After the Sermon Part 4

Introduction: The Centrality of Meditation and the Duty of Discernment

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, September 17, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Psalm 119, Psalm 119, and follow as I read, without comment, seven of the 176 verses of this, the lengthiest chapter in all of the written Word of God. Psalm 119, first of all, verse 15.

0:45 I will meditate on thy precepts and have respect. Unto thy ways, verse 23. Princes also sat and talked against me, but thy servant did meditate on thy statutes, verse 48. I will lift up my hands unto thy commandments which I have loved, and I will meditate on thy statutes.

1:24 Verse 78. Let the proud be put to shame, for they have overthrown me wrongfully, but I will meditate on thy precepts. Verse 97. Oh, how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

1:53 Verse 99. I have more understanding. Then all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation. And finally, verse 148.

2:10 Mine eyes anticipated the night watches, that I might meditate on thy word.

2:20 Now it should be quite obvious to all of you who listen to the scriptures read in your hearing, that the activity of meditation, meditating upon the word of God, is in some way to be central to our consideration of the scriptures in this morning hour of worship. In the course of seeking to open up the practical demands of the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 8 and verse 18, take heed, therefore, how you hear. We have been considering.

3:00 We have been considering the duty of the right hearing of the word of God as it relates to what we do before we come to the preaching of the word, what we do during the preaching of the word, and what we do after that word has been preached in our hearing. Now there is a crucial issue that I have alluded to several times in the course of the previous 13 studies, together on this theme of taking heed, how we hear, but an issue that I want to emphasize with even greater intensity and focused concern,

3:43 and that issue is this, that in all of these directives concerning taking heed, how we hear, the reference is to our concern in conjunction with hearing the word of God, or God itself. In the context of the original duty articulated by our Lord, he had given the parable of the sower and the soils, and in his interpretation of that parable, he says, the sower sows the word, and therefore in our taking heed, how we hear,

4:23 we must remind ourselves again and again that it has distinct, and exclusive reference to the word of God, and not necessarily all, or everything, or anything that one may say about that word. As we make due preparations for the preaching of the word, and come in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, in eager anticipation to confront the very word of the living God himself, we must both during the hearing of that word, and after it,

5:06 exercise both discrimination and discernment. And what do I mean by that? Simply this, while we are listening to the word, with that resolute fixation of mind, and with that determination to give to it its appropriate demanded responses, we must, we must always be mindful of a text such as 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 21. Paul having just said that the Thessalonians were not to despise or regard lightly prophesyings, they were nonetheless to put everything to the test,

5:49 and to hold fast only to that which was good. Or in the language of 1 John 4, 1 and 2, John said, 1 John 4, 1 and 2, Believe not every spirit, for there are many false teachers gone out into the world. Every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. So when he says, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, he is speaking of a trying of the spirits in terms of listening to the utterances of teachers that claim to be the utterances of the spirit,

6:29 and they are to be assessed constantly as we listen with discrimination and discernment. And even after the preaching of the word, before engaging in these various disciplines that we have been seeking to lay out from the scriptures, it may be necessary if there is some doubt in our judgment as to what the preacher or teacher has said, as to whether or not, it is indeed an accurate representation of the word of the living God in scripture. We may have to take time to engage in that exercise commended with reference to the Bereans.

7:14 For these, we read in Acts 17, 11, were more noble than they in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether these, these things were so. Now with that vital reminder, as sort of a parenthesis in our introduction and review, we come again this morning to focus our attention upon what it means to take heed how we hear with reference to what we do after we have sat under the preaching of the word. We consider together the duty of repetition of the word of God.

Review: Repetition, Supplication, and the Limited Scope of Meditation

8:00 Secondly, supplication in conjunction with the word heard. And then last Lord's Day began to consider together the duty of meditation. And in the time allotted last Lord's Day, because I gave a rather extensive synopsis after an absence of some four or five weeks from this theme, I sought to accomplish basically two things. To identify, to identify the precise focus of my concern in these messages on meditation.

