When Moses was called by the Lord, he pled his inability (Exodus 4:10).
When Gideon was called by the Lord, he pled his inferiority (Judges 6:15).
When Isaiah was called by the Lord, he pled his impurity (Isaiah 6:5).
When Jeremiah was called by the Lord, he pled his immaturity (Jeremiah 1:6).
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He finds his strength and hope and confidence in the Lord. Page 32
He was strong in the Lord. He stood against all his foes, and did not succumb before them. Those who serve the Lord need to look to Him for a fulfillment of His promise to strengthen His servants so that they may stand against evil and error of every kind. Page 33
If he accepts the inspired Scriptures as being in truth "the word of the Lord," he may confidently minister that Word with its subsequent authority and applicability to our age. Page 38
The prophetic message was communicated to the prophet while the prophet was in intimate fellowship with the Lord. The message has come through the prophet's consciousness and is characterized by the prophet's own style. Page 39
(Jeremiah 23:29; 5:14) God's word as fire consumes those who oppose it.
(Jeremiah 23:29) The hammer of God's word can break the hardest heart. Page 40
(Jeremiah 23:28) Here the wheat is the true and trustworthy word of the Lord; the chaff, the message which has as its source human ideas and wishful thinking.
(Jeremiah 15:16) The word of the Lord is never just something for the preacher to declare; it is first something to digest. We must personally assimilate that word before we publicly announce it to others. Page 41
The one who faithfully proclaims the word of the Lord today may expect all kinds of opposition and persecution. Page 45
(Jeremiah 20:9) He wished to resign his ministry. He wished to terminate his prophetic calling.
As Jeremiah identified himself thoroughly and continually with the Lord, he found his message to be the source of sustenance and strength. Page 46
He must keep his eyes on the Lord, not on outward circumstances or external response. (Isaiah 40:30-31) His response to this condition will mean the difference between delight and dismay. Page 47
But our greater work will be done on our knees before the Lord. Page 52
They expect the success; they meet with rejection. They continue to preach; hearts become harder. Slowly the pressure mounts, and soon the servant is accusing his Master of having broken His promise.
Beware, Christian worker, lest you break down under the pressure that arises because of your separation from the world. The man of God, while indeed separate from sinners, must be inwardly fortified by communion with God and, when possible, by fellowship with other believers. Page 76
Do we, when God does not answer prayer immediately, begin to doubt and become dismayed? Spiritual breakdown is often at the end of the road of impatience and faithlessness.
Jeremiah permitted himself to indulge in thoughts which led to the volcanic eruption of Jeremiah 15:18.
One moment we are expressing our confidence in God; the next, our unbelieving hearts are laying charges against God. Oh, to have our thoughts disciplined that we may not speak evil with our tongues! Page 77
God is always willing to meet those who are suffered defeat and have succumbed under spiritual pressure - of whatever kind that may be. Page 78
If your heart has been so filled with a spirit of unbelief and hardness, then you cannot speak for God.
There can be no restoration to God's service without compliance with God's condition of repentance.
God cannot use messengers who are not entirely sympathetic with Him, or who are out of harmony with His purposes. Page 79
God calls upon him to separate in his mind the precious thoughts - the thoughts of the Lord, from the vile thoughts - the thoughts of Jeremiah as a sinful man.
Before restoration to God's service, therefore, there must be on our part a refining process that will separate the thoughts of unbelief from those thoughts that have been implanted within us through the Scriptures. Page 80
Let us who seek to lead others fear lest in our inner hearts we side with unbelievers in their sin. Let us not return unto them; let us not sympathize with the ungodly in their rebellion against God, or identify ourselves in the least with sinners in their hostile attitude toward His grace and goodness. Page 81
The Lord graciously offers him another opportunity of standing fast in the evil day.
Jeremiah is assured of God's presence. Page 82
He is assure by God of complete deliverance from every trap of his foes. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Page 83
In certain cases intellectual problems may be traced to a disorder of the heart. Deal with the heart problem and the head problem is often cleared up.
Am I now succumbing to the pressures around me? Am I giving in and giving up because of the problems that plague me? If I am, then how can I face greater trials, greater problems that lie ahead? If I would be advanced with honors in God's school, I must learn the lessons in my present grade. God's dealings with me are designed to strengthen me for greater service - and consequently greater stress.
God does not close His eyes to our problems; He does not minimize them. He does not brush them aside as being irrelevant. He acknowledge them. Pages 92-93
We must never permit perplexities to interfere with our response to God's grace and strength. We must be prepared to accept and admit that there is no final solution in this life to many of our perplexities. Page 94
Compassion leads us to suffering and to service. Compassion is not just a sentiment entertained in the heart. True compassion will impel and propel us. Page 98
How much of a burden of concern do we carry a burden of sin? How much are we pained because men and women are pained by sin? Page 102
How much this intercessory identification is needed among us! To be one with the people for whom we are praying so that we carry them on our hearts in sympathy and compassion.
