Peace at Last: The Will at One with God and Man VIII
Jeremiah 9:1-9
August
13, 2023
I
want to deal with peace this morning, as in the title of the last seven
lessons.
I
may ab lib some - hopefully based on the Scriptures -
the theme for
the last six plus months has been dealing
with: dissatisfaction, complaints,
entitlements, envy, jealousy, covetousness, disunity,
arguments, quarreling,
of men with men, and many times this is
carried over against Almighty God.
What is hard to deal with in our
culture in 2023 is the denial of the truth
portrayed in Scripture that there can be no
peace to the wicked.
My observance, over the years, is
that mankind wants an earthly, prosperous,
secular and worldly form of peace, while
living demonically apart from God.
This may happen at times BUT IT WILL
NEVER LAST!
One can never heal the hurts from
disunity, contention, and warfare among
men by promoting the idea of peace by “.....saying Peace, peace when there is
no
peace.” (Jeremiah 8:11)
Like line in a song that I know not the origin: “Wishful
thinking.”
(Because “..... the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,
whose
waters cast up
dirt and mire. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
(Isaiah 57:20-21)
I decided to pursue
something on the internet about Rest in God to try to simplify
the peace with God and with our fellowmen.
That is when I ran across No Limits with Pastor Delman (delmancoates.org)
Now Delman Coates is a black man that I want to use for reference in
a multi-racial society, where the problems are coming from between man
and man. Not so with God - the lack of peace with God and man comes
from all classes of men and all races. Class and race has nothing to do with
our lack of peace with God. Sin is our Problem!
In my notes on the lesson today which can be found under 1c at the
top left of the website www.audltbibleclass.com.
Below: Blue = Delman Coates
Black = my commentary
June 6th, 2023
“Those who walk uprightly enter into peace and rest on
their couches.” -
Isaiah 57:2
I would like to use this in reference to peace being attainable,
however the passage
more than likely refers to death
beds. uprightness;
peace; beds; couches; death;
righteousness.
How is this attainable:
The work of the Holy Spirit will help you if you
will accept His teachings, showing to you
the things of Christ.
7 Nevertheless
I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I
go
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you;
but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.
8 And when
He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me
no
more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
12 I have
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.
13 Howbeit
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you
into all truth: for He shall not speak of
Himself; but whatsoever He
shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.
14 He
shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew
it
unto you.
15 All
things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He
shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John
16:9-11)
The prophet Isaiah
comforts us with the promise of rest that awaits the faithful after
death. This rest is not an ordinary one,
but a sacred rest that comes only from God.
It's a rest that we can find solace in knowing that our loved ones have
finally entered
into after all their struggles and pain on
earth.
The Bible tells us that the righteous who walk uprightly enter into this rest,
where
there is no more pain or suffering. It's a
place where the wicked shall cease from
troubling, and the weary shall be at rest. Our
loved ones have received the
promise of rest from God and have entered
into His presence, where they
will find eternal peace.
The promise of rest that we have in God is not just a physical rest, but a
spiritual
one as well. It's a rest from all our
labors, worries, and fears. It's a rest from the
struggles of life that we all face on a daily
basis. In this rest, we can
find hope
and
healing for all that we have lost on earth.
As believers, we can look forward to the day when we will also enter into this
rest.
We can find comfort in knowing that our loved ones have gone before us
and have
received their reward. We can find peace in
the midst of our grief, knowing
that they are resting in the arms of
Jesus.
Let us remember the faithful who have gone before us and let us find comfort
in the promise of rest that they have
received. Let us also look forward to the
day when we too will enter into this
rest.
As we continue to navigate the difficulties of life, let us find hope and
healing in God, who promises to restore all
that we have lost on earth.
May we find our rest in Him, and may we trust in His goodness and
faithfulness always.
From: No Limits with Pastor Delman (delmancoates.org)
Leave a comment:
no comments yet - June 2023
Yet during this life on earth we find ourselves:
·
Poles Apart
·
Community Churches Uniting
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not
all that
came out of
17 But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them
that had sinned,
whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18
And to whom swear He
that they should not enter into his Hest, but
to them that
believed not? (neither
enter into peace - CY - 2023)
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:16-19)
This rest, then:
·
is not
the end of activity,
·
or the beginning
of relaxation.
·
It's a
completion of a task.
4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a
promise being left us of entering into
His rest, any of you
should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
but the
word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do
enter into rest, as He said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if
they shall enter into my rest: although the
works were finished from the foundation of the world. (you have to
do nothing but believe and obey - CY - 2023)
4 For
He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on
this wise, And
God did rest the
seventh day from all His works.
5 And in this place again, If they
shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they
to whom it was
first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, He limiteth a certain
day, saying in David, To day, after so
long a time; as it is
said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.
