by TAN KOK KIM
( Jeremiah Chapter 6: 13-15 )
This is Jeremiah, weeping, crying over the nation of Israel, prophesying to a backslidden people, announcing to them the coming judgment. And if you all know by now, they didn't believe what Jeremiah was Prophesying, they didn't want to know the truth, they don't want to hear the truth. There were many false prophets, there were many false shepherds, and false pastors, there were many backslidden priests at that time, they didn't want to listened to the true word that is coming from the mouth and the lips of this Holy man called Jeremaiah, and they persecuted him. And Jeremaiah in the beginning here, begin to declared the conditions of the people, God begins to use Jeremaiah to pinpoint those areas in which God is beginning to hate and is beginning to detest in the children of Israel.
Now given to us here in Jeremaiah chapter 6, and we don't have time for lengthy reading, so, breaking in verse13. This is what God said: this is the prevailing conditions of the lives of the children of Israel now. "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely." Another words that's even from the smallest of them to the greatest, and of course those greatest are none other than the prophets, the priests, and the leaders at that time, and they are not truthful to one another, it's all a show, it's all surface, no one wants to deal from the heart, no one wants to speak the truth from the heart, it's all false in their dealings with one another.
And there it said in verse 14." They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." Now it start to get clearer as we read, the hurt that is more than a physical hurt, it means Spiritual hurt, it means fractured or the breaking of the bone. How many of us know that when certain part of your body is fracture, your whole body is going to suffer, yes or no, you know how terrible fracture is? Any form of fracture in your body, we are going to suffer, because it's painful, because we can't live normal lives, we can't do things normal, we can't wake up everyday and do our normal duty, we can't go through our normal chore, because there is a fractured bone in your body and it has to be healed.
And this is what God saying to them, HE said you are all fractured, but HE is not talking about bone now, HE is talking about inward condition, HE is talking about their Spirit and their souls that had been broken, that had been fractured, that had been hurt. And HE said, verse 14a." THEY HAVE HEALED ALSO THE HURT OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE SLIGHTLY..." Here, it referring to who? To the prophets and the priests, and the Shepherds, and the Pastors in the days of Jeremaiah, another words, God was saying to Jeremaiah, HE said, all of MY servants who is supposed to delivered MY true word and MY pure word, they are not doing it, but they are saying what they want to say, they are preaching and prophesying, and doing all of these which is not from ME. And because of that, the Bible said, my people hurt, my people fractured, cannot completely healed, THEY ONLY HEALED SLIGHTLY.
There are many many "slightly christians" today all over the churches, there are many men and women who called themselves "christian," but they have never been healed totally and thoroughly and completely, there are many people today who live on a fractured, and live on a limped, that's the message: "THEY HAVE HEALED MY PEOPLE SLIGHTLY, BY SAYING PEACE, PEACE." That's what they want to said, when there is NO PEACE.
Verse 15." Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at that time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." What happening here? What God is saying here is this, HE said, they refused to be healed thoroughly, they refused to be healed completely, they refused to let MY word come to Jeremaiah, they preferred to hear all these cheap word, and cheap gospel, and popular gospel of the day, THAT ALL THEY WANT IS PROSPERITY AND PEACE, they don't want to hear MY word. And God said, because of that, THEY HAVE NO SHAME.
The word "blush" there means they have no shame for what they have done, they have no shame in their hearts, AND GOD SAID, BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SHAME, I CAN'T HEALED YOU COMPLETELY. And why is it that you have no shame? Because no one is coming to tell you the truth, except Jeremaiah. And now the truth has come, you don't want to hear it, why? Because you have been hearing so many half truth, you want to hear what you hear, and now, you have got no more shame in what you are doing. Because you have no shame, God said, that's why your healing is not complete, your fracture cannot healed, THAT'S WHY YOU CANNOT BE WELL THOROUGHLY AND COMPLETELY, because HE said, they have come to place where they don't even blush any more, they are not even SHAMEFUL.
