All right, again, my subject
is religious corruption. Our text is found in Jeremiah
chapter 23. Verse 1, please, Jeremiah 23. Woe be to the pastors that destroy
and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Now, jumping
down to verse 9 and reading through verse 18, please. Chapter 23,
verse 9 and following. My heart within me is broken
because of the prophets. All of my bones shake. I'm like a drunken man, like
a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because
of the words of His holiness. for the land is full of adulterers,
for because of swearing the land mourns, the pleasant places of
the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and
their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are
profane. Yea, in my house have I found
their wickedness saith the Lord. Wherefore, their ways shall be
unto them as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven
on and fall therein. For I will bring evil upon them
even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. And I have seen
folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused
my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets
of Jerusalem an horrible thing. They commit adultery and walk
in lies. They strengthen also the hands
of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They
are all of them unto me, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the inhabitants
thereof. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God of hosts concerning the prophets, Behold, I will feed them with
wormwood, and make them drink the water of Gaul. For from the prophets of Jerusalem
is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that
prophesy unto you. They make you vain, they speak
a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the
Lord. They say, still unto them that
despise me, the Lord has said, ye shall have peace. And they
say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of their
own heart, no evil shall come upon ye. For who hath stood in
the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived, and has heard
his word? Who hath marked his word, and
heard it? Now, again, what an appropriate
text for our subject, religious corruption. Matthew Henry, in
his commentary on this section of the Word of God, called Jeremiah,
quote, a reproving prophet, unquote. His ministry, his prophet, and
his preaching were in the midst of an underworld and a perverse
generation in that period of history. And it was His calling
and commission that He might warn them of the danger and judgment
that was coming upon them because of their sin, as well as the
nations that were round about them. There are some that have
referred to Jeremiah as the weeping prophet. That's the way that
we've heard him described because he lamented and weeped and tears
flowed out of his eyes because of the sin of his people and
because of the sad state, the corrupted state of the condition
of the nation and the people. Now, notice what he said in verse
9 of our text and chapter. My heart within me is broken
because of the prophet, because of their lies, because of their
corruption, because of their unfaithfulness unto God. or as Gill put it, because of
their false doctrine and their wicked lies which they give out
as if it came in the name of God, and the ruin into which
these corrupt prophets and priests were leading the people into
a way of destruction. Kyle and Dalich in their commentary
call them, quote, pseudo-prophets who flattered the people's carnal
longings, unquote. That's what a lot of preachers
do. Now first, we notice the emotional
effect upon the prophet Jeremiah. Certainly the prophet must have
felt a little bit like the Apostle Paul in Acts 17 and verse 16
when he stood in the marketplace yonder in Athens and he saw the
entire city wholly given over unto idols. And the Scripture
said the spirit of Paul was stirred within him when he saw the people's
devotion unto their idol. Everywhere the apostle looked,
there was an idol, no matter where he went. Some have said,
perhaps in jest but partly true, that it was easier to find an
idol in the city of Athens than it was to find a man, so numerous
were they. So, Jeremiah, concerning the
false prophet. Easier to find a false prophet
than it was to find a true one in Israel. And he said, because
of them my heart is heavy, broken, and is grieved. Jeremiah was
zealous and jealous for the honor, for the Word, and for the glory
of God, for the holy words of God. But he saw them neglected
and he saw them perverted by that crop of prophets that were
among them at the time. Notice what he said in verse
9. He said, my bones shake or literally
tremble. either at the open wickedness
of the prophets running amok among them, or the prospect of
judgment that might be visited upon the nation because of the
prophecy, or rather the apostasy, of the people of that time. Now,
notice that the prophet uses a metaphor likening himself unto
a drunken man, one who has over imbibed and goes staggering and
wobbling down the street. He waggers and he weaves and
his steps are so unsteady. He is in a stupor. His head,
