Do you get frustrated when you watch people manipulate others with their words, when you know that they are lying, when you know that they are saying what the people want to hear, when they.re tickling their ears and you know that they cannot deliver?
Or you know that when the time comes, when the politician gets into office or whatever ,he.s not going to deliver? He.s simply using deceptive words, and it.s like the people follow him.
What are we gonna do? We.ll talk about it today.
I do not know about you, but I hate being deceived. I want to know truth. I want to do truth. I want to live truth. I don.t always do it, but it is the driving desire of my life to hold to the integrity of the Word of God and to walk truthfully before others. And I want you to know that there is that tendency inside and I battle it and you battle it. You want to save your skin. You want to not look bad, and so you don.t always do truth. You cover it up. We.re talking about deception.
All this week we.re gonna look at what happens when people are deceived, when they think, “Hey, everything.s all right because I.ve got the temple of the Lord. I.m a member of the church, you know?” But you.re not all right if you.re not living like a member of the church ought to live.
Let.s go back to Jeremiah chapter 7.
And he is talking about these people trusting in deceptive words, saying “„…the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD..” (Jeremiah 7:4) He says, [“Listen, listen to Me. Do you remember what I did at Shiloh? Do you remember the tent that was there? Do you remember how I brought that down too?] (PARAPHRASE, Jeremiah 7:12-13)
Do you remember in 1 Samuel? Do you remember how there was sin the camp, and because there was sin in the camp and the enemy was coming against you that I let the Philistines capture the ark of the covenant because you were trusting in the ark of the covenant and you thought that the ark of the covenant could cover your unrighteousness?” (See 1 Samuel 4:17)
You want to write these Scriptures down and go look at them. Put them in the margin of your Bible if they.re not there already. But in verse 12 He says, “„But now go to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people…..” (Jeremiah 7:12)
Well if you and I were to go to Shiloh there.s nothing there. There.s just some rocks. That.s all that is left in Shiloh, because God judged. Listen to what He says. “„And now, because you have done all these things,. declares the LORD, „…I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear…I called…but you did not answer..” (Jeremiah 7:13) So look. Go look at Shiloh.
Now these are the scriptures I want you to write down Joshua 18:1 because that tells you that that.s where the tent of meeting, the tabernacle was ah, erected. Then in Judges 18:31, I want us to go there because you find them having a false god there. In Judges chapter 18, verse 31 the tribe of Dan has got a false god. And so in verse 31 it says,
“So they set up for themselves Micah.s graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.” (Judges 18:31) So instead of leaving Dan, which was up north and going down to Shiloh to worship, they just turned to their false god.
That upset God.
All right, then the next place that you see it is 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 3 where Elkanah is going with his wife Hannah to make the sacrifices at Shiloh and Hannah.s the one that gives birth to Samuel. Then you look at 1 Samuel chapter 4, verses 3-4, and let.s go to that because I want you to see that. In chapter 4 in verses 3 to 4, it says, “When the people came into the camp…,” and this is because they have lost the battle. The Philistines are spread out against the Israelites in a battle. And Israel is defeated by the Philistines, by the enemy. And so “[When the people came into the camp,] the elders of Israel said, „Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh…,.” from the tabernacle, “„…the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.. So the people sent to Shiloh…from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of [the LORD].” (1 Samuel 4:3-4)
Now listen, these guys are scoundrels. These guys are grabbing the best of the meat, and they.re eating it. And they.re eating the fat, and the fat belongs to the Lord when the people bring their sacrifices. (See 1 Samuel 2:12-16) These guys are sleeping with the women when they come to the house of worship. They.re sleeping with them. (See 1 Samuel 2:22)
I mean you.ve heard about it. You.ve heard about pastors that have seduced, and priests that have seduced, and it.s made you mad. And you look at the wounds of the people afterwards.
And so then it says, “As the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted….” (1 Samuel 4:5) It.s there. The Philistines thought “Oh, we.re not gonna make it now because the ark of the Lord is there.” What they didn.t know was the ark of the Lord
might have been there, but these people were not worshipping God as they should have worshiped Him.
And so consequently, what you read in chapter 5 of 1 Samuel is, “Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.” (1 Samuel 5:1) And they put the ark of God in their temple, and their gods fall over. (See 1 Samuel 5:2-4)
What.s happening? They are trusting in deceptive words. They.re treating their religion, their worship as the sure guarantee that God.s got to be with them, and they.re not living righteously. Oh, doesn.t it make you want to examine your life?
