DON’T PUSH GOD TOO FAR 

JEREMIAH 7:1-16

          Jeremiah was a prophet who began his ministry during the dark days of Judah prior to them going into Babylonian captivity.  The Book of Jeremiah is considered to be a great book on backsliding and the dangers of apostasy.  Apostasy, according to Webster, means an abandoning of what one has believed in as a faith, cause, principle, etc.  So the Book of Jeremiah teaches of the dangers of abandoning your faith, your doctrines and for Christians, your God.  The theme of the Book of Jeremiah seems to be judgment without mercy for those who become apostate and defy God.  With this theme in mind, the purpose of Jeremiah seems to be to make clear to Israel the consequences of sin and apostasy, to reveal to them their own future in the plan of God for man; and to emphasize the fact that the destiny of every man is determined by his conformity or lack there of to God and His plan.

          Note that in the passage that we just read, Jeremiah was told to stand in the doorway of the house of God and talk to the people coming in to worship.  What Jeremiah has to say is not for the outsider, the heathen who did not know God.  God was speaking to His own people, those who were still coming to the Temple.  This would be like God saying to ministers, stand in the doorway of the church and tell those who are coming into the worship service.  This is a warning to the people of God who have covenant relationship with him and thus we who now have relationship with him can draw from it.  What does God say to them?  He says, “Change your ways (vs. 3), don’t deceive yourself into believing that just coming to church is enough (vs. 4), treat others as they should be treated (vs. 5-6), and then I will bless you (vs. 7).”  In verses 8 and 9 He tells the people the wrong that they are continuing to do.  He says, “But then you come to church to tell people how I keep delivering you.  Am I blessing you so you can continue to do wrong (vs. 10-11)?”  In verse 12 God offers them an example of how He judges for continued and repeated sins.  He urges them to go to Shiloh where the Tabernacle was at first and see the total destruction of the place because of sin.

          What I want to talk about this morning flows out of verses 13-16.  Here God says to them, “I have warned you and warned you, but you would hear me.  Therefore I will utterly destroy you and cast you out of my sight as I did them.” Then he tells Jeremiah not to even pray for them, don’t beg and plead with me for them because I will not hear you.  The Children of Israel had frustrated God so, that he told the prophet basically, “I am through with them”.  The title of this morning’s message is DON’T PUSH GOD TOO FAR.

          This is not the first time that man has pushed God and frustrated him.  In the days just prior to the flood of Noah God says in Genesis 6:5-7 “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them.”   But after the flood God promised never to destroy the earth in this fashion again.  With each generation or dispensation it seems that more and more of God’s mercy is seen in His dealing with mankind.  But I want us to keep in mind this morning that God can get frustrated with man and cease to show mercy.  We must be careful to listen to God when he warns us, lest we try his patience and find ourselves facing the wrath of God rather than his mercy.

MATTHEW 4:5-7

          Jesus tells the devil that we should not try or test God.  You see it is one thing to slip and fall off of a cliff and it is a totally different thing to intentionally jump off.  It is one thing to stumble into a sin.  It is a totally different thing to plunge knowingly into sin. Both are wrong, but one shows carelessness where the other shows defiance and rebellion.  If Jesus was being pressed by the crowd lost his footing and slipped the angels would have grabbed him.  But Jesus knew that submitting to the enemy here was completely against the will of God and would only serve to try God in an attempt to bring glory to himself.  We know that there are areas in our lives where God has told us to get it together.  We have had several warnings.  Don’t push God too far.  Do not test Him or His patience.  After so many warnings God’s mercy with Israel ran out and they were faced with destruction.  Don’t push too far and remember we don’t have a definition of what is too far.

ACTS 5:1-11

          How far is too far?  Here one sin was too far.  But we say they deliberately planned to sin.  Yes, they did.  But let’s not act holier than thou like we don’t sometimes deliberately plan to sin.  But they knew they were sinning against God.  Well if God tells us not to do something, or better still to do something and we do just the opposite of what he is telling us to do, don’t we know that we are sinning against God.  By the way God did not tell them to sale their possession and give the money to the church.  They voluntarily sold it and they were free to do whatever they wanted to with the money.  Their sin was not cheating but rather lying and attempting to deceive the leaders.  Have we not on occasion done likewise?  For their one sin, they dropped dead.  How far is too far?  Ananias and Sapphira would say one intentional sin is too far.

