at 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 13.

We're going to go back to chapter 1, kind of as a means of commentary. I just want to read together 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. And so go to the Word of God in whatever form you have it, digitally or in your Bible.

Follow along as I read. Peter writes, Wherefore, 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 ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Do you remember as a kid, when you were eating something close to suppertime, and your mom would say something like, you're going to ruin your supper. Did you ever ask yourself what that meant? Like what did what you were snacking on have to do with your supper?

They're two completely different things. Now it's possible that your mother meant that what you were eating was going to fill you up so that you wouldn't have room for supper. However, I think that there's something else at play. I think that what our mothers were saying was that if we eat something that we typically snack on, something super sweet, candy, something like that, our supper wouldn't taste good to us. The way that it should. Taste. What exactly is taste? Is taste what I like? That's not my taste. Is it an expression of personal preference? I don't have a taste for that, or that taste just somehow reflects my personal style.

Well, a great source for getting a definition is Merriam-Webster, and here's what Webster says. Taste is the power or practice of discerning or enjoying whatever constitutes excellence. That is taste. And that definition leads us to the thought that taste is something that has to be developed. You develop a taste for something. My mother would always joke with me that eventually you'll develop a taste for vegetables, and I would respond to that by saying no, eventually I'll get so old that my taste buds don't work and then I don't care. And that's why I would like vegetables. But we do develop a taste for things.

It is something that can grow. Taste is something that we discern, that we enjoy, that we acquire a taste for because it's excellent. And so it draws us to this thought that we are to grow in ways that we delight and take pleasure in the things that matter most.

Think about developing a taste, acquiring a taste, learning to savor Christ. These are interesting days, aren't they? I know you've been busy while you've been online doing all of your work and particularly this last week trying to finish up and being concerned about grades.

But it's been different than being here at the university where there were programs and ball games and there were committees that you were on and society was happening and there were universities organizations that you were a part of. Life is missing those things for you right now other than the ways that you're connecting virtually and digitally. And yet somehow it feels like it's just not normal. There's almost in the midst of the busyness we have now almost this sense of lethargy that can set in because we're not doing what we normally do. We're not living at the pace we normally live at.

And it's easy in times like that. To begin filling ourselves with the snacks before supper. And if that's what's filling our lives, our taste for Christ is not what it should be. And I believe in this passage of scripture Peter addresses that and so really I want to talk to us very practically, very directly and very simply today about this idea of savoring Christ. And I want us to think about just really two things. The first thing we have to do that Peter addresses here is we have to get the bad taste out of our mouth.

Look what he says in chapter 2 and verse 1. Taking aside, literally throwing away from us that which is infected. It's taking off the wrappings or the garments that would cover a wound and knowing that they could infect us because they're carrying the infection or now carrying the virus.

We're to get them away from us because of the contamination. And so a figurative sense here of something that has to come off of our palate, if you will. A taste that we have to get out of our mouth. Have you ever gotten up first thing in the morning and brushed your teeth and then went right to the kitchen and the first thing you did was pick up a big glass of orange juice and take a big drink? I don't know about you but mint toothpaste and orange juice just don't go together in my mouth.

One has to be out before I can enjoy the other and I actually don't mind mint toothpaste and I love orange juice but when I put the two together they just don't work. Something has got to go before the new comes and that's the idea in this passage of scripture. And he identifies things that we're to put off. Malice. That which is really the opposite of good. Moral evil. That we have to lay aside. It carries the idea of this evil that wants to inflict injury in particular. Injury upon our soul or injury upon others souls.

And so that has to be cleansed out of our life in order for us to rightly savor Christ. We're to put aside deceit and guile. This idea of a selfish driven desire for my own gain by taking from someone else. I'm going to gain by not giving you all the truth or I'm going to gain by getting something from you in a deceitful way.

Has to be laid aside before I can rightly savor Christ's hypocrisy. Someone that never intends to be what they pretend to be. I'm not authentic. I'm not genuine. I'm saying things that are motivated out of a heart of pride because I want to be better thought of and so I'm not being me. I'm putting on a show.

