Finding, Eating & Delighting in God s Word January 5, 2014 Jeremiah 15:16 Matt Rawlings

Transcription

1 1 Finding, Eating & Delighting in God s Word January 5, 2014 Jeremiah 15:16 Matt Rawlings "Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts." Jeremiah 15:16 This time of year, we often have an awareness of how much food we ate over the holidays. From Thanksgiving, through Christmas and New Year s, we fill ourselves up with delectable goodies. We gorge on pies, green-bean casseroles, potatoes, ham and turkey, Christmas cookies, stocking stuffer candy and sweet treats of all kinds. And because of common temptations to overindulgence and overeating that most people encounter, countless articles and blogs are written between Thanksgiving and the end of January about eating and diet and weight. They can be helpful reminders to not gorge ourselves on things that in the end aren t good for us. But they miss the more important concern of what we are feeding on that is even more important for life. You see, even more important than focusing on what we eat and how much we eat, I believe that, as a church, we need to talk about our spiritual diet. What are we eating, what are we feasting on, what are we being filled up with normally? Are we thinking about what we are eating spiritually? Are we finding satisfaction and feeding on God s Word Main Idea: As God s children, finding and eating His Word is a delight. There are four points we are going to walk through that flow out of these brief comments that Jeremiah has made: 1. Finding God's Word brings change 2. God s Word needs to be eaten 3. Eating God's Word brings delight 4. We seek Gods Word because we're His children In early 1800's, a young boy named Conrad Reed found a 17-pound nugget in a creek on his father's farm. The family used the huge nugget as a doorstop until 1802, when it was sold to a jeweler for $3.50. Eventually word got out about the true worth of the gold doorstop, initiating the nation's first gold rush and land all around the Appalachian region was searched for gold. One of the largest deposits of gold was found not too far from where we are just a couple of hours away in Dahlonega Georgia. A few years ago, I toured an old gold mine in Dahlonega, Georgia and learned how gold was found in 1828 in the hills around Dahlonega and it brought massive change to North Georgia. An area that once was an economic backwater now was the center of really the first major gold rush after gold had been found in North Carolina. A large mine was established and eventually over 500 gold mines were established in the area. A booming town popped up in just 2 years, with approximately 15,000 miners relocating and the US treasury even built a mint there to make gold coins from the massive amounts of ore that was mined there. 1

2 2 The find of gold brought sudden wealth to the area and the find of a large nugget there inspired people from all over the country to relocate there. The find brought lots of change. But within 20 years, most of the rush was over because the easy gold had been found and miners moved on to California. The wealth was fleeting and the changes were not truly lasting. But, when people find God s Word, it brings lasting change and a wealth that doesn t fade. "Your words were found", Jeremiah 15:16 1. Finding God's Word brings change By 640 BC, God s people had strayed so far from God and rejected His ways that they had lost track of their own Book of the Law probably all of the first 5 books of the Bible but at least the book of Deuteronomy. And this discarding of God s Word, living in a way that seemed right in their own eyes, led to idolatry and all manner of evil and covenant breaking, for which God promised to bring punishment on His own people. And God commissioned the prophet Jeremiah to prophesy of what would befall God s people because they had rejected Him by rejecting and disobeying His Word. They had become idolatrous and instead of worshipping God, they worshipped gods of their own making. God raised Jeremiah up as a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah, during the reign of King Josiah. King Josiah s father, King Amon, had been a wicked king and done what was evil in the sight of God, as had so many kings before him. But, Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of David and he didn t turn aside. Josiah commissioned the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord and in the process of rebuilding the temple, the high priest found the Book of the Law. 2 Kings tells the account of God s Word being found. "And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD." Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." 2 Kings 22:8-13 When Hilkiah found God s Word and Josiah heard it, it brought change. It had been lost for so many years but now that His Word was found, it changed Josiah and brought change to the whole nation. Josiah brought reforms and tore down the false temples and destroyed the false idols the people had made. And Jeremiah reflects on this and says, your words were found. It was a time to rejoice because God s Word had been found. Jeremiah embraced God s Word and obeyed God s Word. 2

