"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Sermons I. WHAT WAS IT? (Cf. ver. 10.) It was to denounce the judgments of God against his people. At the end of the commission there is mention made of "building and planting;" but the chief charge is of an altogether opposite character. Jeremiah was set over the nations "to root out, and to pull down, to destroy, and to throw down." It was a terrible undertaking. He was to spare no class, no rank, no order. Kings, princes, priests, and people were all to be alike solemnly warned of the sure judgments that were coming upon them. And the like work has to be done now. How prone we all are to speak with bated breath of the retribution of God! how ready, to ourselves and to others, to explain away or to soften down the awful words of God against sin and the doers thereof! Preachers and teachers of God's truth, beware lest the blood of those who perished because you warned them not be required at your hands (Ezekiel 33:6)! II. BUT IT IS A DREAD COMMISSION. The shrinking of Jeremiah from it is manifest all through this chapter. Before the heavy burden which he was to bear was fully disclosed to him, he exclaims (ver. 6), "Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot speak: for I am a child." And the assurances, aids, and encouragements which are given him all show how much needed to be done ere his reluctance and trembling fear could be overcome. The whole chapter tells of God's gracious preparation of his servant for the arduous work he had to do. And whosoever now undertakes like work, if he have no realization of its solemnity and burden, it is plain that God has not called him to speak in his Name. To hear a man tell of the awful doom of the impenitent in a manner that, if it be not flippant, yet seems to relish his task, and to hail it as an opportunity for rhetorical display, is horrible in the extreme, and will do more to harden men in sin than almost anything beside. The subject is so sad, so serious, so terrible, that he who believes in it at all will be sure to sympathize with the prophet's sensitive shrinking from the work to which he was ordained. If when sentencing criminals who have broken the laws of man to their due punishment, humane judges often break down in tears, though their punishment touch not the soul, - how can any contemplate the death that is eternal unmoved or without the most solemn compassion and tenderest pity? And to increase the fear and shrinking with which Jeremiah regarded the work before him, there was the seeming presumption of one so young - little more than "a child" in years, experience, or knowledge - undertaking such a work. The hopelessness of it also. As well might a sparrow think to fly full in the face of a hurricane, as for the young prophet to think to stay the torrent of sin which was now flooding and raging over the whole life of his people. Sin and transgression of the grossest kind had become their habit, their settled custom, their ordinary way. All that he had to tell them they had heard again and again, and had despised and forgotten it. What hope of success was there, then, for him? And the fierceness of the opposition he would arouse would also deter him from the work. It was not alone that the faces (ver. 17) of kings, princes, priests, and people would darken upon him, but they would (ver. 19) "fight against" him, as we know they did. Well, therefore, might he say, "Ah, Lord! I cannot." And today, how many are the plausible reasons which our reluctant hearts urge against that fidelity in such work as Jeremiah's which God requires at our hands! But God will not allow them. See - III. HOW HE CONSTRAINED JEREMIAH TO UNDERTAKE THIS WORK. 1. Ver. 5: he gave him certainty as to his being called to the prophetic work. To know that we are indeed called of God to any work is an unfailing source of strength therein. 2. Ver. 7: he made him feel that necessity was laid upon him; thou shalt go; thou shalt speak. (Cf. Paul's Yea, woe is me, etc.) So Jeremiah himself afterwards says (Jeremiah 20:9) God's word was like "a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." What a help to the preacher of God's truth is such a conviction as this! 3. Ver. 8: he promised his presence and delivering grace. Consciousness of security and safety in God will give a dauntless courage in the face of any and of all opposition. 4. He gave him special qualifications for his work. Words and power of speech (ver. 9). Immovable and unflinching strength of will, a determination and resolve that would not waver (ver. 18). 