“Your prophets have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They did not save you from exile by pointing out your sins. Instead, they painted false pictures, filling you with false hope” (Lamentations 2:14 NLT).

BE WARY OF PREACHING THAT GIVES FALSE HOPE

Jeremiah lamented the failure of Judah’s prophets to preach God’s Word and to call His people to repentance of their sin. Instead they filled the people with false hope. The last days of Jerusalem before its fall to Babylon were marked by a people with “itching ears” and preachers who were happy to scratch them with what they wanted to hear.

The apostle Paul told Timothy to “preach the Word in season and out of season” because such a day was coming again in the last days. He wrote, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3).

True biblical preaching preaches unto repentance, either unto salvation or sanctification. Such preaching leads to true hope. What is this hope? It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). For our true and only hope is in Christ Jesus!

PRAYER: Dear Father, help us to always speak the truth of Your Word, caring more for Your approval than the approval of man. For we are Your ambassadors and we are called to say what you would have us say. Give us a holy boldness, yet always speaking the truth in love. In Jesus’ name, amen.