There are only two times in the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where God ever use the word "blush," where God had to tell a people in Israel, you don't even know how to blush any more, you don't even know what it means to be shameful in MY presence any more, two times. The first time is where we just read in Jeremaiah chapter 6, and the second in Jeremaiah chapter 8, which is the same context, only two times in all of the Old Testament, God had to publicly tell a people, YOU HAVE NO SHAME, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BLUSH IN MY PRESENCE.
Now, you may be thinking, what does that have to do with REPENTANCE? Now, very important, just get this clear folks, God said to Israel, because you don't know how to blush, no wonder your wounds are not healed completely, no wonder you only healed slightly, no wonder your inward conditions cannot be completely delivered, no wonder that inward fracture in your life cannot heal up, and be cured.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, no permanent nor lasting change can come outside of repentance, and God's verdict is very clear here, HE said the reason why the healing cannot be thoroughly, and cannot be complete is because HE said something has gone wrong with our inside. We don't even know how to blush, we don't even know how to be shameful. Now, let the LORD by the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Why is it that God is so particular about shame? Why is it that God used that word over a people? Why is it that God was looking for a sign from the nation of Israel to show to HIM that at least they are shameful? Some people think that shame is very bad, a lots of parents today who have the idea that we are not supposed to cause shame to our children. This is from humanistic secular psychology today that is killing a whole generation of youths and sons and daughters of this generation, they seem to be some kind of today, that to see children to come into shame is a horrible thing, we must defence it. ( Will show it to you later )
But this is God speaking to a people," I AM looking at least, I can see shame," HE said. "But you have come to a point, where you don't even blush any more." Another words, you are not shameful, you don't know shame in MY presence. And because you don't know shame, and you wonder why you are not healed completely, now why? BECAUSE SHAME IS WHO WE ARE, NOT WHAT WE DO. Here, very important, Let's put it here to us: SHAME IS WHO WE ARE, NOT JUST WHAT WE DO. Now how to put this to be clear in our hearts? How many of us know that every time when we do something wrong, there are the three possible things we all go through, any one of us here, from the youngest and to the oldest in the Church of Jesus Christ, in any human being, these are three possible feelings and reactions to our lives wrongs, and these are the three possible scenarios.
No 1: we either feel sorry. No 2: we either get remorseful and No 3: we either become quite regretful. Yes or no? Every time when you get a person into a place, where he or she you know, said that: "Oh! I'm sorry, I have done wrong." "Oh! I have said wrong." Folks, the immediate reaction in all our lives is this: We get into a state of being sorry, of course we said sorry, we said many times. Have you ever said that? We said over again and again, we may know that, we have been saying over the same old thing for how many years, but yet, we come back to it again and again. The sorry that we gossip about someone, but when confronted, we'll said," Oh! Sorry, I gossip." But folks, what the use? Because when given times, we start to gossip again. We either get into a place, where we are sorry, and sorry...
The next possible scenario in which at our Churches today, are filled with men and women with these two states, and that is remorseful and regretful. Our altar calls today are filled with Christians that are remorseful, they regret they failed God, they regret that they didn't love God the way they should, they feel remorseful because they didn't do right, they didn't live a life to please God, where in the last few days, I lost my temper, I said something wrong, I turned to the Internet and sneaked into the pornography site, and we get into these whole scenario of regrets and remorseful, and we go through the whole circle and our emotions are all bottled-up and go into prayers, we ask people to pray for us, and so on and so forth.
Here, it is absolutely important, REPENTANCE IS NOT ABOUT FEELING SORRY OR REMORSEFUL OR REGRETFUL ABOUT WHAT WE DID. Folks, that is not REPENTANCE, that's why we must understand. What had been said here awhile ago is just clean, clear feelings that we all go through, we can be sorry, we can be remorseful, we can be regretful, but why do we have these feelings? Because in our built-in nature, we do that, there is a thing called CONSCIENCE in our lives, and we immediately see all these things that we have done, and we feel sorry or remorseful and regretful, but folks, WE CAN BE SHAMEFUL FOR WHAT WE DID, BUT YET, WE ARE NOT SHAMEFUL FOR WHO WE ARE, why? Because it is when we are shameful for who we are, that we STOP SINNING. It is when a man is shameful for who he is, that he'll TAKES THE PATH DOWN THE ROAD TO REPENTANCE.
