Self-Destruction of Deception

Jeremiah, Pt 1 Lesson 4

Self-Destruction of Deception

Kay Arthur

What happens when you don’t know God? What happens when there is no knowledge of God among the people? You’re going to be deceived. Why? Because you have to believe in something. When you believe, that is where your hope is, that is where your assurance is, where your comfort comes from or where your confidence comes from. So you have to believe in something. So you are either going to believe in truth which is what God says or you are going to believe a lie.

And today, just as I was praying, I thought, “How do I take this lesson and put it together?” I want to talk to you about the self-destruction of deception. When we are deceived it is going to bring destruction. And that is what you have seen as you have studied it.

As we have looked at Jeremiah, this is either the second or the third message in Jeremiah. Whether it is the second or third message it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we get the message.

In chapter 2 that message begins. If chapter 2-3:5 is the first message, then the first message is:

1. You have forsaken Me (God), the fountain of living waters. (Jeremiah 2:1-3:5)

You have turned around and you have hewn out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Why? Because man has got to have water to survive. If he’s not going to get the real, he’s going to get the false. Do you understand? If he doesn’t get the eternal, he’s going to get the temporal because he has to satisfy that thirst. This is what Jesus said to the woman at the well.

John 4:10

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

She has been going to that well every day. And now she is confronted with the Fountain of living water. She said, “Give me that water.”

And He did, and she took it. J And she drank and she was satisfied.

The second message is:

2) Return to God. (Jeremiah 3:6-6:30)

This is logical. What have you done? You have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and you have hewn out for yourselves broken cisterns but God’s message is, “That’s it. You have had it.” NO. His message is, “Return to Me. If you return I will heal your faithlessness. So return to Me.”

The third message is in chapters 7, 8-9.

3) Do not trust in deceptive words. Know Me. (Jeremiah 7-9)

Let’s look at 7:4 – Jeremiah is told to go and stand at the door of the Lord’s house and proclaim His word to the people.

Jeremiah 7:3-4

3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways (change your ways) and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

4 “Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

Don’t trust in deceptive words. For you to simple say, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” is not going to get you what you need. We are going to look at it in just a minute.

So what does He say? Understand Me. Know Me. Don’t trust in deceptive words. I want you to understand Me. I want you to know Me.

Look at Jeremiah 9:23-24

23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;

24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

So basically the message of chapters 7-9 is: Don’t trust in deceptive words (that is how chapter 7 opens up) but it is – know Me. And you are going to see this more as we go through 7-9.

What does He want them to know?

24… that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness (where?) on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

So this is what He wants them to know. Don’t trust in deceptive words. I want you to know Me. I want you to know that I exercise lovingkindness, justice and righteousness here on the earth.

He says: For I delight in these things.

I want us to look at this deception. I want you to see what they were doing.

1) They were trusting in deception (Jeremiah 7:4)

Jeremiah 7:4

4 “Do not trust in (what kind of words?) deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

“Deceptive words” means that they are not true, that they are off. Something is wrong with them. They are not going to take you where you need to go. They are not going to give you the truth that you need.

It’s like - 3 times it’s true.

Jeremiah 7:5-7

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor,

6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin,

7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers (for how long?) forever and ever.

In other words, I gave this to your fathers. It is a guarantee. It is forever and ever. And if you want to live in it, you can’t trust in deceptive words. You have got to do what I’m all about.

What is He all about? If I know God, what do I know? I know that He is lovingkindness, justice, righteous on earth. It is not just something you wait for and you get when you get to heaven. But this is something that God wants to exercise down here on earth. How does He want to exercise it? He wants to exercise it through His people. As God is, so He wants His people to be because they were to be a kingdom of priests unto God. They were to be the priests to the nations. They were to show the nations what it is like to belong to God, what it is like to live under a theocracy, what it is like to walk in obedience to God. They were to show that.

So He is saying, “Don’t trust in deceptive words thinking that what you say and what you’re talking about (the temple) don’t think that that’s going to get it, it is the way you live that is going to get it.

He is not talking about a social gospel, where it is just your deeds, but it is the result of your belief, the result of your faith, it is the outcome of your faith.

So what are they going to do? They are going to amend their ways and their deeds to line up with who God is. What are they going to do? They are going to practice justice. They are going to practice justice. If they don’t oppress the alien, the orphan or the widow, is that lovingkindness? Yes. If they do not shed innocent blood in this place, is that righteousness? Yes. Were they shedding innocent blood in that place? Yes. What were they doing? They were taking (and there is a drawing of it in one of the historical books) they were going up to their gods and they would take their child and give it to the priest of the god that they were worshipping. The priest would lead the child up a ramp. Then there would be a huge mouth of that god (in some of them) which was an oven. Then they would take their child and throw them into the fire.

