The actions of our lives and the attitudes of our hearts are of greater value and importance than the words we speak. It is one thing to say something truthful and affirming about the greatness of God and the worth of people, but it something all together different to live in a way consistent with the words.
God gets frustrated with people who are "all talk."
Through the prophet Jeremiah God told the people going to the temple to worship to stop talking about their faith and start living it. These people would in essence go to church, but their religious activity didn't impact their true beliefs. Their behavior proved that the did not truly believe. So God told Jeremiah to “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “ ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”(Jeremiah 7:2-4).
These people talked a big game, but they didn't live it.
In Jesus' day the same thing was happening. The religious leaders knew the prophecies and the stories about the power of God, but lived as though they weren't true. They could teach the Pentateuch frontwards and backwards and follow "their" rules like nobody's business, but they didn't obey the Father.
Jesus explains with an extraordinary story and striking statement that the most sinful people of the day were ahead of these religious leaders.
Matthew 21:28-32 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ 29“ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. 31“Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
The "sinners" at first said, "no thanks God, I'm good." But then changed their minds and sought to honor the will of the Father. The "religious" said, "Yes, Lord. Amen. Praise and Glory!" But they never actually obeyed and loved God and people.
In our day and in our nation we have Christian bookstores, Christian radio, Christian television, and churches all over the place and yet my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, actually declined in influence this year. The light is getting dim and the darkness is on the move. There are many who claim Christ, but what is the impact.
Is the ministry of Jeremiah and the story of Jesus something for the church today?
1 comment:
Yes. From the forest itself comes the handle for the axe.
Psalm 144-Of David.
1. Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
We must chop down our enemies:
complacency,the temptations to make our home in the temporal,to absorb western culture that is becoming increasingly anti-Christ. The Satanic church's banner is "indulge yourself". Our modern culture's banner is shockingly similar. There is an individual and corporate need to filter, fight, and chop them down. It's time to be like Eleazar the son of Dodo who smote the Philistines until his hand clave unto his sword. (2 Samuel 23:1-39)
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