8:35 I am not dealing with the biblical duty of meditation in general, nor am I dealing with the more limited biblical teaching concerning meditation in conjunction with the scriptures in all of our various interaction with the scriptures. Rather, I am concerned to give directives with respect to that meditation that is connected with our activity after we have sat under the preaching of the word of God. It is the duty in conjunction with having heard the word of God coming to us, not in our private reading,

9:21 not in listening to Alexander Scorby reading through the Old or the New Testament, a wonderful discipline, from which I continue to receive great benefit, or the word of God coming to us in our reading of a commentary, but I am speaking of meditation in relationship to that activity as it flows out from and follows our exposure to the preaching and teaching of the word of God. That was my first concern, to limit the focus of our study and to have you understand that I am limiting it, and then secondly, to establish the duty of meditation

10:05 upon the word of God that is preached to us. And how did I set out to accomplish that second goal? Well, since, to my knowledge, there is no specific text in the scripture which limits meditation in conjunction with preaching, we do know that the part, or the whole, includes all of its parts, and the sum total of the parts is never greater than the whole. And if we can establish that it is our duty to meditate upon the word of God, then it is our duty to meditate upon that word, no matter how it comes to us, whether in our private reading of it,

10:50 whether in our reading of books that help us to unlock its meaning, or, whether it comes to us in that primary means ordained of God for the benefit of our souls in its proclamation, explanation, and application in the assembly of His people by those whom He has given to be pastors and teachers to His church. And I sought to establish the duty by looking with you at the description of the blessed and godly manhood in Psalm 1, the place of meditation in this watershed portion of the word of God

11:34 dealing with the believer's relationship to the scriptures, Psalm 119, and thirdly, by considering the specific directives to the servants of God in the Old and the New Testaments, Joshua 1, verses 7 through 9, and 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. Now, if our judgment is persuaded, and I trust it is, that we have a blessed privilege and solemn responsibility to meditate upon the word of God preached to us, then the burning question, the inescapable concern ought to be,

Defining Meditation: A Spirit-Aided Activity of Mind and Heart

12:18 what does it mean to meditate upon the word that has come to me in the preaching, and teaching of the scriptures? How do I go about performing this gospel duty? By what means am I to engage in this mental, spiritual, and even vocal activity of meditation? Well, you see, if I love Christ because He first loved me, and loving Him, I want to obey Him, then I am convinced that obeying Him will bring glory to Him

13:03 and good to my own soul, and therefore I will not look upon meditation as some kind of a regression into a time-bound discipline that belongs to the age of monks and monasteries, or to recluses who are not involved in the real world with real ordinary reasons, responsibilities, but rather, I will have heard the voice of the Savior who loved me and died for me, speaking to me in the passages we examined last week, and revealing to me His blood-bought child, His will for me

13:47 in conjunction with His word that I am privileged to hear proclaimed in His special presence in the garden, the gathering of His blood-bought people. How do I do it? How do I go about this matter of meditating upon the word of God? Well, in attempting to respond to that question, I want you to consider with me, first of all, several definitions and descriptions of meditation on the word of God, and then secondly, we're going to look at some clear scriptural illustrations and examples of meditation,

14:32 and then make what I trust will be some helpful applications and exhortations. First of all, definition and description of meditating on the word of God. Let me start with my own, as I have sought to do a word study on the two major Hebrew words that are used for meditation in the Old Testament, and there is no term in the New Testament that is a strict synonym for meditation, while, as we shall see, there are some incidents that are clearly examples of meditation, and there are duties that are in the ballpark

15:17 of the concerns of meditation, as I have wrestled with all of this data and tried to pull it together, and give to myself a description and definition of meditation that will help me to obey the word of God. I'm convinced it is my duty to meditate upon the word of God not only in my devotions, not only in my reading of collateral literature, but when I sit where you sit, when I sit and receive the word from my brethren, that I have a solemn duty when I leave to meditate upon that word. I sat under the word this past Friday. One of my brethren

16:01 preached from 2 Timothy 4, 1 to 4, and I have on two or three occasions since Friday made that passage a focused object of meditation. Well, what have I done then with that passage? Well, here is my poor man's personal description of meditation. It is that spiritual aided activity of mind and heart in which we focus our thinking faculties upon a serious consideration and application of a scriptural truth with biblical

16:44 ends in view. What is meditation upon the word of God? Having heard that word taught and preached, it is that spirit aided activity of the mind and heart in which we focus our thinking faculties upon a serious consideration and application of a scriptural truth with biblical ends in view. And in that definition, the emphasis falls on the fact it is a spirit aided activity.

17:23 In other words, believing that the Holy Spirit is the only infallible teacher of God's word, that it is His unique ministry to illuminate our minds in the understanding of the truth and to be our internal instructor as Jesus promised He would be, then meditation must of necessity be a spirit aided activity and therefore one into which we enter prayerfully and in conscious dependence upon the Spirit with earnest prayer for the Lord to grant us the aid of the Spirit that our meditation

18:08 might be profitable. But it is a spirit aided activity that focuses upon the mind and the heart. And in using those terms I'm not seeking to make some hard, fast categorical distinction any more than the Scriptures do. But I'm simply seeking to underscore that the mind must be totally engaged.