5. He showed him that the rooting up and the destruction were not ends in themselves, but to lead on to planting and to building afresh (ver. 10). To know that we are working on to a good and blessed end is no small encouragement to us in working through all manner of difficulty to reach that end. 6. He made him vividly realize the nature and nearness of the judgments he foretold. This was the purpose of the visions of the rod of the almond tree and the seething pot (vers. 11-15; for explanation, see exegesis). The first vision told of God's judgment close at hand. The second, of the quarter whence these judgments come, and of the fierce; furious character of the foes who should come upon them. Jeremiah was enabled to "see well" the visions, that is, to realize very forcibly what they meant. Oh, if we could but mere vividly realize what the anger of God is against sin; if we could have a vision of the wrath of God; with how much more power and urgency should we plead with men to flee from the wrath to come! 7. Ver. 16: he reminds Jeremiah of the sins that called for these judgments. A deep sense of sin is indispensable to those who would earnestly warn of the doom of sin. 8. And (ver. 19) God again gives his servant the blessed assurance, "They shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to deliver thee." Thus did God equip the prophet and prepare him for his work. His God supplied all his need. It was a stern warfare on which he was to go, but he went not at his own charges. If we be summoned to difficult duty, we shall be supplied with all-sufficient strength. Only let us be careful to avail ourselves of the help assured, lest (ver. 17) we be dismayed and God confound us before our enemies. Dread, therefore, no commission that God entrusts thee with, for along with it will ever be found the grace, all the grace, needed for its successful discharge. - C.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. Of Charles Kingsley it is written: "His poems and sermons date from four years old. His delight was to make a little pulpit in his nursery from which, after putting on a pinafore as a surplice, he would preach to an imaginary congregation. His mother unknown to him took down his sermons at the time, and showed them to the Bishop of Peterborough, who predicted that the boy would grow up to be no ordinary man."I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. The two great blessings of election and mediation are here distinctly taught. God did not speak to the nations directly, but mediatorially He created a minister who should be His mouthpiece. Observation itself teaches us that men are called and chosen of God to do special work in all departments of life. The difficult lesson for some of us to learn is that we are called to obscurity, and yet this is as clearly a Divine appointment as is the choice of an Isaiah or a Jeremiah. If you look at life, you will see that the most of men are called to quietness, to honest industry, and to what is mistakenly called common place existence. What of it? Shall the plain murmur because it is not a mountain? Shall the green fields complain that Mont Blanc is higher than they? If they have not his majesty, neither have they his barrenness. To see our calling, to accept it, to honour it, that is the truly godly and noble life! Every man is born to realise some purpose. Find that purpose out, and fulfil it if you would lovingly serve God. We find no difficulty in persuading a man that he is a Jeremiah or a Daniel, at any rate that, under certain circumstances, he might easily have turned out a Hannibal or a Wellington. The difficulty, on the contrary, is to persuade a man that the lowliest lot, as well as the highest, is the appointment of God; that door keeping is a promotion in the Divine gift; and that to light a lamp may be as surely a call of God as to found an empire or to rule a world.(J. Parker, D. D.) II. HIS DIVINE CONSECRATION. He felt the hand of the Lord touch him: a palpable pledge of His support. Touching his mouth meant endowment. Equipment and qualification for God's work must be from God. III. SIGNS WHICH UNVEIL HIS MISSION. These he saw in spirit, God interpreted them to him as confirmatory tokens of his Divine commission. IV. SUPERNATURAL ASSURANCES OF HELP. God will furnish strength, will make him valiant and impregnable. (C. F. Keil.) Like as a sword being committed into the hands of a soldier, by the captain general, he is not to smite before he be commanded to fight, and before the trumpet be sounded to battle: even so, though a man have excellences given him, yet he is not to execute any function, especially publicly, before he receive a particular warrant and calling from God (Revelation 16:1). As the ostrich hath wings and flieth not; so some men have a calling, but they answer it not; they have knowledge, but they practise it not; they have words, but they work not.(J. Spencer.) It is very remarkable that the ancient prophets always kept steadily before them the exact way by which they were led up to their office, and were always ready to vindicate themselves by a plain statement of facts. It is remarkable, too, that they could trace their heavenly election, as clearly as their earthly parentage; so much so, that, as a rule, they put on record both pedigrees, so to speak, side by side; first, that which was natural; afterwards, that which was spiritual; and the one was as much a living and indisputable fact as the other. Thus Jeremiah said, "Hilkiah was my father, and the Word of the Lord came unto me," two things separated by an infinite distance, yet both matters of positive and unquestionable certainty. Jeremiah would have treated with equal indifference or contempt the suggestion that Hilkiah was not his father and that the Lord had never spoken to him.