So watch what God says. He says in verse 15 of chapter 7, “„I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim..” (Jeremiah 7:15) What is He saying? As I got rid of the Northern Kingdom, as I sent them into captivity under the Assyrians is what He.s referring to. He says, “„[As for you, I will cast them out as I.ve cast out your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.] As for you, [don.t] pray for this people…..” (Jeremiah 7:15-16)
He turns to Jeremiah and He says, “Jeremiah, don.t pray for these people. Don.t cry for these people Jeremiah.” Why? Because God, as we saw in verse 24 of chapter 9, God is a God of lovingkindness, yes. But He is a God of justice and He is a God of righteousness and His justice demands that sin be punished. His righteousness requires His justice.
And so He.s saying, “„[Don.t pray for these people. Don.t] lift up [or] cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you..” I.m not going to hear you. Don.t pray for these people. And then He says, “„[Don.t] you…see what [they.re] doing…?.” Look at them, “„…in the streets of Jerusalem..” Look at what they.re doing. He says, “„The children gather wood…the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes [to] the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me..” (Jeremiah 7:16-18)
He says, “Look at what these people are doing. These are My people. And they.re all gathering together, and they.re making bread cakes to the queen of heaven.” Now you know
why I remember this verse so well?
I remember it because a big time Christian communicator that.s all over Christian television. And he was teaching one day, teaching, I put quotes around it. And he was teaching something that was heresy. It was not according to the Word of God. It was a revelation that he had. And this man was teaching if you want the anointing of God then you.ve got to have a leader. Now what does that imply?
That implies that you.re not a priest unto God, that the only way that you can get a blessing is to have a leader, and how about him?
So he says, “Listen, let me show you this.” So he runs some Scriptures. One of the Scriptures was this, “„The children gather [the] wood…the fathers kindle the fire…..” (Jeremiah 7:18) “See, see if you want a fire kindled, if you want the fire of God in your life then it.s the fathers that kindle it. The children can only gather the wood. The fathers have to kindle it.” I just died. I thought, “You have deceived these people. You have taken the precious Word of God, and you have distorted it in order to make your point. And your point is in order to get the people to follow you.”
It broke my heart. And He says, “„Do they spite Me?. declares the LORD. „Is it not themselves [that] they spite, to their own shame?.” (Jeremiah 7:19)
Now listen, listen to me very carefully. When you are deceived, and you follow deception, deception is going to result in shame. And this is what you see, and you.re gonna see the word again. You.re gonna see “shame, shame, shame”. You.re gonna see them in chapter 9 wailing because of their shame, because deception leads to a lie, and a lie leads to destruction, and that leads to shame.
And what you.re gonna see is okay, this is shame because you were not ashamed of what you were doing. Precious One, Precious One, when anybody gets on television and they have done what is wrong, and they don.t talk about how it wounds the heart of God, how it goes against the holiness of God, and they don.t name it as sin, then you.re listening to the wrong person. God is a holy a God. We.ll talk about it more in just a minute.
We.re talking about deception and as you can tell, I am all fired up. Welcome back, Beloved. I.m fired up because I want you to understand the end of deception. The end of deception is your shame. The end of deception is also the judgment of God. Because you see, lies have to be exposed. You cannot live a lie, and not reap the consequences.
Just remember that. Listen to me carefully, “„…be [ye] sure your sin will find you out..” (Numbers 32:23) You cannot live a lie and get away with it. It will be exposed. I mean all you have to do is watch the news. All you have to do is see how God brings down one political figure after another or one athlete after another as all of a sudden their secret life is being exposed. Or all of a sudden these people that were heroes to others are now smoking marijuana, or they.re getting drunk, or they.re picked up on drunk driving. It brings shame.
Those people are deceived. They think that this is the way to live. God goes on to say, “Therefore thus says the Lord…,” and I.m in Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 20. “…[Says the Lord] GOD, „Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place…..” I.m gonna pour out My anger. I.m gonna pour out My wrath on this place, on Jerusalem, on the temple of the Lord. Do you know why? I.m going to pour it out “„…on man and…beast and…trees of the field…on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and [it won.t] be quenched..” (Jeremiah 7:20) His wrath is like one of those fires that all of a sudden takes course and just moves and devours acres and acres of wildlife and green and that. This is what God is saying. Why does God have to do this?
