Nation That Refuses Correction

I am numbed and saddened by the recent national calamities to befall our nation from a devastating hurricane that produced floods and fires of biblical proportions, but I am shocked more by the silence of the church, by the refusal of spiritual leaders to stand up and call a nation back to the God of the Bible, a church that refuses to acknowledge a God that must punish sin and refuses to acknowledge the remedial judgments of God upon a disobedient people, both a nation and a church. The churches are full of antinomianism, rebellion, backsliding, and walking in false ways, much like the Jews in the days of Jeremiah, who foolishly believed that they were God's favorites and because of that their temple and all the held dear would be protected by God. The reality was that it was a provoked God who brought down calamity upon them, first destroying the temple in Shiloh as a warning to them, but they refused correction and sought refuge not in the living Lord, but in their temple and traditions.

Our situation today is much the same. We as a nation, we as a people of God, not only walk falsely before God, but we refuse to recognize his judgments upon us because we maintain a perverted view of the God of the Bible, and not only do we fail to recognize his providential dealings with us, we fail to comply in return to God in sincere repentance. In true reformation, both as a nation and a church, a study of Jeremiah chapter seven is necessary, but how many will actually apply to their good is yet to be seen.

Will we, like the way were Jews in the time of Jeremiah, the prophet, have to lose everything we hold dear as a people before we amend our ways, repent of our weakness, and turn from our sins and heartfelt reformation back to the living God of the Bible? Here now is the reading of the word of God. May the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word from Jeremiah chapter seven. Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place, trusting not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if ye oppose not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.

Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations. Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not. Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. Well, let me pause here, friends, to say the incorrigible people of God refused correction and failed to heed the warnings, and they continued in their false worship and wickedness, and it cost them everything that they held dear.

Their temple was destroyed, and their way of life was never the same again. Let me now continue with our reading of Jeremiah chapter 7, picking up in verse 20. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

Now verse 28, But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. I will pause here, friends, to say I live in the state of Florida and have witnessed the devastation of neighborhoods engulfed with floodwaters, with houses on fire in the night.

People have lost all they've worked for. Some have even lost their life. This calamity is spread through our nation.

The entire nation is groaning under these national disasters, one on the heels of another, and we place our trust in the White House and in man when we should place our trust only in the God of the Bible and repent and return unto him. Oh, where is the church in all of this? I will end with the word of God from Jeremiah 8, 7, which declares, Yea, the stork in heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But my people know not the judgment of the Lord.