Satan’s Arrows and God’s
Satan's Arrows and God's
(No. 3262)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1911.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
27, 1864.
"He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused
the arrows of His quiver to pierce my soul." Lamentations 3:12,13.
JEREMIAH did not intend these verses to be a description of a sinner
under conviction of sin. He was sorrowing over the woes of Jerusalem
and the nation that had been so heavily punished for its sin, yet we
may rightly apply his words to the most bitter of all human griefs–I
mean, of all human griefs except that ruinous remorse which sometimes
comes at the prelude of eternal destruction!
Dear Friends, when we preach to you, we do, as it were, shoot arrows at
a mark but, alas, how few of them ever reach the target! If any of our
arrows are shot without earnestness and zeal, they are almost certain
to fall short of the mark. How sad it is that any of us who are sent by
God to do such important work as this, should be cold-hearted or
lukewarm! Shame on the preacher who does not bend the bow with all his
might and throw his whole strength of spirit, soul and body into his
efforts to win souls! At times our arrows fly too high. Perhaps we use
expressions which out hearers do not understand, or do not talk
sufficiently concerning the simplicities of the Gospel. In such a case
we ought to repent and be grieved with ourselves that we have not
better carried out our commission and so adapted the means we have used
as to achieve the end we ought to have had in view. But even when we
aim aright and put our whole force into the drawing of the bow, how
often do our arrows glint off the steel armor of indifference in which
so many of our hearers are encased from head to toe! The point of the
arrow is blunted, or the shaft is snapped as we shoot again and again
at those who try to prevent the entrance of the Truth of God into their
hearts. Year after year I have drawn my bow at some of you–I have used
the sharpest arrows and the most polished shafts that my quiver could
supply–and have thrown my whole strength into the effort, yet, up till
now no arrow has pierced your hearts or reached your soul. But how
different is the case when God Himself draws the bow! Ah, my Brothers
and Sisters, His arrows never miss their mark! The joint in the
sinner's harness is always visible to Him, and though it is but a very
small opening which no one else can see, between the plates of the
armor the arrow unerringly enters! God knows how to wound mortally,
too. As the text reminds us, the arrow is driven right into one's
soul–into those parts of our being where the vital principle is most
active–so that there is no hope of escape from the arrows which God
sends right into the heart, the soul, the conscience of the one at whom
He shoots His shafts.
As God shall enable me, by his Holy Spirit, I intend to describe the
case of those who have been pierced by God's arrows. But I want, first,
to speak of some arrows which do not come from God's quiver at all, but
which, nevertheless, cause very much pain to some sensitive spirits.
So, first, I am going to try to break the devil's arrows! Secondly, to
endeavor to describe God's arrows. And then, thirdly, to seek to
comfort those who have been wounded by these arrows.
I. First, then, I am TO TRY TO BREAK SOME OF THE DEVIL'S ARROWS.
I will venture to say that nine out of ten of the terrible feelings
which men have when under conviction of sin are not the work of God's
Spirit, but are the result of the uprising of their own unbelief
stirred and agitated by the diabolic suggestions of Satan. He knows
that it is "now or never" with them–if he can now drive them to
despair and keep them from coming to Christ, he will have gained his
end. But if now the anxious soul should find shelter and rest in the
Atonement of Christ, the Prince of Darkness will have lost it forever
and, therefore, he exerts all his power and stirs up all his fellow
fiends to do their utmost to keep the poor soul in despair!
One of the arrows which the devil shoots at such a time is this is that
he says to the troubled soul, "Your sins are so great that it is not
possible for God to forgive you. You have sinned so grossly and so
long–remember your sin on such-and-such a day and on such-and-such a
night? If you had not committed such-and-such a sin, you might have
been forgiven, but now there is no hope for you! Besides, think of the
many ways in which your offenses have been aggravated. You have sinned
against light and knowledge–though you have often been reproved, you
have hardened your neck and you shall surely be destroyed–and that
without remedy. Your case is utterly hopeless." Now, although part of
Satan's speech is quoted from the Scriptures, I dare to affirm that
this arrow never came out of God's quiver! That quotation has no
reference to one who sincerely repents of sin and comes to God seeking
mercy for Jesus' sake. However great your guilt may have been, remember
that "the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
them that fear Him." If you had gone as far in sin as Satan, himself,
could have led you, that great promise of the Lord Jesus Christ would
still have been available for you, "All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto man." If the guilt of a thousand sinners had
been concentrated in you, yet still, if you did but wash in the–
"Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins"– there is
potency enough in that precious blood to make you whiter than the
newly-fallen snow! O poor troubled one, let this arrow be broken in
pieces once and for all! Let the thought of God's everlasting mercy and
His boundless power to forgive snap it in two and cast it to the
ground!
