Preached by REV. FRASER MACDONALD, M.A., North Tolsta, retiring Moderator, at Glasgow, on 22nd May, 1957.
Text: Jeremiah xiv. 7 to 9: “O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. “O, the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.”
In this chapter we read of God’s judgment upon a people, who were fast ripening for further and more terrible visitations. In the words of Jeremiah, that great prophet, priest and patriot of Israel, this people had committed two evils; they had “forsaken God, the Fountain of Living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no water,” and the famine spoken of in the chapter would appear to be a direct fruit of that sin. Devastating indeed is the picture portrayed by the “weeping” prophet, as he describes the baneful effects of that scourge upon all classes of society. Yet, in the words of our text we perceive an ill much more alarming, and fraught with far more sinister consequences for that nation. It need not surprise us that this judgment—a spiritual one—referred to, and lamented by the man of God, was not even recognised as such by the vast majority in Judah; for, the failure to discern such an evil is in itself a part of that judgment. Indeed temporal calamities themselves are rarely recognised as the voice and the hand of God. A modern psychology can easily explain, or rather explain away, such occurrences, without any reference at all to a just and holy God who punishes nations and individuals for their sins. It is in this way that a nation provokes the Most High; for, temporal judgments disregarded make way for awful and spiritual judgments. So it had happened in Judah: the absence of the Divine Presence and Power in their midst was evidently far more serious than famine or any other temporal tragedy.
It was this state of affairs that led Jeremiah to plead as he does in the words of our text. In fact, he does more than plead for the guilty nation of Judah. As a true and devoted herald of the King he was aglow with love to God, and love to his own backsliding nation. In his ardent love to his people he endeavours, if not to exonerate, at least to extenuate their guilt, by laying the greater share of blame and responsibility upon the lying prophets. The people have been misled; they have been deceived; they have been assured of peace, says Jeremiah. But the Lord who knew people and prophet alike was not to be swayed by such pleas. The truth that commends itself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God, left them, as it leaves all men, without excuse, and therefore these people who loved to be blinded were not to escape. Irrespective of the true prophet’s earnestness on their behalf, and of the lies of the false prophet’s, the Lord made it clear that Judah was to be visited for her sins. In chapter 15 verse 1 we have God’s solemn answer to Jeremiah. “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.” Here the prophet is, as it were, discouraged in the strongest terms from pleading any more for them. Such words ought to be carefully pondered in the light of our own national condition.
We now proceed to consider the words before us. In so doing we would invite your attention to three things:
1. A humiliating confession tacit in the prophet’s plea, namely, “That the Lord is a stranger” in their midst.
(a) It was true to fact. This is a point we desire to emphasise. To some of you that may appear unnecessary. Surely, you say, “if Jeremiah said it, it must be true”—but that is not necessarily the case. It is not as easy a matter as some think to ascertain the true state of the church of God in any generation. The prophets of God themselves may err on that score. Elijah was an eminent prophet in his day; he certainly had the mind of the Lord; was deeply concerned for the spiritual welfare of his nation, and yet he at one time in his history made a confession regarding the state of God’s cause in Israel which was not exactly true to fact. Did he not say, “And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away?” Elijah, the man of God, was suffering at that moment from the awful pessimism of unbelief, and hence we have a most despondent verdict which was immediately corrected by the omniscient God. Now, we know from Jeremiah’s own words that he too was no stranger to the sudden and paralysing attacks of unbelief and despondency. Besides cursing the day of his birth, he at one time was tempted to speak no more in the name of the Lord. But in the words of our text the prophet is not speaking under the pressure of that pessimism which would leave the church of God without a ray of hope, nor yet is he speaking under the power of a cursed optimism which hails every report of spiritual life and blessing as a veritable proof of the power and presence of a Triune God. These two evils have to be combated in seeking to determine as best we can, the true state of the church of God in any age or generation. In telling us that the Lord was as a stranger in their midst, Jeremiah took cognisance not only of the sins of the nation, but of the superficial nature and effects of Josiah’s reformation so recently carried out.* His verdict then is according to the mind of God.
