Jeremiah 3:23 - Homiletics

From false to true salvation.

I. THE NEED OF SALVATION . This seems to be confessed before as much as after repentance. In both conditions Israel must turn somewhere for deliverance.

1. The need is universal . Israel was in national danger; but socially and privately men felt a vague sense of unrest and helplessness, and their heathen rites were a proof of this. The mystery of existence, the weariness of toil, the sorrow and disappointments of common experience, the terror of death, make men feel their helplessness. All religions witness to this fact.

2. The need is felt to be such that only religion can meet it . Men instinctively cry to their gods in the storm ( Jonah 1:5 ). This element of religion is retained when every other vestige of it has vanished. This element is common to the most diverse forms of religion, the most degraded equally with the most elevated. Is not such a fundamental fact of human nature a ground for hope? Can we believe that such a deep, instinctive cry will meet with no response?

II. THE FALSE HOPE OF SALVATION . Israel had turned to the pagan worship on the hills for deliverance; but in vain.

1. Superficially regarded, there was much to recommend this .

2. Experience proved the hope to be false . The salvation was hoped for in vain. Heathen gods neither protected from external foes nor cured the internal wretchedness of Israel. This must have been the case, because

III. THE TRUE HOPE OF SALVATION . "Truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel."

1. God only caw deliver, since he only can control nations and subdue the hearts of individual men.

2. God does deliver by his providence in outward events and his spiritual help in the internal battle with sin.

3. God is known as the Deliverer by his actions in the past. Israel turns to "Jehovah our God," the God who had often shown himself as a Savior. He who rightly reads the story of his own past life will see in it reasons for trusting God for the future.

4. God is sought as the Deliverer when all other refuges fail. After making the painful discovery mentioned in the earlier part of the verse, Israel comes to recognize the true salvation, but not till then. Trouble is good if it reveals the rottenness of our mistaken hope in time to set us free to seek the true hope. Yet how sad that men should need to have the veil thus forcibly torn from their eyes!