Another of the devil's arrows which often goes whizzing through the air
is this–"The Holy Spirit cannot soften such a hard heart as yours. You
cannot repent as a sinner should do–sin has got too firm a hold upon
you. Why, you know that you can listen to a most earnest discourse and
yet not be in the least impressed by it! Or if you are for a time moved
by the message, you soon go back to your sin as the dog returns to his
vomit and as the sow that was washed goes back to her wallowing in the
mire. There is no tenderness left in you! Your conscience is seared as
with a hot iron! The Holy Spirit is powerless to do anything in such a
case as yours." That is another lie–a gross and slanderous lie! What
is there that the Holy Spirit cannot do? O my Brothers and Sisters,
when anyone is talking about what the Deity can do, the word,
"powerless," must never be mentioned! Even the word, "difficult," is
not to be put side by side with the name of God! "Is anything too hard
for the Lord?" "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot
save; neither His ears heavy, that they cannot hear." Why, one drop of
Jesus' precious blood could melt a mountain of ice as huge as a million
worlds! One flash of the Holy Spirit's celestial fire could make a rock
of granite run like the water that gushed from the smitten Rock in the
wilderness! There is no doubt about the hardness of your heart and the
badness of your nature– you are probably much worse than you think
are–but it is impossible that your depravity could exceed the potency
of the Holy Spirit's influence to renew your nature and change your
whole life! So let this diabolical arrow also be smashed to atoms so
that even the devil, himself, cannot use it again!
Here is another shot from Satan's quiver. The devil says to the poor
troubled soul, "It is too late for you to repent. If you had repented
and turned to God years ago, you might have been saved. When you were a
young man, you had your day of Grace, but that is now over. Do you not
remember being in a certain Chapel one Sunday night when the minister
was so earnestly pleading with sinners and many were smitten down under
conviction of sin? You also seemed to be impressed, but your anxiety
was all gone in the morning–so you missed your opportunity and now the
gates of Heaven are shut against you forever! You may seek the Lord,
but you shall not find Him! You may call upon Him, but He will not
answer you." That is another of Satan's lies, for there is no man
living who has arrived at a period when it is too late for God to save
him! We rightly sing–
"While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."
Did not Christ save the dying thief? He was fastened to a cross and was
soon to die, but when he repented of his sin and pleaded with Christ to
remember him, he received the gracious assurance that he should be that
day with Christ in Paradise! If old age could keep men out of Heaven,
there are many now before the Throne of God who would never have been
there! If you are seventy, or eighty, or even 90 years of age, it is a
sad and solemn thing that you should have lived so long without
Christ–but this is no reason why you should die and be damned! God's
message to you is still this, "Turn you, turn you from your evil ways;
for why will you die?" The commission to Christ's servants is still the
same as when He gave it to His first disciples, "Go you into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature"–not merely to every
creature–under 50 years of age, but to everyone of the whole human
race! If you are over a 100 years old, yet, as you are a creature, I
have to preach the Gospel to you and the Gospel is, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved!" So, if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, however great your age may be, or however many times
you may have refused to believe on Him, there is no doubt about God's
willingness and power to still receive, pardon and accept you!
Another of Satan's arrows is this. He whispers in a sinner's ear, "You
are not one of God's elect You are shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is no use for you to think of being saved–a stern decree has
blotted out all possibility of hope for you." But how does the devil
know that? This is one of the things that God has never revealed to
anyone, and I am sure that Satan has never been allowed to read the
names in the Lamb's Book of Life, so do not let this arrow trouble you
for a moment! Why should not you be one of God's elect as well as any
other man? Have you been a drunk? Many drunks have been saved in spite
of their drunkenness! Have you been addicted to profane swearing? There
are many who once uttered the foulest oaths, but who were afterwards
washed in the precious blood of Christ–and who are now singing the new
song before the Throne of God in Glory! Have you been a willing servant
of the devils? There are many who long served him here below, who are
now playing their golden harps in the Presence of God above! You cannot
tell whether you are one of the elect or not until you believe in
Jesus–when you do that, you will have positive proof that God chose
you unto salvation and gave you to His Son long before He formed the
world! The Doctrine of Election is not one about which you need trouble
yourself just now. Begin to read your Bible and the Gospel according to
Matthew, and see there how you are bid to repent and invited to come to
Christ. When you have done that, you can go on to the Epistles and read
about election and all the other Doctrines of Grace, but your first
business is to repent of sin and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!
