Responding To Truth

Jeremiah 26:1-16
Charles Swindoll relates the following: Once a spider built a beautiful web in an old house. He kept it clean and shiny so that flies would patronize it. The minute he got a "customer" he would clean up on him so the other flies would not get suspicious. Then one day this fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spider web.
Old man spider called out, "Come in and sit."
But the fairly intelligent fly said, "No, sir. I don't see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!"
But presently he saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. He was delighted! He was not afraid if lots of flies were doing it. So he came in for a landing.
Just before he landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don't land there, stupid! That's flypaper!"
But the fairly intelligent fly shouted back, "Don't be silly. Those flies are dancing. There's a big crowd there. Everybody's doing it. That many flies can't be wrong!"
Well, you know what happened. He died on the spot. Some of us want to be with the crowd so badly that we end up in a mess.
What does it profit a fly (or a person) if he escapes the web only to end up in the glue?
(- Charles Swindoll, "Living Above the Level of Mediocrity")
And so do many fall victim to their own logic. When we think that we are smarter than God, we have doomed ourselves. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
As we approach Jeremiah 26, we find Jeremiah faithfully proclaiming the Word of God, but the response to God’s Word was mixed. As we consider this passage, we note 3 responses we may have toward the truth.

I. CAN RESPOND WITH LETHARGY-
We can meet the Word of God with indifferent attitudes unwilling to hear what God says
We can distract ourselves, and amuse ourselves and think of anything else
For the life of me, I can’t fathom why someone would come to church to ignore God
If you are determined not to walk with God, why would you inconvenience yourself so?
4-5 God sends Jeremiah to address the people of Judah because they weren’t listening
God speaks of sending them a number of different prophets multiple opportunities
But they turned a deaf ear to His Word and refused to heed what God said
They just didn’t care enough one way or the other, but showed disregard
God addresses the same thing in:
Ezekiel 12:2 “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.”
Zechariah 7:11 “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.”
Ignorance does not excuse us, and especially when that ignorance is willful
Romans 1 speaks of the consequence of God turning them over to a reprobate mind
Proverbs 17 speaks of the waste trying to educate a fool who has no interest
We can respond with Lethargy, but we are only harming ourselves

II. CAN RESPOND WITH LIMITATION 8-9
When Jeremiah preached at God’s House, the people were furious
How dare he criticize Jerusalem! He must be a traitor to speak against God’s city
But Jeremiah is preaching the very Word of God. He is speaking truth
It may be unpopular, after all, the