8 For if Jesus (Joshua) had given
them rest, then would he not afterward have
spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the
people of God.
10 For
he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, as God
did from His.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after
the same example of unbelief.
Our problems today are the same
that the Jews had before the 70 years captivity.
We like them could have peace
instead of the breakup of society had we obeyed
God.
It is true that “....all these things
happened unto them for ensamples and
are written for
our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
(I Corinthians 10:11)
Jeremiah’s
message from God for them in ch.
9:1-11, did them little good and if we
do not take heed, neither will it
us. The words read like this:
1 Oh that
my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night for the slain
of the daughter of my
people!
1 He cried also in mine ears
with a loud voice, saying, Cause them
that
have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with
his destroying weapon in his
hand.
2 And, behold, six men came
from the way of the higher gate, which
lieth
toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his
hand;
and one man among them was
clothed with linen, with a
writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in,
and stood beside the
brasen altar.
3 And the glory of the God of
whereupon He was, to
the threshold of the house. And He called to
the man clothed with linen,
which had the writer’s inkhorn by his
side;
4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city,
through
the midst of
of the men that sigh and
that cry for all the abominations that be
done
in the midst thereof.
5 And to the others He said
in mine hearing, Go ye after him
through
the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither
have ye pity:
6 Slay
utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and
women:
but come not near any man upon
whom is the mark; and
begin
at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which
were before the house.
7 And He said unto them, Defile the
house, and fill the courts with
the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in
the city.
8 And it came to pass, while
they were slaying them, and I was left,
that
I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt
thou
destroy all the residue of
upon
9 Then said He unto me, The
iniquity of the house of
is exceeding great, and the
land is full of blood, and the city full of
perverseness:
for they say, The
LORD hath forsaken the earth, and
the LORD seeth
not.
10 And
as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have
pity, but I will recompense their
way upon their head.
11 And,
behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by
his
side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast
commanded
me. (Ezekiel 9:1-11)
Last week I
read some from Isaiah who prophesied 150 years prior
Jeremiah’s
prophecy’s were immediately prior to and contemporary with the fulfillment
Ezekiel’s prophecy was during
the captivity - went in at 25, received his
call at 30, his last vision was at 52, and died there.·
2 Oh that
I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men;
that I might leave my people, and go from them!
for they be all
adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3 And they
bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not
valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they
proceed from evil to
evil, and they know not me, saith
the LORD.
4 Take ye
heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any
brother: for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbor
will walk with
slanders.
5 And they
will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak
the truth: they have taught their tongue to
speak lies, and weary
themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they
refuse to know me, saith
the LORD.
7Therefore
thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt
them,
and try them; for how shall I do for the
daughter of my people?
8 Their
tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit:
one
speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in heart he
layeth his wait.
9 Shall I
not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Oh that I had in the wilderness a
lodging place! (v. 2)
AND GOD HAS MADE
PROVISION FOR ITS SATISFACTION.
Not by giving us permission to retire to desert solitudes, except, as with
Elijah and Paul, it
may be for a while to prepare for future and higher
service. But in the manner that the psalmist suggests as above in
Psalm
55:6
where he says, “...Oh
that I had wings like a dove! for then would
I fly away, and be at rest.” Yes,
wings like a dove will bear us into the present rest
of God. The dove is the emblem of meekness. Like the
lamb amongst the beasts,
so
the dove amongst the birds is the symbol of lowly meekness and
gentleness.
But lowly meekness is
the way to rest, the rest God
gives, the peace of God.
(not through clamor, shouting, racket, tumult, turmoil, loud
noises), Listen to our
Savior: “Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy ladened and I will give
you
rest. 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” (Matthew
11:28-30). The dove
is the
emblem of purity. It was not only amongst those
birds that were counted
clean, but was especially
selected for presentation to God in sacrifice,
as that
which was pure alone could be. The doves were allowed to fly about the temple
and
to rest on its roofs and pillars (see H. Hunt’s picture of the ‘Finding in
the
(wickimedia commons)
But purity opens the door of heaven, and enraptures the
beholder with the beatific
vision there. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they
shall see God.” (Matthew 4:8)
Wings are these, therefore, well likened to those of a dove, “covered
with silver,
and her
feathers with yellow gold.” (Psalm
68:13) Yes, “keep thyself unspotted
from the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:9) and God shall
so
manifest Himself to thee that thy soul shall be at rest, let the wicked rage
around thee as they may. And the dove was the selected symbol of the
Holy
Spirit. “I saw the Holy
Spirit descending like a dove” (John
1:32) said
John the Baptist. But His wings will bear thee where thou mayest see the fatherly
love of God, His wisdom guiding all, and His gracious purpose being more
and
more accomplished. “He will take of the things of Christ and show
them unto thee.” (see John ch. 16:12-15) And in them thou shalt
have peace.