as it were, is spinning. His thoughts are racing and are
unclear. His senses are dull from the
power of the drink. His emotions are deeply stirred
by the apostasy that was all around the prophet Jeremiah. It wounded the prophet. deeply
and in his heart. It took a very heavy emotional
toll upon the prophet to see what had happened to his blessed
Israel and the worship of God. Now this would only be the case
if Jeremiah were jealous for the glory of the God of Israel
as was Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and verse 10. Now, Jeremiah knew
the evil and the apostasy. He knew that it was far-reaching
among those that were supposed to be the servants of Jehovah. And to clear that, let's scan
the text, if you might put your eyes on these verses that I mention. Verse 1, he said simply, be unto
the pastors." That is the pastors of Israel. Notice in verse 9
he said that his feeling was because of the prophet. Verse 11, both prophet and priest
are profane. Verse 13, I have seen folly in
the prophets in Samaria. Verse 14, I have also seen in
the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing. Notice that the
margin has filthiness. I have seen a filthiness in the
prophets in Jerusalem. Then look at verse 15 and the
last part. For from the prophets of Jerusalem
is profaneness, the margin has hypocrisy, gone forth out into
the land. Now, we are not to imagine that
the religious corruption defined in this place was confined to
or restricted only to the prophets and the priests of Israel. but
also extended for the most part to the body of the people as
well. Not only were the leaders corrupt,
but the people themselves had also given themselves over into
corruption. They walked in corruption, not
in righteousness for the most part. Not that the people eschewed
evil, while their spiritual leaders were wicked hypocrites. Both
alike were corrupt, the prophets and the people. Corruption had,
for the most part, spread itself over all the land and throughout
all of the people. Now on the other hand, having
said that, we would not be justified in concluding that there was
not so much as a single faithful prophet or priest in Israel,
or that there was no such thing as a faithful Israelite who held
to the way and long for the appearance of Messiah. Because we remember
that it is common with God in the scripture to reserve unto
himself a remnant even in the midst of the worst apostasy of
the age. We see that in 1 Kings 19 and
18. We see it in Isaiah chapter 1
verse 9. Paul refers to it in Romans 11
and verse 5. that there is a remnant even
now, and unless God had left us a remnant, we should have
been as Sodom and Gomorrah. Now this is a testimony to the
sovereign election of the grace of God. That there was a Noah
in the generation prior to the sending of the flood. And he
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6 and verse 8,
in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation there was
a righteous man and one who found grace. 7,000 there were whom God had
reserved unto himself who had not bowed the knee to Baal. 1
Kings 19 and verse 18. Yes, even in the corruption of
Jerusalem, there was a Simeon who waited there for the consolation
of Israel. Luke chapter 2 and verse 25. But for the most part, in these
ages, the greater part of what would call itself Israel, and
in our day, a greater part of what would call itself Christian,
are given over to corruption, to heresy, lie, and apostasy. False doctrine rules. and reigns in almost every place,
so that both the leaders and the people are in the grips of
corruption. You know the bad thing about
it? Both of them are comfortable in their corruption. An impressive
passage to me is found in Jeremiah chapter 5, and the verses are
verse 30 and verse 31. Here they are. A wonderful and
horrible thing is committed in the land. Now how can that which
is horrible be wonderful, we might ask, and vice versa? So the word wonderful, at least
in the King James Version, is in the margin astonishment and
filthiness. It's from a word which means
to stun or to devastate, to make amazed, to make one astonished. It is an astonishing thing. Now the question is, what is
this horrible and astonishing thing? Well, it has two parts. If you look at verse 31, first
of all, the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear
rule by their means. Now look at those words. This
is the first act of the appalling and horrible thing that was occurring
in the land at that day. lying prophets, self-serving,
self-interested priests who are complicit with the lying prophet
rather than the priest withstanding the lies of the prophet. The priest were in there among
them and along with them. Now, what an anomaly! What a deviation from the norm! Because, you see, prophets and
priests in Israel ought to have stood for the Word of God, thus
saith the Word of God. But the prophets and the priests
were false, were prophesying falsely. Now that's not the end
of the matter. Secondly, look at the last part
of verse 31, Jeremiah chapter 5. How do the people react to
the corruption of the prophet and of the priest? My people
love to have it so. A horrible thing is being done
