The lesson
today:
The Apostasy of Men and the Departure of God
Jeremiah
7:33-34
Acts 2:36-42
Genesis
19:12-17
August
27, 2022
is
taken from: Peace at Last: The Will at One
with God and Man VIII
the same passage as the lesson presented on August 6, 2023
33 And the carcasses of this people shall be
meat for the fowls of
the
heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray
them
away.
34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of
streets of
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice
of the bride: for the land
shall be desolate. (ἐρήμωσιν - eraemosin - desolation;
they-should-be-
STRIP-BARE-ing [to make deserted,
uninhabited]; [lay-waste,
cause to be abandoned] (Compare ch. 6:8 - “Be thou instructed,
O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee
desolate,
a land not inhabited.” CY - 2023)
Now this is not like the puzzling sequence of which comes first, the
chicken
or the
egg!
“Be
thou instructed, O
from thee, lest I make thee
desolate, a land not inhabited.” (Jeremiah
6:9)
Acts
2:36-42
36 Therefore
let all the house of
made the same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37
Now when they heard this, they were pricked
in their heart, and
said unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we
do?
38 Then Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the
promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that
are afar off,
even as many as the LORD our God shall call.
40 And with
many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save
yourselves from this untoward
generation.
41 Then they
that gladly received his word were baptized: and the
same day there
were added unto them about three thousand souls.
42 And they
continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and
fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers.
Genesis 19:12-17
And the men
said unto
and thy sons,
and thy daughters, and whatso ever thou hast in the
city, bring them
out of this place:
19:13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is
waxen
great before the
face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to
destroy it.
19:14 And
his daughters,
and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the
LORD will
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked
unto his sons in
law.
40
19:15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened
Arise, take thy
wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest
thou be consumed
in the iniquity of the city.
19:16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and
upon
the hand of his
wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the
LORD being
merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and
set him without
the city.
19:17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth
abroad, that
he said,
Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou
in all the plain; escape to the mountain,
lest thou be consumed.
Avoid all delay in the performance of this great
work of believing in Christ -
John 6:29 - Until we
have performed it we continue under the power of sin and
Satan and are under the wrath of God; and there
is nothing between hell and
us besides
the breath of our nostrils. Walter Marshall 1628-1680 - and
indepentdent preacher
and theologian. (Puritan Publication)
Today,
many Christians are turning back to the puritans to, “walk in the
old paths,” of God’s word, and to
continue to proclaim old truth that
glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no new theology. (Spurgeon said “There
is nothing new but that which is false.” (CY - 2023) In our
electronic
age, more and more people are looking to add electronic
books
(ePubs, mobi and
PDF formats) to their library – books
from the Reformers and Puritans – in order to become a
“digital puritan” themselves. (Puritan Publication)
In
re: to God departing - New Testament reasons
Romans
1:24-32
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts
of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is
blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men
working that
which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of
their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate* mind,
to do those things which
are not convenient; * ἀδόκιμον - adokimon - not standing the test;
rejected.
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but
have pleasure
in them that do them.
(I want to
hear you say that this is not happening now - in the United
States of
out of it “.............proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which
defile a
man...” (Matthew
15:19-20) so, where there
are multitudes of such, there will be an exaggeration of
the individual
tendency and influence. As the leader of fashion, and dominant
authority in
new customs and ideas, there is an eclat (style; flamboyance) transferred
from it to what is evil. Its existence becomes, therefore:
* Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he
that
keepeth the law, happy is he.” Where
there is no vision, the people perish; rather,
cast off restraint, become ungovernable, cannot be reined in (Exodus 32:22, 25).
“Vision” (chazon), prophecy in its widest sense, denotes the revelation of God’s
will
made through agents, which directed the course of
events, and
was intended to be
COORDINATE
WITH THE SUPREME SECULAR AUTHORITY! The
prophets were the instructors of the people in
Divine things, standing
witnesses of the truth and power of religion,
teaching a higher than mere
human morality. The fatal effect of the absence of such revelation of
God’s
will is stated to be:
- confusion,
- disorder, and
- rebellion;
“Be
thou instructed, O
from thee, lest I make thee
desolate, a land not inhabited.”
(Jeremiah
6:9)
the people, uncontrolled, fall into grievous excesses, which nothing but high
principles can
restrain. (Thus the futility of the
government trying to enforce
gun control
as a remedy for societal problems - The government can never
keep someone
from killing another, or raping another, but their religion can!
