SO, YOU PRAYED A PRAYER ONE TIME? ~ A Study of Jeremiah

 

“Nag, nag, nag, that’s all my parents do,” says the cocky teenager who thinks he knows best what is good for him. He learns to tune out that voice of authority because it goes against his adolescent desires and fleshly lusts. Even when another friend comes along and says, “Hey, didn’t your parents say you weren’t supposed to do that?”, his thoughts are already, “I can do whatever I want because I have my parents wrapped around my little finger. They may be mad for a little while, but they won’t follow through with any of their threats.” Sadly, this is probably true for most teenagers today, and the evidence around us is anything but subtle.

This is the same teenager who has been raised to believe that he can be all he wants to be, that he deserves a trophy for just suiting up for the game, who should never let anyone crush his little ego by doing or saying anything to him that is offensive…even if it’s only offensive to him. Even if a neutral comment is made to him stated without any malicious intent—if it offends little Johnny, then he has a right to proclaim himself a victim and receive whatever compensation he deems reasonable for offending his greatness. He looks up…not to his parents, but to those who push the limits of freedom and devise clever schemes to get away with disobedience, he is shrewd to do evil—calling good evil and evil good.

Teens and adults alike—who only give lip service to their profession of Christ—who do not give any thought to obedience to the authority of Scripture—are found inside most churches today. It is extremely difficult to recognize the difference between those who only profess to live for Christ and those who live for the world. The church in America is predominantly based upon a godless culture rather than on the Word of God. Multitudes are deceived. They sincerely believe that because they prayed a prayer one time in their life that they are going to heaven. They look at the other people in their churches and compare their lives to them and think, “My life looks like them, so I must be okay.” Never measuring their lives up against the Word of God, nothing convicts them with troubling thoughts regarding their salvation or their eternal destination. Yet they look like the world, talk like the world, dress like the world, and watch the same forms of entertainment as the world. Why? Because they love the world! There is no logical thinking behind how someone can go to church, listen to the Word of God, read the Word of God, love the world, and then stand up and say he or she is a Christian. Yet, in America, especially, this is what we see all the time. How can they justify their profession? Because at one time in their life they walked an aisle, said a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives, and the preacher told them never to doubt that their salvation was settled. But the problem with the evangelical and protestant church in America is that most people do not know God.

 

Paul Washer says: “One of the greatest heresies in the American evangelical and protestant church is that, if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You will not find that in any place in Scripture. You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago. Salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ.” True saving faith will involve repentance, a turning from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates, a love for the things that God loves, a growing in holiness, and a desire not to be like the world and…listen…the majority of Christians…but Jesus Christ!

God’s people, Judah, did not know God. They believed they were somehow His ‘golden child’ who could get away with anything. Surely, He would look away from the things they were doing, even though they were in direct opposition to how He had called them to live. After all, it was their life, they reasoned; and they knew what was best for them. While they were so cleverly forging their father’s signature on their bad report card, their Father was watching them do it knowing they were not getting away with anything.

They did not know God because they thought He was just like them. Their god was a projection of their own egos and desires. Their god hated all the things they hated and wanted them to do all the things they wanted to do. How convenient, right? They were what they called ‘God’. They worshipped themselves to justify what they wanted and called it ‘God’. This is living in a delusional fantasy world wherein the most powerful human being of all just happens to agree with you on how you satiate your desires for love, attention, affection, and justification.

Psalm 50:16-23—But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you. When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you associate with adulterers. You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright, I shall show the salvation of God.”

The psalmist is saying that for the spiritually blind who cannot see now, Judgment Day is coming. They will have their day in Court when the Lord will state the case (lay it out in order before them)  before their eyes which will be fully opened to see things as they are; they will have no excuse. Choosing to turn a blind eye to the truth while they had opportunity to repent, God gave them over to their delusions, and they lived against Him according to those delusions. On Judgment Day He will force them to see the truth. On that day, they will bow the knee and say, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’, but it will be too late.

Jeremiah had cried out in vs. 21, “How long must I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?” Jeremiah did not want to hear the bad news any more than his people wanted to hear him! The difference was that he knew God! He had eyes to see and ears to hear the signals that said, “Flee for safety, now!” In verse 6 of Chapter 4, he had told the people, “Seek refuge, do not stand still.” Why? God’s judgment was coming for them, and Jeremiah believed God. Jeremiah did not make the fatal mistake of thinking God was just like him, that same fatal mistake people today make when they try to make God in their own image. They think things like, “Well, God doesn’t judge me, my god is a god of love!” “If I say I love everyone, then surely my god loves everyone and would never send anyone to hell.” Anyone who knows God, knows that is a lie from the pit of hell.