The message is called true repentance. WHY TRUE REPENTANCE? Because we can get into FALSE REPENTANCE. And what is false repentance? False repentance is when we can played-up all the emotions that looks real, we can cried and wailed and even beat our chests and cried to God." God, I'm so sorry, I did this." Folks listen, we only dealing with the acts, we only dealing with the actions, we only sorry, because we did wrong, we only remorseful, because we did wrong, we are regretful, because we are shameful for what we did.
And God said to Jeremaiah, "I want you to go beyond." What is the beyond? "I don't want you just to shameful for these things you did. I want you to come to a place, where you will be shameful for who you are, I want you to shameful like that, not shameful in the things you do, I want you to be shameful for who you are. Because repentance must go beyond, repentance must go into the very core of your being, repentance must touch the basement. The basement of your soul, it must go deep down." WHY? BECAUSE THAT WHERE CHANGE BECOMES PERMANENT.
That's why today, so many have never repented, that why so many men and women walking into Churches today, they have never gone to repentance. Oh! Yes, they have gone through sorry, they have gone through remorseful, they have gone through all the emotional and all of the sentimentality, and all of the these experiences, but yet, they have never gone beyond the surface, they have never come into a place of LASTING CHANGED.
There are so few today, truly, truly repents, so few truly today has lasting changes, no wonder we are like dogs that go back to our vomits, yes or no? No wonder so many in our Churches today, go back to our vomits, no wonder today so many of us has been "thorn" and unable to grow, and unable to matured, because we have never really gone on, because we are circling and circling with the same old patched, and with the same old ground...To be continue..
for further reading please visit TAN KOK KIM
( Jeremiah Chapter 6: 13-15 )
This is Jeremiah, weeping, crying over the nation of Israel, prophesying to a backslidden people, announcing to them the coming judgment. And if you all know by now, they didn't believe what Jeremiah was Prophesying, they didn't want to know the truth, they don't want to hear the truth. There were many false prophets, there were many false shepherds, and false pastors, there were many backslidden priests at that time, they didn't want to listened to the true word that is coming from the mouth and the lips of this Holy man called Jeremaiah, and they persecuted him. And Jeremaiah in the beginning here, begin to declared the conditions of the people, God begins to use Jeremaiah to pinpoint those areas in which God is beginning to hate and is beginning to detest in the children of Israel.
Now given to us here in Jeremaiah chapter 6, and we don't have time for lengthy reading, so, breaking in verse13. This is what God said: this is the prevailing conditions of the lives of the children of Israel now. "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely." Another words that's even from the smallest of them to the greatest, and of course those greatest are none other than the prophets, the priests, and the leaders at that time, and they are not truthful to one another, it's all a show, it's all surface, no one wants to deal from the heart, no one wants to speak the truth from the heart, it's all false in their dealings with one another.
And there it said in verse 14." They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." Now it start to get clearer as we read, the hurt that is more than a physical hurt, it means Spiritual hurt, it means fractured or the breaking of the bone. How many of us know that when certain part of your body is fracture, your whole body is going to suffer, yes or no, you know how terrible fracture is? Any form of fracture in your body, we are going to suffer, because it's painful, because we can't live normal lives, we can't do things normal, we can't wake up everyday and do our normal duty, we can't go through our normal chore, because there is a fractured bone in your body and it has to be healed.
