The verses from Ver. 2 to the text set forth its doings, and the text and remainder of the chapter foretell its doom. Note -

I. DECEIT. It is a terrible indictment that the prophet brings. He affirms that deceit is:

1. Universal. Ver. 2, "They be all," etc. Ver. 6, "Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;" i.e. it is everywhere, all around you. That:

2. It has broken up the most sacred relationships: "They be all adulterers" (Ver. 2).

3. It has turned their solemn assemblies into a conclave of liars (Ver. 2).

4. It is practiced deliberately. Ver. 3: as a man deliberately bends and takes aim with his bow.

5. It has mounted the judge's seat (Ver. 3; cf. true translation of phrase, "They are not valiant for the truth").

6. It has smoothed the way for all evil. "They proceed from evil to evil" (Ver. 3).

7. It has destroyed all confidence

(1) between neighbors,

(2) between brethren (Ver. 4).

8. It is diligently studied. Ver. 5, "They have taught," etc. "They take the utmost pains to go crookedly."

9. It is cruel and deadly in its aims (Ver. 8). In view of a condition of things so horrible, how unanswerable is the demand of Ver. 9, "Shall I not visit them for these things?" etc.! It will be found in all the judgments of God upon nations that those judgments have never come until there was no other way of dealing with such nations, if the moral life of the world was to be maintained.

II. ITS DOINGS.

1. It had made dwelling amongst them intolerable to the righteous. (Cf. Ver. 2.) Jeremiah longs to get away from them. The most desolate solitude would be preferable to living amid such a people as this. It is an ominous sign for a community when the godly, however compassionate, however long-suffering, can no longer endure to dwell in their midst.

2. It had made the thought of God intolerable to themselves. Vers. 3, 6, "They know not me, saith the Lord." Just as a man may meet one whom he desires to have nothing to do with, but when he meets him will pass him as if he did not know him; so deceit had made these people, as it makes all such, desirous of having nothing to do with God. Therefore they will not recognize or acknowledge him in any way.

3. And at last it had made them intolerable to God. Ver. 7: God asks, "What else can I do for the daughter of my people?" (cf. Exposition). There was nothing now but for the judgment of God to go forth against them. Therefore note -

III. ITS DOOM. Ver. 7, "Therefore thus saith" etc. And down to Ver. 22 these awful judgments of God are set forth. Inquire, therefore, what there is about deceit which renders it so hateful in the sight of God.

1. There can be no doubt that it is so. "Lying tips are an abomination unto the Lord" (cf. Psalm 15.; Acts 5.). "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth," etc.

2. And some of the reasons are:

(1) Deceit cometh from Satan, who was "a liar from the beginning," and "the father of lies." It was by his lies that our first parents were deceived and sin was brought into the world.

(2) It is the source of infinite misery and distress. It is" the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil" which still work well-nigh all our sorrow and our shame.

(3) It tends to the destruction of human society. All our well-being and comfort depend upon good faith being maintained between man and man. "But now, where fraud and falsehood, like a plague or cancer, comes over to invade society, the band which held together the parts compounding it presently breaks, and men are thereby put to a loss where to league and to fasten their dependencies, and so are forced to scatter and shift every one for himself. Upon which account every notoriously false person ought to be looked upon and detested as a public enemy, and to be pursued as a wolf or a mad dog, and a disturber of the common peace and welfare of mankind; there being no particular person whatsoever but has his private interest concerned and endangered in the mischief that such a wretch does to the public" (South). A sin, therefore, so destructive of the well-being of his children cannot but be abominable in the eyes of the Father of us all.

3. It shuts God out of the heart altogether. God has made us for himself, but deceit bars fast the door of man's heart against him. God can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth; but deceit renders this primary condition of such worship unattainable.

4. But God in his anger remembers mercy. Ver 7, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them," that is to say, he will, as the smelter casts the metal into the fire not to destroy but to refine it, to purge away its dross, and then, that being done, tests and tries it to see that the process has been effectual; so God will send his judgments upon his people, not to destroy, but to purify them, and he will afterwards test them again, give them another opportunity of serving him. He might have destroyed, but this he will not do. He "will melt them, and try them." But less than this he cannot do. "What else," etc.? he asks. It is a dread process; Judah and Jerusalem found it so, and all who compel God to cast them into such a crucible find it to be a dread process. Our blessed Savior wept over Jerusalem, although he told them that when next they saw him they should say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord." It was the thought of that furnace for fire through which they must be passed ere they would come to this better mind that drew forth those tears. Let none, therefore, deem the judgment of God a subject for trifling with, because, as here, God says its purpose is to "melt and try," rather than to destroy. CONCLUSION. Let this consideration of the doings and doom of deceit lead us to listen to the Lord's appeal, "Oh, do not this thing that I hate!" - C.

