Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations
Message Four
God's Words—the Divine Supply as Food
Scripture Reading: Jer. 15:16; Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4; John 5:39-40; 6:50-51, 57, 63; Col. 3:16
I. "Your words were found and I ate them"—Jer. 15:16a:
A. In the Bible we first have God, and then we have God's speaking, the word that proceeds out of His mouth—Gen. 1:1, 3; Matt. 4:4.
B. All Scripture is God-breathed; hence, the words in the Scriptures are the words that proceed out through the mouth of God— 2 Tim. 3:16.
C. The Bible as the Word of God is the embodiment of God, Christ, the Spirit, and life—John 1:1, 4; 6:63; 14:6, 17, 20; 15:7; 1 John 1:1; Rom. 8:2.
D. The Bible as the Word of God is composed of three elements— Christ, the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ—Phil. 1:20-21; 2:16; 3:10-11; 4:13.
E. The words spoken by the Lord Jesus are spirit and life—John 6:63:
1. The Lord's spoken words are the embodiment of the Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2.
2. Christ is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 1:1, 4; 6:63.
3. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit, who is life—5:39-40.
F. God's word is the divine supply as food to nourish us—Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4:
1. The divine concept concerning God's word is that it is food by which we are nourished—1 Cor. 3:1-2a; Heb. 5:12-14.
2. The word of God is God Himself as our food—John 1:1, 4, 14; 6:33, 51, 57.
3. The Lord Jesus took the word of God in the Scriptures as His bread and lived by it—Matt. 4:4.
4. Every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God is spiritual food to nourish us; this is the food by which we must live—John 6:51, 57.
5. Through the word as our food, God dispenses His riches into our inner being so that we may be constituted with His element.
G. According to the entire revelation in the Holy Bible, God's words are good for us to eat, and we need to eat them—Psa. 119:103; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2-3:
1. God desires that man eat, digest, and assimilate Him—John 6:50-51, 57:
a. To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they eventually become our constitution—Gen. 2:16-17.
b. To eat is to take food into us that it may be assimilated organically into our body—John 6:48, 50.
c. God's words as food eaten, digested, and assimilated by us actually become us; this is the word becoming our con-stitution—Matt. 4:4; Col. 3:16.
2. Whenever we read the Bible, we must come to the Lord for life and eat the bread of life, which is Christ Himself—John 5:39-40; 6:48, 50-51, 57.
3. To eat the Lord as the word is to take Him in as our life sup-ply; He is the bread of life for us to eat—vv. 48, 51.
4. The way to eat the Lord is to pray the Word; to pray-read the Word of God is to exercise our spirit to eat the word—Eph. 6:17-18.
5. The more we eat God's words, the more we will be constituted and saturated with Christ—Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17; Col. 3:4, 10-11.
6. As we eat the Lord Jesus, we need to have proper spiritual digestion—Ezek. 2:8—3:3; Jer. 15:16; Rev. 10:9-10:
a. If we have good digestion, there will be a thoroughfare for the food to get into every part of our inward being—Eph. 3:16-17a.
b. Indigestion means that there is no way for Christ as the spiritual food to get into our inward parts—Heb. 3:12-13, 15; 4:2.
c. We need to keep our whole being with all our inward parts open to the Lord so that the spiritual food will have a thoroughfare within us; if we do this, we will have proper digestion and assimilation, we will absorb Christ as spir-itual nourishment, and Christ will become our constitu-ent—Col. 3:4, 10-11.
7. Because we are what we eat, if we eat God as our food, we will be one with God and even become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—John 1:1, 14; 6:32-33, 48, 51, 57.
II. "Your word became to me I The gladness and joy of my heart"—Jer. 15:16b:
A. Although Jeremiah suffered more than all the other prophets, he had gladness and joy in his heart whenever he found God's words and ate them—v. 16.
