Return to the LORD for salvation.

 

Sermon for Trinity 8, August 7, 2022

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  All who do his precepts have good understanding.  Amen.

Jeremiah 15:19-21  ¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord says.  If you repent, I will take you back, so that you may stand before me.  If what you say is worthwhile and not worthless, you will be my spokesman.  They must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.   ²⁰I will make you like a bronze wall to this people.  They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, because I am with you to save you and to rescue you, declares the Lord.  ²¹I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, and I will deliver you from the grasp of the ruthless. (EHV)

Return to the LORD for salvation.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Consider for a moment the mission Jeremiah was assigned.  Jeremiah’s whole life was spent in bringing a message of judgment, condemnation, destruction, and death upon his nation, including all his neighbors, relatives, associates, and rulers.  Literally everyone Jeremiah ever met needed to repent of their unfaithfulness to the LORD, and they needed to hear of the wrath that would soon be poured out upon them if they did not turn away from their idolatry and wickedness.

Because of the woeful message God had Jeremiah proclaim day in and day out, you can understand that he wasn’t a very popular fellow in the land of Judah.  Like today, people didn’t like hearing that they were offending God with their idolatrous and sinful living. 

Foreshadowing the opposition Jesus would later face, the priests and leaders hated Jeremiah for declaring that disaster was coming upon the nation because of their false teachings and wicked leadership.  They asked, what gave Jeremiah the right to scare the people and stir up this nation to turn from their evil ways?  They detested Jeremiah because he was preaching a completely different future than their own advisors and soothsayers were forecasting.  What made Jeremiah think he knew more than everyone else?  On top of all that, Jeremiah refused to participate in their idolatrous worship festivals, orgies and riotous living.  He kept himself separate from the masses except to preach their need for repentance and to declare gloom and doom upon the nation.  So who, they demanded, did he think he was?

It all finally became a little bit more than Jeremiah could bear.  Even this faithful prophet finally broke down and questioned the LORD, wishing he had never been born, and complaining that God wasn’t being so faithful as He had promised.  Jeremiah wondered, why should he, who had been so faithful to the mission God gave him, suffer so much trouble and persecution for his faithfulness?  In our sermon text, we have the LORD’s answer.  Surprisingly, God didn’t react in anger; instead, His message to Jeremiah was a gracious invitation: Return to the LORD for salvation.

The old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” comes to mind here.  We live in a world that has changed drastically since Jeremiah’s day.  We don’t have to ride donkeys as our main source of transportation.  We don’t have to write down the saving words of God on scrolls, nor do we have to walk around for weeks on end to spread God’s message among our people.  We can simply type in the truth on our computers, or phones, and instantly the message can be sent around the world.  Yet, how much has really changed?  In our nation and around the world, there are still vast populations that chase after gods other than the Creator of all things.  Though Christianity remains the largest religion in total numbers, true Christians are most likely just a small minority of the world’s population.

As has been the case since Jesus walked this earth, His followers often experience persecution for the message they bring.  Faithful Christians will always be too intolerant of sinful excess for the general population’s taste.  We will be unwilling to participate in things like sinful lifestyles that encourage trying on marriage partners long before we commit to the marriage, if commitment ever even comes.  We are viewed as old-fashioned fools for believing that the Bible speaks God’s complete Word.  And, how dare we question anyone else’s right to live any old way they choose?  What makes us think that we have the right to tell people what God says is pleasing to Him, or sinful in His eyes?  Thus, Christians are often hated, mocked, avoided, scorned, and sometimes persecuted and killed, but in all this, we experience the same things that Jeremiah was enduring.

None of this should surprise us, for the Lord Jesus told His disciples that in the last days, “They will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will put you to death.  You will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away from faith.  They will betray each other and hate each other.  Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:9-12)  These end times have been going on since Jesus ascended to heaven, yet Jesus also encouraged His followers by continuing with the promise, "But whoever endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) 

That is essentially the reply God gave Jeremiah for his complaint: Return to the LORD for salvation.  It is essential to understand that salvation is found only in faithfulness to the Lord God who loves us and has planned, and carried out, our rescue.  When we turn away from our weaknesses and sins, and follow the LORD in everything we do, He remains faithful to His promise of deliverance, life, and salvation.  God will never abandon anyone who does not abandon Him.

“Therefore this is what the Lord says.  If you repent, I will take you back, so that you may stand before me.”  Contrary to what some might guess, the LORD’s promise, here, isn’t conditional upon Jeremiah’s effort, or ours.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit’s call that would keep God’s servant faithful, and through God’s great mercy, grace, and power, He will keep all His elect faithful.  Therefore, we will then stand before God, not just on Judgment Day, but for all eternity in glory. 

