WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? ~ A Study in Jeremiah

“I believe I’m a good person, or at least I try to be.” “I raised my hand in response to an ‘invitation’ years ago.” “My parents were saved and raised me in the church.” “I’ve been saved all my life.” What do all these responses have in common? There is no mention of turning from sin. People sitting in churches everywhere today do not know who God is and do not know who they are or any of these claims would fly with a holy God.

Probably my all-time favorite response to a Q & A was spoken by R.C. Sproul. The question: Since God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned was His wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting? You could see it in R.C.’s face. After answering the question with his own set of questions, R.C. Sproul turned to his audience and queried, “What’s wrong with you people?” The audience nervously began to laugh. His voice loomed larger when he said, “I’m serious! The question is: ‘Why wasn’t it infinitely more severe if we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is’…that’s the question, isn’t it?” If we don’t know what is wrong with us, how can we be made right? See the clip here: 

 A better question to ask before, “Are you saved?” is, “Who are you?” Perhaps even, “Who was born on the day of your birth? Who was born on the day of your rebirth?” To understand the stark difference in those questions as they relate to our current standing before God is key to making a proper assessment of our salvation. There can be no doubt in the person’s mind who exclaims, “I once was blind, but now I see!” A blind man from birth receiving sight is a big deal! We are given sight to see a holy God. The only way we can see the glorious splendor of God is to see ourselves as we truly are.

Giving an invitation and telling someone they can be saved by simply asking Jesus into their hearts and repeating a prayer is cruel and leads to false confidence in the most crucial issue of life. To treat sin superficially is to fight against the Holy Spirit whose ministry is to convict the world of sin. (John 16:8) If a preacher wants to spend his time focusing on teaching his congregation how to get their best life now, instead of teaching them to focus on eternity, we can know that the Holy Spirit is not working through his ministry. The irony is that those churches who do speak about sin and bring convicting messages each and every week are those labeled as dead and devoid of the Spirit. Those who focus all their energies promoting the Spirit of God in ways Scripture never outlines are the very ones who are fighting against His work in this world. Instead of pointing to a repentant life as proof that the Spirit is working in the heart, they point to outward signs and wonders seen in the flesh. A Spirit-filled ministry always begins by dealing specifically, passionately, and lovingly with men and their depraved condition.

 For anyone to believe they can assert with confidence, “I believe I’m saved because I’m basically a good person,” is to fall under the same heavy indictment God spoke through Jeremiah to Judah. “I prayed a prayer when I was younger, and I believe God’s grace has covered my sin, so I’m good now. I don’t worry about sin because He’s already dealt with it. I can live like I want to, and you can’t judge me,” is never going fool the One who sees the heart.

“But in spite of all these things, yet you said, ‘I am innocent; surely His anger is turned away from me.’ Behold, I will enter into judgment with you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’” (Jeremiah 2:34b-35)

God has brought a severe indictment against all men in Romans 3:10-18. All are guilty. On your best day, your ‘holiest’ moment, you are still guilty. The penalty for sin is death. Jesus paid that penalty on behalf of all those who would believe in Him. When God saves a person, that person is set apart or sanctified for God’s purposes. At the same time justification takes place. Justification is a legal declaration that affects our standing before God. Positionally, we are then seen by God as in Christ. God in salvation is taking one from being ‘in Adam’ and putting that one ‘in Christ’. But so many in today’s churches want to separate justification and sanctification. In other words, one can be justified or declared righteous by God, but that one’s life practically does not need to reflect a pursuit of holiness. One is sanctified at new birth and from that point on, God continues a work of sanctification in that life that will continue until taken home and glorified. This is why our lifestyle must reflect the fact that salvation has taken place. Therefore, it is right to question that someone has truly been saved when there is no evidence to support the claim. The longer we walk with the Lord, the more clearly we should begin to see our depraved state. But even in the life of the new believer, this one should know that she was once lost, but now she is found, once blind, but now she can see.

