JEREMIAH 7-8 7:1-8:32009 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Jeremiah 7-8 7:1-8:3

You're listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009. End of their decline and they were about to come to an abrupt end. And Jeremiah is the last call for them. It's the last opportunity, the last chance for the nation to repent. The nation of Judah...

They outlasted the nation of Israel. At one time they were one nation, but they split up after Solomon's reign and under his son. The kingdoms were split and the northern kingdom never followed God. They never walked right with God. They set up idols and everything immediately and began to walk away from the Lord. And so they were judged a little bit quicker than the nation of Judah was, the southern kingdom.

The nation of Judah had some good kings, but mostly bad kings, and the people as a whole, the people of the nation, continued to grow worse and worse in their rebellion against God. And so now in Jeremiah's day, as Jeremiah is speaking to them and prophesying to them, they're at the point that, well, you'll see this evening as we look at chapter 7, that God's saying, Jeremiah, don't even pray for them anymore.

Because I won't hear the prayer. Because this judgment is coming. They are going to experience the wrath of God because of their rebellion against me. And so Jeremiah had a very difficult ministry. God tells him, you're going to teach, you're going to share, but they're not going to listen.

And yet Jeremiah was called to minister and to share regardless of whether or not they would receive it. He was called to bring forth this message, this difficult message, but it was a truthful message from the Lord for the nation of Judah. And we pick that up in verse 1 here of chapter 7. It says,

Stand in the gates of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Picture the scene here for just a moment. God gives Jeremiah some instruction and I thought about having Mario stand at the door just to help you visualize that, but I didn't do it. But Jeremiah stands at the gate of the temple. So everybody going in to the temple to worship the Lord, everyone that's going in to offer sacrifices, everyone that's going in to be around the temple and around the things that are going on there, Jeremiah stands at the gate so that as people go in,

They will hear his proclamation. They will hear his announcement. God says, I want you to go stand at the gate and make this announcement to all those who enter at the gates. And notice it says, to worship the Lord. And that's very important. We'll come back to that in just a moment. But here's the message that he was called to give. As he stands at the gate, as the people are coming to the temple, the message that he has to say is, thus says the Lord of Hosts,

As we've seen throughout the first part of Jeremiah, as we also saw in the book of Isaiah, and as we'll continue to see as we study forward in Jeremiah,

God has been pronouncing judgment upon Judah and letting them know that Babylon was going to be his instrument, that Babylon was going to come down, conquer Judah, and carry them away captive. All those who survived the battle were going to be carried away. There was going to be no one left in Jerusalem. The nation of Judah completely was going to be carried off.

And so the announcement that Jeremiah is to give is, well, it's one of hope in a sense, in that he is to say, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place, says the Lord. God is announcing to the people as they come to worship the Lord at the temple, that if they change their ways...

The word amend means to make right or to do good. If they make their ways right, if they start doing good, if they start walking with God and following God, then God will allow them, He will cause them to stay in this place. In other words, He will keep them there in Judah. He will preserve them

From the attack of Babylon or through the attack of Babylon. He will protect them. They will not be driven out. They will not be carried away captive. It's an opportunity for them to repent, to change, to get right with God. And so Jeremiah stands there at the temple and announces to the people as they come in, amend your ways, get right with God essentially. Start living right.

As we'll see here in chapter 7, God has some serious complaints about the activities of the people of Judah and the way that they were living their lives and the things that they were involved in. But notice the placement of this. So Jeremiah is at the gate and God says, I want you to make this announcement as people are coming to worship the Lord. You see, we're dealing with the nation of Judah and they were in a state of

where their lives were not right, where they needed to amend their ways and their doings. They were not walking according to God's Word. They were not practicing the Word of God. They were not living out His commands. They were living in disobedience to God, and yet, where is this announcement being made? What are they coming to do? They're coming to the temple to worship the Lord. This gives us an idea, in a sense, an understanding of the hypocrisy of the nation of Judah.

They would come to worship the Lord at the temple, but then the rest of their lives they lived however they wanted, not paying attention to what God said. And so their ways needed to be amended. God needed to make this announcement to let them know, you need to change your ways. You need to change your life. And although we could pretend to be shocked that the nation of Judah would do this, it's not a practice that has ceased with the nation of Judah and their destruction by Babylon.

