GO BIG ON TRUTH OR GO HOME! ~ A Study in Jeremiah

“If you don’t listen to me, you are going to be punished.” Some mothers say, “Just wait until your father gets home!” Used repeatedly without any follow through, the child comes to realize these are empty threats, and he or she learns to tune out the voice of authority. Sometimes calls to obedience are received by a child who responds lovingly. Other times obedience comes only out of the fear of punishment. Some children give a pretense of obedience when they say they will do what they are told to do, but they do not follow through. The dutiful child may do in part what is asked while neglecting to do all wholeheartedly. The goal of parenting is to get the child to wholeheartedly obey out of love for authority…because it is right and good. Lastly, there are those who respond with complete defiance. What would cause a child to stand against his parents in defiant rebellion? It is the sinful flesh that hates authority—sinful flesh that does not have to utter the words, “Don’t tell me what to do,” to be seen for what it is. Today, we are focusing on the child who offers a halfhearted, dutiful obedience rather than obedience from a heart of love.

This is purely hypothetical but let us say you lived back in Old Testament days when prophets walked the land. What would you do if a man named Jeremiah walked into your congregation one morning and sat down to listen to the message? After the service was over, he quickly ascends the platform and gets behind the podium, “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention for a moment? God has sent me with a message for you. Judgment is coming if you do not repent and return to Me.” On any given Sunday, most congregations would have heard a feel-good message from their pastor, and all they want to do is get out the door to indulge their fleshly desires for lunch! Professing Christians…for the most part today…would turn, not in repentance, but toward the door as quickly as they can to escape this foolish man. Who does this man think he is, anyways? We said the prayer, we said God is holy and we are sinners. We come to church most weeks and we say our prayers and even read our Bibles occasionally. We are extremely involved self-sacrificially in our community, and most would consider us good people. This man certainly is one of those people who take their religion to the extreme! Security!!! Remove this crazy man! Beloved, how do you respond to a call for repentance? If we know our God, we also know that His call to repentance is no idle threat.

“If you will return, O Israel,” declares the LORD, “then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, and will not waver, and you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.” (Jeremiah 4:1-2)

Israel had no problem with confession. They acknowledged they were sinners and God’s holiness. They professed God as their God, but they professed Ba’al as well. They even offered words of repentance; but God could see their hearts, and their repentance was just lip service. If they had truly repented, their life would manifest love for God in obedience. For those who believe that repentance is saying all the right things and doing what they believe is expected of them from a “religious” standpoint, their lives prove that they have no understanding to what God is calling them. His call is to an exclusive, open, honest, wholehearted love relationship with Him. In any relationship where confession of sin is repeated, the only evidence that confession is real is when behavior changes. If change is never manifested, there comes a point in time when the one who is repeatedly sinned against says, “Enough!”

The consequences of false confession were ultimate judgment in captivity away from the Lord and His blessings. Israel needed to understand that if they did return, it would not just be God bringing them back to their land…they must return to Him with wholehearted love and dedication. They had to let go of anything that would distract them from loving God. Wholehearted worship would necessarily involve ending their abhorrent love affair with their false idols. They must leave them once and for all without grieving for them or bemoaning their loss. They could not be like a reed shaken in the wind, letting their minds wander off after what they once had, agitated by the fact that they gave up what they truly loved to worship God. They could not just come to Him out of duty or fear. “Okay, I’ll turn from my idols if that’s what You want me to do, if that’s what it takes to keep me from judgment.” Out of hearts that loved Him above all else, they needed to put away their idols because they were a filthy, detestable, abomination to Him. God wants obedience from the heart.

When they were able to put away their detestable things from His presence without wavering, they would be able to swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. ‘As the LORD lives,’ is what we are saying when we take the witness stand and solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help us God under the pains and penalties of perjury. Unfortunately, the part of God as the witness to the truth is no longer applicable in the federal court I was tried in, which makes the whole trial a sham in my estimation. ‘As the LORD lives,’ was used from the earliest of times in Scripture. So, this was the accustomed formula in swearing back then. Jehovah swears by Himself in this way in Numbers 14:21, 28; Deuteronomy 32:40; and Jeremiah 22:24. God swore by himself because there was none higher to swear by.