The psalmist’s passionate longing may then be fulfilled for
us, We may have
“wings like a dove.” These, of meekness, purity, and the blessed Spirit of God.
Temptation - I Cor 10:13 - Jesus
tempted but yet without sin
John 16:9-11 - righteousness is attainable as God counts -
not as we count
And so, without quitting the station assigned us or
departing to any
wilderness, we may have even now the rest of God.
On the Wings of a Snow White Dove
sung by Ferlin Husky (1960)
On the wings of a snow-white
dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above (sign from above)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
When troubles surround us
When evils come
The body grows weak (body grows weak)
The spirit grows numb (spirit grows numb)
When these things beset us
He doesn't forget us
He sends down His love (sends down His love)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a snow-white
dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above (sign from above)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
When noah
had drifted
On the flood many days
He searched for land (he searched for land)
In various ways (various ways)
Troubles, he had some
But wasn't forgotten
He sent him His love (sent him His love)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a snow-white
dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above (sign from above)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a snow-white
dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above (sign from above)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
On the wings of a dove (wings of a dove)
Songwriters: Bob Ferguson
The
Doings and Doom of Deceit (v. 7)
The verses from v.
2 to the text set forth its doings, and the text and
remainder of the chapter
foretell its doom. Note:
I.
DECEIT. It is a terrible indictment that the prophet
brings. He affirms
that deceit is:
1. Universal. Ver. 2, “They be all,” etc. Ver. 6, “Thine habitation is in the
midst of deceit;” i.e.
it is everywhere, all around you. That:
2. It has broken up the most sacred relationships: “They be all adulterers”
(Ver. 2).
3. It has turned their solemn assemblies into a conclave of
liars (Ver. 2).
4. It is practiced deliberately. Ver.
3: as a man deliberately bends and takes
aim with his bow.
5. It has mounted the judge’s seat (Ver.
3; cf. true translation of phrase,
“They are not valiant for the truth”).
6. It has smoothed the way for all evil. “They proceed from
evil to evil”
(Ver. 3).
7. It has destroyed all confidence
(1) between neighbors,
(2) between brethren (Ver. 4).
8. It is diligently studied. Ver. 5,
“They have taught,” etc. “They take the
utmost pains to go crookedly.”
9. It is cruel and deadly in its aims (Ver.
8). In view of a condition of things
so horrible, how unanswerable is the demand of Ver. 9, “Shall I not visit
them for these things?” etc.! It will be found in all the
judgments of God
upon nations that those judgments have never come until there
was no
other way of dealing with such nations, if the moral life of the
world was to
be maintained.
II.
ITS DOINGS.
1. It had made dwelling amongst
them intolerable to the righteous. (Compare
v. 2.) Jeremiah longs to get away from them. The most desolate
solitude
would be preferable to living amid such a people as this. It is
an ominous
sign for a community when the godly, however compassionate,
however
long-suffering, can no longer endure to dwell in their
midst.
2. It had made the thought of God
intolerable to themselves. vs. 3, 6,
“They know not me, saith the
Lord.”
Just as a man may meet one whom he
desires to have nothing to do with, but when he
meets him will pass him as
if he did not know him; so deceit had made these people, as it makes
all
such, desirous of having nothing to do with God. Therefore they will
not
recognize or acknowledge Him in any way.
3. And at last it had made them
intolerable to God. V. 7: God asks,
“What else can I do for the daughter of my people?” (See Exposition).
There was nothing now but for the judgment of God to go
forth against
them. Therefore note:
III. ITS
DOOM. V. 7, “Therefore thus saith the Lord of
hosts, Behold I
will melt them, and
try them....” etc. And down to v. 22 these awful judgments
of God are set
forth. Inquire,
therefore, what there is about deceit which renders
it so
hateful in the sight of God.
1. There can be no doubt that it is
so. “Lying tips are an
abomination unto
the Lord” (conpare Psalm 15.; Acts 5.). “All liars shall
have their part in the lake that burneth with fire
and brimstone: which is the second death.”
2. And some of the reasons are:
(a) Deceit cometh from Satan,
who was “a liar from the beginning”
(John 8:44) and “the
father of lies.” It was by his lies that our first
parents were deceived and sin was brought into the
world.
(b) It is the source of
infinite misery and distress. It is
the deceits of the
world, the flesh, and the devil which still work well-nigh all our sorrow
and our shame.
(c) It tends to the destruction of human society. All our well-being and
comfort depend upon good faith being maintained
between man and man.
“But now, where fraud and falsehood, like a plague or cancer, comes over
to invade society, the band which held together the parts
compounding it
presently breaks, and men are thereby put to a
loss where to league and to
fasten their dependencies, and so are forced
to scatter and shift every one
for himself.