II SAMUEL 6:1-7

          The Ark had been captured by the Philistines but while in their presence the Philistines were cursed in everything they tried to do.  They finally returned it to the Land of Israel and left it with Abinadab.  King David, desiring to bring the Ark back to the tabernacle of God, placed it on a cart to bring it back.  Along the way the ox pulling the cart stumbled and the Ark looked as if it would fall off the cart.  Instinctively Uzzah reached up and touched the Ark trying to steady it.  He died instantly.  Touching the Ark was an unintentional sin, but still it was a sin.  This seems harsh of God.  But it is the right of God to punish all sin.  In Exodus 33:19 God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”  In other words though we know God to be a merciful God, we must remember that He determines how and when His mercy is to be displayed.  Uzzah’s sin was disobedience.  It was unintentional disobedience, but still it was a sin.  How far is too far.  Uzzah would say one sin of unintentional disobedience was too much. 

          There are several stories like this in the Bible.  Achan and his family in Joshua 7 would say one instance of greed and disobedience was too far.  In II Samuel chapters 2-4 the sons of Eli the priest would say that years of improperly performing their duties as priest was too far and Eli would say that years of letting his sons go unpunished was too far.  Herod in Acts 12 would say that one moment of forgetting to give God the glory for his life was too far.  When you are presented with your next opportunity to sin, remember we don’t know how far is too far.  If God chooses to warn you, He will not warn forever.  When God’s warning runs out, destruction occurs.

EPHESIANS 4:25-30

          Paul here gives believers a list of things that we should not do.  Of course this is not the only list in the New Testament.  There are several passages where God directs our actions away from those of the world to godlike actions.  Then Paul says, “Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.”  Don’t make him feel sorrowful.  In the days of Noah the sins of the people grieved God so much that He was sorry that he ever made man and his sorrow led him to almost wipe mankind out.  Don’t push God too far.  How much sin is enough to grieve God too much and cause him to be sorry that he ever made you?

ROMANS 1:21-32

          These people knew God but would not respect Him as God.  They chose to create new gods for themselves.  We don’t go around today carving idols out of wood, or molding clay into idols or even smelting gold, silver or iron into idols.  No today we make people our idols, jobs, money, cars, houses, items, children, TV and even time our idol.  But worst of all we are our own idol.  We worship ourselves.  For we have become more important to ourselves than God is.  This is evident in our insistence upon having our own way when we know the will of God.   Because they would not receive God as God, God released them to their own wicked hearts to do whatever they pleased.  He turned them over to their own reprobate minds.  Webster says reprobate means depraved, corrupt, unprincipled, rejected by God, lost.  In other words God stepped away from them and allowed them to do whatever wickedness was in their hearts and minds to do.  In your spare time, look at the list of things that they did.  This is what is in the heart of mankind.  This is how we behave without God.  We say not us.  I say yes us.  By the way in verse 21 when it says “when they” who is they?  Who ever they are, they knew God but they refused to glorify him.  How do we show that we know God and glorify Him?  Is it through singing?  Is it through coming to church?  It is through the lives that we live.  It is through our actions.  Glorifying God requires a righteous and holy lifestyle.  Galatians 6:8 says, “He that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”  Don’t push God too far, because destruction may lie at your door.  It is a foolish thing to test God’s hand and frustrate his mercy

          In preparing this message I was looking for a scripture where God encourages us to try or test Him.  The only ones I could come up with that were close were Isaiah 1:18 and Malachi 3:10.  Isaiah 1:18 says “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”  This merely says come let’s talk about this.  Malachi 3:10 says “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”.  Here God challenges us to seek proof that He will keep his word, when we obey his commands.  In other words God says see if I won’t bless you if you obey me.  We do a good job of expecting God’s blessings.  In fact we even expect him to bless us when we are not obeying him.  Why?  Because we count on the grace of God.  You see grace allows God to give us what we do not deserve.  It allows God to bless us even when we do not deserve it. But I believe that today we frustrate the mercy of God.  Mercy allows God not to give us what we do deserve, punishment.  It is like with children.  You want to give them another chance because you really don’t like beating them.  But because they continue to do wrong, sooner or later the chances must run out and discipline must occur, otherwise the child is headed for destruction.  When we do give a second chance we want our children to appreciate it and show that they do by correcting their actions.  When we sin and God shows us mercy He wants us to show our appreciation of a second chance by correcting our actions; not saying whew I got away with it this time, let’s try that again.  Yes the mercy of God is everlasting, but when and where he chooses to show mercy is up to him.  Don’t push God too far, because when mercy runs out, wrath begins.