and my people love to have it so. First of all, it is to their
detriment that they were not at all offended at the corruption
and the lies of their spiritual guides. They tolerated that corruption
and those lies. They made no protest. They made no call for reformation
or getting back to the right way because the people preferred
a lie unto the truth. Yes, in fact, there are two areas
in almost any society or in any country where most people demand
to be lied to. Not only do they prefer it, but
they demand to be lied to. And in this age of ours, political
correctness, a lie is to be preferred to the truth in most places. Tell us what we want to hear. Tell us what we want to know. Don't tell us the truth. Be positive. Don't be negative. Say only good and encouraging
things. Don't be negative. Make us feel
good. Tell us hope and change are coming
our way. Do not make us feel bad. Now
these two areas that I have in mind are, first of all, in the
political realm. Politics. Tell people the unvarnished
truth and you cannot get elected dog catcher in this country today. You've got to lie, lie, lie. and then lie some more. When you get caught in one lie,
tell another lie to cover that one or to prop it up. That's
the first area where lies serve well. Secondly, and this is the
sadder, is religion, in the preaching of religion. Here is where a
lie comes in handy to gain the ear and the following of the
people. For you see, the truth is offensive
to fleshly pride, and as in Romans 1 in verse 18, who suppress the
truth in unrighteousness. holding it under, restraining
it, holding it back. I think the word is the same
word that we find in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, what withholdeth until
it be taken out of the way. The truth is suppressed, is what
Paul is saying there in Romans chapter 1. But let's return to
Jeremiah 23 and see what we can do with this passage about religious
corruption. Well, there's more here than
we can ever get our arms around in one single sermon. The pictures are vivid. and the
corruption is exposed without any mitigation. The prophet,
as the Lord Jesus, meant no words in indicting the prophets and
the priests and the people for their corruption in that day. Look at verse 10 and the opening
for, F-O-R. It is casually connected, as
we see, to verse 9. My heart within me is broken. For, verse 10, the land is full
of adulterers. Now, it seems like this is the
common prevalent sin of every age and of every place. It is usually the first sin found
and the last to be put away. Matthew Henry took this to include,
quote, both spiritual and corporal whoredom, unquote. There was neither fidelity to
God nor was there fidelity to their marriage and to morality. Uncleanliness filled the land. and their cup to overflowing,
as if every man neighed after his neighbor's wife, as we read
in Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 8. Then listen to the brokenhearted
prophet say in verse 10, that because of the sin of the people,
There was judgment upon the land. Judgment in the form of drought
and of famine. Because of swearing, or the margin
has it, cursing. Look also at Hosea chapter 4
verse 2 and verse 3. The dried up fields and the pastures
were signs of a curse and the judgment of God upon their land. Because the prophets and the
priests abused their power and were corrupt. And the people
went along and did not resist it. What's more, look at verse
11. Both prophet and priest were
profane. They did not seek to call the
people of God unto repentance. They did not cry out against
the sins of the people or bring to them the Word of God and call
them to turn back because they themselves were corrupt and defiled. In fact, Verse 11 and the last
part. They even brought their wickedness
and their gross hypocrisy into the very house of God, into the
very temple of God, and they corrupted the services of God
in the temple. They adulterated the worship
that God had instituted in the temple. One described them, they
played the hypocrite behind sacred pretensions. What an awful hypocrisy
is that. The prophets pretended to be
declying to the people the word of God. And the priests continued
to go through their motions, their sacrifices, their rituals,
and ceremonies. But each one was but playing
out a hypocritical charade, and were but ripening themselves
and the people for the judgment of God, as we read in verse 12. Now, I read the commentators.
I find agreement with Calvin and with others that here in
verse 13 and verse 14 that they go together and that they contain
a comparison or contrast between the prophets that were in Samaria
preaching Baal and the prophets that were in Jerusalem claiming
to teach the word of Jehovah. as if God says to them, what
I saw in Samaria was repulsive. It was repulsive enough, but
what I see in Jerusalem was worse and more horrible. And what saw he in the prophets
in Jerusalem? Jerusalem, the holy city, where
the temple was located, where the services of God were performed
by the ordained tribe, the Levites. Jerusalem, The temple where God
put his holy name and his typical presence. What did he see there?