Upon which account every notoriously false person ought to
be
looked upon and detested as a public enemy, and to be pursued as a
wolf or a mad dog, and a disturber of the
common peace and welfare of
mankind; there being no particular
person whatsoever but has his private
interest
concerned and endangered in the mischief that such a wretch does
to the public” (South). A sin, therefore, so destructive of the
well-being of
His
children cannot but be abominable in the eyes of the Father of us all.
3. It shuts God out of the heart
altogether. God has made us for Himself,
but deceit bars fast the door of man’s heart against Him. God can only be
worshipped in spirit and in truth; but deceit
renders this primary condition
of such worship unattainable.
4. But God in his anger remembers mercy. V. 7, “Behold, I will
melt them, and try them,” that is to say, He will, as the smelter casts the metal into the fire not to
destroy but to refine it, to purge away its dross, and then, that being done,
tests and tries it to see that the process has been effectual; so God will send His judgments upon His people, not to destroy, but to purify
them, and
He will afterwards test them again, give them
another opportunity of serving
Him. He might have destroyed, but this
He will not do. He “will melt them, and try them.” But less than this He cannot do. “What else?” He asks. It is
a dread
process;
them into such a crucible find it to be a dread process. Our blessed
Savior
wept over
they should say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the
Lord.”
(Luke 13:35) It was
the thought of that furnace for fire through which they
must pass ere they would come to this better mind that drew
forth those tears.
Let none, therefore,
deem the judgment of God a subject for trifling with,
because, as here, God says its purpose is to “melt and try,” rather than to
destroy. (“For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world through Him might be
saved.” John 3:17)
·
CONCLUSION. Let this consideration of the doings and
doom of deceit
lead us to listen to the Lord’s appeal, “Oh, do not this
thing that I hate!”
Falsehood
(9:4-8) Work this in somewhere
I. SIN CULMINATES IN UNIVERSAL FALSEHOOD. The intellectual
aspect of sin is untruth. Every sin is a lie. The triumph of sin is the
overthrow of all truth and trust.
II. FALSE RELATIONS WITH GOD LEAN TO FALSE
RELATIONS
WITH
MEN. Religion and morality mutually
influence each other. The
worship of a god known
to be false develops a life of falseness.
The
hypocritical service of God is likely to be accompanied by dishonest
dealings with men.
III. HABITS OF FALSEHOOD ARE FATAL TO HUMAN WELFARE.
Society reposes
on trust. Commerce is impossible without good faith.
Universal
distrust must involve social
disintegration. The state, the family,
all mutual
organization, must then fall to pieces. Falsehood only succeeds
by abusing trust; but by so doing it tends to destroy trust; and when it has
accomplished this end it will
be ineffectual. Universal lying would be
useless to everybody. (I
wonder when it will dawn on the media that they
are
in the process of destroying
society? CY - 2023)
IV. FALSEHOOD IS REGARDED BY GOD AS A PECULIARLY
WICKED
SIN. For this especially the people
must be punished (v. 9).
Deceit amongst men
is a sin against GOD WHO IS TRUTH ETERNAL!
It is a spiritual
sin, a sin most near to the diabolical (John 8:34). It is a sin
which is peculiarly
injurious to the spiritual nature of the sinner, tending to
destroy conscience (“But if thine eye
be evil, thy whole body shall be full of
darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew
6:23). It involves both injustice
and cruelty towards men.
The Prophet’s Grievous
Lament
(v. 18 - ch. 9:1)
2. The time of
redemption was over. (“The harvest is past, the summer
is ended, and we are not saved.” v.
20. - this is one of the saddest
passages in the Bible to me, for what it signifies - CY - 2023) The
long
harvest days, the bright summer weather — symbols of all
days of
opportunity — these were gone, The
days when they might have turned
to God and found deliverance, “the
wrath of God had arisen against them,
and there was no remedy.” (II
Chronicles 36:16) But what a retrospect is
his who has to say as did Post
“The harvest is past!” For:
(a) Such seasons remind us of our privileges
and obligations.
(α) It is a time of fruitfulness, of
great privilege, grace, and goodness.
God makes man’s cup to overflow. Youth and days of gospel
privilege.
Sundays, sacred services, etc.
(β) It should be a time of
great activity. The natural
harvest and
summertime is
so. For:
(γ) It is a season of such
limited duration.
(b) But
men often let these times pass away unimproved.
(α) The
world hinders them.
(β) Perversion of Scripture truths.
(γ) Belief that they are well
enough as they are.
(δ) Procrastination.
c) But once gone, the
fruits of that summer and that harvest can never be
saved. Such
facts as these open the floodgates of grief in hearts like
that of Jeremiah.
3. He could see no means of restoration or recovery whatsoever
(v. 22),
no balm and no
physician anywhere.
