Jeremiah 8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. The people among whom Jeremiah dwelt had received a grievous hurt, and they felt it, for they were invaded by cruel enemies, their goods were plundered, their children were slain, and their cities burned. Jeremiah, with true love to his nation, warned them that the cause of all their trouble was that they had forsaken their God. Today God's servants have a task before them sterner even than that of the ancient seers. It is not ours to point to smoking ruins and the carcases of the unburied dead — plain evidences of a grievous hurt; but our work is to deal with spiritual sickness, and to come among a people who confess no hurt. Great multitudes of our hearers do not welcome the news of a heavenly remedy, because they are not aware that they are sick. A physician who has to commence his practice by convincing his neighbours that they are sick has not a very hopeful sphere before him. Such is our work: we have first of all to declare in the name of the God of truth that man is fallen, that his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, that he is a sinner doomed to die, and such a sinner that there is no reclaiming him unless the Ethiopian can change his skin and the leopard his spots. Truths so humiliating to human pride are by no means popular; men prefer to hear the smooth periods of those who parade the dignity of human nature. Many there are who confess their disease, but the disease of sin has wrought in them a spiritual lethargy, so that they find a horrible rest in their lost estate, and have no longing to rise to spiritual health, of which, indeed, they know nothing. They are guilty, and willing to remain guilty; inclined to evil, and content with the inclination. Ah, me! but we' must bring them out of this. They will perish unless they are quickened out of this indifference: they will sleep themselves into hell unless we can find an antidote to the opiates of sin. After these things are done, we have but stormed the outworks of the castle, for there still remains another difficulty. Convinced that they want healing, and made in a measure anxious to find it, the danger with the awakened is lest they should rest content with an apparent cure, and miss the real work of grace. I. IT IS VERY EASY FOR US TO BE THE SUBJECTS OF A FALSE HEALING. 1. We might infer this from the fact that no doubt a large number of persons are so deceived. If a large number of persons are so, then why should not we be? The tendency of other men is probably in us also. Why not? Are there not many persons who consider that all is well with them because they have been observant of church ordinances from their youth up, and their parents were observant for them before they actually came upon the stage of responsibility? Too many are reliant entirely upon external religion. If that be attended to carefully they conclude that all is right. I am afraid, too, that many who do not rely upon religious forms yet confide in doctrinal beliefs. They are sound in the faith — orthodox, evangelical. They heartily detest any doctrine that is not scriptural. I am glad to find that it is so with them; but let them not rest in this. To cover a wound with a royal garment is not to heal it, and to conceal a sinful disposition beneath a sound creed is not salvation. 2. Depend upon this, that if there is a chance of our being deceived at all we are always ready to aid in the deception. We are almost all of us on the side of that which is most easy and comfortable to ourselves: the exceptions to this rule are a few morbid spirits who habitually write bitter things against themselves, and a few gracious souls whom the Holy Spirit has convinced of sin, who would comfort themselves if they could, but dare not do so. Take this, then, for granted, that there are many ways of being slightly healed, and we are most of us likely to be pleased with one or other of them. 3. Besides, flatterers are not yet an extinct race. False prophets abounded in Jeremiah's day, and they may be met with still. 4. Slight healing is sure to be fashionable among a great many, because it requires so little thought. People will do anything but think according to the Word of God. How few sit down and answer the question, "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" They would sooner hear a thunder clap than be asked to consider their ways. 5. Superficial religion also will always be fashionable, because it does not require self-denial. Do you wonder that vital godliness is at a discount when it proclaims war to the knife against a lifelong indulgence? 6. Slight healing, also, is sought by men, because it does not require spirituality. 7. But let me warn you with all the energy I possess against ever being satisfied with any of the slight healings that are cried up nowadays, because they will all end in disappointment, as sure as you are living men. Remember that if you pass through this life deceived there will await you an awful undeceiving in the next world. II. BE IT OURS TO SEEK TRUE HEALING. But then, as we have already said, this true healing must be radical. Oh, pray to have it so! Oh that we might each one now lie at Christ's feet as dead till He shall touch us and say, "Live." Truly, I desire no life but that which He gives. I would be quickened by His Spirit, and find in Him my life, my all. Now go a step further. The healing we want must be a healing from the guilt of sin. Every offence you have ever committed must be washed right out, even the least stain of it must vanish, and it must be as though it had never been, and you must be as though you never had offended at all "How can that be?" say you. It is clear it cannot be by anything that you can do; and this again drives you to the prayer of my text, "Heal me, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." How can it be? Only by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Saviour. But you must not only be free from sin, you must be freed from sinfulness: a work must be wrought in you, and in me, by which we shall be clean rid of every tendency to do evil. Does not this make you cry, "Heal me, O God, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved"? It ought to do so, and in so doing it will work your safety. In answer to your cry the eternal Spirit shall come upon you, creating you anew in Christ Jesus: He shall come and dwell in you, and shall break down the reigning power of sin, putting it beneath your feet. It is most desirable to be so healed in soul as to stand the test of this present life. I have known friends discharged from the hospital as healed of disease who were bitterly disappointed when they came into everyday life: a little exertion made them as ill as ever. A person had a piece of diseased bone in the wrist; it was taken out by the hospital surgeon, and the arm seemed perfectly healed, but when she began to work the old pain returned, and it was evident that the old mischief was there still, and that a part of the decayed bone remained. Thus some are saved, so they think; but it is only in seeming, for when they get into the world, and are tried with temptation, they are just the same as they used to be. They have not received a practical salvation; and nothing but practical salvation is worth having. A sham cure is worse than none. III. LET US GO WHERE TRUE HEALING IS TO BE HAD. It is quite certain that God is able to heal us of all our sins: for He who created can restore. Whatever our diseases, nothing can surpass the power of omnipotent love. Blessed be the name of the Lord, no work of grace can be beyond His will, for He delighteth in mercy. The Lord is so fond of healing sin-sick souls, that He had but one Son, and He made a physician of Him that He might come and heal mankind of their deadly wound: and He being made a physician came down among us, and sought out for His patients, not the good and excellent, but the most guilty, for He said, "The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus, then, the beloved Physician is able and willing to meet the case of every one of us. His wounds are an unfailing remedy. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. |
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