Monthly Archives: March 2010

March 30 – Tuesday of Passion Week

Matthew 23:1-39 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, [2] “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, [3] so practice and observe whatever they tell you— but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. [4] They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. [5] They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, [6] and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues [7] and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. [8] But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. [9] And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. [10] Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. [11] The greatest among you shall be your servant. [12] Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. [13] “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. [15] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.[16] “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ [17] You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? [18] And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ [19] You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? [20] So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. [21] And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. [22] And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. [23] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. [24] You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! [25] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. [26] You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. [27] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. [28] So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. [29] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, [30] saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ [31] Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. [32] Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. [33] You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? [34] Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, [35] so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. [36] Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. [37] “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! [38] See, your house is left to you desolate. [39] For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ “

On Tuesday, Jesus gave the Pharisees the most scathing rebukes that He has done in all His ministry up to this time. He pulls no punches. Seven times He says “Woe to you”, and one can imagine that he was not merely whispering those words. Six times He calls them hypocrites and five times calls them blind. He calls them fools and implies that they are illogical. He accuses them of murder and of sending their disciples to hell. This to a group of religious leaders who had already made it known that if anyone saw Jesus in Jerusalem during Passover they should report it to them so that they could arrest Him (John 11:57). The air is electric with talk about what Jesus is going to do and what the Pharisees will do.

The sin that Jesus had the least patience for was hypocrisy, especially in religious leaders. Check out the times that we see Jesus getting angry in the Gospels. He gets angry at those who sell in the temple, abusing those seeking to worship, especially Gentiles. He gets angry at His disciples for not allowing the children to approach Him. He gets angry at the Pharisees here for the way they treat those who follow them. They hurt those who they are called to benefit. They make demands on their followers which they are unwilling to keep themselves. They teach for truth that which is a lie. This is their hypocrisy.

See this here in verse 13:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in”.

Then see it in verse 15:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves”

And again in verse 23:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

And then again in verse 31:

“Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets”

This is simply stunning. Jesus is three days away from the most agonizing death anyone will ever suffer and His anger is directed at those who mislead others. We see this in His utterances from the cross as well. He tells John to take care of His mother. He prays for God to forgive those who are nailing Him to a piece of wood. And the greatest act of compassion ever done in history and for eternity: He willingly offers himself as the sacrifice for a vast numberless multitude of hell deserving sinners.

What a word this is for those who have the responsibility to teach and influence others for the sake of the Gospel. Your ministry is not about you. You have been given a sacred charge by the Lord to teach and correct and instruct and rebuke so that those who are on the receiving end of those things will find themselves in glory when they die. You will be judged with a harsher judgement for it. Look to Jesus as the example of giving up for the sake of others. As a blood bought sinner yourself, spend yourself for the glory of God and the good of others. First, their spiritual good and then their temporal good. Look out for the good of those you teach, even to your own hurt. Hear the words of the Apostle Paul

Col. 1:24 – Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

We are called to follow Christ. Do you follow Him in this? Is your anger for the sake of others? Can you identify with Paul in Galatians when he says:

Galatians 5:12 – I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Or:

2 Tim. 4:2-5

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. [3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, [4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. [5] As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Does the fact that countless millions have believed a lie from Satan that condemns them to an eternity away from God grip your heart? Does the fact that you are called to teach the truth to people who need to know what it says strike fear in your heart so that you will work very hard at making sure that nothing you say will lead anyone astray? And would you do so in the face of your own death? What a calling is upon all those entrusted with eternal truth to pass on to others. It is a high privilege. Use it well.

And finally, revel in the Gospel. Jesus was angry at the Pharisees for their abuse of their followers. Jesus dies for the eternal benefit of His. What a Saviour.

Monday of Passion Week

Mark 11:15-17 – And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. [16] And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. [17] And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

We come to Monday of Passion Week and one of the most famous of Jesus’ actions in all of His earthly ministry. It has become known as the “cleansing of the temple”. Jesus did this twice in His ministry, once at the beginning (John 2:13-17) and this one during Passion Week (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46). His earthly ministry is bracketed by anger for His father’s glory and for people having their ability to worship God being robbed of them for the sake of money.

