As we saw yesterday, just because there is singing, good or bad, does not mean God is listening. When you watch people singing, their lips will be moving, unless they a practicing ventriloquist. When we read scripture, speaking can refer to the tongue, lips, mouth, and even throats. The heart is also included when talking about the mouth.Just because something is spoken does not mean it is true and that also includes our words to God and to others. As we saw yesterday, many will say they are secure because they uttered the words Lord, Lord. Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” But Jesus also said Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” The deception is which Jesus is Lord and what teaching have they believed in and submitted their lives to.

    God told Jeremiah to bury a belt and then later dig it up. When he dug it up, it was ruined and completely useless. God then said Jeremiah 13:10 “These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless!” Because the church has rebelled against God’s word, God has turned His face from us. In our rebellion our words became meaningless, and God stopped listening. God is not looking at our mouths, lips, throats or tongues but our hearts. We are toldMatthew 12:34 “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Paul said Romans 3:10“There is no one righteous, not even one;11 there is no one who understands;there is no one who seeks God.12 All have turned away,they have together become worthless;there is no one who does good,not even one.13 “Their throats are open graves;their tongues practice deceit.”“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The deception and delusion in the church is that none of this applies to today’s church.

    People expect God to save them but do not turn from their wicked ways. Zechariah 7:13 “When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty.” This can also be said about the church. Jeremiah 2:26 “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,so the people of Israel are disgraced—they, their kings and their officials,their priests and their prophets.27 They say to wood, (other gospels) ‘You are my father,’and to stone, ‘You gave me birth. They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ 28 Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns.” The problem is not with the strength of our God, but the rebellion of His people. Isaiah 59:1 “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”

    We become God’s enemy when our mouths do not speak truth. Psalm 5:9 “Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies.” Proverbs 6:16 “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” I don’t think most would want to hear this applied to themselves, but Jesus makes it clear that we must, especially since the church has turned away to follow their own words and ways.Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” Jesus then said, Mark 7:6 “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:“‘These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.7 They worship me in vain;their teachings are merely human rules.’8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

    Jeremiah had this complaint before God. Jeremiah 12:1“You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper. Why do all the faithless live at ease?2 You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.3 Yet you know me, Lord; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Moreover, the people are saying, “He will not see what happens to us.” Job said Job 24:13 “There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths. 16 They want nothing to do with the light. 22 But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life. 23 He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways. 24 For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone.” God answers Jeremiah and says, Jeremiah 12:6“Your relatives, members of your own family— even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.7 “I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love    into the hands of her enemies. 13 They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the Lord’s fierce anger.” Here we see Jeremiah’s own family say one thing but believe another.

    Today we have the desolate church singing praises to a God who is not listening and uttering words with their mouths and lips, but God sees that hearts are far from Him. Most will respond with our worship is sincere and our words come from the heart, meanwhile they continue to follow other gospels and refuse to turn away from them. When talking about repentance, the best place to start is to return to God’s word and turn away from the church as we know it today. Job said Job 42:5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Isaiah 6:5“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah is told to tell the people, Isaiah 6:9 “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” We are not seeing the healing we should be seeing because the hearts of the church are calloused, ears are dull and eyes are closed. There is also a famine that is already here.Amos 8:11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

    Isaiah then said, “For how long, Lord?” And God answered: Isaiah 6:11“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak    leave stumps when they are cut down,so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” The good news is there will always be a remnant of survivors. The bad news is rebellion / disobedience always leads to death and destruction. This not only affects our present life, but our eternal destination. Today the church looks just like when the Babylonians and Assyrians attacked. Nehemiah said, Nehemiah 2:17 “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.20 “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding”

    Even though worship is in vain because hearts are far from God, God has promised to rebuild the church. Amos 9:11 “In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter— I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be.” Jeremiah 29:10 “This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” The third temple is not a building but the body of Christ. Once rebuilt, the church will no longer utter meaningless words but will proclaim, the Lord He is God. Elijah prayed 1 Kings 18: 36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.39 When all the people saw this, theyfell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” Psalm 35:28 “My tongue will proclaim your righteousness, your praises all day long.”Psalm 63:1 “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in yourname I willlift up my hands.5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”