Friday, January 3, 2025
Mrs Pasteur BILLEY.
Jeremiah 7.
2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’
3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah because He was getting the attention of Judah, not Israel as a whole. For when he began his ministry, Israel had already been deported. Now God was addressing Judah, for the deportation of Jerusalem was at hand.
Judah saw how Israel had been deported, but instead of the people of Jerusalem also changing their ways, they didn’t; so God sent His prophets.
So Jeremiah cried in the ears of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he stood at the gate of the house of the Lord.
2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’
Many were religious, they thought they were correct despite everything he saw. Calling themselves saints, but continuing to live in sin.
3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
They were calls to repentance.
4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
What is the temple of the Lord?
In the New Covenant, we are God’s temple.
1 Corinthians 3.16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the dwelling place of God.
1 Corinthians 6.19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Jeremiah 7.3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Because many feel they are already Christians, they continue in their sinful ways, for the Lord does not smite them. But just because the Lord doesn’t mite doesn’t mean He doesn’t see.
The place God is talking about is Israel, it’s their land, it’s their destiny, it’s what He had foretold and promised their fathers.
Abraham had taken possession of Canaan for his descendants even before Isaac was born.
So God asks that we repent of our wicked ways so that His promises in our lives can be fulfilled. So as not to give the enemy a legal right.
We must search our hearts, repent, return to God.
The Lord loves us and is always ready to take us back, to restore us.
Jeremiah 3.22 Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.
God’s mercy is great. He makes his sun rise on the good and the wicked alike, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5.45)
God does not want His people to be destroyed.
During the rapture, our Lord revealed that many will remain.
Beloved, we proclaim that we are Christians, but when we look at our actions, our attitudes, the life we lead… This does not glorify the Lord.
Christians today know the truth, God’s principles; but many decide not to follow them. However, they proclaim the Word of God in their mouths. Brothers, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Jeremiah 7.
8 Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know!…
10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
12 But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And see how I have treated him, Because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
What happened at Silo? (1 Samuel 4.1-22)
The priest Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who did not fear the Lord.
One day, they went to the battlefield with the Ark of the Covenant. The Philistines were certainly afraid, but ultimately won the war against God’s people. And Hophni and Phinehas died. Eli the priest, hearing the news, fell down and died. His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, gave birth in bitterness to a son she named I Kabod.
What does it all refer to?
The Lord is interested in our life, our soul. What God wants is for our soul to be upright before Him. He’s not interested in physical appearance. It is a repentant heart that is precious in His sight.
Jeremiah passed, 30 years preaching repentance.
Beloved, are you taking care of God’s temple? To what do you deliver the temple of God? Do you keep him constantly in God’s presence? Do you sanctify it for the glory of God?
Because of all these sins, which Judah committed, finally, Nabucadnezzar came to take them also into captivity Jerusalem. For 70 years they were driven out of the land of Israel, North and South, because they would not enter into this deep repentance.
The Lord is good and He has His principles and laws. He knows that as human beings we have weaknesses, so He gives us alternatives.
When we sin, we must repent; that’s how we’ll be restored to our rights.
When we consider the work of the cross, in Colossians 2.
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross ;
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
He stripped or disarmed (in the English version) dominations and authorities.
Which means that, since Jesus Christ has taken away their weapons, they are no longer armed against us.
So where do the weapons the enemy uses against us come from? Sin.
It’s ourselves because of sin. For if we go against what God has said, then we open up the possibility for them to use their weapons against us.
Beloved, in reality they no longer have any weapons, for the work of the cross is perfect.
If we want God’s glory and mercy to be manifest in our lives, we must strip ourselves of all evil.
God’s temple must be holy and we must glorify our God.
The Holy Spirit can help us expose any evil that is hidden in our lives, even if it concerns the past. There are sins that bind families for generations.
Let’s take the time to go back and meditate seriously on the booklet on deep repentance :
“Deep Confessions & Forsaking Of Sins”
We must repent and rid ourselves of all evil deeds. And that’s how God will bless us. For He does not bless the sinner.
Let us examine our lives, sanctify ourselves and let only the light of Christ be seen in our lives.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS, Let Us Pray… →
Lord Jesus,
Let all that is hidden in me be exposed.
May all that darkness has hidden in my life be revealed.
Let Your light be established in me.
Lord, you have redeemed me with your blood.
Please give me a repentant heart in Jesus’ name.
May all claims on my life, on my family… be destroyed in Jesus’ name.
Help me to be light in this world so that souls may come to You.
I renounce the idols of my life in Jesus’ name.
I come back to you, my Redeemer,
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.