III. ITS WORD TO ALL WHO SHOULD KNOW OR ARE THE
CAUSES OF SUCH GRIEF
NOW.
1. Christ’s servants should be in sympathy with the prophet’s
lament. It is
because we are so indifferent the world is so. “Si vis
me flere flendum est,”
it is ever saying, but in vain, to the professing Church. Oh
for the
compassion of Jeremiah and yet more of Christ! If we sowed in
tears we
should reap in joy. If so we went forth “bearing precious seed, we
shall
doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Psalm 126:6 - No doubt the origin of the old hymn we
used to sing
in our country church at Oak Hill,
2. But you who cause such grief, think you not that if such
be the result of
anticipating God’s judgments upon sin, the enduring of them must be far
worse? And that is your part
in them. Christ Himself assured the weeping
women who followed Him to
Him would be worse than His own. “If they do these things in a
green tree,
what shall be done in the dry?”
(Luke 23:31)
·
CONCLUSION. Then, instead of causing sorrow to the faithful servants
of God by resisting their appeals, yield to them, and so
gladden these
servants, and the angels of God (Likewise, I say unto you, there
is joy in
in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
Luke 15:10 - You, personally,
can make a ripple in heaven - CY - 2023),
and the heart of God, and the Son of God. So you yourself
shall “enter
into the joy of your Lord.” (Matthew 25:23)
Condense
II. THE OCCASIONS. What led to these questions being asked by the
prophet? and what tends to their being
asked still?
1. By the prophet. The
ruin of his land and people. The awful calamities
that were at that moment overhanging the doomed nation. But:
2. By men still. It is the contemplation of
the threefold fact of:
* sin,
* sorrow, and
* death.
(a) Of sin. Think of the myriads of mankind who have
lived and died on
this
earth of ours, and all of them unblessed by the light of the gospel.
Think of the ramp[ant
wickedness, the hideous vice, the festering
corruption,
the indescribable moral pollution that characterizes vast masses
of mankind, indeed the mass
of mankind. And think of the corruption of
Christianity:
what a veneer of religion! What a counterfeit of godliness!
What
a hollow mockery so great part of it is! And coming closer home, the
saddened
contemplator of the ravages of sin may turn
his gaze inward into
his own heart, and as he reflects on the slender hold which
Divine and holy
principles
have upon him —
“What
scanty triumphs grace has won,
The broken
vow, the frequent fall;”
and as he
cries out at times almost in despair at seeing the strength of the
chains by which his soul is bound, “O wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:23) The words of
our text fit in with his
mournful mood. It seemed
to him as if
there
were “no
balm in
(b) Of sorrow. To
to the
Romans, the whole creation
seemed to “groan and travail together in
pain.”
What is the progress of mankind but one long procession of
mourners!
Oh, the tears and sorrows of the broken-hearted, the helpless,
the
desolate and afflicted of all ages and of all lands! What a catalogue do
they
fill! The mind reels as it contemplates the dark mass of human woe.
Its faith in
the Divine Fatherhood staggers as if smitten with a deadly blow,
and is
half forced to the conclusion, which to a sad and an increasing
number
seems self-evident, that
there is no balm in
there.
(c) And the reign of death produces similar feelings. As men see how the
king of
terrors stalks triumphantly through the land, how ruthless is his
tyranny,
how crushing his power, how dark the grave into which we so
soon descend,
and how helpless we all are against his might, it does seem
at times
as if there were no deliverer and no deliverance. But note:
III. THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS.
1. To those which
inquire, “Is there no balm… no physician there?” some
answer “No.” Sin, they say, is a mistake which education will
rectify, and
the operations of the great law of evolution will gradually
eliminate. In
fact, there is no such thing as “sin” in the sense religious people think.
Therefore, whilst for the race
there is hope, for the present and past
generations there is none. Sorrow, also, they teach, is the result of
ignorance of natural laws or of disregard of them. The progress of
knowledge will gradually lessen it; that is all that can be said.
And as to
death, that, of course, is the inevitable, and ends all. The
only immortality
is in the influence which a man exerts in those who come
after him. As to
“the
Resurrection and the life” — credat Judaeus (Let the Jew believe it).
Such is the dismal gospel of
this nineteenth (now twenty-first) century.
But the Christian reply to these
questions is unhesitatingly, “Yes; there is
a Balm and a Physician for the sin-stricken soul, whether of
the individual
or of the whole human race. And also for the heart riven
with sorrow,
broken with grief. And for all those, too, over whom Death has reigned
with such cruel power. Because we believe in Christ and in the
Holy Ghost,
we believe in the ‘Balm’ and in the ‘Physician ‘humanity
needs.” But then
comes:
2. The last and seemingly
unanswerable question. “Why then is not the
daughter of my people healed? ” What are we to reply to
this?
