Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD. Sermons
I. GOD LOOKING FOR FRUIT BUT NONE FORTHCOMING. 1. The fruit God looked for was Judah's repentance (cf. the history of the times to which Jeremiah refers). Idolatry was rampant in the northern kingdom. The southern also had been very far from free from it. But at this time God looked for a true repentance on Judah's part. 2. And such fruit was reasonably expected. There was the personal example and influence of King Josiah and the band of faithful men who were endeavoring to promote a true religious reformation. They had seen the degradation which followed Israel's sin (ver. 9); how Israel had fallen so low as to worship stocks and stones, the "most scoundrel idols," as Matthew Henry calls them. They had heard the gracious appeal of God to Israel (ver. 7). They had seen the judgments of God which had followed when his grace was rejected. How severe and terrible these had been! God "had put Israel away" (ver. 8). For nearly a century Israel had been in dread captivity by reason of their sins. And the sin which had brought down their judgments was the sin which Judah herself was guilty of. And the judgment had not happened to an alien nation or in a remote land. No, but to Judah's own sister, to members of the same family, of one blood and lineage; and close to her Own door, hence under her own eye. What more arousing and alarming call to the unconverted could there have been than all this? And to lend further force to this call, there was in Judah the presence of the temple, the possession of all manner of religious privilege. How reasonable, then, was the expectation that Judah should turn away from her idolatry and unfeignedly repent! But the like of all such reasons for the expectation of a true turning to God exists in the case of many today. Every influence and argument for such turning to God as bore upon Judah then, bears upon many still. 3. But that which God desired was not forthcoming. It is the burden of the prophet's complaint that what Israel had done, and worse, was chargeable against Judah. And as now, all too often, those from whom real religion may reasonably be expected are found not only as evil, but outstripping others in ungodly ways. This is part of the story told us by these verses. II. Another is that of MEN SEEKING TO PALM OFF ON GOD FICTITIOUS FRUIT INSTEAD OF GENUINE. (Ver. 10.) Cf. the history of the reformation in Josiah's day - how justly it is described in this verse! It was sudden, partial, external, short-lived. And such feigned reformations are common enough still. Cf. Luke 11:21-26; and sermon No. 613 by Spurgeon: "And as the devil looks round and finds the place swept, he finds it garnished too. The man has bought some pictures: he has not real faith, but he has a fine picture of it over the fireplace. He has no love to the cross of Christ, but he has a very handsome crucifix hanging on the wall. He has no graces of the Spirit, but he has a fine vase of flowers on the table of other peoples' experiences and other peoples' graces, and they smell tolerably sweet. There is a fireplace without fire, but there is one of the handsomest ornaments for the fireplace that was ever bought for money. It is swept and garnished. Oh, the garnished people I have met with! garnished sometimes with almsgiving, at other times with long-winded prayers; garnished with the profession of zeal and the pretence of reverence. You will find a zealous Protestant - oh, so zealous! - who would go into fits at the sign of a cross, and yet will be guilty of nameless vice. You find persons shocked because another boiled a teakettle on a Sunday, or insured his life, or assisted at a bazaar, who will cheat and draw the eye-teeth out of an orphan child if they could get sixpence by it. They are swept and garnished. Walk in, ladies and gentlemen!Did you ever see a house so delightfully furnished as this? How elegant! how tasteful! Just so: but men may be damned tastefully, and go to hell respectably, just as well as they can in a vulgar and debauched fashion." Wherefore do men thus act? Because conscience has been aroused by God's dealings with them, and it will not let them rest without doing something. The question now comes, how little can they do which will be sufficient to still the inconvenient and uncomfortable clamor of conscience? And such turning to God "feignedly," such reformations as that of Judah under King Josiah, such sweeping and garnishing of the house empty of any true love to God, is the device they resolve upon. Then next, in this sad story, we see - III. GREATER CONDEMNATION THAN EVER COMING UPON MEN IN CONSEQUENCE. 1. They are branded with a worse name than others (cf. "treacherous Judah," vers. 7, 10). Under pretence of being faithful to God, guardians of the temple, the priesthood, the Law, making loud profession, they were idolatrous even as Israel. Hence the name of infamy, "treacherous." And Christ's most terrible words were for the "hypocrites" of his day. 2. A place less tolerable in the Day of Judgment will be assigned them, than that of those who sinned in like manner but without any suck religious profession (ver. 11). Oh, then, what need for the prayer - Search me, O God, and try my heart,
For thou that heart canst see;
And turn each cursed idol out
