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Hello everybody, it's ministertol23 back with another video. So the word of God is sometimes compared to a burning fire. And one example of this is in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 20, verses 7 to 9. It says, O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. I am in derision daily, everyone mocketh me, for since I spake I cried out. I cried violence and spoil, because the word of the Lord was made of reproach unto me, and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. So Jeremiah, who is a prophet of God, is speaking in the first person here, presenting a dilemma that he has. Because he speaks the word of God with boldness, because he preaches as God has commanded him to do against the wickedness of Judah, he is constantly mocked and derided by the people. He cries out, and yet what he preaches daily creates derision. And we see this throughout the book of Jeremiah, through the context that the people rather listen to false prophets and false promises rather than heed to the warnings of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah. Jeremiah was threatened with death, he was put into prison, and he was constantly persecuted for that which he preached. And here in chapter 20, Jeremiah says in verse 9, Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. So he came to a point where he had given up, where he doubted, where he lacked faith and had a disobedient heart, he no longer wanted to preach the word of God. He knew what he was supposed to preach, he knew what the word was that he spake, and that he knew that it was of the Lord, he knew that he was speaking the word of God, and yet he decided at this point that he would give up his preaching because of the reaction of the people. He said he would not mention the Lord nor speak any more in his name, and why? Because of the persecution, because of the derision, because the Jews, the inhabitants of Jerusalem would not listen to the preaching of God's word. And yet even though he decided within his heart that he would not speak of the Lord anymore, he continued saying, But his word was in my heart as a burning fire showed up within my bones. Even though he had temporarily lacked faith and decided that he would no longer preach, the word of God within him, the word which God had given him to preach, he describes as being like a burning fire. And I'll go back to that in a moment. So he continues in verses 10-11 where he says, For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Reports say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure, he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. Therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. So here Jeremiah recognizes that even with the mockery and the derision and the persecution from all sides, that the Lord will cause those persecutors to stumble. He will show his wrath against them, and they shall eventually be ashamed. And that's the truth. Whenever somebody attacks the preacher of God's word, the Lord shall cause them to stumble and cause them to be ashamed. He shall repay them according to that which they have done to the man of God. And therefore Jeremiah repents, realizing who it is that he serves. But I want to focus again on the statement in verse 9 where he says that his word is as a burning fire shut up within my bones. Now what does that mean? Well later in the book of Jeremiah, it again says in Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 29, Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? So again, the word of God is compared to being like a fire and also like a hammer. In the book of Luke, after Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and he opens up to them the scriptures to teach them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and then he sits down and he blesses and breaks bread with them, it is written in Luke 24 verses 31 to 32, and their eyes were open and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scripture? So these disciples say something that's very similar to what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 20, that within their heart there was this burning, but only when Christ had opened up the scriptures unto them, only when he had showed and preached unto them the word of God. The same reaction happened with them to the word of God that they had received as that had happened with Jeremiah. They had this burning within them. But what does that mean? What is this burning referring to? Well I believe that this is referring to this strong desire within Jeremiah to preach God's word. But that only makes sense within the context because he had given up the word to preach, and then he later repents. So he knew the word, he knew what the word of God said, but because he suffered from derision and persecution because of it, he had stopped preaching it. The only reason why he began to preach again is because the word was like a burning fire shut up within his bones. He says, but meaning even though I just said this, even though I said I will not make mention of him anymore nor speak in his name but even despite that, the word was within my heart a burning fire shut up within my bones. So he could feel a sensation, a burning sensation within him as part of the word to preach the word. Now the Bible uses the word burn a few times to refer to a strong desire. Now obviously we're not talking about a literal burning. It's not saying that Jeremiah's soul was literally on fire. It's not saying that his bones were literally on fire since Jeremiah 20 uses the word as, showing that it's a simile, meaning it's figurative language. So he compares the desire to preach with a burning fire and what that is like. Now when the word burn is used in the Bible, it's often used in a negative context, referring to a sinful desire like lust, like in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 9 where it says, but if they cannot contain, let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn. And so in this verse, Paul writes about men who cannot contain themselves. He says that they should marry because some can naturally resist the lust of the flesh while others struggle and would easily fall into fornication