The Book of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

For the last couple of weeks I have had my head buried in the O.T. scriptures trying to finish my reading assignment for O.T.2 at seminary. It has been some kind of undertaken, seeing how I put everything off until the last possible minute. I love the O.T. It is such a great picture of the coming of Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. Tonight, I have finished the O.T. book of Jeremiah. I wanted to share some interesting facts about the book you might find useful as a student of God's Word.

1. The Book of Jeremiah is the second longest book in the Bible next to Psalms.
2. The copy of the Book of Jeremiah we have in our bibles, church historians say it is the second copy. According to Jere.36:1-26, Baruch had written a copy prior to the second copy.
3. The book of Jeremiah is not arranged in chronological order.
4. The Book of Jeremiah is made up of several different types of confessions made by Jeremiah.
5. Jeremiah stimulates the search for the will of god in moments when all the institutions and religious people normally in charge has been discredited.

Jeremiah is a great picture for the time and day we live in. We need modern day Jeremiah's who would thunder the word of God from the pulpits and God's people to be zealous to preach the gospel of repentance and faith to a dying world.

"The Lord's Church"

Matt.16:18) And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Last night God's people at PHBC began a study on the doctrine of the church. The age old question for many years is, "one church as good as another?" Is one denomination as good as another? Are we not all on the same mountain trying to get to the same God? Don't all roads lead to Rome anyway?

Well the answer is, no! God has one church and it His church. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He died for, according to Eph.5:26. Today we as Baptist has lost the importance of teaching on the local church of the New Testament. We have Baptist who call themselves "protestants" although Baptist never protested against the Catholic harlot (Rev.17:1-8).

One of the greatest Baptist preachers of all times was Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon even knew this grand truth about the Lord's church:

"We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man..."—Charles H. Spurgeon

By God's grace may the Lord help us to be faithful to teach on the doctrines set forth of scriptures. Even if they are offensive to others. May God be true and all men liars.