Peter Craigie, in the Word Biblical Commentary series on Jeremiah 1-25 says this about Jeremiah 4:21 above: “These verses of confession illuminate the internal torment of a man who is torn, precisely because he is himself so gripped by the urgency of his public preaching. He is not stern in public because he is heartless; it is because he loves his nation and people so dearly that he speaks the severe word, but it takes a terrible toll on his own emotional life.”

 “For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 4:22) The foolish man is the one who despises wisdom, mocks when guilty, is quarrelsome, and who is licentious. It means to be perverse. The foolish are opposed to the prudent and to the wise. Within the understanding of this word in this context is a lack of piety, or reverence, especially for God. God said His people are stupid children. Stupid here can be translated ‘fool’ but it has the idea of one who is sottish. I had to look up this word because I had never heard of it before. Sottish is to be stupefied with or as if with drink, drunken, given to excessive drinking, pertaining to or befitting a sot! In Ecclesiastes 10:3, it is used of one who lacks any sense. In Jeremiah 5:21, it is used again—‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see; who have ears but do not hear.’

 

Those who only profess to follow Christ may even profess to ‘know’ Him. The evidence of knowing Christ is obedience to His Word. 1 John 2:3-4—By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. That person may even be able to deceive himself that he does know God. The more important question? Does He know you?

 

Matthew 7:13-14—“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” There are two gates, but only one that leads to eternal life. That gate is narrow, the way is narrow, and few find it. You cannot take all your baggage from the world with you through this narrow gate. There is another gate marked, “This way to heaven,” that is wide, the way is broad, and many enter through this gate. The problem is this broad way is deceiving the multitudes because it leads to destruction. A person who knows Christ is going to being walking like Christ, not the world.

 

Jesus goes on to say that there are two types of trees, those that bear good fruit and those that bear bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Every tree that bears good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (hell). Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.” The life of a Christian looks radically different than that of those who live for the world and all its deceitful pleasures. There will be multitudes on the day of judgment who will find out that they had been deceived. They were in the church, but not really part of His body. They professed His name, but He did not know them. The following are the most frightening words found in all of Scripture:

 

Matthew 7:21-23—Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name case out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

 

You may find yourself standing outside the White House one day and you tell the guard, “I know the President; can you let me in? I campaigned for him; I’ve worked hard to get him elected.” The guard says, “Your name is not on the list. Sorry.” Just then, the President walks out and says, “Hey, Karla, good to see you. It’s okay. I know her; let her in!” Huge difference!

 

Your profession and confession mean nothing if the evidence of good fruit is not manifested in your life. Why? Because it is He alone who produces the fruit in us when we abide in Him. That abiding in Him is proof of an intimate relationship with Him.

 

Jesus’ last parable in this segment of ways people should examine themselves is regarding two foundations. In verses 24-27 we see: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

 

Two radically different ways; two radically different trees, and two radically different foundations. Where are you? You say, “Well, I’m not deceived. I go to church; I do all that everyone in my church does. I’m good; you don’t need to worry about me.” God’s people Israel were deceived. Judah did not learn from Israel’s sinful fall and resulting judgment. Judah became deceived by the lure of false idols. The religious elite in Jesus’ day were deceived, as well. Now, Jesus speaks about the multitudes of people who will stand before Him on judgment day in shock and disbelief because they sincerely believed they were saved. Woe to those who lead them to believe that way, who gave them a false assurance because they said a prayer or walked an aisle. Never give someone who is doubting their salvation assurance that they are saved! Lead them back to Scripture so that they might truly examine themselves. Let God give them assurance.

 

This is why we study theology. This is why doctrine is of vital importance. What do most churches today try to do? Water down the Word and make it more tolerable for unbelievers. They start “seeker-friendly” churches while the true sheep wander searching for the bread of life. American Christianity has decided that doctrine divides; it needs to be cut out of our conversations so that we might have unity. Unity in what? Our human depravity? God help us! What has replaced theology and doctrine as the focus of the church? Songs, rock bands, strobe lights, men and women leading the music who look like the world. Oh, and do not forget that we believe our most radical form of evangelism, my cross to bear today, is to make the decision to wear a Christian tee shirt. Surely, that will save the world!!!

So, you want to tell me how you said a prayer once and that is why you believe you are saved?