That dares to rival thee." - C. Return again to Me, saith the Lord. We have here a wonderful display of God's character: forbearance, pity, and love.I. WHAT IS INFERRED. A departure from God. 1. The life of an ungodly man is one long departure from God. Every step he takes leads him farther away. 2. What departures we find even in the holiest and best! Secret neglects. Seductions in daily avocations and companions. Tampering with sin. II. WHAT IS DECLARED. A returning to God as a promising God, as a forgiving God, as our God and Father in Christ Jesus, in real humiliation of spirit before Him; for "whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy." Observe, the return is not a mere turning away from sin; it is finding the way back again to God. The very fruit and work of the blessed Spirit. III. WHAT IS DISPLAYED. Touching tenderness. 1. God Himself speaks. 2. He points to the Cross. () 1. Let Christian believers behold in these words with whom it is that they have to do. There have been times when the Lord made you rejoice before Him — when your fellowship with Him was delight. And so He would have had you to continue. But your joy changed into sorrow, your light was quenched in darkness; not because you were forsaken, but because you forsook. You did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He delivered you into the hands of the Philistines. But He did not forsake you utterly, nor cast you off forever. He brought you back, and restored to you "the joy of His salvation." Soon you forgot it all. You did evil again in His sight. He departed from you, and you were carried captive by your enemies. In the land of Babylon you wept, and hung your tuneless harps upon the willows, for you could not sing the Lord's song in a strange land! You remembered Zion, and eagerly longed that your captivity might come to an end. And the Lord ended your captivity and brought you back. Yet, notwithstanding all your sad experiences, you have again and again forgotten and forsaken Him. What should be your feelings when you think of these things? Should there be any sorrow like unto your sorrow? Yet be not afraid; conclude not that your sins must of necessity have separated forever between you and God; say not that for you there is no hope in Israel, and no place left for repentance. Had you to do with man it might be so. Were you to be dealt with as you have sinned, It could not but be so. But the Lord God is merciful and gracious, His love continues as strong as ever. He cannot bear to give you up. He compassionates your weakness. He laments your folly. 2. Let those who are still in the gall of bitterness — alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, be assured that this language is addressed even to them. You are His, although you are now strangers and foreigners; for His hand did form you, and you were not designed to be His enemies. You have chosen to be so; but all the enmity is on your side. Your enemy He has never been; nor is He now your enemy! He is emphatically the friend of sinners. () () Therefore the showers have been withholden If God is immanent in the universe, not a Deity immeasurable distances away from His creation; if without Him it could not hold together for a moment, there is nothing unreasonable in the thought that He should sometimes show resentment at the spirit of evil, indicate some emotion at least in the presence of ingratitude. We do the sage ourselves. Parents sometimes give children to feel that the penalty of ill-behaviour is the withdrawment of a privilege, the abbreviation of a holiday, the suspension of a pleasure. Sometimes by deprivation God inflicts punishment upon those who turn away from Him. In this case the penalty was one of deprivation — the showers had been withholden. Sometimes the penalty is positive, and there are too many showers. God drowns the world that denies Him. He does not withhold the showers for want of water; the debt, go is always ready: the river of God is full of water. It may be unscientific and ignorant to think that God interferes with nature, but it stands to our highest reason as a probable truth. If He made it, He may interfere with it; if He constructed it, He may sometimes wind it up, visit it, operate upon it, assert His eternal proprietorship. If the great landlord allows us to walk through his fields freely and joyously, he may sometimes, say, once in twenty-one years, put up a fence or a boundary, which being interpreted means, This path is mine, not yours; the boundary will be taken down again tomorrow, but it is here today to signify that you have acquired no rights by constant use. It is not an unnatural intervention, nor do we see that it is an unreasonable intervention on the part. of God if we deny Him, neglect Him, scorn Him, operate wholly against the spirit of His holiness, that He should now and again withhold the shower, or send such deluges upon the earth as shall wash away our seed and make a desert of our garden.() Great honour has always been paid by all nations to their supposed gods, and it has always been reckoned a crime to rob them of the glory of which they were supposed to be so jealous. One of the Greek comedians in a stage play asks this question, "Who was the wicked author of the vines being blasted by the frost?" And he gives the answer, "He who gave the honours of the gods to men." This heathen writer teaches us a lesson when we fail to trace our trials to the first cause. Who shall say that some dishonour of the name of God may not be the cause of our afflictions? Sorrow does not come out of the dust. The seeds of disease are not driven about recklessly. The lightning does not strike by chance. There are reasons for what seems evil which we cannot trace, and perhaps one of the chief causes of the calamities which befall men may be found in their want of regard for the honour and glory of the Divine Name.()
People Jeremiah, JosiahPlaces Assyria, Jerusalem, ZionTopics FALSE, Deceit, Deception, Declares, Falsehood, Feignedly, Heart, Judah, Pretense, Rather, Return, Returned, Says, Sister, Spite, Treacherous, Unfaithful, YetOutline 1. God's great mercy to Judah the polluted land
6. Judah is worse than Israel
12. The promises of the gospel to the penitent
20. Israel reproved, and called by God, makes a solemn confession of their sins
Dictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 3:10 5920 pretence
6628 conversion, God's demand
6733 repentance, nature of
8462 priority, of God Jeremiah 3:1-25 8705 apostasy, in OT Jeremiah 3:6-10 5676 divorce, in OT
8764 forgetting God Library Gregory the Patriarch and the Society at Kunwald, 1457-1473.
