I think your Bible is with me this morning. It opens to Jeremiah chapter 7. We have in our text this morning a section of scripture that begins in verse 30 of chapter 7 and actually goes through verse 12 of chapter 8. So we're going to work through the end of chapter 7 and the beginning of chapter 8 in this section of scripture. The title of the message is, It's Not Enough to have the word. Last Sunday, as we looked at the first part, the first 29 verses of chapter 7, we learned, as Walter Kaiser said, religious attendance is no substitute for a real meeting with God. As we gather with God's people, we are meeting with God's people, not just to meet with God's people, but as God's people, to meet with God. We know he is present here. We talked about it last week. There are times that people say they feel the presence of God. Other times they say they don't feel the presence of God. What you feel doesn't matter. God is here. He's gathered with us as his people. We trust that that's the case. And we must remember that it's never enough to just say, I go to church. That was the false slogan introduced in verse 4 and verse 8 of chapter 7. The Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh. I go to church, so I don't need what you're talking about. It's enough just to go. It's not enough to go. There are some that would say, it's not enough to go, you have to be. And it's not even that we have to be the church. The point is, we are the church. And as we meet, we're here for a real meeting with God. This Sunday we're going to see in this next section of text that possession and knowledge of the word of God is not a substitute for a genuine response to it. The theme last week was that God didn't desire sacrifice. He desires obedience. If there is sacrifice is to come from a heart of obedience, a broken and contrite spirit. We're going to see now this morning it's not enough to have the word of God. We might have it. We might know it. The people actually being critiqued by the prophet are the scribes and the prophets and the priests, the peoples whose whole livelihood is spent in the word of God. And yet we find out that it's not enough for them to have the word because what really matters is what do you do with the word that you have. As he starts, he addresses the people in chapter 7 verse 30 and 31. He says, For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, declares Yahweh. They have set their detestable things in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. Verse 32 he goes on, Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be called Topheth of the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no other place. As he begins to talk about the judgment that's coming, the sure judgment that's coming on them because of their sin, he talks about the detestable things that they're doing. The first of those is that they have set up idols in the temple. You understand how bad this is. It wasn't just that they had set up high places up on the hills. They had moved idols and idol worship into the very courtyard of the temple of Yahweh. They now were worshiping idols along with God. Understand this is never a either or where I'm going to worship an idol or I'm going to worship God. They worshipped both because they thought they would worship God for the benefits that that would give them and they would worship the idols for the benefit that that would give them. It was a picking and choosing of which God is going to benefit me the most and if I want to be safe I'm going to cover all my bases and I'm going to worship everybody. Paul ran into that, didn't he? He ran into that when he found an idol to the unknown God. Just in case we missed one, we'll put an idol to the unknown God so that all our bases are spiritually covered. With this idolatry, with these idols in the temple, this is an abomination, an absolute abomination of desolation. The response in Ezekiel is that the Lord says in Ezekiel 5, so as I live, declares Lord Yahweh, surely because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare. We're going to get there next week in our reading in the Old Testament in Ezekiel, the departure of the glory of God from the temple. as God withdraws his presence from the people. In Ezekiel 8, verse 6, he said to me, son of man, are you seeing what they are doing? The great abominations which the house of Israel is doing here so that I would be far from my sanctuary. But yet you will see still greater abominations. Now, thankfully, we don't have to worry about idols, do we? We don't have to worry about idols because we don't carve things and we don't have wooden stone. Brother Vita sent me a picture this week. from a dashboard in the car that he was working with, and I promise you, it was a living illustration of the bumper sticker, Coexist. There was a statue of Mary, there was a Buddha, there were several other signs and symbols, a crystal, all on this dashboard. I don't know how they got it all to stick there, I don't know. But again, I'm going to get all my bases covered, we're just going to worship everybody for whatever benefit we can get. And I know that we look at some foreign cultures and we think they have idols. We look at some churches and think they have icons. But we don't have idols. And we don't have a temple to put them in. Well, yes we do. We're the temple. Right? We're the temple of the Holy Spirit. So if we are allowing idols in our life, we're putting idols in God's temple. First Corinthians 619 says, Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you're not your own? For us to have a heart that is an idol factory is to defile God's dwelling place, to put up idols in a place that he owns, possesses, that he's