"See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the
kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
build, and to plant."
(Jeremiah 1:10)
To
the preacher who is very much concerned about effectiveness in his type of
message, the Prophecy of Jeremiah is a mine of help.
Some
preachers are definitely called to a pastoral kind of preaching. They are adept
in delivering a sermon calculated to bring comfort to the bereaved. They know
how to put together addresses for the saints. They talk interestingly to
children. They are marvelously effective in their sphere---pastoral care of the
Church. God's blessing rests upon them. The Church could never get on without
them. They are beloved of the people.
But
these men, already used of God, are often envious of other preachers who gain
evangelistic success. They try hard to obtain the same results themselves, but
try as they will, they cannot set the
Now
the first thing that a preacher has to consider is - "What is my
sphere?"
Think
of the busy world. How does it get on? Not every electrician is a good
gardener. Nor is every farmer a good dentist. Sometimes a man combines two
spheres of usefulness in his business and his hobby. But the so-called Jack of
all trades is unusual, save when we limit its meaning to a handyman's
activities. The world gets on by specialists - those who master their job and
are thoroughly effective in it. So also with the work of God.
We are all members of one another. One member cannot do without the
other.
If
you feel that God has given you the precious gift of making a church, full of
varied temperaments, thoroughly harmonious, don't despise that gift of God.
Your spiritual children will, in future years, rise up to call you blessed. God
may not intend you to be a revivalist. But if you feel called to be a
revivalist, a man who specializes in the work of curing Church decline,
remember that pastoral methods will not always be successful. Something more
drastic is required. Just as in medical practice. A dietician can help a
man's digestion and benefit more than his stomach thereby. But in cases of
pneumonia, better call in a physician. Methods are certainly important.
And if you are really trying to be an effective revivalist, I counsel you to
consider your methods.
Some
iconoclasm is necessary. The first thing that we notice about the call of Jeremiah, is his extreme youthfulness. When God called him,
he cried in his great distress : "Ah, Lord God I
behold I cannot speak: for I am a child." It is remarkable to find
how many revivalists were really young when they were called to be God's
mouthpiece in a special way. We think of the disciples...young men, contrary to
popular belief based on Italian art. We think of the judges and prophets -
Gideon and Samuel, Isaiah and Jeremiah, and many more. We know of Wesley, and
Spurgeon, and Moody, and Finney, and Booth, and Hudson Taylor, and Judson, and
a host of modern and recent examples.
Why
are God's special instruments young, as a rule, and not old as in the known exceptions ? Probably the answer is to be found in the fact
that young men are more malleable than old. Most people are converted when
young, and the Lord loves to get His man before backsliding or prejudice can
spoil him. The fact remains. And God overruled Jeremiah's objections,
saying "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shau send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt
speak. Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee. Then
the Lord touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold I have put my
words in thy mouth."
Then
follows a thought-provoking form of commission: "See, I have this day
set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to toot out, and to Pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and
to plant." Of this six-fold commission, four injunctions are destructive:
and only the latter two are constructive. "To build and to plant " - surely a great work. But it had to be
preceded by a rooting-out and a pulling-down, destruction and
demolishing. Surely this sounds drastic! But it was very necessary, as the
historical background shows. The Jewish kingdom had become overgrown with
weeds, overbuilt with traditional superstructures. They had to go first. Some
iconoclasm was necessary. Some destruction was required.
An
Illustration: Planting a Garden
Let
us look in the garden for a parable. We walked round a beautiful garden which
occupied a former piece of waste land. The gardener showed us
round. "Those are beautiful roses," we said to him. " I planted them," replied the gardener, with
justified pride. "What a beautifully-cut hedge!" we remarked
next. "I trimmed that," he said.
At
the garden gate, we found an old fellow watching a smoking heap of refuse.
"What have you been doing?" "Working at the garden," he
said. "Well then, what have you to show for your labour?"
