Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

False Profession
Mar 13th, 2011
Weekly CommentaryArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Exhortation

In Jeremiah chapter 1,  we have the call of Jeremiah to preach. In verse 2, we see what he is to preach, “To whom the Word of the Lord came,” he was to preach the Word of the Lord that was given to him. In verse 9, we read, “Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” The most important words ever spoken in this world are the words that God speaks to us.

Today our world is drowning in words, we are bombarded all the daylong with words, thousands of words. We are assaulted with opinions, with philosophies and with ideas of every sort. We hear about what other are doing and what we should be doing. The only words that matter, in the final analysis, are the words which God has to say to us. Today our world desperately needs to hear the Word of God and the church needs to hear the Word of God.

The setting for this calling of Jeremiah is also found in verse 2, “In the days of Josiah....king of Judah.” In the days of Josiah there appeared to be a great revival going on in Judah. However the revival was counterfeit and not genuine. Jeremiah exposed the counterfeit nature of this so called revival in Jeremiah 3:10, “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.” A careful study of 2 Chronicles 34:19-28 and 2 Kings 23: 25-27 will reveal this revival to be a mile wide and an inch deep.

I believe there is a parallel between Jeremiah’s day and our own day. We have a counterfeit Christianity today which is a mile wide and an inch deep. We are living in the Laodicean age which John describes in Revelation as a time of lukewarm counterfeit Christianity which is rejected by our Lord. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev.3:17). That describes a counterfeit Christianity which is true of our day among the people we know as Evangelicals. In verses 15 we see the mark of the false profession of these people, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.” They profess to be in love with Christ but their real affection is set on the world and the things of the world. They are lukewarm to Christ, they are found in church, they make a great profession, but they are occupied with the things of the world. The church of 60 years ago simply called it worldliness.

We see the Lord’s attitude and response to these New Evangelicals in verse 16, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

Lukewarmness is the gateway to deception and apostasy. I am concerned about millions of New Evangelicals who are on the road to apostasy. That was the very situation that Jeremiah found himself in with Judah.

Notice the extent of the apostasy of Judah in Jeremiah’s day; it is found in verse 18, “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.” Those who have apostatized are named, “The whole land” – “The kings of Judah” – “The princes” – “The priests” – “The people of the land.” That is about as wide spread as it is possible to get. Deception had swept the whole land, they thought they were God’s people but in fact they were rejected by God.

There are three things that enabled Jeremiah to fulfil his calling.

First, he had boldness, “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them” (Verse 17). The Lord commanded him to be bold. He was to face and oppose the whole nation with the truth about their counterfeit profession. In verse 19 we read, “And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.” If we face evangelicals today with the truth about their lack of separation from the world and their comfortable “worldly lifestyle” and their “man centred” worship and their “worldly music,” they will react against us. We are commanded to be bold.

Second, he stood alone, “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land” ( Verse 18). Jeremiah walked a lonely road, he left his contemporaries behind. We are called to walk a lonely road; new evangelicals will never stand alone. Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Verse 26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” New Evangelicalism is based on pleasing the widest number of people possible. Those who speak for God will often have to stand alone.

Third, he had great assurance. Though men did not stand with him, God did. Verse 19, “And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.” Without the conscious realization of the Lord’s presence we cannot be bold and we cannot stand alone against apostasy. The words of Paul are ringing in our ears, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

The last days are marked by great and wide spread deception. Deception is the handmaid of apostasy. Some of the most troubling words in scripture are found in Matthew 7:20-23, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”