One of God's great purposes in acting so favourably to a single nation, namely Israel, and blessing them so richly, and giving them the privilege of so many miracles, demonstrations of his power, and guiding them, defending them, and providing for them by taking them to a fertile land; one of the purposes of this was to demonstrate in the day of judgment the sinfulness of the human race. If anybody were to stand before God in judgment and protest and say, ‘But I would have become a Christian, I would have turned to thee, if you had ever shown me a miracle. If you had ever demonstrated your being, your power, and your goodness, I would have turned instantly. But you never showed me a miracle so you can't judge me.’ In answer, it will be shown that for centuries a whole nation of people was shown the most astonishing things, given the most amazing demonstrations of God's goodness and power, and it made no difference at all to the stubbornness and the resistance of men and women. Of course, there will be some among the Jews, who by God's irresistible grace will turn to him and will be converted. They will always be a minority, and only a remnant, but God's mercy and kindness will be seen in personal salvation, and was seen, even among the Jews of old. But as far as the whole nation was concerned, it constitutes a kind of sample, demonstrating human resistance, unbelief, stubbornness, against God. That's one purpose of it.
But then another purpose is it shows the responsibility that is given to us. The reasoning of God is this: I have done all this for the nation, and they for their part have paid no homage, given me no honour or thanks. Now that is the basis of an evangelistic argument. The whole human race in a sense reflects the Jewish situation. Just as God selected a nation and did special things for them, so in another sense, the whole human race is special and distinct, and has received tremendous privileges and benefits. The gap between the animals and human beings is vast. The particular gifts and powers, which human beings have are distinctive and special and wonderful. And here is the basis of evangelistic arguments. ‘You have so many gifts and abilities apart from things that are common to all of us. The wonderful gift of sight, the capacity in some shape or form to communicate, and to think, and to feel. Then there are things that are distinctive to individuals. One person may have a most exceptional memory; another person, an amazing facility for maths and figures; another, a wonderful physical strength. We have all got a group of special aptitudes and strengths. We get very proud of them, foolishly. But we possess them, and they benefit us, and they may bring us many advantages and rewards in life. It as though God reasons with us: ‘Look what I have given you as a human being: life itself, consciousness, and the gift of reason, and yet no homage paid; there is no gratitude to God, no yielding to him or interest in him or seeking after him. That is the reasoning that God uses. He counts it as an insult; he counts it as hatred, and so it is. That is an argument to be used in pleading with the lost. It can be used sometimes in a fairly gentle way, but it is still a very powerful message. Human beings have an obligation: to thank, to praise, to pay homage, to seek, to obey him, and to honour him.
We may apply this to the church today. There are large sections of Bible believing churches that have adopted the world and worldly music, and gimmicks galore and all this type of thing. ‘Well, what was wrong with the gospel?’ Jeremiah may reason. ‘What disadvantage did we suffer when we depended on the Lord alone, and prayer meetings, the preaching of the gospel, and the worship of God? What went wrong that you felt you had to bring all these things in and alter the church beyond all recognition?’ We can use the same reasoning. And the answer is, ‘Nothing went wrong, except that we lost the blessing because of personal disobedience, straying from the Lord, and lack of trust. In the churches the prayer meetings dwindled to next to nothing, the blessing was withdrawn. So what do they do? They go over to worldly methods and things as a substitute. The Lord did nothing wrong; it was the people. And this is the reasoning of Jeremiah. We can apply it today; we can apply to ourselves.
If we have grown spiritually cold and we are more concerned about worldly things than spiritual things, what has happened. Suppose we were truly converted. We came to Christ; we trusted in him; he changed our lives; and we were so happy. Well what did he do wrong with we have drifted away? Nothing. We have drifted away. We have turned aside to other things. You can apply the reasoning to the church, to the individual. All the things that were written afore time were written for our learning. This is how we read the Bible. We don't just say, ‘Tut, tut; how dreadful Israel was!’. We say, ‘How does this apply to me?’ And here is the reasoning of the Lord.