WWUTT 2349 Do Not Trust These Deceptive Words (Jeremiah 7:1-8)

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Jeremiah 7, 4 says, do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. What makes these words deceptive?

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When we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a

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Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

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Becky, and greetings, everyone. I apologize for these last couple of lessons in the week coming in a little bit late.

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If you listened on Tuesday and Wednesday, then you know that I was struggling to hold onto my voice, and that's still the case now.

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So that's why these episodes are a little late, but still wanted to get a teaching in Jeremiah in, and then

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Becky and I will do a Q &A as well. It just might be a day later than expected. So in our study of Jeremiah, we're up to chapter seven, and this is a very well -known chapter, especially if you're familiar with a series that R .C.

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Sproul did called Hard Sayings. He also turned this series into a book, and Ligonier will air it periodically on Sproul's program,

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Renewing Your Mind, even though R .C. has gone home to be with the Lord a little more than seven years ago.

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He still has his Renewing Your Mind program on both RefNet, and there's some

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Christian talk radio stations that will air it as well. So every once in a while, this series on Hard Sayings will come up, and one of the hard sayings that Sproul goes over is a statement in Jeremiah 7 -4, which we're going to hear today.

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It's where the people declare the temple of the Lord, the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord. Remember what we've been through in Jeremiah thus far.

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God has brought this rebuke against his people. They have disobeyed God, outright rebelled against God, rejected him and worshiped false gods, behaving as the pagans around them.

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They believe that because the temple is with them and God dwells in his temple with his people, nothing's going to happen to us.

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Nothing bad will come against us. They put their trust in the temple instead of turning from their sin back to the

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Lord. So let me pick up reading here. Chapter seven is a little long. It goes on about 34 verses or so.

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We won't get through the whole chapter today, but let me read through about the first 15 here as we get started.

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This is Jeremiah chapter seven. Hear the word of the Lord. The word that came to Jeremiah from the

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Lord, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, hear the word of the

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Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord.

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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.

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Do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless or the widow or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then

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I will let you dwell in this place in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

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Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

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Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal and go after other gods that you have not known and then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say, we are delivered?

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Only to go on doing all these abominations has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes.

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Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh where I made my name dwell at first and see what

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I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the

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Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer.

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Therefore, I will do to the house that is called by my name in which you trust and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers as I did at Shiloh, and I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

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And so once again, what is going on here is the people have done wickedly. They have gone after these pagan ways, even worshiped the

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Baals, and yet they believe that because the temple of the Lord dwells among them,

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God dwells in this temple among them, that they're gonna be fine and nothing will ever come against them.

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And God loves me no matter what. There may have been some of that thinking in their mind as well. He loves us.

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He would never do anything bad to us. And we've seen previously in Jeremiah, the attitude of the people was the

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Lord does not see. He does not know. When is he gonna bring judgment against us? And so they put their trust in the temple as like their good luck charm.

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And they could go on doing the wicked things that they did and God would still bless them and their land.

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But the Lord is saying here, if you do not repent, I'm not gonna let you live in my land.

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There were a couple of phrases that came up here too that you might've recognized from some other places in the

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Bible. We'll talk about those as we come upon them here. So let me go back up to chapter seven, verse one.

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The Lord, or sorry, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, from Yahweh, stand in the gate of the

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Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, hear the word of the

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Lord. Now, where God says, stand at the gate of the

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Lord's house, Jeremiah would be standing at the entrance to the temple.

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This wouldn't be the entrance to Jerusalem. Generally, whenever cases were adjudicated, whenever the judges would decide between two people, whenever judgments would be issued, it would be done in the gate of the city.

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That's where the elders would gather. That's where they would listen to people's quarrels, trials, whatever they might happen to be, and then issue those judgments, issue those verdicts.

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It would happen in the gate of the city. Here, this is happening in the gate of God's house.

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Same concept though. God is going to issue a judgment from the gate, not to the city, but to my house.

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This is where supreme judgments are held with the God of the universe.

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Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, hear the word of the

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Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the

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Lord. You want to come in here and worship God. Here's the judgment that will come upon you as the

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Lord searches mind and heart. 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.

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Now, that's referring to the house of God. I will let you dwell in this place.

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Do not trust in these deceptive words. And here you have that statement here in Jeremiah 7, 4.

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This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the

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Lord. Now, why that statement? Don't trust in these deceptive words.

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Why are those words deceptive? And why are they said three times? Well, this was likely being said to the people from false teachers.

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The teachers were telling the people, we have nothing to fear, nothing to fear of the judgment of God.