A brilliant idea is an excellent thing. A man to work it out is still better. At the very time when Peter's followers were marshalling their forces, John Rockycana,5 Archbishop-elect of Prague (since 1448), was making a mighty stir in that drunken city. What Peter had done with his pen, Rockycana was doing with his tongue. He preached Peter's doctrines in the great Thein Church; he corresponded with him on the burning topics of the day; he went to see him at his estate; he recommended his works …
J. E. Hutton—History of the Moravian ChurchStanzas by the Warden
The following stanzas, written by the Warden on the occasion of the baptism, will be read with pleasure, especially by those who are aware how faithfully the amiable writer of them fulfilled his part in preparing Kallihirua, not only for the right performance of such duties as seemed to await him in life, but (what was far more important) for an early death. THE BAPTISM OF KALLIHIRUA "I WILL TAKE YOU ONE OF A CITY, AND TWO OF A FAMILY, AND I WILL BRING YOU TO ZION."--Jer. iii. 14. Far through the …
Thomas Boyles Murray—Kalli, the Esquimaux Christian, Concerning the Ministry.
Concerning the Ministry. As by the light or gift of God all true knowledge in things spiritual is received and revealed, so by the same, as it is manifested and received in the heart, by the strength and power thereof, every true minister of the gospel is ordained, prepared, and supplied in the work of the ministry; and by the leading, moving, and drawing hereof ought every evangelist and Christian pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the gospel, both as to the place where, as to …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity "The Heritage of the Heathen"
AND the Master said further, "We read in the lesson to-day a verse which tells us that the Lord has a pleasant land to give us, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the heathen' (Jer. iii. 19). And He has also said that He hath shewed His people the power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the heathen.' "What, dear children, is this pleasant land? and what is the heritage of the heathen the Lord has promised you? The pleasant land is none other than the heritage of our Lord Jesus Christ, …
Frances Bevan—Three Friends of God How the Impudent and Bashful are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 8). Differently to be admonished are the impudent and the bashful. For those nothing but hard rebuke restrains from the vice of impudence; while these for the most part a modest exhortation disposes to amendment. Those do not know that they are in fault, unless they be rebuked even by many; to these it usually suffices for their conversion that the teacher at least gently reminds them of their evil deeds. For those one best corrects who reprehends them by direct invective; but to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great How those are to be Admonished who have had Experience of the Sins of the Flesh, and those who have Not.
(Admonition 29.) Differently to be admonished are those who are conscious of sins of the flesh, and those who know them not. For those who have had experience of the sins of the flesh are to be admonished that, at any rate after shipwreck, they should fear the sea, and feel horror at their risk of perdition at least when it has become known to them; lest, having been mercifully preserved after evil deeds committed, by wickedly repeating the same they die. Whence to the soul that sins and never …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great Conversion of all that Come.