"Nothing, Sir," he replied. "Then you cannot have been
working!" we told him. "Sir," he asserted " When we
came here, this garden was a piece of waste land, overgrown with weeds, full of
stones and sand, swampy in one corner, and pretty hopeless all
round." We got interested. "Well, sir," he went on, "I
broke up the land, and I destroyed the weeds, and dug out the stones, and
carted away the sand, and it was my job to drain the swampy
corner." We listened with growing appreciation. "I am
saying nothing against the other fellow who planted the garden. He did his job
well. But where would his planting come in if I hadn't first rooted out
and destroyed the weeds?"
Both
men's labour was necessary, but the rooting-out and
destruction of weeds preceded the planting of flowers and shrubs.
Another
Illustration: Demolition and Construction
Again,
let us walk around one of
And
if we are to plant a garden for the Lord, a place of delight abounding in roses
of holiness and love, hedged about by faith in the promises of God, bordered
with sweet praise . . . Or if we are to build a palace for our King, a house of
living stones, a place of service and adoration . . . Let us remember the
first work of rooting out the weeds and utterly destroying them. Let us
appreciate the value of slum-clearance.
One
Of the great weaknesses of many forms of ministry
today, especially Convention ministry, is the attempt to sow good seed among
thorns. The thorns generally continue springing up, and the seed is choked
thereby, despite the good intention of the human sower. Seed
sown in a prepared ground requires only the action of the elements to produce
fruit in season. Seed sown by the wayside, or in stony places, or among thorns,
will have its prospects of life severely threatened almost
immediately. Likewise, changing the mode of illustration, a Christian who
is in proper relationship with God is generally hungry for the great truths and
affirma- tions of the
Gospel.
Destructive
Ministry Must Precede Constructive Ministry
A
constructive message is then not only desirable, but necessary. Good food, the
finest of the cream of the wheat of the Gospel of Christ, is eagerly
assimilated by the Christian who lives in harmony with God. But all
Christians are not in proper relationship with their Lord. The present
obvious dearth of revival is largely due to the fact that the majority of
Christians are out of touch with the source of Divine power. And even at Conventions,
the first work needed is to get things put right in the lives of those
attending.
To
give a sick stomach an overdose of cream is to risk indigestion. Even a sick
stomach prefers the taste of cream to the flavour of
the bitter medicine. But the bitter medicine is necessary, and it does not
prevent the enjoying and digesting of good food afterwards---rather it creates
the actual appetite of good health, which is quite distinct from the false
cravings of indigestion.
For
instance, the glorious message of the position of every believer in Christ is a
comfort to many souls. But it cannot bring much blessing to a stubborn
Christian living in disobedience and conscious sin. He needs to act on the
teaching of repentance and confession and cleansing first, and then he may
comfort himself with other truths. I heard once of a church which had the
cream of doctrine given within its walls, week in and week out. Judging from
the quality of the upbuilding ministry given there,
one would have expected to find the church members on the highest heavenly
plane. But in this instance, they had a church quarrel
,which resulted in the bread and wine being spilled in a scuffle: the
police were called in to restore order. They obviously needed more than
cream. Medicine was wanted badly.
Positional
truth cannot be profitably taught until conditional teaching has had its
effect. Cast no pearls before swine. So great is this problem, that when the
preacher hits out against sin among believers and urges purity of life, critics
cry "Introspection" and some insist that he is trying to divert the
eyes of the people away from Christ towards self and shortcomings.
It
was my happy experience once, to speak at a great Convention well-known in
For
days there was that cross-current of message. I believed with all my heart
in the truth of their message but I thought that the time was unripe for its
application. With a burdened heart, I prayed for clear guidance regarding
continuing my message. The Lord put a text...into my heart, and I preached it.
Before I preached it, a speaker dwelt on the glorious promises of God, promises
meant for obedient children. Then followed my
opportunity. "Having therefore these promises dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
It
gave the connection at last, but we had no great revival. It drove home many
truths to me. Let us comfort one another with the grand truths of our
position in Christ. But let us not make excuse by saying that our " completeness in Him" permits us to wink at known
sin.