B. The word became in verse 16 indicates that gladness and joy are an issue of God's words being eaten, digested, assimilated, and constituted into our inner being, causing the Lord's joy to be-come our joy—John 15:7, 10-11:
1. When we eat God's words, His word becomes our heart's gladness and joy—Jer. 15:16.
2. After God's words are taken into us and are assimilated into our inward parts, these words become joy within and gladness without.
C. God is a God of joy, and He wants us to enjoy Him—Neh. 8:10; Psa. 36:8:
1. A sweet thought revealed in the Word of God is that in Christ God has given Himself to us as grace to be our enjoyment— John 1:14, 16-17; 2 Cor. 13:14.
2. In the first reference in the Bible to God's relationship with man, God pre sented Himself to man as food; this shows that God's desire is to give Himself to us to be our enjoyment— Gen. 2:7, 9; Psa. 16:11; Jer. 15:16.
D. Romans 14:17 speaks of "joy in the Holy Spirit":
1. This verse indicates that the Spirit is related to joy; joy is an attribute of the Spirit—cf. 1 Thes. 1:6.
2. Joy is also a fruit of the Spirit; the indwelling Spirit gives joy to the believers—Gal. 5:22.
3. When we are in the Spirit, we are joyful, so joyful that we may sing and shout praises to the Lord—cf. Acts 16:25.
4. We may "exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory"—1 Pet. 1:8:
a. The joy full of glory is joy immersed in the Lord as glory; thus, it is full of the expression of God—Acts 7:2, 55; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3.
b. We exult with a joy that is immersed in glory—1 Pet. 1:8.
III. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly"—Col. 3:16:
A. The word of Christ is the word spoken by Christ—John 6:63:
1. In His New Testament economy God speaks in the Son—Heb. 1:1-2.
2. The Son speaks not only by Himself in the Gospels but also through His members, the apostles and prophets, in Acts, in the Epistles, and in Revela tion; all these speakings can be considered His word.
3. The word of Christ includes the entire New Testament, and we need to be filled with this word—Col. 3:16.
B. The word of Christ is actually the person of Christ—v. 16; John 15:4, 7:
1. Paul almost personifies the word of Christ; he tells us to let this word dwell in us, as if it were a living person—Col. 3:16; cf. Eph. 3:17.
2. First, we have Christ as our life; then we have His living word personified as His person dwelling in us—Col. 3:4, 16.
3. Since the word of Christ can dwell in us, it must be a living person; therefore, to let the word of Christ dwell in us indicates that we allow a living per son—Christ Himself—to dwell in us—v. 16; 1:27.
C. We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly and have the first place in our being—3:16:
1. The word let is important; the word of Christ is already pres-ent, but we need to allow it to operate within us.
2. For the word of Christ to dwell in us richly means that it inhabits us, in dwells us, in a rich way—v. 16.
3. The Greek word rendered "dwell" literally means "to be in a house," "to indwell," "to inhabit":
a. This indicates that we should allow the word of Christ to dwell in us, to inhabit us, to make home in us—v. 16.
b. The word of the Lord must have adequate room within us so that it may operate and minister the riches of Christ into us—Eph. 3:8.
4. The word of Christ should be given the freedom to operate within us, inhabit us, and make home in us—Col. 3:16.
D. We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us so that we may experience the functions of the word of God operating within us, ministering the riches of Christ into our being—Eph. 3:8:
1. The word of God enlightens (Psa. 119:105, 130), nourishes (Matt. 4:4; 1 Tim. 4:6), and waters us to quench our thirst (Isa. 55:8-11).
2. The word of God strengthens (1 John 2:14; Prov. 4:20-22), washes (Eph. 5:26), and builds us up (Acts 20:32).
3. The word of God completes, perfects (2 Tim. 3:15-17), and edi-fies us by sanc tifying us (John 17:17).
4. By allowing the word of Christ to inhabit us, we can become a God-man filled with Christ as the reality of the attributes of God—Col. 3:16-21; Phil. 4:5-8.