The text above is from Mark’s account of the event on Monday of Passion Week. Mark is the only one to record Jesus’ words “for all the nations” when He says “My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer”. This is a quote from Isaiah 56:7. God’s house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.

It is not an insignificant point. The place where the marketing was taking place was the Court of the Gentiles. This is the court where Gentiles can worship the God of Israel.

Gentiles were not allowed past the Soreg, a short stone wall that enveloped the temple and marked the place beyond which Gentiles could not go, upon pain of death. Paul was accused of allowing Gentiles beyond the soreg in Acts 21:27-36 and a crowd of very angry people tried to kill him for it.

The Court of the Gentiles is, in part, a symbol of the fact that God even accepts Gentiles and not just ethnic Israel. He for all the nations of the world. That the Apostle John records Jesus’ first cleansing of the temple is significant in that John’s theme is that Jesus is the Saviour of the whole world. He came to save all the nations. He begins this work with a dramatic demonstration through the cleansing of the Gentile Court.

Now Jesus has entered Jerusalem to complete the work of winning back to God, people from all those nations. What He sees when He enters the temple area is people prohibiting Gentiles from any form of reverential worship because of the desire to make money.

What a grand picture! The whole sacrificial system instituted at Sinai is a picture of the work of Christ in dying in the place of sinners. That system is not that of a regional god with only regional concerns. God is the Creator of all that is. All mankind has come under the judgement of God and is guilty. He has provided a means by which people can receive forgiveness and mercy and acceptance with Him. It is portrayed throughout the Old Testament in many ways. The need for something better is seen all throughout the Old Testament. The blood of bulls and goats cannot deal with the massive problem of sin and our broken relationship with God. But what they portray can.

Jesus comes and lives the life of perfect obedience to all the Law of God. The wages of sin is death and since He has no sin He does not deserve death. He has not earned the wages. But He dies in the place of others who have earned them big time. And He pays the penalty in full for people from all the world. What Jesus did on the cross cannot be taken away by man’s feeble attempts to serve themselves instead of God. He comes and He triumphs over all the efforts of the evil one to prevent people from getting to Christ.

Jesus is not on a fool’s errand. He will not lose one of all that He is given. He overturns all the tables that prevent people from worshipping God. He succeeds in bringing sinners into the inner courts of the temple of God – into the very holy of holies – where no one, not Jew or Gentile can enter, except the High Priest.

Jesus is that priest. No need for a priest to sacrifice any more. No need for another mediator of any kind. The way is open. It was opened at the cross. And it is open for you if you will leave the foolishness of the tables that prevent your worship. Leave them behind and seek Him. He’s better.

Celebrate this great thing that Jesus did on that Passion Week Monday by finding satisfaction in Him, not in the sin that bars you from real worship.

And Christian – this week – give the liberating Gospel to everyone with whom you have opportunity this week. Direct people to Jesus Christ, who has cleared the way for truly approaching God through Him.

This week we will follow the steps of Jesus through the events of Passion Week, culminating with His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Today a few thoughts about Palm Sunday.

John 12:12-13 – The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. [13] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

Jesus entered Jerusalem to die. He is now going to do what will save a numberless host of people for all eternity. He is going to fulfil all the prophecies regarding a new covenant and the suffering servant and the serpent crusher and the greater prophet and the supreme King who is the Son of David. He is about to do the work that all the work that all the (faithful) priests for almost fifteen hundred years have been portraying.

The shadow is coming to an end. The reality is here. The plan that was forged before the world was founded is about to be sealed. The guarantee of salvation for all He came to save is about to be written in blood. That which all the Old Testament has been looking forward to and that which all of history will look back on and that which all of eternity will praise God for, is about to take place.

There is no way to exaggerate what Jesus is coming into Jerusalem to do. That which will put an end to evil and sin and temptation and the work of Satan is now going to take place. Doom for Satan. Doom for sin. And that final enemy, death, is about to be dealt its death blow. This – is – some – moment.

