The Consequence of Ignoring Sin in Your Life

Scripture Reading

Jeremiah 8:8-15

8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? 9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace. 12 Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord.

13 “‘I will take away their harvest, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.’”

14 Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him. 15 We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.

Devotional

God has a lot to say to us today in this scripture and he doesn’t beat around the bush. Here he is addressing the people of Judah and their sins, but it is 100% applicable to us today. This passage starts out by directly calling out scribes and teachers of Judah. God says that they are manipulating the Word of God and spreading lies and they will be punished. Then the scripture goes on to call out prophets and priests for spreading lies that are harming people. We see in verse 11 that they downplay the seriousness of people’s sin in Judah by essentially saying “it’s fine, it’s alright, don’t worry.” But in actuality, people needed to hear that they were in a critically ill state, that God was very upset, and they needed to address their sin immediately. Can you imagine if you were on the brink of death and you went to an ER and the doctor said “don’t worry, everything will be fine” when instead they knew you should’ve been put in the ICU? That’s what we’re seeing here.

Verses 8-11 are warnings to teachers and leaders that manipulate the Word of God to meet their own desires. A couple examples of how this manifests itself in today’s society is when a church’s leadership is afraid of broaching topics in the Bible because they are afraid that some members may be upset and leave, which will in turn hurt the donation bucket. Another example is feel-good preaching that focuses solely on the easy-on-the-ear passages that leave you feeling happy and unconcerned about changing or growing spiritually. Sin is downplayed, spiritual stagnation is not addressed, and instead it is taught that you should just keep on keeping on, be happy, and don’t let be concerned about confronting your sin. After all it’s all forgiven, right? Feel-good preaching is an extremely easy way to grow a church’s attendance and even line the church’s pocket book, but it’s ultimately harmful for believers. God is love and he also hates sin. If you read Jeremiah 7, you’ll find that God found the people of Judah guilty of worshipping idols, adultery, theft, and the list goes on. God is furious not just at their sin, but their lack of repentance. They continued on thinking that they could do whatever they wanted and God would be okay with it. It was to the point that they completely ignored God’s teachings and went blissfully their own way.

The saddest part about this scripture is that there are failures at every level from church leadership to the hearers of the Word. And the result is that there is so much sin that God turns away from them because the people are so unashamed about their sin that they have no desire to listen to the truth nor do they have a desire to repent. Ouch…

I have to admit, this scripture is very blunt, but it’s not all fire and brimstone. The reality is that sin is a lot like mold. Have you ever bought cherries, grapes, or raspberries and put them in your fridge? In a couple days you might have one moldy piece of fruit, but quickly you’ll find yourself having to throw away not only that container of fruit, but whatever it may have come into contact with. Sin is a lot like this. If we stick our heads in the sand and ignore our sins, choosing to believe that we have a free pass and believe that God is okay with it then we are being exactly like the people of Judah. The people of Judah were so unabashed about their sin that verse 15 says that they hoped for peace, but instead only saw terror. In the midst of all their sin, they still thought everything would be okay and were surprised to see when destruction began to surround them.

Take a moment and imagine that your spiritual maturity and growth is represented by a seedling. As that seedling grows, it needs to have good soil, it needs water, pruning, sunlight, and weeds and pests need to be kept at bay. If the weeds, pests, and pruning are neglected, the seedling will struggle to stay alive and eventually will wither away. We know that weeds and pests are unavoidable, they will sprout up and they will spread. The key is to tackle those issues when they pop up and not let them ruin your life. God wants you to flourish into a big, healthy, fruit-bearing tree, not be overtaken by weeds. It’s also important to keep in mind that you don’t have to do this on your own. Keep a heart of repentance, surround yourself with the body of believers, find a good church home if you haven’t already, and remain prayerful. These are ways to make sure your faith stays healthy. Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father God, that message was about as subtle as a sledge hammer, but thank you for being direct and reminding me that I need to stay alert for false teachings and sin sprouting up in my life. Lord, I know I have sin right now that I need to address and I want to turn away from it for not just my own sake, but for you. Help me to stay on the right path and keep in your Word. I thank you for the messages that not only make me feel happy and hopeful, but also the ones of conviction that help me get back on the right path because love is both encouragement and correction. In Jesus’ name, Amen.