Subtopic: “ The Necessity Of Fulfilling Our Responsibility and Motivation To Love God”

Sermon Notes By Pastor Arthur H. Coleman Sr. For Sunday May 11, 2014

Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”

St. John 14:15 “If ye love me , keep my commandments.”

1 John 4:7-11 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (vs8) He the loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (vs9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (vs10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (means by which reconciliation of God and mankind is attained) for our sins. (vs11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

Premise

The Pulpit Commentary Vol.11, Pages 16-17, a comment on Jeremiah 31:3 – I. THE EVERLASTING LOVE OF GOD “There is a wonder about the fact of the everlasting love of God, since there are so many things that might well be thought likely to limit and stay the love of God to such beings as we are. 1. Our Unworthiness---God is holy, and must delight only in holiness; he is great; and can create innumerable beings of far greater powers than ours. Why, then, should he love such imperfect creatures as men?---why love those who are corrupt and sinful?---Psalms 8:3-4  “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; (vs4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” 2.Our Indifference --- Human love looks for a return of love; but men have treated God’s love with neglect. Through the long ages during which God has been visiting his children with ceaseless lovingkindness they have been coldly turning aside to their own ways, deaf to the entreaties of an infinite condescension or      ( pleasantness to inferiors). 3.Our Unfaithfulness--- For love to remain unbroken it is expected that it should be honored by fidelity. Unfaithfulness is naturally regarded as a reason for withdrawing the privileges of affection. But God’s children have been untrue to him. They have forsaken his ways, abused his blessings, flung insult on his mercy. How, then, can he continue to love him? It is , indeed, a marvel that, through these long ages of the world’s wild wanderings, God should still follow his unworthy children with ceaseless love, never refusing to bless them, always entreating them to return to him. and it must be a marvel to us that, through all the years of our unworthy lives, he has shown the same long-suffering, forebearing mercy to each of us. It is wonderful that God should ever love such unworthy creatures as we are, but it is “passing strange” that he should not cease to love us after all our provocations of his wrath, that he should love us with “an everlasting love,” and should “have continued his loving-kindness unto” us.

Subtopic: The Power Behind Our Faith

Text: Jeremiah 32:26-27 “Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,(vs27) Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything to hard for me?

1 Chronicles 29:11-12 “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.(vs12) Both of riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.”

St. Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”


Premise

The Pulpit Commentary, Vol.11, Pages 52-53, A comment on Jeremiah 32:27. “We are not called to worship mere power. To do so would be to renounce the rights of conscience. We worship God, not because he is almighty, but because he is supremely good and morally great. But starting from this position, we have to take account also of the omnipotence of God. This omnipotence of God shows: 1.The utter vanity of all resistance to the will of God. In view of this obvious inference, the more strange, then, that it is so little acted upon. We need to feel it as well as to believe it. 2. This should lead us to trust that God will overcome difficulties which to us appear insurmountable. The restoration of Israel appeared impossible; the salvation of the world seems too great and difficult to be realized. But if  “with  God all things are possible”(St.Matt.19:26), how can we fix any limit to the ultimate triumphs of redemption? “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever;” then God will always seek the recovery of his lost children. “Is there anything to hard for me?” Then, in spite of present unbelief, impenitence, wild wanderings that leads us further astray, may we not believe that he will find his children at last? 3. These considerations should lead us to seek the help of God’s strength in our weakness. How foolish for the sailors to weary themselves toiling in vain at their oars against the tide, when if they would spread their sails the strong wind would carry them swiftly on! How foolish of us to toil on only in our natural power and with mere earthly means, when there are heavenly influences of omnipotence ready to help us if we will seek them!

Subtopic: The Process Of Divine Nearness Acquiring A Knowledge of God

Text: Jer.9:23-24 "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:(vs24) But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and  righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."   ( The Basis)

Psa.145:18 "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth".   ( The Practice)

James 4:8 " Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded".   (The Requirement)

Premise

 The Pulpit Commentary Vol.11, page 249; a comment on Jer.9:23-24."THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS INDICATED UNMISTAKABLY AS THE ONLY TRUE GLORY OF MAN. God is identified with the ultimate aim of our being. He made us, and it is for him we live. Consequently, the better we know him, the better we shall be able to serve him. 1.Imitation of God will spring from the knowledge of him. The more we know of him the more we must love him, and admiration will lead to resemblance in spirit and in life. 1 John 4:19 "We love him, because he first loved us."2. Knowledge depends on and leads to obedience. The knowledge of God sheds light upon the universe and life, and directs the soul and body into the channels of health, happiness, and usefulness. 3.It is connected with and culminates in Divine fellowship. In this way the character and presence of God are brought into the closest contact with the spirit of man, his character is moulded into the image of the Divine original, and the joys of communion deepen and enlarge into the blessedness of heaven. For St. John 17:3 says "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." 

Subtopic: "Don't Let The Fire Go Out"

Text: Jeremiah 20:9 "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak anymore in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

Concerning the latter clause of this verse A Translation of OT scriptures from the Original Hebrew By Helen Spurrell "Then there was in my heart like as a burning fire/ pent up within my bones:/And I laboured to refrain myself but I could not."

The New English Bible "Then his word was imprisoned in my body,/ like a fire blazing in my heart,/ and I was weary with holding it under,/ and could endure no more."

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

PREMISE

The Pulpit Commentary Vol.11, pages 475-476 "THE INHERENT PROPERTY OF THE WORD OF GOD AS A LIVING POWER IN THE SOULS OF MEN "A burning fire" All Divine truth possesses  a quality that may justly be thus represented. The Law that came by Moses was a "fiery Law" of which the thunders and lightings of Sinai were the appropriate associations(Exodus19:16-20). And even the inspiration of the gospel truth was fitly symbolized by "cloven tongues of fire"(Acts 2:3). There is not only light but heat, not only a flame but fire. The moral effects are manifest. 1.MELTING. Icy coldness, hard indifference, stubborn self-will, impenitence, ect,-- all these are softened by the fire of God when it really enters into the soul. A tender sensibility is thus created that prepares it to receive all Divine impressions. 2. KINDLING. Heaven-tending affections are awakened by it that did not exist before. Latent germs of nobler and better feeling are quickened into new life. There is no limit to the holy energies that may be developed in our nature by the inspiration of the truth of God. In this good sense we may say, "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" 3.CONSUMING. It destroys everything in us that is destructible. All that is, false, selfish, sensual,-- all that is" of the earth earthly"--- has in it the elements of dissolution and decay, and cannot resist the purging, purifying force of Divine truth. The dross is consumed that the precious gold may come forth in all its beauty and purity. The solid grain is quickened into fruitful life, the chaff is burnt up as with unquenchable fire.