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Text: Jeremiah 15:16
Proposition: What was this delightful meal?
Introduction
Jeremiah ate the words of God that he had found. He understood them. They were a joy and a delight to him. Many times when we read the word of God and we understand what we have read we have joy and delight. Then we while we are digesting what we have read we realize that we are going to have to change or there are people we know who need to change. When we tell those people what we have read, they don’t always like what we have to tell them. Jeremiah’s message wasn’t a popular one. His basic message was death and destruction for Judah and Jerusalem is coming, Jeremiah 15:1-4. The fact that Judah and Jerusalem were going to be destroyed gave him no joy or delight, but the truth of God’s word did. He knew what was coming and he could warn the people of this death and destruction. They could be delivered if they would listen to his message. That is what gave him joy and delight.
I. A meal that tasted good
II. A meal that turned bitter
III. A meal that was beneficial
I. A meal that tasted good (Why did it taste good?)
A. The word of God tastes good
1. We like a meal that tastes good. Most people don’t make a meal out of green lima beans. On my list of good things to eat they rank right before chalk. Everybody likes things that are sweet. The word of God is sweet tasting. Ezekiel and the apostle John thought it was sweet as honey.
2. Ezekiel 2:8-3:3
3. Ezekiel ate the word of God like Jeremiah. The word of God is sweet as honey it is tasty.
4. Psalm 119:101-103
5. Many expressions we have come from the bible.
a. By the skin of my teeth, Job 19:20
b. It is more blessed to give than to receive, Acts 20:35, quoted in Ranger Rick magazine.
c. The hand writing on the wall – Dan. 5:5
d. There’s a fly in the ointment, Ecclesiastes 10:1
B. It is the truth
1. A lie doesn’t taste good. A lie takes some getting used to. It is like beer or whiskey it is an acquired taste. It smells rotten. At first you don’t like it but it takes away reality and then you like living in the lie so you continue in it.
2. The truth smells good and tastes good. It is good for you.
3. It delivers you from the lies of Satan. He is a liar and the father of lies.
C. It is joyful
1. Jeremiah said the words of God were a joy and a delight when he ate them.
2. The word of God brings joy to those who hear it.
3. Matthew 13:20-21
4. The word of God is a joy and a delight. Most people like the way it tastes. They are hungry for it, but the word of God produces bitterness in the stomach.
II. A meal that turned bitter (Why did it turn bitter?)
A. It wasn’t a joy and a delight to the people that Jeremiah shared it with.
1. Jeremiah 15:17-18
2. Jeremiah ended up alone. Most people didn’t think the word of God was a delightful meal.
3. Revelation 10:8-10
4. The little book was the word of God being given to the people during the sixth trumpet, which was the rise of the Turkish Empire. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks. The monks and clerics fleeing from the Turks brought ancient Greek books and their knowledge west. Many settled in Italy. This started the Renaissance. Erasmus published a Greek Text of the New Testament accompanied by his Latin Translation. It was Erasmus’s Greek text that provided the basis for many translations into other languages. French and German in 1522, in English 1525, and Italian in1532. These were followed by a host of translations into many other languages. This gave rise to a new era of freedom of thought. Luther started the Reformation because of his reading the bible and he translated it into German for the German people. This was sweet to the people at first, but it produced bitterness Thanks to the printing press the bible was put into the hands and minds of all men instead of monks and clerics. Years of war followed. The peasants revolted in Luther’s day. People rebelled against the Pope. Protestants and Catholics fought for many years. The Spanish Inquisitions came.
5. John was told to eat the little book, which was sweet as honey in his mouth, but when it reached his stomach it became bitter. This is a picture of the euphoric reception of the scriptures by the masses of northern Europeans that accompanied the beginnings of the Protestant period, but that euphoria would turn to bitterness almost immediately.
B. Jeremiah’s own people wanted to kill him.
1. The People from Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown, wanted to kill him (Jeremiah 11:21)
2. Life was so bitter for Jeremiah that he wished he had never been born, Jeremiah 15:10.
3. He was a man of strife and contention. Almost nobody like what he preached. They locked him up in prison. They tried to kill him. They put him in a pit.
