Empty Externals are Useless

Transcript

GR 454
8/29/1982
Empty Externals Are Useless
Jeremiah 7:1-15
Gil Rugh

In the first six chapters Jeremiah has clearly laid before us the issue of Israel’s sin. He has shown the necessity for God’s intervention and judgment. Woven through that is the evidence of the mercy and grace of God as He continues to invite His people to repentance and as He exhorts them to believe in Him and thus be preserved and spared from judgment.

Chapter 7 begins another section of the book which runs through chapter 10. It centers in a sermon or a proclamation that Jeremiah gives in the temple at Jerusalem. The location is crucial because the focal point, the temple, had become the object of almost superstitious veneration. As Israel placed its total confidence in the temple and its buildings, a subtle change had occurred. Instead of trusting in the God who was to be worshipped at the temple and its buildings, instead of believing in the Lord of the temple, they had begun to believe in the temple itself and were attaching a magical significance to the building. They felt that belonging to the temple, attending the temple and being Jews whose worship was centered in the temple would be adequate to spare them from any judgment.

That pattern continues in the New Testament and right down to today where the emphasis on ritual, form and place of worship supersedes real faith in Jesus Christ. In a subtle way it can even affect us as Christians if we begin to attach special significance or a holy association to a location beyond it simply being the place where we gather as believers to worship.

Chapter 7 begins, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ‘Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word.’” Note again at the beginning that Jeremiah comes to speak in the temple, as verse 2 says, in the gate of the Lord’s house. This is probably the gate going into the inner temple. This would be an opportunity to proclaim to a larger number of people, particularly to the leaders of Israel, at this focal point of worship.

And you will note, it was the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. God is the source of this message. It disturbs me as I study various commentaries in connection with our considerations of Jeremiah the way writers feel free to dismantle the Word of God. Some say this may have been a message that Jeremiah preached, or maybe someone else preached it later and it was credited to Jeremiah. Some say we do not know for sure where this message was really preached or when, but there are still some things of significance here. What they are really doing is removing the authority and power from what is being said.

According to verse 1 this is the word from the Lord. In verse 2 God gives the command, “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word.” We ought to keep that together. The word came from the Lord, and the command to Jeremiah is, “Proclaim there this word.” What is to be proclaimed is the word that came from the Lord, not Jeremiah’s thoughts and ideas. Not the thoughts and ideas of anyone else, but the word that came from the Lord. You might expect that this would be normal in the temple, but things had deteriorated to the point that it was not the norm any longer. And as you might expect, the analogy for us is clear: The Word of God is not proclaimed in many places today where you would expect it to be.

So, the word came from the Lord, and that word is to be proclaimed. God specifies the place as well. “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house” verse 2. In the Old Testament God had chosen to manifest His presence in the temple. Before the temple was built His presence was manifested in the tabernacle. So, the temple is a very important and crucial location. It is in a special and real way the Lord’s house. It belongs to Him, and it is His dwelling place on earth, where His glory and presence are to be most fully manifested and revealed.

“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord!’” They have come to the temple for the purpose of worshiping the Lord. That is going to be a key issue. The problem is that they come to the temple and go through all the motions, and yet they are not worshiping the Lord. It is crucial to see that. God had said they should go to the temple. This may well be on a feast day, one of the appointed days that, if possible, all Jews ought to be in Jerusalem. They were coming to the temple, going through the routine of sacrifices as God had directed with the goal of worshiping Him. But they failed in that goal.

Fix this in your mind, because it will come out as we develop the passage, that ceremony is not worship, even when the ceremony is appointed by God as it was in the Old Testament. The word worship means “to bow down before, to prostrate yourself before someone,” and here is where the breakdown with Israel is going to be. They come to the temple and go through the motions, but they have not bowed themselves down in faithful obedience to the Lord of the temple. So, in effect, they come to the Lord’s house to worship the Lord, but they have not bowed down in faith before Him.

That is a subtle change, because you can still go through the external motions. You can come to this place where we say we want to worship the Lord. You can go through all the motions, and no one knows what is going on inside you. Yet Jesus said that worship is in the realm of the spirit and truth. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24. Yet the constant pressure is for worship and a relationship with God to focus on the external. You may feel you worshipped today because you went to a particular location and went through a series of activities. You may have worshipped, you may not have. You may have only antagonized God by your activity. It depends on whether you have come to believe in the revelation He has given of Himself, whether in the inner person you have bowed in faith before Him. If you have, then you can worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is significant why Israel has come. They have come to worship the Lord. God says that is their goal even though they are not accomplishing it.

