INTRODUCTION:

1. We are now in Jeremiah chapter 6 in our series in the book of Jeremiah.   Jeremiah's second sermon, which began back in chapter 3, verse 6, concludes here in chapter 6.
2. As I study this great book I am amazed at the similarities between Jeremiah's day (2,600 years ago) and today.
3. Jeremiah 6:15 says, "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush."
4. That sounds like the USA in 2012!
5. Recently a homosexual activist named Dan Savage was invited to speak to a large national journalism conference (several thousand people) of high school students in Seattle, Washington.
6. It is mind-boggling that this immoral degenerate would be allowed to speak at such a conference, but it is even more horrible when we consider what he said.
7. This speaker was supposed to be talking about the danger of "bullying," which the homosexuals are now using as a smokescreen to get into the public schools and into big conferences like this.
8. As many as 100 high school students walked out of this conference after this so-called "anti-bullying speaker" began cursing, and attacking the Bible and insulted and cursed out those who refused to listen to his obscene rant.  In other words, he was the "bully"!
9. The speaker, Dan Savage, is the founder of the "It Gets Better" project, an anti-bullying campaign that has supposedly reached more than 40 million people with contributors ranging from President Obama to various Hollywood stars. Savage also writes a sex advice column called “Savage Love.”
10. Savage and his homosexual "husband" were also guests at the White House for President Obama’s 2011 LGBT Pride Month reception. He was also invited to a White House anti-bullying conference.
11. Rick Tuttle is the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California. He said to FOX News, “I thought this would be about anti-bullying. It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”
12. Tuttle said a number of his students were offended by Savage’s remarks, and some decided to leave the auditorium.  “It became hostile,” he said. “It felt hostile as we were sitting in the audience, especially towards Christians who espouse beliefs that he was literally taking on.”
13. Tuttle said the speech was laced with vulgarities and “sexual innuendo not appropriate for this age group.” At one point, he said Savage told the teenagers about how good his homosexual partner looked in a speedo bathing suit.
14. A 17-year-old girl was one of students who walked out of the auditorium. She told a website called CitizenLink: “The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control’”.
15. “He said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.”
16. As the offended high school students started walking out, Savage heckled them and called them vulgar names.
17. Jeremiah 6:15 says, "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush."

I. THEY REFUSED TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD.

1. Regarding Jeremiah 6:7, Warren Wiersbe says, "Jerusalem was like a well that pours out filthy water, and the city must be punished.  It was like a dying person with infected wounds that couldn't be healed, and these things must be purged away" (The Bible Exposition Commentary).
2. It wasn't that the people in Jeremiah's day were ignorant of God's Word.  Like this obnoxious sodomite Dan Savage, they knew God's Word but they rejected it (6:10).
3. Deuteronomy 10:16 says, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked."
4. But the people in Jeremiah's day were stiffnecked and hardhearted. Their ears were "uncircumcised" and would not hear the Word of God (Jer. 6:10; cf. 4:4).
5. Stephen said to the religious leaders in his day, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51).
6. They killed Stephen, and they tried to kill Jeremiah too.
7. Because the people refused to get right with God, God would allow the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar, to come and destroy their cities and their temple (6:1, 22, 23; cf. 1:13-15; 5:15; 20:4-6, etc.).
8. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 6:11, "Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out..."
9. The Lord wanted them to walk in "the old paths."  This, we are told, "is the good way" (6:16).
10. This is good instruction for us today – we need to stick to "the old paths" -- prayer, Bible reading, soulwinning, being faithful to church with our attendance and giving, etc.
11. And we preachers need to "pour it out" (6:11)!
12. The problem in Jeremiah’s day is the same problem today, disobedience – "But they said, We will not walk therein" (6:16b). They were stiff-necked and obstinate.
13. God offered them rest for their souls, but they said, "We will not walk therein" (6:16).
14. God set "watchmen" (6:17) over the people but they refused to listen and they said, "We will not hearken" (6:17).
15. Jeremiah 25:4 says, "And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear."

