I have a threefold text, in other
words, I have three texts that I want to direct you to this
evening and they're found in the chapters that we read in
the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. First in chapter 7 and there
at verse 4. Trust ye not in lying words,
saying the temple of the Lord The temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord are these. And then in chapter 14, verse
21, do not abhor us for thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne
of thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant
with us. And then chapter 17 and verse
12. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The threefold text
and the theme is that of the throne of God's glory. The throne of God's glory. What is that throne of God? Well,
we can say it is in fact the mercy seat. As we just read in
chapter 17 at verse 12, a glorious high throne from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary. And remember what the Lord God
said to Moses concerning the the mercy seats when Moses was
receiving all that instruction, directions with regards to the
the tabernacle and its furnishings in Exodus chapter 25 as God speaks
specifically of the Ark of the Covenant and of the covering
for the ark, the mercy seat, with the cherubim one at each
end of that mercy seat. He says, there will I meet with
thee, and there will I commune with thee from above the mercy
seat, from between the cherubims. It was the mercy seat that God
considered to be his throne. There he would sit in thrones
in the midst of Israel. And now we see the spiritual
Jews in their worship as they would call upon God. They address
him as that one who is seated between the cherubims. We sang
it just now in the metrical version of Psalm 8 Remember the language
of that psalm, the Lord, that he says, Give ear, O shepherd
of Israel, thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth
before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength
and come and save us, turn us again, cause thy face to shine. and we shall be saved." Now there
the psalmist addresses God as the shepherd of his people who
dwells in the midst of those cherubim. Again in the opening
words of Psalm 99, the Lord reigneth, let the people tremble, he dwelleth
between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. That glorious high throne is
to be understood in terms of the mercy seat that was placed
above the Ark of the Covenant and there it was set in the Holy
of Holies. That place where only the high
priest could enter and then you could only enter one day in the
year, the great day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. and He must venture
there with the blood of sacrifice and sprinkle that atoning blood
both before the Mercy Saint and upon the Mercy Saint. All that Mercy Saint, God's throne,
it was the token of God's presence in the midst of His people. It
was really the glory of Israel and when Solomon comes to build
the temple. David had desired to build a
temple, a permanent structure for God's worship, but it was
not to be David. It was to be his son Solomon. And in 1 Kings, the first book of Kings,
and there in the 6th chapter, verse 11, In the following verses
we have the way in which God came and spoke to Solomon concerning
the temple. The words of the Lord came to
Solomon, saying, concerning this house which thou art in building,
if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and
keep all my commandments, to walk in them, then will I perform
my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father, and I
will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake
my people Israel." So Solomon built the house and finished
it. It is the promise then God says
he will dwell among the children of Israel. As he had dwelt there
in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle so he would come and
make his dwelling in that oracle. there in the midst of the Temple
of Solomon. They had that great promising
of God's holy presence. And so here, in Jeremiah, in
chapter 14, at verse 21, we have this prayer of Jeremiah's. Do not abhor us for thy name's
sake. Do not disgrace the throne of
thy Lord. Mercy, sir. Do not disgrace the
throne of Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant
with us. Had not God promised that He
would be there in the midst of His ancient covenant people. But, had not God told the prophets
that He was not to pray for these people, Here in verse 11 of chapter
14, then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for
they are gone. God tells him not to come before
the Mercy Seat. Tells him not to address his
prayer concerning the well-being of the children of Israel. Oh, what a strange command is
that. Is God now disgracing the throne
of His glory? No, he's doing no such thing
when he speaks in this fashion. What he is doing is to reject
the formal worship of the children of Israel. They had a form. They had a form of godliness
and that was all. And so he says there in verse
12 of this 14th chapter, when they fast I will not hear their
cry. when they offer burnt offering
and an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them
by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence what were
they doing? they were looking at the temple
and they were saying as we have it there at verse 4 in chapter
7 they were simply saying the temple of the Lord the temple
of the Lord the temple of the Lord are these or they thought
all would be safe and secure that they could never fall to
the host of those Babylonians who had come with Nebuchadnezzar
because they had the temple of the Lord. They simply trusted
in the outward fall and they thought all would be well. But
God says no. God himself is going to visit
his judgment upon them because of their sins and amongst those
sins all that formal religion. Pray not for these people for
their good says the Lord God. And so as we come to consider
these texts tonight in Jeremiah 7.4 and 14.21 and then in 17.12 I
want to divide what I say into two parts. First of all to say
something with regards to the words of these formalists. And then in the second place,
to say something with regards to the true prayer of faith. A simple two-fold division. First of all, the words of the
formalists, which is what we have there in that seventh chapter. What does he say? at the beginning
of that fourth verse. Trust ye not in lying words. Trust ye not in lying words saying
the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord are these. All that vain trust in the mere
externals and that would show the form of godliness. We often
sing that hymn of Berwich, 884, with solemn weekly state, the
world entreads thy court, content to see thy gate, and such is
their resort. But ah, what is the house to
me, except the master I concern? It's not enough just to fill
our place, just to come and to go and to feel nothing at all.