Well, he saw they committed adultery. They break that commandment,
thou shalt not commit adultery. They gave themselves to all form
of immoral devices and uncleanliness. It was common, kind of like our
society, with little or no restraint. But also notice, they walked
in lies, or some say in deception. The priest, the prophet walked
in deception. Others, they lived in lie. The truth is not in them. They both preach and they personally
practice deceit. The prophets lie and the people
love to have it so. When the prophets are corrupt,
the people may let loose their own corruption without fear of
rebuke or correction. Look at verse 14, in the middle
of the verse. This had a determined, rather
detrimental effect upon the people in a twofold way. A, notice verse
14, it strengthened the hand of the evildoer. When the prophets
were not faithful to the work of God, when they did not preach
the word of God unto the people, it strengthened the hand of the
evildoer." Calvin called this patronizing the wicked, quote
unquote. Letting them become hardened
and continue on in their sin without calling them unto repentance
until the people actually became comfortable with such corruption. Now that's a phrase I'm going
to use a few times in the remainder of our study. They became comfortable
in their corruption. They accepted it as the normal
way. I submit to you that our society
has, for the most part, become corruptible, or rather become
comfortable with corruption, both politically and religiously. But then be, there was another
great fall, there was no repentance. Notice what he said, that none
doth return from their wickedness. Their sins are not exposed. There is no conviction of sin. Those that are not told of the
evil of sin and how atrocious it is in the sight of our just
and holy God. And because of that, they go
on in their evil way. While these pseudo-prophets assure
the people, as seen here, in verse 17, and let me please read
that again in our hearing. They say, still unto them that
despise me, the Lord has said, ye shall have peace, and they
say unto everyone, that walks in the imagination of their own
heart, no evil shall come upon you." These are the kind of thoughts,
preachers that we have in our day. We hear them saying to the
wicked and to everyone, God bless you. God loves you. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. All is well, all is
well. Go in peace. God is a God of
love. Now this they say, unto such,
as we see in verse 17, who are called haters of God, saying
to them, You will have peace, promising those who walk according
to their own evil imagination, no harm shall come you. God is
not a God of wrath and anger and judgment and meanness. Go. Promising the haters of God peace,
and the resistors of God, exemption from harm and from judgment. But how does God view them? Look
at the last part again of verse 14. They are all of them unto
me as Sodom and the inhabitants of Gomorrah. Now what was the
character of these people? Genesis 13 and 13. They were
wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. There they had, in Sodom and
Gomorrah, a very large, quote, gay community, unquote. And here was the site of the
first gay pride parade, Sodom and Gomorrah. ever holds a distinction
in the scripture as being the epitome of the judgment of God
against the wickedness of man. Now, do you ask yourself the
question, why did the people tolerate such religious leaders
and teachers? Why did they not seek a true,
honest, and a leader with some integrity? Could the answer be
because they had themselves become as corrupt as their prophets,
and I'll say it again, they had become comfortable with the corruption
of their age. Consider this example if you
would. I think it is very relevant to
our subject of today. For years and years It had been
known that the Catholic Church priesthood had been rife with
homosexuality and pedophilia. That was known. The Church has
paid out millions upon top of millions in settlements to those
that were molested by the priests. Now here's my question. Did the
church purge those priests out, put them away? No. Not by the
hair of your chinny-chin-chin. They just moved them into another
place. Question number two. Was there
a mass exodus of people leaving the Catholic Church because of
its corruption? Again, no. They stayed put. They have become comfortable
with that corruption that is there. It is easy for them to
have forgiveness of their sin. Just say a few Hail Marys and
rub the beads. And when they die, the priest
will say of them, our brother or our sister has gone yonder
into heaven. Now consider, again in Jeremiah
23, the counsel and admonition in verse 16. Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy
unto you. Don't hear them. Don't follow
them. Don't heed their counsel. And why is that? Well, because
they prophesy without a divine call. They are without a divine
commission. They're speaking without inspiration. Look at the last half of verse
16. They make you vain. That is, they deceive you. They delude you. They fill you
with spurious thoughts. They give false, ungrounded hope
to those who hear and believe. And they speak visions out of
their own heart, not words from God's mouth. Look at verse 21. I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet
they prophesy. Look at verse 25. I have heard
what the prophets say, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have
dreamed, I have dreamed. I'm giving you what I have dreamed. Now, would you agree, we have
a parcel of these in the midst of us in our day. Preachers claiming
special revelation. Claiming dreams. Claiming direct
communication from God. Directly hearing the voice of
God. Visits with God. Visits with
the Lord Jesus. Who then get up before the people
and they say unto them, look, the Lord came to me and He told
me this and He told me that. The Lord told me to tell you
this. They tell of being caught up
into the very heaven itself and seeing God and having communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ. I say of them, they are liars
and are not to be believed. But alas, they deceive the simple. And one thing they do is they
scratch that itch that some today have for, quote, Christian excitement,
unquote. Christian excitement. Have you noticed how preachers
and pastors in our day want their church to be the most exciting
church in town. You'll be excited when you walk
in the door. Some are not content with Scripture. They're not content with the
Word of God. They're not content with sound
doctrine because they have itching ears. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse
3, and they will not endure sound doctrine. Listen to Isaiah, correction,
Isaiah chapter 30, it's verse 9 and verse 10. This is a rebellious
people, lying children, they will not hear the law of the
Lord, which say to the seers, see not, and to the prophets,
prophesy not unto us right things, prophesy unto us smooth things."
