HOLD FAST TO THE POWER OF GOD
September 3, 2006 - PENTECOST 13 - Jeremiah 23:23-29
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
You and I realize that our lives are infected and affected by sin. One of the problems of sin is that everybody likes to be in control. That means there is always a power struggle. We see it day to day. There is a power struggle among nations. One nation wants to be in control of other nations to control oil, arms and weapons and the list goes on. Sadly, this grab for power started very early on, didn’t it? The struggle for power started in God’s perfect world that he had created. Satan himself tried to grab God’s power from him. There is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were told one thing not to do. Do not eat from the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan knows that, and he tempts them. Eve eats and Adam eats. Satan grabbed a little bit of God’s power, or so he thought. God is more powerful than Satan. God’s power was that even though mankind had brought imperfection into a perfect world, he would bring perfection back by the sacrifice of his Son.
We are going to talk about our personal power struggle and grabbing God’s power and holding onto it. This is an age-old problem that began with Adam and Eve, a problem that continued through the Old Testament and New Testament and into the very lives that we live today. So how are we going to grab on to God’s power? Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: "Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22). This is good advice. He says to us this morning—HOLD FAST TO GOD’S POWER. It is important for us to do that because we are going to learn that:
I. False prophets dream up lies,
II. God’s word is the only truth that counts
I. FALSE PROPHETS DREAM UP LIES
Jeremiah was God’s chosen and called prophet. Jeremiah was also a called and chosen prophet of God to tell God’s people God’s judgment. The people of Israel had forgotten the Lord. The people of Israel didn’t just sin against God. They had forgotten him. Jeremiah was sent to these people to tell them to come back. Jeremiah was sent to these people to tell them to repent or else. Of course, the people didn’t want to hear that message. The people didn’t want to listen to someone that God had sent them. What had happened is they wanted to listen to the false prophets. In verse 21: "I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied." This is talking about the false prophets. They thought they were getting away with something. They were telling the people what they wanted to hear. So Jeremiah’s message was ignored and forgotten.
Was he going to give up? No, not really. The Lord points out that he sees and hears and knows what these false prophets are up to. In verse 25: "I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name." They say, ’I had a dream! I had a dream!’" It was common during the time of the Old Testament prophets that they would be given visions and dreams to tell God’s people what God had spoken. When they heard those words the people thought, "Well, these prophets are speaking what God wants them to say." But they weren’t. Listen to what God says, "How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?" God says, "How long?" Their dreams were their own dreams and not God’s dreams or visions or messages. They were false prophets. Jeremiah came to speak the harsh message of God’s judgment, and the people rejected it. Then God says, "How long will these false prophets dream up lies or how long will God’s people forget him? "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." The people began to worship false gods.
This happened even without the encouragement of these false prophets. Jeremiah was a prophet who lived during the time of six different kings in the history of Israel. Sadly, each king was worse than the next. Each king led God’s people farther and farther away from God until they worshipped false gods and finally forgot God. When God’s prophet comes, they have very little use for him. Jeremiah had a difficult life. The people had rejected Jeremiah and their leaders threatened his life.
The Lord asked, "How long will these false prophets speak the delusions of their minds, and how long will people listen?" These false prophets have been around from the beginning of time and will be until the end of time. There are those who are going to try to grab God’s power. This began with Satan who tried to grab God’s power in the Garden of Eden until the very present where we have false prophets who dream up their own lies. People were willing to listen to pleasing words and messages. We have to admit we are like the children of Israel and do not like to hear about our sins. We don’t want to hear about hell or God’s punishment and anger against our disobedience in thought and word and deed. That is not a pleasant message at all. Without that message of seeing our worthlessness and hopelessness and lostness, we are not going to look for help. We are not going to see the Savior. Repent or else. We could say; repent because the kingdom of God is at hand. The Lord says, "How long these false prophets?" until the end of time. What does Paul write to Timothy? He says, "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" (2 Timothy 4:3). We do that, don’t we? We have our friends and family around us who generally say what we want to hear. We like one another. We enjoy hearing good and nice things. When God comes with his message of something different, our sinful nature wants to tune it out. Our sinful nature wants to dismiss it.
We live in a day and age filled with false prophets who preach to the people what their itching ears want to hear. The time of false prophets is here and always has been since the time of Jeremiah and before. Does that make God’s Word less important or less powerful? No, it doesn’t. It reminds us of the importance of us hearing God’s Word. By hearing our faith begins. By studying God’s Word and reading it for ourselves our faith grows and is strengthened. Only by doing these things can we look and ask ourselves, "Is this God’s Word or is this man’s teaching?" In the letter of John it says: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). John wrote that almost 2,000 years ago that many false prophets have gone out. Today, the challenge is always there to see whether what you hear today in this place is what God says. Or is it something where I say, "I had a dream and you are going to listen to that?" Please check out this message today, every Sunday. Is it God’s words or merely man’s musings?
God gives us faith by grace. God gives us wisdom by his grace to search the Scriptures and to examine them. Today, our readings fit so well. Our first reading in Proverbs says the wisdom of God is our most prized possession. Wisdom is something that is to be in our hearts and minds that we can test the spirits and we aren’t led astray. We can look to God’s Word and find his truth and confidence. From the Prophet Zechariah: "The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd" (Zechariah 10:2). It is no wonder today why there are so many wandering sheep as there are. We find well-meaning churches with all sorts of slogans and themes, but little sound doctrine and teaching from Scripture. There are many who struggle today not recognizing or acknowledging and not even believing or teaching the truth of God’s Word. A few years ago the movie, "The Passion of the Christ" caused many people to go home and read the Gospel; because they had not heard that story before. How sad to live in a Christian nation with such a freedom of religion that people have taken that freedom and forgot about the religion of Christ. They follow men who had dreams and go to places that say, "Open doors, open hearts, open minds. It doesn’t make any difference what you believe." These false prophets dream up lies. People with itching ears go there to hear what they want to hear.