When we go to Megiddo (we teach the whole book of Revelation in a visual way at the foot of the tel, archeological dig of Megiddo) when we finish we go up to the top. When you go up to the top you are headed toward this overlook where you can see Har-Megiddo, the valley of Megiddo where all the nations will be gathered to go to war against Jerusalem. I tell the people to look to the right because you can see the remains of these stone structures of the altars of their gods. This is where they would also offer their children.

So this is what they are doing. He is saying, “This is deception. This is deception.” I am going to show you – but deception leads to self-destruction. And it is SELF-DESTRUCTION because you can either believe truth or you can believe a lie. And you say, “They had no choice.” Did they not have truth? Oh yes. They had the God of truth speaking truth to them through the prophet Jeremiah. So they are trusting in deceptive words.

Jeremiah 7:8

8 “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

And then look at what they are doing. They are trusting in deceptive words. What is their character and lifestyle like?

Jeremiah 7:9-10

9 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known,

10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations?

And say what? “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. It has to be right because this is what I am saying.” But it is not. It is a deceptive word.

Jeremiah 7:10

10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations?

Let’s say this white board represents that house of the Lord. The house of the Lord is nothing apart from the Lord. Do you understand? It is nothing apart from the name of the Lord. What makes the church the church? It is not the building; it’s the people within it. And they thought that just by saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” because His name was there.

You studied why they thought this. If they got in a different country and you turn toward this place and you cry out towards Me, then I will hear. I will hear, not the place will hear. Do you understand? It’s I will hear. Who is “I”? It is the God who is the God of lovingkindness, God of justice, God of righteousness. So it is not the temple, pre say, but it is the temple because it is called by His name because it is a picture of Him. It is a picture of how you approach a holy God. It is a picture of the One who is to come, of Messiah who is to come. Everything in that temple testifies to what is in heaven, the throne of God in heaven but also the Son of God who left heaven who came down here to redeem us because the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin.

When they are trusting in these deceptive words, it caused them to turn away. That is what you see in verses 4-7. They trusted in deceptive words so they lived this way: stole, committed murder, offered false sacrifices BECAUSE they thought it was all a matter of what they said instead of how they lived.

Have you ever witnessed to people? Well, it is interesting. If anyone ever got on a plane and witnessed to me like I witnessed to them or someplace else, I would stand there and eventually I would be over the counter or I would be over the seat or something and I would have my arms around them. J Shocking, I know. But anyway. I would just grab their hand and I would be so excited. But have you ever witnessed to someone and they causally say, “I’m a Christian. My father, he’s a pastor.” But there is no bearing of the witness. They have the words without the reality.

And what it shows you when you look at them is that they are deceived. It shows the real thing is not there. The temple is empty.

So trusting in deceptive words caused them to turn away and it affected the way that they lived.

Jeremiah 7:3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

The way they lived, listen, was all about them. The way that they lived was all about them. They practiced deceit, not justice, lovingkindness nor righteousness. Let me show you this.

You see it in:

Jeremiah 7:10-11

10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations?

11 “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord.

So, they are practicing deceit. They are not practicing justice, lovingkindness, righteousness, and yet what do they think? They think they are what? They think they are delivered. They think they are alright, and they are deceived.

Look at Jeremiah 9:4-9. Look at how it affects them, their relationships and the way that they live.

What is He saying to them?

Jeremiah 9:4-9

4 “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, (You are deceived. You are living among a people who are deceived. And nobody can trust his neighbor) and do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

5 “Everyone deceives his neighbor and does not speak the truth, they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

6 “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.

7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, I will refine them and assay them (Have we seen that before? We saw that last week. They are reprobate silver.); For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

8 “Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit;(You can’t trust your neighbor. Why? These are a people in a sense – and this is why the world looks at the church and gets so disgusted because they have met someone – not the whole church – but they have met someone, they have had an encounter with someone that says so to speak, “The church, the church, the church. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” But they don’t live it. It is just words out of their mouth. You get into a business deal with them, and they cheat you. They promise one thing but then you find out that they aren’t going to keep their promise. Not only that, they are slandering you. And we could go on and on in illustration.) With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly (what is he doing?) he sets an ambush for him.