As the prophet Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 7) so is it said and proclaimed today.....
“Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message:
“‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of the churches who come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live. Do not trust in deceptive words and say,
“THIS IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD,
THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD!”
If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless:
“THIS IS THE CHURCH OF GOD,
THIS IS THE HOUSE OF THE LORD,
THIS IS WHERE THE LORD DWELLS”
Look at how you go whoring by these deceptive words that are worthless:
“COME AND HAVE AN EXPERIENCE WITH GOD HERE,
COME AND HAVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH HIM,
COME HERE FOR YOUR MIRACLE, YOUR BREAKTHROUGH,
COME AND BE BLESSED,
COME HERE AND YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!”
“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and swear falsely, will you covet, envy, and be jealous after each other, will you seek the desires of your flesh, your eyes, your mouth and your ears, will you go whoring after earthly possessions, burn incense to Baal, give him your offerings and tithes and follow other gods you have not known in order that they grant you your wicked hearts desires,…and then after doing all this evil and more, come and stand before Me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD. I have see it! I have see all that goes on in your hearts, all that you do in hiding, all that you do in secret. I have seen it all! declares the LORD.
You ask where is the House that bears His name? You wonder what is the House that bears His name? What is he speaking of? The mystery is this; you have become the temple of God. You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. God no longer dwells in temples built by the hands of men. God does not dwell in the churches of men! God dwells in you. Who can accept this?
“To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.”
“‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in. I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did to all the Israelites.’
“So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing in the towns and in the streets? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.
“‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts just like you do now. They went backward and not forward just as you do now. From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention as you do to this very day. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors. You are a stiff-necked people and do more evil then all of them!
“When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.”
“Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.”
“The people have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will call their high places, their temples, their synagogues and their churches the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in until there is no more room. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns and the streets, for the land will become desolate.”
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live. Do not trust in deceptive words and say,
“THIS IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD,
THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD,
THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD!”
Jeremiah 7:2
You deceive no one but yourselves by changing its name and saying
“THIS IS THE CHURCH OF GOD,
THE CHURCH OF THE LORD,
THE CHURCH OF THE LORD!”
You ask, “but what about my church, what about our church, what about her church, what about his church, what about their church, what about all these churches of all these denominations and sects, what about all these churches of all these men, in all of the world?”
What about them? Do you not hear? Can you not see? Do you not understand?
“Do not trust in any of these deceptive words!!”
