Just because the bible makes it clear that rebellion results in God’s wrath, doesn’t mean that is true. Hopefully you would have questioned that statement because God’s word is truth and rebellion against God does result in His wrath as made clear in His word. I say this because that is exactly what the church has done; negated His word. To negate means to “nullify, invalidate, or make ineffective. It indicates that something has been proven false, denied, or counteracted, resulting in a loss of effect or value.” The church continues to do as these verse say. Mark 7:13 “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” Acts 20:30 “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” 2 Peter 2:1 “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.”

    In this day where God is only a God of love, many have stated that a loving God would never turn His face from His children, feel His wrath in present time, or in eternity to allow someone to spend eternity in hell. Many also believe that God would not be upset about changing His word so that it is more appetizing so that cravings are satisfied. We are told very clearly several times not to add or take away from His word, Revelation 22:18 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.” Deuteronomy 4:1 “Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. 3 You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.” Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” The church does this all the time with each group making the bible line up with their own beliefs.

    As we talked about last week, there was a remnant who survived the destruction of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 40-44) After the assassination of Gedaliah, this group was fleeing to Egypt out of fear of the Babylonians. Jeremiah 41:18 “They were afraid of them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.” They did the right thing to consult Jeremiah, but did evil in the eyes of the Lord by rejecting God’s word as spoken by Jeremiah. The problem was that even though they came to Jeremiah, they had no intention of listening to the word of God spoken through him even though they said, Jeremiah 42:5 “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”

    This group had seen with their own eyes that everything Jeremiah and other prophets had warned them about take place. Ezekiel 5:5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees. 7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. 8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. 13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal. 14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the Lord have spoken. 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.” Ezekiel 6:14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’” Jeremiah also said, Jeremiah 25:3 “For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. 4 And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. 5 They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. 6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.” 7 “But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.” 8 Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, 9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. 10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” Israel and Judah were destroyed and there were only a few survivors.

    So they knew that Jeremiah spoke the truth when they approached him because when they came before Jeremiah they said, Jeremiah 42:2 “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” Those words, “for as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left,” is an admission that they knew exactly what happened and why. Jeremiah himself had warned them over and over and that should have meant they would have listened, but they did not and everything took place just as Jeremiah said it would. Having only a few left is not how it was supposed to be but because they did not listen there would be only a few survivors. Isaiah 48:17 “This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.” Psalm 81:8 “Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel! 9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. 10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. 11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. 13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, 14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. 16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Amos 2:4 “Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, 5 I will send fire on Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.” Following other gods resulted in their destruction.

    Just as Israel and Judah were destroyed, the church has also been destroyed and the church also has only a few survivors as a result of the abomination that causes desolation. After talking about the abomination that causes desolation that has left the church desolate, Jesus said, Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.” The church has laid out for us is scripture an accumulation of information about those who went before the church, yet the church still refuses to listen and learn from the many examples found in scripture concerning rebellion and disobedience. Just as those who went to Egypt knew that rebellion brings against them the wrath of God, the church also knows this fact. When Judgement Day comes and many who were taught that they were safe and secure hear the words Matthew 25:41 “depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” the church can’t say we didn’t know, but will have to say we did know but we ignored your word and went our own way. Even the Babylonian officer knew. Jeremiah 40:2 “The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. 3 And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him.” Before Judah was destroyed and the few survivors went into captivity, this already happened to Israel. 2 Kings 17:7 “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.” The church has followed a different jesus and has accepted other gospels as truth and has brought this desolation upon themselves. Isaiah 3:8 “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. 9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.”

    We have been warned not to be deceived or deluded, but like Israel and Judah, the church refuses to listen to the warnings and examples clearly laid out in scripture. Wee se clearly in scripture what happens when God’s word is ignored and rejected. Mark 13:5 “Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.” Many will think they have been saved but because of false teachers teaching other gospels and a different jesus, Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

    Those who were going to Egypt no matter what saw firsthand the decimation caused by the Babylonians, yet they still said Jeremiah 44:16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” The church, even though it has all that information about Israel and Judah not listening and destruction that came because of their rebellion, continues to reject truth and follow its own path that will lead to certain death and destruction and eternal damnation. Daniel 8:12 “Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.” The church is doing the same as this rebellious remnant and are basically saying the bible cannot be trusted as a source of truth just as they said they could not trust Jeremiah. This is why so many in the church have equated their experience, reason and traditions with the word of God. Also many even believe the bible is irrelevant for today. But in the end, just as Jeremiah declared, truth will be made known. Jeremiah 44:25 “Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows! 26 But hear the word of the Lord, all you Jews living in Egypt: ‘I swear by my great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, “As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.” 27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed. 28 Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.”

    The bible is the living word of God. The words of men and women about the bible are not, yet most accept the words of man over the living word of God and refuse to turn from those powerless words and return to the words of God. What we saw happen to those who said they would obey God’s word but had no intention of doing so is what will happen to those in the church who say they believe God’s word to be true but negate, distort and nullify those words so that their own appetites are satisfied. In the end all will find out that God’s words are not idle words. Deuteronomy 32:46 “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Psalm 119:160 “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.”

    There is still hope for the desolate church to return the words of truth. Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Lamentations 5:1 “Remember, Lord, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. 15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. 16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 17 Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim 18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it. 19 You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. 20 Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? 21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old,” Daniel 9:17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”