When Worship Becomes Worthless
Jeremiah 7:1-15
Hypocrites are people who pretend to be something they are not. Other similar terms are fakes, frauds, phonies, imposters, or even actors because actors pretend to be something they aren’t as a matter of their profession. However, actors pretend for our amusement. We all know, or we should know, that they are not the people they portray in the movie, skit, TV show, or play. The others, the hypocrites, the phonies, the fakes and frauds, they put on their show for their own benefit, the promotion of their agenda.
And this is pretty much the theme of our text today in Jeremiah chapter 7. Like many in our churches today, the rulers, the religious leaders, and the people of Jeremiah’s day were putting on a front. They were claiming to know the Lord, they attended temple worship, they offered sacrifices and offerings, but when they left the temple, they lived however they wanted. They didn’t truly follow the Lord by walking in obedience to His commands, and they didn’t live righteously. They were disobedient, ignored God when convenient, followed after other false gods. Their hearts were far from the God of their fathers.
About 114 years before Jeremiah preached this sermon in Jerusalem, the Northern Kingdom had been conquered by Assyria and carried off into captivity. Only the Southern Kingdom was left, and they were on a downward spiral toward apostasy just like the Northern Kingdom had been. In Jeremiah’s time, Assyria had fallen, Babylon and Egypt were vying for power. Each wanted to become the next superpower, and Judah was right smack in the middle of them.
1. The Illusion of Religious Security
Jer 7:1-4 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, [2] "Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house and proclaim there this word and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!'" [3] Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. [4] "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'
Judah’s faith in God had been falling for a long time. They would have spurts of revival and renewal, but the downward trend was relentless. Things had gotten to the point where false gods had been set up right inside the temple compound and the people would come to offer their sacrifices to both God and the false gods. The predominant view of the leaders, priests, and (false) prophets was that Jehovah God would never judge them or the temple. They believed that since this was God’s house and Jerusalem was His beloved city, that He would not allow any harm or destruction to come. This house bears His name, so this city and this temple were safe.
This is why God sent Jeremiah to stand in the gate of the temple entrance and warn them that this was false. The gate was where the most people would hear his message, and he probably preached this sermon during one of the mandatory festivals where all the men were required to attend. This first point of his sermon struck at the very heart of the people’s problem: they were trusting in the temple (or the church) and their worship to save them. And friends, this is just as much a problem today as it was back then. These “religious” people attended faithfully, but they would not truly repent of their sins and change their ways by obeying God’s commandments. They were trusting in the false idea that God would accept, bless, and protect them because they were faithful in their worship. But Jeremiah’s message was direct and on point.
The people had to repent of their sins in order to continue living in the promised land. The privilege of living in Israel was conditional, and there would be no exceptions. That condition was obedience. They had to obey God, keep His commandments, and live righteous lives. It didn’t matter if they were descendants of Abraham. The fact that they were the inheritors of the promised land and citizens of the nation that God had promised David would be established forever meant nothing if they were rebellious against God. They may have been delivered over and over again down through the centuries, if they didn’t live in obedience to God’s commandments and be the people that He separated them out to be, then His punishment, His judgment was coming.
God told them to Jer 7:3-4 …"Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. [4] "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' They had to change their ways in order to continue to live in the land or the land would spew them out. Their false prophets and priests had lied to them. God wouldn’t save them because of the temple or their worship practices. Those were the practices of external religion and rituals. They could never save them. They could never save anyone. The temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord. Their worship appears to be nothing more than mantra, a lucky charm, or a magic spell to ward off evil.
Going to church. Attending worship while living a sinful life does not secure God’s favor. As a matter of fact, God considers that as sinful. He has always held inner spiritual reality to be greater than the outward form. You may have walked down the aisle, prayed a prayer, come to church every week, put money into the offering plate, but unless there has been a changed heart, unless your life is marked with obedience to God’s word and faithfully following after the Son of God, none of it matters. Like Jesus told Nicodemus, Jhn 3:7 …'You must be born again.'
External rituals and forms of worship have no saving power. A temple, this church building exists only as a place to worship God. We come to church to worship and to learn how to live more righteous lives for the Lord. In this place we can also become stronger witnesses for the Lord and gain strength through our fellowship with others of like faith. But our salvation, our peace, our security isn’t in a structure of lumber, brick and mortar. Our salvation, our peace, our security is by the grace of God through faith in the Son of God who gave His life for us.
Eph 2:8-9. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Friends, offerings, sacrifice, prayer, singing, and many other things we do in worship have their place and are acceptable to God IF we are walking in obedience and living godly lives. Remember, Samuel asked Saul 1Sa 15:22 …Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.
God wants His people to turn away from any Illusion of Religious Security and He reaches out to us with…
2. The Call to Genuine Repentance
Jer 7:5-7 "For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, [6] if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, [7] then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
Repentance is far more than just sorrow for things you’ve done or the life you’ve lived. True repentance is always physically demonstrated in such a fashion that it can be seen by others. Amending your ways and actions requires ethical behavior, justice, mercy, and a changed life with a changed focus. This is what the word, repentance, actually means…to change directions, strongly implying a change from evil and wicked ways to good and righteous ways. Repentance is in essence, an about face.