First
Rebuke...Then Edification
It
is generally conceded that the great problem of today is the lack of the sense
of sin among believers and unbelievers alike. The consequent need must be met.
It is a need of a message of strong rebuke first, and upbuilding can follow afterwards. "See,"
said the Lord to Jeremiah, "I have this day set thee over the nations
and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, to build
and to plant." Jeremiah's prophecy immediately runs along the line
commanded by the Lord. The words put into his mouth enable him to fulfill his
six-fold commission. "Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the
Lord, and with your children's children will I plead."
This
verse is significant to English-speaking people. When we seek an explanation of
God's goodness to the British and American peoples, we must consider the
declaration: "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the
faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with
them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand
generations," and contrast it with "visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate Me." Scarcely an Anglo-Saxon can say that he has had no
ancestors who feared God and served Him. Practically every atheist has had
a praying great-grandfather or forbear of some sort. And the lives and
prayers of generations gone by bring us the blessing of the smile of God upon
unborn generations to come.
"For
my people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken Me the fountain of
living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no
water." How true of us to-day. But people cannot go on for ever in sin
without feeling some pangs of conscience. "Thine own wickedness shall
correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee: know therefore and see
that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,
and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord of hosts."
Backsliders
Backsliders
are the most miserable class in the earth. They cannot fully enjoy the
pleasures of sin, as the worldling does. They
certainly cannot enjoy the things of the Lord. Their joys are transient, and
their moods are like the headaches which follow hectic revelry. And yet,
backsliders continue to rebel. They persist in their disobedience. They
keep up an appearance of religion: and perhaps they will be ardent advocates of
one aspect of truth, or peace, or temperance, or social justice, or modesty or
even church attendance. They develop a boldness based on an attempt to balance
their inferiority complex. And so Jeremiah makes clear the message of the
Lord, the rebuke that cannot be misunderstood. And the remedy is likewise
made clear. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast
transgressed against the Lord thy God..."
Again
it is open confession that is required. Again a broken and a contrite spirit
God will not despise. Confession is the first step in penitence. But the people
have got to be told that. A faithful Jeremiah is required nowadays. All through
the prophet's pleading is the challenge: "God says that if you do
this, He will bless you and restore you ; but if you
do the other, misery will continue."
We
must likewise tell the people: "If you repent and acknowledge your sin,
God will send revival; if you don't, He won't send it, and your backslidings
will go on." A black-and-white picture is needed. No room should
be left for ambiguities of expression. "Get right with God
" should be the clarion cry.
The
great apostle of revival, Charles Grandison Finney,
adopted the Jeremiah approach and preached an unmistakable, faithful message.
Perhaps we could say that his favourite verse
was: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among
thorns!" "Fallow ground," he wrote, "is ground which
has once been tilled, but which now lies waste, and needs to be broken up and
mellowed before it is suited to receive grain. To break up the fallow ground is
to break up your hearts, to prepare your minds to bring forth fruit unto God.
The mind of man is often compared in the Bible to ground, and the Word of God
to seed sown therein, the fruit representing the actions and affections of
those who receive it."
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon, preaching on the same text, declared: "Do you know what
happens to a fallow field ? All the friable qualities
seem to depart, and it hardens as it lies caked and unbroken. And if a man will
not sow wheat, he shall have a crop...for the weeds will spring up and increase
till the fallow field shall become a wilderness of thorns and briars!"
Heart-searching
always produces conviction. "General confessions of sin," says
Finney, dealing with the results of heart-searching, "will never do. Your
sins were committed one by one, and as far as you can come at them, they ought
to be reviewed and repented of one by one." We started to consider
the necessity of destructive ministry, and it has led us along the same lines
as before - faithful preaching, is followed by heart-searching, heart-searching
by repentance and open repentance, repentance by
revival.
Destructive
ministry is therefore necessary.