Well, I want to turn you to the
book of Jeremiah, the passage that we read, and to the 15th
chapter and the 19th verse for our message this morning. Jeremiah
chapter 15, verse 19, Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou
return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before
me. And if thou take forth the precious
from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return
unto thee, but return not thou unto them. Particularly the second
half of the verse, taking the precious from the vial, taking
the precious from the vial. And I've called this message
speaking as the mouth of God. We often feel as though we're
swimming against the tide in matters of true religion, don't
we? I mean, there is so little religion
in this country of ours, unlike the United States, there's so
little religion here. Amongst those that call themselves
evangelical and claim to be Bible-believing, there is so little that is truly
Christ-centered, Gospel-centered, in accordance with the Gospel
that God has revealed in His Word. And we often feel as though
we're swimming against the tide. We often feel as though we're
a minority of very, very few. How can we be right when so much
seems contrary to us? Well, Jeremiah's experience was
of being in a minority of one, and with everybody else against
him, so often. He was the reluctant prophet,
when he was, he said, but he was a child, you know, God said,
you're going to go and be my mouthpiece. And he said, ah,
but Lord, you've got it wrong, I can't, because he said, I'm
just a child, I can't speak, I don't know how to speak. You
know, you've made a mistake, Lord, about this, I'm not fit
to speak. And he obeyed God, and God raised
him up, and he brought God's message, and he was, he was,
well, God said it, so I'm going to tell these people, and do
you know what they did to him? He obeyed God's word. He obeyed
what God told him to do, and they did dreadful things to Jeremiah.
They put him in a pit, you know, in a dungeon. It wasn't just
an ordinary dungeon, it was full of sewerage, up to his armpits. and can you imagine it was vile
it was revolting it was horrible the terrible things they did
hadn't he done God's will and yet he's in a minority of one
and they throw him in a dungeon and all sorts of things come
against him the nation is going wholesale in the line of being
sent into captivity for their sin we read about it earlier
the sins of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah the terrible things
that he did they're going into captivity and uh... Jeremiah
says he's in perpetual pain. All he's done is stood for God's
truth and God's principle. Look at verse 18. Why is my pain
perpetual? He's known God's word. The hymn
that we just sung was based on verse 16. Thy words were found
and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of mine heart for I am called by thy name O Lord God of hosts.
I didn't go along with the rest of society, verse 17. I sat alone
because of thy hand, for thou hast filled me with indignation
against what's going on. But what's been the result of
it? I'm in perpetual pain, and my wound is incurable. It refuses
to be healed. It refuses to be healed. We may
not be in his state entirely, but it sometimes feels like we're
very, very much alone. Jeremiah got to the stage where
he penned some of the most shocking words in the whole of Scripture.
Read those next words in verse 18. He says, I'm in perpetual
pain. My wound refuses to be healed. He's saying this to God.
This is God's prophet saying to God, will thou be altogether
unto me as a liar? Will you be as a liar unto me
and as waters that fail? Will you be, you promised me
that you would be with me and look where I am, I'm in continual
pain. Are you a liar to me? Are you
a liar? We may not be quite in his state,
But we are separated from those that we once called brethren.
We see error abounding all around us. We see what the scripture
calls elsewhere in Jeremiah, the ancient waymarkers of truth. You know, those rock-solid waymarkers
of the true gospel of God, that they're shifted. People have
dug them up and shifted them and put them somewhere else.
They've changed what they say and what they stand for. Error
abounds. The ancient way markers have
shifted. In publishing organizations, for example, that once stood
foursquare for the truth, you now see it mingled with error.
Some of us are entirely, some listening to this, are entirely
alone because of these things. Hasn't God promised to set the
solitary in families by which in our flesh we think he's promised
to set me in a big church surrounded by lots of people so I can have
lots of friends? And here we are, a tiny little
number. Or for some listening to this, entirely on our own.
Is he altogether, God, altogether unto us as a liar? They're strong
words, aren't they? How dare a mortal man Let alone
a prophet of God say to God, are you a liar to me God? Are
you a liar to me? Well then we see God's reply
to Jeremiah. Of course God cannot lie. Satan
is the father of lies. God cannot lie to his people.