God told Jeremiah, “If what you say is worthwhile and not worthless, you will be my spokesman.”  He reminded Jeremiah that he had nothing to fear as long as he remained true to God’s Word.  It’s only when straying from God’s truth that anyone should have reason to be afraid. 

Like Jeremiah, we often find it easy to feel hurt when friends and neighbors reject us for speaking the truth of God’s Word.  We might even be tempted to soften our message a bit to make it more acceptable to sinners, but the LORD wants us to hold on to what is precious—His holy Word—in its purity and truth, because God is the One calling for the world to repent, and through His Word, God tells people the Good News about Jesus and His salvation. 

When we proclaim Law and Gospel faithfully in line with God’s Word, we speak as the mouth of God Himself.  However, if we stray from that truth, even a smidgeon, we have jumped into the worthlessness of human reason which cannot compare to the glory of God and His Word.  Therefore, we must speak God’s truth as He has given it to us in the Bible.  We dare not turn to what human nature wants to hear.  Natural man always fights against the One true God.  St. Paul wrote, “There will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, because they have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in line with their own desires.  They will also turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  As for you, keep a clear head in every situation.  Bear hardship.  Do the work of an evangelist.  Fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:3-5) 

Our ministry, as followers of Christ, both publicly as pastors and privately in our personal relationships, is to proclaim His truth about our sins and about His salvation, because if Christians turn to the teachings of the world, we and all others will be lost.  Therefore, for our benefit and for the salvation of sinners around us, we need to proclaim God’s precious truth.  The LORD told Jeremiah, “They must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”  Unbelievers need to hear the truth that will set them free from the destruction they deserve just as we needed to hear it.  All people need the message: Return to the LORD for salvation. 

The LORD promised Jeremiah, “I will make you like a bronze wall to this people.  They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, because I am with you to save you and to rescue you.”  The people of Judah were on a collision course with eternal damnation.  Most of them, and especially their leaders, were trusting in anything but the salvation God offered through repentance and faith in His promised Messiah.  They foolishly hoped to be kept safe through political alliances and the worship of idols that had absolutely no power to help. 

The words God gave Jeremiah to preach to his fellow citizens of Israel were meant to turn the people away from their rebellion against God and bring them peace.  About six hundred years later, Jesus said, “Your Father in heaven does not want even one of these little ones to perish.” (Matthew 18:14)  This will never change.  It is always God’s will that every person on earth be turned away from sin, believe in His Son, and be saved from the condemnation and death we each have earned.

God declared, "I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, and I will deliver you from the grasp of the ruthless."  Jeremiah’s life was never easy, and it wouldn’t immediately improve.  He still had a lot of persecution and trouble ahead of him.  Therefore, God wanted His prophet to remember that no matter how hard it might seem, life on earth is short, but for God’s faithful people there is a new life coming that will never end.  God wanted Jeremiah to know that though he had sinned by complaining against the LORD, the LORD had already planned his salvation and would carry it out. 

Dear friends, for you and me, as for Jeremiah, God long ago planned deliverance from the devil’s lies and evil designs on our lives.  Even though Jeremiah had sinned in his complaint, God hadn’t turned away nor negated His promise to send a Savior.  Therefore, God assures us that His plans for the redemption of the whole human race would never be stopped.  God’s Son was coming into the world to redeem the world. 

Jeremiah needed to look forward to God’s salvation, just as we need to look back on that already accomplished fact.  Our deliverance came on a cross outside Jerusalem.  God sent His own dear Son to bear the cost of our redemption.  That is the promise given through Jeremiah here: " I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, and I will deliver you from the grasp of the ruthless."  Because of Christ’s holy life and innocent, sacrificial death, God has removed our sins and made us acceptable to Himself once again.  Though the evil foe is constantly seeking to eat us up in temptation and sin, God has rescued us from the devil’s eternal fate. 

Therefore, whenever we ponder our own weaknesses, or when we feel the despair of worry and persecution, we can stand with St. Paul and humbly confess, “What a miserable wretch I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) 

If the trials of this world wear you down, or you feel the painful rejection of those who want to follow what their itching ears want to hear, listen to God’s call to believe in Jesus.  Stand firm with faithful Jeremiah, who while enduring decade after decade of rejection, persecution, and even torture for staying true to God and His Word, was saved as he believed God’s promise, "I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked, and I will deliver you from the grasp of the ruthless."  Return to the LORD for salvation.  Amen.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you— according to the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, . . . to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.  Amen.