Dear Christian Friends:
I would like each of you to think back over the years and ponder the great advancements that have taken place. If we were to list them starting with the earliest, what would they be? I imagine that we would list things like electric lights, radio, automobiles, television, airplanes and space travel just to name a few.
As we look back into the past, we can see just how far we have come from the days of horses and buggies to the present where we are sending robots to the surface of the planets. Indeed, we are an intelligent people capable of many great accomplishments. Someone once said that man could do anything he sets his mind to and for the most part this is true. Man has certainly made great strides in the field of technology. But, our sinful nature tends to forget who gives us the ability to do such wonderful things.
It was no different in Jeremiah’s day or Moses’ day or from any day since the fall into sin. Man has always seemed to forget where his abilities came from. Instead of thanking and trusting in God for everything we have, and technology is really only a small part of it, we become self-centered and give all the credit to ourselves. Our trust and confidence becomes misplaced and our sinful nature takes pride in our meager abilities. Well, Jeremiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, records for us a section of Scripture that can help us return to reality. He forces us to ask the question, Where is your trust and confidence placed? In the flesh which brings death, Or in the Lord, which brings you life.
If you remember, two weeks ago I told you about Jeremiah’s calling and how he was to pronounce God’s judgment on the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their sins of idolatry. In our text for this morning Jeremiah points out to us that the beginning of this sin is found where Jesus said all sins begin; Sin begins in the heart. The people of Israel had turned their hearts away from the Lord and when that happens nothing good will come from it. Jeremiah writes, “This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5).
Idolatry is not limited to just idols of wood and stone. It comes in many forms. The children of Israel had become too confident with their accomplishments. Jeremiah was preaching that destruction was going to come from the north and the people ignored him. The Kings of Judah since the time of Solomon had made political alliances with the nations that God had told them to destroy or to avoid. Their confidence and trust was in themselves and what they had accomplished, and not in God. In this instance, their idolatry focused on a political alliance with Egypt which was to be their protector from Babylon. Judah’s attempt to enlist the help of Egypt was just one example of their trust and confidence in the flesh. God said to them in chapter 2, “Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Shihor? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the River? - Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria” (Jeremiah 2:18, 36)
Human military might, diplomatic alliances, or economic strength cannot replace repentance and faith in God. Israel did not trust in God to be their protector. They failed to trust in God’s promise when God said, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).
As it was for Israel, so it is also with us. We sin against God when we think we can be self-sufficient and the masters of our fate. How many times do we shake a defiant fist in God’s face and tell him we know better than he does when we disregard his word because it does not fit with our way of thinking? God tells us to study his word daily so that we can fight off the temptations of Satan and our sinful flesh. But we think that we have learned all we need to know in conformation class, and we trust in ourselves and our abilities instead of God. When God speaks to us in his word, we should be like Samuel and say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” But we do not! Instead, lost in the sinfulness of our flesh with our misplaced trust and confidence, we defiantly shout at God saying, “Listen God, your servant is speaking!”
Whenever we turn our hearts away from God, we are in fact writing a living will, telling God that we do not want to be connected to his life support system. We would rather go it alone and rely on what out abilities can do. But in the end all we will have managed to do is to commit spiritual suicide. We will have removed ourselves from the source of life. God says that anyone who turns away from him to trust in his own sinful flesh for strength will, “be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (Jeremiah 17:6).
God tells us of the consequences that will happen in this life and the next if we turn our hearts away form him and trust in what we can do. Isolation, deprivation and condemnation are the best we can hope for. Picture bushes in the desert. They are small and their growth stunted because they are cut off from the life giving rains that come to the green parts of the world. Without God and his word, which is the well of living water, we also will become like the dry lifeless bush living in a parched wasteland.
So, where is your trust and confidence placed? Is it in the sinful flesh, which can bring only death, or is it in the Lord, who brings you life?
When we in God for all things, its quite a different picture. After Jeremiah’s stern preaching of the law to a rebellious people, he then tells them how trusting in God is the exact opposite of a barren wasteland. Jeremiah writes, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit”(Jeremiah 17:7-8). Even though the people of Judah had sinned against God and turned away from him, those who repented and turned back to the Lord found peace and security.
God had proven himself absolutely trustworthy throughout Israel’s history. During the time of the Judges in the Old Testament, whenever the people would turn away from God and worship false gods, they would bring punishment on themselves. When they repented of their sins and called on God for help, he would send them a deliverer to rescue them from their oppressors. God always provided, always delivered, and always responded to the cries of his people for help.
Jesus invites our trust too. Our Savior tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1). One of the most important words for the Christian is "trust". The Christian that places his trust in God above all things will be like a tree planted by a stream. In times of drought, the tree’s roots will drink in the life giving water. Its leaves will always be green and it will always bear fruit. The same is true for us. A Christian whose roots are firmly planted in the word of God will remain faithful and trust in the Lord. Our strength will come from the well of living water that Jesus gives us to drink. This is why Bible study and church attendance is so vital to the spiritual life of God’s people, it is the water we need for our thirsty souls.
Jeremiah found such strength flowing from the word of God. Where we have God’s printed word, Jeremiah’s faith was nourished and sustained by God’s spoken word. This enabled him to stand up against the fiercest opposition and to be fully confident that God would provide him with all he needed. Jeremiah put his trust and confidence in the Lord, and was blessed greatly because of it.
We will want to place our trust and confidence in the Lord in the toughest of times. Satan attacks us with doubt when we face trials and tribulations. The devil wants us to question our trust in the Lord. When we are faced with sickness or injury we say things like, “Why is God punishing me?” Brothers and sisters, God is not punishing you. God has carried out his punishment on his one and only Son. Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt we owed to God. His innocent death for our sins was the payment God required and he does not punish us even though we deserve it. The punishment that each of us deserve was completed when our Savior said, “IT IS FINISHED” (John 19:30).
The greatest need we have is the need for forgiveness. God fulfilled that need when he sent his Son to pay for our sins. But even there Satan tries to plant doubt in our minds. God tells us that he has forgiven all our sins by his grace. But if you are one of the people who think there are some sins that God has not forgiven, listen to what God says. God tells us, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25). God has forgiven every sin that you have committed against him. If you need further proof that you can trust in God for your forgiveness, then look to your baptism where all your sins have been washed away. Come to the Lord’s Table and receive his precious body and blood where God personally tells you to have confidence that you are forgiven.
While we live on earth our trust and confidence is often misplaced, often disappointed. We trust our physical strength, yet illness can make us weak. We work and save our money and then a recession comes to threaten our security. We trust friends with secrets only to find their hearts are false and that they use their tongues against us. Our ideals lie shattered, our goals unattained, our ambitions unfulfilled. In the end, we find that self-reliance is able to produce nothing but depression and despair.
Jeremiah reminds us to place our trust and confidence in God, who alone is trustworthy. We can rely on him because we have proof that he has acted mightily for us. In Jesus Christ God assumed the burden of our sinful nature and cancelled our debt of sin. By his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has removed our sin and guilt forever. This fact gives us the confidence that when God calls us home we can stand before him trusting in what Jesus has done and not on what we have done.
We live in a sinful world. God has given us his word so that we can sink our roots firmly into his promises. God keeps us strong and fruitful by promising us forgiveness, life, protection and prosperity. These are promises that you can trust and have confidence in. These are promises that remove any doubt or fear. May God the Holy Spirit give you a firm faith to trust in him and all that he has done for you. AMEN.