redeemed and that he's ransomed. Yes, we still have a problem with idolatry. The biggest false god that we fight and worship every day is the false god of self. What I want, my will, doing what I want, being my own god, making my own decisions, leaning on my own understanding. That is just an abomination as what they were doing in Jerusalem here. We also know that part of this was child sacrifice. They have built the high places of Topith, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command and it did not come upon my heart. This actually is a fascinating verse to me and understanding. the attributes and the character of God. We know that God is sovereign. We know that he providentially rules and reigns over all of his creation. We know that he has decreed what is to come to pass. But when we look at what is happening here, God says they built these high places. They're sacrificing, they're literally burning their sons and daughters to these idols, to worship these idols. And he said, first off, I didn't command that. Now, some would have pointed back and said, wait a minute, you told Abraham to offer Isaac. Well, the command There that was obeyed was a demonstration of faith, and Isaac didn't die. He wasn't offered. A substitute was provided, and that was the point. Jehovah-Jireh. God provides. But now these people are doing this, and he says, I didn't command it. And he says, and it did not come upon my heart. That phrase, literally, God, the Father, who knows everything, said, that never even occurred to me. God says, this is such an evil. It never even occurred to me. Now, that's a confession for God. I don't believe that means that God did not know or was not aware. I think it really is a statement of hyperbole to make the point. This is so wicked. It could be seen to the point that this is not even something that God could have foreseen. It's so wicked that they're sacrificing their sons and daughters burning them alive to these idols. The result is going to be an absolute outpouring of judgment. The end result here is the death of joy itself. He says there, Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. They're going to run out of room in the graveyards and just have to throw bodies out in this valley. People aren't even going to remember what the valley was called. It's just going to be the valley of slaughter because of the number of people who are going to die. The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beast of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a waste place. This is the coming of the death of joy and gladness. Now, what are people pursuing in this idolatry? They're pursuing joy and happiness. We've got this enshrined in our founding documents in our country, that we all have been given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, sadly, we should be pursuing holiness, and it should be holiness that makes us happy. But the world always offers a counterfeit. It always offers a substitute. I see happiness as it's seen, gladness as it's seen in the world today. This is a counterfeit for true joy. True joy can rejoice and be glad in any circumstance. True joy can rejoice and grieve at the same time. True joy can experience peace and terror at the same time. Because this joy is a rejoicing of the heart that's accompanied and comes by the help of the Holy Spirit. However, we've taken as a substitute for that happiness. And we think that if we could just laugh, if we could just take our minds off of things for a little while. Let me ask you something. Has taking your mind off of things that are going on for a little while ever really helped in the long run? Because when you come back, it's still there. Understand, we don't need to avoid the hard things. We need to walk through the hard things with Jesus, even if it's the valley of the shadow of death. He's there with us in the midst of it. We look at this, and I promise you, I love humor, I love jokes, I love some comedians, and you listen to comedy, but it struck me if you watch the counterfeits and the substitutes that our nation is offering right now. Leonard Ravenhill said it this way all the way back in the 1980s. He said the two chief false gods in America are sports and entertainment. It's where we spend all of our time, all of our money, all of our energy, all of our effort. That's where we will fight and divide a house. will wear different colors on the same day over sports and entertainment. And when you look at it, a football game looks like a worship service. Doesn't it? Somebody standing up and entertaining people so that they might laugh. That can be a ministry. There's some very funny people that really bring out reasons that we should laugh. And here's the reason we should laugh, because what they're saying is absolutely true. And we're doomed without Jesus. Nothing wrong with humor. But the goal and the purpose of our life is not just to be happy. Pastor mentioned, he said, you have to realize joy is the gift of the spirit. Happiness is based on your happenings. Happiness is determined by the circumstances you find yourself in and how you relate to those circumstances. Here, the people have sinned to the point that Jeremiah, God through Jeremiah says, the days are coming. And he uses that phrase, behold, the days are coming. Jeremiah uses that 15 times. And it is never a good day that is coming. The days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be called Topheth of the valley of the son of Phidom, but the valley of the slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no other place. The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds. You're not even going to be able to scare the birds away. Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness. Not just happiness, but even joy is going to be taken away from the people. That means a withdrawal of the glory and the spirit of God. There will be no voice of the bridegroom or voice of the bride, for the land will become a waste place. This valley piled up with bodies is going to be a monument to their sin. Screaming out to God for justice. You know, the blood of those who are slain injustly cries out to God for justice. We know the blood of Abel cried out to God. There's a lot of blood in our nation crying out to God for justice. These same sins, idolatry, and the sacrifice of our children. People say, well, Roe was overturned. Laws have changed. Do you know how many babies are still being aborted daily by doctors or by pills? Because we would rather worship and serve the God of convenience and licentiousness. We see children as a curse. And this blows my mind. A pastor said this one time, and this is so true. Do you realize the Bible speaks of debt as a curse and children as a blessing. And we think having children as a curse and having lots of debt is a blessing. We call evil good and good evil. The judgment that God is going to bring is going to result in the death of joy. There will be no blackness. There will be no reason to celebrate. The country is going to be decimated. People are going to be carried off into captivity as slaves. The temple itself is going to be destroyed. The wall to Jerusalem is going to be torn down. And the land, to say it will become a waste place. Literally, the land is going to be a dump. Only dead and rotting things. will fill the land. We look at God's response to these sins and we think, could it get any worse? Well, He's already said the abominations are going to get worse and the judgment is going to get worse in relation to that. He starts in chapter 8 in the first three verses, At that time, declares Yahweh, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes and the bones of its priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. I've titled that point in the message, Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones. Five times he refers to the bones being taken up, dug up out of the graves. And they'll spread them out to the sun and the moon and to all the hosts of heaven which they have loved, in which they have served, in which they have walked after, in which they have sought, in which they have worshipped. They will not be gathered or buried. They will be as dung on the face of the ground. Say, what in the world? Digging up bones. What's happening here? This is a desecration, a desecration of the graves around Jerusalem. The bones of all these that are listed, they're going to be dug up. This was a desecration when an enemy would come in and want to defile the land. They would dig up the kings, dig up the priest, dig up the prominent citizens and throw the remains of the bones out in the middle of the street. to say we have no regard for your people, for your history, for any of it. And equivalent to this today would be tearing down the statues in our nation. We're going to remove the markers for the reasons for remembrance and respect about where we've come from as a people. As this is done, the Bible talks about these things being a curse. We read in Second Kings 21, indeed, he rebuilt the high places, which is Manasseh, which Hezekiah his father had destroyed and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah as Ahab king of Israel had done and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. He led the people into an idolatry that is a new kind of idolatry. It is worshipping the sun, moon and the stars. This is why the bones are going to be dug up and he says laid out under the sun, the moon and the stars. What you worshipped and what you depended on is going to end up leading to your shame. In 2 Kings 23 verse 4, The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priest of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal for Asherah and for all the hosts of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. This has been happening since the time of Hezekiah and Manasseh. The kings are setting up altars to the sun, the moon, and the stars. This is astral worship. This is worshiping the creation instead of the creator. Zephaniah deals with it. Those who worship on the housetops, the host of heaven, and those who worship and swear to Yahweh and yet swear by Milcom, these are the ones upon whom this judgment is going to come. Because now they're not just worshiping God, they're worshiping the creation itself. Not only Baal, not only Asherah, but the very heavens what they see in the sky during the day and during the night. Ezekiel chapter 8 reminds us he brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh and behold at the entrance of the temple of Yahweh between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. Can you imagine going into the temple of God to worship the sun in the sky and think that God would not have any offense to these things. The shame that was going to come was that these bodies would be dug up and laid out under the idols that they had worshipped. Listen to the description there of their worship. This is idolatry. They loved, served, walked after, sought, and worshipped these things. That, I think, is a pretty good step to determine and to detect idols in our hearts. What do we love? What do we serve? What do we walk after? What do we seek? Those are the things we worship. Now, ultimately, at the end of idolatry, what we find that we're actually worshipping is our own self, our own lust, our own flesh. We're serving ourself. We're loving ourself. We're walking as we want to walk. We're