3 3 In our own day and age, it seems as if God s Word has been lost on most of the people around us. God s Word seems to have been lost on society and abandoned as antiquated, or irrelevant. But, it is no less relevant today than it was so long ago when the High Priest in Josiah s day found God s Word in the temple. Through the reading of God s Word, Josiah brought about reform in Judah and tore down the idols that the people had made. So, Jeremiah is recounting in this verse how God s Word was found. In our day though, God s Word has not been lost. His Word has been preserved for us through countless ages. The question we must ask ourselves is whether we have found God s Word. And in finding God s Word, have we allowed it to penetrate our hearts and convict us, like it convicted Josiah? God s Word is not lost, but is it lost to you? Do you know God s Word? Is it effectively lost on you? Or do you ignore or neglect it, as God s people did in the past? If so, a neglecting of God s Word will lead to idolatry and doing what is right in our own eyes. If you have lost sight of God s Word though, we live in a day and age when His Word is accessible to anyone who would seek it. Unlike in Josiah s time when there was no printing press, no computers and certainly no ancient Jewish internet, it had to be read aloud, because almost no-one had their own copy. Today, if you want, you can find God s Word very easily and its riches aren t ever exhausted. God s Word can be read online or in an app for your iphone or Android or tablet or computer. Most people even have a physical copy of the Bible in their home. But we must find God s Word for ourselves. We need to search it out, like miners searching for gold. And then we must do something with it. We need to extract it, treasure it. And as Jeremiah says, not only were your words found, he says... "and I ate them," 2. God s Word needs to be eaten Jeremiah says that he ate God s Word. Now, what does this mean? Does it mean that he physically took the scroll of God s Word and ate it? Of course not. But he means that it was like food to him. He consumed it. He took it inside of himself as food for his soul. Sir Francis Bacon once said that Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. God s Word is to be chewed and digested thoroughly. It is rich; it is full of good things for you. God s Word contains tasty morsels and hearty meals. It has a range of writing styles and genres from straight up teaching to stories and the best of illustrations. It isn t meant to be sampled though. It is meant to be consumed. Illustration: Costco samples - I am quick to take one bite in a ruffled paper cup, but move on quickly to the next new thing offered without commitment to the whole meal/product. God means for His Word to bring life to us as we consume it and learn from it. Jeremiah wasn t alone in eating God s Word though. King David wrote about God s Word all throughout Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Bible. And throughout the Psalm, he extolled the benefits of feasting on God s Word. King David knew that God s Word is sweeter than honey: "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:

4 4 "Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119: God s Word is what gives understanding. God s Word helps us see ourselves more clearly and it shows us the path to walk on in life. God doesn t promise to tell us everything we should do every step of the way, but He does promise to show us ourselves and light the path we are on. But not only that, God s Word is a guard of purity. "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." Psalm 119:9 If you are struggling with impurity or lust, there is no better remedy than to guard your way with God s Word. And God s Word is also a weapon against sin. "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11 Storing God s Word in our hearts consuming it, eating it until it is in the depths of our being will enable us to know how to live in a way that is pleasing to God and teach us to say no to sin. Illustration: We had two solutions to any ailment in our home. If you go to dad and say I m sick or something hurts the response will be drink some water. If you go to mom and say I don t feel good she will always reply try going to the bathroom. These certainly won t cure everything, but the Word of God truly is all we need for life. You know, it is said that you are what you eat and to some degree that is true. But spiritually, it is even more true. Whatever you feast on is what you become like. If you feed on God s Word, it will transform you and change you from the inside out and you will be transformed as your mind is renewed. In His Word you can find the remedy for whatever it is that ails you, as you feed on it and consume it and it becomes a part of you. All throughout Psalm 119, David says that he loves God s Word, he delights in God s Word, he meditates on God s Word, he longs for God s Word, he hoped in God s Word and is zealous for God s Word. David said that God s Word is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces and "God s Word is the joy of my heart" (v111). Towards the end of the psalm he said, I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil (v162). David was consumed by a love for God s Word because he consumed God s Word. David ate God s Word and was satisfied in God s Word. Jeremiah ate God s Word. And today, in the New Covenant that we enjoy with God through Jesus, we still need to feast on His Word. In Matthew 4, at the beginning of His earthly ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus up to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And since Jesus had fasted for 40 days, the tempter appealed to his hunger and tempted Jesus to command stones to be loaves of bread. And Jesus resisted the devil by quoting God s Word. "But he answered, "It is written, "' Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4 Jesus was saying that He was sustained by God s Word and not by His own doing. He was hungry as part of God s will and was not going to get out of being hungry by using His power to gratify His flesh. God s Word didn t fill His stomach physically and He was still hungry, but Jesus was relying on God s Word because He knew that it was more important to Him than anything 4

