Polluted People in Perishing Nation

One cannot read Jeremiah chapter 2 without sensing the heartbreak of God over his back-slidden people Israel. And one cannot be but astonished that the people of God ignored his pleadings to return to him. But amidst God's wooing love is a stern warning, because of their unfaithfulness, they must return to God.

Israel must repent. They have no other options. It's either repent or perish.

Let's look at this striking passage of scripture in the book Jeremiah at this time, friends. Beginning in verse 2, God tells Jeremiah the prophet to go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown, Israel was holiness unto the Lord. Here we see the sweetheart love relationship between God and his people.

They pursued God with their whole hearts in love toward him, and they lived lives of holiness and obedience unto him. But then came a tragic breakdown in the people of God. The people became unfaithful to God through their abominations of idolatry.

Even the religious leaders became corrupt and knew not God. Look at the sad decay seen in verses 7 and 8. And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof. But when ye entered, ye defiled my land and made mine heritage an abomination.

The priests said not, Where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not. The pastors also transgressed against me. And the prophets prophesied by bail and walked after things that do not profit.

Here God exposes a laundry list of sins committed by Israel. From the leaders on down they were corrupt. They had turned their backs on God.

In verses 11 through 13 we see the staggering indictments God brings against them. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid.

Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. But the astonishing thing about this passage, friends, is the denial of the people of God that they have sinned and turned away from God.

We see this in verse 35. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest I have not sinned.

The people of God are so far gone away from God that they live in a self-deluded state. But God holds them accountable in verse 23 as he tries to reason with them. How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Balaam? See thou way in the valley, know what thou hast done.

I will stop there, friends. It seems this is a perpetual problem with God's people that they drift away from him and are completely ignorant of the drift away. Jesus reprimands the church of Laodicea in chapter 3 of Revelation with the very same indictment.

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. Jesus then tells them to repent. Let me ask you, friend.

In our passage from Jeremiah, God said they had defiled his land. Have we not defiled his land today with perversion and wickedness, calling evil good and good evil? Have we, not as a nation, turned our backs on God? Have we not changed gods as well? I believe we have. For we have legislated God right out of this country, from the White House, to the courthouse, to the schoolhouse.

We have kicked right out the door. But I believe the root cause for these crimes against the sovereign lie at the door of the church house. For we have traded gods as well.

We wanted to reach the world, so we let the world into the church, and then we escorted God right out the back door of our churches. God has pleaded with us through his remedial judgments upon us since 9-11, but we have only grown more wicked and rebellious. We don't need God today.

We can do more good with money and manpower anyhow. As God demanded that Israel must repent and to see their way in the valley and know they had done their sins to admit their pollution, God demands that his church repent today as well and to see their way in the valley of sin and self-reliance apart from him. God will not send revival to America until the church repents and turns from her wicked ways back to him, back into a sweetheart love relationship of holiness unto him.

As a nation, we sit on the brink of destruction, and as a church, we continue to deny any wrongdoing and say, I am not polluted. God have mercy on us all.