Because God is righteous. Because God is just. You say, “But I thought He was love.” Yes He is, but He.s never just love alone. And love desires your highest good. And if love desires your highest good then, Beloved, what you have to know, and what you have to understand is that if love desires your highest good He can.t continue to let you walk in deception because deception leads to shame and destruction. And so this is what He says. Listen to what He goes on to say.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, „Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh..” He says, “„…I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices..” (Jeremiah 7:21-22) When I got ready to deliver them out of the land of Egypt I didn.t say, “OK, now I.m God, and these are the sacrifices I want, and these are the burnt offerings I want.”
No, God said, “Obey Me.” God said, “Obey Me.” And this is a key word. And I circle “obey” with a blue fine point pen. And it.s a blue circle. It.s, it.s “did not obey” I put a slash through it. Now watch what He says. “„[This is My commandment,] …this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way [that] I [have] command you…,”.” He says, and “„“…it [will] be well with you.”.”
He says, “„Yet they did not obey…,.” blue circle with a slash. “„…[They did not obey they did not] incline their ear…,.” He says to listen to Him. They “„…walked [after] their…counsels…..” (Jeremiah 7:23-24)
They weren.t listening to God, because see if you reject truth you.re gonna believe something. Everybody has to believe something. So many times we set our own standards. You can find some mighty mean, cruel people because they have a twisted thinking because of the mean and cruel things that were done to them.
And so He goes on to say, “„Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but [they] walked [after] their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their…heart, [they] went backward…..” That.s right. They went backward. When you start going backward instead of forward what are you gonna do? You.re gonna fall. You.re gonna fall.
He says “„Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them..” (Jeremiah 7:24-25)
I would get up early, is what He.s saying. Now He never goes to sleep. He doesn.t slumber. He doesn.t sleep. (See Psalms 121:4) But it.s like okay, I.ve got to get the message out.
Send them My prophet. Send them Hosea. Send them Naham. Send them Micah. “…What does [God] require of you but to do justice…to [live righteously, etc.]….” (Micah 6:8) I sent My prophets. I would send them early to you, early. A long time ago I was sending you prophets telling you what.s about to come on you. It.s so bad that I.m telling Jeremiah he can.t pray for you because it.s so bad because you.ve crossed the line.
And then He says, “„Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but [they] stiffened their neck; [and] they did more evil than their fathers..” (Jeremiah 7:26) In other words, the sin just got worse and worse.
And if you study the history of the United States of America that.s exactly what you see. I cannot believe, I can absolutely cannot believe what is happening in our country. I cannot believe even the things that were submitted to the Super Bowl in 2009, to be on the Super Bowl. And they were absolute pornography, absolute pornography.
He says, “„You shall speak all these words to them…,.” and He.s talking to Jeremiah, “„…but they will not listen to you…..” Now remember we.re marking “listen” with a green ear. And if it.s “not listen” we.re putting a slash through there. “„…You shall call to them, but they will not answer you..” (Jeremiah 7:27)
Speaking of calling, if you haven.t gotten our free download study guide, if you have not contacted us, go to “preceptsforlife.com;” “preceptsforlife.com” and communicate with us.
So He says, “„…You shall call…them, but they will not answer you..” He.s talking to Jeremiah. “„You shall say to them, “This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.”.”
Now I told you in our last weeks. lesson that that truth is faithfulness. There.s no faithfulness. He says, “„“Cut off your hair and cast it away…take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath...” (Jeremiah 7:27-29)
In other words you are a people that are going to experience My wrath. I.ve been speaking to your fathers. I.ve been speaking, and speaking, and speaking and now it.s over.
It.s over. You.re going to experience My wrath because you.ve gotten nothing but worse and worse and worse.
“„For the sons of Judah have done [what] is evil in My sight,. declares the LORD, „they have set [up] their detestable things in the house which is called by My name…..” They have put the statues to the sun gods. They have put the Asherah pole in there. He says, “„…to defile it. They have built…high places [to] Topheth, which is in the valley of…Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind..” (Jeremiah 7:30-31) They.re offering their children to false gods. We.ll talk about it in our next program.
