Every believer must be aware that there are false messages in the world as well as true messages. The false will do us great harm if we believe them; the true will lead to life. How can we tell the difference? We compare all that we hear with the Scripture just as the Bereans did. Each one must be his own guardian, his own protector. God has made us responsible for what we allow to enter into our souls. We must all ask God for the gift of discernment, which acts as a door on the soul, a door which must be firmly closed at times. It requires faith not to hear the false message, as much it requires faith to hear the true message.
Jeremiah is constantly reasoning with the people. We think of those dear friends, many of them, if not most of them, truly converted among the so-called Gospel Standard Strict Baptists, who don't want to make the free offer of the gospel, and seek to justify their position. The whole of the Scripture is full of reasoning. Look at the argumentation and the persuasion of Jeremiah. This is of special significance, because in the case of Jeremiah, nobody would listen to him, and he knew that they were going into captivity. He knew that the appeals God had given him to make would not generally be responded to. And yet it is right for him to make them and he presents them as earnestly as he can. Nevertheless, people, who do not believe in the free offer of the gospel, the universal tender of salvation, say today, ‘Would God appeal to lost souls who he knows are going to be lost? It is absurd.’ But that is precisely the example given to us through the Scripture, because after all, they will be held responsible for refusing him. Furthermore the heart of God and his loving kindness in this matter must be revealed, and he is genuine about offering to pardon them.
‘Wherefore should this city be laid waste?’ Serve the King of Babylon and live. Why should this city be laid waste when Nebuchadnezzar comes and destroys it to punish your refusal to submit to him? Equally, why should you destroy your own soul? Why allow it to be ransacked by the enemy of souls as he sends his false ideas through it like piercing swords? Even if we are reasoning with people who are not enlightened sinners in the Lamb's book of life, we still reason with them too. We can see the pleadings of God in the preaching of Christ and the apostles and in the New Testament exaltations, but you can see it even in the Old Testament prophets, the principle is the same, the universal tender of salvation, the free offer of the gospel.