“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”—Jeremiah 33:3.
God’s people will never thrive on anything less substantial than bread from heaven. Israel in Egypt might live on garlic and onions, but Israel in the wilderness must be fed with the manna that came down from heaven, and with the water that gushed out of the rock, when it was smitten by the rod of God. The child of God, while he is yet in his sins, may, like other men, revel in them, and the pleasures and follies of this world may be his delight; but when he is once brought out of Egypt, by the high hand of God’s purpose, and the almighty hand of God’s strength, he will never live on anything less than God’s promise and God’s truth. It is in vain for men to try to remove his doubts and strengthen his self-confidence, it is in vain for men to endeavor to feed him with man-made doctrine or with rationalistic ideas, he must have something that is divine, that has the stamp of revelation upon it; in fact, unless we can come forth every Sabbath with a “Thus, saith the Lord,” we are no capable ministers of the New Covenant, and it is not in our power to comfort the Lord’s children.
In this chapter we find the prophet Jeremiah in prison; he was shut up in the court! of the prison, and in order to comfort him, the Word of the Lord came to him saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” Something less than it may suffice, in the time of our prosperity, to make our hopes buoyant; for, alas! there is enough of the natural man in the Christian to make him rejoice even in carnal things when he is far from being thoroughly sanctified; but when we are in trouble, when affliction and adversity, sickness and suffering, are trying us, there, is no man-made raft upon which our soul can float through floods of tribulation and waves of deep distress, but we must have the divine life-buoy of a “Thus saith the Lord.” That is what the Christian wants in every time and in every place, but this is what he more especially needs when he does business in deep waters, and is sorely exercised by affliction, “Thus saith the Lord.” My text is a “Thus saith the Lord.” “Thus saith the Lord, call unto me, and I will answer thee, mad show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Here is, first, a large promise; here is, secondly, an implied imperfection; and here is, thirdly, a particular application of the promise, making up for that imperfection.
I. Here is, first A LARGE PROMISE: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee.”
Now, if any friend should write us a letter containing such words as those, “Call unto me, and I will answer you,” we would naturally understand by them, that whatever we might ask of our friend, he would most assuredly give us; and if he were a person in whose ability and kindness we had confidence, we should not be very slow in availing ourselves of his permission to seek his aid. If we were in debt, we should apply to him for financial help, so that we might be able to meet our liabilities; if we were tried by sickness, we should apply to him that he might give us medicines to relieve our pains; if our friends had been ungrateful to us, we should most likely call upon him for sympathy; and if our spirits were distressed from some unknown cause, if we believed him to have immense wisdom, we should ask him for some cordial to raise us from our distress.
But how different is the case when we read these words as coming from the lips of God! Then, my brethren, how strange it is that, instead of making use of them, we just read them as a matter of course, but we seldom think of making use of them. “Yes,” we say, “it is a very comforting doctrine, that God answers prayer; it is truly consolatory to hear our minister inform us that, whatever we ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive.” But there the matter ends; and, except with a few choice spirits, it remains a matter of doctrine, and not a matter of practice to us. “O fools, and slow of heart to believe,” our Master might well say to us; and if he should come into our heart, he would administer a thousand rebukes to us for our slackness in proving the truth of his promise. For God means what he says; and inasmuch as he has said, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee,” he intends that his words should stand good; and he wishes us to believe them to be true, and therefore to prove our faith by acting upon them. Alas! the truth is too plain to be disputed, that the most of us, while, in a sense, we receive this doctrine because it is in the Bible, do not so receive it as to put it into practice. In introducing, to your notice, the great general truth, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee,” I shall probably have to answer a host of objections and questions.
“Well,” says one person, “would you wish us to believe, sir, that whatever we ask in prayer we shall receive?” I must, reply to you with discretion. In the first place, who are you who now ask that question? Are you a child God, or are you a worldling! Have you been born again, or are you still what you were by nature, without any renewal from the Holy Spirit! For, upon your answer to that question, mine must depend. If you are still without the Spirit of God, and are unrenewed, I would remind you of that passage which says, concerning the wicked, “Even his prayer shall be abomination;” and if your prayer be an abomination, of course you cannot expect God to accept an abomination, and answer it. You must, therefore, know that, you yourself are a partaker of to grace of God, or else this promise does not belong to you.
You grant me that, and then you ask me this question, “Sir, I hope I am a child of God; am I, therefore, to understand that, whatever I shall ask for in prayer, I shall receive of God?” To you also I must answer with discretion; lest, in endeavoring to state a truth, I should utter a falsehood. I must first ask you in what state of heart you are as a child of God. Have you been lately communing with Christ. Have you been constant in the study of his Word? What are your wishes? What are your wants? What are your desires? For, upon your answers to these questions, my reply your enquiry must depend, it may be that you are a Christian; but, nevertheless, though an Israelite, you, like Israel in the wilderness, are asking for meat that you may satisfy your own lust, even as they did; but when they craved for flesh and the Lord sent them quails, while the meat was ye in their mouths, the curse the Lord came upon them.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
