AND MY PEOPLE LOVE IT THIS WAY

AND MY PEOPLE LOVE IT THIS WAY

Psalm 110:3 (KJV) — 3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Jeremiah 5:31(NKJV) — 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?

Last week we looked at the topic “I have come to do your will”

The week before we looked at the the topic “Mighty to save”

Today we continue along the same line, but with a slightly different angle

And my people love it this way, when people prefer to be lied to instead of hearing the truth

People love to

In Jeremiah Chapter 5, God challenges Jeremiah to find a single honest man on the streets of Jerusalem (5:1)

Even one such person would have been enough, according to God, to delay judgement on the city.

But of course that is another way of saying how slippery the moral life of the city had become, how extensive the sin was, how insincerity and moral corrosion had damaged the city’s children.

At first Jeremiah thought that the sin in the City was the fault of the poor. Of course, even the poor were supposed to know and keep the Law of God, but maybe they could be excused because of their poverty

So he went to look for righteous people amongst the rich and wealthy, sophisticated, the privileged, the articulate—and finds no less moral rot there than elsewhere (5:4–5)

Jeremiah 5:4–5 (NIV) — 4 I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. 5 So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.” But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds.

In those days, the prophets and Pastors would like to the people, that God will not judge them if they continue in their sinful ways

They thought God was absent, not to be seen or heard and that He was ineffective, He couldn't do anything

Jeremiah 5:12 (NLT) — 12 “They have lied about the Lord and said, ‘He won’t bother us! No disasters will come upon us. There will be no war or famine.

They also believed that the true Prophets of God were not speaking for God, that they were only speaking for themselves

Jeremiah 5:13 (NLT) — 13 God’s prophets are all windbags who don’t really speak for him. Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’ ”

So God will bring about catastrophic judgement to show his power, and he will speak to the people in the words of a foreign language (5:14–17).

Jeremiah 5:14–17 (NIV) — 14 Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty says: “Because the people have spoken these words, I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes. 15 People of Israel,” declares the Lord, “I am bringing a distant nation against you— an ancient and enduring nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you do not understand. 16 Their quivers are like an open grave; all of them are mighty warriors. 17 They will devour your harvests and food, devour your sons and daughters; they will devour your flocks and herds, devour your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.

They so much love to serve foreign gods in their own land; they will henceforth serve foreigners in a land not their own (5:19).

Jeremiah 5:19 (NIV) — 19 And when the people ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

By and large, the people have learned nothing from God’s wise and generous providential care (Jeremiah 5:24).

Equally they have learned nothing from the times when God has chastened them by depriving them of harvest (Jeremiah 5:25).

Whether he is gentle or firm, whether he is generously forbearing or promptly just, they ignore him or rebel against him. What is he to do? Sooner or later he must respond to the violence, deceit, and corruption in the coinage of punishment (Jeremiah 5:26–29).

The leaders misled the people: The prophets prophesy falsely, counterfeit a commission from heaven when they are factors for hell. Religion is never more dangerously attacked than under colour and pretence of divine revelation. But why did not the priests, who had power in their hands for that purpose, restrain these false prophets? Alas! instead of doing that they made use of them as the tools of their ambition and tyranny: The priests bear rule by their means; they supported themselves in their grandeur and wealth, their laziness and luxury, their impositions and oppressions, by the help of the false prophets and their interest in the people. Thus they were in a combination against every thing that was good, and strengthened one another’s hands in evil.

The people were well enough pleased to be so misled: “They are my people,” says God, “and should have stood up for me, and borne their testimony against the wickedness of their priests and prophets; but they love to have it so.” If the priests and prophets will let them alone in their sins, they will give them no disturbance in theirs. They love to be ridden with a loose rein, and like those rulers very well that will not restrain their lusts and those teachers that will not reprove them.

There may be hope for the people of God when their leaders call them back to faithfulness and integrity

But what do we have here? “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land

The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way

But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:31).

In the end, you all must face God

They crave such false teaching (cf. Mic. 2:6, 11; 2 Tim. 4:3–4; 2 Pet. 2:1–3), but it will destroy them when the end comes (2 Kings 17:7–23; Jeremiah 39:1–10).

2 Timothy 3:1–7 (NIV) — 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. 6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Jeremiah 8:11(NIV) — 11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.

Jeremiah 8:21(NIV) — 21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me.

Jeremiah 8:22(NIV) — 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

1 Corinthians 11:32 (NKJV) — 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Paul points to the value of ‘judging’ ourselves.

We should make a practice of distinguishing between what we are and what we ought to be.

If we truly know and understand what we are like, then we would not come under judgement

Being disciplined means that these judgements are not nameless evils, but the tokens of God’s love.

They are meant to bring us back from the wrong way, so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Hebrews 12:29 (NKJV) — 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

1 Corinthians 11:31–32 (NKJV) — 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

If you judge yourself, you shall not be judged and condemned with the world

2 Samuel 7:14 (NKJV) — 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.

Psalm 94:12 (NKJV) — 12 Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, And teach out of Your law,

Psalm 118:18 (NKJV) — 18 The Lord has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death.

Proverbs 3:11–12 (NKJV) — 11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; 12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

John 15:18–19 (NKJV) — 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

1 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV) — 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

Hebrews 12:5–10 (NKJV) — 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

Revelation 3:19 (NKJV) — 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Christian Discipleship

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Power to obey

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