CY -
2023) We note the license of Eli’s time, when
there was no
open vision (I Samuel 3.); in Asa’s days,
when
teaching priest (II Chronicles 15:3); and when
the impious Ahaz “made
Judah naked” (II
Chronicles 28:19) – (I recommend Spurgeon Sermon – Ruins –
from II Chronicles 28:23 - this
web site – Go to http://.www.spurgeongems.org -
go to Metropolitan Tabernacle – Volume
44 – Sermon 2565 - CY – 2014); or
when the people were destroyed by reason
of lack of knowledge of Divine things
(Hosea
4:6). Thus the importance of prophecy in regulating the life and
religion
of the people is fully acknowledged by
the writer, in whose time, doubtless, the
prophetical office was in full exercise: but this
seems to be the only passage in the
book where such teaching is directly
mentioned; the instructors and preceptors
(experienced teachers and coaches) elsewhere introduced
as disseminating the
principles of the chochmah (wisdom,
understanding and knowledge)
being parents, or tutors, or professors,
not inspired prophets. But he that
keepeth the
Law, happy is he! “The
Law” (torah) is not merely the
written Mosaic Law, but the announcement of God’s will by the mouth of
his representatives; and the thought is, not the blessedness of those who in
a time of anarchy and irreligion keep
to the authorized enactments of the
Sinaitic legislation, but a contrast between the lawlessness and ruin of a
people uninfluenced by religious guidance, and the happy state of those
who obey alike the voice of God, whether conveyed in
written statutes or
by the teaching of living prophets. (For “happy is he,” compare Proverbs
14:21;
16:20.)
Septuagint, “There shall be no interpreter
to a sinful nation, but he
that keepeth the Law is most
blessed.”
_________________________________________________________
Romans 2:2-13
2 But we are sure that the
judgment of God is according to truth
against them which commit such things.
3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such
things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of
God?
4 Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and
longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee
to repentance?
5 But after thy hardness and
impenitent heart treasurest up unto
thyself wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God;
6 Who will render to every man
according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory
and honor and immortality, eternal
life:
8 But unto them that are contentious,
and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul
of man that doeth evil, of
the Jew first, and also of the
Gentile;
10 But glory, honor, and peace, to
every man that worketh good, to
the Jew first, and also to the
Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of
persons with God.
2:12 For as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without
law: and as many as have sinned in the
law shall be judged by the
law;
13 (For not the hearers of the law
are just before God, but the doers of
the law shall be justified
Back
to the heading:
The
(6:4-8)
II. AN OCCASION
OF INJURY AND DANGER TO ALL WHO HAVE
TO DO WITH IT. It is as a fire that has broken out
amidst combustible
material. By-and-by “the wicked city” is felt to be an intolerable
evil. It is
A MENACE to the peace and good government
of its neighbors. They cannot
afford to ignore it. No time must be lost in
bringing it to reason. Its
excitements and dissipations wax madder and more widespread. No time
can be lost. Hence the avengers come from
all quarters in haste and
eagerly. “Sanctify war against
her! Arise, let us go up at noon!” —the heat
being no barrier to their setting
out; “Arise, and let us go up in the night!”
— the darkness and weariness being forgotten in their
hatred and
vengeance. For
the same reason no terms can be made with it. The Mosaic
regulations in warfare are set aside (Deuteronomy
20:19-20). There is
no chivalrous respect inspired by it,
and as it shows no mercy, none is
accorded to it. (All
is fair in love and war.
- John Lyly's novel, “Euphues:
The Anatomy of Wit,” published in 1578, is the earliest known origin of the
sentiment “all is fair in love and war.” - CY - 2023)
III. IT IS A CONTINUAL OFFENCE TO GOD. God’s love for it
had
been great, and He had purposed to make it
a center of redeeming love.
This
aim had been thwarted. So it has been with the city life of man
everywhere. As a natural
development, and a providential result in human
history, the city is intended to
enlarge the powers of doing good and to
bless the world. But how seldom has this
been the case! The centralization
of life has but
intensified its corruption. Is there
any place where the
salvation of society seems more hopeless than
in our great cities? And
God’s patience
threatens to give out. He cannot bear the noisomeness of
its evil. He is about to turn from it in utter
loathing and final abandonment.