The air is electric. The people who have been travelling with Jesus get word to the city that He has arrived. Word spreads throughout Jerusalem like wild fire and a large crowd of people rush out to meet Jesus as those who have been making their way there enter in. They bring the palm leaves to throw before Him – a sign that He is the conquering hero that they have been waiting for. They sing Psalm 118:25-26 as a testimony that they believe He is the Davidic King that they have been waiting for. He rides in on a donkey, a symbol of peace. The war is over, victory is guaranteed.

The religious leaders have a fit (Luke 19:39-40). The one thing that they do NOT want is for Jesus to be seen as the Messiah, to sing Jesus’ praise. But Jesus will not stop them. In fact, He encourages it. If they don’t sing God will cause the rocks to do it. For this is a celebratory event. This is worth all the palm leaves and more. This is worth all the Psalm quoting that there can be. The praise is weak compared to what Jesus deserves for what He is about to do.

And now that He has done it He is worthy of even more praise. This is Jesus, the eternal equal-with-God, Son of God. This is He who created all that is and who sustains all that He created. This is Jesus who in all the history of all the world is the only one who has kept the Law of God the way it was meant to be kept. This is He who, of all the billions of people that have had residence here on earth, is the only One who can save a people from the just punishment of a Holy God.

And He did. And He is. And He will.

And this is He who is doing all this for people who are in rebellion against God. And all that numberless host will have this true of them – they were rebels, sinners, running away from God with their fists clenched in opposition to God. They believed the lie that they could be as God. They chose to do their own thing rather than God’s. They worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. They had God put before them and they willingly and gladly chose anything but Him. Jesus is about to do all that He did for child abusers and rapists, and murderers and those who practise witchcraft and homosexual practises and prostitution and gossip and disobeying parents and saying “no” to authorities and worst of all, for getting up in the morning and seeing fit to travel through the day without a thought of worship at all. And He will be beaten for them. He will be nailed to a cross for them. He will be speared for them. And He will endure God turning His back on Him and crushing Him as a sinner – for their sakes. And at just the right time, He will change those people into faithful repentant righteous worshippers. And they will live for the praise of His glory – forever. And it will all be because of the cross and the empty tomb.

This should be celebrated. This should be celebrated every day by those who have the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection and have come to believe in Jesus by a powerful work of the Holy Spirit. And those people should, and must and will, tell others about it. And more will be saved from their sins because Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfil that eternal plan. He entered Jerusalem to die.

Jeremiah 9:17-22 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skillful women to come;

[18] let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,

that our eyes may run down with tears

and our eyelids flow with water.

[19] For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

‘How we are ruined!

We are utterly shamed,

because we have left the land,

because they have cast down our dwellings.’ “

[20] Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,

and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;

teach to your daughters a lament,

and each to her neighbor a dirge.

[21] For death has come up into our windows;

it has entered our palaces,

cutting off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.

[22] Speak, “Thus declares the Lord:

‘The dead bodies of men shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

like sheaves after the reaper,

and none shall gather them.’ “

R.C. Sproul tells the story of a lady he was counselling regarding her adultery. In one conversation with R.C. she made the comment that what she did was her business and it wasn’t hurting anyone else so why was everyone bothering her. Sproul says that when she said that he showed her his appointment book which indicated that he had fifteen or twenty appointments with people directly resulting from her infidelity. Sin is never a private matter.

Near the end of Jeremiah 9 Jeremiah talks about death taking the children of the Israelites in the streets. Children are dying in the streets. This no doubt literally occurred when Babylon sieged the city of Jerusalem. And we can be sure that the mothers of these children cried out to God and screamed “Why are you doing this to us!?” Sin always effects others. The death of these children was not God’s fault. God had warned them of the consequences of their sin and they refused to believe it. He granted them many opportunities to repent but they chose rather to sin. Now that the time of reckoning has come they are paying a heavy price . And God gets the blame.

Our sins always, always, always have consequences beyond us. It will always hurt others. Count on it. Achan’s sin cost his whole family their lives. It cost the nation of Israel the lives of many soldiers who fought to take the city of Ai. David’s sin hurt a whole nation. My neglect of my children will not bring them closer to God. My TV habits will not make them love God more. My temper and aloofness will not make them warm and friendly. Dear reader, do not think that your sin is a private matter. It is not. Even if no one ever finds out about it it will hurt others. It cannot do otherwise.

