Do Not Follow Your Heart

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're going to be at Jeremiah, wrapping up chapter 7, getting into chapter 8, talking about some pretty obscene religion that's going on in Judah. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we pray that you would please help us as we read your word to understand it. Please, Lord, help us to know what it says, not just coming through our ears, but, Father, let our minds, by your Spirit, process it correctly. And then, Lord, let it hit our hearts in a way that we would then live it out. God, we need your help to do this in Jesus' name. Amen. Here we go. We are at Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 28.
So you shall say to them, this is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off your hair and cast it away. Take up a lamentation on the desolate heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
And they have built the high places to toff it, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury in Tophet until there is no more room.
The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of myrrh and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall be desolate. At that time, says the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the hosts of heaven. which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshipped, they shall not be gathered nor buried. they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in the place where I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts." Wow. So we have to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what's this about? Well, this is a judgment.
God sees the treachery of what's going on here, and there's something that's really grotesque. The children of Judah are going outside the walls of Jerusalem, going down in the Valley of Hanom, and there, what are they doing? They're literally burning their children alive. This isn't a myth either. I wish I could act like, oh, this is just God speaking in some type of allegorical... No. No, there's archaeological evidence. There's jars. And burnt baby remains. In jars. God says, that never came into my mind. I never told you to do that.
You're worshipping the starry host, you're going and worshipping Tophet, you're worshipping all these other things. That's why judgment's coming. The Lord is saying, you are being cruel and oppressive, you are literally murdering innocent children. And I've never told you to do any of this. Make no doubt about it, the Lord himself sees the people as his people. And so to murder these children are to murder God's children. And so he says to them, because of that, that's why.
There's going to be no more rejoicing, no more laughing, no more brides and grooms having a good day. No, it's going to be weeping. This is the same valley most likely Jesus talks about with Gehenna. where then they would go and defile the place by taking the refuse and the trash and lighting it on fire, and it's just a fire that grows constantly forever. That's what the picture is that we call hell. And God said judgment's coming on Jerusalem because of that type of sin, that idolatry that shows itself, and that type of cruelty and oppression. So going after their own desires, going after their own imaginations, instead of serving the Lord, instead of believing Him, instead of trusting Him, they're literally offering up their children, burning them in the fire.
It's a hard passage. It is not an easy one. What's the best verse to summarize this in my Bible? I have verse 31 underlined. Actually, the middle part of verse 31 double underlined. That they were building their fires, or that they were to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart. So what do we call it to do about this?
Do we actually listen to the Lord? Do we go to His Word and do we see what was on the Lord's heart? Do we see that in His heart was to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength? To follow after His ways, to go in His paths, to listen to Him. But not to follow the machinations and imaginations of our own hearts. This is why Jeremiah is going to say, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. I can't tame my own heart. I've got to follow after the Lord. I can't follow my own heart. I can't just let it go and do whatever I want. When I do what I want, my wife is hurt, my children suffer, and the Lord is blasphemed.
But I've got to follow the way of Christ, putting to death the sinful desires of the flesh and putting on the new man, which has made him righteous in holiness, being holy as he is holy. I think that's what we're called to do, is to say, look, if I followed my heart, I'd be in the exact same place.
I can't follow the imaginations of my own heart, but Christ has saved me from my own heart. Christ has saved me to follow in His ways. He's put His Spirit in me. I might abide in Him and bear much good fruit. So do we abide in Christ and go in the way of Christ? Do you follow Him? Do you love Him? Go in His ways. Let's pray. God, we pray that you would keep us from ourselves. Keep us, Lord, from the ways in which we would want to go.
God, we are not naturally better. An idea of the Israelites at this time. There's no way in our American Western culture we could possibly say we're any better. As millions upon millions upon millions in our culture have died in the womb at the hands of abortionists. Lord, and that's for various reasons. in different families. But that's not what was in your heart.
You fearfully and wonderfully made us in our mother's wombs. We know that full well. So God, teach us to cherish life and to cherish what's in your heart. Teach us to walk in your ways. Teach us to go in your paths. God teaches us to be holy as you are holy. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the way of Jesus Christ always. I'll see you next time. Bye.