II. THEY HAD A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY (6:14).

1. The reason people have a false sense of security is religious brainwashing.  Jeremiah 6:13 says, "The prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely."
2. For examples, multitudes of lost sinners believe in false teachings such as salvation by good works, and purgatory, and soul sleep, and reincarnation, etc.
3. Millions of religious people think everything is fine, when in reality they have one foot in hell and the other on a banana peel!
4. Church members have been told they will be in heaven because they were baptized or because they are "good" people, etc.
5. Psalm 14:1 says, "There is none that doeth good."
6. Psalm 14:3 says, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one."
7. Psalm 53:1 says, "There is none that doeth good."
8. Psalm 53:3 says, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one."
9. Romans 3:12 says, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one."
10. Our Lord said in Matthew 19:17, "There is none good but one, that is, God."
11. One of the sins specifically mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah in verse 13 is the sin of covetousness.   When people are covetousness and materialistic they have a false sense of security.
12. First Timothy 6:17 says, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God..." (cf. Luke 12:15-21).
13. America has become a very covetous nation.  This covetousness is encouraged and promoted by advertising.  Jesus said, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).
14. Their thinking was all wrong.  Jeremiah 6:19 refers to "the fruit of their thoughts."  Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."
15. People like to be religious but they will not submit to the authority of God's Word.  The people were very religious but backslidden, so God says, "Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. (6:20b).
16. I read in the paper yesterday that this crooked, contemptible, homosexual politician, Carl Kruger, asked to be sent to Otisville Prison up in Orange County (a "country club prison" for crooked politicians and other white collar criminals) “for religious and dietary reasons."  Kruger is Jewish and Otisville offers kosher food.
17. So this crook has no qualms about taking $500,000 in bribes, and  living with his homosexual boyfriend, but he will only eat "kosher food."   Our Lord said they "strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:24).

III. JUDGMENT WAS INEVITABLE.

1. Jeremiah 6:12 says, "For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD."
2. One of the things I appreciate about J. Vernon McGee's commentary is the way he applies Jeremiah's prophecies to modern day America.
3. Here is what Dr. McGee says about Jeremiah 6:30 -- "God says to the people of Judah, 'You have rejected my law, and I will reject you and when I reject you, the men of the world are going to reject you also.'  Interesting, isn't it?  It worked out that way in Jeremiah's day, and it is working that way in our day.  We have spent billions of dollars to buy friends throughout the world; yet we are not loved by this big, bad world because we have rejected God and God will reject us.  This is a very solemn message, and we ought not to treat it lightly" (Thru the Bible).
4. Most of Jeremiah 6 describes the imminent invasion of Judah, particularly their capital city of Jerusalem (6:1-5).  Jerusalem is mentioned by name three times in this chapter (6:1, 6, 8).
5. This was unmistakably the judgment of God (6:6).  The Babylonian soldiers would cut down trees and use them as battering rams and catapults, but God was behind the invasion (6:6).
6. Judah oppressed others; therefore God would visit them in judgment (6:6b).
7. God condemned them for their idolatry and adultery and covetousness, and their "wickedness: violence and spoil" (6:7).
8. Verse 20 refers to their insufferable religious hypocrisy.
9. The LORD wanted them to repent -- "Gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes..." (6:26).
10. Judgment was inevitable, but lives could be spared if they would repent.  The LORD rejected them because they rejected His Word (6:10, 19, 30).

CONCLUSION:

1. God's judgment would be like a fire which men use to separate silver and other precious metals from that which is useless (6:27-30).
2. Unfortunately, when God turned up the heat, Judah did not repent. So verse 30 says, "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them."
3. Warren Wiersbe says, "When God turned on the furnace, it would reveal the people as rejected silver, nothing but dross to be thrown away.  He wasn't purifying them; He was punishing them.  They weren't being refined; they were being rejected" (The Bible Exposition Commentary).