Jeremiah 23:16-29; Romans 8:12-17; St Matthew 7:15-23
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Is not My Word like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces? declares the Lord. But that’s not how the stubborn Israelites in Jeremiah’s day saw it. They insisted instead that God’s Word be like a feather that tickled their ears.
“Tickle my ears, Jeremiah,” they insisted. They despised God’s Word. They were supposed to love it. It was supposed to always be on their mind, in their heart and on their lips. They were supposed to talk about it on the way, teach it to their children, discuss it when lying down and getting up. But they had other things on their mind. Other, more important, things they taught their kids. So there they sat in worship, but they didn’t really listen. They didn’t pay attention. They didn’t let God’s Word change them. Didn’t let it transform their hearts and their minds. Didn’t let it have its way with them. So they didn’t love it.
But they loved the word of Satan’s protest who ran to them and said, It shall be well with you.
“Tickle my ears, Jeremiah,” said those hypocrites. They came to the Temple to worship piously saying, Lord, Lord, but during the week doing all the things the Lord hates. They lied. They gossiped. They got drunk. They were jealous of their neighbor. Did substandard work for their employer. Lived to eat and be amused.
So when Jeremiah told them the God was so angry that He was going to destroy the Temple and exile them to Babylon, they threw him into a pit!
But gladly did they listen to the false prophets who tickled their ears with: No disaster shall come upon you.
Beware of false prophets, Jesus says. False prophets bring false doctrine. False doctrine, when believed, condemns. We are very concerned as of late with what goes into out mouths and noses and even eyes. But Jesus is always very concerned about what you let into your ears. Because what goes in the ear goes to the mind. It takes root in the heart.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. A prophet is a man who speaks on behalf of God and at His request and dispatch. They were known to dress in sheep’s skins. Therefore, so did the false prophets. They didn’t appear as wolves. They appear as sheep. In lamb’s skins. In the clothing of the little lambs of Jesus. They dress and act like sheep because, as St Paul warns the pastors in Ephesus, from among your own selves arise men speaking twisted things, to draw the disciples after them (Acts 20:30).
You will recognize them by their fruits. Not their good works, but the fruit of their lips. Listen to their prophesying and preaching. Does it match the blessed and comforting doctrine of Holy Scripture? In all of its articles? This is the exhortation of Jesus not only to pastors, but to all Christians. St John writes, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 Jn 4:1). And St Paul declares to the Christians in Galatia, Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8)!
You do this, dear Christians, by knowing your Small Catechism. By reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting God’s Holy Word for comfort and with patience. By embracing and ever holding fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life which He has made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
But beware, Jesus must say. Because not only is Satan more clever than you realize or give him credit. But also because our fallen ears love to be tickled and itched too.
That first false prophet, Satan, still prowls around and sends out wolves in sheepskins. Beware. They come looking like they belong in the Church. They wear clergy collars and have “Reverend” in front of their names. They stand in pulpits and preach.
And through them, Satan tickles your ears. To the greedy man who is not very generous, Satan preaches, “You’re not greedy. You’re frugal. You’re thrifty. You’re good with money.” To the woman who keeps filling her closets with more, but gives no heed to the needy, he whispers, “You’re not materialistic. You’ve just been blessed.” To the revenge seeker whom the Lord must judge, Satan preaches, “It’s okay. You’re just seeking justice.” Satan is always trying to pit the Word of God against itself. Commandment v. Commandment. Piety against Virtue.
Repent, dear Christians. God’s Word is no feather. It is a hammer. The Lord our God must continually shatter our stubborn hearts that despise His truth and love lies. Let the hammer of His Law break the hardness of your heart. For your hope is not found in how well you have listened, paid attention to, and lived according to God’s Law. Your hope is not found in any Old Testament prophets clothed in sheep skin. Or in any earthly pastor clothed in churchly vestments.
Your hope is in the One True Prophet, God’s Word made Flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who came down to earth for you to be clothed in human flesh and who put on human ears not to have them tickled, but to have them listen and do the Father’s will.
