Destruction is Determined

Transcript

GR 451
7/04/1982
Destruction Is Determined
Jeremiah 5:15-31
Gil Rugh

As we concluded our last study in Jeremiah 5:14, God had spoken to Jeremiah of judgment: “Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire and this people wood, and it will consume them.” Jeremiah is prophesying that God is going to destroy the Southern Kingdom, Judah, as He had the Northern Kingdom because of sin.

He begins to delineate the destruction in verse 15, “‘Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord. ‘It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.’” This is a powerful, foreign nation of antiquity. He is referring to the Babylonians. You can find the foundations for the Babylonian nation in Genesis 10. It is an ancient nation rising quickly to power in that portion of the world. God was going to bring it as an agent of destruction and judgment on the Southern Kingdom.

Much of what we read in the Old Testament forms a background for the New Testament. We have seen several examples of this in our study already. This section is a key passage for understanding an issue that is a major problem today among Christians. God describes this nation which He is bringing against them as “a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say” verse 15. Consistently through the Old Testament the presence of a foreign language in Israel was the sign of judgment upon them. A foreign language is an indication that they have been judged by God. When the Babylonians sweep down speaking in their foreign tongue, the presence of that foreign language will be God’s testimony and evidence to Israel that they are under His judgment.

This was true a couple centuries earlier as Isaiah prophesied regarding the captivity of the northern part of the nation which occurred in 722 B.C. Jeremiah is prophesying regarding the captivity of the Southern Kingdom which occurred around 586 B.C. In Isaiah 28:11 Isaiah wrote, “Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.” He is referring to the Assyrians who would be used of God to conquer the Northern Kingdom. When the presence of that Assyrian language is observed by Israel, they will recognize for sure that God has judged them.

Jeremiah says the same thing. The major issue among Christians today is the modern-day charismatic or neo-Pentecostal movement, the issue of speaking in tongues. In 1 Corinthians chapters 13-14, Paul gives his most detailed discussion of the gifts of the Spirit. The gift of speaking in tongues is an issue among the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 14:20-21 Paul says, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, ‘BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,’ says the Lord.” Paul quoted from Isaiah 28:11 which we just read. Then he applies it. “So, then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe.” 1 Corinthians 14:22. The main purpose for the gift of tongues in the New Testament was as a sign of judgment to the nation Israel. That just continued the pattern from the Old Testament.

Isaiah said that a foreign language would be a sign of God’s judgment upon the Northern Kingdom. Jeremiah said that the presence of a foreign language would be a sign of God’s judgment upon the Southern Kingdom. What does the Apostle Paul say about the presence of a foreign language? It is a sign upon unbelieving Israel. Speaking in tongues, consistent with its use throughout the New Testament, was the ability to speak in a foreign language which one had never heard. Why did God do that? It was His testimony to the nation Israel that just as He had judged them under the Assyrians, just as He had judged them under the Babylonians, so again He was judging them for their unbelief and rebellion against Him.

Much of the confusion that comes in this area today is the failure to take into consideration the Old Testament background. There is no question regarding tongues being a foreign language, because that is what is in view in Isaiah when Paul quotes it in 1 Corinthians 14:21. Isaiah is not talking about a heavenly babble; he is talking about the Assyrian language. There is no question what Jeremiah is talking about. When we take the Old Testament background as the overall context of Scripture, there is no question what Paul is talking about either. So, the presence of the gift of tongues in the New Testament was God’s declaration to the nation Israel that they have been judged for unbelief.

Jeremiah 5:15 is saying that judgment will come in the person of a foreign conqueror.
Verse 16 continues the description of judgment on Judah, “Their quiver is like an open grave, all of them are mighty men.” The quiver being like an open grave indicates that they will be devoured by the quiver; the bow and arrow will consume them. Verse 17 shows how complete the devastation is, “And they will devour your harvest and your food; they will devour your sons and your daughters; they will devour your flocks and your herds; they will devour your vines and your fig trees; they will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.” Later on, Jeremiah will declare that the voice of joy is gone; the voice of the bridegroom and bride will be removed. All cause of joy and happiness is going to be destroyed. Devastation is coming on food, children, herds, vineyards and cities. Anytime we talk about the wrath and judgment of God we are talking about something that is awful and devastating. It is the same when we talk about God’s future judgment of unbelievers in hell.

