Iniquity of God's people is done malignanihj. The enemies of God rejoice when they can find a solitary blot or blemish in the character of God's children. What a yell of tnumph they raise when they light on such a discovery I Satan is " the accuser of the brethren." He is ever on the search for their iniquity. And they who are of him are ready with the charge of cant, hypocrisy, etc. ; refusing to believe that there can be any such person as a real saint of God. And pharisaically also Israel's iniquity is frequently " sought for." See that elder son in the parable (Luke xv.). How slow he was to believe in anything but the hardened iniquity of his younger brother I A grsat deal may be urged in favour of his view of things. Such kindly treatment did seem unjust, putting bad and good on one level. He would not have objected — as such men, and there have been and are myriads of them, do not object — to show some little favour to a repentant sinner, after a long course of testing him and proving whether Le was worthy of any further forgiveness ; but to give him all at once such complete par<!on, such elder song never believe in that. And by some the iniquity of those whom God has pardoned is sought for philosophically. " Plato, Plato," said Socrates, " I do not see how God can forgive sins." And when we see, as we do see, how in the whole realm of nature every force goes on until it has produced its full effect — there b no loss of force anywhere — how can sin be made an exception ? how can it be prevented from having its due and full effect, sad and terrible as that is? Philosophically speaking, there can be no forgiveness. What a man soweth, that must he also reap, in nature and measure, in kind and degree. Thus is God's forgiveness challenged. But- Ill. It is vindicated. Ver. 20, " The iniquity . . . shall be sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins . . . and they shall not be found." The sacrifice and the Spirit of Christ are the vindication of God's forgiveness. The former by vindicating the Divine righteousness in such for;;ivenes8. For there are two ways of accomplishing this. One is the way of condign punishment. But God desires atonement, reconciliation, as well aa vindication, and therefore this way will not serve. The other the way of repentance, the accepting the contrite confession of sin, and prayer for its forgiveness And this is the way God has chosen. Cf. "I said I will confess . . . and thou for- gavest," etc. ; " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," eta Now, this way of dealing with sinners vindicates God's righteousness. For, though we cannot offer an adequate confession, repentance, and intercession, yet, in Christ, this has been done; and when, in sympathy with him, in " the fellowship of his sufferings," and " mode conformable to his death," we make our confessions and prayers, they are accepted for th6 sake of him who has offered perfectly the spiritual sacrifice which we can offer only imperfectly. Now, this way of dealing with sinners vindicates GK>d's righteousness ; yea, it causes sinners to be made " the rightsousness of God in him," that is, Christ (2 Cor, t. 21). Gk)d's righteousness is thus made illustrious, conspicuous, as by no other means whatsoever. For when it is clearly seen, as in the kingrlom of God it will be clearly seen, (1) the depths whence the sinner has been drawn, and (2) the glorious height of purity and excellence to which he has been by this ^r^ce of God upraised, that spectacle wiU silence all objections, and will prove that that way must have been a righteous way which has had such righteous results. And the Spirit of Ghrist, producing sanctity in the hearts and lives of believers, is the vindication of this way of grace to all elder sons, and, indeed, to all else who challenge what God has done. Conclusion. 1. Rejoice in such forgiveness, that you have it to proclaim, to think of, to rest your soul upon. 2. Adore. What else can we do but sing our " Magnificats ** to such a redeeming God ?
"Who is a pardoning God like theef And who hath grace so rich and free?*
3. Come away firom all self-trust, all reliance on your own deeds for Justification and forgiveness. 4. Tremble, unsaved one, to be found amongst those who have despised such grace. " How can we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? " — 0.
Ver. 23. — Hammer versus hammer. Babylon was " the hammer of the whole earth" Id the days in which and of which Jeremiah wrote. Nineveh ha'l striven to resist, as had Tyre, Syria, and Egypt, but one by one they had been crushed beneath Babylon's {woderous blow. And now Judah and Jerusalem were crushed likewise. But God't
284 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. LoH. l. 1— 46
Word was thnt other liammer, against which even the force of the feammer of th« whole earth should be put forth in vain. " Is not my Word ... as a hammer, saith the Lord, which hreaketh the rock in pieces ? " (ch. xxiii. 29). And it did thus break the power of Babylon, and made her " a desolation among the nations." Now, all tliia 18 a parable of what is and long has been i)i the spiritual world. Note —
I. Thkke is a hammer-like foboe working against good in the world. See how it crushes joy, innocency, purposes of good, noble endeavours, life itself. It is the kingrlom of Satan ; such crushing of so much that is good is of those " works of tha devil " to destroy which the Son of God was manifested.