Temple Sermon

[Jeremiah 7:1-4] “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, “Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’”‘”

The message in Jeremiah chapters 7-10 was likely delivered around the time Jehoiakim ascended the throne, which was the second year after Josiah’s death in battle (2 Kings 23:34). Jeremiah 7:1-8:3 records a sermon preached at the gate of the Lord’s house, thus it’s known as the “Temple Sermon.” This address condemned the people for “trusting in lies,” which provoked strong opposition and is possibly recorded in Jeremiah 26:7-24.

At that time, the people believed the Temple was most holy, the dwelling place of the living God, and therefore an absolute guarantee of Jerusalem’s impregnability. Consequently, despite their hearts being far from God, they placed great importance on religious rituals. When people shifted their faith from God to the Temple, the Temple became an idol, and religion became superstition. Therefore, God specifically told the prophet to “stand in the gate of the Lord’s house” to awaken the people who were constantly entering and exiting, busy with sacrifices. The prophet’s message was very simple: if the people still wanted to “dwell in this place,” they must “amend their ways and their deeds,” because the covenant promise only belonged to those who diligently kept God’s word (Deuteronomy 7:12-15).

“These are the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”—this was the deceptive rhetoric used by false prophets, repeating the phrase three times to emphasize that since God had “chosen Zion” (Psalm 132:13) as His “resting place forever” (Psalm 132:14), He would never allow “the temple of the Lord” to be destroyed. Therefore, no matter what danger arose, the faithful God would surely intervene to save the Temple, and thus it would provide refuge. This “Temple Theology” sounded biblically grounded and logically reasoned, but it was in fact deceptive “false words.” For while God declared His acceptance of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 9:3), He also clearly warned: “But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight” (1 Kings 9:6-7). False prophets treated the Temple as a refuge but did not treat God Himself as their refuge. They regarded the Temple as God’s dwelling place but forgot that “the contrite and lowly in spirit” (Isaiah 57:15) were the ones who truly gave God “a resting place” (Isaiah 66:1-2). They led people to place their faith in a building, replacing inner reverence and obedience with outward rituals, causing them to ignore God’s repeated warnings.

Today, many such false teachers also proliferate throughout the global church. They do not deny God’s Word, but they quote it out of context, twist it with deceptive reinterpretations, dilute God’s holiness with humanly defined “grace,” and suppress God’s justice with humanly defined “love.” The result is that they mislead believers to “trust in deceptive words,” living in a false sense of “grace, peace, and spirituality,” thus becoming people who are “without discipline” (Jeremiah 5:3, 20) and “unresponsive to correction” (Jeremiah 7:28; 17:23; 32:33; 35:13).