But in the midst of judgment, there is mercy and grace. “‘Yet even in those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not make you a complete destruction’” verse 18. God promised not to annihilate the nation of Israel. We have looked at some of the promises of the future for Israel. Here is another reassuring promise. After reading verse 17, you may think that there will be nothing left of the nation Israel. Not so. God will spare a remnant to preserve His people in whom He will fulfill the promises.

The punishment that God is going to bring is ironic. “And it shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’” verse 19. Israel has chosen to worship foreign gods, so now Israel will be taken captive to the nations whose gods they had been worshiping. It is an ironic twist that Israel will be conquered, judged and made slaves in the nation whose gods they have chosen to worship.

God described the Israelites as not being open to the truth of His word. “Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, ‘Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not; who have ears, but hear not.” verses 20-21. God says, “Hear this,” but they have ears that cannot hear. Yet His exhortation is to listen. In mercy and grace God has sent Jeremiah to speak His word to them, but they are unwilling to listen. They are “foolish and senseless people” who have no openness to the word of God and are blind to its spiritual truths.

In Psalm 115, God describes the gods that people make and worship. “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat.” Psalm 115:4-7. God’s description of the people is the same as the description of the idols: eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear.

In Jeremiah 2:5, God said they worship emptiness and have become empty. You become like that which you worship. Here we see the pattern again. The unbelieving, rebellious people have no more spiritual perception than an idol carved out of wood or stone or molded from silver. They are completely senseless regarding spiritual truth; but they are not unreligious. They are of all people most religious, but they are without any spiritual perception or sensitivity regarding true spiritual reality. This idea is repeated in the Old Testament a number of times, as well as in the New.

Earlier God had sent His messenger, Isaiah, with these instructions, “And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.” Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.’” Isaiah 6:9-10. The time of judgment has come, and thus the opportunity for salvation is passing.

The question is often asked, why did Christ speak in parables? It was so the unbeliever could not understand. The unbeliever cannot understand the Word of God. The beginning place for an understanding and perception regarding the truth of the Word is faith. We must come to God believing what He has said regarding our sinfulness and regarding the death and resurrection of His Son. And even that is the result of the work of grace in the life by His Spirit in giving the ability and the perception to cause us to believe. Then the rest of Scripture is open to us. That is why it is totally hopeless to spend hours debating scriptural issues with unbelievers. It does not matter how great their intellects or how scholarly they are, the unbeliever has blinded spiritual eyes, deaf spiritual ears, and does not have the ability to understand. So, Christ spoke in parables in order to cloak spiritual truths.

Christ quoted from Isaiah in describing the people of His day, “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘you will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’” Matthew 13:14-15. They do not want God’s salvation. They do not want to understand.

The same concept is clearly presented in John 12:40, “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.”

The Apostle Paul also quoted this verse, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘go to the people and say, “you will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.”’” Acts 28:25-27. The centuries of time did not change people from Isaiah’s day to Paul’s day. The unbeliever is still closed to the truth of God. The amazing thing is not that the unbeliever is lost and under judgment; the amazing thing is that the grace of God breaks through the barrier and any are ever saved. With our stubbornness, obstinacy, resistance and rebellion, it is amazing that any are ever saved.

God says this attitude toward Him is amazing. According to Jeremiah 5:22, people do not stop to consider God. “‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.’” People do not fear God; they do not tremble in His presence. Consider what He has done, how awesome His power really is! He has set the boundaries for the sea. The ocean waves beat against the sand, but in all the centuries of time, the waves still have not won the battle. You may say, “Hey, wait a minute. I know a place where the erosion is terrible; they are trying to save the sand on the beach.” But the fact is, we are still here. The waves have not beat the sand away completely.

When we go East this summer, we will go down to the ocean and watch the waves beat at the sand. They did that last year when we went down there; they did that 20 years ago when I went there; and I saw pictures that they were doing that 50 years ago. With all that power and water, you would think the waves would win the battle, would you not? But what do you see when you look at that? You see that this awesome God has ordained that this is the way it will be. These are the boundaries, and that is the way it stays. He has ordered it so.

Christians sometimes just take these things for granted. We cease to be amazed, to fear and tremble in the presence of a God who is so awesome and powerful. In chapter 38, Job talks about the founding of the earth, “Or who enclosed the sea with doors, when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; when I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it, and I set a bolt and doors, and I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop’?” Job 38:8-11. Look at the authority of God. He says to the ocean, “This is where you go and no farther,” and that is it. What an awesome God! God is saying to Job, “Consider who I am. I am the God of creation.”