That same practice is practiced by many of us from time to time, isn't it? By Christians worldwide. There are those who come to church, they come to quote-unquote worship the Lord, but in reality God's announcement to them is amend your ways, amend your doings, get right with God.

Although you're here to worship God, although you're here and perhaps you sing, perhaps you sit through, perhaps you say, hey, that's a wonderful Bible study. If your life is not in sync with the Word of God, there's a change that needs to be made. This evening, God wants all those who go to worship Him to have lives that bear witness that they worship God.

God wants all of us, as we come to worship Him, to have our lives be in agreement with those who are devoted to God. We have a proclamation here, I'm coming to worship the Lord. Worship is not just something we do with our lips. It means a devotion to God. And our lives should demonstrate that devotion to God. Otherwise, it's hypocrisy.

To say that we're devoted to God and pretend like we're devoted to God while we're here at church, but then the rest of our lives to disregard what God says and do whatever we want, that's hypocrisy. And that is precisely what the nation of Judah is being judged for. God really hates hypocrisy. And so we need to be careful that we don't have these separations between our lifestyles.

The way we are at church and then the way we are in the rest of our life. We need to make sure that our life is lived out in worship to God. And it's not just a hypocritical thing that we do at church. Verse 4.

God continues the message. He says, He says,

And as they were doing so, even though the pronouncement of judgment was there, they heard Jeremiah, they heard Isaiah before him, and many other prophets surrounding them. The saying was, the temple of the Lord. They had convinced themselves that because in their midst was the temple of the Lord, there in Jerusalem was the temple, this glorious building that was built by Solomon, because that's where God's presence was. They convinced themselves, judgment's not going to happen to us.

Like many of us have convinced ourselves, hey, this is America. We are founded on the principles of God. Judgment can't happen to us. The nation of Judah convinced themselves. They said, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. That was the thing that they were counting on.

Judgment would not come. They were convinced because, well, the temple of God was in their midst. And how could he allow that to be destroyed and be conquered and overrun by foreigners? And so they continued on in their lifestyles. They continued on disregarding God because they figured the temple of the Lord is in our midst. We're not going to be judged. But verse 5 goes on to say, For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,

God says, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, that saying that you guys are saying, those are lying words.

thinking that you will escape judgment because of the temple of the Lord, that's a lie. You're deceived. God says, here, if you want to be preserved, if you want to be protected, thoroughly amend your ways and your doings. Execute judgment. Do what's right, he's saying. Execute right judgment between a man and his neighbor. Don't oppress the stranger. He goes down this list of things that they're practicing, and yet they're here to worship the Lord.

They're cheating their neighbors, their slaves or their servants. They're cheating the people around them. They're lying and stealing and robbing and getting ahead in life. They're worshipping other gods. He says, to your own hurt. Worshipping anything other than the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is worshipping to our own hurt. It's destructive to us. It's harmful to us. And God says, look, if you turn from these things, then I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Not because of my temple, but because you changed your ways. Because you thoroughly amended your ways and your doings. You see, God is calling them to live life for Him. To be obedient to Him. He's calling for their obedience in life. For them to stop rebelling against Him. For them to stop disregarding His word. So that they do not experience the judgment that is coming down upon them. In the same way, guys, we need...

to check our own hearts. The lie of the day was the temple of the Lord. God will not judge us because of the temple. And the lie that some people believe today is, well, I go to church. God's going to take care of me. He won't allow anything bad to happen to me. I won't go to hell because I go to church. Or, I read my Bible.

Or, I'm a Christian. Or, hey, there's grace. I can live however I want to live and I have these, you know, things that I struggle with and I just continue in them because I was born that way or it's just the way that I am. It's how God made me. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these lies and we just figure, well, it's the grace of God and God will take care of me by His grace and that's not a big thing. So,

Those are the lies that we trust today. Remember Paul said in Romans chapter 6 verses 1 and 2, he says, what then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? What does the next part say? Certainly not. Certainly not. No way are we to just continue to live in sin. To continue to let it be a master in our lives. To be slaves to sin. Nowhere to be obedient to God. And that is what's important.