5 5 He could eat physically. He feasted on God s Word He relied on God s Word and knew that it was God s Word that gave Him life, not even the food that God provides. Jesus knew that He needed food because He said man doesn t live by bread alone, but He relied on God for His life not through what He ate but through His Word. If Jesus needed to live not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, we need to feast on God s Word all the more. So, how do we do that how do we eat God s Word? First, we need to see that we really do need God s Word for all of life. I assume that my mind is in too many ways a stagnant swamp that needs the fresh water of God s Word constantly being poured in to understand Him better, to understand myself better, to understand life better. Mark Dever It isn t something we can do without. It isn t just a good suggestion it is necessary for us to be sustained in our souls. We can only last so long without physical food, before we start to feel its effects and get weak. Spiritually, we need God s Word if we are to be strong in the face of difficulties and trials. We need to know God s Word and have it deep in our hearts so that when life gets hard, His Word will be like a lamp to our own feet it will enable us to understand ourselves and be like a light see the path we re called to take. God will sustain us through His Word even when our prayers aren t answered the way we want. When said Jeremiah Your Word was found and I ate them, he was keenly aware that despite his efforts to call the people to repentance and despite his prayers, God would not deliver the people of Israel. "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!" Jeremiah 15:1 Jeremiah s interceding wasn t enough and even if Moses perhaps one of the most important figures in the Bible who God delivered the law through wouldn t be able to deliver the people. Samuel, the great prophet and king-maker wouldn t have been able to intercede for the people. And God told Jeremiah that He was going to judge His people for rejecting Him. So, when we get down to verse 16, Jeremiah is in the midst of lamenting how hard things had been for him. And he was complaining that he was a man of strife and contention to the whole land everyone was angry at him for speaking God s Word and all the people cursed Jeremiah. He didn t have things easy and he wasn t overly optimistic. But he knew that he needed God s Word and he relied on God s Word. And not only do we need to see that we need God s Word. In order to eat His Word, we need to chew on His Word. When God commissioned Joshua to take over from Moses, he told Joshua... "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Joshua 1:8 We need to think about God s Word, we need to meditate on it day and night so that we understand it and it becomes a part of us. And we need to seek to apply God s Word not just being hearers of His Word but seeking to be doers as well. And as we eat God s Word, it will become a joy to us. 5

6 6 "and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart," 3. Eating God s Word brings delight Do you remember in the story by C.S. Lewis, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how when Edmund tasted the White Witches Turkish Delight, it motivated him it was all he wanted and he was consumed with wanting more? Ultimately, it ended with emptiness and anguish as he froze in her prison after seeking her delights. But God s Word is not like the Turkish delight of the White Witch that doesn t satisfy. It isn t like so many of the things we all look to for satisfaction. It brings real and lasting satisfaction even in the midst of difficulty. Jeremiah and earlier, David, didn t see God s Word as just an instruction book or a set of rules and regulations. "In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches." Psalm 119:14 God s Word is worthy of delight as much as in all riches. We are meant to eat God s Word as a delectable feast to delight in it as much as all riches. Because His Word is a boundless treasure. Last week, we heard from the Apostle Paul s letter to the Philippians that he counted all things as loss compared to the surpassing treasure of knowing Jesus and that he made it his aim to run the race of life as if he was striving to attain the prize of knowing Christ face-to-face. And the place where we get to know Jesus is in God s Word where Jesus is revealed. But so often, we treat other things as if they are to be more highly pursued than knowing God through His Word. We need to pray that God would open our eyes, as David said. "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Psalm 119:18 His Word contains wondrous things that we need God to enable us to see as we feast on His Word. In verse 24, we see that God s Word is a delight and a counselor. "Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors." Psalm 119:24 All through Psalm 119, David describes God s Word in so many different ways. God s Word strengthens (v28) His ways contain life (v37) His rules are good (v39) It is trustworthy and truthful His promises give life (v50) His Word comforts (v52) God s Word is sure and it is firmly fixed in the heavens (v89) His Word makes wise (v98) Jeremiah wasn t delighting in how he was being treated. He didn t delight in having it easy. His joy wasn t in easy or good circumstances or being liked by other people. your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart 6

