1. Many thoughts may be called vain because they are proud, conceited thoughts. Thus, whenever a man thinks himself good by nature, we may say of his thoughts, "Vanity of vanities: all is vanity." If you are unrenewed, and dream that you are better than others because your parents were godly, it is a vain thought. Every thought of self-righteousness is a vain thought; every idea, moreover, of self-power — that you can do this and do that towards your own salvation, and that at any time when it pleases you you can turn and become a Christian, and so there is no need to be in a hurry, or to seek the help of the Holy Spirit: — that also is a vain thought.

2. Another sort of vain thoughts may be ranged under the head of carnal security. The poet says, "All men think all men mortal but themselves," and often as the saying is quoted never was a proverb more generally true.

3. I know another set of thoughts: they are better looking, but they are equally vain, for they promise much and come to nothing: they are vain because they are fruitless. These vain thoughts are like the better order of people in Jerusalem — good people after a sort — that is to say, they really thought that as God threatened them with judgments, they would turn to Him. Certainly they would. They had no intention of being hard hearted. Far from it; they owned the power of the prophet's appeal; they felt a degree of awe in the presence of the just God as He threatened them, and of course they meant — they meant to wash their hearts, and they meant to put away all their forbidden practices; not just yet, but by and by. Some men brood so long over their future intentions that they all of them become addled eggs, and nothing whatever is hatched. O man, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it," do it, do it "with thy might."

II. NOW, LET ME SHOW WHAT BAD LODGERS THEY ARE.

1. First, they are deceitful. The man that says, "When I have a more convenient season I will send for thee," does not send for Paul any more: he never intended to do so. A man says, "Tomorrow"; but tomorrow never comes. When that comes which would have been "tomorrow" it is "today"; and then he cries, "Tomorrow," and so multiplies lies before God.

2. Vain thoughts are bad lodgers, for they pay no rent; they bring in nothing good to those who entertain them. There is the ledger of self-righteousness, for instance: what good does self-righteousness ever do to the man who entertains it? It pretends to pay in brass farthings: it pretends to pay, but the money is counterfeit. What good does it do to any man to harbour in his mind the empty promise of future repentance? It often prevents repentance.

3. The next reason for the ejectment of these lodgers is this: that they are wasting your goods and destroying your property. For instance, every unacted resolution wastes time, and that is more precious than gold. It also wastes thought, for to think of a thing and to leave it undone is a waste of reflection. It is a waste of energy to be energetic about merely promising to be energetic; it is a great waste of strength to be forever resolving to be strong, and yet to remain weak.

4. Worst of all, these vain thoughts are bad lodgers because they bring you under condemnation. There have been times when to entertain certain persons was treason, and many individuals have been put to death for harbouring traitors. Rebels condemned to die have been discovered in a man's house, and he has been condemned for affording them a hiding place. Now, God declares that these vain thoughts of yours are condemned traitors. Are you going to harbour them any longer?

III. LET US SEE WHAT TO DO WITH THESE BAD LODGERS.

1. The first thing is to give them notice to quit at once. Let there be no waiting. When a man is converted it is done at once. There is a line, thin as a razor's edge, which divides death from life, a point of decision which separates the saved from the lost.

2. Suppose that these vain thoughts will not go just when you bid them begone. I will tell you what to do to get rid of them: starve them out. Lock the door, and let nothing enter upon which they can feed.

3. The best way in all the world that I know of to get rid of vain thoughts out of your house — these bad lodgers that have gone in and that you cannot get out — is to sell the house over their heads. Let the house change owners. When you have dope that, you know, it will be the new owner that will have the trouble of turning them out; and He will do it. I recommend every sinner here that wants to find salvation to give himself up to Christ. Ah, now the stronger than they are has come, and He will bind the strong ones, and He will fling them out of window, and so break them to pieces with their fall that they shall never be able to crawl up the stairs again. He knows how to do it. He can expel them; you cannot.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THOUGHTS?

1. The internal acts of the mind; reasonings, resolutions, consultations, desires, cares, etc.(1) The thinking, meditating, musing power in man, which enables him to conceive, apprehend, fancy.(2) Thoughts which the mind frames within itself (Proverbs 6:14; James 1:15; Isaiah 59:4-7).(3) Thoughts which the mind in and by itself begets and entertains.