18:33 It doesn't shift into neutral. It must marshal all of its faculties or in the language of Peter you must gird up all the loins of your mind, all of the loose folds of the mind, tie them up for a concentrated mental activity. However, it is not a purely mental activity. It has to do with the heart.

18:59 The seat of who and what we are out of the heart are the issues of life. We are concerned that in the deepest recesses of our being our hearts will be engaged. And what is the nature of that activity? It is this activity of mind and heart in which we focus our thinking faculties upon scriptural truth.

19:29 We focus our thinking faculties upon the truth embodied in the scriptures. It has come to us in the preaching. It has been read, explained, expounded, applied. Now we are going back to the pure fountain itself to the scriptures and opening them before us.

19:52 Or if we have memorized a phrase or, a passage from that which is preached we are consciously bringing into focus right into the center of the crosshairs of a focused mind and heart the very words of God. Or the truth embodied in those words. And what is our end in view? Biblical ends in view.

20:19 That is seeing what this may say to expand my knowledge of God that I may worship Him more in truth as well as in spirit. Seeing what this passage reveals of the glory of my Savior in His person and work that I may know Him more accurately and intimately. Focusing my faculties upon this scriptural truth that I may know what it may say to me about my duty. That I may know what it is to run in the way of His commandments.

20:58 That I may know more perfectly the provisions that are mine in Christ to have strength to perform that duty. What motives ought to impel me in the performance of that duty. Perhaps the passage has exposed an area of neglect or downright sin and I have come back to it that by the light of that word I may be reproved and rebuked and called to repentance and that I may do what I could not do while the word was being preached. God may have nailed me at the second head under the sermon and an application of it but because I felt I had a responsibility

21:42 to follow the preacher as he carried his argument through in a sense I had to say in my mind tabled for further activity of the heart with God. And you go home and you take that part of the word preach and focusing all of the mental and spiritual faculties upon it you stay close enough to that truth until the conviction is deepened the sin is seen in its biblical light and you go afresh to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and find the joy of what it is to take afresh the posture of the humble and the contrite with whom the Lord

22:27 promises to dwell. Those you see are the things I have in mind when I say with biblical ends in view that I might be a better worshipper that I might know my God more know my duty more that I might see the harmony of truth with greater accuracy a whole spectrum of biblical ends can be part and parcel of this meditation upon the word of God. That has been preached to us. Now that's my definition I claim no special inspiration for it I'm sure sometime middle of the week while I think upon it I wish I had phrased it a little differently but let me lay before you the descriptions and definitions

Descriptions of Meditation from McLaren, Swinnock, Owen, and Henry

23:11 of several others who in seeking to teach their people laid out from the scriptures as I've attempted to do with you the duty of meditation but the moment of truth came for them when they had to explain to their people how do you do this what's involved in it and they did not track down ad infinitum the significance of the roots of the two major Hebrew words and try to build a doctrine of meditation upon Hebrew roots no they wisely collated all of the passages that speak of meditation or describe someone in the act of meditation and sought to come up with a description or definition that can be captured the essence

23:56 of the biblical teaching listen to Alexander McLaren who in his comments on Psalm 1 described meditation in a very helpful way meditation is described by McLaren as quote the habit of patient protracted brooding on the revelation of God's will as found in the scriptures the habit of patient protracted brooding on the revelation of God's will as revealed in the scriptures and if you look up the word brood in your dictionary you'll find that its first two and major meanings

24:39 are referring to the activity of a hen who sits upon her eggs she broods on her eggs to hatch them or after they've been hatched into little chicks when she gathers them under her wings to protect them or keep them warm she is said to be brooding over her young it's a beautiful image of what meditation is God has brought the egg of truth under the wing of the feathers of your mind and understanding now you're to brood over it until it hatches in some holy resolutions

25:23 some biblical ends some biblical goals you are to brood over that word by meditation and when it is hatched you are to preserve and protect it by further reflection and meditation Swinock a Puritan from the 1600s he writes seeking to give his people a practical working description of meditation he writes as follows meditation is a serious applying of the mind to the mind to some sacred subject till the affections be warmed and quickened and the resolution heightened

