Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2684
“However I sent unto you all My servants the Prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!” Jeremiah 44:4.
THIS verse portrays what a minister should be and the picture is a burden upon my heart and conscience, for it shows that the true preacher, or Prophet, or man of God, should be one whom God sends early to do His work. It is, as it were, as though his Master were up early in the morning, bidding him make haste to go to His service and not let the grass grow under his feet, for men are sinning—and to suffer them to continue in sin unrebuked, even for an hour, is truly dreadful. It is as though one were to leave a house burning without giving an alarm and calling the firemen, or to see a person in imminent peril in the street without immediately attempting to do something for his rescue. Notice that in this verse God represents Himself as rising early, to show how He realized the greatness of man’s danger and the importance of his being speedily delivered from it. The Lord said that He rose early in order that He might send His Prophets—of course that theymight go early, that they might go at once and waste no time—but be instant in season and out of season to warn men not to do the abominable thing which God hated! A minister, then, is one who should be diligent in his Master’s business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord by endeavoring to warn men of the terrible nature and consequences of sin.
He is also to be one who speaks as God’s representative. Not only speaking God’s Truth, but, as it were, speaking it with God’s mouth, for these Prophets were not to say, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that God hates,” but they were to personify’God, to put themselves into His place and to say as though He said it, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that Ihate!” What a responsible and privileged position is this for any man to occupy, to have to speak for God in this fashion! Paul referred to it when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be you reconciled to God.” It is a high honor but a tremendous responsibility to have to do Christ’s pleading, to be intercessors for the Intercessor, and to stand up and speak God’s thoughts as though He had set us to be His spokesmen for a time—to plead with the sons of men on His behalf. As I have realized this responsibility, I have sometimes dreaded my office with an unutterable dread, though I would not change it to become ruler of all the empires of earth, or even to be an archangel in Heaven, for I reckon that to be even first among the angels is nothing compared with being an instrument, in the hand of God, of saving the souls of men! Yet how awful and how solemn a thing it is for any man to be called to stand and speak as though God did speak by him and say, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!”
There is another lesson to be learned from this picture—not only that the minister should rise up early to meet an early God, and should speak in God’s name, but he is also to speak in God’s style—that is, pleadingly and pathetically. I count it an easy thing to proclaim the Truth of God as one might do it from the desk of a classroom, or to be oratorical and to wax eloquent over the great themes we have to make known. But it is quite another matter to plead with men, to be pathetic and to speak as God does here, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!” This is the work and this is the difficulty which often burdens our spirits. You remember that the disciples said to Christ, on one occasion, “Lord, teach us to pray,” for they felt as if the strong desires that burned within His heart might well burn in theirs, and that
they had even greater necessities than He had. But when they heard Him preach, they felt at once that He outsoared them all. When they saw the tears of pity stream from His eyes and listened to His lament over the doomed city of Jerusalem, then they realized that He overmatched them and they felt, if they did not say it, “Never man spoke like this Man!” And they did not cry, “Lord, teach us to preach as You do!”
They could not hope to rise to that great height and we feel just as they did. Oh, that these lips could use language borrowed from the lips of the Well-Beloved! Oh, that these eyes could run with tears like those that welled up from the great heart of the loving Savior of sinners! His sermons show us what true preaching is—it should be the highest form of persuading, it should be really, only in a better sense than that in which the term is generally used, peilpleading—a pleading with men, by weighty arguments, that they would leave their sins and turn to God! Christ’s sermons show us a pleading in which God the Holy Spirit exercises His own supreme office and works upon the minds of the hearers through the utterances of Him who speaks to them. As this is what a minister ought to be, may God help us poor creatures to attain to this high standard! You who are His people can also help us by your prayers, which we greatly need.