Do not allow yourself to come to the end of your life and be in regret for the way you wasted your life or did not teach the Scriptures to your children. Do not allow them to be slain in the streets. You can prevent it from happening. Aim for God and while you are pushing toward Him take your children along. They will follow you there just as they follow you to the places of sin and where God is not. Do not allow yourself to get to the point where you find yourself asking God why He is allowing these things to happen to you. It may be that the answer will be that it is the fruit of your own sin. He will forgive you and He will save you. But there are better ways to learn lessons than that.

Read Jeremiah and learn from their mistakes, not your own.

Psalm 84:1-4 (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH.

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD of hosts!

[2] My soul longs, yes, faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

[3] Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

[4] Blessed are those who dwell in your house,

ever singing your praise! Selah

For the last few days we have been considering things said in the Book of Jeremiah regarding the sins of Judah and God’s righteous indignation against them for their refusal to repent. It is a true and accurate picture of God but it is not the only one. Our God is beyond finding out. He is incomprehensible. Those who only have an angry God do not have the God of the Bible. Those who only have a merciful God do not have the God of the Bible. We want to worship God as He is.

The God who is angry at sin and righteously indignant at those who live in enjoyment of sin and rejection of Christ is also the God who invites people to come and find welcome. He is tender and compassionate. He longs to pour out good upon those who will come to Him.

This is beautifully and powerfully portrayed in Psalm 84:3. The Psalmist is talking about how lovely the temple of God is. He longs to be in the courts of the temple. It feeds his soul. And then he says an amazing thing. “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,”.

If little birds are welcome to nest in the dwelling house of God then how much more those who are created in the image of God? God allows the helpless and defenseless and the hunted to find a place of safety with Him. God is a micro-manager. He even sees to it that the temple, which was peculiarly His dwelling place, can be used to provide a home for birds.

There is no law that tells the Israelites how to get small bothersome creatures out of the temple. There are laws about getting mold out of the house. There are laws about infectious diseases. There are laws about tassels on the edges of garments. But God never intended that little animals be prevented from building their nests in the temple where the worship of God and sacrifices portraying the death of Jesus take place.

God does not invite people to misery and despair. He invites people to safety and peace and protection form evil. The troubles of the saints are without number and it is easy for us to get cynical when the talk turns to peace and safety and security. But the promises to the children of God are consistent. Through faith in Jesus Christ we have a place to dwell that is safe and joyful even in the midst of the horrors of life. There will be persecution and opposition and ridicule. There will be failure and hardships of all kinds. There may be premature death. “In this world you will have tribulation, but rejoice, for I have overcome the world”, Jesus said. And nothing that happens in the life of the believer can destroy the truth that is so beautifully pictured in Psalm 84:3.

God welcomes us into His presence. He is glad that we are there. He enjoys us and rejoices that we find our home in His presence. What a glorious picture of a caring Father. Believer, this is who you worship. This is who you serve and this is who you come to with your needs. Come with boldness. He cares for the sparrow. Will He not care for you who are worth much more?

Jeremiah 9:8-9 (ESV)

Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceitfully;

with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

[9] Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?

The sins that are being referred to in this section of Jeremiah, that the people of Judah have committed, relate to their deceit and lying to each other. There is no honesty. Integrity is gone and non one can be trusted. They use one another for their own purposes. Yet God, in the final phrase of verse 9 says that He will avenge Himself. God is the offended party. A lie to one’s neighbour is a sin against God.

This is the hard lesson that David had to learn when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah and lied to Nathan and abused his position and did not fulfil his duties as king for the people and abused Bathsheba. He practically sinned against everyone in the Kingdom. Yet in his repentance he truthfully said to the LORD, “Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

This is true. Our sin, no matter how offensive it is to others, and no matter how much it hurts and abuses others, is first and foremost against God. He is the offended party and He is the one with whom we first have to deal and He is the One who will hold us accountable. God will avenge Himself against sinners because God has been offended. He will deal with sin.