Psalm 104:5-9 says, “He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever. Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; they valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst establish for them. Thou didst set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth.” At the time of the flood, God established a permanent decree--that the waters could never return again and destroy the earth. We are reminded of that decree in the rainbow. Just think of a God like that who could flood the earth, then give the order that never again could the waters cross their boundaries.

One of the reasons that there is such a major attack on the opening chapters of Genesis and the creating work of God is that this is used repeatedly in Scripture as the testimony and demonstration of the awesome, sovereign power of God. Those who attack the direct creation of God in Scripture are not just attacking the opening chapter of Genesis, they are attacking the very character of God. Not only do the opening chapters of Genesis collapse, but what we read in Job collapses; what we read in Psalms comes apart; what we read in Jeremiah has no significance, because if God did not do it, then the whole picture of this power is without foundation.

The unbeliever is driven to the ridiculous when it comes to the matter of creation and evolution. But it is overwhelmingly amazing to me that there are those who profess to be believers who try to adjust and adopt such positions. It is not amazing to me that an awesome, sovereign God creates, establishes the boundaries and declares that He is solemnly and absolutely in control. That creation is His work. It does not amaze me that the unbeliever is going to attack that. We have already seen that the unbeliever has no eyes to see, no ears to hear. How can so many scientists miss this? It is very simple; they do not have eyes to see nor ears to hear. But they are brilliant. They have the evidence. They have studied all this. But they do not have eyes to see nor ears to hear. I know, but... But they do not have eyes to see nor ears to hear. If you will fix that in your mind when you read a science textbook, it will help you to understand--you are reading a book most likely written by a man who does not have eyes to see nor ears to hear regarding spiritual truth, so he is driven to look for alternatives.

Look at one verse in the New Testament, and we will pick up just two words there. “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12. Fear and trembling is to characterize believers. We are to stand in awe of the God we serve. It is amazing that I can call Him Father and walk in a personal relationship with Him. But I ought never to lose that sense of awe, of being humbled before Him. That is why the flippant, trite terminology that is often used to denote a familiarity with God is totally out of place for the believer. It is a privilege to address Him as Father and to walk in a relationship of intimacy with Him, but I am never allowed to lose the respect and awe that I have for Him. We believers ought to look at the fact of creation and sit back in amazement because we are the people privileged to appreciate its impact.

Note the contrast in Jeremiah 5:23, “But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and departed.” Do you know what is to be done with children who have a stubborn and rebellious heart? Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says they are to be stoned. That is how Israel was to take care of stubborn and rebellious children. It gives us some idea of how God views those with this kind of attitude.

Note the contrast. The sea and the waves obey the command of God. They submit to His command, “This far and no farther.” “But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart.” Jeremiah 5:23. God has commanded them, but they have turned aside and departed from the God they have been commanded to serve, worship and believe. They are even more obstinate than the creation itself.

Verse 24 continues God’s description of their attitude, “They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn rain and the spring rain, who keeps for us the appointed weeks for the harvest.’” Who provides rain for the crops and the weeks for the harvest? God does! The unbelieving man sees this as the natural flow, but God says He is the one who ordains the pattern and establishes that it will happen. But the people of God take it for granted and thus wander from Him.

Jeremiah has repeatedly emphasized that sin always brings ruin. As Israel asks why the judgment is coming, God tells them in verse 25, “Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld good from you.” Sin always holds out the carrot to lure us along. It promises that which it cannot give. We have already seen this repeatedly in Jeremiah. Sin offers instantaneous, momentary pleasure for which we must sacrifice everything, but sin cancels the possibility of God giving the blessings that He desires to give. The idols that the Israelites worshipped could not control the rain or the harvest.

People often say, “Oh, I would have to give up too much to be a Christian.” They do not understand that the thing they are leaving out--a relationship with God as a result of believing in Jesus Christ, the Savior God provided--is what really brings meaning and purpose to life.

Christians need to keep in mind that sin always brings ruin. That pattern of sin is always true. Christians can ruin their lives in the pursuit of sin even as unbelievers do.

Let us note one other thing before we go on. People pick and choose what they want to hear from God. In verse 12 of Jeremiah 5, the people said, “Not He; misfortune will not come on us; and we will not see sword or famine.” They selected out of God’s covenant those things which promised blessing and ignored everything else. But the same covenant that promised blessing promised judgment and devastation for sin. But the people wanted to pick and choose.

People want to do the same today. They know the Bible says that God is a God of love. So, they talk about the mercy and kindness of God, but totally ignore what the same Bible says about judgment and condemnation. You can hear men in this city preach about the love of God, but many of these men are blind and deaf spiritually. They will pick and choose what they like out of this book but reject the rest just as Israel did. Yet the same covenant that promised blessing promised curses.

