Good day Saints in Christ Jesus. You are all welcome to another new day. Glory to God for the gift of life.
Here is Part 496 of our series of studying and understanding the Bible, titled:
Stop Being A Hypocrite God Wants To Make You Righteous
Jeremiah Chapter 5 is our focus for today.
In this chapter, Prophet Jeremiah describes the sin of Jerusalem using two categories of people, which we can also find in our dispensation today:
1. Those who are ignorant and do not know what they are doing, and they keep on offending God in the process. Let’s see how Jeremiah describes them…
Jer. 5:4 Then I thought, “These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don’t know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do.
2. Those who are learned and know what is required of them to do by God and have refused to do it, but keeps pretending to serve God, while their hearts are far away from God. That’s hypocritical.
Category number 1 people are easy to convert. Their problem is simply ignorance. All they require, is to be fed with the right Gospel and their eyes of understanding will open.
On the contrary, category 2 people are very difficult to deal with because they behave like the Pharisees. They prove to know God but are busy offending God and they keep preventing people from having direct access to God. Their own problem is a deliberate rejection of God grace. What they need is serious prayers and feeding them with the truth of God’s Word. Let’s see how Jeremiah describes them…
Jer. 5:5 (GNT) I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely, they know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do.” But all of them have rejected the LORD’s authority and refuse to obey him.
Jesus said something about them in the Gospel. They didn’t want to enter the Kingdom and they were also preventing those who should enter from entering. They’re all hypocrites!
Matt. 23:13 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, and you yourselves don’t go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter!
In our dispensation today, we have people like that in churches, in politics, in academics, and in marketplaces. They want to be recognized. They want to be worshipped and at the same time preventing people who are making attempt to progress, to get a chance.
Therefore, it became a huge challenge for Prophet Jeremiah to convince them. They engage in all forms of atrocities and disgusting behaviours. They denied God and concluded they had nothing to do with God. They debunked Jeremiah’s prophecies about the impending calamities.
They claimed they needed no help that they could take care of themselves. They claimed there was nothing like war or famine coming that it’s all lies. In fact, they claimed the Prophets of God are nothing, but windbags and that they have no message from the Lord. You will find all these things recorded in verses 12 -29.
And all these behaviours have prevented them from seeing the good things that God has done for them.
24 You never thought to honour me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year.
25 Instead, your sins have kept these good things from you.
Nevertheless, God promised to empower His Word in Jeremiah’s mouth in so much that when he speaks, the Word of God would come out like fire to burn their hearts. (verses 13-14).
Right now, religion in the western world is losing ground fast and has declined greatly. The reason that is happening is very simple:
It’s because many religious leaders have for many decades failed to present God in good light to the people. Instead, they have been manipulating and defiling those they are supposed to care for spiritually. The shepherds ended up slaughtering the sheep.
To make matters worse, many places of worship have been deserted and converted to either circus houses or skateboard training houses.
Some of these people claimed God does not exist, while some claimed they know God exists and they have no doubt about it, but they no longer believe in religion and that this has not affected their relationship with God.
Dear reader, which group do you belong to? Even though you no longer believe in religion, which is fine and of course Jesus Christ did not preach or teach religion, but His message was and is still about The Kingdom of God which cannot be obtained by religion, but by faith in the finished work of Christ. Religion is a make-believe to subjugate the masses.
Now, the question is: Do you still believe in God? Do you still believe in Christ, our Messiah? Do you still believe that He is the Son of God, who died and resurrected to take away your sins and the sins of the world? Do you still believe He is coming again to judge the world and put an end to all these miseries happening in the world today?
If yes, congratulations and please, keep on growing in the Lord through proper study of God’s Word and prayers in order to maintain your relationship with God and with the entire humanity that He created. Let Love lead always.
Don’t be like those in Jerusalem that Jeremiah was talking to who have forsaken God and have refused to come back to God. Hypocrisy is terrible and it kills. Let your yes be yes to the Lord and your no be no to the devil.
To be continued…stay blessed in Christ now and always.
Let us pray:
- To all of you reading this message, I declare you will not lose your fervour and passion for the things of God and in any way the devil may want to put your family under siege and demonic surveillance in order to weaken you spiritually, I declare your spiritual antenna be activated right now and I declare you victorious always, in Jesus name.
- Remember, believer’s prayer life is a major area that the devil is looking for a way to pull down in order to wreak havoc, but I declare, he wont be able to get you or any member of your family and you will continue to remain fired up for the Lord, in Jesus name.
- God told Jeremiah He would make His Word like fire in his mouth. I declare, the Lord God will make His Word like fire in your mouth and as you study and speak the Word, it will unleash mayhem upon the devil and his cohorts, especially those that have been interfering in your affair in one way or the other. You will subjugate them all, in Jesus name.
Bible Readings For Today: 2 Chronicles Chapters 12, 13, 14 & 15 with Psalm 104:24-35.
I call you blessed now and always.
Thursday August 6, 2020 (DDMI)
