Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?
Jeremiah 7:9-10
No amount of church attendance or profession of faith will profit you if you refuse to repent of watching porn. No amount of religious observance or good works will benefit you if you refuse to amend your ways. This is the message that the prophet had for the people of Israel in his day, and it’s the message that he has for you and me today when it comes to sexual sin.
The words that Jeremiah speaks here are the words that God gave the prophet to speak. These are the words that God commanded Jeremiah to proclaim. They are phrased in the form of a rhetorical question, that is, a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.
God asks a simple question: “Will you . . . commit adultery . . . and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?” In other words, to use our contemporary example, “will you watch porn and then come before God on Sunday morning, thinking that your church attendance delivers you from your sin? Will you continue in your sin, thinking that weekly church attendance and a prayer delivers you?”
God, through His prophet, accuses the children of Israel of trusting in the ceremonial of the temple instead of leading holy lives. He accuses you and me today of trusting in church attendance, church ordinances and church rituals to atone for recent sexual sins. He accuses us of thinking that we can commit habitual sexual sin (adultery, in this case) just as long as we attend the temple regularly. After our attendance, we can then return to our wickedness without “amending our ways or our doings” (Jeremiah 7:3).
“None can claim an interest in free salvation, who allow themselves in the practice of known sin, or live in the neglect of known duty,” says Matthew Henry, commenting on this passage. “All who continue in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, make Christ the minister of sin; and the cross of Christ, rightly understood, forms the most effectual remedy to such poisonous sentiments. The Son of God gave himself for our transgressions, to show the excellence of the Divine law, and the evil of sin. Never let us think we may do wickedness without suffering for it.”
Amen, brother.
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