seeking to serve ourself. The curse and the shame of this, I don't think we understand in our cultural context the true shame, biblically, that it would be if all of our ancestors were dug up and their remains thrown out in the streets. We would think that's gruesome. We might think it's a little stupid. They did that with Wycliffe when they burned Huss, by the way, which was this week in history. They burned Huss on July the 6th. They also then went and got his teacher, his mentor Wycliffe, who was dead, had been dead for years, dug his bones up, burned them and ground them to powder. You know, Wycliffe didn't care. He's going to get a new body at the resurrection and it doesn't matter. But they were trying to say, we're going to get you and everybody who influenced you and we're going to desecrate your bodies. Second Samuel, we read David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the open square in Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines struck down Saul and Gilboa. And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. Then they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the land of Benjamin and Zelah in the grave of Kish, his father. Thus they did all that the king commanded. And afterward, God was moved by the entreaty for the land, honoring the dead instead of shaming the dead and leaving their bones out for everyone to see. Psalm 53 verse 5 says, There they were in great dread, where no dread had fallen, for God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you. You put them to shame because God had rejected them. Isaiah 14, All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own place. But you have been cast out of your grave. like an abhorred branch, clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse. Again in Ezekiel 6, 5, I will also put the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols. I will scatter your bones all around your altars. God here is not only declaring his Godhood, he is declaring the shame of those who would worship these false gods and these idols. The things being described here, these are the covenantal curses that we read in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. In Deuteronomy 28, moreover among those nations you shall find no relief and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. But there Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life. In the morning you shall say, what would that it were evening, and in the evening you will say, would that it were morning, because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see. The coming of the judgment of God is something to behold. We're just experiencing it on a small scale, you understand that. We're just experiencing it on a small scale. You also understand from scripture that the more God's judgment increases on our land, the more the hatred and persecution of the church will escalate. Because when God judges the nation, he also prunes his church. We've just gone through that these last several years, haven't we? The pruning of the church. Now the world knows who the church is. They know because we're still here. And when judgment comes, they'll take that out on us. In Leviticus, God says, for those who may remain, I will also bring weakness into their hearts and the land of their enemies and the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them. Even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though from the sword and they will fall. A leaf will blow behind you and you think it's somebody coming to kill you and you'll flee and trip and fall. They will stumble over each other as if running for the sword from the sword, although no one is pursuing and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. you will perish among the nations and your enemy's land will consume you. So those of you who remain will rot away in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies and also in the iniquities of their fathers. They will rot away with them. These curses are serious. This judgment is serious. God says it's coming. And the reason that it's coming, more so than the idolatry and the child sacrifice, it's revealed now in verses 4 through 12. You shall say to them, thus says Yahweh, do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not turn back? Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual faithlessness? They hold fast to deceit. They refuse to return. I have given heed and heard. They have spoken what is not right. No man regretted his evil, saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course like a horse charging into the battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons, and the turtledove and the swift and the crane keep the time of their migration. But my people do not know the legal judgment of Yahweh." The description of what's happening, he says, if somebody falls, don't they get back up? I mean, isn't that initially, if you do trip and fall, you try to get back up. I have discovered something with age. I don't bounce like I used to. And there are times I fall, And it takes a wild ferret how to roll over to get back up. And then you hope there's something you can crawl over to to hold on to, to stand back up. Little kids fall, and by the time they've hit the ground, they're right back up and going. Dust themselves, and away they go. You get older, and it doesn't happen. You've heard it. I've fallen, and I can't get up. It's the truth that if you fall, you usually want to try to get up. Now, let me ask something else in relation to that. Have you reached the point in your life where you drop something and you stop and think a minute whether it's worth bending over to pick up? That's what children and dogs are for. Fetch! Pick it up! Give me! I'll tell you what, we had our in-laws live with us the last years of their lives and they had these things called reachers. I've still got them. I've got one sitting right by my spine on the couch. Little, little thing about this long, a thing that grabs. Throw the ball for the dog, the dog reaches back. I had to bend over. Pick up the ball. Here you go. conveniences. But when you fall, generally you want to get back up. When you turn away, you want to turn back. This is speaking to a willingness to get back to where you're supposed to be. If you fall, stand back up. The Bible says that's what a righteous man does. A righteous man falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked will stumble in calamity. When you turn away, you want to turn back. We've seen this. