Jeremiah 51:52-64 - Homiletics

The book cast into the river.

I. MEN DO NOT SUFFER FOR THEIR SINS WITHOUT WARNING FROM GOD . Seraiah was to go to Babylon and see that he read there the words of the prophecy concerning the city. God has warned us of the doom of sin, and he has sent the warning to us. We have not to search for it. It sounds in our ears. It is written large in the Bible. It is repeated in the lessons of providence.

II. IF A DIVINE WARNING IS DISREGARDED IT IS USELESS TO THE DOOMED . The prophecy seems to have had little or no effect on the people of Babylon. No doubt it was sent in mercy like Jonah's preaching against Nineveh, to lead the people to repentance. But if they failed to repent, the Divine message could afford no protection. Unless we are influenced by the Bible, it will be useless for us to hold it in our hands. It can be then only a witness against us. Neither the mere possessor of Scripture, nor the reader, nor the student of it finds a way of safety in its teachings, but only he who follows its truths in practice. He who hears Christ's sayings and does them builds on the rock.

III. WHEN A DIVINE WARNING IS PROVED TO BE INEFFECTUAL IT MAY BE WITHHELD . The book, no longer of use, is to be cast into the river and sunk with a stone attached to it. The voice of conscience grows silent from being long unheeded. While men neglect to obey the teachings of Scripture, they harden themselves against the reception of them. If there is no mere warning, they may grow careless as though there were no more danger. They should rather take this silence as Ominous of the approaching destruction which the warning has been ineffectual in urging them to escape.