You Try Many Remedies in Vain

Jeremiah 46:11,25-26 NIV

 

“Go up to Gilead and get balm,

    Virgin Daughter Egypt.

But you try many medicines in vain;

    there is no healing for you.”

 

“The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to bring punishment on Amon god of Thebes, on Pharaoh, on Egypt and her gods and her kings, and on those who rely on Pharaoh. I will give them into the hands of those who want to kill them—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Later, however, Egypt will be inhabited as in times past,’ declares the Lord.”

 

Idolatry and Spiritual Adultery

 

The setting of this, as translated to our day and time: Many people who profess the name of Jesus Christ are living in open idolatry and in spiritual adultery against their Lord God. God, in his great love and mercy, has been confronting his rebellious people with their sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery, warning of judgment, and calling them to repentance.

 

For, they are hearers of the word, but they are not doers of the pure (unadulterated) word of God. But a lot of what they are hearing is not the pure word of God, but it is Scriptures being taught out of context and twisted to say what the flesh desires. And many professers of faith in Jesus Christ are flocking to these twisted messages which tickle itching ears.

 

And the reason that this is so is because these adulterated gospel messages are appeasing people’s guilty consciences, and they are permitting them to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. And they are telling them that God requires no repentance, no obedience, and no submission to him as Lord, and so many people are eating this up.

 

For, they want their sin more than they want God. They are not choosing God’s choices for their lives, but they are choosing what pleases their flesh. So, they don’t love God, and according to Scripture, they don’t know God if this is the path they continue on and they do not repent of their sins. Thus, heaven is not promised to them. They will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

They Are Not Listening

 

The vast majority are not listening. They’re not heeding the warnings. Many even despise these warnings, and they despise the messengers through whom these warnings come. And, thus, they persecute and perhaps even kill the Lord’s servants and witnesses. If they don’t kill them physically, they murder them by their words and by their false accusations against them.

 

So, they end up fighting against the true gospel of their salvation and against those who are bringing them the truth. And they accuse the Lord’s messengers of being legalistic, uncaring, unloving, and self-righteous, and of teaching “works-based salvation” because they are teaching that we must repent of sin, obey the Lord, and submit to Christ as Lord (Master).

 

And they publicly claim what is false, and they lead many other people astray by their lies and by their false gospels which convince their adherents that they can remain addicted to sin and yet be saved, sanctified, forgiven, made holy and righteous, and have the hope of spending eternity with God in heaven because they confessed Jesus as Lord with their lips.

 

And then they continue living in sin, now feeling the freedom to keep on in habitual and deliberate acts of adultery, fornication, homosexual relationships, lying, cheating, stealing, slandering, and hating others. And they pour blessings of God upon themselves as though God gives approval to all of their wild living when most of them know He does not!

 

Trusting in Other Humans

 

God has been warning them, as well, against putting their trust in humans, because there are many liars and deceivers throughout the world who are leading God’s people astray. Yet, many are not listening. They are not heeding the warnings, and they are continuing to put their trust in humans over God.

 

Even though the Lord is sending out messengers with the truth of his gospel and with truth, period, in all areas of life, the many are choosing to follow the teachings of other humans rather than to find out what God’s word teaches and rather than to obey what his word teaches. And they are closing their ears to anything that does not agree with their own way of thinking.

 

But this isn’t just about following false gospels which are being purported to be the true gospel. But this is about believing the lies of politicians and big pharma and the news media and people of wealth and power and influence in the world, some of whom are lying to the people and who are leading them to follow what is of Satan and which is not of God.

 

For, remember we are warned in Revelation 13 against taking the mark (influence) of the beast on our hands (deeds) and on our foreheads (thinking). But how are we going to know if we are doing this or not if we aren’t listening to the truth and if we are going our own way, instead, and if we are just believing whatever we hear from certain other humans?

 

Not Testing What They Hear

 

They are not testing what they hear, read, and see, in prayer, and against the word of God, and in spiritual discernment and wisdom, but they are going their own stubborn way, some even vehemently refusing to even consider that what they are believing and trusting in could be false, and that they might well be deceived. So, God, who keeps his word, is bringing against them the judgments he promised.

 

You know, we can all be deceived. I have been deceived before by church leaders, pastors, friends, family, the government, big pharma, the institutional church, church denominations, and the news media, etc. So, it isn’t that we should all just automatically recognize every lie coming from every liar, but that many people are refusing to test what they are hearing.

 

That is where the real danger lies, you know. It is when you stop up your ears and you refuse to hear anything that goes against your upbringing, against your national heritage, and against your church denomination, etc., and you stubbornly hold on to what you have always been taught or to your culture or to your traditions without even being willing to hear anything else.

 

And the government and the church are both assisting with this stubbornness and refusal to listen to truth by their programming of human minds to reject anything that might be outside the box of their traditions or that might be opposed to what they have always been taught. But we are taught in Scripture to test everything we hear, not to auto reject.

 

Jeremiah 46:27-28 NIV

 

“’Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant;

    do not be dismayed, Israel.

I will surely save you out of a distant place,

    your descendants from the land of their exile.

Jacob will again have peace and security,

    and no one will make him afraid.

Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant,

    for I am with you,’ declares the Lord.

‘Though I completely destroy all the nations

    among which I scatter you,

    I will not completely destroy you.

I will discipline you but only in due measure;

    I will not let you go entirely unpunished.’”

 

So, the Lord is disciplining and he is judging many peoples right now, and his church and those who profess his name but who do not give him honor. And I believe the purpose of this present judgment is to bring people to repentance and to genuine faith in Jesus Christ or to renewed faith in Jesus Christ, for many are living outside of obedient faith to Jesus Christ.

 

I believe that through the judgments being brought upon many nations and the adulterous church in those nations right now that many eyes and ears are going to be opened to the truth of what is going on in the institutional church and what is going on in our governments and in the world and they will see clearly this whole “beast order” that is now consuming them.

 

So, I am expecting to see a revival take place if I am still alive when this happens. And the Lord will get his bride ready to meet her husband, for he will purify her through these trying times in which we now live. And a remnant will survive the judgments of God and they will go to be with the Lord.

 

So, the encouragement here is to listen to the Lord, study the Scriptures for yourself in context and let the Holy Spirit speak truth to your hearts. Obey Jesus and his commandments. Forsake your sinful practices. Honor Jesus as Lord with your bodies. Test everything you hear in prayer and against the Scriptures (in context), and then reject the lies and live out the truth.

 

All I Ask of You

 

by Andrew Lloyd Webber

 

No more talk of darkness,

Forget these wide-eyed fears;

I'm here, nothing can harm you,

My words will warm and calm you.

Let me be your freedom,

Let daylight dry your tears;

I'm here, with you, beside you,

To guard you and to guide you.

 

Let me be your shelter,

Let me be your light…

 

Love me, that's all I ask of you