“Be thou instructed
O
thee desolate, a land not inhabited.” (v. 8 - remember ch. 4:23-28 - CY - 2023)
But not yet. Warning is given; a
prophet is sent. Nay, the
Son Himself,
if
haply they will hear Him, in whom alone a
sufficient antidote is found. In
Him is salvation, for of the holy city, the
New Jerusalem, the scene of
regenerated society, He is
Center and Lord. He is spoken of in Zechariah 13:1,
“In that day there
shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of
I recommend the song below sung by Aretha Franklin
There Is A Fountain
Filled With Blood - YouTube
1 There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
2 The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
3 Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow'r,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.
4 E'er since
by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
5 When this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing Thy pow'r to
save:
I'll sing Thy pow'r to
save,
I'll sing Thy pow'r to
save;
then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing Thy pow'r to
save.
By
William Cowper
Below are two statements by C. H. Spurgeon that if they reflected our
attitudes today,
our wills
would be much more in unison with God and man. (CY - 2023)
The unbelief of the natural man is the parent of his misdeeds and
sin,
and keeps him from any real communion with
God.
Apostasy
an Anomalous (abnormal and aberrant) and Incalculable Thing
(Jeremiah
8:4-7)
I. THE ANALOGIES OR COMMON SENSE AND INSTINCT ARE
FALSIFIED. (vs. 4-6.) If a man fall, he will rise again to
his feet; if he
has made a mistake or gone in a wrong direction, and
discovers it, he will
turn again, unless
he be absolutely bereft of his senses. One might expect
similar behavior in
spiritual matters. But
in the wickedness and defection of
are taught by instinct when to return.
The season of their coming again is
almost as calculable as that of their
going. But the departure of the sinner is
incomprehensible, and his return cannot with certainty be
expected. Nay,
the likelihood is he will continue in his
sin, and pursue his own destruction
to the hitter end. In this, as in many
other instances, the career of the sinner
can only be explained on the score of infatuation. His moral
sense is
perverted or destroyed. In place of that
quick response which conscience
ought to make to the voice of duty,
there comes over his spirit an
insensibility to moral considerations, and A GROWING
IGNORANCE
of things Divine gradually deepening into OUTER DARKNESS.
II. IT IS UNMOVED BY
THE CONSIDERATIONS THAT OUGHT
TO AFFECT IT. (v. 5.) The
growing misery
and unhappiness which
it
occasions are not strong enough to check the
tendency to sin, if
indeed
their connection with it is clearly
perceived or acknowledged. The cravings
of the spiritual nature have to give
place to “the lust of the
flesh, the lust of
the eye, and the pride of life.” By-and-by they are
stilled, not by being
satisfied, but by being stifled;
and a curious heedlessness, which is deaf to
all the voices
of prophetic warning and entreaty, increasingly characterizes
it. Under such circumstances
it is difficult to discover any common point of
contact or argument that
shall be valid to both parties. When reason is left
behind, it is not to higher, but to lower,
susceptibilities that appeal has to
be made.
III. THE CONCERN, THE CLAIMS,
AND THE GRACIOUS
PROVISION OF GOD ARE AS
NOTHING. (v. 6.) The saint in the
times of his calamity calls upon God to
incline His ear. In the fearful
condition and moral insensibility of His people to
their wickedness and
danger God is represented as of Himself
inclining H is ear and listening
attentively for the lightest
sigh of repentance. He calls, but no notice is
taken. The means of salvation He has provided are neglected, or
abused.
The
form of godliness is cultivated when the spirit has fled and the
exercises of religion are the
chief foes to its reality. What
can be the
conclusion to all this? THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY
DEAD! There
is neither
power nor inclination to seek for better
things. Nothing
but supernatural grace and
long-suffering love can avail to
save them.
Poet Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet
Laureate of
the
The
Way Home (v. 6)
The
text suggests much concerning this way from the far country of sin to
the home of our Father and God. The Lord
is here lamenting that none of
the people of
I. THE STAGES OF THE WAY.
1. Realization of the ruin wrought by our sin. The soul is represented as
contemplating this ruin, and
asking, “What have I done?” This is the first
stage.
2. Repentance. Each one is to repent of “his
wickedness.” We are not to
lose ourselves in a
general confession of sin, as too many do, but to think
of our own sin apart
from that of other people, and to think of what is
especially our sin. Thus personal and
particular, our repentance is the more
likely to be genuine and
godly.