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. He says then, why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual faithlessness? They hold to deceit. They refuse to return. They are backsliding. That's the term that's used. They turn away and they don't turn back. There is no repentance. And in fact, there's a refusal to repent. I will not repent. I don't need to repent. There's no pause. There's no concern in what they've done. In fact, in verse 60 says, I've given heed and heard they've spoken what is not right. No man regretted his evil saying, what have I done? Nobody even cares to ask. They don't care that they've done evil. And if you tell them they've done evil, what did I do that was evil? A complete lack of awareness of their refusal to repent. He says there, even the birds know when to migrate. But my people have made themselves willingly ignorant of the judgment of Yahweh. This is the purpose we're going to read in a minute of the lying pen of the scribes and the lying prophets and priests. Judgment's coming. God's telling them the judgment's coming. There are multiple prophets preaching the same things to these same people. And the priests and the scribes and the prophets are saying, peace, peace, it's not going to happen. It's going to be OK. We'll get through this. We'll make it. Just keep going. Just trust God. Just do what you've been doing. There's nothing wrong. That lying spirit. that deceives the people. And understand, it's not a deception because they've been tricked. It's a deception because they don't want to believe the truth. It's a willful rejection of the truth of the word of God. What we find here, the description of greed and of lying. He says, how long can you say we're wise and the law of Yahweh is with us? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and captured. Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh. And what kind of wisdom do they have? They say, we've got the word of God. Jeremiah, you keep preaching and telling us this is what God says. But we have the word of God. The scribes that copy it and teach it and interpret it and write commentaries on it, they've told us what the Word of God is. The priests are telling us what the Word of God is. The prophets are telling us what the Word of God is. But Jeremiah, when you say what you say is the Word of God, it's not what they say is the Word of God, and we believe them, not you. Now, who actually has the Word of God here? Jeremiah the prophet, whom God said when he called him, I will give you the words to say. I will put my words in your mouth. Sealed with the authority of God himself. But what he says is contrary to what the scribes, the priests and the prophets are saying. Kaiser in his commentary says, why pretend that possessing God's word is better than obeying it? That's the point. They keep saying, I go to church and I've got God's word, so I'm OK. Now, they're going to church and worshiping idols in the temple. They're sacrificing their children to false gods. And what's being preached to them is a twisting and a misinterpretation of the word, not the true word of God. It's a lying pen from a lying scribe that's misinterpreting and misapplying scripture. Let me tell you what that sounds like today. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It sounds like it's all about you. And if you would just give to me, God will give to you. And if you don't have to give, dig down and borrow from friends and family. And God will give it back to you. It's false teaching. It is lies that are coming from the pulpit. It's the idea that we're supposed to live a purpose driven life. Listen, the purpose that's to drive us is the glory of God, not the service of self. And people will say, well, you just need 30 days or 40 days to do this and to do that to gain God's favor. I mean, they've even got now diets based on the book of Daniel. And you do this for 40 days and for 40 nights and you're supposed to do all these kinds of things for the glory of God. And you realize that you eat what you're supposed to eat for 40 days and you lose weight and then you go off the diet. What happens? The diet dies and it all comes back. We fool ourselves into these programs and into these things that we think are going to help and they are exactly what's described in Jeremiah 7 and 8. They're false slogans. They're lying pens. They're not telling us the truth. The scribes are misinterpreting what they say. Wise men are rejecting the word of Yahweh. They're put to shame and they're dismayed and they're captured because they have rejected the Word of God. That is to say, I have the Word, but I will not obey the Word. I have it. There is a powerful example of this, an illustration of this. An older lady who had asked that we bring her a Bible. Anybody who asks for a Bible, I'm taking them a Bible. She told us we got a Bible she wanted. Didn't really like the