I have also known Satan whisper to a man, "It is no use for you to
pray. You know that you have been praying for a long time, but you have
got no comfort from it, so give it up, for it is an utterly useless
exercise! It is no use for you to believe. There was a man the other
day who said that he believed, but he was just as great a sinner
afterward, so what good is it for you to believe?" Here again we have
Satan's lies sat in contrast with God's Truth. It is of great use for
everyone to pray, for our Savior said, "Everyone that asks, receives
and he that seeks, finds. And to him that knocks, it shall be opened."
There is not one case of true prayer that is exempt from this general
rule! Then as to Satan's assertion that there are some who say that
they have believed and yet they are not saved, we can reply that it is
one thing to saythat we believe, but quite another thing to really
believe! No doubt there are some who say that they believe who are no
better for it, but it is equally true that, "he that believes on the
Son has everlasting life." Faith does justify the soul–"being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ." So will you believe Satan's lie or God's
Truth?
I do not know what other arrows the devil may have shot at any of you.
He may, perhaps have told you that you have committed the unpardonable
sin, but that is certainly more than he knows. If you now desire to be
saved, you may depend upon it that you have not committed that sin
which is unto death! And if you are now believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you have the best possible proof that this sin cannot be laid
to your charges, for whomever believes in Him is not condemned, but has
everlasting life! Cling to the Cross of Christ and you shall never sink
down to Perdition.
II. Having thus tried to break some of the devil's arrows, I want,
next, TO ENDEAVOR TO DESCRIBE SOME OF GOD'S ARROWS.
Here I will give you a piece of my own experience. When God began to
deal with me, one of the first arrows that flew right into my heart was
this, "You God see me." I recollected that God knew all about my sins,
that He had seen them or heard them, and had noted them all down in His
Book of Remembrance. I was greatly alarmed, for I had forgotten many of
them and had dreamed that God also had forgotten them.
Then came another arrow, bearing this motto, "I the Lord search the
heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways,
and according to the fruit of his doings." I realized that God knew all
about my motives and thoughts. He had seen my selfishness when I was
seeking to do what was right merely that I might be saved by it. He had
watched all the wanderings of my heart, and all the evil imaginations
of my mind–and I was almost driven to despair as I thought what must
be the fruit of my doings!
Then came another sharp arrow and it was labeled thus, "The soul that
sins, it shall die. "I knew that I had sinned and I felt that I must
die, for the Law can show no mercy–it can only punish the guilty. Then
I heard that terrible sentence, "Cursed is everyone that continues not
in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them."
Then was I sorely afraid, like Belshazzar was when he saw the
mysterious handwriting on the wall!
Then came another arrow bearing this inscription, "Your commandment is
exceedingly broad," and I began to see that the Law of the Lord was
much more than I had thought it to be. I had fancied that if I kept the
letter of the commandments, I would be accounted innocent, but I found
that the commandment which said, "You shall not kill," meant that if I
hated my brother, I would be a murderer! And that, "You shall not
commit adultery" not only referred to that shameful act, but also
included the lascivious look and the unclean thought! Ah, me, where was
all my fancied righteousness, then? In view of the spirituality of
God's Holy Law, I might well say with Moses at Sinai, "I exceedingly
fear and quake."
Another arrow that came to me was marked, " Without Me you can do
nothing." I found that by my own unaided power, I could not pray, I
could not repent, I could not believe–but there I lay, as helpless as
the dirt beneath my feet– and with no more power to save myself than a
sere leaf driven by the blast of a tornado would have had!
Ah, these were sharp arrows, indeed, and just when I seemed covered
with wounds all over me, I thought I had another arrow shot into me
bearing this terrible message, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." When I went to
sleep, I determined that I was in Hell–and when I woke up, I wondered
that the earth did not open and swallow up such a sinner as I felt
myself to be! Life became almost unbearable to me.