3. Confession. “These that have
sinned, these and these only speak aright
when they speak of
repenting, and it is sad when they who have so much
work for repentance do
not say a word of repenting.” But confession is this
“speaking aright” which God desires to
hear from us. Now, this
confession
is so acceptable to God because it
glorifies His holiness and His love. His
holiness; for the sinner has come to see sin as God sees it,
and hence to
hate and abhor it. He is of one mind with
God about it as he never was
before. And his love; for confession casts
itself in faith upon a love that is
deeper than its sin. Deep as
is God’s abhorrence of sin, the sinner in
confession appeals to and lays hold on a love
that is deeper still. Hence,
when the sinner makes his
sincere confession before God, he is at once
right out of “the far country,” and home in the
heart of God. The robe, the
ring, the shoes, are put upon
him; the feast is prepared, and the merrymaking,
the joy in the presence
of the angels of God, at once begins. (see Luke 15)
II. THE ATTENTIVE OBSERVER OF THOSE WHO
TRAVEL BY
THIS WAY. It is God who is represented as bending down his ear,
hearkening to what is said, listening for any
words of confession, and ready
to hear them if spoken. The text is the
language of gracious expectation
and desire on the part of God. It calls
to mind the father’s waiting for the
prodigal’s return. How often
had he looked with longing, loving gaze
down the road along which his returning son must come, if
ever indeed he
would come! He had looked so
often that a speck in the far distance
would at once be discerned by him.
Hence, “when a great
way off,” the
father saw him. And so here God is represented as thus waiting
for his
guilty people’s return. And how much there is to
confirm our faith in this
Divine
solicitude for the sinner’s salvation! Look at the very constitution
of
our nature. That, as Bishop Butler
has shown, is evidently on the side of
virtue, that is, of obedience to God, and against
the disobedient. “Who will
harm you, if ye be doers of that which is good? “ — thus the apostle
appeals to the universally
recognized fact, that the constitution of man’s
nature is such as to favor the good. And, on
the other hand, the declaration
that “the way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15), is
based on another like
fact of universal experience. Such
is one evidence of “the care” with
which, as
George
Herbert sings, “Lord, with what care thou hast begirt us round?
Then the revelation of His truth is yet further in evidence. That truth, as
ministered to us by the written
Word or by the lips of prophets, apostles,
pastors, teachers — it matters
not — is a perpetual proof of the Divine
solicitude for our eternal
good. And His providence, making it to be well
with the righteous and ill with the unrighteous.
Well and ill with each
respectively in mind, body, and
estate. And His Spirit. That Spirit speaking
to us in conscience and in the
powerful pleadings of His grace in our hearts,
of which we are all so often conscious.
And, last of all, God has shown us
this loving care of
His for us in his Son. He has shown Himself in a manner
adapted to touch and move
all hearts, and to draw all men unto Him. Now,
all this mass of evidence is in keeping
with that solicitude which this verse
and so many other portions of God’s Word
reveal as felt by Him towards
sinful men. (SOLICIT - ask for, crave, beg,
request) And if it be asked
“What
moves this solicitude?” the character of God furnishes the answer.
The holiness of God. “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will He
teach sinners in the way.” (Psalm
25:8) And we are bidden“Give thanks at
the remembrance of his holiness.” (ibid. ch. 30:4) It is the nature of
holiness to be distressed at
all that contradicts it and is unlike itself. It rests
not until it has assimilated all around
it to itself. Here, then, is one reason
of God’s perpetual appeals to sinful
men.
· His wisdom also. It is the characteristic of God’s wisdom
to adjust
means to ends. How wonderfully and
beautifully this is seen in all
departments of nature! But for the fulfilling
of the high purposes
of His grace, what instrument can He find more fit than the regenerated,
redeemed soul? Even now and here we see this. A soul aglow with love
and faith towards God, what will not that
soul do for God? Hence to the
principalities and powers in heaven shall be made known by the one
Church — the company of the
redeemed shall evidence it —
THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD!
· His love also. If the beholding of scenes of distress
touch our hearts
and make us eager to render help, can we imagine that He who made
us is less willing than ourselves to
show pity and render help?
Our Lord’s argument
is, “If ye, evil though
ye be, know how”
— and we do know how — “to
give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts
to those that
ask Him? (Matthew 7:11) Humanity, as it has been well said, is
the
heavenly Father’s sick child. Will not the Father’s
love, therefore,
be all the more called forth to that child?
