When Worship Becomes Worthless

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.