26:06 and strengthened thereby against what is evil and for that which is good meditation is a serious applying of the mind you see the principle meditation is a solemn sacred sanctified activity of your thinking faculty it is to have reference to a sacred subject that is a subject addressed in the word of God till what not until the mind be flooded with brilliant light alone till the affections be warmed and quickened but to what end just so you have a wonderful feeling as the fruit

26:51 of your meditation no look at the practical ends and the resolution high heightened and strengthened against evil and to that which is good there is to be this drawing near to the truth until its warmth and heat are absorbed into the soul and that warmth and heat is not to be dissipated in mere religious emotional feelings and experiences but it is to cut channels of greater pursuits of holiness avoiding evil and pursuing the good John Owen in that marvelous treatise on spiritual mindedness another puritan

27:36 writing in the 1600s he writes as follows by solemn meditation I intend the thoughts of some spiritual and divine subject with the fixing forcing and ordering of our thoughts about it with a design to affect our own hearts and souls with the matter of it or the things contained in it by this design it is distinguished from the mere study of the word wherein our principal aim is to learn the truth or to declare it unto others so also it is distinguished from prayer where of God himself

28:21 is the immediate object but in meditation it is the affecting of our own hearts and souls and minds with love delight and humiliation beautiful description but you see how certain common denominators are coming through meditation is that which is done with the ordering of our thoughts and ordering our thoughts in the direction of God's revealed thoughts in his holy word but it is distinguished from mere study in which the end is informed in the mind for ourselves or to declare it to others it is distinguished

29:05 from prayer though it is often found in connection with prayer and often according to scriptures we shall see turns the wheel of prayer but prayer terminates upon God meditation terminates upon ourselves and our desire that our minds shall be suffused with fresh measures of love delight and humiliation the practical ends of an advanced godliness and finally old Matthew Henry that eminent servant of God who lived and labored and wrote in the 1700's this is his comment on verse 97 of Psalm 119 to meditate in God's

29:50 word is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it with a close application of mind a fixedness of thought till we be suitably affected with those things and experience the savor and the power of them in our hearts you see again how the common denominators come through they all read the same bible and as they studied what it meant to meditate these same strands of emphasis come through with a rich diversity of expression to meditate in God's word

30:34 is to discourse with ourselves concerning the things contained in it with a close application of mind that is with mental concentration a fixedness of thought till we be suitably affected with those things and experience the savor and the power of them in our hearts you see how he joins mind and heart how he joins the object of the activity of mind and heart the word of God with religious experience until in our hearts we savor and we experience the savor

31:19 and power of them well in summary it's evident that these proven servants of God sought in teaching their people to explain the duty of meditation in these various ways which have these common denominators that there is a rehearsing a going over of the matters of the word in our minds and it is here that one may want to bring in the significance of the two major Hebrew words that are used Sihak and Sin I'm sorry Sihak and Haga that are used with regard to meditation and they have the idea of murmuring and muttering

32:04 and mumbling rehearsing going over and it's because those are the words that are used that they have come up with these definitions that constantly come back to the issue of this focused mental activity you see someone greatly concentrating at times and he doesn't even know he's talking to himself what are you doing oh I'm sorry did you hear me in great concentration often we find that mumbling to ourselves helps to engage the mind it's interesting that in the command to Joshua it's always fascinated me this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate there in day and night

32:48 and it was in his meditation that apparently there would even be the activity of his mouth for his calling was not that of a prophet but a general and a leader in Israel but this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate there in day and night constantly giving to it concentrated mental endeavor and mumbling it over as an accompaniment of that concentrated endeavor well so much for that attempt to give a description definition of what it means to meditate now consider with me some biblical illustrations and examples of meditation in action it is said one picture is worth

Biblical Illustration: David's Musing in Psalm 39

33:32 a thousand words and as I have prayed and labored and read much in preparation for this part of our study it seemed to me that several clear pictures of meditation in action would be far better than passing over many passages and seeking to give technical descriptions and definitions turn please to Psalm 39 here we see meditation in action the context of this Psalm of David is obviously one in which he is conscious that he is under the disciplinary strokes of God notice verse 10 remove your stroke away from me

34:17 I am consumed by the blow of your hand when you with rebukes correct man for iniquity you make his beauty to consume away like a moth surely every man is vanity and you David is under the disciplinary rod of his God and he is conscious of it and in the opening part of the Psalm he is conscious that in this state of affliction coming from the hand of God as fatherly discipline and this stroke coming to him in a context where he is observing unconverted ungodly men in the emptiness in the vanity of their lives