God's reply to Jeremiah, to his prophet, is that he will be God's mouthpiece
to his generation. It says that in our verse, thou
shalt be as my mouth, thou shalt be as my mouth to his generation. What I want us to see in the
time that we've got available is firstly, the separation that's
required. The separation of the precious
from the vile. Secondly, the blessing that God
promises, that we shall be God's mouth. And thirdly, the command
that he gives. If they that have gone in erroneous
ways want to come to you, that's fine, let them. But don't you
go back to them, whatever your circumstances. Don't go back
there. So first of all, the separation
of the precious from the vile. This is a separation, precious
from vile, in preaching. in doctrine of salvation. It's
distinguishing clearly between what God counts as precious and
what he counts as vile when it comes to salvation, when it comes
to the way of being right with him. Separate the precious from
the vile, because in many places it's all mixed together. It's
all mingled together. Separate the precious from the
vile. What is precious? Precious, generally
speaking, things that are precious have some rarity. Not always
the case, but generally, they have some rarity. I mean, you
would regard the air that we breathe as fairly precious, but
there's plenty of it all around. You would regard water as fairly
precious, but generally, unless we're in a drought, there's plenty
of it all around. It's something that's got a rarity
if it's precious, usually, or it's valuable, whereas that which
is vile That which is vile is common, or cheap, or worthless,
or filthy, or polluted, or unclean. You look at something that is
genuinely a horrible thing to look on, and you say, oh it's
vile, it's revolting, it's terrible, it's horrible. We seemed to have
a plague of flies around the back of the house the other day,
and our natural instinct was that it was vile. Where were
they coming from, all these flies? It was horrible. precious from
the vial in the matters of salvation. In the matter, he's a prophet,
he's saying to preachers and to his people, separate the precious
from the vial. Let's think of some ways in which
we must separate the precious from the vial. In respect, first
of all, of his people in his Son. Of his people in his Son. Separation regarding who are
the people of God. You know that religion mixes
it all up. It's unclear about it. God says
to his prophet, make a separation. Take forth the precious from
the vile. What is precious? It's God's
people are precious. And why are they precious? Because
they're in his precious son. Lamentations chapter 4 verse
2 says, the precious sons of Zion. If you're a son of Zion,
if you're a child of God, Today, God says you are a precious son
of Zion. I'm talking about male and female,
it makes no distinction. You are comparable to fine gold. God calls his elect people precious. In our preaching, in the message
we maintain, and which we proclaim, we must be quite clear to separate
that precious. God has a people that he has
saved, and that salvation is entirely of the sovereign grace,
the choice of Almighty God. We maintain that. That's separating
the precious from the vile. The vile says, Anybody, anything,
open to all, universalism, that's vile in the eyes of God. It's
precious is what he has done in choosing a people for his
own glory. He says of his people, Malachi 3.17, he says of a specific
particular people that is precious to him, they shall be mine, says
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. What's
precious to you? You ladies, it's the jewels that
you have in that little box on the dressing table, the rings
that you've been bought, the necklaces and stuff like that.
Jewels. God calls his people his jewels. They're precious to him. And
to those who believe, Christ is precious, and that's why they
are precious, because they're in the one who is precious. The
prophet, Jeremiah, the preacher in our day, must declare that
God has made a difference in electing love, in choosing his
people. Why are they precious? Because
there's a new man, a new man of God's Spirit. We've all been
rejoicing about the arrival of a new baby, a lovely little chap,
we rejoice in this. But the angels of God rejoice
in heaven over each sinner that is saved because there's a new
birth takes place there. The new birth. Unless a man is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The new man of
God's birth, of God's Spirit, the new birth, it's precious. And it's set against the vile,
the corruption of the natural man, the flesh. What Paul says,
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Job was
one whom God said to Satan, about whom God said to Satan, have
you considered my servant Job? There's none like him. In terms of what men regard as
righteousness, there's none like him. He's meticulous in everything
he does. He's so careful, he sacrifices
exactly as he ought to. He's a moral, honest, upright
man. Have you considered him? Go and
deal with him. Go and afflict him. Because Satan
says, he's only like that because you do him good. Do him some
harm, okay, you can go and afflict him. And he goes and afflicts
him, and you know, that's the whole of the book of Job. And
you get to chapter 40, and there's been lots of banter and lots
of arguments put one way or another about whether Job is righteous
or not, and he's brought all of this upon himself because
of his sin. And then he sees God. Then he truly sees God. this man whom the flesh regards
as righteous. And when Job sees him, Job says
in chapter 40 verse 4, do you know what Job's assessment of
himself is? This man whom God said there's
none like Job. Job said, I am vile. In my flesh, I am vile. Separate the precious from the
vile. There are those who preach the gradual improvement in preciousness
of the flesh. The truth of the scripture is
flesh is always flesh. Flesh is always vile. It's only
the new man of the Spirit of God that is precious. This is
what we do. We need to take forth the precious
from the vile. We need to declare the distinction
that God alone has made. And it's a distinction which
is based entirely on God's sovereign grace and His particular redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that that makes the difference.
