I am reading in Jeremiah 6. This is the second devotion the Lord is giving me from this passage today. The first, which covers verses 10-19 is titled, “It is to Them an Object of Scorn,” which can be read here: https://walkingwounded.blog/2022/01/28/it-is-to-them-an-object-of-scorn/.
I am not going to go into the history of this passage again,
but I am going to go right to making practical application of this passage to
the church today, specifically in America. For in America, which is where I
live, the church (or what is being falsely called “church”) has largely gone
the way of the world, has altered the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more
acceptable to the world and to human flesh, and they are denying the Lordship
of Christ.
For the most part, they are stubbornly rebellious, making up
their own gospel, or they are accepting a false gospel created in the minds of
other humans who are out to destroy the gospel and people’s lives. They are
acting corruptly, behaving indecently, addicted to sexual immorality, lying to
cover up their sins, living worldly lives. And they are rejecting the Lordship
of Christ and his commands, refusing to repent and to obey their Lord.
The Lord has been sending them messengers over the years
whom God has used to expose the lies they are believing, and to proclaim to
them the truth of God’s word, but many are not listening, but they are stopping
up their ears. And they will only listen to feel-good messages which tickle
their itching ears and which do not make them feel guilty about their sins, but
which coddle them in their sins and give them carte blanche to continue in
deliberate and habitual sin while they guarantee them eternal life with God.
Jeremiah 6:18-21 ESV
“Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
and as for my law, they have rejected it.
What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
neighbor and friend shall perish.’”
Now, I know this was written to a specific group of people
at a particular time in history, so we can’t just arbitrarily apply it to our
world today, or to the church today. But do we have any New Testament passages
of Scripture which teach that God will judge his adulterous church? That is
what five of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3 are about, are
they not? And after the letters are read, then we have the declarations of
judgments.
Also we read in 1 Corinthians 10 about the rebellious
children of Israel during their time of wandering in the wilderness and how
they were idolaters, revelers, worldly, sexually immoral, grumblers against God
and those who put God to the test by the things that they did and said. And God
judged them severely by putting most of them to death. And these things took
place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
So, what is the purpose of the examples? It is so that we
will flee idolatry, for we cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of
demons. It is so that we will not be sexually immoral as they were, and so that
we will not put the Lord to the test or be revelers living worldly lives
grumbling against God. Why? Because the New Testament Scriptures teach us that
if we walk (in conduct, in practice) according to the flesh, that we will die
in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God unless we repent and
obey our God.
But it isn’t just that those who are still living immoral
and wicked lives, in practice, that they will not inherit eternal life with God
in the end if they do not repent and obey the Lord. But it is also that God
will visit them in judgment in other ways before that final day of judgment.
And what we read about to five of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 gives us
some ideas of what that judgment might look like, as well as in the following
passages.
And then we have the passage in 1 Corinthians 11 regarding
those who partake in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup of the
Lord in an unworthy manner, who do not examine themselves, and therefore they
eat and drink judgment on themselves. And I believe this goes beyond just the
taking of what we call communion, but it involves us professing faith in Jesus
Christ and living in a manner not worthy of the gospel of Christ.
“That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Co 11:30-32).
And then there is Hebrews 10 where it states that the Lord
will judge his people and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God. And then in chapter 12 we read that in our struggle against sin
that we have not yet resisted to the shedding of blood and that we are not to
forget that God disciplines (reproves, chastises) those he loves so that we may
share in his holiness and so that later it will yield the peaceful fruit of
righteousness in us who have been trained by it.
[See: 1 Pet. 1:13-19; 1 Pet. 4:17; 1 Co. 11:29-32; Heb.
10:30-31; Heb. 12:1-12; Jas. 3:1; Jas. 5:9; Rev. 2:1-29; Rev. 3:1-22]
Jeremiah 6:22-26 ESV
“Thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
They lay hold on bow and javelin;
they are cruel and have no mercy;
the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
set in array as a man for battle,
against you, O daughter of Zion!’
We have heard the report of it;
our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
pain as of a woman in labor.
Go not out into the field,
nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only son,
most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
will come upon us.”
I believe that if we are in tune with the Spirit of God that
we can see that the USA as well as other nations on the earth are under the
judgment of God presently. I believe that we should be able to see that we are
living in the time spoken about by the prophets of old and in the book of
Revelation, in particular with regard to what is taught us in Revelation 13. I
believe there is a conglomerate of the elite of this world who are conquering
nations and peoples and the saints of God in real time today.
And I believe that we, as God’s people, should be seeking
God’s face, inquiring of the Lord as to the events going on all around us and
what they have to do with the prophecies of Scripture, and that we should be
praying for wisdom, discernment, and understanding so that we do not fall prey
to the deceptions of the enemy thinking that we are doing the right thing. So,
this is an encouragement to get alone with God and to ask him to reveal to you
the truth and to expose to you the lies so that you are not deceived.
Also, the Lord put the lyrics to this song “Bring Him
Home” in my mind right before I sat down to write, and as I read through
this passage of Scripture I saw where it said here to put on sackcloth and roll
in ashes and to make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for
suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. And this song is about an only son
who was in danger of dying, and so the man prayed to God to save him.
Although the lyrics are not an exact fit for this passage of
Scripture, I believe the theme here is that we should be mourning over the
spiritual condition of today’s church, especially in light of the teachings of
Scripture with regard to the judgments to come, and that we should be praying
for God to save all those who are now lost and who are living in rebellion
against the Lord, that the Lord would bring them home to Jesus, for that is their
only hope of salvation and eternal life with God.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6;
Gal 6:7-8;
Rom 2:6-8; Matt
7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Bring Him Home
By Alain Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg / Herbert
Kretzmer
God on high
Hear my prayer
In my need
You have always been there
He's like the son I might have known
If God had granted me a son.
Let him be
Let him live
If I die, let me die
Bring him home.
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