190811 Sermon on Jeremiah 23:16-29, Matthew 7:15-23
Two topics are prominent in our readings today. The first is
the topic of false prophets. The prophet Jeremiah, in our Old Testament
reading, speaks about the false prophets who were saying the opposite of what
he is saying. Jeremiah was telling the people to repent because the wrath of
God was coming upon them. These false prophets were saying, “Oh no, Jeremiah is
overreacting. No such thing will happen.” They claimed also to have the Spirit
of God, they had dreamed dreams, and who is Jeremiah to say that they are
wrong? This topic of false prophets also comes up in our Gospel reading. Jesus
warns us to beware of false prophets. They come in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
The second topic in our readings is about the good works
that must be present in those who belong to the Lord. If someone believes, then
the Holy Spirit will produce good works. If there are no good works, then it is
evident that the person’s faith is a sham, a self-delusion.
I’ve already mentioned this with the prophet Jeremiah. He
was telling the people that their turning away from God’s commandments meant
that they were not the people of God even though they had God’s promises and
covenants. They thought that they were believing these promises and covenants,
but what was really going on was that they were enslaved to their flesh and
devoted to false gods. They thought that they were believers, but they were
actually unbelievers. Their ongoing rebellion against God’s commandments was
proof of it.
In our Epistle reading St. Paul says that those who have the
Holy Spirit will put to death the deeds of the flesh. So if you are living in
harmony with the sinful flesh, then you will die. But if the Spirit of God has
been given to you, then you will seek after righteousness and live.
In our Gospel reading we perhaps have the starkest preaching
of all. Jesus says that if you are good, then you will do good. A good tree
bears good fruit; a bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear
good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. It is by their fruits
that you will know whether someone is genuine. It doesn’t matter if someone
says over and over, “Lord, Lord,” if they are living contrary to the will of
God. They will not go to heaven even if they were able to cast out demons and even
work miracles in Jesus’s name. To them it will be said, “Depart from me, you
evildoers.”
And so the second topic that is found in all our readings is
that God’s people live according to his will. True faith produces good works.
The people of God, led by the Spirit of God, value and strive after the God’s
will. Otherwise they are not the people of God.
So the first topic is false prophets. The second topic is
the teaching and keeping of God’s will. What I’d like to consider is how these
two topics are related to one another. What does the warning against false
prophets have to do with the requirement that God’s people live according to
God’s will?
In order to begin to answer this question, I’d like to
recall what we talked about last week. Last week I spoke about the way that we
are lawless by nature. The sinful flesh is not interested in God’s will. The
sinful flesh only looks out for itself. Nobody has to teach us this. We are
born this way.
In order to show you that this is indeed so, I’d like to
point to young children. Babies are very selfish creatures. They want
everything just so. If it isn’t just so, then they will make you pay for it.
It’s a good thing that we indulge infants in their selfishness because they are
too young to be taught anything otherwise. But when a baby is two or three,
then they can start to be taught. They can’t just take whatever anybody else
has. They have to share. They can’t do whatever they want, they have to do what
they are supposed to do. You might say that the Law is imposed upon them. And
how do these toddlers like the Law? They don’t like it at all. It is very
bitter. They might get angry and seek revenge.
Good fathers and mothers are going to teach the child that
they cannot always have it their way. If toddlers are not taught this, then
they are screwed up for the rest of their lives. But every parent knows how
hard this work is. There is a tenderness in us all for our children as our own
flesh and blood that wants to indulge whatever desires our children might have.
It is unpleasant and difficult to deal with the aftermath of discipline, when
they want to hurt us in turn. Plus, how does one do it rightly? How much is the
right amount? What techniques should be used? There is a lot of wisdom and art
that is required for doing this well. It only becomes harder the older the
child gets, and the better at lying the child gets. When children are toddlers
they are quite transparent about their intentions. Once they get older and more
sophisticated, they get really good at lying. Sorting out what is true from
what is not true is so hard that it is impossible to do it perfectly. But
again, where this lying and wrongdoing is not confronted and punished, the
child will be irreparably warped and deformed. The native lawlessness will go
on and only get stronger and stronger.
So let’s go back to our question this morning: “What does
the warning against false prophets have to do with the requirement that God’s
people live according to God’s will?” The answer is that those who do not
require God’s people to live according to God’s will are false prophets. There
are many other ways to be false prophets too. Anybody who lies, claiming to
speak for God, is misusing God’s name and is a false prophet. But we are taking
up only this specific way that someone is a false prophet—when God’s will is
ignored, and people are allowed to sin without consequence by thought, word,
and deed.
This is what is going on in our Old Testament reading this
morning. The false prophets were saying that everything is fine. They were
saying that their country was the greatest country on earth. Only good days lie
ahead for them. Jeremiah was saying something quite different. He was saying
that they were under God’s judgment. Because of their sin, God was angry at
them. His wrath would come down upon their heads like a whirlwind, like a fire,
like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. Between the patriotic prophets on
the one hand, and the gloomy Jeremiah on the other, which do you think was more
popular with the people? They liked the false prophets. Why? Because they let
the people do whatever they wanted.
