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I. Here is FOOD Eat ye that which is good."

1. How is it presented to us? Freely. There was a word about buying; but that was soon covered up with, "Buy without money and without price.' While it is thus presented freely as to any labour with which to procure it, it is also presented freely as to its quality, its highest quality. You are not permitted to drink freely of water, and then to purchase wine. The richest dainties of God's house are as free as the bread He gives to hungry souls. The only limitation is no limitation at all: " Ho, every one that thirsteth!"

2. What is this food?

(1)  The Word of God.

(2)  Better still, the incarnate Word of God.

(3)  The grace of God.

3. What is the nature of this food? It is in every sense of the word "good." It is satisfying. It is pure; no harm can ever come by eating it. This heavenly food is good for you at any time, good for you living, good for you dying. All other foods that men seek after are unsubstantial; they can surfeit, but they cannot satisfy; they can cloy, but they cannot content; but the food that has come down from heaven, if a man does but take it into himself, shall be the best food he ever ate. Moreover, this food is described here as being fatness. " Let thy soul delight itself in fatness." Within the Word of God, there are certain choicer truths; in Christ, there are certain choicer joys; in grace, there are certain choicer experiences than men at first realize.

II. Here is FEEDING. One of the most important words in our text is that little word "eat." Food is of no use until it is eaten. You ought not to need any instruction on this point. We take a great many orphans into the Orphanage, and some of them are very ignorant, and we have to teach them a great many things; but we have no class for teaching them to eat. If men were hungry, they would know how to eat, if they had the bread. It is because men are not really hungry on account of sin that they come and ask us, "What do you mean by the eating?" Yet it may be that some are sincere in asking the question, so I will answer it.

1. To eat is to believe.

2. To eat is chiefly to appropriate.

3. The full process of eating includes digestion. How do I digest the Word of God? When I meditate upon it.

4. Feeding also means trusting yourself wholly to Christ.

III. WELCOME. What does the Lord say? "Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

1. Here is no stint. It is not said, "Here is a pair of scales; here is a plate; here is a knife. The law allows so many ounces of meat to you, just so much, and you must not have half-an-ounce over. Nothing of the kind. You are just taken to the table, and the exhortation is, "Eat to your heart's content."

2. As there is no stint, so there is no reserve. It is not said, " Now you may eat those two things; but you must not touch that nice fat morsel over there; that is for the particular favourite, not for you." No, when God invites you to His table, you may have anything there is on the table.

3. So, too, there is no end to the feast. " Keep on delighting yourself in fatness. You will never use it all up." I read of a country once, though I hardly believed the description of it; for it was said that the grass grew faster than the cows could eat it. Well, there is a country that I know of, where the grass grows faster than the sheep can eat it. You may eat all you will out of the Divine Word; but you will find that there is more left than you have taken; and it seems as if there were more after you had taken it, as if the grass grew deeper as you fed more ravenously upon it.,

IV. DELIGHT.

1. There is no peril in holy joy, in delighting yourself in God's Word, and delighting yourself in Christ.

2. There will be no idleness or selfishness produced by this fat feeding.

3. May you also attain a sense of holy security!

4. Then, may you come into a state of perfect rest!

5. May you also come into a state of complete resignation to the will of God!

6. May you be filled with a happy expectancy.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

WEB: Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.