Is Your Trust in Flesh or in God?

Jeremiah 17:1-4 ESV

 

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

 

What was the sin of Judah? Their fathers had forsaken the Lord and had gone after other gods and had served and worshiped them, and they had forsaken the Lord and had not kept his law, and the people of Judah had done worse than their fathers did. For every one of them had followed their own stubborn evil will, and they had refused to listen to the Lord.

 

And the eyes of the Lord were on all their ways. Their ways were not hidden from the Lord, nor was their iniquity concealed from the eyes of God. For they had polluted his land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they had filled his inheritance with their abominations. For, they were full of lies and of worthless things (See Jeremiah 16:11-20).

 

And what are the sins of the church at large in America today, although not describing every individual believer in Jesus? The same, really. Idolatry is definitely at the top of the list, which includes sexual idolatry, for the numbers of Christians engaged in sexual immorality in America today is “off the charts!” It is astounding!

 

But it is also the worship of human beings in place of true worship of God, and it is the worship of human institutions, like our government, like our media, and like the institutional 501c3 market-driven “churches” here in America. It is also the worship of false doctrines and entertainment and self and self-gratification and self-pleasure.

 

And it is following after lies while ignoring the truth of God’s word, so it is also forsaking the Lord and his commands (New Covenant) in favor of an adulterated gospel which does not put sin to death in the life of the believer, and which makes no demands for repentance, obedience to God, and submission to Christ as Lord (owner-master) of their lives. And it is indeed because they are following their own evil stubborn hearts and wills and they are refusing to listen to the Lord.

 

I encounter this frequently where I will teach from the word of God, and I will quote from the Scriptures, and I will support what I am saying with the Scriptures, and some of the responses back will be to totally ignore what the Scriptures teach, and they will choose their own stubborn ways, instead. Or they will just “unfriend” or “unfollow” me on social media, without a word.

 

And filling the Lord’s inheritance with abominations is exactly what is happening in the market-driven 501c3 institutional churches in America today. For they have turned the church into a marketplace to be marketed to the people of the world, and so they have altered the gatherings of the church and their times of worship and the teaching of the Word to make them more acceptable and attractive to the world.

 

And then they altered the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more acceptable and appealing to human flesh and to the people of the world. And so they removed God’s requirements for the forsaking of our sins, and for following him in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), and for honoring Christ as Lord of their lives. And they have removed his requirements for holy living, which is living lives separate from the world and in his righteousness.

 

Jeremiah 17:5-10 ESV

 

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man

    and makes flesh his strength,

    whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He is like a shrub in the desert,

    and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

    in an uninhabited salt land.

 

“’Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

    whose trust is the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water,

    that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

    for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

    for it does not cease to bear fruit.’”

 

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

    and desperately sick;

    who can understand it?

‘I the Lord search the heart

    and test the mind,

to give every man according to his ways,

    according to the fruit of his deeds.’”

 

And so there is a reminder here that God sees it all, no matter what anyone else tells you, and we are all going to be judged by our works. If we live in sin, making sin our practice, deliberately and habitually committing the same sins repeatedly, we will not inherit eternal life with God. But if we walk (in practice, in conduct) according to the Spirit, then we have eternal life.

 

And then there is also a reminder here that all this wickedness comes from what is stored up in our hearts. If our hearts are given over to the flesh, to engaging in what will gratify the desires of the flesh, and if lying is what we practice, including lying to ourselves and rejecting the truth of God’s Word, then out of those evil hearts are going to come all sorts of evil behaviors.

 

But if our hearts have been changed by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives in delivering us from our slavery (addiction) to sin, and by empowering us to walk in the ways of the Lord, and in the ways of righteousness and holiness, although we may not be 100% perfect while we still live in these flesh bodies, our words, our attitudes, and our actions should reflect hearts that are given over to God to doing his will.

 

So, reject the lies which tell you that all you have to do is “believe” in Jesus once and then you are good to go to heaven no matter how you live your life on this earth. That is not what the Scriptures teach. They teach clearly that we must walk (in conduct, in practice) NOT according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, and then we will have eternal life with God. But if we choose our own path instead, hell is our destiny, not heaven.

 

And this is the message that we should be giving out to all who profess faith in Jesus Christ and to all of the people in the world that we have opportunity to share the gospel with. We need to be telling people the truth of the gospel, even if they hate and reject us in return, and even if they just ignore us and refuse to acknowledge us at all, and even if they “unfriend” or “unfollow” us on social media or they slander and mistreat us, in return.

 

[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 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

He Touched My Mouth  

 

An Original Work / June 13, 2012

Based off Isaiah 6:1-8; Jeremiah 1:4-9

 

Oh, I saw the Lord seated on His throne,

High and lifted up; Holy is the Lord!

The earth is full of His glory.

“Woe to me,” I cried,

“I’m of unclean lips.”

 

My Lord touched my mouth

With His cleansing pow’r;

Removed all my guilt, paid for by His blood.

He asked, “Whom shall I send;

Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

 

Before I was born, God set me apart;

He appointed me to His servant be.

I said, “I don’t know how to speak.

I am but a child.” Then, the Lord replied:

 

“Do not say to me, ‘I am but a child.’

You must go to all and do what I say.

Do not fear them, for I’m with you.”

My Lord touched my mouth;

Gave me words to say.

 

https://vimeo.com/114929183