2. What vanity is.(1) Unprofitableness (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 3).(2) Lightness (Psalm 62:9).(3) Folly (Proverbs 12:11).(4) Inconstancy (Psalm 144:4; Psalm 146:4).(5) Wicked and sinful (2 Chronicles 13:7; Proverbs 24:9).

II. THE PARTICULARS WHEREIN THIS VANITY OF THE THINKING, MEDITATING POWER OF MAN CONSISTS.

1. In regard to thinking what is good.(1) A want of ability to raise and extract holy and useful considerations and thoughts from the occurrences and occasions which surround us.(2) A loathness to entertain holy thoughts.(3) The mind will not be long intent on good thoughts.(4) If the mind think of good things, it does so unseasonably; intrudes on prayer and interrupts it (Proverbs 16:3).

2. The readiness of the mind to think on evil and vain things.(1) This vanity shows itself in foolishness (Mark 7:22), which proves itself in the unsettledness and independence of our thoughts.(2) If any strong lust or passion be up, our thoughts are too fixed and intent.(3) A restless curiosity concerning things not affecting us.(4) Taking thought to fulfil the lusts of our flesh.(5) Acting sins over again in our imagination.

III. REMEDIES AGAINST VAIN THOUGHTS.

1. Get the heart furnished and enriched with a good stock of sanctified and heavenly knowledge in spiritual truths.

2. Endeavour to preserve and keep up lively, holy, and spiritual affections in the heart.

3. Get the heart possessed with deep and powerful apprehensions of God's holiness, majesty, omniscience, and omnipresence.

4. In the morning when thou awakest, as did David (Psalm 119:18), prevent the vain thoughts the heart naturally engenders by filling it with thoughts of God.

5. Have a watchful eye upon thy heart all day; though vain thoughts crowd in, let them know that they pass not unseen.

6. Please not thy fancy too much with vanities and curious flights (Job 31:1; Proverbs 4:25).

7. Be diligent in thy calling (2 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Timothy 5:13); only, encumber not the mind too much (Luke 10:41).

8. In thy calling and all thy ways commit thy goings to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3).

( T. Goodwin, B. D.)

1. Unprofitable imaginations.

2. Unscriptural opinions.

3. Unholy desires.

4. Unseasonable ideas.

II. THE SOLEMN INQUIRY. "How long?"

1. Shall it be till some temporal judgment be sent to awaken you out of your carnal security?

2. Till habit rivets these vain thoughts, and makes repentance and conversion harder than ever?

3. Till the grieved Saviour forsakes thee, and the resisted Spirit ceases to strive with thee?

4. Till the sentence goes forth, cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?

(J. Jowett, M. A.)

1. Thought brings the outward universe into man's soul, and thus makes it his own.

2. Thought enables us to subordinate the outward world to our service.

3. By the power of thought we construct new universes.

4. Thought determines our condition.(1) Even materially, it influences our health, shapes our countenance, tunes our voice.(2) Spiritually, our condition is almost absolutely governed by thought. By thought we can pierce the heavens, enter into the holy of holies, hold fellowship with the Infinite. By thought we can break forth from our own little earthly sphere — make God our centre, and run a wider and brighter orbit than the stars.

II. IT IS THE CURSE OF MAN THAT HE THINKS WRONGLY.

1. Vain thoughts find a lodgment in the minds of some. If the thoughts cherished be vain, the life pursued will be vain. In order in some measure to estimate the amount of vain thought cherished by men, let us do three things. Compare the true theory of happiness with the conduct which men pursue in order to obtain it; the true theory of greatness with the efforts which they put forth in order to realise it; and the true theory of religion with their conduct in relation to it.

2. The expulsion of vain thoughts is a matter of urgent importance.(1) They can be got rid of. By consecration of our energies to true work. By companionship with truthful souls. By realising the constant presence of the heart-inspecting God. By a change in the governing dispositions of the mind.(2) The urgent necessity of this. They waste the mental life; corrupt the heart; imperil the soul.

(Homilist.)

