Jeremiah 13:15-17 Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.… I. WHAT IS IT WHICH STOPS PEOPLE FROM HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD? 1. One form of pride is shame. Many kept from Christ because ashamed to come and give themselves up to Him. For fear of the paltry scorn, the momentary ridicule, the soul will risk eternity! 2. There is the pride of respectability and social position. Hold apart from religion, because in the one way all must go without distinction. Yet what can justify in a lost sinner any high and vain thoughts of self? 3. There is the pride that conceals a wound. God's Word has stricken the heart; healing and joy could be had if we humbly go to God, yet hide the grief and unrest within, from man and Heaven. 4. There is the pride of self-righteousness. What say when before the Throne — that you were too good to accept the Gospel? II. HUMAN PRIDE MUST EFFECTUALLY BE BROKEN DOWN. 1. When pride humbled and man crushed, God speaks. What say? "Give glory to the Lord your God." "Your" God still, though turned back on Him and grieved Him. 2. The contrite soul cannot realise its inability to glorify God. Broken down, powerless, self-despairing, cast yourself on His salvation. 3. There is a desperate alternative: that you "will not hear." By and by your feet will "stumble on the dark mountains." The day of disease will come; life will grow dim; the thin grandeur of a fading world will begin to pass away; all around the gloom will thicken, and on a dying world "gross darkness" of unrelieved despair will cover you. Then the last moment arrives; one terrified "look for light," but in vain; the soul is "carried away into captivity." (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.WEB: Hear, and give ear; don't be proud; for Yahweh has spoken. |
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