just have the outward form, but know nothing of the power of
these things. This is the formalist. Remember
how Paul speaks of some having a form of godliness, he says,
and denying the power thereof. All these formalists, they know
nothing at all really. They know nothing about faith
in exercise. They know nothing at all about
the ebbing and the flowing of the life of faith. As God's sheep
are those who have to go in and out as they find pasture in the
words of the Lord Jesus there in John chapter 10. What a strange
paradoxical life it is that the believer has to live. how his
life is indeed a life that is in and out and up and down. There
are many contrary things. And these formalists know nothing
of these things. The guy in the psalmist says
in the 55th Psalm, because they have no changes, therefore they
fear not God. Life to them seems to be so smooth. That's the religion of the formless.
He only wants to hear those pleasant things. When he comes into the
house of God, he wants to hear pleasant things. He doesn't want
to receive any word of reproof. He doesn't want to be rebuked
by the word of God. He doesn't want to feel his conscience
in any way disturbed. He doesn't want his life troubled.
He wants a life that is easy. Oh yes, he'll fill his place,
but he doesn't want to know anything really of that good fight of
faith that the Apostle speaks of. This is the religion of the
formalists. They love the words of those
who are the false prophets. And what the false prophets do,
they're constantly speaking words of peace. words of peace. We read of them in Isaiah. There
in Isaiah 30, the verse 8 following, the prophet is commanded, now
go write it before them in a table and note it in a book, that it
may be for the time to come forever and ever, that this is a rebellious
people, lying children children that will not hear the word of
the Lord, which say to the seers, that's another name for the prophets,
which say to the seers, see not, and to the prophets, prophesy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy
deceit. That's what the formalist wants
to hear. Something nice. something pleasant
to the ear. He doesn't want to be troubled
by the truth of God's words, the severity of God's law which
is holy and just and good. Remember how the Lord Jesus draws
that contrast in John chapter 3. He says, Everyone that doeth
evil hath hate of the life, neither cometh to the life, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth to the truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that
they are wrought in God. Are we those who desire then,
as we come under the sound of God's Word, to have God lift
up His countenance upon us, all those eyes? Remember John's vision
of the glorified Christ in the opening chapter of the Revelation,
His eyes, he said, was a flame of fire. Those eyes that are
so searching, those all-seeing eyes. What is the prayer of the
man after God's own heart? The prayer of David, at the end
of the 139th Psalm, which so glories in God's omniscience
and His omnipresence that He is that God who is all-knowing
and all-present. And David cries out at the end,
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the
way everlasting. He wants to know that what he
has is right and real. It is that that has been wrought
by God Himself. He that doeth truth cometh to
the light. that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. But these formalists, they want
to hear only smooth things. It's interesting, later in chapter
23 at verse 31, the reading in the margin there speaks of the
false prophets, how they smooth with their tongues. the literal
rendering of the Hebrew is the reading that we find in the margin
of that particular verse in chapter 23 and verse 31. They snooze
with their tongues. Their tongues are not sharp.