(a) For one large part of those whom it
concerns, the sin, sorrow, and
death ridden
multitudes, we deny that which the question assumes. For the
Balm and the
Physician have done or are doing their blessed work on them.
We appeal to
the throng of the redeemed, the blessed dead, myriads of
whom are
now with God.
“White-robed
saints in glory,
Cleansed from every stain.”
With the eye of faith we behold them,
and we believe in their existence as
we believe in our own, and the yearning of our hearts
is to be with them.
And they are
a great cloud of witnesses to the Balm and to the Physician
both. But
— as unbelievers will demand clamorously that we should do —
we come
down to this world and this life that now is. Well, then, we appeal
to the
fact that there are regenerated, renewed, saintly souls
living here on
earth
today, walking in purity, integrity, and in the light and love of God.
They are God’s witnesses to what the unbeliever denies. Furthermore,
there are a vast number in whom this process
of healing is going on.
Slowly, it may
be, and with sad retrogressions at times, but really,
notwithstanding. The tide is a long, long time coming in, but it does come
in.
Healing is always a gradual work. “Nemo repente fuit
sanctissimus,”
any more
than “turpissimus.” (base,
shameful, disgusting, repulsive ·
disgraceful
· indecent · nasty · ugly) A man cannot
leap into heaven, as,
thank God,
he cannot leap into hell. But because healing is only gradual,
do we
deny its existence? But we know there are vast multitudes more
to be accounted for than those
we have as yet told of.
(b) Therefore
for this part we say concerning them, wait.
evidently
pondered this problem, and he has taught us that there are due
times and
seasons appointed in the wisdom of God for the manifestation of
Christ to men
(compare 1 Timothy 2:6; Ephesians 1:8-10; Philippians
2:9; Colossians
1:20), but that in the “dispensation of the fullness of
times” it is God’s “good pleasure” to “gather together all things in
Christ,”
all the living and all the dead. And it is impossible not to see how the
heart
of the
holy apostle exults in the beatific vision, the “breadth, and length,
and depth, and height” of the glorious completed living temple of
the Lord
God.
Therefore, in view of revelations like these, we say that before the
reality
of the work of Christ and the Holy Ghost are denied, we are bound
to wait. And if it be objected that the waiting
has been and may be for so
long, we
reply that it is because men
will not come unto Christ that
they
might have life. The remedy of redemption is not forced
upon any soul. A
man’s
soul is not saved by his will being crushed, by his ceasing to be a
man and
becoming a machine. We cannot but believe and know — the
individual
conversion of every true child of God demonstrates it — that
God has ways and means to bring “the
unruly wills of sinful men” into
accord
with His own, and this in perfect harmony with the moral
freedom
he has given man.
How long and how dreadfully far the human will may go
in resisting God we cannot tell,
but we may not believe that it is greater
than
God himself and can exhaust all the Divine resources. The hunger and
misery of
the prodigal brought him “to himself,” the
consuming fire of the
dread
captivity which Jeremiah is foretelling burnt out forever the love of
idolatry
amongst
which may
have like results. Therefore, we say,
that until — if we may so
speak
— God has thrown up the case of sin and sorrow stricken humanity,
we have no right to affirm
that there is “no balm in
to sorrow,
that has a ministry of spiritual healing of its own, which has
gone on
ever since “the Man of sorrows ‘became “acquainted with grief.”
(Isaiah 53:3) As
His messenger, Grief has gone about from house to house,
from
heart to heart, a veritable sister of mercy, though clad in coarse and
unlovely
garb. Up and down the streets of
this weary world, and in
and out every one of
its homes, she
perpetually goes; but
no one ever
meets
her in the new Jerusalem, in the city of our God, for
her ministry
is not
needed there. Then as to death, we say that in all the drear, dark,
hopeless
power of it “Christ has abolished death. and brought
life and
immortality to
light!” (II
Timothy 1:10) We can, and by every graveside
we do — challenge death as to its sting, and
the grave as to its victory.
O
Death, where is thy sting, O Grave where is thy victory? (I Corinthians
15:55) Therefore we say, and with glad hearts, that the health
of the daughter
of the
people is recovered,
or is recovering, for that THAT THERE IS
BOTH BALM
IN
Condense
The Balm of Gilead (v.