Then there came another arrow which caused me to suffer still more. It
bore this missive, "You have sinned against light and knowledge. You
were not ignorant, as many lads were, of what you ought to do. You had
received gracious instruction and you knew what the Gospel was! You
sinned against your father's prayers and your mother's tears." I
recollected the Sunday evenings at home when my mother had prayed with
me and pleaded with me to lay hold on eternal life, yet I had still
refused to turn to God and to trust in Jesus as my Savior–and this
thought came to my mind, "It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon, and for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for
you."Thus did the arrows of God's quiver enter into my soul!
These are God's arrows and the messages they bear are all true. It is
true that God sees us. It is true that He reads our thoughts and
motives. It is true that He punishes sin. It is true that His
commandments are exceedingly broad. It is true that we are powerless to
save ourselves. And if, my dear Hearers, you are feeling the force of
any of these Truths of God, I congratulate you that God has thus made
you a mark for His arrows!
III. Now, thirdly, I want TO SEEK TO COMFORT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN
WOUNDED BY THESE ARROWS.
My dear afflicted Friends, thus troubled and distressed in mind, please
consider why God sends these arrows to you. Remember that they are not
sent to destroy you, but to save you–and to save you by destroying
some things of which you are very fond! They are sent, first of all, to
destroy your false peace. God cannot bear that you should say, "Peace,
peace," when there is no peace and, therefore, He shoots these arrows
to kill your carnal ease that you may be stirred up to seek His face.
They are also sent to slay your self-righteousness–and they are
blessed arrows that can do that! When Mr. Hervey asked a poor farmer
what was the hardest thing to get rid of, he expected him to answer,
"Sinful self." But the reply was, "Righteous self." And certainly, of
the two, righteous self is much harder to part with than sinful self.
These arrows are also sent to kill your strength. Remember, Sinner,
when you can do nothing, then God will do everything! When you are so
completely emptied that you have nothing left, God will give you
everything! If you wish to save yourselves, do it, but God will have no
share in the work under such conditions. If He is to save you, He must
be Alpha and Omega–He must have all the praise because He gives all
the power!
Next, as God's name and Nature are both Love, He cannot take any
pleasure in seeing you suffer He has a purpose in setting you as a mark
for His arrows. He has a design in causing the arrows of His quiver to
enter your soul. He does not wound you out of ill-will toward you, but
He is aiming at your good all the while. So thank Him for shooting at
you and beg Him not to spare any of His arrows, but to keep on shooting
until He has killed the last relic of evil and self-righteousness that
has kept you from coming to Christ!
Further, do not imagine that you are the first person who has suffered
in this way. All the people of God, in their measure, pass through a
similar experience. If they do not become God's target at the time of
their conversion, they find that His quiver is emptied against them
sooner or later. Therefore, my poor wounded Brother or Sister, look
upon your
pathway as being the pathway of the saints–it is the King's Highway
which has been trodden by the pilgrims to Heaven in all ages!
Once more, you are one of those who are especially invited in this
blessed Book Listen–"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden"–that must mean you! "And I will give you, rest." This is what
you need. "Ho, everyone that thirsts"–that means you! "Come you to the
waters, and he that has no money"–that means you! "Come you, buy, and
eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
"Whoever will"–that must mean you, for you are willing enough to be
saved–"let him take the water of life freely."
If you cannot get any comfort out of these invitations because you fear
you are not the person described in them, remember that there is a
general call given in the Gospel. Not only are we invited to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and bid to repent of sin, but as Paul said at
Athens, "God now commands all men everywhere to repent." Be thankful
that it is not too late for you to obey that command! The door of
Heaven is not yet closed against you! The gate of Hell has not yet been
fastened as your eternal prison–you are still on praying ground and on
pleading terms with God–so "seek you the Lord while He may be found.
Call you upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord and
He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon."
Above all, my dear Hearers, remember that "Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners"–sinners, mark you–not the righteous, the good,
the excellent, but the sinful, the bad, the guilty! God loved not men
because of their goodness. Christ bought not men because of their moral
beauty. The Holy Spirit quickened not those who were already alive–but
"when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly," and "God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us." Look by faith, Sinner, to Him as He
hung upon the Cross! It is God's eternal Son, "very God of very God,"
who died there, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God." Recollect how He cried, "It is finished," before He bowed His
head and gave up the ghost. What was finished? Why, the road from Hell
to Heaven! The pathway along which the vilest sinner may travel to
Glory–the Fountain in which the most scarlet sins may be washed
away–the Redemption by which the bond-slaves of sin and Satan are
forever set at liberty! All this and more than this was finished on
Calvary! And if you will trust in Jesus now, a finished salvation shall
be yours this very moment! May the Holy Spirit enable you, just as you
are, to rest upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
you will find that He who wounded you with His arrows, shall heal you
by His Grace, and you shall be His forever and ever! God grant it, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LAMENTATIONS3:1-35; JEREMdIAH31:22-37.