*Josiah was king of Judah from c. 639 B.C. to 609 B.C. Jeremiah received his call to be a prophet in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (i.e., 626 B.C.). He would have been deeply interested in the godly king’s attempts to reform the religion of Judah; but he was also fully aware of the superficial nature of the people’s turning to God.
(b) Following upon the truth of the confession is the VALUE of the confession. It was a great blessing for Judah to have a Confession true to fact; and the same holds good for us if we realise the similarity between our present position and that of Judah at the time under discussion. It is infinitely better to know, and accept the truth, than to deny it, or to distort and question facts that stare us in the face. We are all aware of the fatal and dangerous process of comparison by which many ruin their souls for Eternity. By comparing themselves with others, more sinful than themselves, they flatter themselves, and are too often puffed up with a delusive sense of their virtue and goodness. The subtlety and wickedness of such reasoning lies in the fact that they verily may be better than their neighbours. Thus they think they are building on a truth, while they really build upon a lie. They have judged their state by wrong standards, and they must reap the consequences. Now, if the individual is capable of falling into such a snare, may not the Church sin the same way? Is it a compliment for us to know that we are better and purer than the lax idolatrous churches of Scotland to-day as they drift rapidly Romewards? Can we derive comfort from that? Can we in this way conclude ourselves to be safe? Surely not. Our concern should rather be to measure ourselves by the unchanging infallible standard of the Word of God, and by the church of the Reformation glory, which was based upon that same inerrant Word. We feel that in the light of that Word we have the truth regarding ourselves as a branch of the visible Church in the world. The Lord Jesus is as a stranger in our midst, as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save. I appeal to each one of you if this be not so. Why are the vast majority in our midst indifferent to the claims of God? Why are so many at ease in Zion? Why such boldness and apathy? Why such flagrant violation of solemn baptismal vows? Why so little religion in the home? Why such appalling ignorance of the Bible? Why do so many find it such an easy matter to leave the Church of the gospel, and of their fathers? to sell their birthright so cheaply and to turn their backs on such a heritage? Why are so few awakened, humbled, saved and edified? Why so much formalism, worldliness, pride, and backbiting, paralysing the hands of the godly? Why so few memorable days at our communion seasons?; so little of the cry and power of Pentecost; so little of the self-denying love, the meekness, the unity, humility, and the awe of eternal things? There is but one answer. The Lord is as a stranger in our midst, and we are left in a great measure to ourselves. Wilfully blind is the man or woman who can deny that the Holy Spirit is grieved and withheld.
(c) We may notice further that this confession is most HUMILIATING. The fault is ours, not the Lord’s. To us the Lord says, “Ye are not straitened in me, but in yourselves.” As God spake of old through the mouth of another prophet, “Are these the doings of the Lord?” Is His Spirit straitened? “Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” “The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” Let us acknowledge it then with shame, for “our backslidings are many and our sins testify against us.” Well might we ponder the words of the Psalmist in this connection, which go direct to the root cause in psalm 81, verse 13:
O that my people had me heard,
Isr’el my ways had chose.
I had their en’mies soon subdu’d,
My hand turn’d on their foes.
Enemies would be overcome and the Divine favour enjoyed were it not for our failure to hearken to the Lord.
One other fact regarding this confession, and we have done. It contains a ray of LIGHT. The Lord has not withdrawn absolutely. Though as a stranger, He is still among us. Laodicea could not claim this, but we can. It would be wrong for us to overlook this, for there is undoubtedly a few among us who are “brought alive.” There is still a measure of restraining grace, a liberality in giving to His cause, and times of refreshing, though rare, are not altogether unknown. Such things declare that the Lord is still among us, and further—He has not changed. This is our only hope. His attitude has changed, He has become as a stranger, as a man astoned, as a mighty man that cannot save, but, He is still “the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble,” and let us not lose sight of this glimmer of light amidst such darkness.