We need to be. We must be obedient to God. We must walk in His ways. God says, amend your ways. Don't count on some prayer that you prayed. How are you living your life? It demonstrates. We'll be looking at that throughout the book of James as well on Sunday mornings. The way that you live your life demonstrates where you stand with God. And so don't be deceived and lie to yourself and say, well, the temple of the Lord or I have this or I have that.

And that's why I can continue to live my life and disregard God and we justify our own sin, don't we? So he says those are lying words. What you need to do is amend your ways. In 1 John 2, verse 3, the Apostle John tells us, By this we know that we know Him. How do we know that we know Him? How do we know that we know Jesus Christ? Well, John tells us, By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Here's how we know if we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We keep His commandments. We walk in His ways. Jesus Himself said in the Gospel of John, If you love Me, keep My commands. We are to be obedient to God, to live our lives according to His Word, not by any means saying that we are perfect, not saying that we will not stumble, but we will not continue to live in rebellion against God if we know Him, if we're walking in relationship with Him.

And so we need to be careful not to deceive ourselves. They had deceived themselves. They were trusting in these lying words. And God says, don't trust in those words. Amend your ways and your doings. Verse 8 says,

He says,

God says, look, you trust in lying words. You're trusting in these words that the temple of the Lord is there and so God won't judge the nation of Judah. But God asked the question, will you steal and murder and commit adultery?

Will you swear falsely? Will you rebel against Me in all of these things? And then come to the temple and worship the Lord and say, "We are delivered to do all these things." Or, "We're free to do all these abominations." They are counting on, really, the grace of God. They're continuing in sin that grace may abound. They're saying, "We've been delivered. We've been set free. We have the temple. We can just continue." We have been set free from sin, not set free to sin.

We've been set free from sin. The Scriptures are quite clear. And so we're not to continue stealing, murdering. As Larry was mentioning just a few moments ago, Jesus raised the bar. Hatred and anger in our heart towards one another. Jesus says, well, that's the heart of a murderer. Committing adultery, he says. Well, yeah, there's some who do that.

disregard what God has to say about the sexual relationship and they continue on anyways, regardless. It's okay. Whatever justification we've come up with. Or, again, God's raised the bar, lusting in our hearts. It's guilty of adultery. And then we say, well, we're free. There's grace. I come to church. I read my Bible. I pray the prayer. He says you trust in lying words. You're deceived. You're believing that you're going to escape God

And outsmart and outwit God. That's why he says, Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. He says, has my house become a den of thieves? They're coming to worship the Lord after they've been practicing and living their lives in all this wickedness and abominations. And then they come and they gather pretending like they're the people of God. And God's saying, has my house become a den of thieves? Is there a thief sitting next to you? I hope not.

But that's how it was in their day. Verse 12. But go now to my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. God says, I want to show you something. Go to Shiloh. Now, Shiloh was the place where the tabernacle of God was set up when the children of Israel first went into the Promised Land.

Well, actually, when they had first conquered the Promised Land. In Joshua 18, verse 1, there's the account where Joshua, they've conquered the land that God had given to them. And so there in Shiloh, they set up the tabernacle that they had been carrying throughout the wilderness. And there God placed His name. And there God met with the people. And for quite a while, for a couple hundred years,

That was where the Lord met with the people. That's where the priests were. That's where Samuel, remember Samuel? He was brought to the tabernacle to be raised by the Lord and Eli the priest. That was at Shiloh. All that took place at Shiloh. And that was part of the northern kingdom. So when the split happened between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, Shiloh being in that northern territory, well, it was conquered when Assyria came and conquered the rest of the northern kingdom.

And so God says, I want to show you something. The thing that you're believing right now is that you're not going to experience judgment because this is the temple, this is where I've put my name, this is where I meet with my people. That's what you're believing. You're believing you're going to escape judgment because my name is here. But God says, well, let me take you and show you Shiloh. Go look at Shiloh.