35:01 he is conscious that he might be tempted to speak hastedly and unadvisedly with his lips and so the Psalm begins with David taking us inside the chambers of his heart and telling us what his resolution was I said I will take heed to my ways that I do not sin with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me I was dumb with silence I held my peace even from good and my sorrow was stirred he said I'm going to put myself in a posture of self-imposed silence

35:46 lest I speak unadvisedly with my lips but what did he do in that period of silence verse 3 my heart was hot within me while I was I was musing the word here for musing in the New King James you'll find the marginal reading in the middle kids and you adults who have the New King James is meditating the NIV renders it meditating it comes from the same root as one of those two major Hebrew words for meditation while I was

36:30 meditating the fire burned then spake I with my tongue and now he's confident as the fruit of sober intense meditation called here musing that what he speaks will not be ill-advised speech but it will be that speech which breaks forth out of a mind and heart that has given due reflection to the realities before it while I was musing the fire burned a beautiful example or illustration or imagery

37:15 of what happens when a man is musing or meditating what fire burned obviously it was no physical fire no one came to him with a literal fire he is speaking of an internal activity of the mind and the soul akin to a fire that is being stoked and is growing in its intensity and in its fierceness to the point where his self-imposed silence must now be broken by the pressure of the realities which have come to him in the context of musing while I was

38:00 musing the fire burned then spake I with my tongue Lord make me to know mine end in the measure of my days what it is let me know how frail I am in other words the fruit of his musing was a prayer appropriate to his condition of being disciplined by God he doesn't strike out at God for what God is doing to him he doesn't complain to God concerning why it is that the wicked who totally disregard God do not experience the same strokes that he as a child of God is experiencing no

38:44 his prayer is now disciplined by the impact of his musing there's a beautiful example of a man meditating he is bringing to his mind certain realities and mulling them over and turning them over until they become as a very fire within his breast perhaps you've already thought of similar words when Jeremiah every time he opened his mouth he got into trouble and he said I've had it I'm just tired seeking to be the Lord's mouthpiece and every time I speak I get nothing but rebuffs and rebukes and hardship and persecution I've had it I'm going to be silent

39:28 and I'll no longer be a troubler in Israel but he said when I tried to do this he said then thy word was in my heart as a fire shut up within my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay therefore and then he begins his next prophecy there's the picture you see a fire shut up within the bones you see we're talking now about a man whose mind and whose soul are not experiencing some bland neutral detached relationship to spiritual realities

40:13 they have become a kind of spiritual fire and heat within his breast and that is one of the blessed fruits of meditation while we muse the fire burns and what may have struck us in the preaching of the word as but a temporary passing lightning flash from God's own truth when we take that same thing into a context of meditation fix the mind upon it and turn it over and prayerfully reflect upon it

40:57 instead of it being but the bright quick flash of a lightning bolt it may become like the deep glowing coals of a burning fire such as you might find in a fireplace in the middle of winter when someone has well cured hardwood logs and they've reached that stage where they're one massive glow and heat that's what we read in Psalm 39 there's an example of meditation now I want you to turn to a new testing example so all we're trying to do now is to look at a couple of biblical examples and we're going to look at a couple of examples of people who meditate

Biblical Illustration: Mary's Pondering in Luke 2

41:39 the gospel of Luke and chapter 2 we're in the Christmas story in September Luke chapter 2 and you remember the chapter begins with the birth of our Lord in Bethlehem and the appearance of the angels to the shepherds and then the shepherds come into that manger setting and we read in verse 16 of Luke 2 and they the shepherds came with haste and found both Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger

42:22 and when they saw it they made known concerning the saying and the word that is used is concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child when they saw it they made known concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child and what was the saying the saying is recorded earlier in the chapter verse 10 be not afraid I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the peoples for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord

43:07 they were told that the one they were to see was none other than the one that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born that was born than the anointed Lord the Messiah of Israel God's only appointed Savior and they made known these words and all who heard it responded verse 18 and all that heard it wondered they were astounded and amazed at the things which were spoken unto them by the shepherds what was the peculiar focus of amazement was what the shepherds told them now some of the amazement may have been with reference to the shepherds telling them about the visitation

43:52 of angels but it would seem in the context that the primary amazement focused upon the things that came as the saying spoken to them about this child but now what did Mary do verse 19 but Mary kept all these sayings for you may have a version that says all these things you have a form of crema again which can mean things or sayings pondering them in her heart now I submit to you my brothers and sisters that here is a beautiful example of a woman who had learned the art

