Spiritual Apostasy
We must guard against taking
God's love and grace for granted
and bowing down to modern-day idols
in our own cultural environment.
Here now is Dr. Gene Getz:
In Jeremiah's day, the people of Judah,
without equivocation, as it were,
took God's grace for granted.
All the things that God did for them
over the centuries, over the years,
they took for granted
and turned away from God, from loving God.
And turned to worship idols.
Idols of wood and stone.
And Jeremiah is going to have to
address this kind of sin in the lives
of his own people, the people of Judah.
Now it's interesting that he began
actually to prophesy during the time of Josiah.
And it's interesting that if you look
at Josiah as king of Judah,
you see the life of Josiah and that of Jeremiah
coming together at this moment.
And there are some unique reasons, I believe,
that this has happened [this is happening
or has happened] in that particular situation.
Now remember Josiah became king by inheritance
when he was eight years old.
Eleven years later, about Jeremiah's age--
and I think that's significant--19 or 20,
he discovered the book of the law
that was in the temple.
Somewhere covered up.
Hidden in the midst of all of this idolatry.
And he began to read the book of the law.
Now personally, I think probably it may
have been just the book of Deuteronomy.
Because the book of Deuteronomy
is a review of everything God says
in the first five books.
And when he got to what we call
chapter 28, he saw the blessings and the curses.
In that chapter, God gives a number of
blessings for obedience.
But He also gives a number of curses
for disobedience.
You read that chapter and identify
with Josiah in the midst of everything
that surrounded him
and it's no wonder it got his attention.
He went to sackcloth and ashes in humility.
He was abhorred at what God said.
You have to realize that
Josiah probably was not reared--
even though he became king--
he probably wasn't reared
understanding even God's plan for Judah.
But when he discovered what
God said is going to happen
if they departed from the Lord,
it really got his attention.
Now here's where Jeremiah
and Josiah come together.
He was appalled at what God--
Josiah was appalled at what God said
through Moses--number 1.
Number 2: He was appalled
by what he saw--that idolatry.
All that evil.
And that's when Jeremiah--
at that time in Josiah's life--comes on the scene
and gives his first sermon.
And to me it's very interesting that they're
probably both about the same age.
And I think, in God's scheme of things,
that was not insignificant.
So here's his first sermon--
chapter 2, verses 1 and 2:
The word of the Lord came to me:
"Go and announce directly to Jerusalem
that this is what the Lord says: ...
These are words from God.
As God said He would do.
He would give His word to Jeremiah.
And here are the words:
...I remember the loyalty of your youth...
Now this is interesting.
He's talking to Judah and says:
When you were young--
and He's symbolically saying:
When you were a young group of people
and a young nation,
I remember the loyalty
you had towards Me.
Now here's something that
I don't think is accidental.
These people were looking at a young man
by the name of Jeremiah
and they were looking at a young man
by the name of Josiah.
Their youth is illustrative
of what He's saying here.
I don't think that's an accident.
...I remember the loyalty of your youth...
Just like these two young men
are being loyal to Me.
...[I remember] your love as a bride-- ...
I remember when you were married to Me.
And you were loyal to Me.
You did not commit adultery against Me.
And throughout the book of Jeremiah,
you see that [Jeremiah uses the term] God uses
the term "spiritual adultery."
Now they were very immoral in all of
their religious worship.
But what He is saying to them is: You left Me.
I chose you as My bride.
And you became unfaithful.
And you began to love other gods.
...how you followed Me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown."
In other words, in all of that difficulty,
you sought Me.
What's happened?
And then He goes on in verse 6--
this is God speaking:
They stopped asking...
And if you go back to verse 5,
He's referring to the fathers:
..."Where is the Lord who brought us
from the land of Egypt,
who led us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
through a land of drought and darkness,
a land no one traveled through
and where no one lived?"
And yet, I was with you.
And during those times, they turned to Me
when they had difficulty under Moses' leadership.
What happened that
no longer you're turning to Me?
And then He goes on to really hit at the heart
of their problem when He says in verse 8:
The priests...
Even the priests, the religious leaders.
And in essence, He's saying:
Unfortunately, even your father, Jeremiah.
Now we don't know but chances are
his father was not following the Lord:
...The priests quit asking,
"Where is the Lord?"
The experts in the law no longer knew Me,
and the rulers rebelled against Me.
The prophets [the prophets] prophesied by Baal
and followed useless idols."
By the way, no wonder Jeremiah
was initially scared.
No wonder he protested.
He knew as a young man what
he was going to face.
An incredibly difficult task.
Well my mind goes back to a passage
in Revelation where Jesus Christ Himself
spoke to the church in Ephesus.
In the book of Revelation,
we as the church are called God's bride.
Just as here in this passage
God called Judah His bride.
And this is what Jesus had to say
to this church through John:
But I have this against you:
you have abandoned the love you had at first.
And see, that's the essence of idolatry:
is when we stop loving God
first and foremost, and start loving
other things other than God.
And so the question that I
simply raised here is:
What are some of the specific idols
that often replace God--
even among professing Christians?
And Paul really answers that question,
I think, in his second letter to Timothy--
the last letter he ever wrote. He said:
But know this [Timothy]:
Difficult times will come in the last days. ...
Now listen, that was 2,000 years ago--
already the last days.
What does that tell you?
We've been living in the last days
since the time of Paul:
...For people will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, [that's idolatry]
boastful, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
unholy, unloving, irreconcilable,
slanders, without self-control, brutal...
Boy, that describes Judah.
All of that was taking place in Judah:
...without love for what is good...
The essence of being loyal to God
and avoiding idolatry is our love for God
and loving what is good:
...traitors, reckless, conceited,
lovers of pleasure...
Fill in the blanks on that one
in terms of idolatry:
...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...
He's not saying pleasure is wrong.
But when pleasure replaces God,
that's idolatry:
...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...
You see, idolatry always begins
when we forsake our love for God:
...holding to the form of godliness
but denying its power.
Avoid these people!
Not in terms of witness but in terms of allowing
them to impact your life and my life.
So here's the Principle that really,
I think captures what we can learn
from this passage in Jeremiah
but throughout the whole of Scripture:
We must guard against taking
God's love and grace for granted
and bowing down to modern-day idols
in our own cultural environment.