Because Shiloh was, well, it had the similar circumstances. God's name was there. It's there where he met with the people. And yet, because of their rebellion against God, the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, it was judged. And Shiloh, along with it, it was in ruins and desolation. It experienced the judgment of God, even though that was a place that he had put his name. Verse 13 says,

He says,

And so he says, look, go look at Shiloh. Okay, now, because you've done all these things, because you've lived in wickedness and disregarded my word, because I sent people to you, I sent prophets to you, they were rising up early, right away they were going to you, they didn't delay, they weren't late getting there.

But I sent you warning after warning and you continued to disregard. Because you continued in wickedness after I warned you time and time again, I'm going to do to you the same thing that happened to them. Just as Shiloh was conquered and judged and carried away, this nation, God says to the nation of Judah, is going to be conquered and carried away. I will cast you out of my sight, he says, just as I've cast out your brethren.

They were thinking, hey, we've got the temple. We've got the advantage. We're not like them. God says, look, I put my name there. Don't be deceived. He says, you're trusting in lying words, thinking that you can escape judgment because of the temple of the Lord. And so you're living your lives in wickedness. You're continuing in sin, thinking that you are untouchable, thinking that it won't be painful, thinking that it won't hurt, thinking that you can escape judgment, really thinking that you can outsmart God.

God, your word says we can't do these things. If we do these things, we're going to be judged. But we've got to figure it out. We've got it all worked out. It's great. Listen to this plan. God put his name here and we come and worship the Lord.

So we can do whatever we want. He's not going to judge this place where he put his name. We can do whatever we want. There's no accountability. We're not going to be judged. Hey, we can do what God says not to do and not experience the judgment that he promises if you do those things. That's what they figured. And that's what we figure. That's the conclusion that we come to when we figure there's grace.

It's okay. Yeah, I know I have this area, but it's okay. No big deal. There's grace. It's the grace of God. Look, I come to church. I even sing on the worship team. Not to pick on you guys. I teach in children's ministry. I'm a pastor. Look, I'm not going to experience. God's not going to do that. I can do it. God says you're trusting in lying words. Don't be deceived. The wages of sin is death. We cannot continue to live in sin.

And think that we're going to escape simply because of the temple of the Lord. Or because we go to church. Or because we pray to prayer. We need to be obedient to God and to what He has said. And so God gives Jeremiah instruction here in verse 16. He says, Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. What a tragic state for the people of God, for the nation of Judah, for the place where God had chosen to put His name.

This has not come to this point overnight. God has sent prophets to them, like Jeremiah, many before them. But they have driven themselves to a point that God tells Jeremiah, Do not pray for this people. Don't cry out to me for them. Notice, they still have the opportunity. God says, If you amend your ways, I'll cause you to live here. I'll preserve you. I'll take care of you. Repent. God tells Jeremiah, Repent.

Do not pray for this people. Verse 17. Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood. The fathers kindle the fire. And the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods that they may provoke me to anger. It's a family affair. Come on, guys. Let's go. We're going to worship these other gods. Kids, go get some sticks. Pick up some wood.

Mom, make some dough. We're going to do something special tonight. We're going to worship another God. Not that this is true in every case, but it's like, hey, you get the popcorn, I'll get the blankets. You get the chairs, we're going to go worship another God. It was a family affair. It was a family event. They were helping one another and their family to participate in idolatry. Verse 19. He says, do they provoke me to anger, says the Lord? No.

Do they not provoke themselves to the shame of their own faces? Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. God says they provoke me to anger. They're bringing it upon themselves by their own wickedness, by their own rebellion, by their own disregard of my word.

By causing others to participate with them, they provoke me to anger. My fury will be poured out on this place, he says. It will burn and not be quenched. Verse 21. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

Verse 24, God says, look,

Go ahead, have your sacrifices, eat them, enjoy them, because they're meaningless to me. That's not what I desired, God is saying. When I brought them out of Egypt, here's what I wanted. I wanted them to obey me, and I would be their God, and they would be my people. God says, I wanted that relationship with them. I wanted to be close to them. I wanted to have that, I'm their God, and they're my people, and we were close, we had relationship, that we walked together together.