I'm wearing a mask. Envies. A strong feeling of displeasure because of the good or gain of others. I look enviously at others who are doing well or maybe are having an easier time. They're not struggling with their classes the way I am.

They're not struggling at home the way I am. Then slander and evil speaking. That which comes out of the mouth but is a reflection of that which is in the heart. A heart to hurt.

A heart to harm. And primarily again motivated because by bringing you down it leaves me in an elevated position. So you see in all of these things there's a selfish motivation in a sense Peter starts here by saying that we have to cleanse our palette of self and self motivation and self gain and self focus in order to savor Christ.

It's one thing to know that. The question is how do we do it? And I think that's the commentary that chapter one particularly verses 13 on down to the end verse 25 provides for us. So I want to lay aside those things but I struggle with them.

How do I do that? Where do I put my energies? Where do I turn my focus? And I think Peter directs us in that and he tells us first to rightly value your redemption. Look at chapter one and verse 13.

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober hope to the end for the grace that is brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which has called you is holy so be holy in all manner conversation because it's written be holy for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.

How do I cleanse my palate? I want you to see that the cleansing agent is the gospel verse 25 says this but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The word of God is proclaimed into our hearts through the gospel know the gospel know your position in the gospel and desire to live your position prize your redemption rightly value what God has done for you.

I want to challenge you in these days when you do find yourself with time to make sure that you make it a priority to go and further explore the riches of the gospel and the depths of the redemptive love of Christ for you when he paid for you by dying on Calvary's cross. Oh how he loves you and me. Oh how he loves you and me.

Think of what he did for us. Think of how he set his eye on us. And what should that cause us to do?

What does it mean to rightly value my redemption? Well, I think he points out a few things verse 13. He tells us that to do that we must set our affection or if you will, we must attach our heart to God. Notice that he says that we are to prepare our mind for action gird up the loins of your mind. And then he says this idea be sober or to be self controlled to take yourself in hand. This is an intentional process that we must say I am going to do something.

There's a decision to be made. There's a place to focus. So I've got to focus and then notice what he says after that he says and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you literally set your hope fully on the grace of God. In other words, make this your affection. Set your heart on Christ.

Try what God has done for you. Buy it up and sell it not. Cling to it. Hold to it. Don't let anything devalue what Christ has done for you. Take time.

Set your affection. Make it a point of mental occupation to think about every day what God has done for you. Be thankful for the redemptive work of Christ.

Make it personal. Yes, he died for the sins of the whole world, but he died for you. He died on Calvary's cross in your place. He paid the penalty for your sins and prize it. Set your affections on God by focusing there but then pursue holiness.

In light of that, realize what it is that he did for you. That's what Paul reminds us of when he talks about the work of Christ in our behalf. He says this of Jesus that he who knew no sin was made at the cross to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We know what a divine transaction that Christ who was the sinless son of God on Calvary became our sin bearer so that it might be taken from us both in its presence and in its penalty. And he bore that penalty and died in our place so that imputed to our account might be his righteousness.

This is what Christ did for us. If I value my redemption, I will set my heart. I will fix my passions to pursue what Christ was after for me. Righteousness, right standing with God, holiness, being separated from that which is evil.

I want to challenge you during these days where there is at least a different kind of time schedule. I value your redemption by purposing to focus with a thankful heart on what Christ has done for you and then consider why he did it and pursue hard after the holiness that he made possible for you. As you look at temptation in your life.

Oh, don't linger there. Look at it and say Christ purchased me from that and run as Joseph did. Find yourself having fallen into sin.

Don't stay in the slop like the hogs. Realize that you are a son and return as the prodigal did to his father and you will find him ready with open arms to embrace you and restore you as a son. When you find yourself there in sin, repent, get right with God, value your redemption and run to your father. Oh, I challenge you to rightly value your redemption. Rightly value what Christ has done for you. Notice in verse 17, he says an interesting thing.

He says, if you call on the father who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And I realize he's talking about all of life and that eternity is next. But what an interesting word, this word to sojourn is, it's almost this idea of traveling while you wait.