44:36 of meditation and I've chosen this for a number of reasons remember she was probably only in her late teens this was her first born child there was no infant meal no other kind of prepared formula she had to be a nursing mother of a newborn according to the witness of the gospels other little ones came along quite regularly because she was the mother of many other children they said your brothers and your sisters are without seeking for you and he says who is my mother who is my brother who is my sister she didn't have anything other than a crude scrub board no Kenmore

45:21 washer and dryer no pampers so start using your imagination in a crude society in a poor situation in that setting here is a woman who was anything other than a nun sitting up somewhere in her nunnery away from the real world of the pressing carking cares of a young mother of young infants and a house full of kids and yet it says of Mary that she did two things but Mary first of all kept all these things

46:05 or sayings she kept them the tense of the verb which means she was continually guarding them she was continually treating these sayings these things that had transpired all of which were revelatory God had broken in and through the angels spoken to the shepherds God had broken into human history his son and our savior had been born Christ the Lord was the infant she held to her breast and as all of these sayings and things poured in she treated each one like a treasure and she wouldn't

46:49 lose one of them it says she was continually treasuring up guarding keeping all of these sayings and then with a present participle a word is used which literally means to be casting things up together turning them over and over wondering how they fit and how they relate so she was continually guarding all of these sayings and the manner in which she was doing it was by this constant pondering them turning them over casting them up and mingling

47:33 them together separating them comparing them where in her heart mama this mama that Joseph with his demands and all of the rest she didn't retreat somewhere for the contemplative life she learned the discipline of habitual meditation in the context of the multifaceted demands upon a young mother with her firstborn and all of her subsequent children and the demands upon her in a setting where there were no washing

48:18 machines no pampers no modern conveniences all of your excuses and mine don't they leak out like a sieve when it is said of Mary that she guarded all of these things continually kept them as a treasure and was constantly casting them up and pondering them in her heart beautiful example meditation and meditation in a set of circumstances very very hostile

Biblical Illustration: Jeremiah Eating the Word in Jeremiah 15

49:03 and to meditation on the surface but this gracious woman learned what it was but then very quickly I want you to look with me at one other passage Jeremiah chapter 15 go back into the Old Testament remember what I'm trying to do now just trying to give you some biblical illustrations of meditations believing that the picture is worth more than a thousand words Jeremiah chapter 15 Jeremiah 15 and verse 16

49:39 Jeremiah is one of those is in one of those times in his life and ministry where he's down he says in verse 10 woe is me my mother that you born me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth I've not lent neither have men lent to me yet every one of them does curse me they curse me as though they were the poor man indebted to me or they curse me as though I owed them something said I'm just treated with

50:23 disdain contempt opposition the Lord is speaking to him encouraging his servant and then the servant of God responds in verse 15 oh Lord you know remember me and visit me and avenge me of my persecutors take me not away in your long suffering for you know that for your sake I have suffered reproach now verse 16 your words were found and I did eat them and your words were unto me a joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by your name oh Jehovah God of hosts

51:07 now the imagery the prophet uses is very very striking and yet understandable to the youngest church and child here he says your words were found how were they found they were found when God spoke to him the prophet didn't make and create his own message the burden of the Lord the word of the Lord would come to the prophet and he says when the word came my response had analogous elements to that which is found when a man sees a meal prepared and takes it into his mind mouth chews masticates it swallows it and in the digestive processes he

51:52 assimilates it into his own being until it becomes a part of him thy words were found and I did eat them and thy words were unto me a joy and rejoicing of my heart now that imagery of eating the word is not just found here in the words of Jeremiah it is found several times very clearly in the New Testament 1st Corinthians 3 2 Paul says I could not feed you with meat but with milk you were not able to bear it neither are you yet able Hebrews 5 12 to 14 the truth of God in that setting the truth particularly concerning Christ in relationship to Melchizedek that

52:36 truth and all of God's truth is likened unto meat or to milk in 1st Timothy 4 6 Paul says Timothy you'll be a good minister nourished up in the words of the faith 1st Peter 2 1 as newborn babes crave after the sincere milk of the words so the idea of the words of God being food and our souls being as it were a mouth and a digestive system is not something that is the fruit of my imagination it is a concept embedded in the word of God now think for a moment what happens when we take that which is objective to us the