Verse 3 reads, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.’” It is interesting the emphasis that is often given in the Old Testament as God focuses on their conduct. He tells them to do something: “Amend your ways. . . and I will let you dwell in this place” Jeremiah 7:3. The issue that is being developed by Jeremiah is judgment. Because of their sin, God is going to remove them from the land of Israel, and with that will be the removal of the privilege of worshiping at the temple in Jerusalem.

God continues to warn His people through Jeremiah: “Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.” verses 4-7.

People who are ignorant of the Word of God cannot worship God acceptably. That is crucial. You must worship God in spirit and in truth! Millions of people today are going through certain ritualistic activities in the name of worship, but they do not know what the Word of God says. The Word of God will not even have a significant place in their so-called act of worship. The problem with Israel is that they are going through the motions, but they have forgotten what God said in His Word. Centuries earlier Moses had written in Deuteronomy 7, “Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. And the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you.” Deuteronomy 7:12-15.

Israel selectively chose out of the Word of God what they wanted to hear and believe. At the end of verse 12, Moses says God “will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness,” and in verse 13, “God will love you and bless you and multiply you.” They had come to believe that nothing could happen to the people who came to that place to worship God. After all, had not God said, “I will keep My covenant with you, I will bless you. I will curse those who curse you. I will put all the plagues on them, not on you.” That is what the Word of God says, but it is in the context at the beginning of verse 12: “Because you listen to these judgments and keep them and do them.” They had failed in their obedience and submissiveness to the Word of God, but they continued to selectively choose out of the Word of God what they wanted to believe.

The same kind of distortion and abuse of the Word of God goes on today. Men take out of the Word of God certain truths and proclaim them apart from the context in which God placed them. God has promised good and blessing, but He has promised it to those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection. People today talk about the love of God, His graciousness and goodness. They talk about heaven. But they have ignored the Scripture in which that is found. So, they are just like Israel. They are going through the motions. I went to church this morning. I went to synagogue yesterday. I went to mass at this specified time. I went through this ritual. Therefore, surely God will accept me. He is the God of love, the God of understanding, the God of mercy. He is not desiring that people perish. But you have to put that in its context. If you believe in the Son, you have life. If you do not believe in the Son, you will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on you. So, Israel had selected portions and ignored the rest.

It is important to note that God’s means of salvation has never changed. From the beginning of time to the end of time, salvation is always by faith in the revelation that God gives of Himself. That revelation is culminated in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. So, salvation is only through faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God on your behalf personally. The issue is the same in the Old Testament--faith. The New Testament develops this rather clearly in passages like Romans 4 where it is stated that Abraham was saved by faith. And yet the command is given to this people in Jeremiah 7:3, “Amend your ways and your deeds,” and in verse 5, “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice. . .” Are we saying, therefore, that God is going to save these Jews on the basis of their actions and their works? Obviously not, because the heart of the whole system in Israel is worship in the temple and the sacrifices. And if that is not acceptable to God in bringing salvation, what other works could you do to bring salvation? It is important to see the context and the contrast here.

He says in verse 3, “Amend your ways.” Then in verse 4 He gives the negative side, “Do not trust in deceptive words.” In verse 8, “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words.” The command to amend their ways is the same as saying believe in Him, only it is stressing the result of the believing. The positive side is to amend their ways and practice righteousness. The negative side is not to trust in deceptive words. So, the balance of the two statements is complementary. Do not trust in this, rather amend your ways. Or to balance it in the language, do not trust in this, but trust in this.

When Israel’s trust is in the Lord of the temple it will bring about the transformation of their lives, their activities and their ways. That same kind of approach was picked up by the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets in the Book of Luke. The religious leaders are coming out to John the Baptist in Luke 3 as John has embarked on his powerful ministry to Israel in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. “He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Luke 3:7. That is no way to build a crowd! How would you like it if I got up and said, “Well, you bunch of poisonous snakes, who encouraged you to come here today?” That is, in effect, what John says. “Who warned you that judgment is coming?”