Do any of you feel like that during this time of COVID-19, coronavirus? That somehow I'm doing this and I've got things to do and I need to be busy and I've got to finish this semester. But there's this sense of sojourning that I'm doing this while I wait.

At some point, I'm going to go back to what I was doing. You know, sojourning can be an interesting time. It's a time that can draw us away from the things that we should be rightly tasting.

Have a taste for. It's a time when our appetites can be adjusted because we're just sojourning. This isn't the real thing. It's not the real time and we can be impacted by that. I think he points some of that out here. I think he challenges us to avoid the substitutes when we're thinking about our redemption and what we should value. He talks about corruptible things as silver and gold substitutes or cheap substitutes. You see, those who he describes here as fearing God, having a right relationship with God, forsake the world's value system and stop living for the world's values and for people's approval.

That which he captures here by silver and gold, the pinnacle, if you will, of what the world values. Sojourning can be a time when our value system actually begins to adjust. We give our hearts to other things. We give our time to other things. And we say in our head, oh yes, I value my redemption. I value my walk with God. But somehow in my time and somehow in my practices and somehow in my habits, I'm giving myself to cheap substitutes.

I'm watching things that normally I wouldn't watch. And it doesn't mean that they're not moral or that they're immoral. It could be. And if that's you, run from them. But it could just be that they're distractions. And you so fill all your time with distractions that you lose your taste for Christ. And somehow someone begins to challenge you about your spiritual walk and it's like orange juice on your toothpaste. It just doesn't taste right. And you know what?

There's not a problem with the orange juice. You need to cleanse your palate. There's some of you who will be tempted this summer to develop really bad habits. No time with God.

An adjusted schedule. Maybe you'll find a job and you go to work early but maybe you won't and so you find yourself staying up late into the night. You'll find yourself because of the length of time that you've been off and away from accountability and now home and in different relationships.

You have relationships there that you could prize but maybe you develop other ones or maybe you go into isolation, spend a lot of time by yourself. Be careful in the sojourning because it's easy for us to turn to substitutes. Avoid the substitutes but purposely attach to the Savior. By having a right opinion of God and finding your soul satisfaction in him and in his word. So we're to rightly value our redemption and then secondly we're to rightly value others. Notice what he says in verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. He's talking here, this is Peter's favorite expression for justification about being saved is obeying. Obedience is a theme he uses a lot to talk about salvation. He says through the truth, in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.

See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. He directs us to a purpose. That there is an outflow that ought to happen and it's interesting that he says this and he says it almost as a contrary to the selfish expressions that are going to come at the beginning of chapter two. That the gospel as it redeems me, as the gospel as it changes me, the gospel equips me to love people the way I ought to.

There's an outflow of ministry. And so if you will to get the bad taste out of my mouth I need to turn from this selfish taste that's in my palate. And I need to rightly value the gospel, my redemption and through it I need to now rightly value others. I need to see other people in light of the gospel instead of viewing them in light of myself. I ought to see them as the object of Christ's love, of the redemption that I've received.

It's a redemption that they have an opportunity to receive or have received and I need to view them through gospel glasses. I need to value others the way I should. Some of you are at home and you're struggling. You're struggling again with the relationship with your mom and your dad and just the sense of accountability that you have. They're talking to you about things like schedule and you feel somehow threatened and that they're authoritarian and they're maybe just trying to figure out the schedule so they know when to have supper so everybody can eat. You're struggling with relationships with siblings that maybe weren't at college with you and you've gone back home and you just don't remember somehow that they were so annoying.

