Let us turn to God's word in
that portion that we were reading in the book of the prophet Jeremiah
often referred to of course as the weeping prophet. It was a
bitter ministry that he had to exercise as he saw God's judgments
coming upon the nation of Judah. The ministry at the time of the
Babylonian captivity and seeing God's judgments, as it were,
in all the earth. Well, turning to the portion
that we were reading in chapter 15, and I want to direct you
to verse 16. Jeremiah 15, 16. The prophet
says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. For I am called
by thy name, O Lord God, of hosts. So the theme really is scripture
as a spiritual feast. Scripture a spiritual feast. Thy word were found and I did
eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine
heart. For I am called by thy name,
O Lord God of hosts. As I was saying, Jeremiah's message was a hard message that he had
to take to the people as he speaks of God's severe chastenings coming
upon them in the way of judgment. And such a ministry, of course,
was not acceptable. He felt himself to be one rejected
of the people. As he says here in the previous
verse, 15, O LORD, Thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and
revenge me of my persecutors. Take me not away in my longsuffering.
Know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke. And God does
promise that He will strengthen him and He will encourage him. As we see at the end of the chapter,
Therefore Thou saidst to the Lord, if Thou return, Then will
I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me, and if
thou take forth the precious from the vial. This was to be
a very discriminating ministry then, a separating ministry. If thou take forth the precious
from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return
unto thee, but return not thou. unto them, and I will make unto
these people a fence, brazen wall, and they shall fight against
thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I am with thee
to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD, and I will deliver
thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of
the hand of the terrible." What a gracious word of promise what
an encouragement to the prophet that he should continue to exercise
this discriminating ministry and how was it that the Lord
would strengthen him well that's what we have really in the words
of our text it was God's words thy words were found he says
and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of my heart for I'm called by thy name O Lord of hosts. And so, to take up this theme
then, that the Scripture is to the Lord's people in all their
trials, all their troubles, a spiritual feast. But it's not enough, is
it, to know the Bible and to be able to remember texts and
to quote texts of Scripture. We must be those who know what
it is to digest the Word of God, to feed in a spiritual fashion
upon the Word of God. And we do have the examples that
are set before us here in Scripture. Besides Jeremiah and the language
that we have here in our text this evening, we find something
very similar in the experience of the prophet Ezekiel, there
in chapter 3. and the opening verses of that
chapter. And again, when we turn to the
New Testament and the last book of Scripture, we read of John
and the little book there in Revelation 10 at verse 5 through
10, and John has to take the book and eat the book. as was
the case with Ezekiel, and as is the case here also with Jeremiah. So we have these events recorded,
and they're there for a purpose, of course, to remind us we also
need to be those who would be feeding and digesting the words
of God. But before coming to partake
of God's word, we have to find it. And In finding it, of course,
there will be a measure of seeking. It doesn't just happen automatically. There must be prayer with regards
to our approach to the Word of God, the seeking of God's blessing
upon His Word. We have that promise later on
in chapter 29 and verse 13, familiar words, He shall seek me, says
the Lord God, and you shall find me. when you shall search after
me with all your heart. So there's got to be some diligent
seeking. The Lord Jesus himself says,
Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. And the one that we are seeking
to find in Holy Scripture must be the Lord Jesus Christ himself. As he said to the Jews there
in the Gospel in John 5.39, search the Scriptures. In them ye think
that ye have eternal life, but these are they that testify of
me. Life is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's life eternal. He says, To
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. He is himself the Word. the Word of God incarnate in
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God and the same was in the beginning with God and
that Word was made flesh says John and dwelt among us and we
beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth this is where we are to find our nourishment
then We search the Scriptures, and we search them in order that
we might discover the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures and the
Lord, their one tremendous name, the written and incarnate Word
in all things, are the same. But where there is that seeking
and that finding, there must also be that feeding. But enough to see the Lord Jesus
Christ in Scripture, but we want to know what it is to receive
him into our hearts, to feed upon him. The familiar language
that we have in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, where Christ
speaks of himself, of course, as that bread of life. I am the bread of life, he says,
one of the great I am statements. this one who is the image of
the invisible God himself the great I am and the revelation
that we have in these statements and there in that sixth chapter
you're familiar with the words and he prefixes what he says
with a double verily verily verily or truly truly I say unto you
except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood
ye have no life in you whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last
day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I
in him what a union is that he dwells in his people his people