Observe, here, that God represents Himself as greatly concerned to know what to do with His people. But notice, next, the Lord is so resolved to save His people, that He will use the sternest possible means rather than lose any of those whom He loves. Observe, once more, that God's concern about His people, and His resolve to use strange ways with them, spring out of His relationship to them; for He says, "How shall I do for the daughter of 'My' people? My people." They were His, though they were so far away from Him through their evil ways. When God has chosen a man from before the foundation of the world, and when He has given that man over to Christ to be a part of the reward of His soul's travail, He will adopt strange means to accomplish His sacred purpose, and He will carry out that purpose, let it cost Him what it may.

I. First, these principles may be applied to THE MATTER OF CONVERSION.

1. There is a very simple way of being saved; it should be, I hope it is, the common way. It is the simple way of following the call of grace. Without any violence, your heart is opened, as with the picklock of grace. God puts the latch key into the door, and steps into your heart without a word.

2. This is the way of salvation, but there are some who will not come this way. There is the Wicket Gate. They have but to knock, and it will be opened; but they prefer to go round about through the Slough of Despond, or to get under the care of Mr. Worldly Wiseman, who leads them round by the house of Mr. Legality, who dwells in the village of Morality, and there they go with their burdens on their backs, which they need not carry even for a single hour, for they would roll off directly if they would but look to Jesus, and believe in Him. But they will not do this. There are some of whom God has to say, "How shall I do for the daughter of My people?" Why is this? Well, some of them have a crooked sort of mind, they never can believe anything straight; they must go round about. But some others are obstinate in sin. They are not happy in it; but they will not give it up. Some others are unwilling to confess sin at all. They think themselves wrong; but they try to make excuses. Then there are some people who are not saved, but who are outwardly very religious. They have never omitted going to Church; they have been brought up carefully, and they have said their prayers regularly, and they have had family prayer, too. The robe of their self-righteousness clings to them, and prevents their coming to rest in Jesus. There are some others who will not come to Christ because they are so full of levity and fickleness. They are all froth, all fun. They live like butterflies; they suck in the juices from the flowers, and only flit from one to the other. They are easily impressed one way and another; but there is no heart in them. And withal, there is another class of persons that are insincere. There is no depth of earth about them. They do not really feel what they think they feel; and when they say that they believe, they do not really believe in their heart.

3. Now, having brought before you these characters, or held up the looking glass of God's Word so that they might see themselves in it, I want you to notice how God does deal with such people very often. According to my text, they will have to feel the furnace. I have noticed, during a considerable period of time, some of the self-righteous and the outwardly-religious put into the fire and melted, by being permitted to fall into some gross and open sin. I pray God that none of you self-righteous people may be left to go into an open sin; but it may be that the Lord may leave you to yourselves, to let you see what you really are, for you probably have no idea what you are. Some, again, have been melted down by temporal calamities. Oh yes, there are some who cannot be saved as long as they have a silver spoon in their mouths; but when they are brought to poverty, it is the nearest way round to the Father's house, round by the far country where they would fain fill their bellies with the husks that the swine eat. At other times, without any overt sin, without any temporal trouble, God has ways of taking men apart from their fellows, and whipping them behind the door. They have told me that their sin haunts them day and night; they cannot hope for mercy; they cannot think that God will ever blot out their transgressions. They are ground down, and brought low. This is all meant to work for their good; they would not come to God any other way. It is by such an experience "that God is fulfilling His Word, I will melt them, and try them."

4. In all this God has one great object. It is just this, first, to hide pride from men. God will not save us, and have us proud. Grace must have the glory of it from first to last. Beside that, God means to take us out of our sin, and to do that He makes it to be a bitter and an evil thing to us. Blessed is the blow that almost crushes you if it breaks off the connection between you and sin.

II. I want to say something to Christians; for, IN THE MATTER OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, God seems to say, "What shall I do for the daughter of My people? I will melt them, and try them."

1. Some Christians go from joy to joy. Their path, like that of the light, shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Why should not you and I be like that?

2. There are other Christians who appear to make much progress in Divine things, but it is not true progress. Whereas they say that they are rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, they are all the while naked, and blind, and poor, and miserable. The worst thing about their condition is that some of them do not want to know their real state. They half suspect that it is not what they say it is; but they do not like to be told so; in fact, they get very cross when anyone even hints at the truth. Now, there are such people in all our congregations, of whom God might well say, "How shall I do for the daughter of My people?"

3. This is what He will do with a great many who are now inflated with a false kind of grace: "I will melt them, and try them," says the Lord of hosts. He will put them to a test. Here is a man who has a quantity of plate, and he does not know the value of it, so he takes it to a goldsmith, and asks him what it is worth. "Well," says he, "I cannot exactly tell you; but if you give me a little time, I will melt it all down, and then I will let you know its value." Thus does the Lord deal with many of His people. They have become very good, and very great, as they fancy, and He says, "I will melt them." He that is pure gold will lose nothing in the melting; but he that is somebody in his own opinion, will have to come down a peg or two before long.

4. Now, the result of melting is truth and humility. The result of melting is that we arrive at a true valuation of things. The result of melting is that we are poured out into a new and better fashion. And, oh, we may almost wish for the melting-pot if we may but get rid of the dross, if we may but be pure, if we may but be fashioned more completely like unto our Lord!

( C. H. Spurgeon.)