WHEN WORSHIP BECOMES
A CEREMONY
THE TEMPLE
BECOMES A ROBBERS DEN
Jeremiah 7:1-15
PREACHER'S OBLIGATION
V:1-2 " This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the
Lord:"
"Stand at
the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: "'Hear the
word of the
Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship
the Lord."
A. Preachers have an
obligation to God the Father.
1. Preachers must
always be prepared to hear a word from the Lord.
2. Preachers must
preach the Word given to them by God.
3. Preachers must
be willing to go where God sends them.
B. The Word of God
must be taught when believers come together for worship.
1. Preachers must
preach the truth and the whole truth.
2. Preachers cannot
preach the blessings of God without preaching the requirements to
receive the
blessings.
a. We can not
preach the righteousness of God without preaching the
penalty of
sin.
b. We cannot preach discipleship without preaching
discipline and chastisement.
A COMMAND TO REFORM
V:3. " This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in
this place."
A. In this verse, God
gave us a command and a promise.
1. The command is
to reform our ways and our actions.
a. The
Israelite's had followed the ways of the world.
b. They
followed the ways of the pagan nations around them.
c. They
worshiped idol gods.
2. In their hearts,
they rejected the true and living God.
3. They
worshiped gods made with human hands.
4. They came to
the Temple of God
but their
hearts were far from the worship of the Lord.
B. God gives us time
to reform before He executes His judgment.
1. The God we
serve is a tolerant God. He is long suffering.
2. God puts up
with our disobedience for a time.
C. We are here
because God lets us live.
1. None of us can
sustain ourselves.
2. We are here by the grace and the mercy of
God.
3. God requires us to worship Him in the spirit
of truth.
4. God
promised that if we follow His commands, we will live a prosperous
life.
a. We want the
blessings of God without being obedient to God.
b. Some of the
individual blessings of God are conditional on our
obedience.
c. Our quality
of life is conditional on our obedience to God.
A FAILED RELIGION
V:4. " Do not trust in deceptive words and say,
"This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord!"
A. The temple that
Solomon built was designed by the Lord.
1. The Lord
provided all the material and gifted the all the tradesmen with the
power of the
Holy Spirit to build the temple to His specifications.
2. The general
thought was that God would not destroy His temple.
3. The temple
became the center of worship.
4. The Nation of Israel
had come to worship the building but not the God
who built the temple.
B. God used His
prophets to inform His people that He had no interest in the
building, but
rather the spiritual well being of His people.
1. God is not
concerned about our religious practices, but our lifestyle of
obedience.
2. You can
practice religion without being obedient to God's Word.
3. Your religion
is not an indication of your faith.
4. Your religion
could be giving glory to a building, a congregation,
a denomination
or a pastor.
5. Religion
without faith in the Word of God is a trip to hell.
C. We cannot trust in the words of man.
1. We must trust
in the Word of God.
2. What God wants
from us is a religion that believes in His Word, lives by
His Word and
acts according to His Word.
THE REQUIRED REFORMATION
V:5-6. " If you really change your ways and your
actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the
fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if
you do not follow other gods to your own harm,"
A. The Sins of the
nation are specified in this verse.
1. They were
walking not according to God's ways.
2. They were not
dealing with each other justly.
3. They oppressed the foreigners.
4. They took advantage of the fatherless
and widows.
5. The shed
innocent blood.
6. They
worshiped idol gods.
B. The people of Israel
were practicing a religion that had no faith in God.
1. Their religion
was one of ceremonies.
2. Their religion
lacked love and compassion for others.
3. Their religion
was one of selfishness.
4. Their religion
was one of deceitfulness.
5. Their religion
was totally ungodly.
THE CONDITIONAL PROMISE OF GOD
V:7. " Then I will let you live in this place, in the
land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever."
A. God said , I would rather obedience than
sacrifice.
1. God gave us
two great commands.
a. Love the
Lord with all you heart, mind, soul and strength.
b. Love your
neighbor as yourself.
c. All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands. Matt 22:37
2. If we could
just follow through on these two commands,
we would
fulfill God's requirements for righteousness.
B. Successful living
in the Lord is conditional on our obedience to
God's commands.
1. We need the
conviction of the Holy Spirit to keep our minds
focused on
the Word.
2. Righteousness
is preliminary to worship of the Lord.
TRUSTING IN THE WRONG VOICE
V:8. "But look, you are trusting in deceptive words
that are worthless."
A. There is only one
voice that is worth listening too and that is the Word of
God.
