I. Sensational preaching: in what sense to be approved. The style of this teaching of Jeremiah looks sensational. He is bidden to take a fine, new linen girdle--a most important and ornamental part of an Oriental gentleman’s garments--and bury it for a time near the Euphrates. Taking it up afterwards, he was to exhibit it to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, with all the marks of injury and decay upon it, as a sign and type of the decline and decay that the Lord would bring on them in Babylon, when, parted from Him to whom they had been bound as a girdle to a man’s body, they should be buried under the oppression and contempt of their proud and domineering captors.
II. Rejection of the divine word.
1. Even the most highly favoured persons may reject God’s Word.
2. The transgressors in such cases prefer their own imagination to God’s revelations. Religion says to God, “Thy will be done.” The natural heart says, “My will be done”--“Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?”
3. The moral influence of such perverseness is bad, progressively bad. Having cast off God, the human nature cannot stand up alone. It needs a support. It must worship. So it goes after other, and of course false, gods. Every sin has three distinct effects, apart from the punishment of the future:
(1) It depraves and deteriorates the nature that sins. The brain is not broken, but strained; the marble is not fractured, but the eye of omniscience sees the flaw.
(2) It familiarises with evil and goes so far towards making an evil habit.
(3) It renders some other sin not only easier, but apparently necessary. “Having done one thing,” says the sinner, “of course I had to do the other.”
4. The effect of rejecting God’s Word is lamentable in the extreme. If the fire of Divine anger burnt up that vine which He had planted, how will it be with the common tree of the forest?
III. By whom is the word of the Lord rejected?
1. In a certain strict and literal sense every unbeliever is an infidel, i.e. he is without faith. But many are without faith who yet assent to the general truths of God’s Word. Many infidels have made it their own interest to impugn and deny Divine revelation. A man has broken its precepts--perhaps suffered socially in consequence--has not repented, but only been embittered, begins to count those who censure or condemn him first bigoted, narrow-minded, then pharisaical, and hypocritical or fanatical. They justify their action by the Scriptures, and he begins to transfer his dislike to the Scriptures, feels a pleasure in any doubt cast on them, flatters himself that to weaken them is to strengthen his case, and that contempt poured on them is respect won back for him. Hence the bitterest scoffers have often been the religiously trained sinners.
2. Sceptics are included among the rejecters of God’s Word. Not that they are necessarily irreligious, or deniers of a Divine Being and of obligation to Him; but they deny the Scriptures as an authoritative revelation from Him and make nature a sufficient teacher.
3. If I include Romanism among the rejecters of God’s Word, it must be with a qualification. That system admits the inspiration, Divine origin, and partial authority of God’s Word, and so far as it can appeal to Scripture does so. Its sins in this regard are:
(1) Putting up beside the Word tradition, which, like that of the Pharisees, makes the Word of God of no effect.
(2) Making the authorisation of the Scripture depend on the Church, and constituting the Church the only expounder of Scripture.
(3) And following from this, she withholds the Scriptures from her people.
4. The indifferent and unbelieving reject God’s Word. You have heard it explained, read it, had it urged on you by beloved ones, now praising God in the rest of the saints. Have you believed it? Received Christ? Are you resting on Him? Doing His will? For if not, your condemnation is doubly sure. (John Hall, D. D.)
God’s girdle
I.Israel and Judah clave unto Jehovah as a girdle to the loins of a man.
1. Unto His person for favour.
2. Unto His Word for direction and teaching.
3. Unto His promise for encouragement.
4. Unto His worship for devotion.
II. Israel and Judah were then a praise and glory to Jehovah. A girdle of strength and honour before the nations.
1. As opposed to the idolatries of the world.
2. As expressing obedience to Divine law.
3. As exhibiting the beneficial effects of true religion.
III. Israel and Judah became faithless and disobedient.
1. An evil people refusing to hear the Word.
2. A stubborn people going their own way.
3. A deluded people in vain imaginations.
4. An idolatrous people, like the nations less favoured, going after other gods to serve and worship them.
IV. Israel and Judah becoming faithless, became also weak and worthless. Went from prominence to obscurity, from freedom to captivity, from privilege to punishment. (W. Whale.)
Cleaving unto God
In Trinidad there are small oysters to be found that grow upon trees, or rather cluster round the roots of trees, in the river mouths. The little bivalves are so firmly attached that it is usual to saw down the trees in order to obtain the oysters, and such an attachment is typical of the ideal life of a Christian. He should love the Lord his God, and obey His voice, that he may cleave unto Him. God, who is the source of all life, will indeed be his life and the light of his days. As the strength of the tree is placed at the disposal of the oyster, so is the omnipotence of God offered to all who will trust Him. (Christian Commonwealth.)
Which is good for nothing.
Good for nothing
I.Dwell upon a painful fact. All was done for them that could be, and yet good for nothing.
II. Point out the cause of their sad condition.
1. They refused to hear the Word of the Lord.
2. They followed the imagination of their hearts.
3. They became idolaters.
III. Show what they might have been as a people.
1. Separated from the nations as peculiarly the people of God.
2. Before the nations for the glory of Jehovah, as opposed to idols.
3. Among the nations as witnesses and examples.
IV. Proclaim some universal truths.
1. Refusing to hear God’s Word is proof that the people are all evil people.
2. An evil people will substitute a false worship for that which is true.
3. A false worship will produce and foster an erroneous religious life.
4. A people walking according to the imagination of their own hearts must be useless to themselves, to the world, to the Church, or to God. (W. Whale.)
The unprofitableness of a sinful life
I heard the other day a Sunday school address which pleased me much. The teacher, speaking to the boys, said, “Boys, here is a watch; what is it for?” “To tell the time.” “Well,” said he, “suppose my watch does not tell the time, what is it good for? Good for nothing, sir.” Then he took out a pencil. “What is this pencil for?” “It is to write with, sir.” “Suppose this pencil won’t make a mark, what is it good for?” “Good for nothing, sir.” Then he took out a pocket knife. “Boys, what is this for?” They were American boys, so they shouted, “To whittle with,”--that is, to experiment on any substance that came in their way, by cutting a notch in it. “But,” said he, “suppose it will not cut, what is the knife good for?” “Good for nothing, sir.” Then the teacher said, “What is the chief end of man?” and they replied, “To glorify God.” “But suppose a man does not glorify God, what is he good for?” “Good for nothing, sir.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