You often hear that Christ spoke more about hell than He did about heaven. Notice how much God devoted to blessing and judgment as He gave the Law in Deuteronomy 28. The first 14 verses of the chapter talk about the blessings that will come if they submit themselves to Him. Then He talks about judgment for disobedience from verse 15 through verse 68. The Jews centered on verses 1-14 and ignored verses 15-68. They did not want to think about judgment. They looked at what He said about blessings. “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground” Deuteronomy 28:4. “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.” verse 5. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you” verse 7. “The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns” verse 8. “The Lord will establish you as a holy people” verse 9. “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens” verse 12. Oh, that is great. Is it any wonder the Jews said, “Oh, no, God will not judge us. He has promised us the storehouse of heaven. Do not talk to me about judgment, I do not believe it. Those prophets who talk about judgment are windbags. We do not believe them.”

But note verse 15, “But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord . . . that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” The curses continue, “Cursed shall you be in the city.” verse 16. “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke.” verse 20, and pestilence in verse 21. “The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. And the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron.” verses 22-23. It goes on and on like that through the rest of the chapter. How could they miss it? The same way people miss what God says about sin and judgment today. They have blinded eyes and deaf ears. They are unwilling to listen to what God says.

Try it on someone today. Stop at one of the Catholic or Protestant churches that does not teach the Bible after you leave here (Do not tell them where you came from!) and confront them. Say, “You have just come from a religious service, so I know you are interested in religious things. Did you know that God says you are a sinner on the way to hell without hope?” See if they say, “Oh, I am sure glad you came to tell me that.” There is a chance that God will direct you to one who is prepared or to one who is a believer, but for the vast majority, they do not want to hear it. You could continue your discussion, “Do you know that there is no salvation for you by going through this religious ritual Sunday after Sunday? It is only by believing that the Son of God died to pay the penalty for your sins and was raised from the dead that you can ever be forgiven.” See if you do not find people with blinded eyes and deaf ears who will not hear the Word of God. What you are telling them is true. Their priest or preacher may have spoken about the love of God and used a verse of Scripture, but when you share the judgment of God from the same Scripture, they are unwilling to hear it because they have no spiritual perception or understanding.

God says Israel has been deceptive. “For wicked men are found among My people, they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore, they have become great and rich.” Jeremiah 5:26-27. They have cheated and used deception to conquer people and to make themselves wealthy.

The condemnation is not against wealth or possessions. It is against unbiblical and ungodly means used to secure those possessions. Some of the greatest men of God like Abraham, David, Solomon and others in the Old Testament were men of wealth. Wealth itself was not the problem although Scripture constantly warns about its dangers, because we tend to develop affections for it. But the issue is how people have gone about attaining it. Have they become great and rich by deceit, by ruining others, by operating contrary to the principles of God’s Word?

Verse 28 says, “They are fat, they are sleek.” We have seen in earlier studies that fatness in these cultures was an indication of prosperity or success. They are sleek, smooth like ivory, prosperous people. What do they excel in? “They also excel in deeds of wickedness” verse 28. These people who named the name of God excelled in deeds of wickedness; they were overflowing in that realm. Verse 28 continues, “They do not plead the cause, the cause of the orphan, that they may prosper; and they do not defend the rights of the poor.” Consistently throughout Scripture, how one deals with the orphan and the poor, those who are so easily trampled down and taken advantage of, is an indication of a person’s spiritual attitude. In Israel they were to be cared for as part of the family, but people did not do what they were supposed to do. Rather, they made themselves wealthy, sometimes off poorer people.

If you were God, what would you do? Think of this catalog of sin for people who are in rebellion against God: stubborn, wicked, using deceit in destroying others. If you were God of the universe responsible to judge in righteousness, what would you do? Just tolerate it and go on?

What would you expect of judges in this city if people started running around murdering, raping and stealing? You would say the judges must do something. Oh no, let us forget it. What do you mean, let us forget it? If you were God, what would you do? God asks, “‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD, ‘On a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself?’” verse 29. What would you answer? If you had been observing all that was going on, you would probably come to a point of saying the sooner the better. But part of the problem is that I always see other people in need of judgment. I need to stop and look at myself. How do I stand? Am I in rebellion against God?