I think this is also a part of what Jesus is talking about
when he says that false prophets appear to be sheep, but inwardly they are
ravenous wolves. Those who let others do whatever they want, appear to be
loving and gentle. Nobody’s afraid of them because they never speak harshly or
put people on the spot. They seem totally harmless. But this is only a cover
for what is really going on. What is really going on is that these folks are
just looking out for themselves. Luther liked to call them “belly preachers.”
What he meant by that is that with all that they say and do, they look out for
their own bellies, their own livelihoods. They don’t want anybody upset,
otherwise their pay might be cut. They don’t offend anyone because they wanted
peace and quiet for themselves. They don’t actually give a rip about the true
welfare of the people (even though it might appear that way). This becomes
clear if ever they are pushed or crossed or taken to task so that they actually
have to suffer. Then you will see the claws and the fangs come out from that
sickly sweet exterior.
I am someone who has been called by God to speak his word to
this congregation. I can understand how it happens that pastors become false
prophets in this regard. I like money. I like tranquility. I especially like it
when people like me. I want all of you to think that I am just great. So how
can I keep your affection for me? What if I should call you a sinner? What if I
should point out something specific that you are doing that must stop? How are
you going to like that? I don’t care how sanctified you are, so long as you
have this flesh and blood, you are going to resent it. We are not so different
from the way that we were when we were toddlers. It is annoying to be
criticized to say the least. It doesn’t matter if the criticism comes from
someone we otherwise love ever so much, we still resent it. Sometimes it makes
our blood boil.
But God willing, we will also come to our senses and see
that the judgment against us is correct. Fools will not repent. They will not
be reformed. They will remain warped and pig-headedly continue on with their
sin. This is what the Jews did with Jeremiah’s preaching. They continued on and
hardened their hearts against the word that God spoke through him. They got so
mad at him that, according to tradition, they stoned him to death. Not many
pastors today are stoned, but I tell you what might happen to them: they might
have their call rescinded. They might have their pay cut. They might be given
dirty looks and harassed. Why? Because they are evil? No, but precisely because
they are good. They are insisting on God’s will being done, and they are
rebuking those who break God’s commandments. This is always directed towards
repentance. Those who repent are forgiven, but those who remain unrepentant are
not forgiven so long as they do not repent.
Tolerance is not some great virtue that requires wisdom and
hard work. All that is required is for us to be tolerant is to not give a rip
about God or the other person. The parent who doesn’t give a rip about the true
welfare of their child will let the child do whatever it wants. But is that
loving? Is it loving to not lift a finger to help another person because it is
going to be difficult and stressful? No, that is not loving at all. We, as
Christians, have to look out for one another. We have to help one another. That
might very well mean that we have to put relationships on the line, put our
peace and tranquility on the line, and confront one another when we are walking
not according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. This is true and
necessary for each one of us as a Christian. It is also true, then, for me too,
because I, like you, am a Christian.
False prophets do not have as their primary goal that anybody
should be a true Christian and through repentance and faith in Christ be saved.
Their primary goal is their own happiness. Therefore, they will not risk their
own happiness for the good of others. Whatever it might be that can keep an
even keel in the congregation is the very thing that they will do. This will
create a certain kind of peace within the congregation, but it is a deathly
kind of peace. It’s the kind of peace that find at a graveyard. The reason why
graveyards are so quiet is because everybody is dead. There is nothing that is
fighting against it. In a congregation where the Holy Spirit is fighting
against the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, there is going to be
trouble, because good and evil are clashing against one another with eternal
consequences.
We are not looking for a worldly tranquility. We are looking
for a peace that the world cannot give. We are looking for a peace that is
beyond our understanding. That is the peace of sins exposed and then forgiven.
The world does not believe in the power of Jesus’s blood to completely do away
with sin. The best remedy that the world knows of for sin is forgetfulness. The
best they can hope for is that their sins might be forgotten, not
forgiven. But we do not believe in the
forgottenness of sins. We believe in the forgiveness of sins. The forgottenness
of sins is the devil’s pseudo-Gospel. It cannot save us from death and hell.
The forgiveness of sins in Jesus’s name makes for the resurrection from the
dead and the life everlasting.
False prophets, like the world, do not believe in the
forgiveness of sins. They only believe that sins can be forgotten. According to
their thinking, then, they are consistent in not bringing up sins. Why bring up
what can’t be changed anyway? True prophets believe in the forgiveness of sins
that has been worked by Jesus on the cross. They are not as afraid of sins
being brought into the light, because they know that they can actually be done
away with by God’s own almighty power that he has even given to us with his
Word and Sacraments. We all, including myself, need our sins exposed so that we
can turn away from them, be forgiven, and live under God’s blessing in Jesus’s
name. That’s how God’s kingdom works.
These are not just my thoughts, but Jesus’s thoughts. He
told us how his kingdom is to go forward. Before he ascended into heaven he
told the apostles and Christians to preach repentance and the forgiveness of
sins in his name to all the earth. Wherever people are brought to sorrow over
their sin and faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, there is the
kingdom of God. There is where people are saved from death and hell. May this
place be such a place.
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