Jeremiah 33:6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. I. THE VISIT WHICH THIS GOOD PHYSICIAN PAYS TO THE POOR PATIENT WHO HAS NEED OF HIM. The patient is a wretched being, who, in a spiritual point of view, is diseased from head to foot, and hath "no soundness in him." He has the disease of human nature, the disease which you and I have — sin. He has become painfully alive to the humiliating fact that there is no good thing in him — that all his doings have been evil — and that the sentence of death eternal hangs over his soul. He cannot heal himself. His fellow-sinners cannot heal him. Is not then his case desperate? It would be so indeed were it not for a voice from heaven which saith of this poor sinner, "I will bring him health and cure." Every word is a word of comfort to that sinner's soul. There is comfort in the first word "I" — I will do it. For who is it that speaks? It is Jesus, the great, the mighty Saviour of the soul — that famous, that renowned Physician who hath healed already such a multitude of sinners, and hath never lost a single patient. There is comfort in the next word, "I will bring" — for, alas! this sinner cannot fetch his cure. But look at the last words of the sentence, and behold still more abundant comfort for this perishing transgressor. "I will bring," saith the Lord — What? A medicine? A healing application that will be likely to avail — that may conduce towards recovery? No, but — Oh, bold words! words only fit for an Almighty Saviour! — I will bring him health and cure — something so sovereign in its virtue, so sure, so swift in its effects, that, the moment it is tried upon the patient, he is well; not only in part restored; not only altogether freed from his disease; but well — in full, in perfect health. The balm which the Physician brings to cure the sinner with is the blood which He hath shed for them, the life which He hath given for them, the full, the perfect and sufficient sacrifice which He hath offered up for them. And this balm, is not medicine only — for that may heal or not heal; that is a mere experiment upon a broken constitution, and may be ineffectual; but the balm which Jesus brings the sinner may well be styled "health and cure"; for it is everything at once which the sinner's case requires. This precious blood "cleanseth from all sin." But we have not yet attended this Good Physician to His patient. We have not yet ascertained, I mean, how He may be said to "bring" this "health and cure" to the poor sinner's soul. It is when He opens that sinner's eyes to view Him as a Saviour — when, by His word or by His ministers, He sets His love before that sinner's soul, and by His Holy Spirit makes him see it. II. OBSERVE THE GOOD PHYSICIAL ACTUALLY CURING THE POOR PATIENT HE ATTENDS. There is a difference between a remedy brought near, and a remedy applied; and there is a difference again between Christ's "bringing health and cure" to the sinner, and that sinner's being cured. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation" is said to "appear unto all men"; but we know that all men to whom it appeareth are not saved by it. Many men perceive that Christ is their Physician, yet will not take His remedy; and many men believe that they have used the remedy when they have only done so in appearance. The patient we have endeavoured to describe is a really humbled and awakened soul, and the Lord, who brings him health, gives him faith also, to be healed. He believes in Jesus as a Saviour. He casts his soul on Him for pardon and righteousness. III. NOW PROCEED TO THE BLESSINGS MY TEXT DESCRIBES HIM AS BESTOWING ON THE POOR PATIENTS HE HAS HEALED. "I will reveal to them," says He, "the abundance of peace and truth." 1. We may regard this peace and truth as the privileges of the redeemed sinner. When our poor sick bodies are recovered unexpectedly from a painful and a dangerous disease, how do we rejoice in our newly acquired health! How are our fears calmed and our anxieties removed! but these natural emotions are not to be compared for a moment with the spiritual feelings and experiences of the pardoned sinner; no sooner hath the Good Physician healed the soul than what doth He reveal to it? "The abundance of peace and truth." Peace — for "being justified by faith, he hath peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ "revealeth" also to him "the abundance of truth." He enjoys, through the Spirit which Christ sends him, a glorious and most comfortable apprehension of the truth of God — of the truth of His grace, of the truth of His covenant, of the truth of His promises. 2. Consider this "abundance of peace and truth" as referring also to the character acquired by the believer in consequence of his faith. Christ may be said to have revealed to His people the "abundance of peace" in that He hath given them a peaceful spirit — in that He hath sent that Dove-like Messenger to rest upon their souls who is "first pure, then peaceable," and who makes the hearts He enters like Himself. And Christ may be said also to have revealed to him "the abundance of truth," by enabling him to walk in truth. He is "an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile," no crooked policy, no artful management. His aim is, on all occasions, to be "a child of the light and of the day" — "sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ" — "having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reproving them." (A. Roberts, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. |
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