And His Father’s will was for Him to do something that would make your ears tingle. For our lack of attention to God’s Word, He paid perfect attention to His Father’s will. For our desire to have our ears tickled with lies, He listened to mockery, insults, and His own unjust death sentence. And He didn’t object. Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. But to everyone who finds their only hope in the atoning death of this True Prophet Jesus, has already entered. Let that good news make your ears tingle. Let it transform your heart and mind and bring true peace and comfort.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, you sang. Jesus is the Greater Jeremiah. The Prophet, The Teacher, who came to give God’s people what they truly needed. To the unrepentant ear He preached, “Repent.” To the repentant ear and terrified conscience, He preached, “Be comforted. I have come to die for your sins.”
Jeremiah was great. He had the courage and cuts to tell the Israelites the truth. That God would do whatever it took to have them. Even if it meant destroying their beloved Temple and driving them into exile.
But what Jesus did took a love and courage no prophet had inside of him. He was God’s True Temple in the flesh, yet He let the Law hammer Him to the Cross and destroy Him, so that you could be treated gently and raised up to be His forgiven children. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
The Father’s wrath destroyed Him, not you. Here was God’s Son, yet He came to be treated like an exile, driven outside of His own city of Jerusalem to die and save you from the exile of hell. You are forgiven. The Kingdom of yours. Let your ears tingle. “My sins fill me with care, yet i will not despair. I build on Christ, who loves me; from this rock nothing moves me. To Him I will surrender, to Him, my soul’s defender” (LSB 745:2).
In this confidence and courage you too, like Jeremiah, can contend for the pure and wholesome truth of God’s Word. To your neighbor. In the world. Around the dinner table with your children. As you rise up and sit down. When you walk on the way. These are your fruits, dear Christians. Learn your catechism. Nothing is more important, especially now. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering (2 Tim 4:3-5a).
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes. Figs are not gathered from thistles. But the best fruit was gathered from a dead Tree. The Body of our Savior, who was taken down from the Cross, buried, and on the Third Day rose from the dead to speak forgiveness to the broken-hearted. Here is His invitation to receive His Body and Blood, the fruit of salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins, renewing you in faith and love to pray for your loved ones, for the Church, for the world. And finally, on that Day, receive you into the kingdom of heaven as the blessed of the Father.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Is not My Word like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces? declares the Lord. But that’s not how the stubborn Israelites in Jeremiah’s day saw it. They insisted instead that God’s Word be like a feather that tickled their ears.
“Tickle my ears, Jeremiah,” they insisted. They despised God’s Word. They were supposed to love it. It was supposed to always be on their mind, in their heart and on their lips. They were supposed to talk about it on the way, teach it to their children, discuss it when lying down and getting up. But they had other things on their mind. Other, more important, things they taught their kids. So there they sat in worship, but they didn’t really listen. They didn’t pay attention. They didn’t let God’s Word change them. Didn’t let it transform their hearts and their minds. Didn’t let it have its way with them. So they didn’t love it.
But they loved the word of Satan’s protest who ran to them and said, It shall be well with you.
“Tickle my ears, Jeremiah,” said those hypocrites. They came to the Temple to worship piously saying, Lord, Lord, but during the week doing all the things the Lord hates. They lied. They gossiped. They got drunk. They were jealous of their neighbor. Did substandard work for their employer. Lived to eat and be amused.
So when Jeremiah told them the God was so angry that He was going to destroy the Temple and exile them to Babylon, they threw him into a pit!
But gladly did they listen to the false prophets who tickled their ears with: No disaster shall come upon you.
Beware of false prophets, Jesus says. False prophets bring false doctrine. False doctrine, when believed, condemns. We are very concerned as of late with what goes into out mouths and noses and even eyes. But Jesus is always very concerned about what you let into your ears. Because what goes in the ear goes to the mind. It takes root in the heart.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. A prophet is a man who speaks on behalf of God and at His request and dispatch. They were known to dress in sheep’s skins. Therefore, so did the false prophets. They didn’t appear as wolves. They appear as sheep. In lamb’s skins. In the clothing of the little lambs of Jesus. They dress and act like sheep because, as St Paul warns the pastors in Ephesus, from among your own selves arise men speaking twisted things, to draw the disciples after them (Acts 20:30).