It wasn't the sacrifices that God wanted. The sacrifices were there because, well, they disobeyed God. And so as a means of covering for their sin, as a means of restoration back to right relation or right standing with God, then the sacrifices were able to provide that. They were able to have right standing with God again and to be able to walk with God. It was the restoration of that relationship. How many sacrifices are there in the Ten Commandments?

Well, none. You see, God wanted us to walk in His ways that we might have a relationship with Him and right standing with Him. The sacrifices were just there because we weren't very good at that. We couldn't keep His word. We couldn't be obedient to Him. We failed. We sinned against Him. And so the sacrifices were provisioned. But He says, look, that wasn't the main thing I was looking for. The nation of Judah, they're out practicing wickedness and they think...

Well, we can make up for that. We can compensate for that because then we offer just some extra sacrifices. But his point is, look, that wasn't the purpose of sacrifices and it's not what I desired anyways. What I really wanted was the relationship that comes as you walk in my ways and walk with me. You know, we can see this demonstrated even further as we just finished the book of Hebrews. There's no more sacrifice for sin left. If the point is,

was that God loves sacrifices and wanted lots of sacrifices, then we would still be offering sacrifices. But the point was, it's not the sacrifices that God desired. Obedience is better than sacrifice. We've learned from the Scriptures over and over again. What God wants is obedience. What God wants is for us to walk with Him. The sacrifice now for us, it was fulfilled at the cross. There's no more sacrifice for sin.

And yet we, like the nation of Judah, very often think, well, I can compensate for my sin by giving extra or by doing extra or spending extra time or giving this sacrifice or that sacrifice. Maybe I'll fast for a little bit and kind of punish myself. And because I punish myself, that makes up for that sin. It doesn't work that way. Our sin was taken care of at the cross. There's no more sacrifice for sin. But that doesn't mean we just...

Continue in sin that grace may abound. Certainly not. Heaven forbid. To do so is to have lying words, thinking, well, I can escape judgment. I'll just continue in sin and God won't judge me. See, I've got it figured out because I prayed a prayer and I asked for forgiveness and so I can just continue my lifestyle of sin and have no ill effects, no results, no consequences, no judgment of God for that. No, what God wants, He doesn't want your sacrifices. He wants our obedience.

He wants us to walk with Him. It's interesting. He says, hey, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. They were coming to offer burnt offerings. Now, the sacrifices, although they weren't the original intent of God, they weren't really what God desired. There's some beautiful imagery there. There's some beautiful pictures of Jesus Christ later to come. The burnt offering, when a person offered that to the Lord...

The idea of it was, just as this is going to be completely consumed, I want my life to be completely consumed by God. It was an offering that you offered when you said, I just want to fully surrender to God. And just my life, I want it to be completely wholly devoted to Him. I just want to be like a burnt offering, that all of me, every part, is just completely given over to the things of God.

This is the offering that they're offering. This is the sacrifice that they're offering. Right after they were out there practicing wickedness, then they come in and say, I want to be wholly devoted to the Lord. It was a lie. It wasn't the truth. They were demonstrating that it was a lie by then going back out and continuing in their ways as if nothing had happened. God, His intention is and always has been a right relationship with us.

And us to have a right relationship with Him. And so the sacrifice was necessary for that. But the sacrifice for us is Jesus Christ. And so we don't have to sacrifice in order to compensate for sin. We couldn't even if we wanted to. What God desires from us is for us to be obedient to Him. What God desires from us is the meaning of the burnt offering, not the offering itself. For us to be wholly devoted to Him. To commit our ways to Him completely. Fully surrendered to His will.

Verse 25, Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

God says, look, since the very day that I brought them out of Egypt, and you can see that as you go through the book of Exodus, they come out of Egypt, Moses goes up on the mountain, him and Joshua are coming down, and it's like, hey, what's that noise? They're down there worshipping a golden calf. Before that, they were complaining against God. After that, they were complaining against God. They had idols. I mean, just from the very beginning, they...