2. We proceed to pry out the cause for such conditions obtaining among us. In so doing, for the sake of brevity and clarity, we would state the matter first negatively and then positively.
There are certain things we know are obnoxious to God, and if tolerated will grieve His Spirit, and so give rise to such conditions as the text presents to us. Departures from the Word of God in doctrine, practise, experience, discipline, and worship, are certain to grieve the Spirit of God. Some are of the opinion that it matters not how we worship, so long as we worship sincerely; but all who indulge, and persist in such an opinion, are of the same family as Cain, and will meet with the same doom. As early as the days of the proto-martyr Abel, it was made evident that man was not to worship God as he pleased. Other truths were revealed later, but this one at the very outset. That fact is most significant. No sooner had God revealed that He should be worshipped, than He declared how He would be worshipped. In New Testament times Jesus assured the woman of Samaria, not that one can worship God as one pleases, but where one pleases. Again we read of the Lord not merely withdrawing His presence, but being positively angered by an apparently trivial departure from His order of worship: the breach made upon Uzziah in the days of David speaks solemnly and loudly enough to us on that point. If such small deflection from the law of Divine order occasioned such a manifestation of the Divine displeasure, what are we to think of the loud profession of those who have wandered so far from the original mode of Reformation worship, that they have no qualms at all in advocating for a new order, by means of bishops? Will this not ensure the ultimate withdrawal of the Divine glory altogether?
But now for ourselves, the Lord is as a stranger among us, and we must ask why?
(i) Is it because we have departed from the doctrines of His Holy Word? We hardly think so. Whatever charges may be levelled against us as a Church, the charge of preaching doctrines foreign to those taught by the Reformers can hardly be substantiated. We believe that we endeavour to give each doctrine of grace its own place. At least, we profess to preach a pure, a Biblical Calvinism, avoiding the mutilated gospel of hyper-Calvinism, which fails sadly, not only in not warning the impenitent of the fearful destiny that awaits them, but in the very words of Scripture itself, in not commanding all men everywhere to repent: while it denies to sinners the greatest of all motives, and encouragements to every gospel duty, namely, the full and free offer of Christ in all the infinitude of His saving power and glory. There is undoubtedly a tendency to think that in our presentation of the gospel we fail to emphasise sufficiently man’s total ruin, and utter inability, while we infringe upon the Sovereignty of God, but that is not the case. How vain and foolish to deny human responsibility, because we cannot reconcile it with Divine Sovereignty. How worse than foolish to be afraid to declare with no uncertain sound the free and full overtures of God’s grace to a lost world, simply because, we also, with all our hearts believe and preach eternal predestinating love. The free and glorious invitations found in the Truth, to sinners as such, so far from being incompatible with the Sovereignty of God, have their rise there. A gospel shorn of its gospel glory is, as far as we can judge not the gospel of the Ever blessed God in its fullness any more than the gospel which denies or tones down the utter ruin and inability of man, while it relegates to the background the cardinal doctrine of Divine Sovereignty, and speaks of man as if he had power to believe and repent of himself. Both extremes we attempt to avoid. In so doing we should be careful that we do not fall into the snare of Hyper Calvinist or Arminian, by preaching continually from favourite portions which appear to support our view. There is something wrong if we are afraid to speak upon certain portions of God’s Word, while we harp upon others, as if they were the only texts in Holy Writ. Now, we do not wish to be misunderstood, for it is with fear and trembling that we should attempt to speak from any part of the Divine oracles, but the fear we have referred to is of another kind. By the grace of God, let us be faithful to His holy Word, declaring that which we know by blessed experience to be the words of the living God. We have no lack of scope in the volume of the book; we have an inexhaustible mine of treasure, if only we would give ourselves wholly to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Above all, let us be convinced that the Holy Ghost alone, who inspired the sacred volume, can impart its contents to us with saving and efficacious power. To sum up, we feel that whatever defects there may be in our preaching of the gospel, we have not basically departed from the word of truth, in its purity and entirety. Ruin by the fall, Redemption by the atoning Blood, Regeneration by the eternal Spirit, Covenant love, Covenant grace, death, judgment and eternity are themes yet heard and known among us in an age in which the vast majority of the religious leaders in our beloved land have all but ceased to mention them. Alas, that the pride and poverty of human wisdom together with the fear of offending a blind apostatising people, should interfere with the full declaration of the gospel. This, then, is not the cause for the denial of Christ’s presence among us.