I am about to read a portion of Holy Scripture which may seem very
strange to some of you, but it belongs to a part of the congregation,
and I hope it may be the means of giving them comfort. I read is as a
picture of the suffering of a soul under a sense of sin. I think it is
a most graphic portrait of a heart that is awakened and made to feel
its lost estate. If there are any such here, they will be sure to see
themselves in the picture.
Verse 1. I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
It is a mistake that most souls make when in trouble, to suppose that
no others ever felt as they do. John Bunyan describes Christian as
being very much comforted by hearing someone quoting Scripture as he
went through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for then he perceived
that there were others in the same case with his own. Do not think,
poor troubled Soul, that no one was ever so broken in pieces as you
are–your path of sorrow is a well-trodden one,
2. He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light A
Hebrew method of saying that it was a thick darkness without any light,
either star-light or moon-light. You who have passed through this state
of conviction know what it means–no comfort from ordinances, no
comfort from God's Word, no comfort from your daily mercies. Every
stream of comfort seems dried up to you–and sin lies heavily upon you.
3. Surely against me is He turned; He turns His hand against me all the
day. As if when a man is about to strike, he smites not with his open
hand but turns his hand, so the Prophet says God did with him. He felt
that he was being smitten with the heaviest blows that God seemed able
to give.
4. My flesh andmy skin has He made old; He has broken my bones. As men
through excessive grief sometimes appear to grow prematurely aged, so
the Prophet says he had gone through grief. He felt as if his bones
were broken. The sore vexations of his spirit had dashed the solid
pillars of the house of Manhood from their place.
5. He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travel That
is to say, as the besiegers erected a mound against a city and threw up
earthworks, so the Prophet says God seemed to have thrown up earthworks
from which He might fire off the great guns of the Law against him.
6. He has set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old. As
though he had to live in a tomb, where neither life nor light could
come to him.
7. He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He has made my chain
heavy. "My way seems blocked up, nothing prospers with me." As the
convict sometimes drags about his chain, and has a ball at his foot, so
the Prophet felt as if God had clogged him with a heavy chain so that
he could not move because of its terrible weight.
8. Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer Which was the
worst trial of all!
9. He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, He has made my paths
crooked. It was believed that hewn stones made the strongest wall as
the joints would the more closely fit into one another. Jeremiah seems
to speak as if God had taken care and trouble to build, not as men do
roughly with common stones, but with polished and well-shapen troubles
built like strong barriers in his way.
10. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret
places. He felt as if the Justice of God was about to spring upon him.
He was afraid to move, lest the couched lion should leap upon him and
tear him to pieces. John Bu-nyan, in his Grace Abounding to the Chief
of Sinners, describes in his own experience precisely what the Prophet
here speaks of.
11-13. He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: He has
made me desolate. He has bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the
arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my soul And all
this while, to aggravate his grief, he found no comfort anywhere.
14. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. It
is just so with a man who is under a sense of sin. His companions ask
him why he is so melancholy. He has an attack of the mopes, they say.
They do not want his society, they will chase him from their midst. I
marvel not that they want not his company, for well do I know that he
wants not theirs, but this adds much to his grief, to find that they
make derision and laughter of his woe.
15. He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with
wormwood. What a strong expression the Prophet uses! As a drunken man
has lost his wits and staggers he knows not where, even as is a sinner
when he really begins to taste the bitterness of sin. He does not act
as if he were endowed with reason–despair and sorrow have driven his
senses away.
16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He has covered me
with ashes. The Easterns usually baked their cakes on the hearth and
very frequently there would be in the cakes pieces of grit, perhaps
large lumps of cinder and sometimes small gravel stones, which would
break the teeth. "So," the Prophet seems to say, "when I went to try to
get some nourishment by the eating of bread, I was disappointed–my
teeth were broken with gravel stones." I remember when I used to go up
to the House of God to try to get comfort, but instead thereof, I came
away more wretched than I went–for sin, that great devouring dragon,
still followed me everywhere.