You might think, Oh, God ought to lean on Israel. They deserve it. Well, keep in mind that the condition of the sinner’s heart is still the same. My heart is deceitful and desperately wicked just like the heart of Israel. And I deserve the judging wrath of God, even as they did, unless I submit myself to Him in faith, cast myself upon His mercy and in grace experience His salvation.

In verse 30, “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land.” The word horrible denotes filthiness, dirt, rottenness. It occurs only in Jeremiah and in one verse in Hosea. God sees what He is about to say as appalling, something to be amazed about, something that is horribly rotten and filthy. What is He talking about? “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so!” verse 31. The prophets do not have a message from God, and the priests do not have authority from God. But the people of Israel love it that way. Why? Because they do not want to hear the truth of God.

Many of the people in churches today are hearing what they want to hear. They do not want to hear a message from God. They love to be told that they are okay, that they are all good, that God will love us all and take us all to be with Himself. Just do your best and be kind to your neighbor. Yes, that is the way they like it. That is what they want to hear.

A continual problem through the Bible is that false prophets are brilliant in presenting a message that unbelievers want to hear. The prophet Ezekiel wrote, “Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, “Listen to the word of the Lord! Thus, says the Lord God, ‘Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD. They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, “The Lord declares,” when the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word’”’” Ezekiel 13:1-6.

We often wonder what motivates these individuals. Some of them are so totally deluded that they really believe God has sent them and what they say will come true. It Is not that they are just saying this or making it up, they are so spiritually blind and spiritually deaf that they really believe it may happen just the way they say. It Is interesting the way God describes them, “Yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word.” Ezekiel 13:6. It is not a message from God, yet they still anticipate that it will be just like they say.

Many men in pulpits are like this, totally committed to their cause. They really believe what they are preaching, but they do not have a message from God. They are liars, but they do not know it. They hope it’s going to be just like they say. They have placed all their confidence and hope for eternity in it, but they are doomed to destruction.

God continues His rebuke of these false prophets in verse 7. “Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘The Lord declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?” It is that simple. No matter what they say or how persuasive they are, if the Lord has not spoken, what they are saying is not from the Lord. Isaiah said that God’s Word is a standard. If they do not speak according to this Book, according to the law and the prophets, it is because they have no light. They are in darkness. So what is the standard? How well I like them? How well they preach? How interesting they are? No, the standard is how well they measure up to what God has said. Are they saying what God has said? If not, it is not according to the standard.

One very familiar passage in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 4, reminds us that people do not change. The sinful heart is the same. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

Is that any different from what God says is true in Jeremiah’s day? “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests’ rule on their own authority; and My people love it so!” Jeremiah 5:31. They want to have their ears tickled, so they will accumulate for themselves (literally, build up in piles) teachers in accordance to their own desires. These teachers are a dime a dozen. That teacher is not there to tell them what God says, he is there to tell them what they want to hear. That is what they have hired him for. They did not hire him to preach about their sinfulness, about judgment or about hell. They hired him to make them feel good. They get interesting talks on Sunday morning, they do other good deeds through the week and they help everybody feel better. But they do not want to hear the truth. But you will note, they still are religious. They accumulate these teachers in piles. They will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Once you turn away from the truth, what else is there?

c. A Sobering Question

Notice the last question in Jeremiah 5, “But what will you do at the end of it?” verse 31. They love it so now, but what will they do when they are called to stand before a holy and righteous God for judgment? The Book of Hebrews says, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” Hebrews 9:27. What will you do? You may say, ‘I do not want to believe this. I do not like to hear about judgment. I do not believe in hell.” But what will you do at the end? It is all true.

You can avoid it now; you can put your fingers in your ears, cover your eyes and avoid the truth; but what will you do in the end when you must stand before a holy and righteous God and be judged for sin? The question is awesome. Most people avoid it, they pretend it is not there. For them there is no hope. The question itself provides no answer because there is no answer. There is nothing you can do. You will be condemned and sentenced to an eternity in hell. You may wonder, Oh, would God do that? Does God have any choice? What would you do with a sinner who persists in stubborn rebellion, unwilling to heed the message of salvation, refusing to believe in the provision that God has made, determined to battle against God? Have you given God any choice?

In grace, the invitation is there. You can turn to Him and submit yourself to His salvation: Recognize that you are a sinner as He said; that His Son, Jesus Christ, paid the penalty for your sin by His death on the cross. If you will believe in Him you can have forgiveness and cleansing, a personal relationship with God which begins in this life and continues in eternity. God offers that as a free gift. The refusal of it is just further indication of how stubborn and rebellious we really are.