Verse 8 continues, “Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance.” Luke 3:8. He is talking about a demonstration of the change of mind they have undergone regarding their sin and their relationship to Jehovah. After telling them to bring forth the proper fruits for repentance, he warns, “and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” verse 8. The Jews were trusting their external, physical ties to Abraham for salvation. Earlier they had trusted their external, physical tie to the temple. John says, “Your physical line and your physical associations mean nothing. God can make children out of stones.” He exhorts them in the same context in Matthew to bring forth fruit in keeping with their repentance. It is the same emphasis. Is he telling them that faith is not the issue, but works are? No, but he is saying that your works demonstrate your faith. They are the fruit of repentance, the fruit of the changed mind that has come to believe. So, the command in Jeremiah 7 is the same issue. The message of the prophets continues saying that change needs to be demonstrated and evidenced in the life of those who truly believe.

d. Externals Mean Nothing

Note the repetition of Jeremiah 7:4: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” The repetition is driving home their attachment to the external. Remember the conflict in the Book of Acts as a result of the preaching of Paul at Ephesus. The Ephesians ended up in a great theater there for the space of two hours crying out the chant, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Here the Jews are saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” driving home that point. But wait, is not that true? Just because it was the temple of the Lord did not mean they had a relationship with the Lord of the temple. That is what they missed. They thought that by being in that physical location, since that was the temple of the Lord, that they had a relationship with the Lord. That erroneous thought is possible for people today. They come where the Word of God is believed and taught and think that means they are children of God, acceptable to Him. But that is wrong. The physical association means nothing. The issue is whether they have come to believe in the God that is being proclaimed in that place.

“This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” they chanted verse 4. The Jews were almost superstitious. How many people are appalled today if you speak against the place where they go to worship, the building itself, that collection of mortar and sticks and stones? They seem to have a superstitious veneration for the place, and that will come out concerning Israel as well.

Verses 5-7 show that issues of practical justice are the fruit of belief. “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place.” This came up earlier in Jeremiah 5:28, “They are fat, they are sleek, they also excel in deeds of wickedness. . . they do not defend the rights of the poor.” Jeremiah 5:28. This is not saying we ought to develop a social program today. In the context of Israel and the responsibility place upon them, these who are the weak and the more defenseless get run over. It is easy for us to do it as believers in the context of the body where we are responsible. We are responsible for the orphans and the poor. Directions for us are given in the epistles to care for one another as the household of God, as believers. It is so easy for us just to run over those in need. But God demands caring conduct as fruit of change.

It is important to see that this is the Word of God, and it is not new instruction. In Deuteronomy 14:28 the people were to bring a certain portion of their money. Verse 29 states, “And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” Deuteronomy 14:29. When you obey the Word of God and submit yourself to its instructions, God blesses. Israel wanted to capitalize on the blessing and forget the obedience.

In Deuteronomy 24:19 God gives them further instruction: “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” These were to be the people of God. They were to have concern and compassion for others. The instruction continues in verses 20-22: “When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing.” Deuteronomy 24:20-22. Israel was in violation and rebellion against the direct commands of the Word of God. Is it any wonder there was no blessing?

Do not miss the warning in Jeremiah 7:8, “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.” You can have tremendous faith and confidence that your faith brings yet be believing a deception. Israel had faith. They really believed in the temple at Jerusalem and its power. The problem is they were believing a deception. God never promised a supernatural deliverance for anybody who came to the temple. They made up that concept by distorting the truths of the Word of God.

God asks an incredible question in verses 9 and 10: “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’--that you may do all these abominations?” Jeremiah 7:9-10. He describes their activities of the week--they steal, murder, commit adultery and swear falsely. Is it not interesting how God lumps them all together? He does not categorize them and say this sin is worse. He lists stealing, then murder. I would list murder first and then stealing. Committing adultery is also listed right in that context along with swearing falsely and offering sacrifices to Baal. You say, Wait a minute. Do you not think you have blended big sins with little sins? I mean, look at committing adultery. Everybody does it. It has to be different than worshiping Baal or murdering somebody. Does it not?

Then after committing all their sins, they come to the temple and stand before God saying, “We are delivered!” To use a term, they may not have used then, they had received absolution! They had come to the right place. It is like going out and playing in the mud; then you walk through the shower, come out the other side and go back in the mud again. That is all right. It does not matter. We have a shower. Back in the mud, back in the shower, back in the mud . . . That is how Israel used the temple. It does not matter what we do because we can go and be forgiven. After all, if you go to the temple it is all right. Just be sure you get to the temple on Saturday! It does not matter if you are committing adultery, that is not the issue. We are delivered! Do you not understand grace? Do not be a legalist. I mean, you are forgiven! Sin is not an issue.

