Sermon
for Trinity 3, June 20, 2021
Micah 7:18-20 18 Who is a
God like you, who forgives guilt, and who passes over the rebellion of the
survivors from his inheritance? He does
not hold onto his anger forever. He
delights in showing mercy. 19 He
will have compassion on us again. He
will overcome our guilty deeds. You will
throw all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as you
swore to our fathers from days of old. (EHV)
Trust
the God who forgives and forgets our sin.
Dear brothers and
sisters in Christ,
Modern man likes to imagine that humanity has grown better,
smarter, and more civilized than the ancients.
However, when one examines society with a critical eye, he soon finds
that humanity, as a whole, has not grown more loving to neighbors, nor more
devoted to peaceful living. We have not
solved the problems of hunger, or drought, or crime, hatred, racism, or
greed. And most certainly, this world of
seven billion plus people has not grown more faithful to the one true God.
The
prophet Micah is relatively unknown among the prophets. We know almost nothing about his life or who
he was as an individual. Yet, Micah was
called by God to proclaim judgment and doom against the defiant, rebellious
people of Israel and Judah just before and after the ten northern tribes of
Israel were conquered and carted off to exile never to return. At that time, also, the state of Judah came
desperately close to suffering the same fate.
However, to say that Micah was called to proclaim judgment and doom
against God’s people shortchanges his work, for after each such condemning prophecy,
Micah had the privilege to announce God’s mercy on those who trust in the one
true God. Thus, Micah teaches us to Trust the God who forgives and forgets our sin.
The
people of Israel and Judah often succumbed to the temptation to worship their
neighbors’ idols. On top of that, many
simply didn’t feel the need to recognize God at all, so rather than seek help
from the God of their fathers, the leaders, as well as the common man, often
chose to navigate the troubles of this world on their own foolish wisdom and
feeble strength.
You might
guess that I would contend this sounds an awful lot like our present reality. Our world is filled with religions that
worship idols of one type or another, and many who once would have claimed at
least a loose affiliation with the Christian faith, now chose to identify their
religion as none.
The
temptations against us are many. We
maybe don’t think we are tempted by idols, but like every generation before us,
we are strongly tempted by two kinds of idolatry—the first type of idol worship
assumes a person can be saved by personal effort or purchase. The only question is what effort or material gift
must be traded to gain God’s favor. Any
religion that demands personal obedience or works in order to be saved fits
this category, just as most pagan religions fall in here.
The
second form of idolatry imagines that nature, the earth, or the universe as a
whole has godly powers. This idol
worship is extremely pervasive in our times, and most families send their
children to schools that are inclined to indoctrinate our children with these
false ideas. The theories of a big bang
source to our world and the ideology of evolution are nothing more than direct,
idolatrous assaults on the truths of Scripture.
This type of idolatry also emphasizes that truth is relative to
situation and should be decided by the will of contemporary culture. Many of the teachings associated with this
idolatry are very tempting to our sympathies.
We like to see people feel good about themselves. We desire to have control over our world. Furthermore, the voices of its teachers are
compelling—until you realize the demonic source.
Therefore,
we could have no end to preaching against the idolatries that affect us. Yet, simply committing ourselves to the First
Commandment will suffice: You shall have
no other gods. What
does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God
above all things. All other commandments
hinge on this one. Without holding firm,
here, obedience to any other law or rule means nothing.
The truth
is, however, we all fall short. We all
have worried. We all have doubted. We all have broken any number of
commandments—often willingly. We even
find it tempting to put our own feelings above what our God has instructed. Hatred, greed, prejudice, lust,
selfishness—all of these things tinge our record just like any other
sinner. Therefore, if we assume to enter
heaven on our own merit, we will be left out.
Likewise, if someone assumes to purchase everlasting peace, he will be
disappointed. Be advised, therefore, we
must Trust the God who forgives and forgets our sin.
Israel
and Judah failed God in many ways, and there was discipline applied to them as
a warning to us. However, the point of
our text, and the whole Bible in truth, is that God never once failed us. Micah wrote, “Who is a God like you, who
forgives guilt, and who passes over the rebellion of the survivors from his
inheritance?” With this rhetorical
question, Micah emphatically declares that there is no other God like the
Triune God! The idolatries that pollute
the world offer no solution for sin, unless you count those idolatrous ideas
that don’t recognize sin as sin, but even that is no solution when God requires
perfect holiness to enter His everlasting kingdom and home.