53:21 food and we eat it well we start by putting it into the mouth and as I have to say to a friend of mine who inhales his food I constantly remind him that digestion is supposed to begin in the mouth there certain enzymes go to work along with just breaking it up into small enough pieces to be able to get it down here and then in the stomach other juices and other things go to work on it and further out the digestive process and then as it makes its way into the small intestines things get absorbed out into the system and at the end of the day what I eat ends up as part of my fingernails part of my skin part of my

54:05 eyeball part of my mouth

54:10 routine you see what I eat when ultimately assimilated becomes a very part of who and what I when you think of it pride is the most insane disposition of soul imaginable you sit here this morning and in one sense you're nothing but accumulation of what you've eaten and what you've eaten has all ultimately come out of the ocean or out of the ground isn't pride a stupid thing it's insane it's but that's just a little aside but that's what happens when we eat our food that which contains the

54:55 nutrients that which contains the vitamins and the minerals and all of the things essential for the sustaining the healing the maintaining the nourishment of this total organism called the human body with grey matter up here where we think and all of the other things that make the bones and the sinews and the ligaments my words were found and I did eat them what's all this have to do with meditation just this meditation is one of the major elements in the spiritual digestive process it is not the amount of spiritual food

55:40 spread on the table in the exposition and application of the word of God in preaching and teaching which determines your spiritual growth and health it is not the amount of food that you merely put into your mouth by carefully listening while the word is preached you may be a spiritual bulimic who before you get home you stuck your finger down your throat and you vomited out whatever you chewed and initially swallowed by careful hearing vomited out by worldly conversation by a preoccupation of your mind with worldly concern no the word that

56:24 profits you is that which is not only laid out upon the table taken into the mouth and into the stomach by careful hearing while it is preached but that which through meditation gets down into the small intestine of your soul and begins to be absorbed and ends up as nothing less than part of the fingernails and the skin and the bone and sinew of your spiritual constitution and meditation is one of the major elements in that process of spiritual digestion

Meditation as Spiritual Digestion: The Danger of Neglect

57:08 one of the great concerns of any thoughtful and perceptive family physician who knows you well is if you came in for a regular check up and you seemed sallow and listless and you would obviously lost an excessive amount of weight in a short time the first question he'd ask is what in the world is wrong with you and if you were to lay out what you were eating and it was evidence you were eating a well balanced diet and consuming sufficient calories with balanced intake that this was on your table and in your mouth and initially going into your stomach he'd say something's wrong something is short circuited from here to the rest

57:53 of your physical well being we've got to get to the bottom of this you see the application don't you what have we a right to think when people come to tables well spread with the wholesome food of the word of God served up in balanced proportions and who seem to give some measure of serious attention to the initial mastication chewing and swallowing of that food but alas we see them week after week month after month year after year you say surely

58:38 there's some dread disease eating at their vitals and neutralizing the influence of all of that wholesome intake when in reality the problem could well be there's a hang up in their spiritual small intestine they are not meditating their minds are being bombarded with the sounds of their radio of their cd of their walkman of their television of their telephone every somehow there's supposed to be a magical impact of the word of god

59:23 upon their lives no dear people if we would profit from the word of god we must take heed how we hear and that taking heed how we hear demands that we not only after the preaching of the word engage in sufficient repetition to fasten a phrase or a whole text or a solid concept from the word of god upon our minds and give ourselves to supplication that that word would be written upon our hearts and that our hearts would be inclined to obey it and to believe it that we must engage in meditation

Manton's Exhortation: Meditation Cherishes Love and Prevents Fruitlessness

60:07 upon that word if we would know its profit listen to manton three volumes of sermons on psalm 119 he preached a sermon on every one of those texts and on some of the texts two sermons i didn't know that till this week when i was for my own benefit presently i'm reading through psalm 119 in the course of my own devotional life and one of the texts i felt i needed light and said i'll read manton on it and lo and behold he had two sermons one on the first half of the verse one on the last half but listen to his comments on how crucial is this matter of meditation as love begets meditation so meditation

60:52 cherishes love meditation is the life of all the means of grace and that which

61:02 souls what is the reason there is so much preaching and so little practice for lack of meditation constant thoughts are operative thoughts if a hen straggles out from her nest she brings forth nothing her eggs chill so when we do not set a brood upon holy thoughts see the concept of brooding again so when we do not set a brood upon holy thoughts holy thoughts if we content ourselves with some few transient thoughts and glances about divine things and do not dwell upon them the truth is suddenly put off and does no good