(ii.). But now we know that it matters not how orthodox our message may be; be it ever so true, ever so pure, if our CONDUCT is not according to the gospel we proclaim, all is in vain. Do as they say, not as they do, was one of Christ’s criticisms of the Pharisees, and so it may be said of all whose conversation is glaringly out of line with that prescribed by the Word of God. Do we find our ministers and elders transgressing openly the command of God? Do we find them, like so many professors of our age, not only failing to reprove, but in actual fellowship with the works of darkness? Do you find them on any occasion among the pleasure loving, sport-intoxicated millions of our day, in concert with those whom they ought rather to rebuke and admonish? No—and rightly so, for such a thing would not be tolerated for a moment. By practise as well as by word, we endeavour to condemn such fleshy parading of vanity, so that if Christ be a stranger among us it is not on this account.
(iii.). Once more, is it because we have failed to exercise DISCIPLINE that the Lord has become as a “stranger among us?” Have we omitted to keep the Lord’s House as clean as we can, by preaching indiscriminately to all as though all were already in the family of God; or by admitting all and sundry, moral, religious, worldly and profane, to the Lord’s table, and to positions of honour in the House of God? Such guilt can hardly be laid to our charge even by our bitterest enemies. We have by our fidelity to the Lord in this respect lost hundreds numerically, we have suffered much in many ways, in trying to exercise discipline among ministers, elders, members and adherents. That has been done, we believe, in the spirit of gospel love, with a care to the glory of God and the good of souls, so that the cause for an absent God can hardly be found here.
(iv.). Yet once more, is it because we have ceased to WORSHIP our God according to His own blessed Word? Have we modified our form of worship—moved with the times, as they say—joined hands in any way with those whose doctrines are doctrines of devils? Have we yielded to the clamour of the carnal mind for dead instrumental music, and the carnal wisdom of man in the courts of our God? On the whole have we been unfaithful to the honour of God and to the souls of men, in departing from the stand made by our godly forefathers on the side of truth in 1893? Most humbly we feel that we can answer all these questions in the negative. We feel that no unprejudiced mind could fail to grant us this much.
Our doctrine, our conduct, our discipline, our form of worship, are still the same. Why then is the Lord a stranger among us?
You will have observed that what we have already stated and conceded regarding ourselves greatly augments the gravity of this question. That a church which can humbly make such claims as we have made, should yet have to confess, that in spite of all, the Lord is a stranger among them is indeed solemn, and should fill us with an earnest desire to search out and know the cause.
May the Lord direct us to the real cause of our poverty and desolation. Without His guidance we shall never pitch upon the true cause. Even Joshua was slow to look for and light upon the real source of Israel’s trouble until God informed him. Until then he seemed to lay the blame upon God Himself. How strange it is that it did not occur to him that Israel had sinned. Alas, that he should have used the words, “would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan:” words so like those used by Israel when they received the spies’ report—and on that occasion Joshua was brave to rebuke their language. In Joshua’s case we have an example of the difficulty of analysing the cause for God’s withdrawal. As is often the case, the last cause that occurs to us may indeed be the cause. Let none of us blame the Lord, and pillow ourselves upon the Sovereignty of God, or the spirit of the age, or such like reasons, all so far from home and from the truth. Let us rather seek faithfully and humbly to pry out for ourselves the reasons for our desolation. In the hope of so doing we now adduce several reasons in that connection. If we are wrong, we are most willing to be corrected; if not, we desire grace to lay before you at least some sins which prevail in our midst and explain our present position.