That's Isaiah 30, verse 9 and 10. The people are saying openly,
prophesy deceits, say smooth things, that is, flatter us. Make us feel good. Lie to us. Build up our hope and our faith. Now, let's fast forward to the
New Testament and the leaders and the peoples in the day of
the Lord's ministry here on earth, whose wickedness and whose corruption
culminated in their killing the Prince of Life, the Lord Jesus
Himself. So corrupt, so blind, so ignorant
were they that they crucified the very Son of God when He appeared
among them. Their corruption exceeded that
of their fathers. For while their fathers persecuted,
stoned, killed the prophets that God sent among them, Their children,
in the Lord's day, actually put Messiah upon a cross. They perverted the Scripture.
They brought in tradition in its place. And my brother and
sister, heresy always leads to immorality. Heresy is a forerunner
of immorality. John the Baptist, our Lord Jesus
Christ, called the leaders of the Jews such names as hypocrites,
fools, blind guides, whited supplicants, generation of vipers, children
of hell, and such as that. What did they do? They extorted
widows. They imposed grievous unscriptural
burdens upon the people from which they exempted themselves. They strained a gnat out of their
cup that it might not tickle their throat, but at the same
time they swallowed a camel and as Spurgeon said, quote, hump
and all, unquote. they quarreled over trifles and
neglected the weightier matters of the law. They put all the
emphasis not on the inward, but on the external, making a spectacle
of their imagined piety, putting on an outward show, when people
were nearby, stressing the form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof, as Paul tells Timothy. And then, so even now. As Paul warned Timothy of perverse
disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Unquote. Corruption in our day
flows from within. Out of the heart, said our Lord,
proceed all manner of corruption. Mark 7, verse 20 and following. Now before we are done today
and end our message, I think that we ought to say a few words
about present-day religious corruption, because it is epidemic. There is much corruption. There is more corruption than
there is righteousness in what goes under the heading of Christianity. In the church's preachers and
pastors there is adultery, homosexuality, drugs, embezzlement, and excessive
heresy. Look at the many preachers, the
priests, the rabbis. that tells people that God loves
them, who are wicked, that adulterate the Word of God, who, when God
sends judgments upon the land, blame it on the devil, or global
warming, or Mother Nature. When God's judging hand is upon
the land, they do not take it to be the judgment of God. They
assure the wicked that God is for them. They claim visions
and revelation. They claim to have heard a word
of knowledge, which they now wish to share with us. But no
matter how much they lie and how preposterous are their claims,
they all seem to have a large following. No matter how corrupt
they are, they have their defenders that defend them. God's counsel
to his people is this, don't hearken to the words of these
prophets. Don't hear their words, don't
accept them, don't believe them, don't sit under their ministry. They speak not from God, but
from their own hearts. Their words are not the words
of God, but their own vain imagination. They lie, they deceive many,
and by the way, in our day, truth is evil spoken of. And yet it is true that corruption
begets and attracts more corruption. If the leaders are corrupt, the
people therefore have least to be more corrupt themselves. So corruption breeds corruption,
particularly when it comes from the leader's down. Religious
corruption has always been a problem and always has been prevalent.