Jeremiah Chapter 7:1-7

Let's take a look to see how Israel in Jeremiah's time compares to America in 2026.

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I'm reading through the book of Jeremiah presently, and I'm in uh chapter seven this morning. And as I read through chapter seven, a nation other than the nation of Israel came to my mind. And I'm going to see if you came up with the same nation as I did as I read through this, and as I state what I'm going to say, I want you to know that I'm doing it with trepidation in my heart over this twenty-first century nation. I'll be reading from the ESV, and once again this is Jeremiah chapter seven. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 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. Do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Verse five. For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. Now let me stop there before I go any farther. What the Lord is telling Jeremiah to tell the Israelites is this don't think because you go into the temple and perform various duties in there and go through motions that that by itself will protect you from the enemy. The enemy being a physical enemy, the enemy being ourselves, our own sinfulness, or even the devil. What the Lord is saying is this you guys, my chosen people, think that you can do things your way and then walk through the doors of the temple and say, Now I'm safe, I'm where the Lord dwells, and you're protected by me. You're wrong. You are desperately wrong, is what the Lord is saying. And what he says is that you have to amend your ways and your deeds. You've got to change. You can no longer oppress the sojourner or the fatherless or the widow or shed innocent blood in this place. And if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, he says, Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. God is telling these people, this land that I gave you, I can take away. And as a matter of fact, we'll take it away unless you change. What came to my mind when I read this is this we have a pile of American people that go to church on Sunday that have no idea what it means to be Jesus followers. They don't open their Bible or read it. They rest on the words of some woke or unsaved pastor to tell them if they simply follow the culture, they're going to be okay. They don't realize their own depravity, their sinful hearts, and their evil desires. They're truly not born again because their leader, the pastor of their church, isn't born again himself and doesn't see the need to be. Therefore, people do whatever they think is right. These are church going people, just like the temple going people of Jeremiah's day. They go to church and read a psalm, they sing a hymn, and then they go out and they do abominable things before the Lord. Things like murdering babies and promoting the murder of babies in the womb. They promote homosexuality, they promote adultery and fornication, they promote the things that God says are evil. And yet when they go into the church doors on Sunday morning, they think they're safe and okay. The twenty first century equivalent of what is taking place in Israel at the time of Judah is right here, right now in America. Don't oppress the sojourner, don't oppress the fatherless, the fatherless. This nation has never had more families with an absentee father than it does today. And the government supports this by paying single moms more and more money depending on the number of children they have. And the kids are the losers. They are the ones that become oppressed. Not directly, but indirectly. But it doesn't make any difference because whether it's direct or indirect, the oppression takes place. We have kids that don't do well in school, don't graduate with the ability to read and write proficiently, therefore can't get good jobs. These are kids that are desperate for leadership from a man, and since there isn't one at home, they find one out on the streets. Generally speaking, that sends them in the wrong direction. And our government stands behind all of this. And so we are oppressing the fatherless. Don't shed innocent blood in this place, in this country. We shed innocent blood over three thousand times every day in America through abortion. It is unbelievable to me that there are so many doctors and health care people I use that term loosely, and evil scientists that delight in killing a pre-born. Every person in Planned Parenthood delights in murdering human beings in the womb. Every doctor that performs an abortion, which are heinous atrocities, delights in being able to abort that child. They have chosen the path of evil. And then do not go after other gods to your own harm. And we have other gods in this nation. We have gods of wealth, we have gods of homosexuality, we have gods of murdering babies. We have gods that are evil, that are man made, man thought up. They may not be whittled in wood or carved out of stone, but nevertheless, we sacrifice to those gods in this nation each and every day. Millions of Americans sacrifice to these gods each and every day. Lying, cheating, to gain wealth, continuing to oppress the fatherless, the widow. We are going after other gods to our own harm. Verse eight goes on to say, Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say we are delivered only to go on doing all these abominations? Can you not see the truth that there is nothing new under the sun, as Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes? America is going through what Israel went through back at the time of Jeremiah. And yet we think we're safe. We need the intervention of our Lord on this nation. We need to humbly ask him to send his spirit here to change us. But I go to 2 Chronicles 7.14, and I know I've heard pastors say, well, that has to do with Israel, and I'll grant you that that's true. But will you tell me that this is not applicable to any nation who cries out to the Lord? I believe it is, and I believe it's applicable to America. And I believe if we follow 2 Chronicles 7.14 as a nation, we, by God's grace and power, can move his hand to change this nation, to once again revere him, to look to his word for truth, and by his grace have many, many, many come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Chronicles 7.14 says, if my people who are called by my name, who's that? That's those of us who are born again. We're his people, we're called by his name. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, that's our responsibility. You who are truly born again, yet still living in this world for this world, allowing the world and its desires to overtake you, we need to humble ourselves before the Lord. We need to seek his face. We need to pray, asking for forgiveness for our own sinfulness, and with his help and guidance to turn from our wicked ways. And if we do this as a nation, here's what I believe he promises the United States of America, just like he promised Israel. I will hear from heaven. Isn't that good news? Our God will not have deaf ears to his people in this land if we do what he asks us to do. And he says, I will heal your land and I will forgive your sins. Wow. Wow. If you love your country and you love Jesus and want to see this nation return to what it once was, no, never perfect. Never perfect in the past, certainly not perfect now. And even if and when we return back to him, it still won't be perfect, but it will be so much better than it is now because he will hear from heaven, he will heal our land, and he will forgive our sins. Don't you want that, Christian? We need to pray for this every single day. And when we do that, we need to be reminded of the first part of this prayer, which is we have to change ourselves. We need to be more like Jesus. We need to follow his command to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves. And yet never compromise our faith with our love. In other words, we don't just flatly love everybody and everything. No, we love according to godly, Christ-like love. What does that mean? That means that we reach out to the lost because we love them, regardless of who they presently are. Whether they're homosexual, trans people, adulterers, fornicators, sinners in any way doesn't make any difference in the way that we should respond to their need for Jesus, yet we never condone their immoral, anti-biblical behavior. We can never do that. So we need to love with a true love, which presents them with their sinfulness, their shortcomings, their fallness, with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, having died for their sins that they may be set free. That's how I looked at the first few verses of chapter seven of Jeremiah. I will continue this message as we move on through the uh balance of the verses in this book. May God humble us. May we have a desire to turn from our wicked ways, such that he hears the cries from the people of this land to forgive our sins and heal our country. In Jesus' name. Amen.