They don't speak plainly and faithfully the truths of God's
Word. And so here in this 14th chapter
look at what the Prophet declares at verse 13, Then said I, O LORD
God, Behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the
sword, neither shall ye have famine, but I will give you assured
peace in this place. Then the LORD said unto me, The
prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither
have I commanded them, neither spake unto them, they prophesy
unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the
deceit of their hearts." Oh, they only say the words that
the people want to be hearing, those reassuring words, you shall
not have sword, you shall not have famine, And yet, here is
God and He is telling them plainly through His faithful servant,
the true prophets, that terrible calamities are about to fall
upon Judah. All these dead formalists. How
dangerous their situation is. Their security is a false security. Their situation is so dangerous,
so unprofitable. There in chapter 7 at verse 8
it says, Behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Lying words. The words of the
false prophets. Instead of declaring God's truth
plain. Another of the prophets, Amos,
says something very similar. as he warns the formalists he
says woe to them that are at ease in Zion those who want an
easy life those who want to be hearing only smooth things but
we know if we know anything of God and the ways of God and the
dealings of God we know how the sinner's hard heart needs to
be dealt with Now the sinner's heart must be broken to pieces. If we're going to know anything
at all of the comforts of the gospel, we must know something
of the conviction of sin. We must discover something of
the natural state of our heart. Again, it's here in this book
of the Prophet Jeremiah that we have that word in chapter
23, is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer
that breaketh the rocks in pieces. Nothing smooth there. When God
comes to work, that's work of conviction in the soul. Now there
needs to be that faithful declaration of the Lord of Gods. There must
be some awareness of what our sin is, and it's in the light
of God's law that we see what sin is. Whatever things the law
said, it said to them who are under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Oh,
how awful when we're brought in guilty, condemned by that
law which is a holy law, and a just law, and a good law. There
must be that conviction the Lord Jesus himself says that the whole
have no need of a physician but they that are sick. I came not
to call the righteous but sinners unto repentance. Oh God deliver
us then from this religion of these formalists who speak those
foolish words back in chapter 7 at verse 4. Trust ye not in lying words.
Lord God deliver us from lying ministers and give us a love
for that faithful dealing with our souls trust ye not in lying
words saying the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord the
temple of the Lord are these what a vain imagination to think
that because they had God's temple And there was the throne of God,
the mercy seat in the midst of the temple of the Lord, and they
must be safe and secure. And yet, it was far from the
truth why Jerusalem would fall, the temple would be destroyed, and the faithful remnant would
be taken into exile and languished there in Babylon for 70 years.
before God was pleased to bring that faithful remnant out and
to settle them again in the promised land with the rebuilding of the
Temple of the Lord in the days of Ezra the scribe. We have then,
first of all, the words. They're nothing but that. The
words of the formalists. The Temple of the Lord. That's
all their appeal is. be a word to an external religion.
But let us turn in the second place to the prayer of faith. Turn to those who are the true
Israel of God. For we know that they're not
all Israel, but are of Israel. Was ever the case that God's
true people was a spiritual people? The poor, and afflicted people,
he said, and he would leave them in the midst. He would preserve
that remnant. And remember how Paul speaks of them at the end
of Romans chapter 2. He says, He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, You see, the formalist has just outside things, external
things. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose
prize is not of men, but of God. Turning then to this true spiritual
Jew, this godly seed in the midst of Israel. And here we have it
in chapter 14 and the prayer of Jeremiah. Do not abhor us
for thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of
thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant. And then again in chapter 17
and verse 12, a glorious high throne from the beginning is
the place of our sanctuary. So here we see that this life
of faith, this good fight of faith is that that involves many,
many changes. and it's witnessed in the life
and the experience of the Prophet of the Lord in Jeremiah's case.
He is almost overwhelmed. He almost despairs of any help. He cries out here at verse 19
in this 14th chapter, As thou utterly rejected Judah, hath
thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast thou smitten us? and
there is no healing for us. We look for peace and there is
no good and for the time of healing and behold trouble. Again previously
at verse 17 he cries out therefore thou shalt say this word unto
them let mine eyes run down with tears night and day and let them
not cease for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a
great breach with a very grievous blow. How in amends over all
that has come upon the people. And it came in his lifetime of
course. The things that he spoke of prophetically were so quickly
fulfilled. We have that book of the Lamentations
that follows the book of the Prophecy. And the language that
we find there in the third chapter for example And verse 48, following,
he says, Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the
destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth
down and seetheth not without any intermission till the Lord
look down and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart
because of all the daughters of my city. Oh, we saw Jerusalem
now ruined. The opening words of the Lamentation,
out of the city sits solitary that was full of people. How
is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations
and princess among the provinces? How is she become tributary? She weepeth sore in the night,
and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has
none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously
with her. They have become her enemies."