How far we have moved away from God in our country when courts have the audacity to make men and women get on the witness stand and swear by themselves. I know I acknowledged that God witnessed everything going on in that courtroom, including my own testimony. The fact that I have no idea whether anyone else acknowledged God’s witness causes me to question whether there was any accountability for what they testified to, and that disturbs me. In fact, much of the testimony given on the stand did not line up with the original sworn interviews first given the government during the investigation. The testimony given to the jurors was completely different than the original testimonies. Even the judge’s comments on the record completely disputed his previous comments just a day prior. This is patently evident in the trial transcript. Did I have a jury of my peers, a judge who sought true justice, and a prosecutor who was seeking truth? Was my court-appointed attorney, who repeatedly mocked my faith, for me or against me? What my trial did for me was to open my eyes to the sad state of this country. We are no longer, in any way, one nation under God. Judgment is coming!

There are only two options when speaking this oath: Either one is sincere in the profession she is making because she has a fear of God and knows He sees and hears all, or she utters the oath (which is really taking His name in vain) professing Him as Lord with her lips while her heart is far from Him. Many speak the words by rote without any understanding that it is a call for Him to witness any lies coming from their lips. Judah was guilty of perjury every time they mentioned Jehovah. They were nominal professors, hypocritical worshipers, professing to know Him but by their works denied Him. They had a form of religion and godliness, but no power therein. They used God’s name to give weight to their own lies. How often do we hear, “Praise the Lord!” or “I swear to God…”, and know the words are not being given their true weight in speaking them?

When Israel truly turned back to the Lord, they would be able to swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. And what did that do? It would bear a right witness of God to the families and peoples of the earth. This was the purpose for which they were created as a nation. They were to be His witnesses throughout the earth. When God made His covenant with Abraham, He said that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. (Genesis 12:3; 22:18) A disobedient people cannot be a proper witness for God’s glory. Therefore, in her current state, Judah could not be that instrument to the nations of God’s blessing. She could not be glorified in Him, and He could not be glorified by her to a lost world. In this blessing to Abraham, there was only one condition. They must follow God with all their heart. They had failed.

We must stop here to answer an important question: How is my witness for Christ to a lost, dying, and watching world? Do I live like I believe, ‘the Lord lives,’ or do I struggle to be totally committed to God? If I struggle to serve God alone in every part of my life, I may be an idol worshiper. Do I honor Him alone, or do I try to honor my possessions, good times, relationships, fame, money, and a multitude of other ‘gods’ alongside the part of my heart I have given to God? We think we need these things to be happy in this life. What do we NEED?

We as a nation need to repent. We as a church need to repent. And we, as God’s individual children, need to be repenting regularly. It is time for the church to stop feeding its flock with cotton candy gospels, watered down pablum, and feel-good messages that deceive and send people who believe they are headed for heaven straight to hell! Individual Christians need to stop hiding behind their pastors and their churches to let them do the work of evangelism. How often do we think when we invite people to church that we are doing the work of evangelism? When is the last time you gave someone the gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the true gospel, so help you God? When is the last time that you steeled your face against their faces and just spoke the plain truth whether it was offensive or not? The gospel is always going to offend our flesh, but that is because it needs offended continually. We need to be the Jeremiahs of our day and be the witnesses wherever God has planted us. We are not because we are distracted by other idols, and we love the world far too much! We must live like we believe what is probably soon to be deleted from our money, “In God We Trust!” If we trust Him, then we can look around us and see that judgment is coming. For those who do trust Him, not in words and in name only, He will be faithful to His name in rendering out all the blessings that come to those who love Him and are His in Christ.

I just saw a quote on Instagram that is very apropos: Shallow Christianity will not last in the coming generation, and it will not grow. Cultural Christianity is fading. The Church in the twenty-first century must go big on truth or go home. Kevin DeYoung