dwell in him they are those who are feeding upon him and we know
that that feeding is not in any sense to be understood as the
poor papist might say and look to the blasphemy of the doctrine
of transubstantiation and imagine that the priest has some power
and ability to turn the wafer into the body and blood and the
soul and divinity of Christ and how they worship then what is nothing really more than
an idol god when the wafer is elevated and all the nonsense
of that awful teaching of the Romish church nothing at all
to do with that in the language of article 31 in the Church of
England articles it's a blasphemous fable and it's a dangerous deceit
It's a spiritual feeding that's being spoken of. God's word is
a spiritual word. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one who is revealed to us in the word. You know, we need
that minute of the Spirit. There's another figure, isn't
there, that's used with regards to experience of real union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. That figure of being engrafted,
the engrafted word. We find it there in James 1.21,
received with meekness. He says the engrafted Word that
is able to save your soul. And the Word that we have there,
engrafted, literally the implanted Word, the rooted Word. Oh God's
Word must come into our hearts. And we have that promise of the
New Covenant and we find it here. in this book later in chapter
31 and there at the 31st verse following, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which
my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith
the Lord, but This shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. for I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. The promise
of the new covenant, the covenant of grace and God says he will
put his law in the inward parts and write his laws upon the hearts
of his people. It's an inward reception. It's the engrafted word. It's
the implanted word. It's that word that we're eating
and devouring. It's that that is spoken of here. It's interesting how those words
in that 31st chapter we just read are taken up, aren't they,
in the New Testament. Twice in the epistle to the Hebrews. In Hebrews 8 at verse 10 and
then again at chapter 10 and verse 16 that scripture is applied
to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. oh this is the word that's
found my words were found and I did eat them and my word was
unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by
thy name God as it says there in the promise of the new covenant
does call his people by their very name calls them to himself
now we need then that God's words should come to us in that fashion
the kingdom of heaven says Paul, is not in word but in power. We need to look to the Lord to
grant that his word might come in that fashion to us, with power,
with authority, that we feel something in our souls under
the sound of that word, a form of words. Though air so sound
can never save a soul, the Holy Ghost must give the wound and
make the spirit whole. In the first place, that word
is given by the Spirit. Those men, those holy men, they
spoke as they were moved by the Spirit. And we need the Spirit
also to come and apply that word to us. It's interesting what
we read there in that passage in Ezekiel 3 that I referred
to the opening verses. God says to the prophet there
in Ezekiel 3, verse 3, and fill thy bowels with this
roll that I give thee. Then, says Ezekiel, did I eat
it? Oh, he eats the Word, he receives
the Word, it dwells in him. And as Christ is in the Word,
so it is Christ in you. The hope of glory. Christ is
all and Christ in all. And we need to be those who are
receiving the Word in that effectual fashion. We are those who, by
the grace of God, do feed upon it. But how is it that we are able to
do this? Can we do it of ourselves? Of
course not. It's the gracious work of God.
God was the cause of the prophets eating this Word of Truth. as he says here at the end of
the verse I am called by thy name O Lord God of hosts or as
the margin says literally for thy name is called upon me God's
name is called upon him he is that God then who has worked
graciously and effectually to make this man his own And as
he receives the word, so he, as a prophet of course, becomes
the very mouthpiece of God. And that's what the Lord is saying
surely in verse 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord,
If thou shalt return, then will I bring thee again, and thou
shalt stand before me. And if thou take forth the precious
from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth. oh he is the very mouthpiece
of God he was a man who was sent by God of course he was the true
prophet of the Lord so different to those false prophets who were declaring to the people pleasant
things they were saying peace peace when there was no peace
and how the Lord rejects them there in chapter 14 and verse
13 then said I our Lord God behold the prophets say unto me ye shall
not see the sword or rather the prophets say unto them unto Israel
that is or unto Judah ye shall not see the sword neither shall
ye have famine but I will give you assured peace in this place
that was the message of the false prophets peace, peace when there
was no peace then the Lord said unto me the prophets prophesy
lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them
neither speak unto them they prophesy unto you a false vision
and divination and a thing of naught and the deceit of their
heart therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets
who prophesy in my name And I sent them not, yet they say, Sword
and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall
those prophets be consumed." Oh God, God rejects them. But how different, how different
for this true prophet of the Lord. When we go back to the
very opening chapter of the book of course, we see his call. In verse 8 of chapter 1, Be not
afraid of their face, he says God. For I am with thee to deliver
thee, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand
and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold,
I have put my word in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee
over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull
down and to destroy, to throw down. and to build and to plant
that's the ministry that he was to exercise and Ezekiel was called in a similar fashion in
many ways Ezekiel is also of course the prophet to those who
are in exile he actually goes with them into exile whereas
Jeremiah does not but the language that we have there in that opening
part of chapter 3 in Ezekiel that I referred to is so similar
to what we read concerning Jeremiah as the Lord's mouthpiece. Moreover
he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest, eat this
roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth,
says Ezekiel, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said
unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels
with this roll that I give them. Then did I eat it, and it was
in my mouth as honey for sweetness." We observe how it was the Lord
who caused him to eat the roll. It is the Lord's doing. It is
God who has to demonstrate something of His power here. Again, Ezekiel elsewhere says,
I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit says, Ezekiel
entered into me when he spake unto me, that I heard him that
spake unto me. It's the Spirit who has to come
with the Word. It's not enough to have the Word
of God, we need the Spirit to be present and to clothe that
Word with authority and to make that Word effectual in our souls. The preacher says in Ecclesiastes,
where the word of a king is there is power. Or we want the Lord
Jesus Christ to exercise something of his kingly office in, to make
his word effectual, efficacious. Oh, the Psalmist knew something
of that, when thou says seek ye my face, My heart said, Thy
face, Lord, will I serve. All when God says it. When God
clothes His Word with authority and He comes to us personally
and very specifically and comes not in Word only but in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Again in Ezekiel
we have that word the exhortation back in Ezekiel 18.31, make you
a new heart and a new spirit. Now, the Arminian might seize
on that and say, look, it's evidence, isn't it, in what is being said
there by Ezekiel, that the people were to make themselves a new
heart and a new spirit. They had some responsibility
to respond to the words. They needed a new heart and they
were to make a new heart. Their attitude was to change,
their spirit was to be better. However, what do we read later
in Ezekiel 36 and verse 26? We have God's promise of the
new covenant, a new heart. A new heart I will give you.
And a new spirit I will put within you, and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh, says the Lord God. We have to compare scripture
with scripture. Yes, the exhortation comes, but what do men discover?
They discover their complete impotence. They cannot do it. That's the great promise of the
New Covenant. God himself will do it. It's a promise that God has given
that he will make his people willing in the day of his power. And as God is the one who must
empower the Word, so God also must reveal Christ to us in that
Word. We're told, aren't we, there
in 1 Corinthians 2 God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the Spirit of man, sayeth the Spirit of man that is in him?
Even so the things of the Spirit of God knoweth no man but by
the Spirit. He pleased God, Paul says, to
reveal His Son in man. It's God's good pleasure. It's
the work of God. demonstrating His power, it's
God granting that gracious revelation. There's the cause. Why does the
Prophet receive the Word and consume the Word? Because
I am called by Thy Name, O Lord God of hosts, it is God's work.
And what is the consequence? God is the cause. of the prophet finding his comfort
in the word of truth, in spite of all the opposition that he
was experiencing. But what is the consequence?
Well, that word, he says, is the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Thy words were found, and I did
eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my
heart. It's a sweet revelation that
comes from God. It's a revelation of God's mind.
It's a revelation of God's will. And we see that again in that
passage from Ezekiel chapter 3 and the third verse. He says,
concerning the roll, it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And remember how in the 19th
Psalm, which is very much a celebration, isn't it, of the Word of God,
those verses that we have in the middle of Psalm 19, where
we have God's Word, God's Scriptures, spoken of under various names. And there in verse 10, it says,
sweeter also than honey, and then the honeycomb, the sweetness
of God's work. Again, in the 119th psalm, another
psalm that very much celebrates the scriptures. As you know,
it's an acrostic poem. It's built around all the letters
of the Hebrew alphabet. And there in the 103rd verse
of that psalm, how sweet are thy words, it says. Oh, there's
a sweetness in the Word of God. And there was a sweetness in
the Word that came to the prophets. What does God say to him here
at verse 11? The Lord said, Verily it shall
be well with thy remnant. Verily I will cause the enemy
to entreat thee well in the time of evil, and in the time of affliction. And that word was literally fulfilled
when the Babylonians came and Nebuchadnezzar gives specific
instruction concerning this man the prophet in chapter 39 and
there in verses 11 and 12 we see the fulfillment of that very
promise. Now Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon gave charge concerning
Jeremiah to Nebuchadnezzar Adan, the captain of the gods, saying,
Take him, and look well to him. Do him no harm, but do unto him
even as he shall say unto thee. God's word had its fulfillment. He was kept safe, as the Lord
had said, Verily, it shall be well with thy remnant, those
who were the remnant with him, those who identified with his
ministry. Verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well
in the time of evil and in the time of affliction." Oh, he proved
the truth of God's Word, the truth of his promises, which
are all Yah and Amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a comfort
this was then to the prophets. The sweetness of God's words.
