When God Stands Against You

I want us to camp out this evening, friends, in the Word of God from the Book of Jeremiah. And there's some deep truths I'd like to share with us this evening from God's Word. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to the Book of Jeremiah.

We will be in chapter 17. Allow me to read us verses 7 and 8. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

Let me pause here, friends, while there'll be an abundant satisfaction to all those who make God their confidence. And listen to the following wonderful promises from the rest of our text. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh.

But her leaves shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. And we see in this text positive promises of God to those who repose by faith in Him, and place their trust and hope solely in Him, and none other. And all these positive promises are true, friends.

I can promise you that. But all such promises are enhanced when they are contrasted with the rest of the passage, which I failed to read you. I fear most pastors today fail to tell you the truth about God.

I'll explain in a minute. This passage of Jeremiah actually begins in verse 5, and in verses 5 and 6, which precede verses 7 and 8, which I just read you, which only speak of the positive promises of God. But God has two sides.

God is a God of mercy, and He is a God of justice. The majority of churches hide this side of God from you because they know most of you don't read your Bibles anyhow. You rely on others to tell you about what the Bible says instead of studying it yourself.

Listen to the negative promises of God, which stand alongside the positive promises of God. Listen to these promises from God in verses 5 and 6. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited.

We have placed too much emphasis today, friends, on only the positive promises of God in order to grow our churches as quickly as we can, so we can build our empires of brick and mortar while we traffic in the souls of man. Why, if we started preaching the truth, it would run off the good deacons. This text declares the curses of God upon any man, any pastor, any church, any denomination that trusts in man and the arm of the flesh.

This sums up most churches today that operate on money and manpower to get the job done, whereas in times past churches lived on their knees and leaned on the Holy Ghost for power. Therefore, I believe many Christians, many pastors, many churches, and many denominations are cursed today by the living God of the Bible. They have no authority with man, no influence upon society, and no presence of God in their midst.

Rather, they lie under a divine judgment. They are cursed. Many won't tell you the truth about God because they need to pay the expenses to maintain their church campus.

I used to go to a Baptist church that spent $80,000 a year on donut holes for its members. You'd be shocked, friends, at the expenses in the budget of megachurches today. And the main reason why most pastors will fail to tell you the truth about God is because if they did, it would upset you, and they would lose paying members to their country club that they call church.

The second reason why many pastors will fail to tell you the truth about God is that they don't worship the God of the Bible, but only a God of their imagination. But their God would never send anyone to hell and punish them eternally for sin. If we'd be honest with folks and tell them the truth about the real God of the Bible, the God who has two hands of mercy and justice, we would do folks a favor by pointing them to the Christ of the Gospels, who has rights and claims upon his followers.

That right smack dab in the middle of the gospel is a bloody cross on which the Prince of Glory died, and that a crucified Christ must have crucified followers. But I believe America is ignorant of the God of the Bible today because the church quit preaching about him years ago when they decided to expand. Expand their campuses.

I also believe, friends, that a great judgment is getting ready to befall this nation, and America will soon see a side of God they are quite unfamiliar with. Our passage from Jeremiah, when honestly expounded, speaks of both the negative and positive promises of God. A parallel passage is found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, which also speaks of the blessings of God who he'll bring upon his obedient and faithful people.

And then it speaks of the curses God will bring upon his chosen people when they refuse to walk in total obedience to all his commandments and requirements. The Jews were God's chosen people, but they turned away from God in their daily living and walked falsely in the arm of the flesh, and they fell under his curses. Today, as we as a nation have legislated God right out of this country, and we as a people of God in our churches preach mainly about a God that merely exists in our imagination, if Israel violated God and fell under his curses, why do we foolishly believe that we are immune, that we as a people of God can violate him and his word and avoid the same divine justice? May God have mercy on us all.

Let us pray.