(a) There is a tendency among us to rest contented with confessing our sins while we fail really to mourn over them and forsake them. To acknowledge our duty and still to neglect it, is sin. Are we prepared to take the pains that are required to regain what we have lost? Do we prefer to endure the death and desolation, than to truly humble ourselves, and plead not only for mercy but for power? Are there not many in our midst who desire more to be assured of their safety than of their holiness, “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord?” Does the absence of Divine power drive us to our knees to plead agonisingly for the power and presence of God’s Holy Spirit, or do we rather flatter ourselves that we honour the Holy Spirit, while we are sadly remiss in the use of the very and only means that He uses to impart life and power to our souls? Sloth is one of our greatest enemies, and let us remember that there may be much external activity in connection with preaching, visiting, and similar duties, while sloth prevails. It only adds sin to sin to call it by another name such as prudence or the like; while sinners perish in their thousands.
(b) There is a lack of brotherly love. “Behold, how these Christians love one another,” can be used by our enemies more often in scorn than in admiration. And why? Have we not given them occasion to speak thus? Oh, let us remember that the Lord Himself said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another,” This is a very essential part of our witness to the world. We lose, and they lose, by the lack of that love. There is a spurious love, that can neither administer nor receive rebuke, but that is not what is referred to here. Let us endeavour then to love, not in word only but in deed and in truth. We must seek to rise above all petty prejudices, and manifest this spirit of love towards all our brethren. The word of God demands, forbearance, pity, courtesy. Forbear, be pitiful, be courteous, are injunctions too often forgotten, too seldom referred to. As surely as two sons of an earthly parent who are at variance, wound the heart of a father, the absence of love, of that charity which covers a multitude of sins, in the church, must vex the Spirit of God. Bowels of mercies, tenderness, compassion; all these are quite consistent with unswerving loyalty to the King of Zion.
(c) Secret duties are neglected, and substituted by public duties. In the words of an Old Testament prophet, like Ephraim of old we may be compared to the silly heifer who loves to tread out the corn. The New Testament tells us, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” In other words, he must have a morsel, even while engaged in labour. So, we too, love spiritually to tread out the corn. The more public duties, such as praise, preaching, prayer, church going, we love, because self gets a morsel, but the more secret, the more spiritual duties of faithfully and constantly searching the Word of God, meditating upon it, examining ourselves in the light of it, and continuing instant in secret prayer, are neglected. The applause of our fellow men only hinders and deludes, rather than helps us. What we are in secret, that we are and no more. Do we not find a discrepancy between the earnestness of our prayers, and the earnestness of our lives? Are we as earnest as our appearance would suggest? Do we ever commend duties to others in a solemn and urgent way, and yet ourselves are strangers to them? If so, let us acknowledge our guilt. Let us cry for the Holy Spirit, to bring us to a penitent and contrite frame of mind. What would we say of a man, who more or less neglected public duties? What would our verdict be, if he were to allege earnestness in secret? We feel that we would be inclined to doubt the truth of what he said; and yet, we are less ready to doubt those—in fact, we sometimes praise them—whose godliness consists more or less in a most regular attendance on the outward means of grace.
(d) What shall we say of the presence of anger, jealousy, and self-will? Do we not read that it is a condition required of all who hold office in the church, that they be not soon angry, and not selfwilled? Are our hands clean, are our consciences pure in this matter? Can we plead for a brother as we would plead for ourselves? Are we not too often afraid that he should excel us, or that he should be used by the Lord, while we are passed by? Ah, dear brethren, let us examine our hearts, as in the sight of God, for it is with God we have to do. These are “little foxes that spoil the vines and our vines have tender grapes.”