And this is what God saying to them, HE said you are all fractured, but HE is not talking about bone now, HE is talking about inward condition, HE is talking about their Spirit and their souls that had been broken, that had been fractured, that had been hurt. And HE said, verse 14a." THEY HAVE HEALED ALSO THE HURT OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE SLIGHTLY..." Here, it referring to who? To the prophets and the priests, and the Shepherds, and the Pastors in the days of Jeremaiah, another words, God was saying to Jeremaiah, HE said, all of MY servants who is supposed to delivered MY true word and MY pure word, they are not doing it, but they are saying what they want to say, they are preaching and prophesying, and doing all of these which is not from ME. And because of that, the Bible said, my people hurt, my people fractured, cannot completely healed, THEY ONLY HEALED SLIGHTLY.
There are many many "slightly christians" today all over the churches, there are many men and women who called themselves "christian," but they have never been healed totally and thoroughly and completely, there are many people today who live on a fractured, and live on a limped, that's the message: "THEY HAVE HEALED MY PEOPLE SLIGHTLY, BY SAYING PEACE, PEACE." That's what they want to said, when there is NO PEACE.
Verse 15." Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at that time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." What happening here? What God is saying here is this, HE said, they refused to be healed thoroughly, they refused to be healed completely, they refused to let MY word come to Jeremaiah, they preferred to hear all these cheap word, and cheap gospel, and popular gospel of the day, THAT ALL THEY WANT IS PROSPERITY AND PEACE, they don't want to hear MY word. And God said, because of that, THEY HAVE NO SHAME.
The word "blush" there means they have no shame for what they have done, they have no shame in their hearts, AND GOD SAID, BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SHAME, I CAN'T HEALED YOU COMPLETELY. And why is it that you have no shame? Because no one is coming to tell you the truth, except Jeremaiah. And now the truth has come, you don't want to hear it, why? Because you have been hearing so many half truth, you want to hear what you hear, and now, you have got no more shame in what you are doing. Because you have no shame, God said, that's why your healing is not complete, your fracture cannot healed, THAT'S WHY YOU CANNOT BE WELL THOROUGHLY AND COMPLETELY, because HE said, they have come to place where they don't even blush any more, they are not even SHAMEFUL.
There are only two times in the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, where God ever use the word "blush," where God had to tell a people in Israel, you don't even know how to blush any more, you don't even know what it means to be shameful in MY presence any more, two times. The first time is where we just read in Jeremaiah chapter 6, and the second in Jeremaiah chapter 8, which is the same context, only two times in all of the Old Testament, God had to publicly tell a people, YOU HAVE NO SHAME, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BLUSH IN MY PRESENCE.
Now, you may be thinking, what does that have to do with REPENTANCE? Now, very important, just get this clear folks, God said to Israel, because you don't know how to blush, no wonder your wounds are not healed completely, no wonder you only healed slightly, no wonder your inward conditions cannot be completely delivered, no wonder that inward fracture in your life cannot heal up, and be cured.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, no permanent nor lasting change can come outside of repentance, and God's verdict is very clear here, HE said the reason why the healing cannot be thoroughly, and cannot be complete is because HE said something has gone wrong with our inside. We don't even know how to blush, we don't even know how to be shameful. Now, let the LORD by the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Why is it that God is so particular about shame? Why is it that God used that word over a people? Why is it that God was looking for a sign from the nation of Israel to show to HIM that at least they are shameful? Some people think that shame is very bad, a lots of parents today who have the idea that we are not supposed to cause shame to our children. This is from humanistic secular psychology today that is killing a whole generation of youths and sons and daughters of this generation, they seem to be some kind of today, that to see children to come into shame is a horrible thing, we must defence it. ( Will show it to you later )
But this is God speaking to a people," I AM looking at least, I can see shame," HE said. "But you have come to a point, where you don't even blush any more." Another words, you are not shameful, you don't know shame in MY presence. And because you don't know shame, and you wonder why you are not healed completely, now why? BECAUSE SHAME IS WHO WE ARE, NOT WHAT WE DO. Here, very important, Let's put it here to us: SHAME IS WHO WE ARE, NOT JUST WHAT WE DO. Now how to put this to be clear in our hearts? How many of us know that every time when we do something wrong, there are the three possible things we all go through, any one of us here, from the youngest and to the oldest in the Church of Jesus Christ, in any human being, these are three possible feelings and reactions to our lives wrongs, and these are the three possible scenarios.