 God saw all Israel’s sin. She told herself that she had done nothing wrong, and therefore God would not judge her. Because He could also see her heart, she was declaring her innocence before Him. To believe one is innocent reflects the heart of one who doesn’t believe a Savior is necessary. God utterly abhors self-righteousness. Judgment was coming, and God’s people needed to know this. Refusing to turn in spite of promises of judgment to come would only bring further judgment. Her claim to innocence made her more guilty, not less.

Clearly self-deceived through self-justification, she had already established her guilt by her own words. While she says she is innocent, she has already said she couldn’t help but chase after other gods. Deceived and delusional, Israel was double-minded, unstable in all her ways.

“Why do you go around so much changing your way? Also, you will be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria. (Jeremiah 2:36)”

Literally, this says, ‘Why do you gaddest about?’ It means to run to and fro or to bounce about on an irregular course. You flit around from one ally to another asking for help. They first had turned to Assyria to save them. (See 2 Chronicles 28:16-21) God used Assyria, to whom Israel had entrusted themselves, to overrun and take the Northern Kingdom captive in 722 B.C. Isaiah 30 tells how Judah was warned against entering into an alliance with Egypt. It’s the same today when we run from one false hope to another refusing to turn to the Lord alone. Hope can never be found in looking for answers to the problems in this world by looking to political parties or world leaders. Sadly, they could not run far enough from God’s judgment that was already coming.

“From this place also you will go out with your hands on your head; for the Lord has rejected those to whom you trust, and you will not prosper with them.” (Jeremiah 2:37)

They will go out as captives revealing their true spiritual state. They believed that following idols gave them freedom, yet they were held captive in bondage to their sin. The reality would be seen in their physical lives if they couldn’t see their wretched state.

 It is said that putting one’s hands on the head is an expression of mourning, which I have no doubt is true. In the Handbook of Bible Manners and Customs it says: “This is an Oriental mode of expressing great grief and is thought by some to signify that the heavy hand of God’s affliction is resting on the mourner.” There is in the British Museum a sculptured slab representing Egyptian mourners at a funeral, with their hands on their heads. They were going to go from Judah as captive slaves with their hands on their head. God was telling them that He was not going to honor their alliances with Egypt or any other foreign power. America has had a great alliance with Israel for many years, and God has blessed her for that alliance. But God’s enemies should be our enemies as well. It is absurd for us, in any instance, to join hands or turn to an enemy of God for help. Judah was religiously unfaithful to God and politically unfaithful as well. God’s people are to worship Him alone and to find their security in Him alone.

 God had called His chosen people out of the Egypt of this world and had delivered them from all spiritual enemies. The sins of God’s people are far more grievous than that of those who don’t know Him. Men seek glory for themselves in this world, but our only glory is God. To lose God is to lose everything. The only protection we have in this world is to be near God Almighty. If we are to turn from Him, we become prey to every evil.

 When we warn people of consequences that are coming in some dangerous conduct in which they are participating, their rejection of that warning is often met with: “You’ll see.” We don’t like an ‘I told you so’ attitude from any man. But, when God tells us so, there can be no doubt. When we look back at our disobedience, we can only blame ourselves for not listening to Him. Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown says: “Men’s own wickedness shall be their punishment, in righteous retribution; and no more awful punishment can be conceived than that they should be given up wholly, without any intervention of preventing grace, to the unrestricted workings of their own sin; if in this life the passionate, envious, and malicious man is his own tormentor while he seeks to hurt others, much more so in the region of the damned: then, indeed, it shall be fully seen that “the way of the transgressor is hard,” and that “it is, an evil thing and bitter, to forsake the Lord God.”

 Man tries to run from problems in life. Man tries to run to idols promising fulfillment and happiness. The problem is that man cannot run from himself. Our true happiness is found in the One who created us for Himself. All other confidences will fail in our time of trouble. There will come a day when it will be vanity to appeal to God when that person has chosen to turn from God to sin. For the one who turns to God in repentance, however, there is hope. While there is time, today is the day of salvation. The Spirit waits to be gracious to the one who cries out to Him for mercy. Then this one can truly say, “I once was lost, but now I’m found.”