And oh how God has dealt with sin. Do you see that your sin has demanded vengeance from God? Have you seen that that vengeance must be satisfied? Have you seen that you deserve the wrath of God for your sins against Him? Have you seen that Jesus Christ came and bore the wrath of God that was for you to bear? God will deal with sin.

If you are a child of God then you should get up every morning thanking God that He took out His vengeance for your sin against Jesus Christ. Jesus took the blows for you and that is why you woke up this morning and that is why you are able to pray and serve and worship. It is why you have a relationship with God that gives you the right to call Him “Father”. It is the reason for every blessing that you can name. What a thing a just and righteous God has done for us! It is simply stunning!

You do not know Him? It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God and you will. And if you fall there without Christ as the One who took the blows for you then you will face God’s vengeance for sin all by yourself. And that will be too much for you to bear but you will bear it for eternity with no possibility of escape. But Jesus is here and if you do not know Christ, then know this. For whatever reason you stumbled upon this blog God got you here to hear this: turn to Christ. God has given you this opportunity to know great love, great mercy, great hope and real life. It is not what you should get but it is what you can have. God will have vengeance. He invites you to escape it at His expense. Know real peace with a real great and loving and righteous God.

Jeremiah 9:1-6 (ESV)

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears,

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of the daughter of my people!

[2] Oh that I had in the desert

a travelers’ lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all adulterers,

a company of treacherous men.

[3] They bend their tongue like a bow;

falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

[4] Let everyone beware of his neighbor,

and put no trust in any brother,

for every brother is a deceiver,

and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

[5] Everyone deceives his neighbor,

and no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongue to speak lies;

they weary themselves committing iniquity.

[6] Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,

they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

The sins of the people of Judah in the time and ministry of Jeremiah are well known to most Christians with even a rudimentary knowledge of the Scriptures. But there is a comment here that makes having just a rudimentary knowledge of the Scriptures a truly terrifying thing. The reason why we want to know the Scriptures better is so that we will know God better. The reason we want to know God better is because that is what grace does for us. God puts a desire in our hearts for Him.

The Scriptures are plain that it is possible for true children of God to grow cold. Other things get in the way. A thousand and one things get in the way. Read the second and third chapters of Revelation to see churches that never intended to become what they had become but Christ was so upset with them that he shut them all down. No believer plans to drift away from God and most who have done so will deny it. But it does happen.

In Jeremiah 9:1-6 Jeremiah continues to mourn the spiritual state of his people. The sins are a litany of wickedness, mostly, in these few verses in the form of sins of the tongue (Verse 3). They are liars (verse 3), untrustworthy (verse 4), deceivers(verses 4-5).

But those sins are trivial compared to the last thing that Jeremiah refers to in verse 6. “They refuse to know me, declares the Lord.” The scariness is the word “refuse”. They refuse to know God. Their sins dictate their actions. If they get to know God they cannot be deceitful any longer. Their deceit has blinded them to the glories of their God. They had ability to get to know God. They had opportunity to get to know God. They had the resources provided for them to get to know God. They had God. But they chose to do something else instead and now they are hardened in their sin and the thought of getting to know God is distasteful to them. They don’t want Him.

This is scary because it hits so close to home. Sporting events, concerts, nights out with the boys/girls, video games, computer games … The list is endless. Nothing wrong in any of these things, but there are far, far too many believers who, when given the chance to attend a Bible study, a church service, read their Bibles, listen to a sermon, download a lecture, pray … will not show the least bit interest given the choice of more entertainment, more sports, more music. They have opportunity to get to know better but they refuse.

How many resources do we have at our finger tips and how do we use them? How have we used our time? Are we growing in our knowledge of God? And this is not just a sin of the average believer. It is the sin of those entrusted to teach the people the ways of God. How many half cooked meals have been prepared for people when they needed something more nutritious? Was the spiritual indigestion that my people got afterward really all their fault? Did I refuse to know God better?

To whom much is given much is required and the 21st century North American church has been given a very great deal. How good God has been to us. How can we justify the strangeness of God to us? We are guilty of refusing to know our God.

God is very patient. He called out to the people of Judah for hundreds of years before He finally sent Babylon upon them as a judgement. It is not too late for us.