They insisted on rebelling against God. And God says, look, from the very beginning, I sent prophets. I sent Moses. I sent Samuel. I sent Elijah. I sent Elisha. I sent Isaiah. I sent Jeremiah. From the very beginning, I've been sending these prophets, announcing My will, My word to the people. Daily, rising up early, they would go and they would make the announcement. They would make the proclamation. They would bring to the forefront the sin that they were trying to hide. And they would say,

And yet they didn't obey me. They didn't incline their ear. They didn't pay attention. But instead they stiffened their neck. They became stubborn. They refused to turn. And it says they did worse than their fathers. And so God tells Jeremiah, hey, you're going to speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You know, that's a tough thing. That's a very tough thing. As I've shared as we've been studying through Jeremiah, you and I have been given a ministry very similar to Jeremiah's. And that we've been

Called to bring the gospel to the world around us. And yet many of them will not receive it. And it's tough. David did a great job sharing the word last week, didn't he? It was beautiful. And afterwards he was sharing with me, you know, it's just incredible to be used by the Lord. And that is true. There's no greater feeling. There's nothing greater than knowing, man, I'm a fool, I'm nothing, and God was able to use me. That is awesome. But on the other side of that coin...

One of the hardest things for you and I as believers. On the one hand, we get to be used by God. He works through us. On the other hand, He speaks through us. We bring forth His Word. We're anointed by the Holy Spirit. And there are those who refuse to receive the message. It's tough. And yet we're called to bring forth that message nonetheless. We need to learn to look less at the response and more at the faithfulness of the servant of God.

Our call is to be faithful, to bring forth. Jeremiah's call was to be faithful, to bring forth the Word of God. From our perspective, we would look at Jeremiah and say, man, he must not have been called by the Lord. I mean, he didn't even have a big following. His church was really small. He went on Sunday mornings and preached to himself. There was nobody following him. There was no audience. There was no congregation. But he was faithful. It's not about the response. It's about the faithfulness of the servant of God. And it's tough.

None of us like rejection, but we need to learn to not look at the response. Instead, to be faithful and continue to be faithful. When God tells us to speak, when God brings forth His Word from us, we're to be faithful to deliver it, to share it, to announce it, and leave the response up to Him. So Jeremiah was to speak all these words, but he says, they will not obey you. You know, I've shared the Word of God with some, and they haven't obeyed. I'm sure you have experienced that as well.

So we must pray for them. Pray for them. Verse 28. What a title. The generation of His wrath. Verse 30. Verse 30.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to pollute it. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart. God says, Look, you're to say to this nation that they have rejected God. Truth has perished from them. He says...

Go into mourning to cut off your hair, to shave your head. That was a sign of mourning. Make lamentation because God has forsaken the generation of His wrath. It has come to a point now that the nation of Judah can be called, can be titled the generation of the wrath of God. They were going to experience His judgment. This world is coming to that point. This nation is coming to that point. I don't know when that point is.

But we are in that direction, headed in that direction. And the judgment of God will be poured out upon this earth. Individually, God's judgment will be poured out upon people's lives as they continue to rebel against Him, as they continue to disregard Him. He says, here's what they've done. They've set their abominations in the house which is called by My name. Idolatry is taking place within the temple.

The house that's devoted to me, dedicated to me, they're using it to worship other gods. Not only that, he says there in verse 31, they've built a high place. And what he's describing here is the worship of the god of Molech. And the god of Molech was worshipped by taking this statue with its arms held out, lighting a fire underneath it so that the arms would begin to glow with heat.

And then they would lay children upon the arms of Molech. They would beat drums to drown out the screaming of the children as they were fried on his arms, as they offered their children as sacrifices to the God of Molech. This is what the children of Israel were practicing, the nation of Judah. And then they would go and offer themselves, offer burnt offerings and say, we want to worship the Lord. And then they would go commit these atrocities. This nation was destroyed.

at estates that they were going to experience the wrath of God. Now, consider that. Parallel that with our nation and the issue of abortion. Same thing. Same thing. This was the practice of the nation of Judah. It's the practice of our nation. I think it was Billy Graham who said, if God doesn't judge America, he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. It's true. It's why we must be faithful to the Lord and His Word. Verse 32. Verse 32.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Tophet or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. For they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth and no one will frighten them away.

God says...

