The Undressed Wound

​Jeremiah 8:11-12 ~ “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.”
 
Do not let sin remain as a festering wound upon your soul. In the days of Jeremiah, prophets and priests who were charged by God to proclaim His word clearly and directly to the people, failed in their task. By way of illustration: it would be a grave situation if a doctor with the cure for a deadly disease withheld that cure and ignored the danger facing the population. So it is that many continue without the slightest qualms of conscience because they do not hear anything concerning the danger of their transgressions.
 
This is how it was in the days of Jeremiah. We read in the opening of our text today, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” A false prophet named Hananiah spoke to the priests and informed them that they would see the elimination of the threat of Babylon (see Jeremiah 28:1-4). Yet the true prophet of God, Jeremiah, told Hananiah of his wicked error in Jeremiah 28:15-17, “And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, ‘Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.”’ In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.” It is a dreadful thing to try and heal a critical wound with a light bandage. Because of the false prophets, they did not believe their situation was so terrible.
 
Is it not now the same with the church today? Are there not gatherings of Christians holding fast to the idea that they can enjoy the pleasures of this world and participate in the idolatrous practices of the land around them, and then believe that they are innocent before the LORD? And in the audience chambers of the houses of worship, proclaimers are telling them that their worldliness is righteous and their sins are merely cultural and not critical in nature. Even before the first century passed, we read this warning in Jude 1:4, “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” As the nation of Judah was at peace with their idolatry, there are many today who are at peace with their sins, unwilling to repent and renounce their rebellion before the LORD. They fall into the dangerous situation that is revealed in Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”
 
We continue the text with this dire statement, “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.” Beloved, it is a good thing to feel shame and remorse for sins. It is good to be able to blush, to sense the humiliation of the activity of sins around us. How many, today, can casually hear the name of their LORD taken in vain? Are there times when, confronted by God and His word, you remain unfazed concerning your own sin? The church in Corinth suffered this condition and Paul confronted it in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” I hope and trust that you who are reading this still have the capacity to blush with shame when God confronts your sins.
 
Jeremiah completes his warning against the nation, “Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.” This is the cataclysm awaiting those who refuse to repent. There is none to deliver out of the hand of God, and He will bring His people through the crucible to punish their sin and purify their hearts. Many, even now, might wonder “how can we know if this is us?” Ask yourself two questions: First, do you love your sin and seek ways of compromising with it that you should keep it with you? Or, second, do you love your Savior and seek to repent and be cleansed of sin that you should glorify Him?
 
It is the undressed wound of sin that will fester in and rot the soul. Dress it with the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit convict you that you should deal with sin as it truly is—a deadly condition to be treated seriously.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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