Always lamenting these things. But this is the language of a
true Israelite. This is the language of the man
who is the child of God. How he comes then before God
and weeps. and cries in the midst of all
his prayers and yet this is the strange life of faith at the
same time he is able to rejoice in the fact that his God is the
unchanging God he looks at the situation and
he sees so much to dismay, so much to distress but then when
he looks up and see something of the glories that belong unto
His God. There in that 17th chapter, a glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O LORD, the hope of
Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that
depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have
forsaken the LORD. the fountain of living waters.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall
be saved, for Thou art my praise. Why, here is where He places
all of His hope. And so, in this great prayer,
the end of chapter 14, Do not abhor us for Thy name's sake,
He says. Do not disgrace the throne of
Thy glory, Remember, break not thy covenant with us. Oh, what boldness we say. This
is the prayer of faith. One time he's full of grief and
sorrow, he's weeping, he's lamenting. Or the next, he's encouraging
himself, encouraging his own soul in all that God is. the
unchanging Jehovah. The preacher says in the book
of Ecclesiastes, in the day of prosperity be joyful, but in
the day of adversity consider. God also hath set one against
the other, that a man should find nothing after. God sets
these things, one against the other, the day of prosperity,
the day of adversity. It's by these means These contradictory
ways that God teaches His children. By these means it is that God
sifts and searches His children. We read those words, those familiar
words in the 17th chapter concerning man's heart. It's deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? asks the Prophet.
I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the rains to give to every
man according to the fruits of his doing. Oh, it's by these
things that men live. That's the testimony, the witness
of that good king Ezekiel. When he knew strange experiences,
contradictory experiences, with many years previous to Jeremiah,
yes, it was not then the Babylonians, it was the Assyrians. He would
come to the very gates of Jerusalem and it seemed that Jerusalem
would fall to the Assyrians. It was not to be, it was to be
the Babylonians some years later who would be God's instrument
of judgment upon his ancient people. But now in Hezekiah's
day the deliverance comes as he pleads with God, he goes to
the temple, he spreads that letter that he had received from the
Syrian general, he spreads it all before the Lord. And then
when he's laid down, he's on the bed of sickness and he has
not the strength to go to the temple and yet we read of him
turning his face to the war as he cries to God. And God grants
deliverance by these things. men live and in all these things
is the life of my spirit is what he says as he comes before God
in his great song of thanksgiving in Isaiah 38. Here we have the
prayer then, the prayer of faith. And I want us to observe two
things with regards to this prayer. Here we have the cry of faith. Do not abhor us for Thy name's
sake. Do not disgrace the throne of
Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant."
Now, is it really possible that God would ever disgrace His throne? It's a glorious high throne.
Would God ever disgrace His throne, where He sits, King, Supreme. Would God ever break His covenant? He is not a man that He should
lie, nor the Son of Man that He should repent. Hath He said
it, shall He not do it? Hath He spoken it, shall He not
make it good? When He gave His promise to Abraham,
when He entered into covenant with Abraham, He swore by Himself Would God break His covenant?
Well, the answer to all these questions, of course, is no.
He will not disgrace His throne of glory. He will not break His
covenant. He says through Malachi, I am
the Lord. I change nights. Therefore, ye
sons of Jacob, are nights consumed. always the unchanging Jehovah,
the great I am that I am. He has revealed himself in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday
and today and forever. But here we have the cry of faith. Now this man is brought to this,
he has to cry out to God in all the agony of his soul. Do not abhor us. Do not disgrace the throne of
thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant
with us. Oh, God would never do that.