· And His compassion also. For this life is the
critical period of that
child’s malady. It is the time when the great question of its life or death
is being determined. Terrible forces are against it, and the struggle is
now at its most momentous hour. This fact would cause the Father’s love
to go forth, as it has gone and is going forth, in active
compassion, in open
manifestation of its solicitude.
Such are some of the
considerations which lead to our Father’s attentive
observance of all those who
travel by this homeward way.
III. THE END OF THE WAY. They who come there
will find:
· restoration to the Father’s love,
· the implantation of a new nature,
· the complete pardon of the past,
· power to live as God’s dear child for the future, and ultimately
· the everlasting
dwelling in the very presence and home of God.
IV. BROOKS BY THE WAY. It is said, “He shall drink of the brook by
the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.” We may apply these
words to
the travelers in the way we are speaking
of; for they need, in
the weary and
often most difficult journey, the refreshments WHICH GOD ALONE CAN
SUPPLY! Such aids are given in the promises of
God, the fellowship of God, the
communion of fellow-travelers on the way,
and in the service and worship
of God.
V. THE SOLITARINESS OF THE WAY. It is
but “here and
there a
traveler” that is found. The way is not thronged. This verse is God’s lament
that scarce any are found willing to go along this road; for it is not the way
of worldly advantage. They
who “are given
to covetousness” (v. 10) will
never choose this way. They have persuaded
themselves that they are as
well off and better
where they are. They are
deceived, and, what
is worse,
are willing to be deceived: “They hold fast deceit,
and so refuse to return.”
(v.
5) We should have thought that surely it
would be otherwise.
1. Reason bids them return (v. 4). If a man have fallen, he will not lie
content on the earth, but
will arise. If in an ordinary journey he have missed
his way, he will at once retrace his
steps. Reason rules in
such cases, but
not here.
2. Conscience bids them return. They could not
but know that their sin had
done them sore
harm; but none of them asked, “What have I done?”
however loudly conscience
might summon them to such repentance.
3. God’s Word bade then return (v. 8), but lo! certainly in vain He made
it.
4. Providences bade them. The events that had
taken place were all
admonitions of God; but though
the birds of the air marked and obeyed the
providence of God, sinful man “knew not the judgment of the Lord” (v. 7).
(And
like the people of Noah’s day, at the time of the Flood “....were eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until
the day that Noah
entered into the ark, And knew not until the Flood came,
and took them all
away...” (Matthew 24:38-39 - I hope this doesn’t
sound like a fairy tale to
you - Christ doesn’t do fairy
tales. CY - 2023) Hence the way is solitary.
· CONCLUSION. But the question for us is, “Are we in this way?” Let us
bless God if we are, and
press on therein. Let us note how short the day is
in which we can travel,
how its few fleeting hours are lessening, lest when
we would start on the
way we have to exclaim (Jeremiah 6:4), “Woe
unto us I for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the
evening are
stretched out.”
Ecclesiastes
12 man goeth to his long home
Oh
how I want to go home
Backsliding
in Its Worst Forms (vs. 4-11)
All departures from God
are evil, but
some are only temporary, and are
quickly followed by repentance, return, and
restoration. There
are others,
however, of a far more serious kind,
and we have in these verses a great
deal told us concerning them. We are told
of some of:
I. THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.
1. So contrary to men’s
wonted ways. For when men find that they have
brought evil on themselves, they
will at once seek to undo such evil (v..4).
If a man fall, he
win not lie still in the mire or in the road, but will get
up again as speedily as may be. If he
have mistaken his path and got on a
wrong track, wilt he not, as
soon as he discovers his mistake, quickly
retrace his steps that he may get
into the right way? That is how men act in
the common affairs of life. But, though
they had fallen, yet
they showed no desire to rise, and though they could
not but know they
were altogether out of the right way, they showed no
willingness to return.
2. Resists the strivings of God’s Spirit and all his
drawings of them to
Himself. V. 7 implies such God-implanted
instincts in men’s souls, but
declares that, unlike the ever-obedient
birds, man resists and
refuses the
call of God.
3. Becomes shameless. (vs. 6,12.) This feature we have
had noticed
before (compare ch.6:15); it arrested the prophet’s attention as being
evil exceedingly.
