A Lesson from Jeremiah

By Roy Loney

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     "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doing; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave your fathers, forever and ever. Behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely,

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and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord."

     Divine principles do not change. The people of the Lord today need to consider the lesson in this quotation. The principle enunciated applies to the church. We will make a fatal mistake if we disregard God's solemn warnings. The Jews were God's chosen people. "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth" (Deut. 7: 6). God gave them a special law of worship, and the sacred temple in which to worship. By His power He brought them into the promised land where the temple was built according to a divine pattern (I Chron. 28: 11, 12). Here was the only altar upon which Israel's priests could offer acceptable sacrifices (Deut. 12: 10-14). But they made the mistake of assuming that if they came to the right temple, engaged in the right form of worship, and offered the right sacrifices, their personal devotion to God and purity of life did not matter.

     As God's people, worshipping in his temple, according to his law, they felt secure although their lives reeked with immorality and corruption. Ritualism took the place of spirituality; love of self superseded love of God. So God could no longer regard that temple as a dwelling place. He referred to his desertion of the tabernacle pitched at Shiloh (Josh. 18: 1) because wicked priests corrupted it. He stated the same fate awaited the temple at Jerusalem unless there was immediate reformation in heart and life. "Therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you, and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all of your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim." This was not an idle threat. In a few years Jerusalem became a mass of rubble and the temple was destroyed. Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36: 16). The temple was God's only when supervised by those who were pure in heart.

     A similar condition prevails among the professed people of God today. Formalism supplants spirituality. Worldliness is the order of the day. We have emphasized the fact that Christ built just one church. We have assured our hearts that "The Church of Christ" is the one church the Lord built and not man. Our worship is patterned after the Jerusalem church, so we assume that because we are members of the body of Christ, and conduct the worship according to the divine pattern, we can live as does the world and be utterly indifferent to the great need for spirituality. Must history repeat itself?

     The Ephesian church was correct in all doctrinal matters. It could not stand those who were evil. It had put pretended apostles to the test and found them liars. Their zeal against such characters was commendable but they grew lax in their personal devotion. The Lord threatened them as he had the temple at Jerusalem. Their candlestick would be removed. No longer being "the light of the world" they would learn that "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness."

     Our ceremonial and unspiritual conception of Christian duty and worship makes heaven sorrow and hell rejoice. If ceremonies of worship, singing, praying, communing, and teaching, do not renew the soul and fill our hearts with the peace of God, they are valueless and hurtful. We scornfully reject the ritualism of the Catholics, their veneration of relics, adoration of the saints, the sign of the cross, and such like, yet much of our own "worship" is as lacking in real spirituality as is theirs. Members of "The Church of Christ" indulge in the same physical pleasures as the Catholics, and their ac-

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tions say, if their words do not, as did the Jews of old, "We are delivered to do all these abominations." The Jews cried, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Today the cry is "The church of Christ, The church of Christ, The church of Christ!"

     Possession of the blood of Abraham did not entitle the Jews to the unlimited privileges of God's people, and our membership in the church through the act of baptism, does not make us "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." I feel no divine compulsion to acknowledge anyone as my spiritual brother unless the real Spirit of God has found lodgement in a truly consecrated heart. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof." They are not all spiritual Israel who are of the seed of "The Church of Christ" but the true Israel are those who walk in the steps of faithful Abraham, obedient to Christ. And if, as many are shouting from the housetops, that "The Church of Christ" as constituted today is a denomination, it does not scripturally warrant my fellowship. Our greatest need today is not to show to the professed people of God all the correct procedures of work and worship, but to influence them to consecrate their hearts to the Saviour. "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."