A glorious high throne from the beginning it is, from eternity.
his throne is a glorious high throne but Jeremiah why he feels
himself to be so cast down when God gives him such a command
as we have there in verse 11 where the Lord says to him pray
not for these people for their good how can he not pray for
them remember Moses also found himself in similar circumstances
over the matter of the golden calf when he was there in the
in the mount 40 days 40 nights receiving all those instructions
and directions receiving the tables of the law that God had
written with his own finger and now the children of Israel as
they grow weary they ask his brother Aaron to make them the
gods the golden calf is made And Moses is sent down from the
mountain, God will disinherit his people. And we see Moses
as one who will pray to God, plead with God for them, that
he will not disinherit them. There in Exodus 34, In verse 10, I've got the right reference. Exodus 34. It's that passage where we see Moses
pleading for them that God will not disinherit
his people and he pleads in a remarkable way because he's quite willing
for God to actually disinherit Moses himself. That's what he says, that if
God should cut these people off then he should blot the name
of Moses out of his book. Strange words. that the man of
God should speak but his experience is so akin so much alike the
experience of Jeremiah God wants to cut the people off wants to
take of Moses and make a people that he will bring into that
land of promise but Moses is so faithful as a mediator on
behalf of the people. And this is the same also here
with regards to Jeremiah. When God says, pray
not for these people for their good. He prays now concerning
God's own glory. He prays concerning God's throne. He prays concerning God's covenant.
Is He not the faithful God of the covenant? And so besides
the cry of his face, we also witness here something of the
confidence of his face. And we have it there in what
he says in that 17th chapter. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary. A glorious high throne. What is that throne? It's the
throne of God. But it is the Lord Jesus Christ
himself who fills that throne. Did we not sing of it in our
opening praise? That lovely hymn of Daniel Herbert's. And how striking it is when there
he speaks about the one who fills the throne. is none other than
the Lord Jesus himself. Come boldly to the throne of
grace, for Jesus fills the throne, and those He kills He makes alive.
He hears the sigh or groan. Oh, He fills the throne. He is
the throne. He is the throne. When we come to the New Testament,
remember in Hebrews chapter 9, The opening part of Hebrews chapter
9 we find the Apostle Paul speaking of the tabernacle and some of
the furnishings of the tabernacle, and amongst other things in verse
5 he refers to the mercy seat. He speaks of the mercy seat.
Now the particular word that he uses there, and it's rendered
mercy seat in our authorized version, it's a word that is
used only twice in all the New Testament that particular word
other words might be translated mercy seat but the word that
we have there in Hebrews 9.5 is used just once more in Romans
chapter 3 and verse 25 where speaking of the Lord Jesus Paul
says of him, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood. And the word propitiation is
the identical word with what is rendered mercy seat in Hebrews
9.5. There's a connection of course
between mercy seat and propitiation because propitiation has the
idea of God's wrath being satisfied and it was on the great day of
atonement that the high priest went and sprinkled the blood
of the sacrifice upon the mercy seat making atonement for the
sins of the people satisfying the justice of God so the mercy
seat is the place of propitiation but see the significance of what
we have in those verses Hebrews 9.5 and Romans 3.25 we could read in that verse in
Romans, whom God, that is the Lord Jesus, whom God hath set
forth to be a mercy seat through faith in his blood. Why the Lord Jesus himself is
the mercy seat. He is the mercy seat. He fills
the mercy seat. and how when we come to plead
with God we must ever plead that name and we have it here in this
21st verse in chapter 14 do not abhor us for thy name's sake
or how we have to invoke that name that name which is above
every name that name which is the only name under heaven given
amongst men whereby we must be saved. We have to invoke the
name of the Lord Jesus. Here is the place of our confidence,
that glorious high throne from the beginning. Why is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself that one whom God has laid help upon that
mighty one who is able to save to the uttermost? all that come
to God by Him. For we are told, we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. Let us therefore come boldly.
Let us therefore come boldly, come with all words literally,
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to house in time of need. God bids us thus to come take
with you words. He says, turn to the Lord, say,
take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. Well, here is
that place where our prayers are sure to be answered when
we come by and through Him who is the only mediator, Him who
is indeed our mercy seat. Him who is the throne of grace,
the glorious high throne from the beginning, is the place of
our sanctuary. Oh, the Lord be pleased to grant
that we might be delivered from the words of the formalists, lying words, when they say the
temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord of these, just trusting in the external. We ought to
know that prayer of faith, that cry of faith, that confidence
of faith, as we are found looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Look unto me, he says. Be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none
else. Amen.