Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2648
“Let Jerusalem come into Your mind.” Jeremiah 51:50.
This message from the Lord was written by the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews who were carried away to Babylon or even to more distant places. They were entreated not to forget the holy city where they had worshipped Jehovah in His Temple. Among all their thoughts, they were bidden to take care that the thought of Jerusalem should often come into their minds. This would keep them from settling down in the places to which they had been carried as captives. They were always far too ready to mingle with other nations and to forget that God had separated them to be a people unto Himself forever. So Jeremiah begged them to keep the holy city in their minds, that they might not judge themselves as having become Persians or Babylonians, but might still remember that they were Israelites and that Jerusalem was their mother city and home.
Besides, this kind of meditation would raise in their hearts ardent longings to get back. “Let Jerusalem come into your mind,” that is, “Sigh for it. Earnestly desire to come back to it and as you cut the various ties which bind you to the distant land, let the links which unite you to Jerusalem become stronger every day.” We know, from the 137th Psalm, that this is just what the captives did—“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” This was a proof that they regarded the country where they dwelt—and where many of them prospered and became great—as a place of banishment. Their pathetic lament proved that they never could be truly happy till they were back at the place of Israel’s solemn assemblies, the spot which was specially dedicated to the worship of the Most High.
This feeling that they were aliens in a strange land and their longing desire to return to their native country would make them quick to observe everything that might work for the good of Jerusalem. If any of them came to be the king’s cupbearer, as Nehemiah was, or occupied any position at court, as Mordecai and Esther did, they would be on the lookout for opportunities of working for the good of their beloved city and they would avail themselves of every occasion for protecting and benefiting the race to which they belonged. This was the Prophet’s desire and it was also the Lord’s purpose, that they might find no permanent satisfaction in Babylon, but always sigh for the city of their solemnities, “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth”—that they might neversing the praises of Shushan, but might reserve all their admiration for Zion, where God revealed Himself to His people as He never did to the other nations of the earth.
It is somewhat in the same sense that I beg you, who are the Lord’s people, to remember the spiritualJerusalem and, for similar reasons, that you may feel that this world is not your rest, that your citizenship is not upon earth, but is in Heaven, that you may sing, from your very heart—
“Jerusalem, my happy home! My soul still pants for you.”
I shall use the text in two ways and show you, first, that there is a Jerusalem here belo w which should come into our minds. And, secondly, that there is a Jerusalem above which should come into our minds.
I. First, we will use the text with reference to THE JERUSALEM HERE BELOW WHICH SHOULD COME INTO
OUR MINDS, that is, the Church of God on earth. The Church is all one, whether in Heaven or on earth. I may call the heavenly Jerusalem the Upper City where stands the tower of David, built for an armory, and the Temple in all its glory. While here below is the Lower City—but one wall runs around all. There is but one Church of the living God—
“For all the servants of our King, In earth and Heaven are one.” Still, at present, the division stands good because it is so to our experience. And we still have to say, concerning the “one army of the living God”—
“Part of His host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now.”
So, taking our text as referring to the Church of God on earth, I say to you, first, that if you are a true Believer, let it come into your mind so that you may unite yourself with its citizens. Some of you who love the Lord have attended to almost everything except the one thing which you ought to have done as soon as you trusted in Christ, namely, cast in your lot with the people of God on earth. You have made your will, you have kept your business affairs straight and right. You have set your family matters in order. All of that is as it should be, but still, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” And there are some of you who are Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who, if you didthink of this matter, would have to say, “I am not an avowed member of Christ’s Church. I trust that I belong to Jesus, but I have not said as much as that by my public profession. I hope that I follow Him, but I am afraid that it is only afar off and that I wear a mask which hides my Christianity. I have not come out boldly and said, ‘I am on the Lord’s side.’ There sits the man of whom Bunyan writes, ‘with a book and his inkhorn before him,’ but I have never said to him, ‘Set down my name, Sir. I, also, belong to Jesus of Nazareth, and I will be numbered with His people.’ They may not be all I would like them to be, but I am afraid they are far better than I am—and if I might but have the lowest place among them, I would be glad. ‘I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.’”