I want us to camp out this evening,
friends, in the Word of God from the
Book of Jeremiah.
And there's some deep truths I'd like to
share with us this evening from God's Word.
Turn in your Bibles, friends, to the Book
of Jeremiah.
We will be in chapter 17.
Allow me to read us verses 7 and
8.
Here now is the Word of God, and
may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased
to attend the reading of His Holy Word.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the
Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
Let me pause here, friends, while there'll be
an abundant satisfaction to all those who make
God their confidence.
And listen to the following wonderful promises from
the rest of our text.
For he shall be as a tree planted
by the waters, and that spreadeth out her
roots by the river, and shall not see
when heat cometh.
But her leaves shall be green, and shall
not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
And we see in this text positive promises
of God to those who repose by faith
in Him, and place their trust and hope
solely in Him, and none other.
And all these positive promises are true, friends.
I can promise you that.
But all such promises are enhanced when they
are contrasted with the rest of the passage,
which I failed to read you.
I fear most pastors today fail to tell
you the truth about God.
I'll explain in a minute.
This passage of Jeremiah actually begins in verse
5, and in verses 5 and 6, which
precede verses 7 and 8, which I just
read you, which only speak of the positive
promises of God.
But God has two sides.
God is a God of mercy, and He
is a God of justice.
The majority of churches hide this side of
God from you because they know most of
you don't read your Bibles anyhow.
You rely on others to tell you about
what the Bible says instead of studying it
yourself.
Listen to the negative promises of God, which
stand alongside the positive promises of God.
Listen to these promises from God in verses
5 and 6.
Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in
the desert, and shall not see when good
cometh, but shall inhabit the places in the
wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited.
We have placed too much emphasis today, friends,
on only the positive promises of God in
order to grow our churches as quickly as
we can, so we can build our empires
of brick and mortar while we traffic in
the souls of man.
Why, if we started preaching the truth, it
would run off the good deacons.
This text declares the curses of God upon
any man, any pastor, any church, any denomination
that trusts in man and the arm of
the flesh.
This sums up most churches today that operate
on money and manpower to get the job
done, whereas in times past churches lived on
their knees and leaned on the Holy Ghost
for power.
Therefore, I believe many Christians, many pastors, many
churches, and many denominations are cursed today by
the living God of the Bible.
They have no authority with man, no influence
upon society, and no presence of God in
their midst.
Rather, they lie under a divine judgment.
They are cursed.
Many won't tell you the truth about God
because they need to pay the expenses to
maintain their church campus.
I used to go to a Baptist church
that spent $80,000 a year on donut
holes for its members.
You'd be shocked, friends, at the expenses in
the budget of megachurches today.
And the main reason why most pastors will
fail to tell you the truth about God
is because if they did, it would upset
you, and they would lose paying members to
their country club that they call church.
The second reason why many pastors will fail
to tell you the truth about God is
that they don't worship the God of the
Bible, but only a God of their imagination.
But their God would never send anyone to
hell and punish them eternally for sin.
If we'd be honest with folks and tell
them the truth about the real God of
the Bible, the God who has two hands
of mercy and justice, we would do folks
a favor by pointing them to the Christ
of the Gospels, who has rights and claims
upon his followers.
That right smack dab in the middle of
the gospel is a bloody cross on which
the Prince of Glory died, and that a
crucified Christ must have crucified followers.
But I believe America is ignorant of the
God of the Bible today because the church
quit preaching about him years ago when they
decided to expand.
Expand their campuses.
I also believe, friends, that a great judgment
is getting ready to befall this nation, and
America will soon see a side of God
they are quite unfamiliar with.
Our passage from Jeremiah, when honestly expounded, speaks
of both the negative and positive promises of
God.
A parallel passage is found in Deuteronomy chapter
28, which also speaks of the blessings of
God who he'll bring upon his obedient and
faithful people.
And then it speaks of the curses God
will bring upon his chosen people when they
refuse to walk in total obedience to all
his commandments and requirements.
The Jews were God's chosen people, but they
turned away from God in their daily living
and walked falsely in the arm of the
flesh, and they fell under his curses.
Today, as we as a nation have legislated
God right out of this country, and we
as a people of God in our churches
preach mainly about a God that merely exists
in our imagination, if Israel violated God and
fell under his curses, why do we foolishly
believe that we are immune, that we as
a people of God can violate him and
his word and avoid the same divine justice?
May God have mercy on us all.
Let us pray.