Jeremiah 3

Jeremiah 3:14

GRACE FOR THE Jeremiah 3:14. THIS text we take from an extensive setting. The first chapter of this Book was introductory and explanatory. It introduced Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, a priestly descendant who was made a Prophet of God, and “to whom the Word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign”.The Prophet tells us of his call and of his enduement for office, and of his Divine encouragement.The necessity for all of this becomes the more apparent as we proceed with the further study of this Book, for he is to deal not with the people who are living in the favor of the Lord, and consequently are responsive to His lightest Word, but rather with a people who are sadly backslidden, and whose sore spiritual estate becomes the supreme burden of the prophetic message.That minister of God’s Word who has to do with backsliders needs an absolute assurance that he is speaking the Word of the Lord, and to be both endued and endowed; in addition, he will need the encouragement of the Divine voice again and again, to keep him from the fear of the faces of them to whom he ministers. For no people are so difficult and none more dangerous than the spiritually backslidden.It is true, as a rule, that the young man, the freshly-commissioned minister, the inexperienced man, has the most difficult of all pastoral and prophetic tasks. The churches that are in spiritual decline are commonly small, and the members stingy, their spiritual estate low—they can command the services of only the young and inexperienced prophet, or the prophet who has proven himself a partial failure. The result is that the truly strong and great prophets of God enjoy an office of ease as compared with the young or the inadequate.The backslidden man is always a problem. The backslidden church is a greater problem still; and yet, the Book of Jeremiah, one of the most extensive of sacred Scriptures, constituted of fifty-two lengthy chapters, is made up of a long series of appeals to the backslider.That fact harmonizes with the suggestion of our text, and shows forth clearly what we shall attempt to set before you as readers, namely, God’s Interest in the Backslider: God’s Affection for the Backslider: and God’s Grace Toward the Backslider.GOD’S IN THE “Turn, O backsliding. children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I “Will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion”. He does not petulantly cast off the backslider.The Book of Jeremiah is a proof of that fact.Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, takes note of His grace in dealing with spiritual indifference and deadness on the part of His own. He raises this question,“Hath God cast away His people”? He answers it,“God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, “Lord, they have killed Thy Prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life”. So it looked to Elias, and as a matter of fact, so it was, for the most part; and yet, God, who knows all things, took a better view of Israel’s estate than Elias was able to get, and God answers Elias, saying, “I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal”.Even so at the present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace; and certainly it was of grace, as it always is of grace. As God sought for the remnant in backslidden Israel, so God doubtless looks for any remnant of good left in the backslidden individual, and often He finds it when the individual himself is not conscious of it. Hence John writes, “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20).The Church of God has in it today no small number of consecrated spirits who recovered from their backsliding because God did not deal with them impetuously, but with grace instead.He does not shortly forget the backslider. It is quite common for people who pass through some accident that renders them unconscious, to have obliterated from the memory the immediately preceding events. Recently an officer of my church, one of God’s noblemen, together with his wife, was driving home from Florida. In a spot of new, deep gravel on the highway, their car skidded and struck a side blow against a passing truck, practically demolishing the car and turning the truck over.

It killed the owner of the truck and also my officer. Those who came to their help found the devoted wife sitting at the roadside with her dying husband in her arms, she herself badly wounded and only semi-conscious.

To this hour she has no memory whatever of the crash; doesn’t recall having seen the truck with which the collision took place, or anything else to indicate danger.Some years since, riding home from a beautiful day’s outing with three of my church officials, we were crashed into by drunken men who were driving at the rate of fifty miles or more an hour. We were all more or less wounded. It cost me nine months off duty. The owner of the car, my good officer, was the only one of the four who was left immediately unconscious, and to this hour he has no memory whatever of seeing the car that struck us, and no memory of the collision itself.Contrast this with the experience of Christ who hung on a Cross, and went through hours and hours of agony, before He yielded up His spirit; and yet, recall the fact that in it all He suffered no lapse of memory whatever, and you have another evidence of His Deity. They laid Him in the grave where He remained for three days; but when He came forth, everything that had led up to that hour was as clearly in His mind as though there had been no interim of unconsciousness. One of the last things that smote His soul was the denial of Peter, the cursing and swearing of this officer in His presence.

He looked on him, and Peter, abashed, departed to grieve his ingratitude and his godless denial.Depression of spirit followed, and Peter was a hopeless man. His sin was such that he felt in his soul that he could never be forgiven.

But the Risen Jesus, when He sent a message to His disciples to meet Him in Galilee, added to the invitation, “And Peter”.He meant to encourage and thereby recover the backslider. He meant to get through to him a message of the Master’s unfailing love; and it is a type of His treatment of all backsliders. He does not quickly forget them.His appeal is a plea for attention. It is little less than pathetic to hear the mighty God pleading with sinful children, practically begging them to attend upon His Word. And yet it reveals all the more His Father-heart.Some years ago the “Chicago Tribune” carried the following article:“Dear Helen:“We miss you so and want you so. It doesn’t matter where you have been or what has happened.