17-21. And You have removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot
prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope are perished from the
LORD: remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the
gall. My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This
I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. [See Sermon #654, Volume
11–
MEMORY–THE HANDMAID OF HOPE.] Notice the gracious change that
has taken place, as if the sun had risen after the blackness and gloom
of the night! Now the birds of joy begin to sing and the flowers of
hope begin to open their golden cups.
22. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His
compassion fails not Bad as our state is, we are not yet in Hell–we
are not yet beyond the reach of hope!
23. They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness.We had new
mercies this morning, and we have had fresh mercies this evening. God
has not forgotten us! The very breath in our nostrils is a proof of His
goodness to us. Let us, therefore, dear Friends, still hope for yet
further favors from Him!
24, 25. The LORD is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in
Him. The LORD is good unto them that
of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org .] Can you get a hold of this
blessed Truth of God, any of you troubled ones who are here?
Broken-hearted Sinner, can you get a grip of this comforting assurance?
If so, there will soon be peace for you!
26, 27. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man
that he bear the yoke in his youth. [See Sermon #1291, Volume 22–THE
BEST BURDEN FOR YOUNG SHOULDERS.] For this yoke, though it may seem to
be very heavy for a time, when it has humbled us and brought us to
Christ, will bring us innumerable blessings!
28-33. He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon
him. He puts his mouth in the dust so there may be hope. He gives his
cheek to him that smites him: he is filled full with reproach. For the
LORD willnot cast off forever: but though He causes grief, yet will He
have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does
not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Unless He has
some gracious motive for it, He never afflicts or grieves them, and
when He does act thus, it is as when a father smites his child. It is
because it must be done and not because he loves to do it. See, then,
the great mercy of God! May it lead the sinner to repentance, yes, and
lead us all to put our trust in the Lord!
Jeremiah 31:22. For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A
woman shall compass a man. Here is a prophecy of the birth of Immanuel,
God With Us, born of a woman by the supernatural power of the Holy
Spirit. Mary was indeed blessed among women and we rejoice in that Man
who was thus miraculously born to be the Savior, Christ the Lord.
23-20. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they
shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof,
when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless you, O
habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell
in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen,
and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul,
and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. There are good times in
store for Israel! Jerusalem shall then be the "habitation of justice,
and mountain of holiness."
26. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
Jeremiah woke up with a pleasant impression of his vision upon him, and
well he might, for was there ever a more blessed one than that of which
we have just read?
27, 28. Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will sow the house
of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the
seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched
over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to
destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to
plant, says the LORD. All the ingenuity of Heaven seems to be taxed to
bless Believers! And just as man sought out many inventions for evil,
God, in His Infinite Love and Mercy seeks out many inventions for the
good of His people.
29, 30. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a
sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone
shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his
teeth shall be set on edge. We live under a personaldispensation–there
is no such thing as hereditary godliness or salvation by proxy! Every
man must for himself repent, and for himself believe. Vain and foolish
is the idea that because we have had Christian parents, therefore we
also are Christians!
31, 32. Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new
Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not
according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which My Covenant they broke, although I was an Husband unto them, says
the LORD. What bliss it is to know about this new Covenant! Let us
notice its tenor.
33. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; after those days, says the LORD, I will put My Law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts [See Sermons #1687, Volume
28–THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART and
#2992, Volume 52–GOD'S WRITING UPON MAN'S HEART.] Not on the tablets
[See Sermon #2436, Volume 41–"HOW GOOD TO THOSE WHO SEEK."]
The passage here expounded is Jeremiah 31:22-37.
of stone, not on the walls of the Church, but "I will write it in their
hearts."
33. And will be their God, and they shall be My people. You may have
heard it said that Christ will not leave His people, but that His
people may leave Him–but in this promise the second contingency is
provided for as well as the first!
34-37. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every
man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me,
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I
will forgive their iniquity, and I wiil remember their sin no more.
Thus says the LORD, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which
divides the sea when the waves thereofroar; The LORD of Hosts is His
name: If those ordinances depart from before Me says the LORD, then the
seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.
Thus says the LORD, If Heaven above can be measured, and the
foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all
the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD. What a
God of Infinite Mercy He is!