Jeremiah 30:1-24

Jeremiah 30:12. For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

See here is the bass again. We have got down into the sorrowful notes all to make us sick of self and ready to receive the grace of God.

Jeremiah 30:13. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee:

Out of sight, out of mind. They have forgotten thee. Oh! when God wounds, it, is a wound, indeed. When he breaks the heart who can comfort? If he does but speak, the earth trembles. He touches the hills, and they smoke.

«When he shuts up in long despair,

Who can remove the iron bar?»

Jeremiah 30:14. They seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity:

«These are dark words,» says one. If they are incurable, what more need be said? Ah! the things incurable with men are curable with God. Sin is the malady that none can cure save God alone.

Jeremiah 30:15. Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. Therefore

Now I read this morning, and I could not help dwelling upon this «therefore.» It looks like a non sequitur, but there is a real argument, in it. Therefore, because you have now come to the worst, because you cannot help yourself, because you are ruined and undone:

Jeremiah 30:16. All they that devour thee shall be devoured: and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. For I will restore health unto thee,

Oh! the sovereignty of divine grace! how it comes in when every hope is gone! Man's extremity is God's opportunity. An incurable sinner and therefore, God comes to cure him. If you are brought so low that you cannot go any lower, God will put his everlasting arms underneath you. I speak to some tonight who are about to enter into peace, and joy, and rest. «I will restore health unto thee; I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord.»

Jeremiah 30:17. And I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

They said, «There is no hope for that man, there in no relief for that woman. Therefore, God means to give up all relief. Nothing pleases him better than to undertake a desperate case God is great at a dead lift. When all the world is palsied, then is God omnipotent.

This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 58:1; Jeremiah 30:1.