His willingness to suffer with them.
Throughout a period of forty years Jeremiah faced the opposition of his people and stayed with them until the end.
If our ministry is to be effective, of our compassion is to ring true, we must be prepared to identify ourselves with those to whom we minister. We dare not stand aloof or alone; we must enter into sympathetic relationship with those to whom God has sent us, and we must seek an understanding of their problems. Only thus will our message finally get through to their hearts. Page 103
We need to pray with an increasing sense of urgency. Page 105
Do I have this kind of compassion - a compassion that is based upon insight into the conditions around me; a compassion that is evidenced by my identification with people in their need; a compassion expressed before the throne of grace in tears and intercession. Page 106
Try some tears. Page 107
Jeremiah grasped this fact with such clarity and conviction that never throughout all his ministry did he question his divine commission. Page 110
Without doubt it was his inner consciousness and conviction of divine commission that kept Jeremiah "in orbit" for God. Page 111
And no man should venture forth until he is absolutely assured in his heart of that divine call. Page 112
Proclaim it fully. Diminish not a word. Page 114
The heart of the trouble is the trouble of the heart (Jeremiah 17:9) Page 138
Because his heart is both deceitful and evil, man chooses to walk in his own way rather than God's. And when he is rebuked, he stubbornly refuses to hearken and obey. Page 139
(2:11) "My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." Page 152
Jeremiah states that the idol is:
- Made by the idolater (10:3-5). Indeed, idols can be mass-produced on an assembly line!
- Lifeless (10:5,14)
- Totally unable to intervene in the affairs of men - "They cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good" (10:5).
- A doctrine of vanities - that is, delusions (10:8, 15).
- Doomed to destruction (10:11, 15).
The desire of King Josiah was twofold: to purge the land of idolatry, and to preserve and promote the knowledge of the true God. Page 178
His zeal for the cause of the Lord is explained, therefore, as the evidence of his love for the Lord. Converted himself, he wished to convert his entire nation. Page 179
Jeremiah's analysis of Judah's reformation (Jeremiah, chapters 2 to 6):
- Never truly and thoroughly dealt with the problem of sin in their relationship to the Lord
- Their heart idolatry and its pollution (2:11, 22, etc.)
- Their unfaithfulness and its persistence (2:5, 7, 19, etc.)
- Their rebellion and its prevalence (5:23)
- Vainly imagined that outward cleansing would remove the stain of sin from their hearts (2:22)
- When confronted with the evidence of their sin, were all too prone to deny the charges (2:23; 2:35)
- Abundant evidence that the reform movement had not been accompanied by a moral revolution in their conduct
- Social injustice and crookedness in commerce (5:26-28)
- Widespread covetousness (6:13)
- Immorality (5:8)
- Basically God's people lacked the true fear of the Lord (2:19; 5:24)
Appeals of Jeremiah:
- Heart cultivation (4:3)
- Heart circumcision (4:4)
- Heart cleansing (4:14)
- Heart cooperation (6:8)
Formalism is "the practice of strict adherence to prescribed forms." page 189
Jeremiah's description of the formalism of his day:
- Putting their trust in the Temple of the Lord, rather than the Lord of the Temple (7:2-4)
- Directly related to the Temple ministry were the priests who performed duties yet they themselves did not know the Lord (2:8)
- They also trusted in the sacrifices per se (6:20). Formalist often is lavish and liberal in his sacrifice; yet he may lack entirely the right attitude of heart in his offering. (6:20)
- Taking the name of the Lord in vain. Swear by the name of the Lord, but they were guilty of deceitfulness (5:2)
- Using pious phrases, while in their hearts they lack true piety; talked much about Jehovah, but He was not the object of their hearts' affections (12:2)
- Vain trust in the law; prided themselves in possessing the Word of the Lord; tragically, they did not possess the Lord of the Word (8:8)
- Resorted to prayer only in emergency (21:2; 37:3)
Jeremiah's diagnosis of Judah's formalism:
- Religion without righteousness
- Offerings without obedience
- Profession without possession
"History," says someone, "is philosophy teaching by examples." The tragedy is, however, that "the only thing history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing." George Santayana has said: "Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it." And Lamartine, French poet and politician, aptly put it when he said, "History teaches us everything, even the future." page 194
Faith - it is to make the Lord on'e hope. It is to stand upon the rock of His Word amid the shifting sands of human opinion and advice. It is to cast one's self unreservedly and unashamedly upon the Lord. This is what it means to trust in the Lord. Page 208
It is the tree that is exposed to the wind and the weather that sends its roots down to the soil and tenaciously grips the earth. So it is with the life in the Spirit; the soul that is exposed to suffering and sorrow and grief is the soul that is made strong in faith. Page 211
We need wisdom and discernment from God to know how to deal with individuals in a time of crisis. Page 288
It is true that at times his faith was eclipsed by the darkness of his circumstances, but always he came through to a new place of dependence on and confidence in God. Page 292