(J. Parker, D. D.) Ask what thy work in the world is. That for which thou wast born, to which thou wast appointed, on account of which thou wast conceived in the creative thought of God. That there is a Divine purpose in thy being is indubitable. Seek that thou mayest be permitted to realise it. And never doubt that thou hast been endowed with all the special aptitudes which that purpose may demand. God has formed thee for it, storing thy mind with all that He knew to be requisite for thy life work.I. THE DIVINE PURPOSE. "I knew thee...I sanctified thee...I have appointed thee a prophet." In that degenerate age the great Lover of souls needed a spokesman; and the Divine decree determined the conditions of Jeremiah's birth and character and life. How this could be consistent with the exercise of personal volition and choice on the part of the youthful prophet we cannot say. We can only see the two piers of the mighty arch, but not the arch itself, since the mists of time veil it, and we are dim of sight. It is wise to ascertain, if possible, while life is yet young, the direction of the Divine purpose. There are four considerations that will help us. First, the indication of our natural aptitudes; for these, when touched by the Divine Spirit, become talents or gifts. Secondly, the inward impulse or energy of the Divine Spirit, working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Thirdly, the teaching of the Word of God. Fourthly, the evidence of the circumstances and demands of life. When these concur, and focus in one point, there need be no doubt as to the Divine purpose and plan. But in cases where the Divine purpose is not so clearly disclosed, in which life is necessarily lived piecemeal, and the bits of marble for the tesselated floor are heaped together with no apparent plan, we must dare to believe that God has an intention for each of us; and that if we are true to our noblest ideals we shall certainly work out the Divine pattern, and be permitted some day to see it in its unveiled symmetry and beauty. To run errands for God! To be like the angels that excel in strength, and do His commandment, hearkening to the voice of His Word! To resemble the boy messengers in some of our large cities, that wait in readiness to discharge any commission that may be entrusted to them! II. FORMATIVE INFLUENCES. It is very interesting to study the formative influences that were brought to bear on the character of Jeremiah. There were the character and disposition of his mother, and the priestly office of his father. There was the picturesque beauty of his birthplace, the village of Anathoth, lying on the high road three miles north of Jerusalem, encircled by the famous hills of Benjamin; and looking down the ravine on the blue waters of the Dead Sea, gleaming at the foot of the purple hills of Moab. There was the near proximity of the holy city, rendering it possible for the boy to be present at all the holy festivals, and to receive such instruction as the best seminaries could provide. There was the companionship and association of godly families, like those of Shaphan and Maaseiah, who themselves had passed away, but whose children preserved the religion of their forefathers, and treasured as sacred relies the literature, psalms, and history of purer and better days. His uncle, Shallum, was the husband of the illustrious and devoted prophetess, Huldah; and their son Hanameel shared with Baruch, the grandson of Maaseiah, the close friendship of the prophet, probably from the days that they were boys together. There were also the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah, who were burning as bright constellations in that dark sky, to be soon joined by himself. His mind was evidently very sensitive to all the influences of his early life. His speech is saturated with references to natural emblems and national customs, to the life of men, and the older literature of the Bible. Take, for instance, his earliest sermon in which he refers to the story of the Exodus, and the pleadings of Deuteronomy; to the roar of the young lion, and the habits of the wild ass; to the young camel traversing her ways, and the Arabian of the wilderness; to the murmur of the brook, and the hewing of the cistern. His quick and sensitive soul eagerly incorporated the influences of the varied life around him, and reproduced them. It is thus that God is ever at work, forming and moulding us. The purpose of God gives meaning to many of its strange experiences. Be brave, strong, and trustful! III. THERE WAS ALSO A SPECIAL PREPARATION FOR HIS LIFE WORK — "The Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth." In a similar manner had the seraph touched the lips of Isaiah years before. And we are reminded that the Lord Jesus promised that the Spirit of the Father should put appropriate words into the lips of His disciples when summoned before the tribunals of their foes. Words are the special gift of God. God