You will recognize them by their fruits. Not their good works, but the fruit of their lips. Listen to their prophesying and preaching. Does it match the blessed and comforting doctrine of Holy Scripture? In all of its articles? This is the exhortation of Jesus not only to pastors, but to all Christians. St John writes, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 Jn 4:1). And St Paul declares to the Christians in Galatia, Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8)!
You do this, dear Christians, by knowing your Small Catechism. By reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting God’s Holy Word for comfort and with patience. By embracing and ever holding fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life which He has made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
But beware, Jesus must say. Because not only is Satan more clever than you realize or give him credit. But also because our fallen ears love to be tickled and itched too.
That first false prophet, Satan, still prowls around and sends out wolves in sheepskins. Beware. They come looking like they belong in the Church. They wear clergy collars and have “Reverend” in front of their names. They stand in pulpits and preach.
And through them, Satan tickles your ears. To the greedy man who is not very generous, Satan preaches, “You’re not greedy. You’re frugal. You’re thrifty. You’re good with money.” To the woman who keeps filling her closets with more, but gives no heed to the needy, he whispers, “You’re not materialistic. You’ve just been blessed.” To the revenge seeker whom the Lord must judge, Satan preaches, “It’s okay. You’re just seeking justice.” Satan is always trying to pit the Word of God against itself. Commandment v. Commandment. Piety against Virtue.
Repent, dear Christians. God’s Word is no feather. It is a hammer. The Lord our God must continually shatter our stubborn hearts that despise His truth and love lies. Let the hammer of His Law break the hardness of your heart. For your hope is not found in how well you have listened, paid attention to, and lived according to God’s Law. Your hope is not found in any Old Testament prophets clothed in sheep skin. Or in any earthly pastor clothed in churchly vestments.
Your hope is in the One True Prophet, God’s Word made Flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who came down to earth for you to be clothed in human flesh and who put on human ears not to have them tickled, but to have them listen and do the Father’s will.
And His Father’s will was for Him to do something that would make your ears tingle. For our lack of attention to God’s Word, He paid perfect attention to His Father’s will. For our desire to have our ears tickled with lies, He listened to mockery, insults, and His own unjust death sentence. And He didn’t object. Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. But to everyone who finds their only hope in the atoning death of this True Prophet Jesus, has already entered. Let that good news make your ears tingle. Let it transform your heart and mind and bring true peace and comfort.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, you sang. Jesus is the Greater Jeremiah. The Prophet, The Teacher, who came to give God’s people what they truly needed. To the unrepentant ear He preached, “Repent.” To the repentant ear and terrified conscience, He preached, “Be comforted. I have come to die for your sins.”
Jeremiah was great. He had the courage and cuts to tell the Israelites the truth. That God would do whatever it took to have them. Even if it meant destroying their beloved Temple and driving them into exile.
But what Jesus did took a love and courage no prophet had inside of him. He was God’s True Temple in the flesh, yet He let the Law hammer Him to the Cross and destroy Him, so that you could be treated gently and raised up to be His forgiven children. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
The Father’s wrath destroyed Him, not you. Here was God’s Son, yet He came to be treated like an exile, driven outside of His own city of Jerusalem to die and save you from the exile of hell. You are forgiven. The Kingdom of yours. Let your ears tingle. “My sins fill me with care, yet i will not despair. I build on Christ, who loves me; from this rock nothing moves me. To Him I will surrender, to Him, my soul’s defender” (LSB 745:2).
In this confidence and courage you too, like Jeremiah, can contend for the pure and wholesome truth of God’s Word. To your neighbor. In the world. Around the dinner table with your children. As you rise up and sit down. When you walk on the way. These are your fruits, dear Christians. Learn your catechism. Nothing is more important, especially now. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering (2 Tim 4:3-5a).
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes. Figs are not gathered from thistles. But the best fruit was gathered from a dead Tree. The Body of our Savior, who was taken down from the Cross, buried, and on the Third Day rose from the dead to speak forgiveness to the broken-hearted. Here is His invitation to receive His Body and Blood, the fruit of salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins, renewing you in faith and love to pray for your loved ones, for the Church, for the world. And finally, on that Day, receive you into the kingdom of heaven as the blessed of the Father.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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