61:46 all actions require time and space for their operation if hastily slubbered over they cool if we give them time and space we shall feel their effects so if we hold truths in our minds and dwell upon them there will be an answerable impression but when they come like a flash of lightning they are gone and we run over them in a shallow way that truth may work there are required three things sound belief serious consideration and close that is careful personal application

62:29 and then he goes on in applying the what he has said on this matter of oh how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day he says it reproves those people who good thoughts are looked upon as a burden and a melancholy interruption and when they rush into their minds they throw them out like an unwelcome guest these seem to be described by the words they did not like to retain God in their knowledge whereas the psalmist said my meditation of him shall be sweet and then he says it speaks to those who read and hear but do not meditate in order to feel the pressure

63:14 of that truth and to see it expressed in practice this duty must have its turn also if you will ever manifest affection and increase affection you must take some time to meditate and season your thoughts bare hearing leaves but little impression unless we debate and revolve it in our minds now I know and as I sat at my desk I thought lo and behold people will think Pastor Martin you may as well advocate that we all give up our cars and go back to horse drawn carriages to get to church to talk about meditation in the media soaked madness of

Conclusion: The Necessity of Meditation and God's Warning to the Wicked

63:58 metropolitan 20th century life you're a mad man no I'm a man and as long as this Bible says that the blessed man is the one who meditates in this book day and night you seek blessedness any other way and if you think you've got it it ain't from God it's a delusive spirit from the devil we've created and if you pummel your mind with sounds and concepts from all of the trinkets and toys available ready and willing to pummel your

64:43 mind God will not accommodate himself to your folly but your shallow fruitless stunted spiritual growth will be the monument of your folly and of mine dear people of God somehow somehow if we love our savior and we believe that the duty to meditate is really a part of the scepter of his own rule over us a scepter held in his blood pierced hand then we shall do whatever we must do to order our lives and to order the use of all of our toys in such a way

65:27 that we become those who can say oh how love I thy word thy law it is my meditation all the day to be more and more that blessed man and blessed woman who while not walking in the advice of the ungodly nor standing in the way of sinners nor sitting in the seat of scoffers meditates in that law day and night that is gives himself gives herself to the discipline and delights of meditation not only in conjunction with our personal reading of the word but I'm speaking in conjunction with the preaching and

66:12 teaching of that word and as I said last night so I say again in closing this morning to you for whom the very thought of intense mental concentration upon any phrase or verse or truth or chapter of the word of God is bitterness and boredom of the worst kind I remind you that God Almighty calls you to meditation and reflection last week we saw that he said to the man in hell son remember listen to what he says to those not yet in hell but unto the wicked God says Psalm 50 and verse 16

66:57 what have you to do to declare my statutes and take my instruction into my covenant into your mouth seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you rather than making them the concentrated focus of delightful thought and reflection they cast the words of God behind them to such God says in verse 22 now consider this now think upon this now meditate upon this concentrate your thoughts upon this you who would throw the words of God behind you consider this you that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver

67:40 God likens himself to an angry lion and he says he'll tear you in pieces and none will deliver you out of his jaws I am weary with the God of modern evangelicalism who is not even a toothless tiger he's a toothless clawless pussycat that can only purr and cuddle up to anyone regardless of the disposition of their heart and they can feel comfortable with God that's not the God of the Bible my friend you treat with disdain his holy words and cast them behind you

68:25 God consider this you that forget me I will come and deal with you as an angry lion and tear you in peace and there shall be none to deliver God grant that you flee from your sins and find that that God who says he'll be an angry lion is the God who also likens himself to a welcoming father to a prodigal son and bid you to come to him through his beloved son bid you to turn from your sin to cast yourself upon the savior in the promise that he will have mercy

69:10 upon you let us pray together our father we thank you for your holy word that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway and we pray that you would take this word that we have sought this morning to open up in the hearing concerning this solemn duty and blessed privilege of meditation and we pray that you would help us oh god to do whatever we must do to bring ourselves into a course where this holy discipline

69:54 becomes a part of our lives that we may not lose the benefit of assimilating your word into the stuff of our souls for want of meditation we pray that you would have dealings with those who cast your words behind them who have no desire to think upon them oh god may they tremble at the thought of what it would mean to meet you as an angry lion lord have mercy turn them we pray seal your word to our hearts and may we find ourselves

70:39 even this day further profiting from it as we meditate upon it we plead in jesus name amen