(e) We must be on our guard against the spirit of worldliness. The world is hostile to God, and we should always bear this in mind in our manifold contacts with our fellows. In discharging faithfully our varied duties towards “the world that lieth in the wicked one,” we should be anxious lest we fail to do them good, and lest they injure us. Indeed, it may be wise to reduce our contact with worldly men to a minimum. To be with them when our duty does not require it, is not only to waste our time, but to expose ourselves to evil. Are we endeavouring, as we ought, to sit loose to the things of time and sense, which are so engrossing in the eyes of worldly men? Let us remember that laxity in this respect, assuredly weakens our witness and grieves the Spirit of God. We must be separate.
(f) Another evil that is not unknown in our midst is silence in Church courts. To some this may appear a mere infirmity, but we feel that it is more. Are there not some in our midst who are afraid to speak their minds? And why? Not because they lack an opinion of their own, but are apprehensive of the reception their views might meet with. We must not be silent in the courts of our church any more than in the pulpit. Are we losing sight of our personal, and grave responsibility in this connection? Better far to offend one or two of our fellow men, by speaking, and to endure the consequences of expressing our minds, than to offend God by our silence.
(g) Pride, prejudice and partiality, have a part in our analysis of the cause for God’s withdrawal. Are we seeking by grace that our fidelity to Truth should be in no way impaired by human relationships.
(h) And last, but not least, we must ask ourselves are we not guilty of giving way to the awful sin of unbelief? This is a root evil; a sin against which we should strive continually. Is not this one of the sins, which, in the days of Christ, and in the words of Christ, explained the impotence of the true church of God? When the perplexed and baffled disciples would seek from Christ to know the secret of their failure to help the needy and to overcome evil, the answer given was: “because of your unbelief.” These then are some of the evils which make Christ a stranger in our midst.
3. Let us look now, in the last place, at the plea which has been already referred to in the introduction. As to its manner, it is the plea of faith, of earnestness, of love to God, and to the souls of men.
These are not mere empty words on the lips of the prophet, but are spoken from the depths of a soul, charged with divine life and power. As to its matter, it is, “Leave us not.”
This may mean, first of all, leave us not altogether. That would be too terrible for words. Awful beyond description should be their plight if this took place, and therefore the prophet pleads, “Leave us not.” Here is an echo of David’s earnest prayer, “Take not away Thy Holy Spirit from me.” Remove not thy candlestick. That indeed may well have been in the prophet’s mind, and thus, should have a place in our minds. God will have a remnant, until the blast of the last trump, but not necessarily in our land. What is Scotland more than Shiloh? Of which place it is written, “But go ye now to my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.”
Should we as a nation continue to slight the Gospel of God and so judge ourselves unworthy of Eternal life, the sons of Africa (and we rejoice to have one of them present here tonight), yea, the sons of Africa may yet be our missionaries. They may yet have the true light of the gospel when we, because of our sins, may sit in pagan and Romish darkness.
On the other hand, the plea may mean, leave us not in this present backsliding condition with Christ as a stranger in our midst, but return to us in Power and Glory. May it not be taken as a cry for deliverance from their poverty and desolation?—a cry such as David had when he prayed:
That I thy power may behold
And brightness of thy face,
As I have seen thee heretofore
Within thy holy place.
Psalm 63, verse 2 (Metrical) and indeed may it be so.
Let us plead, confessing, as Jeremiah did, our sins, while we lay stress upon the greatest and best of all pleas, saying, “Do it for Thy Name’s sake.” Let us seek not only that the Lord would not leave us altogether, but that He would give us a little reviving in our bondage. O that His power would be manifested among us, for without Him we can do nothing, as His true church knows.
Except the Lord do build the house,
the builders lose their pain:
Except the Lord the city keep,
The watchmen watch in vain.
Psalm 127, verse 1 (Metrical).
That being so, our earnest plea should be—again in the words of a psalmist:
To these long desolations
Thy feet lift, do not tarry;
For all the ills thy foes have done
Within thy sanctuary. Psalm 74, verse 3 (Metrical).
O let thy hand be still upon
The Man of thy right hand,
The Son of man, whom for thyself
Thou madest strong to stand.
Psalm 80, verse 17 (Metrical).