never asks us to go on His errands (Jeremiah 1:7) without telling us what to say. If we are living in fellowship with Him, He will impress His messages on our minds and enrich our life with the appropriate utterances by which those messages shall be conveyed to our fellows. Two other assurances were also given. First, "Thou shalt go to whomsoever I shall send thee." This gave a definiteness and directness to the prophet's speech. Secondly, "Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." IV. GOD VOUCHSAFED A TWO-FOLD VISION TO HIS CHILD. On the one hand, the swift-blossoming almond tree assured him that God would watch over him, and see to the swift performance of his predictions; on the other, the seething cauldron, turned towards the north, indicated the breaking out of evil. So the pendulum of life swings to and fro; now to light, and then to dark. But happy is the man whose heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. There was a period in Jeremiah's life when he seems to have swerved from the pathway of complete obedience (Jeremiah 15:19), and to have gone back from following the God-given plan. Surrounded by contention and strife; cursed as though he were a usurer; reproached and threatened with death — he lost heart, and fainted in the precipitous path. Immediately he had good reason to fear that the Divine protection had been withdrawn. We are only safe when we are on God's plan. But as he returned again to his allegiance, these precious promises were renewed, and again sounded in his ears: "I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible." (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Christian Age. "It was no vision that called me to the foreign field," said a missionary at Clifton Springs, last summer. "I read with intense interest 'All power is given unto Me, go ye, therefore.' This was the foundation stone of my call to be a missionary. Later, while I was in the seminary, a letter was read from Dr. Butler, asking for five new men for India, 'a chance to put your life to the best use for the Master.' Though I had no outward vision, the illumination of the heart is the best vision one can have, and from that day I have never been sorry, and I have never doubted that God called me to this work."(Christian Age.) I cannot speak: for I am a child. I. THE FEAR OF GOD'S SERVANT IN PROSPECT OF LABOUR.1. He feels his weakness. (1) (2) (3) 2. He feels his ignorance. 3. He feels his unworthiness. 4. He dreads the enmity of man. II. THE COMFORTS OF GOD'S SERVANTS IN PROSPECT OF LABOUR. 1. The assurance they are called to the work. 2. The knowledge of the purpose of God. 3. The promise of the presence of God. 4. The fact that the message was from God. (R. A. Griffin.) ( C. H. Spurgeons Autobiography.) (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) I. HIS OBJECTION NOT UNREASONABLE. 1. Inexperience. 2. Insufficient knowledge. 3. Modest diffidence. 4. Yet his ago and defects time would remedy. II. HOW GOD OVERRULES HIS OBJECTION. 1. He refers to His preordination. 2. He refers to His commission. 3. He was to speak God's words. 4. Divine presence pledged. 5. Supernatural communication.Lessons: 1. God, not man, arranges the affairs of His moral kingdom. 2. God qualifies His instruments. 3. God often selects His agents, not as men would do. 4. God gives His own message to His messengers. 5. The ministry of God's servants is mighty for good or evil. (1) (2) (3) (Y. Burns, D. D.) 1. A child in this sense, is one who has been translated out of his own unrighteous nature into the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ; and this translation takes him at once from under the dominion of the law, and brings him into the glorious liberty of the Gospel. 2. A child, in scriptural acceptation, because he feels himself to be a sinning child, will bear submissively, every trying dispensation that shall be laid upon him, and in a child-like spirit. 3. Every child of God's adoption will study the will of God, and strive to make it his own. II. WHAT INFLUENCES WERE OPERATING UPON THE PROPHETS, WHEN HE SAID, "I CANNOT SPEAK, FOR I AM A CHILD." 1. There was the influence of a fallen and diseased nature. It is a great blessing to be able to look into the drowning sea of our own evil hearts, and to know the things we ought to pray for, and the rocks and quicksands it is our interest to avoid. But it is perilous to linger too long in an enemy's country, and to roll our meditations overmuch through the defiled places; because the very sight and knowledge of what we are, in our natural weakness and deformity, if they are steeped for too long a time in the bitterness of soul humiliation, will be apt to produce a feeling of darkness akin to despair. 2. There was a distrust of God's providence. This is a common sin in very many, who are without a question, children of the covenant. They have a faith, but it is not equal to their emergencies; there is a light in it, but it does not warm them; it staggers and hesitates, when it ought to be going forwards and realising. III. WHAT IT WAS THAT GOD INTENDED HIS PROPHET TO UNDERSTAND, WHEN HE REPLIED, "SAY NOT, I AM A CHILD," etc. 1. First He taught him that His simple word is the best rock for dependence: "Thou shalt go and thou shalt speak." This is the way in which God most loves to teach His children, because it is the simplest, I do not say the easiest lesson, for their faith to embrace. It is a trial for their confidence to improve. 