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September 2, 2001
Pentecost 13
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Pastor Joel Zank

The Lord Has Given You His Word!

(Jeremiah 23:23-29) "Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD."I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!' How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the LORD. "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

In Christ Jesus, whose name spells salvation, dear fellow redeemed,

Your orthopedic surgeon says, "I think you need back surgery." Your auto mechanic says, "I think you need a new engine". Your financial advisor says, "I think you should invest in technology." Now we may have a great deal of respect for any or all of these advisors, but many of us would seek out a second opinion before acting on any of this advice. That's just way we are, especially when health or money are on the line. And that's probably a very good thing. But it's a very bad thing when our love for second opinions makes its way into our spiritual life.

That's the very problem that we find the Prophet Jeremiah dealing with in the Scripture before us. He's working with people who think of the Bible's message as nothing more than God's opinion, an opinion they don't want to hear. But Jeremiah sets the record straight. He tells the people of his day and ours, "The Lord hasn't given you his opinion. THE LORD HAS GIVEN YOU HIS WORD! He has given it to you 1) as the measure of truth; and he has given it to you 2) as the treasure of truth.

You would think that when the CEO of the universe has something to say, people would listen. After all God is the maker of us human beings. When he expresses his will for our lives he speaks as the One who owns us and as the One who knows what's best for us. His commandments are not hoops for us to jump through, but the revelation of his divine plan for our complete happiness.

The first two human beings knew this truth and appreciated it, that is until God's enemy, the devil, convinced Adam and Eve that true happiness comes from second guessing God and disobeying his will. They bought into Satan's lie and their descendants have been doing the same ever since. No one knew this better than the man named Jeremiah. God had appointed Jeremiah to be his prophet, to speak to God's people, to turn them from their sin back to God and his ways. That meant that Jeremiah had the job of pointing out the people's sin, telling them that their love for R-rated entertainment, their hunger for gossip and their fevered thirst for money were among the many sins that would cause God to disown them and turn them over to their enemies, if they did not soon repent.

Given that these were people whose ancestors had often tasted the just desserts of God's anger, you might expect that they changed their ways immediately. But they didn't. Instead they behaved as we so often do when we are confronted with our sin. They sought a second opinion, and in many cases they looked to their own sinful reason to provide it. What did their faulty logic tell them? "God's bluffing. He doesn't really care what you do. And so what if he does? What's he going to do about it-send everyone to hell?"

My friends, that logic has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? It's the generic voice of reason that tries to quiet the conscience plagued by sin. You've heard that voice in your head and I in mine. It's the voice that tries to make sin out to be something wonderful while making God out to be something less than what he really is-holy and just. The pattern is all too familiar. We get caught thinking, or speaking, or doing something that God says is wrong and immediately reason goes to work, putting its own spin on things. Reason tries to convince us that our sin is harmless - it's just a little white lie, for instance. Or it convinces us that our sin is justified: "God knows what she did to me and won't blame me if I never speak to her again." And sometimes reason even convinces us that our sin is beneficial: "This live-in relationship, this affair we're having can't be sinful because I've never been so happy in all my life."

Just like that our human reason becomes the false prophet that Jeremiah warns us about. Any yet how ready we are to honor its lies as if they were dreams sent from heaven, revelations from God himself. And when we find other sinners who share these wicked notions about sin how quick we are to regard their words as great pearls of wisdom. We're thrilled to have someone tell us that our sin isn't really sin at all, that the guilt we experience is the just product of an overactive conscience, and the fact that we suffer from the same moral defects as billions of other people simply makes us normal. Look at us, we're the very people living in the very are that the Apostle Paul warned about in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when men 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. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Our behavior leaves God asking just one question: "How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship" (Jeremiah 23:26-27). God's question is a good one. How long will we keep this up? We place ourselves in grave eternal danger by listening to the delusions of sinful human reason. For as Bible history teaches, the lies we sinners tell ourselves and one another about our sin and about God's attitude toward it are damning lies that cause us to forget the truth-lies that lead us to worship a god that doesn't exist, a god that can't rescue us from the hell we have earned for ourselves.

In the meantime, as worship the idol of human reason, the true God of heaven and earth refuses to be mocked or silenced. To every sinner who has ever thought or ever suggested that God doesn't really care about sin, or isn't serious about punishing it, God himself says, "Am I only a God nearby...and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?...Do not I fill heaven and earth?..."I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!'" (Jeremiah 23:23-25). Here the Lord has given you and me his word that he, the holy and almighty God is everywhere at once. Our sin never escapes his attention and sinners will never escape his wrath.

What a powerful message this is! As the writer to the Hebrews says, this Word of God "...is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Is there some sin in your life that you are trying to hide or excuse or justify? God has given you his Word so that you might use it to measure what is that you are thinking and saying about sin, and thereby know whether you are holding to a lie or to the truth.

But won't the truth burden us sinners to the point of despair? It doesn't need to. Jesus says, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32). Jesus hasn't given us his Word as a curse to despise, but a truth to treasure. It's the Bible's truth about our sin that leads us to know that we are powerless to save ourselves. In the last verse of our text the Lord says, "Is not my word like fire...and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29). When you and I go to the doctor, we don't want him to lie to us. His failure to tell us we are sick doesn't make us better. Such action can only serve to delay the cure. It may well cost us our life. Only the truth can help us. So it is with the Word. In the hands of the Holy Spirit, our sin doctor, the Word is like a fire that burns through our lies. It's like a hammer that punches a hole in our excuses and lays bare what is really wrong with us-the truth that we are wretched sinners who can do nothing but throw ourselves at the mercy of our God.

And then, at that very instant when the Word has brought us to our knees in repentance, the same doctor, the Holy Spirit of God, applies Word's healing truth. He speaks one name to our sin-sick hearts, the name he never wants us to forget-the name of Jesus--the name that accomplishes what our reason and our lies never can. With our lies we try to do away with our sins. With our reason we try to do away with God's threats. But still the guilt of sin is with us. Only the saving name of Jesus can remove that guilt, for only Jesus has taken our sins away. Think of it! That sin that you've been covering up, it became the Savior's sin on the cross. There he claimed it as his own. There he suffered its punishment in hell. There he died to pay it's wage and then he rose from the dead to show you that your sin's guilt is no longer a burden to him or to you. Jesus has life after punishment and because he does we have life without punishment forever. Jesus has even paid for all the lies we've told ourselves and others about sin and it's consequences.

No wonder the Lord says to us today: "Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" Jeremiah 23:28). How encouraging these words must have been to Jeremiah. No one wanted to listen to his message, but God told him, "Don't let that stop you, Jeremiah. Your message alone has the power to expose lies and to rescue sinners. Every other message about sin and salvation is only straw, an empty husk that can do nothing to nourish starving sinners. My Word is grain. It alone provides life-giving love and forgiveness."

Friends, you and I have tasted this forgiveness. It fills us with peace now and life eternal. God has given us this forgiveness in his Word as a treasure of truth to study and enjoy for ourselves day after day and to share with those around us every chance we get. At times, speaking God's truth will make us very unpopular, even with those closest to us. But don't let that stop you. Speak the truth to your family, your friends, your coworkers. It will do for them what it has done for you. It will open their eyes to see their sin and their Savior from sin. It will heal their sin-sick souls. That's not just my opinion. It's the truth because the Lord has given you his word! Amen.