Our arms and hearts are waiting for you. Won’t you come back to us or let us know where we can find you.

Don’t feel afraid. We are ready to forgive everything. Only come. Your wondering, heartaching family.”So God feels toward His wayward children. This text is His tender appeal and it tells a kindred story. It says as those parents said, “No matter what you have done, what you have been! Only come, and be not afraid.”The heart of love is never content save in the response of affection from its objects.When we were children, a little cousin came to visit us. I was ten years old, my younger brother was four, and this little girl cousin was three.

The little children were devoted friends, and playmates from the first hour of meeting; but their affairs, like those of all lovers, did not run smoothly. Once in a while there would be a break, and the boy would go off angry, but the little cousin would follow with her persistent question, “Do you love me now?” and never would she be silenced until she got a satisfactory answer, and the answer had to be, not only in words, but an answer proven by action as well.The human heart, at its best, is only a poor type of the heart Divine. God’s love is so great that He is never satisfied save when there is response to the same.This leads us to the second suggestion,GOD’S FOR THE The backslider is God’s very own. “I am married unto you”. The marriage relation was meant to be a permanent relation. Both the Old and New Testament make that fact clear. It was not a convenience of lust, nor was it a mere tryout as the modern companionate philosophy suggests. The old formulas of the Church were biblically justified, and each was supposed to take the other so long as life should last, or until “death did them part.”Somebody asked George Ade recently what he thought of companionate marriage. George is a bachelor, but something of a philosopher. His answer was, “I hardly know what to think of it.

They didn’t allow such things in my youth.”Sioux Falls, Reno, and Hollywood and now all Arkansas—what deadly blows they have struck against the divinest of institutions—marriage.America is more and more a land of looseness in that sacred relation. When the Prophet Jeremiah used these words, the bond of matrimony was practically an unbreakable thing; and he didn’t mean to say that God thought a little of the backslider; that He was willing to flirt with him, or even to give him a few weeks of trial.

He meant to say that God was “married” to him; that between them there was an indissoluble bond—a bond that might be forgotten on the part of the wayward, but could never be dissolved. That, then, answers the old question, If a man is once saved, is he always saved? Yes, so far as his sonship to God is concerned. Once a son, always a son. Christ so understood it. He said, “Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost”.

He didn’t mean by that that Thomas wouldn’t doubt Him and become utterly unbelieving; He didn’t mean that Peter wouldn’t deny Him and make his denial emphatic with profanity; He didn’t mean that John, the beloved, would not disappoint Him and sleep in the hour when He needed him most; but He did mean that, in the end of time, for these, they would still be His own, and He would take them Home to dwell forever with Him.That is what He meant. He meant that however great the failure of man, when once He had made them His own, had married them, so to speak, He would never fail them.You remember the story that is told of Romney the artist, who had a great ambition to become famous as a painter.

He left his plain little home and went up to London, where his talents lifted him to greater and greater heights. His profession brought him into touch with the elite and the beautiful, and London’s famous beauties posed for him and became his consorts in iniquity. For thirty years his plain country wife never heard from him. At the end of that time, he developed tuberculosis. His health becoming worse and worse, and all his charms having fled with the same, his social friends soon forgot him. Poverty came in the wake of this misfortune. He found at last that there was no one to care for him, unless he turn back to his country home again; and back he went, a wreck, physically, mentally and morally. His wife was a plain woman, but with a loyal heart, and she took him in.

Never once did she upbraid him for his long absence, for his utter neglect of her, for his scandalous behavior. But day after day, night after night, with an affection that never flagged, and with a willingness that refused to be weary, she waited on him and served him until death separated them.Such love is a loud hint of love Divine! “I am married unto you”.The tie that binds, then, is not human, but Divine. The language is accurate; the idea is perfectly expressed. God doesn’t say to the backslider, “You are married unto Me,” but just exactly the opposite, “I am married unto you”. It is not human affection that holds man to God; it is Divine affection that holds God to man.That is why Paul, answering this question concerning backslidden Israel could say, and did truthfully say, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it” (Romans 11:6-7).There are those who balk at the doctrine of election, but the true believer thanks God for it, and knows it is only by the election of His grace that he is redeemed at all; that he is ever kept from sin or recovered from the same when once he is fallen into it.Dear old Henry Varley, who preached in this pulpit more than once, used to tell the story of a man who had been a member of a church, but had fallen into sin and had been expelled.

