The Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Jesse Jacobsen

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Time-stamp: "Sat Jul 16 21:54:42 2005"

Jeremiah 15:19–21

Therefore thus says the LORD:

“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the LORD.

“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

A God Indeed

Do you remember your father when you were a young child? We sometimes say that a child idolizes its father, but what does that mean? Is it really making him into a false god? I don't remember confusing my father with God, but I do remember two things that most young children must experience. First, the father of a young child seems strong, able to make and enforce the best judgment of his wisdom. That makes him frightening when the child has been naughty. Second, the father of a young child is loving, and able to set all things right. His presence makes the child feel secure.

I think this kind of relationship is fairly common, but it's not idolatry. When a child obeys or trusts its father, it's obeying or trusting God who provided the father. In fact, the father's role is to act on God's part for benefit of the child. In a sense, God has made the father into an image of himself. In fact, God is the first Father, and earthly fathers are an echo of Him.

There are some things about our Father in heaven that we really like. He provides for us, protects us, and comforts us. He answers our prayers. But He cannot be manipulated. He does not compromise. His expectations are truly written in stone. At the same time, his promises never fail.

So you can see that a father, especially a Christian father who performs his office through faith in Christ, comes much closer to god than some dumb idol. Of course, earthly fathers still fall short. But the fatherly admonition in today's text shows us just how godly is our Father in heaven. His power truly has no limits, and His promises are truly reliable. He is a God indeed, and we are His children. We don't always find this relationship to be pleasant, for He does not compromise. Yet we can trust him with everything, for He does not disappoint.

He does not compromise

This text from Jeremiah is an unpopular text, if we pay it any attention. God is absolutely demanding, and absolutely judgmental. These are not the ways we win friends and influence people. These are not the traits that make people want to visit our church and stay. So this text is a good example of why our sermons follow a set order of chosen texts through the year. This is a part of God's Word that we could be tempted to skip or brush aside.

But if we skipped it, we would have an incomplete picture of what God is truly like. He is absolutely demanding and judgmental. You see, He can afford to be. He's God.

He calls upon His people to return, to “take out the precious from the vile,” saying, “Let them return to you, but you must not return to them.” God is calling upon His people to act in a judgmental way. Returning to Him means leaving behind all the ways of unrighteousness, and those who walk in those ways. It means putting behind you all the bitter resentments, the self-gratifications, the comforts of your own sinful flesh. It means ditching the disobedience toward the people God wants you to honor. It means leaving the lies behind you and all the grumbling against God's gifts.

The trouble is, when we do return to Him this way, we tend to stick out. Our friends and neighbors — even the Christians — don't often follow the same path or return at the same time. People will think you're stuck-up. You'll be tempted to fall back and return to their ways. It happens all the time.

But God is an extremist. He tells us, “take out the precious from the vile.” The precious is what belongs completely to Him. The rest He calls vile. It's not enough for someone who rejects god to claim, “Oh, I'm His child too.” Unless a person hears and believes and keeps God's Word, then it's only wishful thinking. Those who reject God's Word may claim to be His children, but He calls them and their teachings “vile:” “take out the precious from the vile.” If we do not do as He says, then we are vile ourselves.

I told you that it's an unpopular text! But if you think that's bad, it gets worse. He says, “Let them return to you, but you must not return to them.” Not only does God forbid His people from returning to the vile ways of sin, He also says that the others are the ones who need to change. Now that's some cheek!

But then, it's God who says this, not some stranger with no authority or power to back it up. He is our stern and commanding Father, and we are the ones who must receive His demands. He does not compromise.

All of this makes our text, our God, and those who follow Him supremely unpopular in the world. He'd be much more acceptable to our neighbors if He was not so particular about certain things. It's a great temptation to gloss over the unpopular things in the hope that more people will like us, or be interested in our church. But the moment we do that, we've changed direction and begun mixing the precious with the vile.

“Why won't he just let me live the way I want to live? It's my life.” No, it's not. We belong to Him.

“Does He really care what we all believe? Why does He have to be so dogmatic about doctrine? What gives Him the right to say 'It's my way or the highway?' ” Yes, He does care, because His doctrine is truth. That's not a claim. It's a fact. What gives Him the right? He's God. He doesn't have to compromise. He doesn't even say, “It's my way or the highway,” because there is no highway. His is the only way.

There are those who want to be closer to God. There are many who are looking for Him. Maybe you are. I'm glad. But if anyone finds Him, they will see that He's much bigger than they thought, and bigger than they can handle. If anyone gets close to Him, they will find that He's not a comfy teddy bear. He's the Father, a god indeed. He is absolutely demanding and absolutely judgmental. He does not compromise.

He does not disappoint

Nor does He disappoint. While some of our text says things that are unpopular, the rest of it is easier to swallow. God is telling His faithful people what He will do for them. He is promising them protection and deliverance. The problem of mankind is that we want to ignore the demands of God and pretend His judgment is not so strict, while we remain free to call upon Him in any trouble. If you were in His position, I doubt you'd call that a fair arrangement.

First the people in the northern kingdom of Israel, and then the people in the southern kingdom of Judah followed that same pattern. They stopped worshipping the way God wanted them to worship, and began mixing the precious with the vile. They began to forget the teaching of God's Word and started believing the vile doctrines of false gods. You have to understand that they still claimed to be God's people. They still went to church, so to speak. But they were living a contradiction. They had mixed a little bit of false doctrine and sinful practices into their faith, and it was killing them. The northern kingdom was obliterated by Assyria. The southern kingdom was preserved, but only because God had made certain promises that He was bound to keep. Yet the southern kingdom was still conquered by Babylon, and the nation was removed for about 70 years. This was God's chastisement for His wayward children: a 70-year time out. Even in His mercy, God remains serious about His demands.

This is what Jeremiah wrote for God's children who were taken to Babylon: “If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before me.” It was His promise to them. Just as He promised to restore them when they repent, He will also restore us when we repent.

To those who return to Him, He promised, “ `And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you,' says the LORD.” This promise was meaningful for those captured by Babylon, because the walls of Jerusalem were not able to keep the enemy out of the city. But God was promising to make His people like an impregnable city wall, and that He would save and deliver them from the enemy! The people had learned the hard way what it says is Psalm 127, “Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.” God had let them be taken captive, but now He was promising to guard their city and protect His faithful people.

That is exactly what He does for those who return to Him today. He fortifies us against the temptations and attacks of our enemies and accusers. He does this by taking away our sins from before Him, redeeming us from death by the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. God saves us by forgiving us.

Forgiveness is the key, because those who are forgiven can be totally confident that God loves them and heaven is open. He may still sound like a stern father, but those who are forgiven still love His voice, because they know that He is speaking to them in love, and the result of that love will be eternal life in heaven.

God's forgiveness is even more precious, because real forgiveness is so hard to find in the world. It's been said that we live in an age in which everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven. It's no wonder that true forgiveness is unknown, if everything is permitted. In order to be forgiven, we must first admit that we have transgressed, crossed the boundaries that have been set for us. A stern father is all about boundaries and what happens to those who break them. But a father's love is most precious when he has mercy upon a wayward child, not when he rewards a perfect child.

Forgiveness is the most precious trait of our Father in Heaven. He gave His perfect Son to die on the cross, in order to show mercy to you and me. There may be more impressive demonstrations of might and wisdom, but there is no better example of fatherly love, and no better demonstration of what it means to be God indeed. We may fully trust His promises, because He does not disappoint. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Listen online at www.grace-els.org.

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.