No 1: we either feel sorry. No 2: we either get remorseful and No 3: we either become quite regretful. Yes or no? Every time when you get a person into a place, where he or she you know, said that: "Oh! I'm sorry, I have done wrong." "Oh! I have said wrong." Folks, the immediate reaction in all our lives is this: We get into a state of being sorry, of course we said sorry, we said many times. Have you ever said that? We said over again and again, we may know that, we have been saying over the same old thing for how many years, but yet, we come back to it again and again. The sorry that we gossip about someone, but when confronted, we'll said," Oh! Sorry, I gossip." But folks, what the use? Because when given times, we start to gossip again. We either get into a place, where we are sorry, and sorry...
The next possible scenario in which at our Churches today, are filled with men and women with these two states, and that is remorseful and regretful. Our altar calls today are filled with Christians that are remorseful, they regret they failed God, they regret that they didn't love God the way they should, they feel remorseful because they didn't do right, they didn't live a life to please God, where in the last few days, I lost my temper, I said something wrong, I turned to the Internet and sneaked into the pornography site, and we get into these whole scenario of regrets and remorseful, and we go through the whole circle and our emotions are all bottled-up and go into prayers, we ask people to pray for us, and so on and so forth.
Here, it is absolutely important, REPENTANCE IS NOT ABOUT FEELING SORRY OR REMORSEFUL OR REGRETFUL ABOUT WHAT WE DID. Folks, that is not REPENTANCE, that's why we must understand. What had been said here awhile ago is just clean, clear feelings that we all go through, we can be sorry, we can be remorseful, we can be regretful, but why do we have these feelings? Because in our built-in nature, we do that, there is a thing called CONSCIENCE in our lives, and we immediately see all these things that we have done, and we feel sorry or remorseful and regretful, but folks, WE CAN BE SHAMEFUL FOR WHAT WE DID, BUT YET, WE ARE NOT SHAMEFUL FOR WHO WE ARE, why? Because it is when we are shameful for who we are, that we STOP SINNING. It is when a man is shameful for who he is, that he'll TAKES THE PATH DOWN THE ROAD TO REPENTANCE.
The message is called true repentance. WHY TRUE REPENTANCE? Because we can get into FALSE REPENTANCE. And what is false repentance? False repentance is when we can played-up all the emotions that looks real, we can cried and wailed and even beat our chests and cried to God." God, I'm so sorry, I did this." Folks listen, we only dealing with the acts, we only dealing with the actions, we only sorry, because we did wrong, we only remorseful, because we did wrong, we are regretful, because we are shameful for what we did.
And God said to Jeremaiah, "I want you to go beyond." What is the beyond? "I don't want you just to shameful for these things you did. I want you to come to a place, where you will be shameful for who you are, I want you to shameful like that, not shameful in the things you do, I want you to be shameful for who you are. Because repentance must go beyond, repentance must go into the very core of your being, repentance must touch the basement. The basement of your soul, it must go deep down." WHY? BECAUSE THAT WHERE CHANGE BECOMES PERMANENT.
That's why today, so many have never repented, that why so many men and women walking into Churches today, they have never gone to repentance. Oh! Yes, they have gone through sorry, they have gone through remorseful, they have gone through all the emotional and all of the sentimentality, and all of the these experiences, but yet, they have never gone beyond the surface, they have never come into a place of LASTING CHANGED.
There are so few today, truly, truly repents, so few truly today has lasting changes, no wonder we are like dogs that go back to our vomits, yes or no? No wonder so many in our Churches today, go back to our vomits, no wonder today so many of us has been "thorn" and unable to grow, and unable to matured, because we have never really gone on, because we are circling and circling with the same old patched, and with the same old ground...To be continue..
for further reading please visit TAN KOK KIM
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