Intro
Today, the Church finds herself wandering on dangerous terrain, for she no longer wants to listen to her preachers. Even worse, preachers don’t want to preach. They don’t want to ruffle feathers, lest folks fly away, startled, and go to a church down the street. And so we preachers often preach anything but God’s Word.
But then, how many congregations want a pastor who calls the religious a brood of vipers like John the Baptizer did? Who wants a pastor who will tell us to repent from our comfortable sins? Who wants a pastor to confront someone and tell him to bear the fruits of repentance? When you called me to be your shepherd, your pastor, did you say, “We want a man who will call us a ‘brood of vipers?’” I didn’t think so.
Main Body
Today, we’ve made an idol of church-attendance figures instead of letting the Word of God decide matters. It has led to the Church lacking in prophetic preachers. We are scarce in preachers who speak the Word of God, for fear of offending and calling people out of the comfort of their sins. If I have been such a false preacher, then I repent.
For God uses real preachers, not pale, second-rate imitations. That’s how He works. He sent prophets. He sent apostles. And today, He sends pastors “to prepare the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Through the preached Word, the Church is to grow in the maturity of Christ, and not be blown by courses of every foolish wind and doctrine that whisper sweet poison into her ears. That’s why God sent the prophet Isaiah. That’s why He sent John the Baptizer. That’s why He sent His Apostles. And that’s why today, He sends His preachers.
And when God’s preachers have preached God’s Word, it is the Lord’s mouth that has spoken. And that’s the Word that Isaiah is sticking into our ears today. “The Lord’s mouth has spoken.” And where the Lord’s mouth has spoken, there God’s Word is bristling with His power, bringing to us His life and salvation. For to truly live, we can only do so by every Word that goes forth from the mouth of God.
God speaks from His mouth, both sides. He speaks His shrapnel Word of Law and He speaks His healing Word of Gospel. He speaks His wrath and mercy, all in one breath, all by the same Spirit, sometimes even in the same verse. Today we have that from the Prophet Isaiah: The Law sandwiched between two slices of Gospel.
From the Lord’s mouth comes a comforting Word. “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. Speak from a heart of love, speak to the heart of My Bride, and speak consoling words to her. Comfort her, but don’t make her comfortable. And remember, pronounce My forgiveness upon her.
Yes, God sends His preachers to preach a comforting Word. He wants to woo His Bride, His Church, with tender words. For if Christ has died, if He has paid the punishments of our sin under Law, then the Law can no longer condemn us. We have received from the Lord’s hand double for all our sins. Not just enough to get the job done, but double forgiveness, overflowing forgiveness, a life-giving flood of forgiveness.
That’s how it is with the Gospel--more forgiveness than we have sin to forgive. Imagine that! No sin is so great that Jesus didn’t atone for it on the cross. No life is so wretched that God could not redeem it.
What then are your sins? Have you routinely put yourself first, even above God? Do you despise His Word, only getting around to receiving it when it fits your schedule? Do you disrespect authority? Are you a murderer, adulterer, cheat, and liar? Are you greedy and envious? The Law says we are guilty of all these sins, each in our own, perverse, and singular way.
God’s comforting Word to you through Jesus Christ is that for all your sins, you have received double from the Lord’s hand. Jesus has more than enough forgiveness to cover them all, even your most secret, shameful, and face-blushing sins!
Comfort my people, God says to His preachers. Bring them comfort. Tell them, “Your servitude is over and your iniquity atoned. For you have received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins.” Can it be so? Can you be sure of it? Yes, for “the Lord’s mouth has spoken.”
God’s Word is a preparing Word. It is the voice of one calling out: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wild a highway for our God.” The voice’s identity is unknown, anonymous. I suppose that’s good, for it’s the Word of the Lord that matters. God’s delivery boy is secondary.
The voice calls people to prepare. “Prepare the way for the Lord.” The terrain will be forever altered after God’s bulldozers have plowed their path. “Every ravine will be raised; every mountain and hill brought low; the steep slope, a plain; the rugged ridges, a vale.” Everyone must be fully changed from what they are.
If you are proud, high, and mighty, you will be brought down. If you’ve made a mountain of your good deeds, the Law will come and bulldoze everything down to the ground. The Lord will push down anything that stands between you and your salvation.
If you think you have repented enough, that you are sorry enough for your sins to make God happy, the Law will plow you over. The Law will say, “You have not repented enough. You are not sincere enough. No matter how hard you try, it will never, never be good enough!”
For the Law paves the way for Christ. It sandpapers smooth the rough places. God levels the uneven ground. He paves a straight path, preparing us for the Lord’s coming. He does it, we don’t. Repentance is God’s work in us; it’s not of our doing. We simply confess that God’s Law has had its leveling way with us.
The Lord’s mouth has spoken. The voice says, “Cry out.” The volume goes up even higher. “What shall I cry?” Cry a word of warning. Let all know that “all flesh is grass and all its splendor is like the flowers of the field.” We are frail, mortal beings. We live, we move, and then we die. “From dust you were made, to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). This is the result of our rebellion, the just desserts of our sin.
That’s what we get for trying to be our own god, instead of what God created us to be--in His image! And so we are like the grass that thrives in the morning but whithers and dies when the hot breath of desert winds blow over it. Our works and great feats are like the flowers of the field. They are but a momentary splash of color, and then they are gone.
Only “the Word of our God stands forever!” It is on His Word--and not what we do--that our eternal life rests. Only His Word is sure. The Lord’s mouth has spoken.
The voice again speaks, now even louder. “Get yourself up to a lofty mount, O Zion, bringer of glad tidings. Lift your voice with power, O Jerusalem, bringer of glad tidings. Lift it; do not fear. Tell the towns of Judah: ‘Behold, your God!’” It is Gospel, life-changing news, glad tidings. And the Gospel is always louder than the Law.
The good, life-giving Word is that God is here. “Behold, your God,” here in the hearing of His Word. “Behold, your God,” here in the blessed Sacrament. “Behold, your God,” here in the waters of Baptism. “Behold, your God,” here in the Word of Absolution. Here, Jesus feeds you. Here He comes to prepare you for the Day of His coming, to raise you from the death of your sin to new life in Him just as He will raise you from the dead on the Last Day.
Conclusion
That’s the life-giving Word that the Church is to proclaim. That’s why she lifts her head and shouts to all the masses of the earth: “Here is your God.” That’s why you are as well to proclaim to your neighbor: “Here is your God.” That’s why I am shouting aloud right now, “Here is your God!”
Yes, our God is the Baby of Bethlehem, the Man of Cross, the crucified, risen, and reigning King of kings and Lord of lords. Your God is Jesus, God in the flesh, the God for you.
You know where He is. You know where Christ “feeds His flock, gathers His lambs, and carries them close to His heart.” He does His flock-tending where He has told you where He would be. Here, here He is for you. This is sure and certain. For “the Lord’s mouth has spoken.” Amen.