2. But God's word to the prophet, "Say not I am a child," implies more. Jeremiah was to work for God; but God was to work in Jeremiah, and to supply him with a strength fully equal to what he had to do. Here is another link that binds God in His omnipotence to a covenant child in his weakness. (F. G. Crossman.) 1. First the meaning and the power of simple faith. It is a word that some of us perhaps for years have been trying to learn the meaning of. Faith, trust. Have you children of your own, or have you seen such, nestling fearless and trustful at their parent's knee! Your child believes in you, in something more than the fact of your existence. It lives in your love. It trusts your care. Faith is a belief that leads to the committal of the whole being to the hands of One who is our Father, our Helper, our Saviour; and as we grow up into strength, the highest of all motive impulse, at first it may be fear or expectation of good that induces obedience, but no long time can pass, if the relation be truly sustained, before love is the impulse of every action; and because your child loves you it delights to do your will. As such is the truth which appears in the earliest years of children, can it be a mistake to suppose that God intended the truth to be learned from such illustration of His word? 2. Does there not come to us in this self-same way, too, a hint of the folly and wrong of distractive anxiety? What good could the child do by puzzling its little brain with such questions as belong necessarily to the chiefs of the family? What slight would be cast upon the parents' love if the child should becloud its life and be sad because no way out of supposed difficulties presented itself! Would you not say or think, my child, I stand higher and see farther; what is an inscrutable problem to you is none to me; my strength removes the hindrance, my wisdom solves the riddle? 3. And this leads us to another thought: that those things which seem to us all-important, upon which our whole interest is often apt to centre, to which, indeed, we look as to the source of our happiness in life, may be the merest trifles after all. What a small matter changes the child's light to darkness! In what an instant, by what a trivial cause, is laughing changed to crying, or the reverse! You say the child will grow, that now it speaks, thinks, acts as a child, but when it becomes a man it will put away childish things. God expects the same thing of us, and we well may ask ourselves, Am I growing into a higher life, and is it manifest by my interest in things of superior moment? Spiritually, have we come to see what is the noblest aim that may be set before us? Having learned the principles of the Gospel of Christ, are we going on to perfection, coming closer up to our Father in likeness, reflecting proof of our sonship, ready to follow everywhere He leads, and to be quite sure that as we would give our child all that is good, and not willingly or needlessly cause one pang of pain, so in much intenser and tenderer love does our Heavenly Father deal with us? 4. The last thought is the influence of kindliness and refreshing which is shed from the life of children. Their presence in the home makes the life less artificial, more true; and such may be their influence in the Church. We hold out the hand of encouragement for them to confess the name of the Saviour whom they may love. Let first impulses toward Christ, instinctive they will be, be nurtured. See to it that none be repressed, none discouraged. (D. J. Hamer.) 1. Realise the needs of men around you. They are very great. They demand all your energies, all your courageous charity, all possible firmness and decision. 2. Think of the danger of delay, the immense value of present opportunities. Have you never noticed, that the occasion for speaking to a soul to which we feel peculiarly impelled is at times the very last? How bitter must be our regret, if we let such an occasion slip, and allow one for whom Christ died actually to perish! 3. If you hesitate, if the childishness of your nature still wrestles with the mighty angel of God's grace, remember that which should constrain us the most to the fearless deeds of Christian faith — the contemplation of Christ crucified, and of the exceeding great love wherewith He loved us, enduring the contradiction of sinners and the shame and agony of death. Take the first step, the first brave, loving step along that way, and He will hold you by the hand, and go with you into the very midst of the battle, into the heat of the day; and you shall thank Him, ere the sun goes down, for enabling you, though you seemed to yourself but a child, to speak and to fight for Him. (G. E. Jeli, M. A.) 1. To go forth on an errand from God. 2. To go only where God sends him. 3. To speak only what God communicates. Not to speak his own speculations, on the theology of others, but the Word of God. II. HE IS CONSCIOUS OF SELF-INSUFFICIENCY. 