By J.C. Philpot
(A posthumous sermon)
Preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on Lord's Day Afternoon, July 11, 1869
"If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them." Jeremiah 15:19
None of the prophets of the Old Testament seem to have walked in so rough and thorny a path as the prophet Jeremiah. And there seems to be special reasons why it was so. First his lot was cast upon very evil days. It was just at the time when the Lord was wreaking his vengeance upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judea, through the hand of the King of Babylon. There was famine in the city, war without, and a dark lowering cloud hung over Jerusalem, which Jeremiah knew from the word of the Lord would soon burst forth into a destruction of the city and of its inhabitants. But he was very jealous and zealous for the honour of the Lord who showed him what was coming to pass. He instructed him in his judgments, and he enabled him to lay before the people what would be the consequence of their transgressions if they repented not. But nobody listened to him.
Nothing but persecution met him, and but for the special providence of God, he would have lost his life when he was cast into the pit, where he sunk up to the very armpits in the mud and filth. But again, he seems to have been by nature a man of a rebellious turn of mind. God's people, like other people, are differently constituted. Some are more weak, placid, mild, gentle, unruffled; others are naturally more inclined to rise up in anger and rebellion. It was so with Jeremiah. He was not one of those smooth, gentle, easy, placable natures that nothing can ruffle. But on the contrary, the make of his natural mind was such that a mere trifle, so to speak, would stir up in the depths of his heart rebelliousness even against God. In fact, taking a view of all the prophets, we find none of them indulging in such--if I may use the expression--daring words against the Lord Almighty, as the prophet Jeremiah.
Look, for instance, at the words preceding my text: "Why is my pain perpetual"--as though he would quarrel with God because he could not get it relieved--"why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Why dost thou not speak the healing word? Why suffer my wounds to fret and rankle, when there is balm in Gilead and a physician there? Why suffer my wounds thus to fester?" Then comes that speech, which to my mind is one of the most--what shall I say?--unworthy, unbecoming speeches that man ever made to his Maker: "Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar?" What if a man should call God a liar? It is an offence between man and man.
Man cannot bear to be called a liar by his fellow; and many a knock-down blow has been the issue of one man calling his brother a liar. For man to be so daring as to speak to God what he would scarcely speak to his fellow man, seems almost atrocious. And yet there is a saving word. He says "Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar?" The word "as" softens it down. He did not rise up in such daring as to call God altogether a liar. "Wilt thou be"--it assumes an interrogative form, which softens it still more--"wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar?" As though he should say to the Lord, "Thou hast promised to support me: where is now that support? Thou hast promised my enemies shall not prevail against me: see how they do prevail. Where is thy promise? Why, Lord, it is almost as though thou wert unfaithful to thy word; and as waters that promised to flow to relieve the city, and those waters dried up, wilt thou be thus to thy servant who loves thy honour, to whom thy word is the joy and rejoicing of his heart? Wilt thou be all this to him, so that thou art, as it were, like waters that fail: when I want to drink, there is no drink to relieve my fainting thirst?"
Now the Lord deals very tenderly with his servant. He is a long-suffering God. He does not, as he might justly do, launch forth the lightnings of his vengeance and say, "Call me a liar! Take thy deserts." No; he speaks very gently and yet very firmly and faithfully:--"If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me. If thou return from this rebellious mood, from this fretful disposition, from these murmuring accusations, and come back to that better mind which becomes thy position and me as thy Lord and Master, thou shalt stand before me and I will make it manifest thou hast a standing in me and before me that none of thy enemies can gainsay or resist." And then he adds the words of the text: "If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them."