4. Determined and defiant. (v. 6.)
5. Is at last perpetual. (v. 5.) They have gone into an evil way, and they
abide in that way, no power of Divine grace being able to
draw them
therefrom. So terrible is this worst form of
backsliding, it is perpetual.
“......they hold fast deceit.”
Let
each wanderer from God ask himself the question, “What have I done?”
3. The time for such inquiry is lessening day
by day.
4. “It
is a fearful thing” for
an unforgiven man “to fall into the
hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 12:29)
Peace,
Peace; When There is No Peace (8:8-12)
The
present condition of the country, why these scandals, miseries, and
impending evils?
I. DIVINE ILLUMINATION
ALONE CAN GIVE
TRUE
UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S WORD. The priests and scribes,
because
of familiarity with holy things, claimed
to be wise. They were satisfied with
the spiritual state of
anticipated what took
place. The Holy
Spirit alone bestows Divine insight
and foresight.
II. THE DESPISERS OF DIVINE TRUTH, AND THOSE
WHO
FALSELY
PRETEND TO ITS CUSTODY, WILL BE PUT TO SHAME.
“Refuges of lies” will be swept
away. The judgment, when it comes, will
find them
wholly unprepared and helpless. “Take
heed that the light that is
in thee be not darkness.” “Blind
leaders of the blind,” the sorrowing comes
to them in vain for comfort, or is
deceived to his own hurt; at last the
victim of a misplaced confidence, to find
himself “of all men most
miserable.”
The Inveterate
(ingrained; deep-seated) Disobedience of
(v.
28)
All
along, from v. 21, this is the theme, viz. the disobedience of
Now,
to give full force to a charge of disobedience there must be the
means of furnishing ample proofs that directions have
first been given —
plain, earnest, and authoritative. And this is
just what we find here. God
refers His people back over the long years
in which, by divers agencies, He
had laid before them his
righteous and beneficent will.
What he commended was for
His glory; for His glory because for His people’s
good; for His people’s good because for His
glory. The present
state and
prospects of the people are very humiliating,
but assuredly no part of their
humiliation can be laid to the charge of their
God. The
cloudy and the fiery
pillar was but a symbol of most distinct
guidance for the whole heart. The
people were not suffered
to wander for lack of expostulation and warning.
When a lad turns out badly, criticizing speech is often directed
against the
parents, as if
somehow they must be at fault. They may be at
fault indeed,
but there is no must in
the matter. Hasty criticism at such a time, from the
very injustice of it, adds
a cruel intensity to the pain and disappointment
already existing. But hasty criticism
cannot be silenced by merely
deprecating it, and parents at such moments would do well to
remember
that they stand in relations to their disobedient
children not unlike those in
which, as is represented here, Jehovah stood towards
most loving and watchful and patient of
parents never did for his children
NEAR SO MUCH AS JEHOVAH DID FOR
of their wonderful career, in which God
had moved so sublimely among them.
There
were the ten commandments, formulated so
distinctly, and set in
such a grand historical frame. There were
all the rites and ceremonies filled
with instructing power to those who would
seek to understand them. And
there was also, accumulating generation
after generation, the great mass of
prophetic truth. Man is what he is,
not for want of light, but for want of
disposition to use and obey the
light when it appears. There is
an
indisposition to attend to truth and to fidelity
in all duty, until at last the
very feeling of what faithfulness and
righteousness are vanishes from the
breast. But still the excuse is attempted, and
persisted in with shameless
impudence, that the word which professes to come
from God must have in
it something defective, something
that effectually prevents it from being
received. But it is only from the unrenewed mind that talk of this kind
comes. Those who have had their eyes opened to the
truth of God soon
begin to discern that in that truth there
is no lack of guidance, or
inspiration, or comfort, or any good
thing which can uplift and satisfy the
heart. And we may be sure that God, who has given
this immense and
fruitful body of truth, has brought
it nearer to the individual conscience
than the individual in his perversity will
always acknowledge. Men are
indulged too much in the
complaint that nobody has spoken to them about
their souls. A miserable egotism often lies at
the bottom of such
complaining. If they know by any means whatever —
and it matters not
how slight the hint may be-that there is
something written for the
obedience of all mankind and
for their consequent advantage, then these
complainers are bound to attend
to it. Men are not
so foolish in the quest
of worldly gains. Then they will go
upon the slightest hint, and follow it up
discreetly and warily. Why, then, should they be so foolish in the
matter of
spiritual gain? Because “truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.”