That's the precious message. The rest of religion that blurs
the edges and tries to make it soft and acceptable to man all
around so that we don't frighten them off because there is an
offense of the cross as I was saying earlier in the study.
Oh, we don't want to frighten them off, you better not teach
them those things. No, we're told, separate the precious from
the vile. The precious is God's truth of
His sovereign grace and particular redemption of a particular people
that He calls out, and we maintain it, and we stand for it. Oh,
you can't declare that to this lost generation, they'll run
a mile. Well, most of them might do, but this is God's message.
And those who are truly saved are saved when they're brought
by faith, by the Spirit's leading to believe and see. believe and
see what Christ has done for his particular people and that
they are among them, that they are among them. Secondly, a separation
in respect of the doctrine of salvation, a separation regarding
how he saves his people. You know there's all sorts of
vile religion out there that in one way or another in varying
degrees undermines the true Godhead of the Trinity in salvation. All the three persons of the
Godhead are so vital to salvation. The truth of that is precious,
and yet so much that's in religion treats it and amends it and abuses
it and it becomes vile. Separate the precious from the
vile. The Godhead of Christ is absolutely
central. It's precious You cannot have
salvation except Christ be fully God, very God of very God. You
cannot have salvation unless the Holy Spirit is that person
who comes and applies the things of Christ, the Comforter. He
will come and show you all things. You cannot have true salvation
without Him. Any doctrine that doesn't have
that truth of the Trinity, absolutely as the Scriptures declare it,
is like fool's gold. Do you know what fool's gold
is? It's a metal. Well, it looks like a metal.
When you go digging in the ground, and you're digging for gold,
often people, who they end up calling fools, think, I found
a piece of gold, because it looks like gold. It's actually iron
pyrites, iron pyrites, or however you pronounce it. Ferrous sulfide,
I think it is, if I remember rightly, so no doubt a chemist
will correct me at some stage. It looks like gold. And people
go running off to the valuers to say, I found a piece of gold.
No, it's fool's gold. It isn't. You've been fooled.
What's it worth? Nothing. It's absolutely worthless. It's not even any good as iron
ore. It's rubbish. It's worthless. So is doctrine
like that. So is doctrine that doesn't have
the truth of the Trinity and of Christ at the center of it,
the Godhead of Christ at the center of it. It's worthless.
It's ineffectual. How can Christ love with an everlasting
love that saves his people if he's not eternal God? He can't. How can he pay an infinite penalty
if he's not the infinite deity become flesh? He can't. He must
be God entirely. So again we come back to sovereign
grace and particular redemption as the precious versus the vile.
These things are regarded by so many as optional extras. Oh well, let's stick to the fundamentals
and try and get alongside people and show them that we're friendly
and get them to come and then gradually as they progress, you
know, we don't want to teach them the A-level stuff yet because
they've only just come in you know, at junior school level.
Let's keep it gentle, and then when they get to the inner circle,
then we'll tell them about the things of election. No, God says
announce, announce these things, proclaim them. Sovereign grace,
particular redemption. Proclaim these things. Clearly,
they're not optional extras, but they're foundational to an
effectual salvation. Without them, you've got fool's
gold. You haven't got the real precious
thing. You've got that which is vile and worthless. No, there's
no gospel. And what is the gospel? It's
good news. What's it good news of? It's
good news of divine justice satisfied, of sin put away for his people. You know, my sin, oh the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole.