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God dwells with us. And so here we have, there's your proof right there.

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This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. It could be that this teaching has gone out over and over and over again.

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And so saying it three times sort of represents the repetition by which these false teachers insist upon this.

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That could be one explanation. Another is that the false teachers in saying that, that is exactly the way they say it.

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They will repeat it three times as if it's some kind of incantation. If we repeat it over and over again, then the

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Lord will hear and the Lord will dwell with us and his favor will be upon us. But most likely the reason why this is repeated three times is because there is only one word in the

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Bible that is used three times to describe God. And what is that?

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Holy, holy, holy. You know that, right? That's what Isaiah heard when

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Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six had the vision of God in the temple and the train of his robe filling the temple and the angels that were surrounding the throne of God and they were proclaiming of him, holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord God almighty. It doesn't say that God is love, love, love, although God is love, certainly.

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It doesn't say he's mercy, mercy, mercy. It doesn't say he's wrath, wrath, wrath. The word that is used thrice for God is holy.

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Holy, holy, holy. And so for that reason, it could be that instead of proclaiming that God is holy, holy, holy, the false teachers are encouraging the people to recognize this is the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. So they are giving the ultimate glory and praise to the wrong place.

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They're looking at the temple of God rather than to God. Now, this is a pretty incredible rebuke that can be applied even to our present day.

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There are many religions, even false believers among evangelicalism to whom this could be applied.

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We just got done teaching through the parable of the sower, the parable of the soils in the gospel of Luke.

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And there where Jesus is describing the seed, the message of the kingdom that falls in these different soils.

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There's the path and the birds come and eat it. There's the seed that falls on the rocks, in the thorns.

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And this represents a person who will receive the word with joy. Something will show up in their lives that might make you think that they're a

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Christian, but with the rocks, they have no root in themselves. And whenever trials come, they wither up and melt away.

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The seed that falls in the thorns, well, this is someone who hears the word, but then the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world will choke the word and it turns out to be unfruitful.

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So we've just been through this in Luke, looking at a person who might appear to be a

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Christian, but it turns out that their faith was never truly genuine. And there are some

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Christians out there who will have, or professing Christians, I might say it that way, who will believe that they have fire insurance.

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I have committed my way to Jesus Christ. I've said the prayer. I walked the aisle.

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I got baptized. I'm not going to hell. And even though they've done all those things, then they turn right around and they go right back to living in the way of the world that they were always living.

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And maybe even worse, maybe they get worse from that point on. Now I know that I'm saved and I'm going to go to heaven so I can live however

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I want and I'm taken care of in the judgment. I remember ministering in a park.

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We're walking around in the park handing out tracks. If somebody wanted to know more, then of course we would stop and have a conversation with them.

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And there was a guy who was sitting on a park bench and I walked up to him and handed him a track. And he, I guess, already picked up what it was that we were doing because he saw us handing out tracks.

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And as soon as he took it from me, he goes, ah, I don't need this. I know what you guys are doing here. I don't need this.

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And I said, well, what are we doing? You know, put it on him. What do you think that we're handing out here?

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And he said, well, you're telling me, you're going to tell me that I'm a sinner and that the judgment of God is coming and I need to turn to God for the forgiveness of my sins.

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I already have all of that. I said, really, you have all of that? And he said, yeah. You know, he told me a story about how he gave his life to Christ when he was a kid.

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And he said, besides the Psalms say that we're all children of God and God's never going to send his children to hell.

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So being a son of God, then I know that I have permanent residence in heaven with God.

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I don't have anything to worry about that. And he's cursing at me this entire time too. That's the part of the story that I can't put in here.

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But he's been dropping swear words throughout this explanation. Also smelled a little bit of alcohol.

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And so I could tell that he knew enough Bible that he could fire back with even some scripture references and things like that, but did not really know the truth.

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And he thought, he thought he knew just enough. I've got just enough references, just enough words just enough

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Christian ease that I can validate my soul. And I know where it's going.

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At least he thought he could, he could justify himself and he knows where he's going at the judgment.

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Enough so convinced himself enough of this that he could continue sinning and living his life in whatever way that he wanted, because in the end ultimately he's going to heaven anyway.

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And that's the same kind of person that would make the declaration that the Jews are making here.

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The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord. These things are just a good luck charm for me but they don't really believe they have not turned from their sin to the

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Lord God, as God says here. If you truly amend your ways and your deeds if you truly execute justice one with another if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless or the widow or shed innocent blood in this place.