We need to be careful. That idea comes to us as believers. We do not say it, but we have professing believers living in sin. They commit adultery then come to this place as though it provides some kind of license to sin. It is abhorrent to God. Grace is to have results in our lives. The saving grace of God is to bring about a transformation of character. It is repulsive to God that the people who name His name would commit adultery on Wednesday and come together on Sunday to worship Him. What a mockery. Whom do you think you are fooling? Can you cheat and lie in your business through the week and then come and sit so piously with your Bible on Sunday morning saying, “Oh, I love to study the Word”? Can you tear people down, go through all that, and then sit here and say, “Oh, there is nothing like the study of the Word. Preach it, brother. I love those sermons”? That is exactly what Israel was doing. They were going through all this stuff. We say they were so hypocritical, but we need to be careful. Are they so different from us? That is the convicting thing about studying Israel. We are so much alike, because our sinful characters mesh perfectly.

God was appalled that they would indulge in their sins, “then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’--that you may do all these abominations?” Jeremiah 7:10. What a tragedy that we think the grace of God has been at work in our lives, so now we can sin. I have even heard some in Lincoln, Nebraska, who have attended Indian Hills give me a lecture on grace saying that even the sin they are involved in is part of God’s plan of grace for them. I tell you, I get so tongue-tied in that kind of situation that I cannot even talk to them. If they are so deceived, I find myself wondering, can they really be believers? Can they distort and twist the Word of God to come to such repulsive conclusions that the grace of God is working in their lives and even this sin is part of God’s plan of grace? Oh, my! That is one step below Israel, folks. “‘We are delivered!’--that [we] may do all these abominations.”

In verse 11 God asks, “‘Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ declares the Lord.” Notice that things are open and naked before the eyes of the Lord. There is not one person here today who is not open and naked before God--every thought in your mind, every desire of your heart is laid bare before Him. The analogy He uses is very important. What is a den of robbers? It is a cave where robbers retreat. After they have carried out their crimes and dirty work, they run and hide in their caves. That is what Israel was doing. They were carrying out their sins through the week, and then they would retreat to the temple. God says they have turned this place of worship into a den of robbers. Jesus picked up this idea in Matthew 21:13. He put two Old Testament passages together there, the other one He quotes from Isaiah 56:7, “My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a robbers’ den.” Matthew 21:13. In spite of the heavy hand of God’s judgment, Israel had not changed in the 600 years since Jeremiah. Still depending upon their physical activities for salvation, and still continuing their sinful pursuits, they were trusting that retreating to the temple would provide some kind of security and protection.

The issue has not changed in both the Old and the New Testaments. First John 2:29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” In chapter 3, verse 5, “And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.” 1 John 3:5. Then in verse 7, “Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” 1 John 3:7. Notice that he does not say you will become righteous by practicing righteousness, but righteousness in action is a result of righteousness in character. Practical righteousness is a result of positional righteousness. If I am righteous by virtue of faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God, that personal positional righteousness will manifest itself in my conduct. My character will be revealed in my activities.

Verse 8 continues, “The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. And in verse 10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not...” come to Indian Hills is of the devil. No! That is not what it says. We would not even want it to say that. We need to be careful that we do not act like that! The place where you worship is not the issue. “The children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God.” 1 John 3:10. It does not matter if he comes to Indian Hills Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday, Wednesday evening and Friday afternoon. That does not change the issue, because you do not get personal righteousness before God by physical activity. You get personal righteousness by faith in the Son of God.

God provides an illustration in Jeremiah 7:2 of Israel trusting a place. The illustration is from Shiloh, a town 18 miles north of Jerusalem. Joshua 18:1 describes Shiloh’s establishment: “Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there.” That was the place where God established for meeting with the people--the tent of meeting, where the Ark of the Covenant would now be kept. The Ark of the Covenant, the place where God manifested His presence, dwelt at one time at Shiloh which was the focal point of worship. By Jeremiah’s time it had been ruined and was no longer occupied. Read the first four chapters of 1 Samuel, and you will find that Shiloh is the place where people came to worship. By Jeremiah’s time the glory of God no longer dwells there. The point of the illustration? Do not trust sacred sites. Look at Shiloh as an example. This so antagonizes the Jews when he uses this argument in chapter 26 that they want to execute Jeremiah on the spot.

Notice verse 12 of Jeremiah 7, “But go now to My place,” which indicates that it was the appointed place in that day. “Go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name to dwell at the first and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.” Jeremiah 7:12.