4. Lamentations 3:53-58
5. Jesus said we could plan on his word causing bitterness.
6. Matthew 10:34-42
7. Jeremiah was willing to bear his cross. Jesus hadn’t come yet, but Jeremiah was willing to lose his life to gain it.
C. He was alone eating his meal
1. Jeremiah 15:17
2. He started out joyful and delighted eating the meal of God’s word. He understood them, but when he wanted to share his meal, but nobody wanted to eat with him.
3. We like to eat together. It is more fun to eat a meal with other people than it is to eat by yourself. Sometimes when we go out to eat I see someone eating by himself or herself, and I think to myself, I wonder why they are eating by themselves, especially if it is at a nice restaurant. One man I know is divorced. He went to a restaurant where the meals are $15-$30 by himself. He could have eaten with some of his relatives and friends that night, the food wasn’t as good, but he wanted to go someplace nice to eat by himself.
III. It was beneficial (Why was it beneficial?)
A. His enemies made supplication (earnest humble request) to Jeremiah
1. Jeremiah 15:10-11
2. Jeremiah 21:2
3. Jeremiah 38:14, this is after he had been taken out of the pit.
4. Jeremiah 42:2
5. His enemies are asking for advice. They don’t listen to his advice, but they knew where to go to get the truth.
B. He was delivered from death
1. Jeremiah 15:15
2. Jeremiah says don’t take me away. Jeremiah wishes he was never born, but he doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want his enemies to exult in his death. He wants to know that the words that he has eaten will come true.
3. They did. Jeremiah saw the end. He was released from prison by Nubuchadnezzar’s bodyguard set him free.
4. His enemies were slain and taken captive, but he was set free.
5. We are set free by the words of God
6. Romans 8:2
7. Even after Jeremiah died his words came true.
8. Ezra 1:1
C. He was made strong
1. Good food makes us strong.
2. The word of God was with Jeremiah and God made Jeremiah strong.
3. Jeremiah 15:19
a. Jeremiah was a miner extracting the precious from the worthless.
b. As little as 1 part gold to 300,000 parts of worthless material can be mined profitably. That is 25,000 pounds troy for 1 ounce of gold troy. (Encarta Encyclopedia) There were a few who listened to Jeremiah.
4. People could turn to Jeremiah, but he could not turn to them.
a. Jeremiah was not to turn his message to the people; they were to turn to his message. We aren’t to change what God has given us to preach to what the people want to hear. We are to preach to change people. Sometimes this doesn’t work. People don’t want to change from sin. Jeremiah didn’t change.
b. Jeremiah 20:9, Jeremiah wanted to go into his closet and hide, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t hold the word of God in.
5. God made him a fortified wall of bronze
a. Jeremiah 15:20
b. Jeremiah ate the words of God, and God made him strong as a fortified wall of bronze. God was going to be with Jeremiah.
c. God is with us.
d. God hasn’t promised to deliver us out of the hand of the wicked, but he has promised that we will never be separated from His love.
e. Romans 8:35-39, we will conquer like Jeremiah. No enemy can overpower God.
Conclusion
We have been given the word of God to eat. We have been commissioned to tell the gospel to the world. The gospel is the good news that others and we can be saved from the death and destruction of sin and hell for eternity if we surrender to Jesus who is coming to conquer all of our enemies. We like Jeremiah have been told of what is coming. Jeremiah told the people to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and serve him. We are to make this message known to everyone. We are not to change our message, but let our message change people. If they don’t want to change then they are destined for death and destruction. If they surrender to the King and let themselves be taken captive and serve Him, they will benefit for eternity. If you haven’t surrendered to the King and let Him take you captive you can. Believe in Jesus as the Son of God. Repent of your sin. Confess Him as the Son of God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Live as a slave to His will for the rest of your life and you will have the benefit of his words for eternity. | 
