And the LORD answered, "It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice. Sermons
I. THE MYSTERY. This consists partly in the particular subjects of it, and partly in the degree to which it has gone. It is spoken of here prophetically as a future thing that has already taken place; and the problem is stated accordingly as a realization, and not a thing only conceived of. From time to time the history of Israel and Judah presents such scenes. It is by no means one of uninterrupted progress. There are backboard movements, standings still, interruptions, sharp and humiliating national disasters, and long epochs of civil warp political nonentity, or foreign captivity. I. Yet have there not been many gracious promises to the contrary! 2. On the whole, the past reverses of Israel have been retrieved, and a measure of continuous progress attained. 3. The special affliction referred to is unprecedented, and its result would almost appear to be final. The history of the Christian Church and of individual believers presents features analogous to this. The slow progress of the world's evangelization. The comparative absence of spiritual blessing in the midst of God's children. Their divisions, scientific skepticism, or unscientific superstition, like parasites, strangling the tree of the Church and draining away its life. Or the mystery appears in the individual Christian. His creed is orthodox, his behavior outwardly presenting little that is blameworthy; and yet worldly business is a constant series of reverses and dishonorable compromises; his influence is lost; afflictions come upon him, and he cannot bear up under them; the peace of Christ is not his; etc. II. THE POINT OF VIEW FROM WHICH IT IS TO BE REGARDED. This very important to be determined. The apostate people of God fail to realize the extent to which they have fallen, and confound the formal rites of religion with its spirit and reality. They at first attribute it to natural causes, or treat it as a temporary thing that will right itself, etc. The heathen, looking on ab extra, imagine that the Jehovah of Israel is no longer able to deliver, or that he has ceased to care for her. Here it is declared to be a judgment upon apostasy - utter departure from truth and righteousness, and the sterner because of that fact. And when we look at all the circumstances of the case, this interpretation seems more probable - to carry, as it were, its evidence with it. The key, therefore, is for the most part an inward one; at first, at any rate, wholly so. This it is which constitutes the main element of difficulty in the troubles of God's people. Hence the room there must be for mistakes, and the ease with which a wholly erroneous view may be taken with superficial probability. And this suggests how large a part of the Church's function is fulfilled in merely being a problem and a mystery to the carnal mind. When judgment begins at the house of God, it is time for all attentively to look on and inquire why it is so. Greater perils lie on the side of unfaithfulness than of mere unbelief. And in the last resort conscience must be appealed to in explanation of mysteries of reverse and trouble. Thereby God is knocking at the door of the heart both of the world and the Church. It is of the utmost importance that we settle the question between us and him. III. AN INTERPRETER WANTED. (Ver. 12.) When men are at a loss, or there is radical difference of opinion, it is evident that some authority is required to decide the question. The world and its canons are by the nature of the problem ruled out of court. And the apostate is too blinded with his own sin and too callous through repeated acts and prolonged habits of wrong-doing to be trusted in the matter. At this juncture the advantage of revelation and of the prophetic office appears. So far as God is concerned, the seer speaks with the authority of direct inspiration; so far as the culprit is concerned, he occupies a representative position, and as one of those implicated, yet himself innocent, acts as general conscience. This is God's way - to raise a testimony and extract a confession from the heart of the transgressor himself, or from the midst of those upon whom his judgments fall. And the same end is accomplished now through the Spirit and the Word. The saint becomes the mouthpiece of the Savior, and the world is convinced of "sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." - M.
Because they have forsaken My law...give them water of gall to drink. A quaint preacher, addressing miners, drew a picture of two mines. He represented payday at one of the mines, and described the long line of men coming to the cashier's desk to receive their wages. Presently some men came up whom the cashier did not know. "Where have you been working?" he asked. "We were working in the other pit," they answered. "Then that is the place to go for your money." "No," they said, "we like your pay best; we are tired, and we want rest, and we want peace and plenty. At the pit where we have been working they are treating us cruelly, and we get no pay, but blows and hard words. Won't you pay us?" But the cashier says, "No; you chose to work in the other pit, and you must take the wages they pay; you cannot work for one employer and get your wages from another." "That was fair, was it not?" the preacher asked. His hearers answered that it was. "Then," said he, "don't you serve the devil unless you want his wages."People JeremiahPlaces Ammon, Edom, Egypt, Gilead, Jerusalem, Moab, ZionTopics Accord, Attention, Followed, Forsaken, Forsaking, Giving, Guided, Hearkened, Law, Obeyed, Says, Therein, Voice, WalkedOutline 1. Jeremiah laments the people for their manifold sins;9. and for their judgment. 12. Disobedience is the cause of their bitter calamity. 17. He exhorts to mourn for their destruction; 23. and to trust not in themselves, but in God. 25. He threatens both Jews and Gentiles. Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 9:12-13Library India's Ills and England's SorrowsIt would seem as if some men had been sent into this world for the very purpose of being the world's weepers. God's great house is thoroughly furnished with everything, everything that can express the thoughts and the emotions of the inhabitant, God hath made. I find in nature, plants to be everlasting weepers. There by the lonely brook, where the maiden cast away her life, the willow weeps for ever; and there in the grave yard where men lie slumbering till the trumpet of the archangel shall awaken … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857 "Boast not Thyself of To-Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. " Characters and Names of Messiah How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished. Original Sin A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. By John Knox. Thoughts Upon Worldly-Riches. Sect. Ii. The Knowledge of God Jeremiah Links Jeremiah 9:13 NIVJeremiah 9:13 NLT Jeremiah 9:13 ESV Jeremiah 9:13 NASB Jeremiah 9:13 KJV Jeremiah 9:13 Bible Apps Jeremiah 9:13 Parallel Jeremiah 9:13 Biblia Paralela Jeremiah 9:13 Chinese Bible Jeremiah 9:13 French Bible Jeremiah 9:13 German Bible Jeremiah 9:13 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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