1. The characteristic of all true servants. Moses, Isaiah, Paul. 2. A qualification of all true servants. "When I am weak, then am I strong." III. HE IS STRENGTHENED BY THE DIVINE (ver. 8). A man who has God within need never be afraid. (Homilist.) II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. (G. Inglis.) 2. Work and duty prescribed. To bear God's message to men.(1) To whom? To all to whom the Lord should send him. He was not to choose for himself. Must obey the call of God, and do his duty, though neglected, hated, and persecuted for his faith. fulness.(2) The matter of the message. Not to speak at random whatever came uppermost, or what might be most easy to himself or agreeable to his hearers but only what the Lord commanded. 3. How, or in what manner, God's word was to be delivered. (1) (2) I. THE OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY. 1. It is an ordinance of Divine appointment to be continued in all ages to the end of time. Accordingly, they who slight and undervalue it, or despise those who are employed in it, reject their message, and disregard their salutary admonitions, reproofs, and instructions, greatly dishonour God, and pour contempt upon His authority. 2. It hath pleased God to employ weak and sinful men to dispense His word, and bear His message to sinners and saints. 3. None must intrude themselves into the office of the ministry, or presume to exercise it without a lawful call. Those who run unsent, who take upon them the office of the ministry when they are not called to that sacred function, in such a manner as God hath prescribed in His word, have no reason to expect assistance and success in their work. 4. Those whom God calls to the exercise of the ministerial office, He doth in some measure qualify for discharging the several parts of it. 5. The work of the ministry is very important and difficult work. The honour of God, and the salvation of souls, are nearly concerned in it. 6. Those whom God calls to exercise the office of the ministry have ordinarily a humbling sense of their own weakness, and insufficiency for the work they are called to. 7. Ministers of the Gospel, in performing the duties of their function, do not act in their own name, but in the name, and by the authority of their Divine master the Lord Jesus Christ. 8. Whatever opposition, or difficulties, the servants of Christ may meet with in the exercise of their ministry, they have sufficient encouragement to persevere in it. II. SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES AND DISCOURAGEMENTS WHICH THEY WHO ARE CALLED TO EXERCISE THAT SACRED FUNCTION MAY HAVE TO STRUGGLE WITH. 1. Their fears and discouragements are sometimes occasioned by a serious consideration of the nature of the work they are called to engage in. 2. By a sense of their own weakness and insufficiency for discharging the duties of the sacred function. 3. When they consider the opposition they are likely to meet with in the exercise of their office. (1) (2) 4. The cold reception that is usually given to the messages which the servants of the Lord deliver in His name, is sometimes a cause of discouragement. 5. The low and afflicted state of the Church is apt to discourage those who are about to enter upon public work in her. III. THEIR DUTY AND THE WORK THEY ARE CALLED TO. 1. They must not choose their own let. Have they a call in providence to deliver God's message to those who are more likely to persecute them, than to submit to their instructions or pay any due regard to what they declare in the name of the Lord, they must not dispute, but readily obey the orders given them. Nor have they reason to fear any dangers they may be exposed to, through the power and malice of their enemies; for He in whose service they are employed is able to defend them, and frustrate all the designs of their enemies against them. His promise is their protection. 2. They must deliver nothing in His name but what He commands, or what is agreeable to His revealed will. In order to this, the teaching and renewed illumination of the Holy Spirit is necessary; but they need no additional, objective revelation. 3. The instructions given to the prophet, and every other minister of the Word, in the text imply, that those who are called to preach the Gospel should, as there may be opportunity, teach all truths revealed in the Word of God, and urge the performance of all duties required in it. 4. They should urge the diligent observance of all Divine ordinances, as a necessary duty. They must not think it is enough, if persons have the low of God in their hearts, and some experience of a work of grace in their souls, though they neglect the administration of the word and sacraments, or other outward ordinances, and treat with contempt any endeavours to maintain their purity; because, as some are pleased to speak, they are only outward things, and the observance of them hath not a necessary connection with vital piety, and the exercise of grace in the heart. 