Third Sunday in Lent (2025)
Lent • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Jeremiah 26:1-15
Jeremiah 26:1-15
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the prophet Jeremiah was tasked with a difficult station. He was to go to the temple of the Lord and proclaim the message of repentance to God’s people to call them back from their sins. They had wandered far from the ways of the Lord and were in dire straits. The people as a whole would not heed the word of the Lord and the result was their destruction. It behooves us to take heed of what God proclaims through His word lest we ignore him to our detriment.
A Wayward Nation
Jeremiah was sent to preach repentance.
This message is one that is difficult to preach to a people, because those who need it most desperately don’t tend to receive it well. If they recognize their sin, they respond negatively and with hostility, but they can also be so blind, that they think the message is meant for others, not for them. The Israelites had fallen,
They denied God.
They had set up worship of other deities in the temple, and this was after the reforms of Josiah who was a good king in the land of Israel, but his children were not like him and they brought back the worship of idols and descreated the temple of the Lord, which is what we are reading about in Ezekiel.
They said God was useless. (Jeremiah 18:12)
English Standard Version Chapter 18
But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
They had rejected the Lord when God had called ot them, and warned them of the disaster that God was shaping against them, and calling them to return from their evil ways and amend their ways and deeds but they refused to heed the Word of God. They no longer followed God rather they were
Following Their Hearts
They couldn’t stand the Word.
That there was something outside of them that told them they were wrong and now they were hearing the call to repent from their sinfulness. This is the same message and he brought it before their ears to the very temple of God that the people of God might hear, and if by any chance be saved as they were called back from their sin, but they hated him for it. Their hearts were far from the Lord and they laid hands on Jeremiah. Now
Jeremiah was spared.
The officials defended the prophet and let him continue, but those who sought his death were the priests and prophets called for his death. The Corruption of sin had infect and afflicted not just the people, but even those who were supposed to proclaim the word of God and teach the people the word, but they were the ones permitting the sins to take place. So though Jeremiah preached the Word
Their hearts were unchanged.
They persisted in their sins and in 587 BC God would reveal the plans he has for them, as he took them into slavery and banished them from the land for 70 years that the land might have the rest that the Israelites refused to give it. This serves as a warning and a reminder throughout the ages, that when the Lord calls us to repent that we ought to take heed.
The Call to Repent
God’s Word remains forever.
The moral law that sit behind the all human life and is summed up beautifully in the 10 commandments, which we are getting to on Wednesday night as the weather may or may not cooperate. We look at the ten commandments and we try to dodge them like the Israelites.
It’s easy to blame the world.
We can find any number of excuses that we might not be at fault, that if the world didn’t make sin so easy, if I didn’t need the money, if it made good business sense, everyone else is doing it, is it really that bad, we all have excuses that we use to justify our sins. We talk about shades of gray, it doesn’t change the fact, that only happens when we try to mix good and evil together. There’s a right and a wrong and what leads us into those dark place is the sin that swirls inside of us. Who amongst us isn’t guilt of that? That’s why it is important to understand that
All believers are included in repentance.
It isn’t just the world that is called to repentance, but each of us, for every one of us comes to church with sins, be they public and evidence by the hateful words we have spoken against our neighbors, the gossip that festers in our hearts, or the actions we have taken to rob our neighbor of their goods if not through outright theft, than through negligence through laziness. We are all called to repent. We come here, because of
The Hope in the Word
This is the hope of the Law.
The Law is good when it is used for its proper function. The Law was never meant to save us, but rather lead us to recognize our sins, and the Law is spoken firmly against our hearts, minds, and souls because we are stubborn sinners, each one of us. Being german doesn’t help things, but the real problem is that
Man’s pride is often our fall.
We don’t want to admit our sins, we want to be good people, and we refuse to acknowledge the truth of God’s Word that condemns us. We find it easier to call God evil in his expectations and demands than it is to admit our sins. That’s pride, but there is also an element of fear, for if we really are sinners, then what happens to us when we stand before God on Judgment day, and all our excuses fall away? But the Law is spoken that we might repent from our wickedness, our pride, adn our sins, for
God desires mercy.
This sounds too good to be true, you mean the God that I have offended, the God that enslaved Israel, the God flooded the earth, that drowned pharaohs host in the sea, and punished the Israelites in the wilderness desires to show mercy?? Yes.
God’s Gracious Love
People doubt this love.
They see God in his majesty, they see him in his power, and his might and they consider what would i do to someone or a group of people who disobeyed me, refused to listen to me, used my name in vain and treated me as an afterthought when I gave them life, breath, and everythign they needed, and then they see God’s wrath and they can’t believe there is any love in God’s heart.
It’s why the cross is so vital.
It’s why we focus on Good Friday, it’s why we preach Christ crucified, for there we see the Love of God made manifest for you. There is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who stands between you and the wrath of God that you may be saved. You can try to stand against the tide of God’s wrath on your own. But history shows us what happens, for God must punish sin, and those sins are either on your head or they are on the head of Jesus. Who promised to suffer for you, why? Why does anyone willingly suffer on behalf of another? Love. That’s why The Father sent His only begotten Son for your sake, God is love and when He saw His creation in distress he did not wish for them to perish, but sought their salvation.
God sacrificed so much to save you.
Do not let that go to waste, don’t be like those who stopped their ears and thought that by getting rid of the prophet Jeremiah, or like the Pharisees who thought getting rid of Jesus would stop the call to repentance. God’s Word remains forever, but it is not spoken out of hate, but to call sinners back from their sins.
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let us heed that Word which has been passed down through the prophets and the apostles, let us ever confess our sins but then seek shelter in the Cross of Jesus who gave His life for sinners. If you are not a sinner, if you have no sin, then Jesus didn’t come for you, for you need no savior, but if you hear the call to repent, if you are heart is cut to the quick, and you realize you are opposed to God, seek shelter in the Cross of Christ, for He has taken up your burden, and taken up your cause as your champion. In Jesus name. Amen.