It's the soul that can say that, that knows these things. That's
the gospel, good news. There is no gospel if it isn't
a particular gospel for a particular people that the Father chose
in the Son from before the beginning of time. You know, we look at
people who are into genuine religious idolatry, the worship of idols,
you know, you go into their homes and they have a little shrine
in the corner where they have all their little gods that look
after them, and you just think, oh, stupid, really, it's pitiful,
basically. Pitiful. I tell you, we should
feel the same about those that have an idolatrous Christ in
the place of the true Christ of Scripture. If redemption is
not particular redemption, it's idolatry, it's a false god, it
doesn't achieve its purpose, it's ineffectual. Take forth
the precious from the vile, says God to Jeremiah. Stand, I know
you've suffered and you've been in perpetual pain, with an incurable
wound as it seems, but stand here, stand here, stay standing
here. Separate the precious from the
vile. Separate it. Stay clear of it. Remove every hint of vile corruption. But people would object. As I
know many have in the past, in years gone by. Won't it leave
us lonely and isolated if we stand so firmly for these things? I'm taking one of the sayings
of Jesus and sort of rather applying it in a different way, but you
know where he said, what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole
wide world and yet lose his soul? Let's put it this way, what is
a man advantaged in religion? What is a true believer advantaged?
If he gained the whole religious world by diminishing that which
is precious, by allowing some of that which is vile, because
it's all for the sake of a worthless, worthless redemption. God's revealed
his truth in his word. Declare it. Publicly. Clearly. Don't keep it a secret. Don't
reckon on what man's reaction might be. We know that the natural
man in himself, doesn't matter what you do, will not see the
things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned. But to
those, as Acts puts it, those that God has ordained to eternal
life, he makes his people willing in the day of his power. And
they hear the gospel of grace, and that burden of sin which
is about to drag them down to hell, for they know the dire
condition in which they stand. They see that their sins are
taken away by the one who has died at Calvary. For them, for
a particular people. That the sin debt is cancelled,
separate the precious from the vile in the doctrine of how God
saves his people. And then thirdly, in the resulting
experiences and practices that come from it, separate the precious
from the vile. Make a separation. Declare that
which is precious as opposed to that which is vile in the
things of God. Gospel precepts that we've been
thinking about as we've been getting to the later chapters
of Romans These are precious things. They're about how shall
we then live. These are precious things. It's
the precious as opposed to the vile works of the law. Striving
for your own sanctification. Separate the precious from the
vile. What are these works we're talking about? They're not works
added to grace. For if you add anything to the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ will profit you nothing.
You destroy it. but they're works, as James says,
that arise from grace. The soul that has been saved
by grace is a soul that demonstrates that by works. Not by works that
give any basis for saying, oh, I've added something to the work
of Christ, but showing that there is a new man within. And separating
the precious from the vile in terms of recognizing those precious
experiences that the true believer has. We were talking in the car
coming about what it is to be a believer. And how can you explain
it to somebody else? And the fact of the matter is
that you can't. It's only the soul that has experienced,
experienced the grace of God in the heart that knows what
it is. You just, you know, it's like, I can't describe to you
what it's like to have that tingling feeling when you hear a particular
piece of music. It has to happen for you. And
I can't put into words what should happen. If it doesn't happen
for you, it doesn't happen for you. It's like this, with the
child of God, you know these things. You see Christ in the
soul, that's precious. You feel the joy of redemption
accomplished. It's a joy, genuinely. Redemption
accomplished. How shall a man be just with
God? I know I'm just with God. For He has dealt with everything
that made me unjust with God. I know I'm right in Him. It's
precious. Precious. Vile? Own works. Do these things
and then you'll get vile. Vile religion. Separate the precious
from the vile. Redemption accomplished. A conscience. of sin that is washed clean. You know that guilty conscience,
how am I going to face God? A conscience that is washed clean
in the precious blood of Christ. How is it washed clean in precious
blood? You see, you know that that was the price of sin. The
life, the soul that sins, it shall die. The life is in the
blood. The blood must be shed. Which
blood? The blood of an infinite, sinless
sacrifice must be shed. That must be the thing that pays
the price of sin. Therefore, the conscience that
is weighed down with sin looks to that blood and knows that
that blood has washed away before the justice of God, before the
bar of divine justice has washed away the guilt and has paid the
ransom price. and picking it out from all that
is vile. It's all the product of the flesh,
of fleshly thinking in religion, in doctrine, from deluded self-righteousness,
right the way through to the worst excesses of fallen man.