Micah
rejoiced because God is not only merciful, He planned our forgiveness and
salvation even before man sinned. Unlike
any other force or person ever, God was willing to take on the sins of the
world so that those of us who need rescue can have it, and as we learned in our
Gospel lesson, God goes out of His way to seek out and find the lost He
treasures. This is the history of
Christianity. God searching the world
through His messengers to gather together those He treasures, and dear friends,
God treasured you.
God
treasured you so much that His Son was willing to leave the glories of heaven
to live in this vile, sin-drenched, rebellious, broken, troubled world wearing
human flesh, so that He could live the perfect holiness we need to dwell in
God’s kingdom.
God
treasured you so much, He gave His Son into death to pay the price for your
ransom. Jesus treasured you so much that
He bore your sins as He was punished for all the blasphemous, idolatrous,
failures of the world. Jesus bore that
punishment without complaint and without threat of retribution against those
who mistreated Him and falsely accused Him.
Jesus willingly laid down His perfect life in exchange for every speck
of the guilt of the world, yours and mine included to complete God’s testimony:
“I, yes I, am he. I blot out your
rebellious deeds for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah
43:25)
Micah
wrote with Holy Spirit inspired joy, “He does not hold onto his anger
forever. He delights in showing mercy.” In God’s unimaginable desire to save the
sinners of the world, He made plans to help you and not harm you. Through Jeremiah, the Lord declared, “I
know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you peace,
not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) In our gospel lesson this morning, we heard
Jesus declare, “I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
The
sinful nature that infects every one of us often tempts us to put our own
thoughts above what God has said. It
tempts us to give higher priority to our feelings, desires, and wants than to
the needs of our neighbor and certainly above God’s commands. The God who created us and instructed the
world in holy living through His Word could rightly demand a just penalty of us
even to incarcerating our souls for eternity in hell. Yet, God’s mercy and love moved Him to seek
our salvation. The words of the prophet
come to us, “He will have compassion on us again. He will overcome our guilty deeds. You will throw all their sins into the depths
of the sea.” Therefore, Trust the
God who forgives and forgets our sin.
Some
seven hundred years before God’s Son entered Mary’s womb, God revealed this
message of hope through His prophet Micah.
God had a plan to deal with our sin.
Nothing would be missed. Not one
detail would be neglected. For a world
of people who couldn’t help themselves, God intervened with His Son,
Jesus. Isaiah lamented, “All of us
have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a
filthy cloth. All of us have withered
like a leaf, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6) “But when the set time had fully come, God
sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in
order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons.” (Galatians
4:4-5) Through His Son, God overcame our
guilty deeds, just as Micah had noted.
Still,
God wasn’t done. God left nothing to
chance in His mission to save you. Your
righteousness and justification was completed when Jesus declared from the
cross, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
But, since salvation is by faith alone, (Ephesians 2:8) you needed to
hear of this great accomplishment and trust it.
Therefore, Jesus promised a Helper, and in the work of the Holy Spirit,
you and I were brought to faith and sanctified to stand before God in peace as
He washed your sins into the depths of the sea in your baptism.
By the
Word of His grace, God put in you a believing heart, and He continues to
strengthen your trust in the Triune God by His promises of forgiveness,
salvation, and eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus, and by giving for
you to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper the very body and blood of the divine
Son shed for you on Golgotha. So Trust
the God who forgives and forgets our sin.
Micah
wrote, You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as you swore to
our fathers from days of old.” This
is simple recognition that God never fails to keep His promises. All the promises of forgiveness and peace
with God that the Lord made to those ancient fathers have been fulfilled. Micah looked forward to that day as a day of
hope upon which his fellow believers could grasp eternity in heaven. You and I look back at the same message
knowing its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, and we too will join together in the
vast throng of holy believers in heaven, made holy by the blood of the Lamb of
God, His own dear Son.
My
friends, there are many things that trouble us in the present world. The list seems almost endless at times. Yet, take heart and know that your Redeemer
lives, and because Jesus lives, you too will enjoy life everlasting. Because the Father in heaven knows all your
needs and desires to provide everything you need for body and soul, we don’t
need to fret or worry. We don’t need to
fear the enemies that may surround us.
We can simply put all trust and hope in the Triune God.
In his
letter to the Roman congregation, St. Paul asked, “What will separate us
from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35)
The answer Paul gave is that nothing on earth, or in heaven, or any
other realm will keep God from working out His plan to save us. Through baptism and faith, God has forgiven
our guilt and passed over our sins. By
the work of His Holy Spirit, the Lord made us His own dear children, and He
will bring us home. Therefore, in the peace of His forgiveness and grace, Trust
the God who forgives and forgets our sin. Amen.
The peace
of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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