1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word this 13th
Sunday after Pentecost comes to us from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah
23:16-29. Here in Jeremiah we see that
there’s no comparison between the message of the false prophets and the message
of the Lord. The words of the false
prophets are lies, but the Word of the Lord is truth. The message is entitled, “There’s No Comparison!” Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
False
prophets not only get their information from false sources, but they also
preach a false message. First, they deny the sinfulness of sin. They don’t turn
God’s people “from their evil ways and
from their evil deeds” (23:22b). Instead, they tell people whatever they
want to hear (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3). This
is often the problem with false theology. It teaches something less than total depravity,
that we are all conceived and born into sin and are unable to save ourselves.
It condones immorality instead of condemning it. It doesn’t take sin as
seriously as God takes it. In other words, it does not take sin seriously
enough! The proof that our own culture does not take sin seriously is the way
that sin has been redefined. Moral failings are treated as bad habits or honest
mistakes or diseases or psychological disorders—anything except what they
actually are: sins. The false prophets
of Jeremiah’s day were soft on one sin in particular: Jeremiah 23:14 says, “Among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They
commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that
no one turns from his wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of
Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” Jeremiah
was probably referring to adultery, both in the spiritual sense of worshiping
other gods, and in the physical sense of sexual sin. The prophets were
repeating one of Satan’s lies, the lie that there is no harm in sex outside of
marriage.
3.
Jeremiah’s
reference to Sodom and Gomorrah suggests that part of the problem in Jerusalem
was homosexual sin. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex whenever
they wanted, wherever they wanted, and with whomever they wanted. When angels
came to visit Lot in Sodom, the neighbors surrounded his house and demanded, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” (Genesis 19:5). The
Sodomites reveled in all kinds of sexual sin.
4.
This is a
warning to any follower of Christ who continues to give into homosexual sin, or
with any other sexual sin for that matter. To think that it’s safe to dabble in
lust, pornography, or adultery is to listen to a false message. The lie of
pro-gay theology is that a homosexual lifestyle has the blessing of God. That
is a false message. The Bible teaches that all sexual fantasies and actions
outside of Biblical marriage are sin. Of course, there is forgiveness for every
sin in Christ. But the full extent of God’s grace cannot be learned by
minimizing the sinfulness of sexual sin. A sin must be called a sin so that
grace can be grace all the way through the Christian’s sexuality.
5.
Not only
were the false prophets soft on sin, but they were also silent about God’s
wrath. Once they denied the sinfulness of sin, it made perfect sense to deny
the justice of judgment. One false message leads to the other. Along with “easy views of sin go rosy views of judgment.” “Do not
listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false
hopes.…They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the
stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ” (Jeremiah
23:16a, 17) Literally, the false
prophets held out “vain hopes,” like the “vanities” of Ecclesiastes. They told
people that Jerusalem would not be destroyed and that God would not punish
their sins.
6.
The false
prophets in the postmodern church say the same thing. They teach that God is
not angry with sinners, just disappointed. H. Richard Niebuhr put it best when
he described the old liberal theology as that system of doctrine in which “a God without wrath brought men without sin
into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a
Cross.” If there is no wrath, no sin, and no judgment, then who needs a
cross?
7.
Jeremiah
23:23-24 says, “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.” You can almost imagine God shaking his
head. How can everyone forget so easily? God is omnipresent and omniscient. He
knew what was going on. He knew of Judah’s growing idolatry and immorality. He
knew what the false prophets were thinking and saying. Did they think they
could get away with it? Did they think he would not object to the negative influence
they were having on his people? Did they think he wouldn’t do anything about
it?
8. Jeremiah 23:26 says, “How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying
prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?” False prophets still exist today.
Whenever someone preaches or teaches contrary to the Word and will of God, they
identify themselves as false. Look at some of the fastest growing churches
today. They are the ones that tell people what they want to hear. No one likes
to be called to repentance. People don’t like to be told that they are sinners
in need of Jesus who died on the cross for their sins. That that they can’t contribute to their own
salvation, that they need a Savior from sin. Since people don’t like to hear
those things, they are drawn to those churches, preachers, and teachers that
say “what their itching ears want to hear”
(2 Ti 4:3). All people want to hear that they are basically good. Our sinful
human nature wants us to believe that we can contribute to our own salvation.
Our sinful society wants us to believe that what God calls a sin isn’t
necessarily a sin. Wherever one finds an improper distinction between law and
gospel, false prophets abound.
9. Jeremiah 23:28-29 says, “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?” God’s warning rings out. Don’t be fooled.
There is no comparison between the words of men and the Word of God. Let the
prophets say what they want to say, but then compare their words There is no
comparison between the words of false prophets and God’s Word. Neither is there
any comparison between straw and grain. Only grain provides nourishment. In the
same way, only God’s Word provides spiritual nourishment. God’s Word is not like the hollow words of
men. Like fire, it purifies. And like a hammer, God’s Word is powerful. It is
strong enough to destroy any opposition.
10. Through the old familiar means of grace, the proclamation of God’s Holy
Word, and through the Sacraments, God draws near to us even when we’ve strayed
far away from Him and He promises to give us His Son Jesus through His Word and
Sacraments…. God still calls out to us
in his familiar, comforting Word (vv 28–29).
He would still speak to them in their distant exile through his faithful
prophets. He is always calling out to
us, despite our wandering after false words, with his saving Word of truth, the
familiar message of Christ’s cross and resurrection. And that familiar, comforting Word with the
Sacraments does bring us near to our God again (vv 23–24). God would bring Judah home to a new temple
after 70 years. God gathers us to himself
around Christ’s Word and Sacrament now and forever in heaven. Truly, our God is a loving God who wishes to
draw us to himself. He does that in his grace and mercy through the familiar
proclamation of his Word here in this holy place and through the familiar
administration of the Sacraments here in this holy place. We who have been afar
off have been brought close by these familiar, self-declared means of salvation
so that we would be comforted and consoled with that which they bring and offer. Amen.
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