if they're not married. So Paul says let them marry because that's better than to burn, meaning burn in their lust. Or in other words, it's better to marry than to have that burning that strong desire within you to commit fornication. Now like I said, that's a sinful connotation of the word, obviously. And of course there's nothing sinful whatsoever about preaching the word of God. Preaching is not a lust of the flesh. However, it could still be called a desire. We have a desire as Christians oftentimes to preach what God says and to teach what the Bible says. It's a strong desire that eats within you as like a fire that burns within you. So because Jeremiah had the word of God in his heart, which is a powerful word according to Hebrews 4.12, and because he had temporarily refused to preach it, that word within his heart began to move his spirit in a way that it felt like a fire was eating up within him and that he couldn't but preach the word. So the word is so powerful that it affects us within, in this way, like no other book. And I'm sure many other Christians can testify that they felt a very similar thing. That the more we learn about the Bible and the more we grow and the more we study, the more we know about what's right and we see the wickedness in this world, the more of a desire we have to talk about the things of God. The more of a desire we have to preach his word. Otherwise, if we don't, it's like a burning fire, a strong desire within us that needs to be breathed out. Oftentimes you may have heard the phrase fire breathing preaching, or fire and brimstone preaching. Now technically that phrase comes from the style of preaching which emphasizes not just the positive, but also the negative in the Bible. The wrath of God, that of Hell and the lake of fire and judgment and destruction and things like that. Not like the weak preachers of today who say nothing about that, even though the Bible mentions it constantly, but the bold spirit-filled preachers who stand up and speak the whole counsel of God, who don't just focus on the positive, but also preach the wrath of God. However even just the phrase of fire and brimstone preaching has some scriptural sense to it in the fact that those preachers of the past and the present who have preached the word of God have done so through the fullness of the Holy Ghost. Now do you recall that when John spake of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, talking about Jesus who would come after him. He baptized with water, but he prophesied that Jesus will come and he says also that there is a baptism with fire. In Luke chapter 3 verse 16, it says, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh. The latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. So John the Baptist is telling of the coming of Christ, saying that he shall baptize them not with water, but with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This does not take place until the book of Acts, and when the spirit rests upon the believers, what happens? What do we see in the book of Acts as the result of being filled with the Holy Ghost? Now the Pentecostals and the Charismatics think that that means that you roll around on the floor and speak gibberish, but that's not what happened. In the Bible we see that they preach the word of God. In Acts chapter 2, what they did was they preached the word of God. They spake of the wonderful works of God, it says I think in verse 11 of that chapter. Then it says in Acts chapter 4 verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. So when these members of the church of Jerusalem were filled with the Holy Ghost, the result was that they spake the word of God with boldness. The baptism of the Holy Ghost and with fire leads one to speak the word of God with boldness. Again, another interesting connection between preaching the word of God and fire. Did not it say in Jeremiah that the word of God is like as a fire and as a burning fire within us? Why? Because when the power of God's spirit rests upon a preacher of God's word, not only do they have that strong desire within them to preach, but they are given the boldness to stand up and to speak the fiery word of God. That's fire-breathing preaching, breathing the fire that is God's word. First, there starts with that burning desire within us, and we let it out through the fullness of the Holy Ghost, and we speak it in boldness. Then that same word, which is as a fire, will also one day judge the wicked. Remember that the Bible says in John chapter 1 verse 1 that the word was God, and that it says in Hebrews 1227 that our God is a consuming fire. The word which we preach has the power to consume and fire in a figurative sense. As Jesus said in John chapter 12 verse 48, He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. Christ teaches that it is the word which he has spoken that shall judge the damned in the last day. When the sinners who have not received Christ stand before the throne of God, it is the books which are open before the great white throne in Revelation chapter 20, and they are judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works. Okay, that's the word of God. That is what will judge them in the last day according to Jesus, and that judgment is when they are condemned to the lake of fire because of the judgment of the word, because they have disobeyed God's word, and they have not gotten saved by trusting Jesus Christ. So the word has power, and the word being the statement of who God is and His will is a fire in three different senses, in that it burns within us as a strong desire to preach, and if we withhold that, if we stop preaching it will continue to burn within our bones, as Jeremiah said. That we speak it with boldness through the baptism with fire, and that it has the power to judge the wicked and also condemn them to the lake of fire. So those are some interesting things that the Bible says about the word of God. I just want to share that with you today. I really like Jeremiah chapter 20 verses 7 and 9. It's a verse that was on my mind a few weeks ago, and that led me to decide to talk about this today. But yeah, it's a very interesting subject to study. So thank you everybody for watching. That's it for today, and goodbye.