translation, but she wanted a Bible. It meant a lot to her. Now, understand, she couldn't see, she couldn't read the Bible. We wondered why she wanted the Bible. We found out when we gave her the Bible, she was so grateful she took the Bible and she put it in a drawer. Why is the Bible in the drawer? Well, I'm just going to bring that out when friends come to visit so they can see I have a Bible. So you have a Bible. But what good does it do to have the Bible? And listen, this is a curse on a lot of households in our nation. Some of you still have family Bibles, don't you? Yes. You know those Bibles that you could sink a boat with? Bible that's set on the coffee table and if it, you know, slay somebody in the spirit with that thing. We have Bibles and we've read Bibles and we've heard Scripture and some even hang Scripture up in artwork around their house. But what good is it to have it if you reject it? if you misapply it and misinterpret it. My favorite misapplication of Philippians, you know the verse, I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. My favorite misapplication of that was one time at a workplace working for Christians, thankfully, but they decided to put a scripture verse in each office and in each room and Philippians 4 ended up in the restroom. Now, you know where my sense of humor went with that. I can do all things through Christ. Taking it a little far. If we have the word, but we don't read it and strive to understand it and apply it and obey it, why have the word? Again, families have Bibles. They've heard this. They've got this in their background, but they trust that it's enough just to have it. Of course, we're a Christian family. We've got a family Bible. All our names are in there. The dates of our confirmations, our baptisms, when we got married, it's all in there. We're a Christian family. It's not enough to have the Word. We need to obey the Word. James 3, 14-16 says, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be ignorant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not coming down from above, but it's earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil practice. That's what he asked in the verse nine to reject the word of Yahweh. What kind of wisdom do they have? James just told us demonic. It's demonic wisdom to think it's just enough to have the word of God. But we reject it. We misinterpret it. We don't apply it. Here's what else this sounds like. This sounds like preachers who stand up and they say they're going to preach the word and they don't. And they might. They might use a verse as a launching off point. But then it just becomes a motivational speech. Self-help. I appreciate that there are some pastors out there now who say that they sense that they're calling us to be a life coach. be a life coach. My immediate response to that from Jesus is you're not supposed to be a life coach. If you're a pastor, you're supposed to be a death coach. Teach people to die to themselves, to take up their cross, and to follow after Him. These lying prophets and priests in verses 10 through 12, therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to new possessors, because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is greedy for gain. For the prophet, even to the priest, everyone practices lying. They heal the brokenness of the daughter of my people superficially saying peace, peace, but there is no peace. Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They certainly were not ashamed. And they did not know how to feel dishonor. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. And at the time of their punishment, they shall be brought down, says Yahweh. Judgment is coming and they're going to fall. He says here that at the heart of this is they're greedy for gain. They worship the false gods that they do for what they can get from those false gods. What they're going to get is shame and judgment. We're warned in the scripture. about being greedy for gain and about trying to use the gospel for gain. 2 Corinthians 2 17 tells us we are not like many peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. I appreciate several ministries that give away so much. As a young Bible college student, I could just barely afford books for school. Every one of the John MacArthur books that's on my bookshelf, he sent me free. He would send those out. You remember, Grace to you continues to do that. You can request books and now you can buy books. You can buy books. Yes, they'll send them to you. Ligonier does this as well. They'll say for a donation of any amount, not setting a price, not selling it. If you can help to offset the cost fine, if not, we're still going to send it to you because we're not doing this for gain. Jesus said freely you receive, freely give. We don't do this for gain. We don't do this to build ourselves up. We have to boast in the cross. We have to boast in our infirmities. We have to boast in our weakness because that's all we've got to offer. Now, what do we gain? Here is what we really do gain. When we don't peddle the word of God, we gain Christ. He has to be so much more precious to us than the things of the world. Here, the people are greedy for gain, and as a result, they practice lying. Doesn't mean it's just a one-off where they just say something that they shouldn't say. They make a habit of lying all the time about everything. I don't know about you, but have you figured out lying makes it much more difficult? Because when you lie and you continue to lie, you've got to remember what you lied about. It's just easier to tell the truth, easier to remember, easier to defend. And by the way, usually when we are lying, why are we lying? Because we fear men more than