"Turn Thou me and I shall be turned." --Jer. xxxi. 18. The elect, born again and effectually called, converts himself. To remain unconverted is impossible; but he inclines his ear, he turns his face to the blessed God, he is converted in the fullest sense of the word. In conversion the fact of cooperation on the part of the saved sinner assumes a clearly defined and perceptible character. In regeneration there was none; in the calling there was a beginning of it; in conversion proper it became a …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Saints' Privilege and Profit;
OR, THE THRONE OF GRACE ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The churches of Christ are very much indebted to the Rev. Charles Doe, for the preservation and publishing of this treatise. It formed one of the ten excellent manuscripts left by Bunyan at his decease, prepared for the press. Having treated on the nature of prayer in his searching work on 'praying with the spirit and with the understanding also,' in which he proves from the sacred scriptures that prayer cannot be merely read or said, but must …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Assurance
Q-xxxvi: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW FROM SANCTIFICATION? A: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God's love. 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' 2 Pet 1:10. Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of sanctification. The saints of old had it. We know that we know …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Sign Seekers, and the Enthusiast Reproved.
(Galilee on the Same Day as the Last Section.) ^A Matt. XII. 38-45; ^C Luke XI. 24-36. ^c 29 And when the multitudes were gathering together unto him, ^a 38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. [Having been severely rebuked by Jesus, it is likely that the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign that they might appear to the multitude more fair-minded and open to conviction than Jesus had represented them to be. Jesus had just wrought …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The Call of Matthew - the Saviour's Welcome to Sinners - Rabbinic Theology as Regards the Doctrine of Forgiveness in Contrast to the Gospel of Christ
In two things chiefly does the fundamental difference appear between Christianity and all other religious systems, notably Rabbinism. And in these two things, therefore, lies the main characteristic of Christ's work; or, taking a wider view, the fundamental idea of all religions. Subjectively, they concern sin and the sinner; or, to put it objectively, the forgiveness of sin and the welcome to the sinner. But Rabbinism, and every other system down to modern humanitarianism - if it rises so high in …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Backsliding.
"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away."--Hosea xiv. 4. There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted: they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the expression, "slid forward." They may talk of backsliding; but they have never really been born again. They need to be treated differently from real back-sliders--those who have been born of the incorruptible …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It The Covenant of Grace
Q-20: DID GOD LEAVE ALL MANKIND TO PERISH 1N THE ESTATE OF SIN AND MISERY? A: No! He entered into a covenant of grace to deliver the elect out of that state, and to bring them into a state of grace by a Redeemer. 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you.' Isa 55:5. Man being by his fall plunged into a labyrinth of misery, and having no way left to recover himself, God was pleased to enter into a new covenant with him, and to restore him to life by a Redeemer. The great proposition I shall go …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Bunyan's Last Sermon --Preached July 1688.
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;" John i. 13. The words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus,--"He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." In …
by John Bunyan—Miscellaneous Pieces Mr. Bunyan's Last Sermon:
Preached August 19TH, 1688 [ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR] This sermon, although very short, is peculiarly interesting: how it was preserved we are not told; but it bears strong marks of having been published from notes taken by one of the hearers. There is no proof that any memorandum or notes of this sermon was found in the autograph of the preacher. In the list of Bunyan's works published by Chas. Doe, at the end of the 'Heavenly Footman,' March 1690, it stands No. 44. He professes to give the title-page, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Concerning Justification.
Concerning Justification. As many as resist not this light, but receive the same, it becomes in them an holy, pure, and spiritual birth, bringing forth holiness, righteousness, purity, and all those other blessed fruits which are acceptable to God: by which holy birth, to wit, Jesus Christ formed within us, and working his works in us, as we are sanctified, so are we justified in the sight of God, according to the apostle's words; But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Messiah's Easy Yoke
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. T hough the influence of education and example, may dispose us to acknowledge the Gospel to be a revelation from God; it can only be rightly understood, or duly prized, by those persons who feel themselves in the circumstances of distress, which it is designed to relieve. No Israelite would think of fleeing to a city of refuge (Joshua 20:2. …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1 "They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Divine Jesus.
Jehovah-Jesus: John 1:1-18. the intimacy of John, John 13:23. 19:26. 20:2. 21:7, 20. "with Jesus," John 18:15.--John writes of Jesus--- when he wrote--getting the range--his literary style--the beginning--the Word--this was Jesus--the tragic tone. God's Spokesman: the Creator was Jehovah--- Jehovah is Jesus--the Spokesman--Old Testament revelations, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the elders of Israel, Isaiah, Ezekiel,--Whom these saw--various ways of speaking--John's Gospel …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Jeremiah 3:10 NIV
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