For twelve long years he had been outside the fold of church fellowship, and when addressed on the subject, said, “I have been utterly miserable about it, and would have given anything to be what I once was.”Varley replied, “Would you like to be restored at this moment, for as surely as God lives you may be.”“He looked at Varley as if amazed to think that it could be done in a moment, and to help his mind, Varley said, ‘Suppose you had a daughter who had sinned against you, given you great sorrow. Last night, however, she came and threw her arms about her mother’s neck and said, “Oh, mother, I am so ashamed of myself for having given you and dear father such anxiety and sorrow. Can you, will you forgive me?” How long would it be before you restored and assured her? Twelve years?’“ ‘Certainly not,’ he said.“‘Well, twelve months, then.’“ ‘No,’ he replied.“ ‘Three months, I suppose, at least.’“‘Not at all.’“ ‘Well, then, how long?’“ ‘Instantly,’ was his answer.“ ‘All right, does your love for your daughter exceed God’s love for His children?’“ ‘No.’“ ‘Did you ever read what David said in the 23rd Psalm—“He restoreth my soul”?’“ ‘Yes.’“ ‘Will you trust Him to restore you now?’“ ‘Yes, thank God; and He will do it, for it is His promise, isn’t it?’ ”Surely, for such is the love of God toward us all.GOD’S GRACE TOWARD THE “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion”. This sentence is quite suggestive: first, it shows clearly that salvation is of the Lord.Here is another indication of the scientific accuracy and spiritual dependableness of the Holy Book. He doesn’t say that one will come out of a city, and two will come out of a family, and find Him. If He did, that would be a reversal of human experience. But He says, “I will take you one of a city, and two of a family”.In other words, the man who is saved doesn’t save himself. He doesn’t even put himself in the way of salvation.The fifteenth chapter of Luke holds three great parables: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son. It is commonly supposed the parable of the lost son is the greater of the three.

To me that is very questionable. I am quite inclined to the parable of the lost sheep as doctrinally the greatest. In that parable the sheep does nothing toward getting home. On the contrary, in his wild wanderings, he goes farther and farther from the flock and from the shepherd. But the shepherd goes after him, and follows him until he finds him, and then tenderly laying him upon his shoulders, brings him home. That is the revelation of God’s grace in Christ.

Men wander from Him but in love He follows them, and follows until He finds.Jonah reduced the Gospel to a sentence when from the whale’s belly, he said, “Salvation is of the Lord”.Salvation is but for a few.“I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion”. What a sad suggestion! “One of a city”! Is it conceivable that a whole city, a veritable metropolis may have in it but one saved man? Remember Sodom and recall the Divine proposition, If there are ten righteous men in the city, I will save it.The modern city is more and more like that metropolis, steeped in sin; and while the saints are still the salt of its life, and perhaps the only reason why it is preserved at all, it must be conceded that they are few. “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat”.And sad to say, this is not because we do not know better. It is not because God’s revelation is insufficient. It is not because His grace is no longer proffered. But it is because we refuse or fail to appropriate the knowledge and power at our command.Aquila Webb in his volume, “A Thousand and One Illustrations”, prints the story of the hustling young solicitor for a farm journal, who was canvassing a rural community.

He came to an old farmer who was leaning against a rickety fence in front of his dilapidated house, reflectively chewing his tobacco cud, while the juice therefrom streaked his beard. After introducing himself, the agent went straight to his task. “You should take this paper.

It will be of immense value to you. By reading it you will be able to do a heap better farming than you have ever done, and do it more economically, and you will naturally make more money”.The old farmer shook his head decisively.“Don’t you want to know how to farm better?” urged the young man.“Nope,” answered the old fellow, as he spit the tobacco out of the corner of his mouth, “‘taint no use for me ter read yer paper, young feller. I aint farmin’ now half as good as I know.”That is the trouble with most of us. We know the way, but we don’t walk in it, and in fact, with many, though we know the way, we won’t walk in it. It isn’t instruction we need; it is consecration. It isn’t more information, but it is reformation— the product of an indwelling Holy Ghost.

It isn’t more knowledge of the Word even, but a willingness to walk according to the same.Salvation is for all willing ones. If there were “two in a city”, He would bring them to Zion.

If there were “four in a family”. He would bring them to Zion. He does it when He finds two, when He finds four, when He finds a thousand—He brings to Zion all willing ones. His Word is, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out”.Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, (2 Corinthians 8:12) says, “For if there he first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not”. And again, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God”.One of the most pathetic things that has ever characterized Christian history is the instance of that man who at one time names the Name of the Lord and then drifts so far away from Him that he never finds his way back, and by that circumstance seems to prove that he never truly found Him, but that he was himself deceived and in turn became a deceiver.Charles Spurgeon uses the story of the long line of portraits of the Doges in the palace at Venice, where one space is empty, and the semblance of a black curtain remains as a melancholy record of glory forfeited. The likeness of Marino Falieri had once hung there, but he had been found guilty of treason against the state and beheaded by the state, and the likeness was taken from its place and a blank spot marked where it had once hung.

Spurgeon says, “As we regarded the singular memorial, we thought of Judas and of Demas, and then we heard afresh the Master’s warning, ‘One of you shall betray Me’, and we asked with solemn feeling, ‘Lord, is it I’? Every one’s eye rests longer upon the one dark vacancy than upon any one of the many fine portraits of the merchant monarchs; and so the apostates of the Church are far more frequently the theme of the world’s talk than the thousands of good men and true who adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.”Hence the greater need of care lest any one of us, after having confessed Christ publicly and having been regarded as His disciples, should become a castaway.