II. THE NECESSITY OF WASHING OUR HEARTS FROM WICKEDNESS. As it would be madness in the husbandman to sow his seed upon ground that was covered with thorns, so it is equally foolish to expect the fruit of good living in any person whose heart lies fallow, unbroken, and overspread with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, which our Saviour calls thorns.

(W. Richardson.)

(American National Preacher.)

(Bp. E. Hopkins.)

     5016   heart, fallen and redeemed
     7241   Jerusalem, significance
     7342   cleanliness
     7478   washing
     8735   evil, origins of

Jeremiah 4:13-18

     9250   woe

Jeremiah 4:14-18

     5606   warfare, nature of

How those are to be Admonished who Sin from Sudden Impulse and those who Sin Deliberately.
(Admonition 33.). Differently to be admonished are those who are overcome by sudden passion and those who are bound in guilt of set purpose. For those whom sudden passion overcomes are to be admonished to regard themselves as daily set in the warfare of the present life, and to protect the heart, which cannot foresee wounds, with the shield of anxious fear; to dread the hidden darts of the ambushed foe, and, in so dark a contest, to guard with continual attention the inward camp of the soul. For, …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Prevailing Prayer.
Text.--The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.--James v. 16. THE last lecture referred principally to the confession of sin. To-night my remarks will be chiefly confined to the subject of intercession, or prayer. There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival; one to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer to move God. When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God's mind is changed by prayer, or that his …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

How to Make Use of Christ for Cleansing of us from Our Daily Spots.
Having spoken of the way of making use of Christ for removing the guilt of our daily transgressions, we come to speak of the way of making use of Christ, for taking away the guilt that cleaveth to the soul, through daily transgressions; "for every sin defileth the man," Matt. xv. 20; and the best are said to have their spots, and to need washing, which presupposeth filthiness and defilement, Eph. v. 27. John xiii. 8-10. Hence we are so oft called to this duty of washing and making us clean. Isa. …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

"For they that are after the Flesh do Mind the Things of the Flesh,",
Rom. viii. 5.--"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,", &c. Though sin hath taken up the principal and inmost cabinet of the heart of man--though it hath fixed its imperial throne in the spirit of man, and makes use of all the powers and faculties in the soul to accomplish its accursed desires and fulfil its boundless lusts, yet it is not without good reason expressed in scripture, ordinarily under the name of "flesh," and a "body of death," and men dead in sins, are …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the Flesh,"
Rom. viii. 4, 5.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh," &c. If there were nothing else to engage our hearts to religion, I think this might do it, that there is so much reason in it. Truly it is the most rational thing in the world, except some revealed mysteries of faith, which are far above reason, but not contrary to it. There is nothing besides in it, but that which is the purest reason. Even that part of it which is most difficult to man, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Original Sin
Q-16: DID ALL MANKIND FALL IN ADAM'S FIRST TRANSGRESSION? A: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' &c. Rom 5:12. Adam being a representative person, while he stood, we stood; when he fell, we fell, We sinned in Adam; so it is in the text, In whom all have sinned.' Adam was the head …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Repentance
Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.' Acts 11: 18. Repentance seems to be a bitter pill to take, but it is to purge out the bad humour of sin. By some Antinomian spirits it is cried down as a legal doctrine; but Christ himself preached it. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent,' &c. Matt 4: 17. In his last farewell, when he was ascending to heaven, he commanded that Repentance should be preached in his name.' Luke 24: 47. Repentance is a pure gospel grace. …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Directions to Awakened Sinners.
Acts ix. 6. Acts ix. 6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. THESE are the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (Acts xiii. 9,) when he was stricken to the ground as he was going to Damascus; and any one who had looked upon him in his present circumstances and knew nothing more of him than that view, in comparison with his past life, could have given, would have imagined him one of the most miserable creatures that ever lived upon earth, and would have expected …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Jesus Attends the First Passover of his Ministry.
(Jerusalem, April 9, a.d. 27.) Subdivision B. Jesus Talks with Nicodemus. ^D John III. 1-21. ^d 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [Nicodemus is mentioned only by John. His character is marked by a prudence amounting almost to timidity. At John vii. 50-52 he defends Jesus, but without committing himself as in any way interested in him: at John xix. 38, 39 he brought spices for the body of Jesus, but only after Joseph of Arimathæa had secured the body. …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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