God cares about His people’s attitudes toward justice and judgment. This idea that some have that God doesn’t care what you do in the flesh, so long as you believe in Jesus, is completely wrong. He is greatly concerned about how we act in this life, and how we treat others—this is why He gave us his Law! He gave us a guide to basic and acceptable human behavior toward our neighbor and toward Himself. He is not merely interested in outward religious rituals, but a complete behavioral transformation. Justice and righteousness, dealing fairly and refraining from oppressing the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, and not shedding innocent blood, these are all foundational moral and ethical requirements of the Mosaic Law, and they reflect God’s concern for the innocent and vulnerable.
You see, God had seen how Judah had become corrupt, and the weak and defenseless in society were oppressed instead of being helped. Apparently innocent blood was shed “in this place” which probably means within the temple itself since that is where Jeremiah was preaching his sermon. It could be a reference to the prophet and priest Zechariah who was stoned in the temple courtyard at the command of Joash, the king who grew up in the same household and raised by the same father, because he was calling on Joash to repent and turn back to the Lord. Friends, whenever a person or a society turns away from God, the only possible outcome is wickedness, corruption and oppression. Remove light and what you have left if darkness. Remove righteousness, and what’s left is evil and wickedness. This is why God called the people of Judah, and He calls us today to amend our ways, turn away from our sin, and practice justice and righteousness.
God wants His people to live in the light, not darkness. If His people would truly repent, if they would change directions and obey God, He would fulfill His promise to them. They would inherit the land He had given to their forefathers as an eternal possession, and they would live in peace.
Beloved, do not be fooled by The Illusion of Religious Security. Religious rituals and forms of service will not save anyone, only faith in Jesus can do that. Also, pay attention to His Call to Genuine Repentance, because it is not only the first step in our walk toward true righteousness and genuine worship, but in doing so we can also avoid suffering…
3. The Consequences of Hollow Worship
Jer 7:8-15 "Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. [9] "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, [10] then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered!'—that you may do all these abominations? [11] "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the LORD. [12] "But go now 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 Israel. [13] "And now, because you have done all these things," declares the LORD, "and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, [14] therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. [15] "I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.
Hypocrisy comes in all shapes and sizes, but in my opinion, the greatest, or maybe I should say the worse form of hypocrisy we can have is our hypocrisy toward God and our faith because we simply cannot fool God. We still try, but we will always fail in our efforts to fool the One who shaped our heart and gave us our souls. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So, when we come into His house and raise our hands, offer our prayers, give our offerings, and give our neighbor words of encouragement, but we harbor hatred in our heart, when we have oppressed the poor and needy, when we lie, steal, commit adultery, when we bow the knee to the idols we have in our day and age, well, like the Preacher would say, Ecc 1:2 …"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
Now some may say that they haven’t done any of these wicked things, and that may be the case. But remember what we learned from the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, that if you commit any of these things in your heart, then you’re just as guilty as if you had actually done them. Jeremiah tells us the same thing in chapter 17. He said, Jer 17:9-10 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? [10] "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.
The heart is deceitful and sick, and the Lord searches the heart and tests the mind to give each man according to his ways. Friend, if that isn’t saying that we will be held accountable for the condition of our heart and the thoughts we entertain, then I don’t know what does! And to make things far worse, I want you to notice something they say about their sin; they’re proud of them. They claim that God has saved them so that they can do all these sins freely! He says that they come into God’s house without shame and pridefully Jer 7:10 …stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered!'—that you may do all these abominations?
We are delivered that we may do all these abominations! Talk about cheap grace! There are people out there today that claim to be Christians who say the same thing. They say that God’s grace is so all-encompassing that we can live lives of sin and rebellion, but we’re still saved—because of “grace.” Well friends, that is a lie of the devil. We are saved by God’s grace through faith, but God’s grace does not give us license to sin. The apostle Paul anticipated this very argument by those who didn’t want to quit their sin. His answer to this was, Rom 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? [2] May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Beloved, if you have truly been crucified with Christ, and born again by the Spirit of the Living God, then you are dead to sin. You don’t want to sin any longer. You might sin…you probably will sin, but you don’t want to, and when you do you seek forgiveness and try to put that sin far away from you. If, however, you’ve been sitting on the fence, not really wanting to make a full commitment to Jesus, then friend you need to repent. Like Paul said, “May it never be!” or “Heaven forbid!” How can a person who has died to sin continue to live in sin? It’s a complete contradiction.
Friends, hollow worship, phony worship is the same thing as turning the house of God into a den of thieves. This is speaking of turning the church into a hideout. That’s where thieves and other criminals go to hide and avoid capture, and as a base of operations from which they plan and go commit other crimes. But friend, beloved, we should be in this place because our hearts and souls have already been captured by the One who died for us! We should come here to grow in grace and truth, not to wallow in our filth. We should want to be free from that!
The challenge to us today is to make sure that we have the kind of relationship with God that Jeremiah is advocating for here. To have a right relationship with God and trusting in Him alone. Putting away all those things that would separate us from Christ and living in obedience and righteously in His eyes.
Jeremiah’s message to Judah is a sobering message for us today. God desires true repentance, sincere worship, and righteousness rather than superficial religiosity. So, we need to examine our lives and align our hearts with God’s desires and turn to Him with genuine repentance and devotion. He’s calling us today to live out our faith authentically in both word and deed.
Are you ready to do that today? In a moment I’ll be closing in prayer, and if Jeremiah’s message today speaks to you and you desire to make a change, after I pray, we’ll sing a song and you are welcome to come down and kneel at the altar and pray and commit or recommit your life to Him today.
Would you stand as I close in prayer?