we fear God. That's a misplaced priority. So we're greedy for gain. Practicing lying, Colossians 3, 9 and 10, Paul writes to the church, says, Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices, and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. Put that away. Those who are practicing lying here have to understand the severity of the judgment that's coming. Revelation 21, 27 says, nothing defiled and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. This is the New Jerusalem. If you practice lying, you're acting in complete opposite to the very character of Jesus, who is the truth. You're serving yourself. The lie here in their preaching is a superficial healing. You have a problem and I want to heal it superficially. So I'm going to tell you something that sounds good, sounds nice and will make you feel better. Now, does feeling better actually solve any kind of a problem? Really, this is they're teaching the people to be self-deluded. I believe everything's going to be OK. Now, what they saw happen and what prevailed upon them when Babylon came was totally different than what all those false prophets had said. And even then they changed their tune. Well, yeah, I know Jeremiah said this was going to happen, but he was wrong. It's only going to be a couple of years and everything will be back to normal. Now can you imagine hearing a priest or a prophet say, it's only going to be a couple of years while you're watching the temple burn and people being killed and bodies piling up and others being kidnapped and taken off as slaves back to Nebuchadnezzar's palace. This superficial healing, it shows up in our preaching today by the application of pop psychology instead of the truth of the Word of God. I loved it that John MacArthur said this, the problem with too much preaching today is we come to the Word of God thinking we need therapy. No, we need repentance and faith. We need to die to self. We don't need self made better. We don't need self help. We need to put self to death. We need to trust that God knows what he's talking about. So many today are preaching peace, peace. It won't be that bad. So many are rejecting the word. They're telling us we can unhitch the Old Testament from the new, that we don't need it. You don't need that. You don't need the commandments of God. You just you just need Jesus. That's all. Just Jesus. Well, Jesus says otherwise. You can say peace, peace. Here's another way that sounds, by the way. That sounds like sinners who need to come under conviction so that they might be converted. And what do we tell them? God is love. Now, is that biblically true that God is love? Yes. But what does that do to help a sinner? In fact, the way we preach that, MacArthur and Sproul had a conversation about this. We tell people that God's love is unconditional. You understand that is not a biblical concept. That is not taught in the scripture that God's love is unconditional. His love is always based upon his character, his nature and his son. It's not unconditional. And what we do with this is we say God is loving, God loves you unconditionally. And what people think that means is God loves me just like I am so I can do whatever I want and I'll be fine because God loves me unconditionally. There are people that God loves. And by the way, to some extent, that is all people. God so loved the world. God, there is a general love of God for all of his creation. There is a special covenant love for his people. You also understand there are people God hates. And he tells us that he hates them. He hates the wicked. He's angry with them every day. Boy, I'm glad I'm not wicked. You mean God can hate and love at the same time? Here is the truth. We think of hate and love in emotional terms and that's what's wrong with too much preaching today. We're preaching an emotional God. We're preaching Jesus as your girlfriend. It's sappy emotionalism. Love and hate are relational terms. Love is how I choose to respond towards someone. Hate is understanding somebody is my enemy and they mean me harm. Now what does Jesus tell us to do with our enemies? They're the ones that hate you and you hate them. Hate is just that relationship of animosity. So what does Jesus say? Hate. He says love those who hate you. Love your enemies. How can I do both? Well, it's a relational term. I realize they're my enemy because they're an enemy of Christ. But I'm going to love them, which means I'm going to tell them the truth. In loving gentleness. Here's what's happening. We're being told that God is love and the most loving thing to do is to be nice. Votie Baucham said that's the new 11th commandment. Thou shalt be nice. Just be nice. Don't offend anybody. Don't upset anybody. And if you're nice to them, they'll come to you and want to know about this Jesus that you serve. No, they won't. They'll just think you're nice. Cult members can be nice. Evil wicked people can be nice. It's not about niceness. It's about bearing fruit of the Spirit. And that at times means being gentle and bold at the same time. being meek, but when you understand that the root of the word meek is strength under control. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is the power of the Spirit. When we look at what God has told us and what God expects of us, we can't preach pop psychology. We can't preach peace, peace. We can't preach God is love. We need to preach God is holy. I appreciated that too, that Leonard Ravenhill said, we have to understand that, yes, the Bible tells us God is love, but it doesn't ever tell us that God is love, love, love. But it does tell us that God is holy, holy, holy. The defining characteristic that molds all the rest of those attributes in his essence is the holiness of God. And so we need to preach and present God as holy, his word as serious and as sure and as unchanging. And the deal with the people here, were they ashamed because of the abominations they had done? They certainly were not ashamed. And they did not know how to feel dishonor. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down, says Yahweh. These people don't even have shame. They don't even know how to feel dishonor. That looks like our country today, doesn't it? No shame. No dishonor. How serious is it? Let's apply it to what happened this week. Let's apply it to what happened yesterday. Don't spend too much time reading the comment section online. You want to see depravity? People cheering that a presidential candidate was shot? People lamenting that the bullet missed by an inch. It's wickedness. We're in a battle, good versus evil. This is the reality. It's a spiritual reality that works its way out in the way we live. And we live in a nation that worships idols, that offers their children as sacrifices to false gods, that has no shame and no dishonor. So what do we do? We thank God that he has given his word to our country. But Pastor, a friend of mine and I were talking at breakfast this week, and he said it's amazing in apologetic and evangelistic conversations how many people know of the Bible, but they have no idea what it says. And you think, well, we're a Christian nation. Everybody knows. No, they don't. They don't know what the Bible says. We have to know that they don't know. That's why we see this wickedness exhibited. That's why there is no shame and no dishonor, because God gave us his word. And as a nation, we've rejected it. We've twisted it. We've misapplied it. And we refuse to preach it. It is not enough to have the word of God. And this is where the politicians had better be careful, because for as often as they quote the scripture, if they're not living it and obeying it, they're going to give an account before Almighty God for the misuse of his word. We have to have the word. know the word, memorize the word, live in the word, eat, drink and breathe the word. And ultimately, that means we need to do the word. This is James chapter one. Therefore, laying aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in gentleness, receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls, but become doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. Look into the word. See what it shows you about God. See what it reveals to you about Christ. Ask the spirit to illumine your mind so that you might understand it and then look to see what it tells you about yourself. And what it shows us. Will give us the instructions for where to repent and where to rejoice, where to confess and where to worship. Take the word, love the word and do the word. The problem here so far in Jeremiah 7 and 8, the people were backsliding because the scribes were misinterpreting the word. The wise men were rejecting the word. The people were lying about the word. And they were saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. We have the word, but that's not enough. We must obey the word. We say it this morning, didn't we? Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Let's pray together. Father, how we do thank you for your word, for all that you have given to us by preserving these 66 books into one book, this book that is active and alive, that cannot be bound. that is infallible, inerrant, inspired, and sufficient. We thank you that all of these things are true because ultimately this written word that you've given to us is a physical representation for us of the living word, who is Jesus, our savior and our king. Yes, we look into his word, not so that in it we might find, how do we say this, that in it we might find him. The word testifies of him. As his name is exalted, as he is lifted up, we see our depravity and our sinfulness as individuals and as a nation. Father, we pray for our nation, the turmoil in our land. It is here because you are judging us for these very things that were preached to those in Judah, in Jerusalem, the abominations of idolatry in your temple. as your people commit spiritual adultery, the sacrifice of the unborn and of children to the gods of convenience and sexual freedom. Father, when we look at the misuse and the misapplication of your word, the pens of lying scribes, the preaching of lying prophets and priests, we see so much to lament. And yet we praise you that you are still on the throne. You have still preserved a remnant. And yes, what a privilege of grace to see your word and be able to read it and understand it. Father, I pray this morning that we would not take that for granted, to be able to open the pages of the Bible, read what you've said and understand it. Then by the help of the spirit, we pray that you would motivate us and we would motivate one another to do what we've heard, to repent where it's needed, To believe where it's needed. To confess where it's needed. Always to seek to do what you've told us to do. Father, we also thank you that our obedience does not progress us in any way in our salvation. Our obedience is simply proof that you have saved us. That the faith that you've given to us is a faith that works. And so those good works are your doing, not ours. You prepared them for us beforehand that we might walk in them. We pray that in this coming week, in answering questions about the wickedness of the world and seeing possibly more political violence, riots and protests, we pray that we would look to the ruling and reigning Christ and point others to turn their eyes upon Jesus. Do this through your church, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.