The precious all flows from Christ and knowing Him. He said, abide
in me, in John 15, abide in the vine, just as the branches cannot
bear fruit, that fruit of the Spirit. The branches cannot bear
fruit unless they abide in the vine, from which they get that
sap that comes up from the rootstock. He said, I am the vine, the rootstock,
ye are the branches, abide in me. It comes from abiding in
Him. As that sap flows, that gracious
sap flows from him, we feel love in place of fear. That's the
precious from the vial. We feel grace, we experience
grace in the place of law. We experience the liberty of
grace in the place of the bondage of the law. That's precious,
taken from the vial. We experience walking in accordance
with the spirit, as Romans 8 says. Walking in accordance with the
spirit rather than being motivated by the lusts and the desires
and the whims of the flesh. Separate the precious from the
vile. whether you're lonely, whether
you end up, as Jeremiah did, up to your armpits in a horrible
place, separate the precious from the vile, says God, and
I will bless you. He says then, this is the second
main point, blessing, you shall be my mouth. God says to Jeremiah,
you shall be my mouth, whether there's only one of you or thousands.
What's the mark of a true church? What's the mark of a true church?
What says that you're the mouthpiece of God to this generation? Does
it matter how many people there are? Does it matter whether there's
a congregation of thousands in a great big glamorous building?
What's the true mark? Is it a growing congregation?
Not necessarily. It has been in times past, but
in these days we don't see it in these days in this country.
The mark of a true church is the faithful separation of the
precious from the vile, even if it means having to sound negative
as a watchman from time to time, to beware of false doctrine,
of false practice. It's being God's mouth. It's
being assured that his word shall not return to him void if we
separate the precious from the vile in all that we preach. will
be God's mouthpiece. And being God's mouthpiece will
speak with his word. And his word will, he promises,
accomplish his purpose for which he sends it. And what is his
purpose? His purpose is to save souls, for it is by the foolishness
of preaching, the precious preaching of the gospel of grace, that
he is pleased to save those that believe. Its purpose is to feed
God's lambs, as Jesus, the risen Christ, said to Peter, Peter,
do you love me? Feed my lambs, feed my sheep,
feed my sheep. Feed God's lambs! Or, thirdly,
as it may be to this generation in which we live here, those
around who despise the gospel of grace, It may be for the condemnation
of unbelief and unbelievers. For condemned, says John 3, verse
18, is the one who has not believed, for he has not believed in the
only begotten Son. That's what the scripture says.
That's not what I say, that's what the scripture says. Blessing
in being God's mouthpiece. And then thirdly, there is this
command. There is this command. In the
end of verse 19, let them return unto thee but return not thou
unto them. Let them return to you, but don't
do the opposite. Don't you go back to them. Maintain
your position. Stand firm. Don't shift the old
way, Marcus. Not for anything. Not for popularity. Not for numbers. Not to form
alliances that might make you feel a little bit better because
you're not quite so much alone. Not for anything. Don't adjust
your doctrine to soften it in any way whatsoever. Some of you
will remember this, I remember it distinctly. I remember about
eight years ago, I think it must have been, preaching on John
17 verse 2, which is the verse of that high priestly prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ to his father, where he says, he prays
to his father that his father had given Him power, Jesus, to
give eternal life to as many as the Father had given unto
Him. You couldn't have a clearer statement
of the doctrine of election, of the absolute necessity of
the doctrine of election in Scripture. And if I remember rightly, I
preached on that occasion as powerfully as this weak flesh
was able to preach on that particular text. And at the end of that
message, somebody of certain importance came up to me and
said, you know, you really, really shouldn't have preached like
that because you should have taken notice of who was in the
congregation. You should have had a look around.