1. In this life
we will find many false doctrines that are filled with lies
and
deceptions.
a. Satan is
the father of lies. John 8:44
b. He
disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Cor 11:24 .
2. The Word of
God is the unchanging truth.
a. Jesus said
heaven and earth will pass away but My Word is eternal.
Matt
24:35
b. Jesus also
said , you will know the truth and the truth will set
you free.
THE NEED FOR A SAVIOR
V:9-10 "Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and
perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and
then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say,
"We are safe" — safe to do all these detestable things?"
A. Satan the Father of lies, will have us believe that as
long as we show up for worship,
God will over
look our sinful behavior.
1. We were born in
sin and shaped in iniquity, therefore lust of the flesh is our
natural
behavior.
2. The Word says,
that there is none righteous, no not one.
3. Men are lovers of
darkness and likely to exchange the truth for a lie. Rom 1:23-26
B. The only solution to our sinful behavior is Jesus Christ.
1. Any man in
Christ is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.
2 Cor 5:17
a. In Christ,
the old man is dead and the new man has come alive.
2. On our own, we
have no power to fight the lust of the flesh.
3. We have to have
the conviction of the Holy Spirit to change.
ROBBING GOD
V:11 Has this house,
which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have
been watching!
declares the Lord."
A. The Lord's house is a House of prayer.
1. We have made it
a production of song, dance and eloquent speaking.
2. The Lord's house
has become a place of entertainment.
3. We only want to
hear a word that is pleasing to the ear.
4. An occasional
mention of sin is ok, but don't make it the focus of the message.
B. We rob God of His Glory when we minimize our sinful
behavior and the
need for
conviction of the heart and repentance.
1. We rob God of
His Glory when we preach the atoning blood of Jesus Christ
without the
need for spiritual growth and development.
2. We rob God of
His Glory when we hear the Word but don't make it a
lifestyle and
a commitment to service.
3. We rob God of
His Glory when we don't continuously seek the high calling
of Jesus
Christ.
4. We rob God of
His Glory when we bring a sacrifice of money but not our bodies
as a living
sacrifice.
5. We rob God of
His Glory when our prayers become what I want rather than
what I can do
for God .
6. We rob God when
trust man, idols or ourselves.
C. God takes note of
our worship.
1. He knows if it
is for show or comes from the heart.
2. We have to
remember that one day we will have to give an account of
everything
we have said and done.
EXAMPLES OF GOD'S WRATH
V:12 "'Go now to the place in Shiloh
where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of
the wickedness of my people Israel ."
A. The tabernacle of God was set up in Shiloh
in the days of Joshua.
1. God destroyed Shiloh
and gave the ark in the hands of the Philistines
because of
the idol worship of Israel .
Joshua 18:1, Judges 18:31
2. God favor is not
tied to any building or location.
B. The body is the temple of the Lord.
1. We should be
the living Church that others can see.
2. Others ought to
see a change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has made in out lives.
3. God does not
need us, we need God.
THE EVIDENCE OF GOD'S LOVE IS HIS LIVING WORD
V:13 While you were
doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but
you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer."
A. God is a tolerant God.
1. God is long
suffering.
2. God extended
His mercy to us, even though our behavior did not
change.
3. Unless we
change, there will come a time when God will punish us for our sins.
B. Throughout the Bible, God has given us promises and
warnings over and over
again.
1. We must not take
God's kindness for weakness.
2. He is able to
destroy us from the face of the earth.
3. He promised us
life if we follow His commands and destruction if we ignore
His commands.
GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES
V:14.-15. Therefore,
what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple
you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. 15 I will thrust you
from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim."
A. God point us to what He has done in the past to His
people who disobeyed His
commands.
1. We have the
example of the flood in which only Noah and his family survived.
2. We have the
example of Solomon's temple which was
destroyed in 586 BC.
3. We have the
example of Herod's temple which existed doing the time of Christ
Ministry which
was destroyed in 70 AD.
B. People are moved to worship a building rather than God, the builder of the Temple .
1. God has no
special interest in a building, but He has love and compassion for
His people.
2. God will keep
His promises and His covenants that He made to Abraham and David.
3. God promises are
not dependent on a particular person or generation, but to
a covenant
people who keeps His commands.
YOU AND I STILL EXIST BECAUSE OF THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD
WORSHIP THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD
GIVE HIM PRAISE AND HONOR
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst. Pastor of Greater Macedonia
Baptist Church
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