22)
There were those who treated the crimes and miseries of the
nation as a
trifling matter; they sought to “heal the hurt slightly, saying,
Peace, peace;
when there was no peace”
(v. 11). Not so the prophet. He is keenly alive
to
the dreadful evils of the time. He takes the sins and sorrows of the
people on himself, makes them his own. Tender human sympathy, as
well
as
Divine compassion, breathes in the words, “For the hurt of the daughter
of my
people am I hurt.” And it is not
sorrow alone but “astonishment” of
which he is conscious. “Why is not her health recovered?” Can it be that
there is no remedy? The “balm of Gilead” is taken as the symbol of a
healing moral power. Is it so, then, that the very nation
that was called to
diffuse a redeeming
influence over all the world is unable to cure herself —
has
no medicine for her own diseases, or none to apply it? Such is the
wonder with which a thoughtful, earnest spirit will often
contemplate the
moral condition of the world, in view of the fact that
God’s “saving health”
in the gospel has
so long been made known to it. Consider:
I. THE DIVINE REMEDY FOR THE MORAL MALADIES OF
THE
HUMAN
RACE. This
remedy is the spontaneous fruit of the love of God.
On the ground of that love we may justly expect such a
remedy. It is not
likely that a God of infinite benevolence would leave the human
race to
perish. Though redemption is “of grace,” yet there is everything to make it
antecedently probable. Though nature contains no revelation of it, yet
to
the
eye on which the light of the gospel has once fallen, the whole
constitution of the
universe is full of dim prophecies and promises of some
such triumphant grace.
The spirit of boundless beneficence that
pervades
and governs
it — the fact that for every want there is a supply, for every
appetite that which gratifies it, for every danger a safeguard, for
every
poison its antidote; above all, the silent witness in favor of
mercy that is
graven more or less deep on every human heart; — all this is so much in
harmony with the great redemption as in a sense to anticipate it.
But it is
facts, not probabilities, with which we have to deal. The gospel is
God’s
actual answer to our
human necessities, the sovereign remedy his love has
provided for the sins
and sorrows of the world. He heals them by taking
them upon Himself
in the person of Jesus Christ his Son. “He was wounded
for our transgressions,” etc. (Isaiah
53:5); “Who His own self bare our
sins in His own body on the tree.” (1
Peter 2:24); “Where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound,” (Romans 5:20, 21).
Note respecting
THIS DIVINE
REMEDY:
1. It goes to the
root of the disease. It does not effect a mere
superficial
reformation, as human methods for the most part do; does not flatter
with
the appearance of health while leaving the malady to strike
its roots down
deeper and deeper into the soul. It reaches at once the secret
springs of all
mischief, destroys the germs of evil in human nature, changes the
outward
aspects of the world’s life by giving it a “new heart.”
2. It is universal in its application. All national diversities, all varieties of
social condition, of age, of culture, of intellectual development
and moral
life, etc., are alike open to its application, and it is the
same for all.
3. It is
complete in its efficacy. Every element of human nature, every
department and phase of human life, bears witness to its healing power.
A
perfect manhood and a perfect social order are the
issue it works out.
4. It stands alone, not one among many, but absolutely THE ONLY REMEDY.
It enters into no kind of competition with
other methods of healing. It has the
solitary and supreme authority of that which is
Divine. “Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven
given
among men whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
II. THE HINDRANCES TO ITS UNIVERSAL EFFICIENCY. “Why
then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” The reason
lies, not in any want of fitness in the remedy, or in any lack of power
or-willingness
in
Him who provides it, but in certain human conditions that nullify its action
and
thwart His purpose.
1. In the
self-delusion that leads men to think that they have no need of
cure. “They
that are whole need not a physician,” Jesus said. (Matthew 9:12).
The sense of moral sickness is the first step to healing.
2. In the vain
self-trust by virtue of which men dream that they can cure
themselves. How
many and how plausible are the expedients by which the
world seeks to rid itself of its own maladies! How slow is human nature to
confess its helplessness!
3. In the
obstinacy of spirit that refuses the Divine method. “Are not
Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of
way of healing by the
blood of atonement and the regenerating grace
of the Spirit!
4. In the lethargy
and neglect of those whom God has called to minister
the healing power. Who shall say how
much of the continued sin and
misery of the world lies at the Church’s door? If all who have
themselves
known the virtue of this sovereign balm were but more thoroughly
in
earnest in their efforts to commend it and to persuade men to
apply it, how
much more rapidly would the health of human society everywhere
be
recovered!
WORK THIS IN UNATURAL CONDUCT CH. 8:4-7
I. A LESSON FROM THE SUBORDINATE PART OF MAN’S
NATURE.
If a man falls, he instantly attempts to rise again. Even
if there is
some serious injury, it is commonly discovered by the failure of the man’s
attempt to rise; and so from the subordinate part of our nature
there is a
rebuke to the higher and governing part. A very striking instance
of such a
rebuke would be given in the falling of a drunken man to the
ground. He
staggers to his feet again if he can. If he remains on the ground
it is a sign,
to
use the common expression, that “he is very far gone indeed;”
and in
such an instance may we not truly say that the body is rebuking the will for
its imbecility and its
base slavery to appetite? So if a man
is going
anywhere, and turns unwittingly from the straight path; such a
turning may
be
made very easily, and the wrong path be kept in for a while, but
presently there will be some sign to show the error, and with more
or less
delay there will be a return to the right path. Here, then, are
two instances,
level with the experience of everybody, of what is natural for
man to do,
viz.
come back
from a wrong state as soon as ever he can;
and if the
position be only looked at truly, it will be seen that it is as
unnatural for a
man to remain in
spiritual degradation as to continue lying on the ground.
