God's Final Call

God’s Final Call

Sunday, November 07, 2010 – AM

By Pastor James May

Jeremiah was probably the most humble prophet of the Old Testament. His heart was broken because of the condition of Israel, and on more than one occasion he wept openly for his people. He was one of very few voices in Israel that continually spoke the truth to the people of God. While most of the teachers in Israel were caught up in sin, lying to the people about their true condition and failing to warn them of the dire consequences of continuing in sin, Jeremiah stood true. He was not well received for the people didn’t want to hear the truth. The lies of those who spoke made them feel better and they just didn’t want to hear the words of this prophet of doom.

There is an old saying that says that history repeats itself and that if we fail to learn from the lessons of the past then we are destined to repeat those lessons. As I look around the church of today, including our own church, I wonder if some people just don’t get it.

The Love of God is reaching out to a wayward people. The Holy Spirit is doing all that he can to draw God’s people into a place of close relationship with Christ; trying to lead us in the paths of righteousness and revealing to us the ways of our Heavenly Father. But like Israel in the days of Jeremiah, I believe that so many of God’s own people simply refuse to hear the voice of the Spirit. We are supposed to be the sheep of God’s pasture and yet there are so many that don’t even know the voice of the Great Shepherd as he calls out in love for them to come into the place of safety.

Notice that all that Jeremiah says is spoken directly to God’s own people. He wasn’t speaking to the Gentile nations. He wasn’t speaking to those who had no knowledge of God. Those who are unbelievers are condemned already. Why should God condemn them more? God’s heart is not set upon condemning mankind, but upon saving mankind. It is God’s will that all men should fall on their face in repentance and that none should be lost. God did not create man in his own image just to lose him to the clutches of sin. God didn’t create the eternal fires of judgment for the souls of men; but for the rebellious angels. If any man goes there, he will go by choice, or by neglect of the great salvation that God has so wonderfully provided through Jesus Christ, his own Son.

I know that you get tired of hearing this message time and again, but I am compelled by the Holy Ghost to speak it over and over, just as Jeremiah was in his day. God is still the same God that he was in the days of Jeremiah. His love has not abated; his longsuffering in waiting for the response of his people is the same, but we must also know that God’s righteous judgments are the same as well. If God were allow his church to continue in sin and not bring judgment upon the House of God; then he would have to turn back the pages of history, raise every one of the souls of Israel who died without God in those days and apologize to them for being an unjust God.

For those among us who might think that we are perfect in our ways and that we are innocent of all charges that God brings against his church, let me just say what Jesus said in Matthew 18:12, "How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?"

You can just see the great love of God reaching out, and the tremendous value that he places upon each and every soul of a man in the next few verses. Yes, I have no doubt that there are a great many sitting here this morning whose hearts are right with God. You constantly strive to keep the Mind of Christ. Your greatest desire is to be so close to Jesus that you share the very heart of God. You cherish the Love of God in your heart and soul and there’s nothing that could ever take the place of God’s Love.

But I also know that not all of us are as close to the heart of God as we should be. There are some wayward sheep around; otherwise I would not feel so compelled to speak this message. And it is to you that God has directed that I speak this morning. One more time the Great Shepherd is calling you by name. One more time the voice of the Holy Spirit will speak to you. I don’t know God’s timetable for your life but just maybe this could be God’s final call to your heart to turn back to him in repentance.