Maybe you got back home and somebody else was living in your bedroom and you're not even in the room that you were in before you left and somehow your turf has been invaded. Relationships reveal what's going on in our hearts and maybe right now your life is filled with strife and turmoil and anger and hostility and I want you to stop for a moment and I just want you to quickly take a taste in your mouth and what are you tasting? Your relationships may actually be tasting the malice and the envy and the hypocrisies and the guile and the evil speakings and you need to cleanse your palate. Today may be a time where you stop and you say, you know what, because of the gospel of Christ and the work that he's done in my life, God I want you to help me to savor you the way I should and I'm going to pursue it by setting value on others. I'm going to ask how can I, while I am here sojourning, serve others for you? How can I, because I'm home when I wouldn't normally have been home, make my parents' life better? How could I serve mom and dad? I've got siblings and they're trying somehow to finish school some way. How could I serve them? Could I find out if it's math they're struggling with and say, you know what, one of the things I'm going to do is I'm going to take some time and I'll help you with that.

Maybe they're struggling with technology but you have it all figured out. Knowing the way life is with high schoolers, they're probably the ones that got it figured out and you need the help but maybe that's something you can help them find a way to serve. Rather than struggling over, nobody ever asked me to do dishes at college because you put them on a conveyor belt. Maybe you need to serve and say, hey, you know what, while I'm here, can I clear the table? Can I free your schedule?

Are there things that I can do? Rightly value others. Why?

Because the value that God set on them. So get the bad taste out of your mouth. But then secondly, I want us to see that we need to acquire a taste for Christ.

You know what, I think he makes this really practical. How do I do that? What do I do to develop my taste for Christ? How do I sample him? You ever gotten something really tasty for me that's a piece of chocolate and you want it to last, that you want to taste it so you don't chew it up and just swallow it, you savor it.

Because you want to taste it as long as you can and you want the taste to linger. How do I savor Christ? Well, I believe he directs us here to the word of God.

Have a steady diet of the word of God. Notice he uses this picture as newborn babes and that's not an insult. He's not saying you're a baby.

He's actually giving us a picture. Who wants to eat the most? Is there a sense of desperation over getting the nourishment I need as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby? We have a puppy at our house right now. And for some reason, it'll pick at its own puppy food. But I have a larger dog that is my own dog, Cadbury.

Some of you know him. And Cadbury gets different food and we have to be really careful because for some reason, the puppy desperately wants Cadbury's food. So the other day I put it up on a chair where the puppy couldn't reach it. And if you had watched this puppy trying to get up on that chair to get that food and the way it was going on and howling and it wanted the food so desperately, it gives you an idea of the picture here that a baby when it's hungry can do nothing but cry out in its need and its desperation. There's this picture here of my hunger for the word of God. And so notice the food, he gives us the characteristics of the word at the end of chapter two.

Notice that he says that this word is not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible verse 23 by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And he kind of in a sense sets that in contrast to the corruptible things of the world, silver and gold. And he says, here's where you should set your values. Here's where your preoccupation should lie. Here's where you should spend your time.

This is where your focus should be. You need to get a steady diet of the word of God. I want to challenge you as we end this semester and you head into the summer to passionately pursue a steady diet of the word of God.

Make a plan for this summer. Where will I be in the word? How much time will I spend in the word?

And I want you to go beyond that. Start cataloging the lessons God teaches you from the word as you read. What does he say to you? What is he teaching you?

What is he pointing out to you? Are there promises? Are there challenges? Are there blessings?

Are there encouragements? As you read the word, catalog them and make it a steady diet of the word. And you will find that that which you don't have a taste for are the temporary substitutes. Have a steady diet of the word of God because it is steadfast and it is sure and it's profitable and it's abiding and it matters.

Everything else is like grass, he says. And even though for a short time it might look so good and so glorious, it fades away. But the word of God won't.

Its value lasts forever. And that's why we have to have a hunger for it. Build an appetite that you find a longing in your soul when you're not rightly nourished from the word. And that leads you to then this thought.

Notice what he says. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious and it speaks here of God's goodness. I want to challenge you today at the end of this message to pray and say, God, help me to develop a taste for you. Cleanse my palate of the things that make my spiritual walk not taste the way they should and fill my heart with thankfulness for you and what you've done for me. And help me to live it out by serving others, acquiring a taste for God.

God bless you. Let's pray. Father, help us to love you as we ought. Fill our hearts with understanding of how you have loved us and help us to live that out as we pursue hard after you. In Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for listening and join us again next week as we hear more chapel messages from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.