Jeremiah 7:7

In Jeremiah 7 he begins a new message. He takes up the temple itself, and shows that the tide of evil in Judah had completely polluted the very sanctuary of the LORD. And while they were in danger, they were trusting not in God nor in His word, but in lying words of their own. They thought the outward forms would be enough to hold back the destroying foreign power.

It is very sad when God's people put their trust in the symbols of God's presence rather than in God Himself. It happened in the days of the ark, and again just before the king of Babylon took Judah captive. Back then, the people thought they were perfectly safe because the ark was in the camp. Later they thought the enemy could not overthrow them because they had the temple in Jerusalem. They trusted in the temple, not in God — otherwise their ways would have matched their faith in Him.

It is the second table of the law — love to their neighbours — to which the Lord had recalled the attention of His people. He had called them to carry out true judgment and to show no favouritism. They were to have a tender and compassionate heart. They were to keep from oppressing the helpless, the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and the poor. All this shows the value God attaches to our practical conduct, to a walk in relation to others as formed and ordered by His word.

God must have reality in His people. Grace was never meant to weaken the moral ways of God, and we must never let it. Grace is the one power that makes those ways precious in our eyes and gives us firmness in walking in them. No snare destroys more than this: people who sin and keep on sinning pleading their privilege. God's righteous government of His people is as certain as the mercy which chose and blessed them: let them forget neither!

If the people honoured the Lord by submitting to His word, He would bless them in the land with temporal blessings, in keeping with the covenant they lived under. It is different with Christians. They are saved by pure unconditional grace. But once saved, their blessing and their enjoyment of spiritual blessing depend on their walk, on obedience to the Word. They do not obey to be saved.

There are two distinct conditions in which we may call upon God. We may call on Him in deep sorrow over sin, and He hears us. Or we may call on Him with a good conscience and a heart that does not accuse us, and He hears us. The two are very different. Both stand in sharp contrast with the indifference and hard heart that counts on God while openly disobeying Him and living in unrighteousness. Practical righteousness He owns and approves. Confessed sin He can freely and fully pardon. But to think we can trust God while our feet walk the path of wickedness is nothing short of shocking irreverence.

False trust in ordinances and outward worship is only too evident in the Christian world as well. Crowds of unsaved people keep up their religious observances and think this protects them and secures the Lord's help and blessing. The Lord calls on them to amend their ways and their doings, to work a better righteousness.