5. They must urge obedience to all the precepts of the moral law. 6. They should endeavour to accommodate their doctrine to the various conditions of their hearers.Conclusion: 1. When those who are about to enter upon public work in the Church have a humbling sense of their own insufficiency, it is a presage of future usefulness. 2. The work of the ministry is not to be engaged in rashly. Count the cost. 3. Such as bear the character of office bearers in the Church, who take upon them to make laws for the members of the Church, contrary to those which the glorious Head of the Church hath enacted, or different from them; or who enjoin the observation of religious rites, devised by men without any warrant from the Word of God, not only transgress the limits of their commission, but are chargeable with great presumption. They teach what God never commanded, and exercise a power which no creature can claim, without invading the prerogative of the supreme Lawgiver. 4. Those who are called to bear God's message to the children of men ought to be well acquainted with His written word contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. 5. Ministers of the word must have no partial respect to the persons of men. 6. In order to a suitable discharge of ministerial duties, much fortitude and resolution is necessary. 7. Those ministers of the Gospel who, sensible of their own weakness, are enabled humbly to depend upon the power and grace of God for protection, and support in their work, are most likely to discharge the duties of their office with acceptance and success. 8. They must take care that they do not run unsent, or thrust themselves into the office of the ministry without a lawful call, the call of God and the call of the Church. 9. They are to deliver their message authoritatively, as not acting in their own name, but in the name of God. If ministers, in preaching the Word, act as the messengers of the Lord of hosts, the people to whom they preach ought to receive their message with reverence and submission. If they reject it, or slight it, they put an affront upon Him who sent them. They despise not man but God. (D. Wilson.) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) (Bp. Phillips Brooks.) (The Signal.) 2. He has widest scope for the exercise of his powers: he is invested with authority over the destinies of all peoples. If it be asked in what sense it could be truly said that the ruin and renascence of nations was subject to the supervision of the prophets, the answer is obvious. The Word they were authorised to declare was the Word of God, that fulfils itself with all the necessity of a law of nature (Isaiah 55:10, 11). 3. What strength, what staying power may the Christian preacher find in dwelling upon this fact, that God's Word is fulfilling itself, though that Word may be disowned, and the efforts of the preacher may be thwarted. (C. J. Ball, M. A.) 1. By your public ministry root out errors in doctrine. 2. By leading the Church, in the exercise of faithful discipline, root out evil-doers. 3. By rendering your pastoral visits subservient to the purposes of conviction and correction. II. WHAT IS THAT GOOD YOU ARE TO ENCOURAGE? 1. As a builder — (1) (2) (a) (b) (c) (3) 2. As a planter. (1) (2) (3) (4) (Andrew Fuller.) II. PARALLEL. 1. Each is elected by God, and therefore trained by his circumstances for his work. The call of Jeremiah, the conversion of Saul, was to each a revelation of a God that had formed him from the womb for his work (cp. Galatians 1:15, 16 with Jeremiah 1:5). 2. The two-fold nature of that work — destructive and constructive. To root out, pull down, destroy; yet to plant and to build. We may almost say this is the work of all whom God has called to labour for Him. This was the type of Christ's work. His coming laid an axe to the root of the tree (Matthew 3:10, see also 15:13). Yet was He the Sower. It may be the teacher, like Jeremiah, does not live to see his work grow — yet who can doubt the effect of Jeremiah upon those who returned purified and repentant from Babylon? The two must go together. Root up error and plant truth. Pull down the strongholds of sin, and build up the temple of Christian holiness. (John Ellerton, M. A.) (John Trapp.) 1020 God, all-knowing Jeremiah, a Lesson for the Disappointed. The Writings of Jerome. Out of Sectarian Confusion How those are to be Admonished who do not Even Begin Good Things, and those who do not Finish them when Begun. The Servant's Inflexible Resolve The Baptismal Covenant Can be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents. That Sometimes Some Laudably Desire the Office of Preaching, While Others, as Laudably, are Drawn to it by Compulsion. A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification, by Faith in Jesus Christ; Letter Xlv (Circa A. D. 1140) to the Canons of Lyons, on the Conception of S. Mary. Epistle iv. To Cyriacus, Bishop. The Sin-Bearer. John the Baptist's Person and Preaching. Jeremiah |
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