8:7
II. A LESSON FROM THAT PART OF THE CREATION WHICH
IS
SUBJECTED
TO MAN. There is the horse. He can
be so trained as to
become a potent force in the battle-field, and if he becomes
uncontrollable
and
rushes hither and thither, as dangerous to friend as to foe, it is not
because of any rebellious purpose, but a brief madness has seized
on him.
Let a few hours pass, and he may be submissive and
serviceable as before.
“We put bitS in the horses’
mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn
about their whole body.” (James 3:3)“The
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass
his
master’s crib: but
(Isaiah 1:3) The very birds of the air, seemingly so
free from all restraint, come
and
go
according to certain laws. If the beasts which man has tamed to his use,
and on which he
daily depends, were to treat him as he treats God, what an
awkward, nay more, what
a perilous scene this world would become! The
whole visible universe,
ground beneath, air around, and far away into the
immensities of space, are
crowded with admonitions to perversely
disobedient man. These birds mentioned here, by certain wondrous
intimations to which they are ever heedful — exceptions only going to
prove the rule — help to
carry on the government of God. They are
faithful
to their nature,
and their faithfulness is again but a sign of God’s own
faithfulness in the orderliness of the seasons.
Why the Hurt of
VERY IMPORTANT - but condense
II. IT WAS NOT FOR WANT OF A MEDICAMENT (a healing
substance;
medicine; remedy). In
wounds of the body,
They found balm in Gilead, and
had always to go there to get the balm. Balm of Gilead might be made to grow
nearer than
important consideration. The incense for the altar they brought all the way from
however, would have been little without efficiency. A certain remedy brought
from the ends of the earth is better than a doubtful one near to home; only, of
course, there
must be foresight to lay in a stock, so that it will be at hand when
wanted. Evidently this balm of Gilead which grew within Israelite
territory
was
a famous and trusted balm. Only some popular and widely known
agent of healing would have served the purpose of the prophet
for quoting
here. And
is it not plain that the God who thus provided for bodily wounds
a balm so easily
obtained and so efficient in its action, might also be trusted
to provide
an available and thorough cure for the worst of spiritual ills?
Assuredly the prophet means that an affirmative and
encouraging answer is
to
be given to his question. There is balm in
guilty conscience, purity
for the turbid and defiled imagination, strength for
the weakened will. The springs of all
our pollution and pain can be dried
up, and their place
know them no more forever.
III. IT WAS NOT FOR WANT OF A PHYSICIAN. The medicament is
good, but it may require to be applied by a skilful and experienced hand.
The physician can do nothing without his medicaments, and
the
medicaments are oftentimes nothing without the physician. A physician is
needed to prepare the
way for saving truth, to apply it in its most
efficacious order, and to
press it home in close and vigorous contact with
that which has to be
healed. The balm of Gilead is not given that it
may be
trifled with, that it may
film over deep evils with a deceptive appearance of
removal. In applying that
balm there may have to be pain, intense pain for a
time, in order that a
worse pain may be forever taken away. The pain
coming from self-indulgence must be succeeded by the pain coming
from
self-denial. Men have to discover that the pains of sin are the smitings of
God, and when they
have made this discovery they will be in a fair way to
learn that only He who smites can also heal. Do not let us unjustly complain
of
incurable ills; let us rather confess that we are much in the condition of
the
poor woman who, after spending much on many physicians, found, by
a
simple faith touching the true Source of healing, what she had long vainly
sought. (Matthew 9:20-22)
IV. THE REASON PLAINLY LAY WITH THE PEOPLE
THEMSELVES.
They would listen
to no warning. Balm was offered, and
the physician’s
skill to apply it, but they would not
come to be healed.
Unlike Moses, they
preferred the pleasures of sin along with its risks and
pains. (Hebrews 11:24-26) That their state
was bad they knew, but they
believed it was not near so bad as the prophet made it out to be.
Only physicians
can
tell how many cases of bodily disease might be cured if the sick were willing
to go to
the root of the matter, and mend their habits as to eating and drinking,
working and playing.
* Ignorance,
* indifference,
* prejudice,
and
* unblushing lust of the
flesh
lie
at the bottom of much bodily disease, explaining
both how it originates
and how it continues.
And similar causes operate with regard to such ills as
afflict the consciousness of the entire man. Sinners must have a will to go
to Jesus if they
expect healing and life, and then life more abundantly.