How have you used your time? What have you done with resources that God has allowed you to have that you could have used to help you grow in your knowledge of God? In what ways can it be said of you that you have refused to know Him? Turn around now and start using them for Him. The refusal to do so could result in a discipline from God. It should. If it does not then God will owe Judah an apology, for our sins are no different from theirs.

Jeremiah 8:1-8 (ESV)

“At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. [2] And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. [3] Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

[4] “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:

When men fall, do they not rise again?

If one turns away, does he not return?

[5] Why then has this people turned away

in perpetual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit;

they refuse to return.

[6] I have paid attention and listened,

but they have not spoken rightly;

no man relents of his evil,

saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turns to his own course,

like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

[7] Even the stork in the heavens

knows her times,

and the turtledove, swallow, and crane

keep the time of their coming,

but my people know not

the rules of the Lord.

[8] “How can you say, ‘We are wise,

and the law of the Lord is with us’?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes

has made it into a lie.

Idolatry, deceit, perpetual backsliding, evil speaking, unrelenting in evil, everyone doing whatever he wants, ignorance of the Word of God. These are the sins that are enumerated in the first seven verses of Jeremiah 8. The shocking thing here is not that these sins are committed, as shocking as that may be. The really shocking thing is that they are committed by people who believe that they are keeping the Law of God and believe that God is pleased with them.

They would never be so godless as to desert the faith altogether, skip a festival or celebration. These people are not atheists or agnostics. They are not teaching their children that God does not exist. They simply do not have God in their hearts while they go through the motions. They pray and believe that God is hearing them. They teach their children about Moses and the Egyptian captivity. They talk about their father Abraham and his great faith. Their children build little arks in their playgrounds and re-enact the flood with the full assurance that since mommy and daddy have taught us such things we know that we would have been among the eight souls who were in safety there. And they are wrong on every count.

They are certain that Jeremiah is wrong when he says that he has a message from God. God would never send such a message to them. They are the people of God. They are faithful. They are not the ones that God is angry at.

There is no deceit worse than self deceit and the people of Judah have self deceit in spades. And part of the reason they are so confident in themselves is recorded in verse 8. “The lying pen of the scribes has made [the Law of God] into a lie.”

There you go.

The professional writers, those charged with the task of copying truth and recording the Word of God and preaching it, have turned it into a lie. They have said that it says what it does not say. They are not recording. They are revising.

“Jeremiah must be wrong” the people reason “see what the scribes have written.” Those whom the people must trust have betrayed the trust and they not only lead themselves to destruction, but those who have no choice but to follow their teachings. This is a heartbreaking tragedy. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 23:13-15 -

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”

He mourned that such things were happening to people in His day

Matthew 9:35-36 – And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. [36] When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And it still happens today. Pulpiteers, authors, pastors, seminary professors… . The list is long and sordid of men and women who twist the Scriptures, not only to their own destruction, but the destruction of all who swallow their teachings. There are more of them today than there were in Jeremiah’s day. Many more.

There is such a hodge podge of doctrines and ideas out there that get published and endorsed and promoted that one can be excused for being very confused. Who are we to believe? How can we tell which person is right? There are ways to answer that question but consider this. Despite the fact that the common people are ripe for the picking of dishonest and ignorant scribes, they are still responsible for what they believe. They do not have to believe everything they read. While the sins of the scribes is great, the people who believed everything they wrote will be held accountable for their beliefs and actions.

Pastors and teachers have a great responsibility to teach what is true, according to the Scriptures and those who teach will be judged with a harsher judgement than those who do not teach. Nevertheless, it is the duty of all believers to maintain a Berean spirit and search the Scriptures to see if what is being taught is true. (Acts 17:11). It is not just church leaders who are responsible to ensure that they do not fall for spiritual junk. Consider Colossians 2:8, Hebrews 13:9, I John 2:26, Ephesians 4:14, Philippians 3:2, II John 10, Jude 3, 4, Romans 16:17-18, Galatians 1:6-9, just to mention a few.

Know your God.Know your stuff. Rejoice in great truth and don’t allow yourself to be fooled by what seems an attractive alternative. You will be held accountable for how you listen and what you choose to learn.