The Prophet Jeremiah

I love our liturgy and worship service. We sing the Psalms. We kneel to confess our sins. We read several portions of Scripture. We eat at the Lord’s table every week. We bring our tithes and offerings to the front while we sing. We sit under God’s Word. Perhaps nothing has changed more in the last ten years of my life than my approach to worship.

But men and women love to hide in a liturgy They love to have rituals that say, “I am holy” without actually striving for holiness. It works like this. We go the Lord’s house every week. We hear his word preached. We sing and pray with his people. We eat at his table. We fellowship with his people. But our lives do not change.We do not amend our ways. Sin is not put to death. Righteousness is not growing in homes and hearts. The liturgy becomes a way of pretending, a way of hiding from God, instead of a way of drawing near to Him and becoming more like Christ.  Worship, not matter how high, beautiful, or Biblical, becomes a sham. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this problem in Jeremiah 7:1-11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. 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. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the 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 I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 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!’—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? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

Israel thought that the temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and her worship were enough. She thought that she could come to the feasts, worship at the temple, and still live in sin. She praised God. She sang the Psalms. She talked about the priesthood. But she did not “amend her ways.” So it was in Jeremiah’s day so it is in our day. Continue reading →