_Buy my field, I pray thee._ JEREMIAH’S FAITH I. Faith is here illustrated as resting exclusively upon the word of God. All that Jeremiah did in this matter he did just because he had a command from the Lord. Whilst he was in prison, God told him that his cousin should come and offer him the redemp... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord._ MISSED OPPORTUNITIES No person who understands, and still less he who values, life as a sacred opportunity of doing something for the world before he dies, but has often wished that he could overleap the bounds of the present and understand what the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take these evidences,.. . and put them in an earthen vessel._ SEALED AND OPEN EVIDENCES I am going to make a parable, not to bring out what the text teaches, but to use it parable-wise. When Jeremiah bought this piece of land, it was transferred to him by two documents. The first was a title-deed,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast made the heaven and the earth._ CREATION-AN ARGUMENT FOR FAITH I would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. When Edward Irving preached that memorable sermon concerning the missionary, who he thought was bound to go fort... [ Continue Reading ]
_Great in counsel, and mighty in work._ THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S WISDOM, AND THE ABUNDANCE OF HIS POWER I. Consider the subject speculatively. 1. My first proofs shall be taken from the nature of God. The nature of God proves that He is great in counsel. Consider the perfect knowledge that He hath o... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have done nothing of all that Thou commandedst them to do._ SINS OF OMISSION Omissions cannot be trivial, if we only reflect what an influence they would have upon an ordinary commonwealth, if they were perpetrated as they are in God’s commonwealth. If one person has a right to omit his duty,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?_ “IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?” This method of questioning the person to be instructed is known to teachers as the Socratic method. Socrates was wont, not so much to state a fact, as to ask a question and draw o... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have turned unto Me the back, and not the face _ HUMAN WICKEDNESS I_._ As condemning Divine authority. To turn the back upon any one, not only indicates an utter lack of interest in him, but a dislike. To turn the back upon God means-- 1. An ignorement of His existence. The language of wic... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever._ WHOLE-HEARTED RELIGION In reference to the heart, one of the earliest works of Divine grace is to unite it in one. Strange to say, I should be equally truthful if I said that one of the first works of grace is to break the... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I win not turn away from them, to do them good._ THE APPLICATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE I. It is all of grace. Its grand end seems to be, to glorify all God’s attributes, indeed, but especially to manifest “the exceeding riches of His grace.”... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul _ THE WHOLE-HEARTEDNESS OF GOD IN BLESSING HIS PEOPLE I. consider our text for instruction. 1. God blesses His people heartily. “With My whole heart.” Notice, in passing, that word “assuredly”; for it confirms th... [ Continue Reading ]
_All the good that I have promised._ THE RELIGION, OF THE PROMISE (with Numbers 10:29):--Obeying a true instinct, the Church of Christ has from the beginning understood the whole story of the transfer of the chosen people from the land of bondage to the land of promise as possessing, over and above... [ Continue Reading ]