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And if you do not go after other gods to your own harm then I will let you dwell in this place in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

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What the Lord is laying out here is that if you truly follow me then you'll be keeping my commands. And it will be seen in your life that you love

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God when you obey what I have commanded you. Jesus said that very thing to his disciples in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

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And so God lays that out right here before the Jews. If you don't oppress the sojourner you don't oppress the visitor who is among you you're taking advantage of that man perhaps stealing from him.

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You don't take advantage of the fatherless or the widow which would be yeah, possessing their stuff or letting them be destitute and poor remaining in their state and not doing anything to provide for them or shed innocent blood in this place.

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The people had become very violent as well. Those who desired from others would just take from them and kill them in order to possess their land or their possessions or their wives or whatever else.

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And if you do not go after other gods to your own harm and we've talked about that as we've been through Jeremiah the people were worshiping false gods and in so doing the judgment of God would come upon them.

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So they're worshiping these false gods to their harm to their judgment. If you would turn from these things

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I would let you dwell in this place in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever but we know that Judah does not turn from these things and the judgment of God will come upon them when the

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Babylonians come in and we'll take over the city and even destroy the temple of the

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Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. You see this also in Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism this belief and this iconography look at all these icons that we have around us.

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This is especially the case if you've ever been inside one of these Eastern Orthodox churches the paintings that are up on the ceiling and up and down the walls and it is just adorned from top to bottom with symbology and iconography and they bow to statues of saints and they pray to Mary just like the

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Roman Catholics do and they will believe that because they are honoring the mother of God because I call upon her and exalt her as the queen of heaven then

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I have the favor of Jesus. I have the favor of God himself because I talked to his mom and not realizing that these things are actually an abomination in the eyes of God.

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We have direct access to God himself the king of the universe, the creator of all who sits enthroned over everything he made a way for you to him through his son,

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Jesus Christ and a person from all these different religious sects would say, no, that's not good enough.

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I bet you his mom would get me there a little bit better that I would be able to have better access to God through Mary than through Jesus or praying to any of the other saints or any of the other people that have been canonized into sainthood over the centuries in Roman Catholicism or in Eastern Orthodoxy, this too, it's their lucky charms.

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I proclaim the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord and not realizing that in their proclamations they're actually heaping condemnation onto themselves.

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There are many different ways that professing believers will think that they are safe because I have this or I can do this,

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I can quote enough Bible verses I go to church often enough. I say my prayers at dinner and at bedtime my kids go to VBS in the summer, whatever it is there may be great evidence of religious significance in a person's life or there may not be hardly anything at all, but at least

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I go to church at Christmas and Easter. You know, it's something like that. Whether it's a lot or a little, there are ways that people will justify themselves and say that I have enough that I know

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I've got the favor of God and nothing bad is gonna happen to me. Meanwhile, they continue in their sin.

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Maybe it's visible sin, maybe it's hidden sin but they love it and they continue in it and refuse to repent of it.

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And God says, if you turn from that, if you amend your ways

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I'll let you dwell here in my house. But if you continue in this, you continue in it to your own harm.

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And then as God says in verse eight, behold you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

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You've come to believe that if you do this or you worship that, or you fill in the blank then you have your fire insurance.

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You have your get out of hell free card but you trust in deceptive words to no avail instead of looking at Christ.

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Instead of coming to him, turning from sin to Jesus Christ so that you may be saved.

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Having faith means repentance. As I've shared this before, faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.

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If you believe in Jesus, you turn from sin. If you're turning from sin, you're turning to Christ.

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Turning from sin, turning to something else, repentance and faith. And so let us leave those ways as said in Hebrews 12 taking off every sin and everything that so easily entangles and run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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We trust in him, not these little magic spells that we can say, not these little ritualistic things that we think we need to do in order to be saved.

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We trust him for our salvation. And he, and only he is the way to everlasting life.

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Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here. And we're gonna come back to this again next week, but I pray that we're seeing the application in this.

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We recognize the evils and the wickedness of Judah, our evils and wickedness that we can see in the world around us now.

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We might even see it in churches that are near us. It could even be in the very church that we attend.

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But may we be convicted of heart, not to trust in deceptive words, not to trust in the list of things that we think we've checked enough of to get us through heaven's gate on that day that we stand in judgment.

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Let us put off every sin, put to death what is earthly in you, as said in Colossians 3, 5.

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We let nothing cling to us, but turn to Christ who washes and cleanses us and makes us new, that we may be a new creation in Christ Jesus and walk in holiness before you in his name.

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It is in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen. This has been, When We Understand the

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Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word,