Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2664
“Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you know 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 vain for men to try to remove his doubts and strengthen his self-confidence. It is vain for men to endeavor to feed himself 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 says the Lord,” we are not 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 says the Lord.” Something less than that 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—we must have the Divine life buoy of a, “Thus says the Lord.” That is what the Christian needs in every time and in every place, but this is what he most especially needs when he does business in deep waters and is sorely exercised by affliction, “Thus says the Lord.” My text is a, “Thus says the Lord.” “Thus says the Lord, call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know 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 you.”
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 would not be very slow in availing ourselves of his permission to seek his aid. If we were in debt, we would apply to him for financial help so that we might be able to meet our liabilities. If we were tried by sickness, we would apply to him that he might give us medicines to relieve our pains. If our friends had been ungrateful to us, we would 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 would 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 Brothers and Sisters, how strange it is that, instead of making use of them, we just read them as a matter of course—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 remainsa 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 you,” 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 of God 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 of God, “Call unto Me, and I will answer you,” 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 those questions, 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 an abomination “—and if your prayer is 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 the Grace of God, or else this promise does not belong to you.