God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that
he should repent. Hath he said it, shall he not
do it? Hath he spoken it, shall he not make it good? What is the Word of God? Job
speaks of it as his necessary food. It's his necessary food. I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food, there in Job 20 through
12. We ought to have that spirit
of the patriarch Job, that it might be our necessary food.
We have food for our bodies, of course, and the Lord gives
us each day our daily bread, but God also gives us that that
is for our spiritual nourishment. We have His Word. Oh, we read
it, that's good, but we need to meditate in it and contemplate
and feed upon the truths that we find therein. It's a sweet word. But if it
was only a sweet word, would it not then tend to cloy? We can't live our lives on sweetmeats. There's the bitter and the sweet. And in fact, often it is a bittersweet
that we find in the Word of God. Here is Jeremiah speaking the
words of the Lord and yet he's speaking time and again of terrible
judgments that are going to fall upon the people. As I say, we
see clearly how separating, how discriminating, how dividing
his ministry was to be, is to take forth the pressures from
the vile. There would be offense in the
world And it's interesting, I said
we also have the case of John in the New Testament as an example
of one who is actually feeding upon the Word of God. The little book in Revelation
10 and there at verse 9. John says, I went unto the angel
and said unto him, give me the little book. And he said unto
me, Take it, and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter,
but it shall be sweet in thy mouth as honey. It's a bitter,
sweet thing. But reading that, I thought of
the children of Israel when they were to partake of the Paschal
Lamb there in Exodus chapter 12. Remember, God's preparing them
for the final of the plagues. He's going to destroy all the
firstborn in Egypt, but he's going to pass over. The destroying angel will pass
over all the houses of the Hebrews. They're shattering under the
blood, the doorposts and the lintels. The blood is taken from
the from the paschal lamb and put there, and they're to eat,
they're to eat the lamb. But how are they to eat it? There
in Exodus 12 verse 8, with bitter herbs shall they eat it. With bitter herbs. The sweetness
of the meat, the sweetness of the lamb, the sacrifice, but
all the bitter herbs also. And so it is in the experience
of God's people, there are convictions. convictions of sin must be known
and felt the realization of what we are by nature when we're brought
to the end of self they turn us man to destruction it says
God does bring us to that we see that there's no hope in ourselves
we're those who by nature are so dead in sin and how we feel
what we are before a God who is whole and of eyes too pure
to behold iniquity. But the Lord Jesus himself has
said that they that are whole have no need of the physician,
but they that are sick he comes to call, not the righteous, but
sinners. Oh, we find sin a bitter thing,
but what sweetness there is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
like that word that we have in In Proverbs 27 verse 7 he says,
does the wise man to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Only those who have an appetite
like that, the hungry, to the hungry soul even bitter things
are sweet. When we learn something more
about our desperate plight as sinners and we see such a wondrous
fullness of salvation in the Lord Jesus. Ultimately you see
we have to find and we have to feed simply and solely on the
Lord Jesus Christ that one who is in all the scriptures thy
word were found says the prophet and I did eat them and thy word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by
thy name O Lord of hosts well the Lord bless his word to us
and glad that we might find some comforting sweetness in it. We're
going to sing that hymn of Joseph Farratt, I know we sing it often
times, 878. It's hymn on the scriptures. Say Christian, wouldst
thou thrive in knowledge of thy Lord? Against no scripture ever
strive, but tremble at his word. 878, and the tune is Cleavager,
number 20. Sanctification of self-righteousness. Against the scripture ever striving,
none tremble at his word. Reveal the sacred page, shall
we cherish Fetch the hard and haughty bow. If on the dark appeal, Beware
thy want of sorrow, No imperfection can be there, For all God's works
are right. The Scriptures and the Law bear
one tremendous standard, The return of the incarnate world
in all things of the same.