Worship - Sunday at 10:30AM
Bible Study - Wednesday at 6:30PM
2007-04-22 Communion Dedication - Baldwin Christian Church
OTHER GODS (PART 1)
As Christian believers, we have a spiritual tie to the tribe, the nation of Judah. In this passage, Jeremiah is telling Judah that the warnings are over. For 23 years, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah; to turn them from their evil doings and ways, but they did not listen. God is fair; He didn't send only one witness, one voice...
Jeremiah 25:4-7
4. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
5. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
6. And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
7. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
The warnings are over; desolation is now come. If you read the next few verses, you see what Judah was about to lose: the pleasures of family, the joys of feasting, the rejoicing of marriages and prosperity in business. Their homes would sit empty, dark and cold for 70 years while they served in bondage, in Babylon; all because they went after other gods to serve them, and to worship them.
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: "You believe in a God who sends people to hell because they don't bow down and worship Him? What kind of a bleepity-bleep, blankity-blank God is that? I would rather burn in the fires of hell than worship your God." Has someone ever said that to you? Have you ever wondered yourself, what kind of God is He?
King David knew the answer. In 2 Samuel 24, he and the nation had done wrong. God did something interesting; He allowed David to choose his own punishment. The choices were seven years of famine, three months of being chased by his enemies, or three days of plagues, and here's what David said: "I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man" (2 Samuel 24:14).
Even from the beginning, man has heard God's word, and decided not to heed it. Again and again, our intellect, our wisdom proves to be foolishness, but we still depend on it. Our laws are continually changed and rewritten to fit the circumstances of the day; science keeps finding new things that disprove the old things of science; psychology methods change every time a consensus of experts agree on something. All the inventions of men have failed and will fail, and yet we still bow down before them. Judah is caught up in these things, these false gods that provoke our LORD to anger.
None of us can claim to be innocent in this matter. If the LORD wills, over the next few weeks we'll take a look at some of these hard taskmasters, these false gods in our lives; the things we prefer to serve, and put before God. Let's not do as Judah did, and put these warning off until it was too late. To be a hearer only, and not a doer, is to our own hurt; verse 7 is a reaffirmation of that.
What kind of God would chasten or punish those who don't listen to Him? The kind that wants us to have the pleasures of family, the joys of feasting, the rejoicing of marriages, prosperity in business, and the kind who sends His only begotten Son to redeem us from that unmerciful taskmaster, sin.