You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 4, January 30, 2022

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God His Father—to Him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-3  But now this is what the Lord says, the Lord who created you, O Jacob, the Lord who formed you, O Israel.  Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.  ²When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.  When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.  When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not set you on fire.  ³Because I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior, I gave Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. (EHV)

You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Israel was an enslaved nation, though they didn’t yet realize it.  Worse yet, they had volunteered into that slavery to sin, and for their eager enlistment, they would face deportation, exile, and much hardship in a foreign land.  As such, Israel is a pretty good representative of the whole world.  It started when Adam and Eve voluntarily turned against God.  Israel likewise betrayed the God who demonstrated such love for them time after time.  You and I, also, because we inherited a sinful nature, were voluntarily enslaved in sin, for which we deserve God’s wrath.  Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)  The message of our text, however, is pure love.  The Lord is telling His undeserving bride, You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.

Because of Israel’s open rebellion against the Lord of heaven and earth, much of Isaiah’s message prophesies the imminent judgment that would fall upon that adulterous nation and its people.  They deserved God’s righteous anger and His harsh discipline and punishment.  The same should be said of all the rest of us.  By nature, we were born rebellious.  Yet, we can’t lay the blame for our sins against our parents, our neighbors, or even the devil.  Through Ezekiel, the Lord declares, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.  The son will not share in the guilt of the father, and the father will not share in the guilt of the son.” (Ezekiel 18:20)  In other words, since we all have sinned, we all deserve the punishment of death and banishment from God’s presence forever. 

Israel’s unfaithfulness would lead to a period of harsh discipline.  Sin always comes with consequences.  I don’t mean in a karma sort of way that assumes you eventually always get what you deserve, but as people wander away from the Lord and His love, they fall into all kinds of abuse, lovelessness, and the reality of a devil who misleads and entices wickedness while then turning against the wayward to taunt and accuse and belittle.  Yet, this doesn’t please God.

Even as God had His messenger call the people of Israel to repentance, and even as that call fell on deaf ears, God remained faithful to the nation He had chosen to love as a faithful and righteous husband loves his bride.  Though Israel had continually acted, spiritually, as a harlot and an adulterous wife by worshipping the idols of her neighbors, and trusting in earthly powers instead of the Lord, God declares with a solemn promise, “Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.” 

Our God works outside of time, so the redemption accomplished by Jesus with His life and death is already counted to Israel here seven hundred years before Jesus took on human flesh.  This people, who had been so unfaithful to the God who loved them didn’t deserve God’s grace any more than we do, but our God is the God of true love.  His faithful love is granted to sinners who could never earn it, and though Israel would face some serious consequences in their earthly lives because of their unfaithfulness, they would not be abandoned.  Likewise, we will never be separated from the God who loves us.

God says to all His chosen ones, “Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  When we look honestly at our lives in the mirror of God’s law, we must confess how unfaithful we have been.  At the same time, God takes away our fear by sending His Son to live a perfectly holy life in our place and to die on a cross to suffer the wrath and punishment we deserved. 

With the blood He shed for you and me, Jesus redeemed us.  He paid the ransom price God demanded for our release from sin, death, and the devil’s control.  There is nothing that we have to do to satisfy God’s just anger for our sins, because Jesus has already done it all.  There is no war against the world we now have to fight because Jesus has already won the victory that secured our eternal peace.  There is no arduous journey or search we must undertake to find our God, because He has already found and chosen us for rescue.  Furthermore, as we go through life, we will not be alone, for just like the nation of Israel, You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.

The Lord God says, “I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  God chose Israel already as He called Abraham to faith.  He called them again as He had Moses lead His people out of Egypt.  God called you and me to His loving embrace as He washed us clean in the water of baptism and through the proclamation of all that Jesus has done to set us free from the slavery that was killing us. 

In the tradition of marriage, it was common for the bride to take her husband’s last name as they entered that new relationship.  That may seem old-fashioned to many people today, and some might even avoid it as being too patriarchal, as if that has some negative meaning.  Yet, God puts His name on us to claim us and protect against Satan’s assaults and accusations.  St, Paul used this picture as he wrote, “Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word.” (Ephesians 5:25-26)  Why do we fight to protect the sanctity of marriage in our times?  Because marriage is intended to picture the love Jesus has shown to us all with His sacrificial service.

Now, all of us have a lifetime of trials to endure as we live in this sin-filled, doomed world, but just as Israel faced the prospect of exile from her homeland, God promised, “When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.  When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.  When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not set you on fire.”  The people of Israel and Judah would face many trials and hardships, some so severe it would seem like a consuming fire.  Yet, with God walking with them they would not be destroyed.

Jesus made the same promise to all His followers before He ascended to His Father’s side in heaven.  He assures us, “Surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  While we live as sojourners and exiles in the foreign land of this world, we will have trouble.  We will have hardships and persecution, but Jesus has overcome all things so that at the end of our days you and I will be safely returned to our home in the Promised Land of heaven to enjoy eternity as the Bride, the Church in glory. 

Through all the struggles, sorrows, persecutions, and pains the believer may experience in this world, we have the protection of our Savior keeping us alive and safe in the shelter of His name.  The devil can’t have us, and the world can’t destroy what Jesus has already won for us, and should the world manage to kill the body, we yet live, for our Savior has won for us everlasting life.  In other words, You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.

God didn’t redeem us to put us under another slavish yoke as some beaten-down, subservient tools.  Rather, He calls the people of His Church to walk with Him as His beloved Bride.  It is Jesus’ righteousness that clothes us in majestic glory and holiness.  We don’t get to see that glory here on earth, but it is a sure thing in heaven where sin and temptation will never again trouble our souls, minds, or bodies.  We walk with the Lord, not in the shame of the condemned, but as beloved ones who Jesus gave His entire being to rescue from the torture our kidnapper intended to inflict upon God’s beloved.  Jesus lifts us up from the wretchedness of our birth, and the voluntary rebelliousness that now shames us in retrospect, because He claims those who believe in Him as His beloved Bride whom He has cleansed, adorned, and attached to His name for all eternity.

To the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, God gave a picture of His glory as He said, “Because I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior, I gave Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.”  The great I AM, who called Moses from a burning bush and sent him to Egypt to rescue God’s people out of earthly slavery, sent His Son to the cross to rescue all sinners from the chains of sin, the torture of death, and the devil’s accusations. 

Egypt was crushed as God made an example out of the defiant Pharoah so that the whole world would know God’s power and commitment to His people.  In a similar fashion, Jesus made Himself the ransom price as He carried all our sins and guilt to the cross.  Like the Pharoah in Egypt, the serpent’s head was crushed when the Lamb of God died to set us free.  Then, God raised His Son from the dead as the sure and certain proof that Jesus is the great I AM, the same Son of God who called Abraham to faith and led Israel through the Red Sea and the wilderness to the promised land.  In exchange for the sin of the world, Jesus gives us the riches of His righteousness and citizenship in His everlasting kingdom. 

Dear friends, we come to church on a regular basis to confess that we have sinned against God.  This is as it should be, for we are sinners from birth.  Primarily, however, we come to our regular worship services, because God calls us to receive the service of His love.  Here, through the proclamation of His Gospel and the washing waters of Baptism, God claims us as His beloved ones, and with the body and blood of our Redeemer and Savior, He strengthens us for our journey home.  Here, He trains us to represent our Lord and King with the reflection of His holiness, and here, he dresses us in the beautiful wedding gown woven from the righteousness Jesus lived for you and me.  Because God addresses us personally with the message of His unchanging love and devotion, hear and believe the promises of your heavenly Bridegroom.  You are redeemed to walk with the Lord.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.