7 7 As he ate them in consuming God s Word and applying it and making it a part of himself, God s Word became to him a joy and the delight of his heart in the midst of a crummy situation. Jeremiah experienced suffering and he was discouraged and disappointed but God s Word was what sustained him. God s Word became a joy and delight to him not the outcome of his life nor the situations or circumstances in his life God s Word was a joy and delight to him. And this is encouraging because it points us to hope when things are bad, when life is difficult, when people curse us, when we are discouraged, we can find joy and delight in God s Word. Jeremiah had a rough life he was attacked by his own brothers, he was put into stocks by a priest, he was beaten imprisoned by the king, he was thrown into a cistern and left for dead. But despite everything, he found delight and joy in God s promises. This is encouraging because it shows us that God s Word isn t just for the people who seem happy. Jeremiah seemed downright sad for a lot of his book so much so that he has been called the weeping prophet. But as Jeremiah feasted on as he ate God s Word, as he digested it and it became part of him, it became to him a joy and delight. it didn t become a joy and delight until he ate it though. Sometimes, God s Word will take effort to eat and we will have to work at understanding it and eating it but as we do, it will become a joy and a delight to us. God s Word don t become a joy and delight to us by osmosis we need to eat it. As a church, we want to encourage each other in this practice and we want to grow in understanding God s Word and having it be a part of us, so we are doing a couple of things to pursue this throughout the year. Starting this week, for all the adults in the church, we are encouraging you to memorize a verse a week as a church. And we want to do this together to encourage each other, so we will be using a program called fighter verses and starting with the first set. There is a verse each week and this week, the first verse we will be memorizing is... Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations," Deuteronomy 7:9 You can go to our website to find the verse each week, or you can go to fighterverses.com, or you can download the fighter verses iphone app or android app. And this is just one way that we want to encourage each other to grow in eating God s Word. Hopefully it will help to create contexts for us to have conversations and encourage each other with God s Word. Keep in mind though, that while we are encouraging this practice, we don t want anyone to feel condemned or feel like you aren t part of us or you aren t good enough if you can t memorize a verse a week. Maybe you need to shoot for memorizing a verse a month or some other frequency. Whatever the frequency though, we want to be a church that is built on and lives by God s Word. We also are going to have a class that Matt Childs will be teaching that is a six-week survey of the Bible to help people who want to understand the message of the Bible better and to help people make sense of how the books of the Bible fit together. Our goal is to create contexts for us to grow in God s Words, as disciples of Jesus. But in all of this, our trust and our confidence is not in how faithful we are to eat God s Word. And the reason why God s words will become a joy and delight to us is not because we take pride in our faithfulness or our ability. The reason 7

8 8 Jeremiah ate God s Word and why it became a joy and delight to him was that Jeremiah was a child of God. "for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts." 4. We seek God s Word because we re His children His faithfulness to God didn t earn him anything. In fact, Jeremiah s godliness didn t earn him anything or bring him merit. He still needed to repent and return to hoping in God. In Jeremiah 15:18, Jeremiah complains and says... "Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?" Jeremiah 15:18-21 Jeremiah is tempted to trust in his delight in God s Word and he seems to be remembering Psalm 1:1. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." Psalm 1:1-3 And Jeremiah is saying in effect, hey I am delighting in your law Lord, but I am withering and why are you not like a stream to me. But then, God says to Jeremiah in verse Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless." Jeremiah 15:19 God is his Savior but not because of Jeremiah s merit. God had already promised He would not let Jeremiah down in Jeremiah 1: And God repeats the same promise to him again. We can learn something about discouragement from this. We often seek something new and revelational or some new experience. But that is not what we need. We need to go back to the promises of Scripture. They are still true every last one of them. They are all true in and through Jesus Christ. We need to be reminded that God will rescue us, He will redeem us. God s people were not spared even though Jeremiah intervened. Their sins were too great. They needed someone greater than Moses and greater than Samuel to intervene for them. The book of Jeremiah points us to the fact that we need someone greater. We needed Jesus to intervene for us we needed a perfect priest, a perfect prophet, a perfect king to intervene. Every other prophet, priest and king failed at some point. And even our best efforts to eat God s Word, which we need to do, are not good enough to make us accepted before God. We are accepted before God because the Son of God lived by God s Word in every way. He resisted every temptation and He lived by God s Word so that we can find life in Him the One who is called the very Word of God. 8

9 9 And is we trust in Christ Jesus to save us and make us God s children, we can be confident to approach God s Word and know Jesus, because we are called by His name. So, let us be a people who search out God s Word like gold and eat God s Word like the finest of delights and find joy in God s Word because we are His children, called according to His name. As God s children, finding and eating His Word is a delight Sovereign Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Web site. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 9