Psalm 78:58-61 explains what happened to Shiloh: “For they provoked Him with their high places and aroused His jealousy with their graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath, and greatly abhorred Israel; so that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent which He had pitched among men; and gave up His strength to captivity, and His glory into the hand of the adversary.” Psalm 78:58-61. First Samuel 4 describes the capture of the ark by the Philistines, as Israel superstitiously brought the ark out. For sure this will give us victory in battle because we have the ark. And even the ark itself was captured by the enemy to the disgrace and ruin of the nation. What had happened to Shiloh? It had been ruined.

God describes His actions in Jeremiah 7:13, “‘And now, because you have done all these things,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking . . .” You ought to note the grace of God at work. God had risen up early and spoken, a figure of speech to denote how earnestly He had sought them with His Word, how zealous He had been, rising up early. We use that figure of speech-- “I got up early to get to the task.” God had risen early. He had been zealous after Israel with His Word. “I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer.” (v. 13). That is an awesome statement that the sovereign, almighty God has called out, and people are not listening. He has spoken forth His Word, and they will not hear it. People say, “I cannot believe that a loving God would send people to hell.” Yet God calls out to them, but they are not listening. They do not want to hear Him.

Instead of spending your Sunday afternoon in front of the tube, go out and walk around. There are a lot of religious people out on Sundays. It seems to bring them out in droves. Tell them that you have a message from God that you would like to share regarding their sin and what God says about salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. See if they will listen, if they want to hear it. Tell them that if they went to church today that it will not bring them salvation. Tell them the place they went to is just a collection of bricks and mortar. The ritual they went through today will not help them get to heaven. The only solution for their sin is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the one in whom they must believe. See if they are listening. Things have not changed in 2500 years since Jeremiah preached. God calls, but they do not listen.

He spoke through the prophets. That is the issue. It was the prophets He had sent, those who had His Word. He told them in verse 25, “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them.” Jeremiah 7:25. This is something He has zealously and earnestly done, rising early and sending the prophets with His Word, but the people were not listening.

God makes a similar statement in Jeremiah 25:4, “And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear.” The phrase “again and again” is literally “rising early.” This expression to “rise early” and send the prophets is unique to Jeremiah. Chapter 26, verse 5 says, “Listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again,” or literally, “rising early and sending, but you have not listened.” Similarly, chapter 29, verse 19 says, “‘Because they have not listened to My words,’ declares the Lord, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:19. It is the same problem. God in mercy and grace has spoken. He has revealed His mind, His plan for eternal salvation. In grace He declares that it is by grace through faith, not of works. But people are not listening. They are struggling to worship, to be acceptable to God. They are giving of their time, their money and their efforts, but they are not listening to what God says. So they are trusting in deception and in futility.

In Jeremiah 7:14 God warns that the same thing that happened to Shiloh will happen to Jerusalem. “Therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.” What happened to the temple at Jerusalem? God destroyed it. What about the Jews? They were mortified. They could not believe that the pagans could destroy the temple of God. But that was only a physical place where God manifested His presence to those who had a personal relationship with Him in faith.

God’s warning continues in verse 15, “And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.” (Jeremiah 7:15). In other words, those in the Southern Kingdom are going to experience the same fate as the Northern Kingdom. He will cast them out of His sight. That reminds us of the passage in the New Testament recording the words of Jesus, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” Matthew 7:23. But Lord, we did this, we did that. That is not the issue. Who said doing miracles had anything to do with getting to heaven? Lord, we taught! Who said teaching would get you to heaven? Lord, I was a preacher! Who said preaching would get you to heaven? God never did. God says only one thing brings you into a personal relationship with Him for eternity, and that is faith in the death and resurrection of His Son. The continual problem is the tendency to trust in externals. That is what we battle. With larger facilities we have to guard our affections and attachments so we do not turn to the externals. The issues have not changed. The focal point is still a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the only thing that matters.

May God keep us as a people close to Him and to His Word. The cure and the prevention for this kind of ritualism is an emphasis on the Word of God. Not just a superstitious veneration of Bible teaching, but an obedient submission to the teaching of the Word of God. Faith in the Word, not the book in the physical sense, but in the teachings that are there. Faith in the God of the Bible that results in a transformed life which bears fruit to the glory of God. The danger that we face as a church is the danger that every Christian church, organization and group faces--that with the passing of time there is a tendency to cool off and deal more in the realm of externals. You face that in your own life personally as a believer. May God keep us from routine, meaningless ritual so that we will be a people who come to worship Him because we bow down before Him as a person. Our faith is in Him and His Son Jesus Christ, and that is the foundation and motivation in all that we do.