You know, you really ought to be aware of who's in the congregation
and adjust your message to fit. Do you know what the reason was? there was a pastor in that evening
service who was of Arminian leanings and I should have adjusted the
message so that it didn't offend that person. No! We mustn't do
that. We mustn't do that. Not at all.
This has happened in churches. All the time, in churches, trying
to gather bigger congregations. Why? Because they need more people
to give more money so they can do more schemes. That's the reason
why. That's their motivation. Trying
to gather bigger congregations. So, how are you going to do that?
Well, you mustn't frighten the potential ones off with sovereign
grace. You mustn't frighten the ones that might be sympathetic
off by preaching the precious doctrines of Scripture. No, let's
keep that back and we'll get into that if the opportunity
arises. But no, let's try and build a
big congregation. Churches have done it. Publishing
organizations have done it. Sadly, tragically. Publishing
organizations. I'll give you an example. Publishing
organizations that stood four square for the truths, the precious
truths of Scripture. And now they're open to the benefits
of the evangelism of John Wesley. you know, making a big thing
of it. I know I'm being very explicit, but you've got to be,
you know, otherwise I'm talking in obscure terms. Let's be absolutely
clear. They've extolled the virtues
of John Wesley's evangelism. John Wesley preached that which,
by the measure of this scripture, was vile in terms of the truth
of the Gospel of Grace. It was vile, it was a complete
corruption of what the Scriptures teach, and yet publishing organizations
that stood as pillars of the truth have gone wholesale over
in opening the doors to it. Hymn books, for example, I was
talking to Cliff earlier about hymn books. The more modern ones,
they've got lovely tunes. The reason I mention this is
it was in the service on the radio this morning. They were
singing a hymn that we used to sing and it's got such a lovely
tune and the words sound so very very nearly right until you look
a bit more closely. and it's ambiguous about universalism,
it's ambiguous about the extent of the gospel, it's ambiguous.
The tune becomes more important than the words. Precious and
vile get mixed up together. Bible seminaries, Bible seminaries,
what becomes their motivation? becoming like factories to produce
men to be pastors to go into churches to operate a particular
formula that will lead to that little church growing and thriving
and getting enough money to pay the pastor a salary so that they
can justify their means and in the process the edges are knocked
off the precious truth of the scripture but God says take forth
the precious from the vile separate it and you then will be my mouthpiece
And if you're the mouthpiece of God, He'll take care of you.
He said, go without script, or without cloak, or without other
provision, I'll be with you. I'll give you the words to speak.
I'll take you. Now, Paul said to the Galatians,
in chapter 1, verses 7 and 8, he repeated it. Anything, anything,
which is any other gospel than the one I've preached, than the
precious, Anyone who preaches that, let him be accursed, let
him be anathema, because it's deadly. Bill always used to use
the illustration of the drop of deadly poison. a glass of
pure water that's perfectly fit to drink and I drop one tiny
little drop of poison in amongst those thousands of other drops
of perfectly pure, harmless, good water, will you drink that
glass? It's only got one drop of deadly
poison in it amongst thousands of perfectly good drops, will
you drink that? No, not at all. Separate the
precious from the vile. Don't even allow one. This is
what this is saying to us. Because why? Can error, in any
form, save? What is it that saves a soul?
It's the true gospel of God's grace. It's the true gospel of
the price of sin, the ransom of sins, paid in full. Can error
save? Can error ever bless anybody?
Can error ever comfort anyone? Doesn't matter how many people
you're gathered together with singing your wonderful, rousing,
new-tune hymns. It doesn't matter about that.
Can error ever support you? Can error ever be with you? In
the darkest hour? On the sickbed? In the moment
of death? Not at all. It's the precious. It's the precious that you need.
Faithfulness to God's Word, to His Gospel, to His Spirit, to
His Christ. Separate the precious from the
vile and you will be the mouth of God. Those others, let them
come to you. Oh yes, we proclaim, we put it
on the internet. Listen to it. Come, hear it,
support it, but don't you return to them for fleshly comfort.
God is the comfort of his people. Even when they're entirely alone,
God is the comfort of his people.