It's because of that, for that reason, for their wickedness, judgment is coming. And no longer is it going to be called the Valley of Hinnom. It's going to be called the Valley of Slaughter because they're going to bury so many people there that there won't be room any longer. They will be turned into a humongous cemetery and they're going to run out of space. Why? Because the people are going to be judged.

They're the generation of the wrath of God. They're going to experience the judgment and consequences for their sin against God. There's not going to be room for them to be buried. They're going to be strewn out all over the land. The birds are going to come and eat. And no one will be there to scare them away because they're all going to be taken away or slaughtered. Either carried away captive or put to death. That's the only two options. The result of the judgment of God. God says, I will cause to cease the cities of Judah.

There's not going to be any joy. There's not going to be any laughter. There's not going to be the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, people marrying. They're all going to be carried away or put to death. Look at verse 1 of chapter 8. We're not covering the whole thing, just the first few verses. He says, "...at that time, says the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes and the bones of its priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves."

They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the hosts of heaven which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered nor buried. They shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue or the remnant of those who remain of this evil family who remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.

The final picture here of destruction as all of the remains of the men of great are spread out across the land, laid out. There's no stone uncovered. There's nowhere to hide. The judgment of God is going to be complete. There will be a remnant, but they are going to wish that they were dead. This is the result of the judgment of God. This is a result of rebelling against God. And this is a reminder for you and I this evening.

It's interesting. Larry and I kind of make brief mention of this every week, how the Lord ties in the things that He shares and then where we're at in Jeremiah. We make light of sin. We consider it a small thing. We figure we're in the age of grace and we don't pay too much attention to it. Not that big of a deal. And so it's important for us to be reminded as we look in Jeremiah that sin is an affront to God.

And to continue in a lifestyle of sin is to spit in His face, to disrespect Him, to rebel against Him. It's an abomination. And yet, so often, we get so comfortable with it. We get so content to continue on that way. And we should not trust in lying words, thinking, well, I won't experience God's judgment because...

Well, I'm a Christian and I go to church and I read my Bible and I do this and I do that and God's placed his name on me and look, the Lord has used me and the Lord's worked in my life and we use these things to justify or to convince ourselves that we're not going to experience the judgment of God. But don't be deceived. The Apostle Paul says that several times in the New Testament. Don't be deceived in thinking that you can practice sin and escape the judgment of God.

God cannot be mocked. His word says that there are consequences to sin, that sin will be judged. Don't think that you can escape that if you continue to live in sin. There is one way of escape, but it's not by offering sacrifices. It's not by trusting in our goodness or in our church attendance. It's not by trusting in the things that we give to God. Going back to the very beginning, here's the message. Verse 3,

of chapter 7. Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. What did John tell us in 1 John 2, 3? By this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. We need to put aside hypocrisy. We need to lay down all the pretense, where we pretend like we're right with God, where we pretend like we're here to worship God, and we need to get right with him. We need to repent, to turn from sin, to stop living in sin.

We need to make no provision for the lust of the flesh in order to fulfill it. Instead, we need to walk in the Spirit, to walk in right relationship with God. We need to amend our ways, to change our lives. The worship team is going to come up and lead us in some worship. And I challenge you again. I know this is similar to last time we were in Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 6. And I guarantee you it will be similar to many more to come.

But God does not have us in these things just to study history. He has us here in chapter 7 of Jeremiah this evening because it's what we need to hear. There are those who need to repent. There are those who are living just like the nation of Judah. So let's take this time. Listen. Sin is an affront to God and it will be judged. Alright?

You have an opportunity this evening to get right with God. Again, we see the mercy of God. He says, Jeremiah, go stand at the gate. Here's what I want. The people that come to worship me, you've come to worship the Lord, I hope, tonight. The people who are coming into the temple, the people who are coming into the church, here's what I want them to know. Amend your ways and your doings. Change your life. Change your actions. Stop living that way. Get right with God. That's what God wants you to know. And He gives you that opportunity tonight.

Confess your sin. Agree with God about your sin. Repent. Turn from it. And worship Him in spirit and in truth. Not in hypocrisy, but in truth. As we worship the Lord, let's worship the Lord in truth. Turn to Him with your whole heart. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.