The Lord reminds us this morning to hold fast to the power of God and even grab that power. He gives us the opportunity and the power struggle against sin and Satan and death to take his power and overcome it. Hold fast to the power that God gives you, not from the false prophets who dream up lies, but from the Word of God, which is the only truth.
II. GOD’S WORD IS THE ONLY TRUTH
This is what Jeremiah needed to hear. He was proclaiming the message of God, which was also the Word of God. Jeremiah also needed to hear it for himself. Remember the prophets came falsely and said all kinds of good, nice and pleasant things to deceive God’s people. The words of God would comfort Jeremiah. People didn’t want to hear Jeremiah’s message and neither did the kings. They had him thrown into prison and almost starved to death, but the Lord says, 23"Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away? 24Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD. The Lord God Almighty was nearby. His glory fills the heavens and the earth. Jeremiah would seem and feel alone, but he would never be alone. Jeremiah emphasizes these were God’s words by repeating: declares the LORD.
The conclusion is that God’s Word wins, doesn’t it? The Lord says through Jeremiah, "Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully." The true prophet of God is to speak and handle God’s Word faithfully. Then the Lord says, "’For what has straw to do with grain?’ declares the LORD." It has nothing to do with grain. The straw is thrown out and the grain is used. At the end, Jeremiah was encouraged. If the prophets weren’t scared enough and the people weren’t listening, what does he say, "’Is not my word like fire,’ declares the Lord, ’and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’". The power of fire that would consume all things pure and impure is God’s Word. God’s Word is also a hammer that could shatter a rock, declares the LORD. This is the power that Jeremiah could grab onto and hold fast to.
This is the power that God’s people have for themselves to defend themselves against false prophets--the power of God’s Word. We heard it already as our verse of the day where it says, "For the 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). In our lifetime we read many different books, and they have different effects on our lives. Whether it is fiction, romance, science fiction or westerns, they transport us into a different world. For a time we are not where we are physically. God’s Word does more than that. It is living and active, alive in our hearts and our lives and in this world so that it has the power to overcome Satan and sin and even death itself. The power of God’s Word is living and active and sharper than any double-edge sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. God’s Word fits right into our hearts and knows what is good and what is evil. It divides them asunder. This is the power of God’s Word--which we can grab on to this morning and hold fast as people who believe in the truth that is here. The truth is not just parts of God’s Word, not just some of it and we forget of dismiss the rest. The power of all of God’s Word is here for us today. It is here for our children and grandchildren for generations to come until the very end of time. Grab hold the power of God’s Word that has changed our lives dramatically.
In Ezekiel the prophet says that the power of God’s Word, which begins in our lives, we may not have noticed. For most if not all of us were brought to God’s throne of grace as infants in baptism and the power of God’s Word changed our hearts. "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). The power of God’s Word, the hammer that breaks that stone into pieces, changes our heart of stone into flesh. That is power that no doctor can heal our heart or fix it up. It is power that the Great Physician of our souls provides for us. To know that Christ is your Savior is powerful indeed. To know that Christ is your Savior is something that the rest of the world is looking for whether they realize it or not. To know that Jesus is the very Bread of Life, the very essence of our existence shows God’s power. We who are born dead in sin are now made alive through Christ and the power of his word working in our hearts.
In our Gospel Lesson from John Jesus talks about being the Bread of Life come down from heaven. In each of these sections Jesus has to tell the people to quit complaining and grumbling that he is the Bread of Life. They were simply to believe. Here were the Jews and here was Jesus in the flesh saying, "I am the Bread of Life." Many did not believe. They rejected God’s power. So it is today. Many reject God’s power, because it is not "reasonable." God’s power is by faith. A quick example is the Lord’s Supper. What does Jesus say? On the night he was betrayed, took the bread and broke it and gave it to his disciples; and he says, "This is my body." He took the cup, blessed it and gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my blood." Do we taste flesh and blood? No, but the Lord says, "This is...." It does not represent or miraculously change, but Jesus says, "This is..." So we believe and confess that in that blessed sacrament is Christ’s body and blood along with the bread and the wine, not that it makes any human sense. Humanly speaking, reasonably speaking all of God’s Word and truth may not seem too reasonable or logical. Spiritually speaking, God’s Word is and always will be the only truth that is needed for time and for eternity. "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (JOHN 20:31). God’s Word is written. Jesus’ miracles are recorded. It is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All this so that we can and do have life in his name.
Let the power struggles continue. They have been around since the beginning of time. A husband and wife struggle and maybe even argue about who is in charge. Children try to grab power and authority from their parents or maybe even their teachers. Nations try to grab power for themselves. On and on and around and around it goes. Remember the power of God that the world would often overlook and even forget. The power of God is in is word. There are many false prophets out there who dream up lies. They come as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Grab on to the power of God and hold fast.
Consider Paul who thought his mission in life was to extinguish the followers of the way. He went out of his way to put believers in prison for further punishment. That is until God grabbed hold of him. Once God grabbed Paul, Paul continually grabbed God’s power and held fast that he might share it with others still sitting in darkness. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile" (ROMANS 1:16). May none of us ever be ashamed of the power of God – the only Word of truth for our eternal salvation. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Pentecost 13 readings: PROVERBS 9:1-6; EPHESIANS 5:15-20; JOHN 6:51-58
